Pindar, the chief of the Grecian lyric poets.
Lucilius, an early Roman poet.

Lucretius, a Roman didactic poet.

Virgil, the prince of Roman poets.

Horace, the greatest of the Roman lyric poets. Boethius, also distinguished in other departments of literature.

Claudian, an elegant Latin poet.

Aleman, a lyric poet.

Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, distinguished Athenian poets.

David, Solomon, Asaph, and the Hebrew prophets, were poets unequalled by any others, of whatever name or nation. The blacks were the ancient poets and learned historians.

We recommend our colored and Indian brethren to procure the true copies, translated from the Hebrew, Greek and Latin, by our friends, the unprejudiced French, Spanish and English historians.

The celebrated Homer was an Ethiopian, the greatest of the Grecian poets, and a historian. He travelled into Egypt, from whence he brought into Greece the names of their gods, and the chief ceremonials of their worship, &c. Homer divided the Ethiopians into two parts, and Strabo maintains that the division line to which he alluded was the Red Sea. Homer's poems were introduced into Greece about 886 years before Christ. He was among the first and probably the most eminent of all the writers of heathen antiquity. The literary world down to this day have bowed to his authority, and owned the force of his genius His poems have been taken as the model of all similar poems, written since his day. It had a powerful influence over the Grecian mind, inspiring them to many of their noblest actions.

Smyrna, a celebrated city of Ionia, built by the Amazonians, the descendants of Ham, was famous as early as the time of Homer, whose birthplace it claims to be. Then Smyrna was in all its glory, abounding in all the works of art and learning.

Hanno, the father of Hamilcar, was an African writer and a general. There is still extant a Greek version of a treatise drawn up by Hanno in the Punic tongue,

relating to a voyage he made by order of the Carthaginian Senate, with a considerable fleet, round Africa, for the settling of different colonies in that part of the world.

Hamilcar, an African writer and a General of Carthage, was a man of profound wisdom and knowledge, who honored his native country as much by his pen as with his sword. His fleet consisted of two thousand ships of war, and upwards of three thousand small vessels of burden, and his land forces amounted to three hundred thousand men.

The celebrated Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, was an African writer and a great general of Carthage. He in all respects was an ornament to that city, for he was well acquainted with polite literature, and director of artillery. He led the Carthaginians across the Alps, and in the heart of Italy displayed a military bravery and skill, unsurpassed by the most distinguished Roman commanders.

The celebrated Mago, supposed to have been Hannibal's brother, was a distinguished African writer and a general of Carthage. He did as much honor to the city with his pen as by his victories. He wrote twenty-eight volumes upon husbandry, in the Punic language. These volumes were so highly esteemed by the Romans, that the Roman Senate ordered them to be translated into the Greek, by Cassius Dionysius, of Utica, a city in Africa, from whose version we may suppose the Latin was made. These volumes were found in the libraries of Africa, when Carthage was taken by the Romans.

Clitomachus, an African, called in the Punic language Asdrubal, the brother of Hannibal. He was a great philosopher, and a commander of the Carthaginian army. He succeeded the distinguished Carneades, whose disciple he had been, and maintained in Athens the honor of the Academic sect.

The famous Tertullian flourished at Carthage in the second and third century. He was the first Latin writer of the Church of Christ whose works have come down

to us. Among his writings was an admirable apology for the Christian religion. He wrote many books in Latin.

Terence, an African, a native of Carthage, was the most elegant and refined of all the dramatic writers who appeared on the Roman stage.

The celebrated Cicero, an African, wrote several valuable books, viz., Clitomachus, Homo, Acutus diligens, Ut Pœnus, and Valde Studiosus. In one of which he composed a piece to console the unhappy citizens of Carthage, who by the ruin of their city were reduced to slavery under the Romans.

The celebrated elder Cato, an African. Cicero, Quintilian and Pliny celebrated the writings of the elder Cato, whose principal works were historical. We have his Fragment [De Re Rustica] on Agriculture, in which he was imitated by Varro, one of the earliest of the good writers among the Romans, and a man of universal erudition of the variety of his talents. We may judge not only from the splendid eulogium of Cicero, but from the circumstance of Pliny's having recourse to his authority, in every book of his natural history.

The celebrated Phædrus, an African, wrote fables in Iambic verse. He flourished, and formed his style of writing under Augustus; and his book, though it did not appear till the reign of Tiberius, deserves, on all accounts, to be reckoned among the works of the Augustan age. Fabulæ Æsopea was probably the title which he gave his fables.

