, an ancient Italian poet and philosopher, was born at Stignano in Pescia, in 1330, His
, an ancient Italian poet and philosopher, was born at Stignano in Pescia, in 1330, His father, who was in the army, being involved in the troubles of his country, was obliged to retire to Bologna, where Coluccio was educated, or rather where he taught himself for some time without % master. It appears indeed from a letter which he wrote to Bernardo cli Moglo, that he did not apply himself to the cultivation of polite literature till he was arrived at man’s estate, and that it was then he went to Bologna? and attended the public lectures of the father of the above Bernardo. By his own father’s request, he afterwards studied law, but on his death quitted that profession for eloquence and poetry. It is not stated when he left Bologna, nor when he was permitted to return to Florence; but in 1363, in his thirty-eighth year, we find him the colleague of Francis Bruin, as apostolical secretary to pope Urban V, and it is probable that he quitted this employment when Urban went to France. He quitted at the same time the ecclesiastical habit, and married a lady by whom he had ten children. His reputation for knowledge and eloquence procured him the greatest offers from popes, emperors, and kings; but his love for his native country made him prefer, to the most brilliant prospects, the office of chancellor of the republic of Florence, which was conferred on him in 1375, and which he filled very honourably for thirty years. The letters he wrote appeared so striking to John Galeas Visconti, then at war with the republic, that he declared one letter of Coluccio’s to be more mischievous to his cause than the efforts of a thousand Florentine knights.
, an ancient poet and philosopher, who flourished about 440 B. C. was born in
, an ancient poet and philosopher, who flourished about 440 B. C. was born in the island of Coos, and was carried, as we are told by Laertius, into Sicily when he was but three months old, first to Megara, and afterwards to Syracuse; which may well enough justify Horace and others in calling him. a Sicilian. He had the honour of being taught by Pythagoras himself; and he and Phormus are said to have invented comedy in Syracuse, though others have pretended to that discovery. He wrote fifty -five, or, according to others, thirty-five plays; but his vrorks have been so long lost, that even their character is scarcely on record. Horace only has preserved the memory of one of his excellences, by commending Plautus for imitaiing it; and that is, the keeping his subject always in view, and following the intrigue very closely: Plautus ad cxemplum Siculi properare Epicharmi, &c.
, a celebrated Roman poet and philosopher, born about the year 96 B. C. was sent at an
, a celebrated Roman poet
and philosopher, born about the year 96 B. C. was sent at
an early age to Athens, where, under Zeno and Pheodrus,
he imbibed the philosophical tenets of Epicurus and Empedocles, and afterwards explained and elucidated them in
his celebrated work, entitled “De Rerum Natura.
” In
inis poem the writer has not only controverted all the popular notions of heathenism, but even those points which
are fundamental in every system of religious faith, the
existence of a first cause, by whose power all things were
and are created, and by whose providence they are supported and governed. His merits, however, as a poet,
have procured him in all ages, the warmest admirers; and
undoubtedly where the subject admits of elevated sentiment and descriptive beauty, no Roman poet has taken a
loftier flight, or exhibited more spirit and sublimity; the
same animated strain is supported almost throughout entire
books. His poem was written and finished while he laboured under a violent delirium, occasioned by a philtre,
which the jealousy of his mistress or his wife had administered. The morality of Lucretius is generally pure,
but many of his descriptions are grossly licentious. The
best editions are those of Creech, Oxon. 1695, 8vo; of
Havercamp, Lugd. Bat. 1725, 4to, and of the celebrated
Gilbert Wakefield, Lond. 3 vols. 4to, which last is exceedingly rare, on account of the v fire which destroyed the
greater part of the impression. Mr. Good, the author of
the best translation of Lucretius, published in 1805, has
reprinted Waketield’s text, and has given, besides elaborate
annotations, a critical account of the principal editions and
translations of his author, a history of the poet, a vindication of his character and philosophy, and a comparative
statement of the rival systems of philosophy that flourished
in the time of Lucretius, to whom Mr. Good traces the inductive method of the illustrious Bacon, part of the sublime physics of sir Isaac Newton, and various chemical
discoveries of our own days, perhaps a little too fancifully,
but with great ingenuity and display of recondite learning.
ctance of a parent. The author of the ‘ Journal Britannique’ sometimes aspires to the character of a poet and philosopher: his style is pure and elegant; and in his virtues,
In order to make himself known, in 1750 he began to
publish, in French, an account of the productions of the
English press, printed at the Hague, under the name of
the “Journal Britannique.
” This humble, though useful labour, says Gibbon, “which had once been dignified
by the genius of Bayle, and the learning of Le Clerc, was
not disgraced by the taste, the knowledge, and the judgment of Maty; he exhibits a candid and pleasing view of
the state of literature in England during a period of six
years (Jan. 1750 December 1755); and, far different from
his angry son, he handles the rod of criticism with the
tenderness and reluctance of a parent. The author of the
‘ Journal Britannique’ sometimes aspires to the character
of a poet and philosopher: his style is pure and elegant;
and in his virtues, or even in his defects, he may be ranked
as one of the last disciples of the school of Fontenelle.
”
This Journal, whatever its merits, answered the chief end
he intended by it, and introduced him to the acquaintance
of some of the most eminent literary characters in the
country he had made his own; and it was to their active
and uninterrupted friendship, that he owed the places he
afterwards possessed. In 1758, he was chosen fellow,
and, in 1765, on the resignation of Dr. Birch (who died a few months after, and made him his executor), secretary
to the Royal Society. He had been appointed one of the
under-librarians of the British Museum at its first institution in 1753, and became principal librarian at the death
of Dr. Knight in 1772. Useful in all these posts, he
promised to be eminently so in the last, when he was seized with a languishing disorder, which, in 1776, put an end
to a life uniformly devoted to the pursuit of science, and
the offices of humanity. His body being opened, the appearances which presented themselves were thought so singular as to be described before the Royal Society by Dr.
Hunter, whose account is inserted in vol. LXVII. of the
Philosophical Transactions.
Theocritus; more probably, as some commentators on the passage have supposed, Empedocles, who was a poet and philosopher of Sicily, is the person pointed at: others
he wrote the whole or nearly the whole of those works which have immortalized his name as a divine, poet, and philosopher. He occasionally preached, and in the pulpit,
In this retreat, he wrote the whole or nearly the whole of those works which have immortalized his name as a divine, poet, and philosopher. He occasionally preached, and in the pulpit, says Dr. Johnson, though his low stature, which very little exceeded five feet, graced him with no advantages of appearance, yet the gravity and propriety of his utterance made his discourses very efficacious. Such was his flow of thoughts, and such his promptitude of language, that in the latter part of his life he did not precompose his cursory sermons; but having adjusted the heads, and sketched out some particulars, trusted for success to his extemporary powers.