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net sapiens, multi sint, meas adhuc tenebras, singulari Numinis benignitate, inter otium et studia, vocesque amicorum et salutationes, illis lethalibus multo esse mitiores. Quod si, ut scriptum est, non solo pane vivet homo, sed omni verbo prodeunte per os Dei, quid est, cur quis in hoc itidem non acquiescat, non solis se oculis, sed Dei ductu an providentiâ satis oculatum esse. Sane dummodo ipse mihi prospicit, ipse mihi providet quod facit, meque per omnem vitam quasi manu ducit atque deducit, ne ego meos oculos, quandoquidem ipsi sic visum est, libens feriari jussero. Teque, mi Philara, quocunque res ceciderit, non minus forti et confirmato animo, quam si Lynceus essem, valere jubeo. Westmonast: Septemb. 28, 1654.

To the most illustrious Leonard Philaras, Embassador from the Duke of Parma to the‹ Court of France.

"Your kind feelings towards me, most accomplished Philaras, as well as your flattering opinion of my " Defence of the English People," I first learned from your letter, written partly upon that subject, to Mr. Auger, a man eminent among us for his fidelity in the discharge of various embassies:

through his hands I afterwards received your compliments with your picture, and a panegyric most worthy of your virtues; virtues; and lastly a very polite letter. Accustomed, as I am, not to think slightly of German, or even of Danish and Swedish genius, it is impossible that I should not most highly value approbation from you, who were born in attic Athens, and, after successfully completing your studies in Italy, have since, by your extensive experience, attained the most distinguished honours. For as Alexander the Great, when warring at the extremity of the world, affirmed that he encountered all his toils to win the esteem of the Athenians, why may not I felicitate myself and account it my greatest ornament to be commended by him, in whom alone the celebrated arts and virtues of old Athens, after their long extinction, seem again to live and to flourish-of Athens the mother of so many eloquent men, to the careful study of whose writings, from my youth, I willingly acknowledge myself to be chiefly indebted for whatever proficiency I have made in letters. If, then, I had acquired from them, as it were by transfusion, such energies of speech as could rouse our fleets and armies to rescue Greece, the native soil of eloquence, from the Turkish yoke, a glo

rious achievement for which you seem almost to implore my exertions, I would instantly accomplish it as the first and the dearest object of my wishes. For what were the men of old, most illustrious for eloquence or for valour, deemed greater, and more worthy of themselves than for restoring, by their power either of persuasion or of action, freedom and independence to Greece? But another, and in my judgment the most important object remains to be attempted—namely, to awaken and rekindle with oratory, in the minds of the Greeks, their ancient courage, and industry, and patience of hardships, and other manly virtues. When this is effected, (and from whom, if not from you, in whom the patriot, the sage, the soldier, and the lover of liberty, are all in their highest degree united, may we expect its accomplishment?) neither any other nation will, I trust, be wanting to the Greeks, nor the Greeks to themselves. Farewell!".

London, June 1652.

To Leonard Philaras, of Athens.

"Devoted from my earliest youth to every thing connected with Greece and with your own Athens, my Phalaras! in parti

cular, I have always stedfastly believed that the time would come when that city would bestow upon me some signal proof of her gratitude in return. By giving to me in you a genuine son of Attica and an affectionate friend, the ancient genius of your illustrious land has fulfilled my most sanguine expectations. Known to you only by my writings, and widely separated in our abodes, I was first honoured with your kind correspondence; and when afterwards an unexpected occasion brought you to London, with the same kindness you came to see me, who could see nobody; one labouring under an affliction which can entitle him to little observation and may, perhaps, expose him to much disregard. As, however, you entreat me not to abandon all hope of recovering my sight, and state that you have a medical friend at Paris, (M. Thevenot) particularly eminent as an oculist, whom you could consult upon the subject if I would transmit to you the causes and the symptoms of my disease; that I may not seem to neglect any means, perhaps divinely suggested, of relief I will hasten to comply with your requisition. It is now about ten years, I think, since I first perceived my sight to grow weak and dim, and, at the same time,

my spleen and other viscera heavy and flatulent. When I sate down to read, as usual, in the morning, my eyes gave me considerable pain, and refused their office till fortified by moderate exercise of body. If I looked at a candle it appeared surrounded with an iris. In a little time, a darkness, covering the left side of the left eye, which was partially clouded some years before the other, intercepted the view of all things in that direction. Objects, also, in front seemed to dwindle in size whenever I closed my right eye. This eye, too, for three years gradually failing, a few months previous to my total blindness, while I was perfectly stationary, every thing seemed to swim backward and forward: and now thick vapours appear to settle on my forehead and temples, which weigh down my lids with an oppressive sense of drowsiness, especially in the interval between dinner and the evening; so as frequently to remind me of Phineus the Salmydessian, in the Argonautics.

In darkness swam his brain, and, where he stood,
The stedfast earth seem'd rolling as a flood.
Nerveless his tongue, and, every power oppress'd,
He sank, and languish'd into torpid rest.

I ought not, however, to omit mentioning that, before I wholly lost my sight, as soon

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