Afranius. We have a very great loss in the works of Afranius, for he was regarded, even in the Augustan age, as the most exact imitator of Menander. He owns, himself, that he had no restraint in copying him; or any other of the Greek comic writers.

St. Cyprian, an African writer. The powers of genius and arts of eloquence were introduced by him alone of the learned among the Pagan writers. He was capable of pleasing their taste.

The celebrated Origen, an African. The history written by this learned father, is still extant: viz., The Philocalia of Origen, consisting of scriptural questions and Origen's Comments.

The celebrated Eusebius of Cæsarea, in Phoenicia. He was one of the most learned of all Christian historians. He was in Africa, Egypt, Thebais, Palestine, Phoenicia,

&c., when martyrs were put to death. ern historians refer to him.

Many of the mod

Plautus. He was the first that consulted his own genius, and confined himself to that species of dramatic writing, for which he was the best fitted by nature.

The celebrated St. Augustine, an African, was born in the city of Tagasta, in Algiers, [the ancient Numidia.] His father's name was Patricius, a pagan, and continued till near his death. Manica, his mother, was renowned for her Christian piety. St. Augustine wrote several valuable histories, some of them related to the Donatists, and the narrative of Passidonius, &c.

A short View of Augustine's City of God.

This great and extensive work is in itself so remarkable a monument of genius, learning, and piety united, and deserves so well both of the classical scholar and the theologian, that the reader will either expect some account of it, or at least excuse me if I attempt it. Ecclesiastical antiquity has been too much depreciated in our times, and students in divinity have been discouraged from the study of the fathers. In truth, a selection of them ought to be made; to praise or dispraise the primitive writers, in general, is obviously absurd. But Augustine's City of God deserves an unqualified commendation. The young student who shall meditate upon it with deep attention, will find it richly to repay his labor, and the following review of its plan and contents may teach him what he is to expect from it.

The capture of Rome by Alaric the Goth, and the subsequent plunder and miseries of the imperial city, had opened the mouths of the Pagans, and the true God was blasphemed on the account. Christianity was looked on as the cause of the declension of the empire; and however trifling such an argument may appear at this day, at that time it had so great a weight, that it gave occasion to Augustine, in his zeal for the house of God, to write this treatise.

The work itself consists of twenty-two books. The first states the objections made by the pagans, and answers them in form. It was a remarkable fact, that all who fled

to the church called the Basilica of the Apostles, whether Christians or not, were preserved from military fury. The author takes notice of this singular circumstance, as a proof of the great authority of the name and doctrine of Christ, even among pagans, and shows that no instance can be found in their history, where many vanquished people were spared out of respect to their religious worship. He justly observes, therefore, that the evils accompanying the late disaster ought to be ascribed to the usual events of war, the benefits to the power of the name of Christ. His thoughts on the promiscuous distribution of good and evil in this life are uncommonly excellent. "If all sin, he observes, were now punished, nothing might seem to be reserved to the last judgment. If the Divinity punished no sin openly, now his providence might be denied. In like manner in prosperous things, if some petitions for temporal things were not abundantly answered, it might be said that they were not at God's disposal. If all petitions were granted, it might be thought that we should serve God only for the sake of worldly things." And in a number of elegant allusions he goes on to show the benefit of afflictions to the righteous, and the curse which accompanies them to the wicked.* He mentions also the propriety of punishing the godly often in this life, because they are not sufficiently weaned from the world, and because they do not rebuke the sins of the world as they ought, but conform too much to the taste of ungodly men. He answers the objections drawn from their sufferings in the late disaster. "Many Christians, say they, are led captive. It would be very miserable, he owns, if they could be led to any place where they could not find their God." In the same book he excellently handles the subject of suicide, demonstrates its cowardice, and exposes the pusillanimity of Cato. He mentions the prayer of Paulinus, bishop of Nola, who had reduced himself to poverty for the sake of Christ, when the barbarians laid waste his city: "Lord, suffer me not to be tormented on account of gold and silver; for, where all my wealth is,

*Pari motu exagitatum and exhalat horribiliter cœnum, et suaviter fragrat unguentum, &c. It is a just recommendation of this treatise, that its Latinity is of a superior taste to that of his other works, which were written to the populace; this was meant for the perusal of philosophers.