Plutarch wants them. Rualdus indeed has collected ample testimonies of them: but I will only recite the names of some, and refer you to him for the particular quotations. He reckons Gellius, Eusebius, Himerius the Sophister, Eunapius, Cyrillus of Alexandria, Theodoret, Agathias, Photius and Xiphilin, patriarchs of Constantinople, Johannes Sarisberiensis, the famous Petrarch, Petrus Victorius, and Justus Lipsius.

But Theodorus Gaza, a man learned in the Latin tongue, and a great restorer of the Greek, who lived above two hundred years ago, deserves to have his suffrage set down in words at length; for the rest have only commended Plutarch more than any single author, but he has extolled him above all together.

It is said, that having this extravagant question put to him by a friend,-that if learning must suffer a general shipwreck, and he had only his choice left him of preserving one author, who should be the man he would preserve? he answered, Plutarch; and probably might give this reason, that in saving him, he should secure the best collection of them all.

The Epigram of Agathias deserves also to be remembered. This author flourished about the year five hundred, in the reign of the Emperor Justinian; the verses are extant in the ANTHOLOGIA, and with the translation of them I will conclude the praises of our author; having first admonished

you, that they are supposed to be written on a statue erected by the Romans to his memory:

Σεῖο πολυκλήεντα τύπου σήσαντο Χερωνου
Πλούταρχο κρατερῶν ὑπίες Αυσονίων·
Οττι παραλλήλοισι βίοις Ἕλληνας αρίσες
Ρώμης ἐυπολέμοις ἦρμοσας ἐνναίταις·
̓Αλλὰ τοῦ βιοτοιο παράλληλον βίον ἄλλον

Ουδὲ σίγ ̓ ἂν γράψαις, ο γὰρ ὅμοιον ἔχεις.

Cheronean Plutarch, to thy deathless praise
Does martial Rome this grateful statue raise;
Because both Greece and she thy fame have shar'd,
(Their heroes written, and their lives compar'd ;)
But thou thyself could'st never write thy own;
Their lives have parallels, but thine has none,"

• The following ADVERTISEMENT, prefixed to the Translation of Plutarch's LIVES, under the name and character of the bookseller who published them, (Jacob Tonson,) may from internal evidence be safely attributed to our author:

"You have here the first volume of Plutarch's Lives, turned from the Greek into English; and give me leave to say, the first attempt of doing it from the originals. You may expect the remainder in four more, one after another, as fast as they may conveniently be dispatched from the press. It is not my business, or pretence, to judge of a work of this quality; neither do I take upon me to recommend it to the world, any farther than under the office of a fair and careful publisher, and in discharge of a trust deposited in my hands for the service of my country, and for a common good. I am not yet so insensible of the authority and reputation of so great a name, as not to consult the honour of the author, together with the benefit and satisfaction of the bookseller, as well

as of the reader, in this undertaking. In order to which ends, I have with all possible respect and industry besought, solicited, and obtained the assistance of persons equal to the enterprize, and not only criticks in the tongue, but men of known fame and abilities for style and ornament; but I shall rather refer you to the learned and ingenious translators of this first part, (whose names you will find in the next page,) as a specimen of what you may promise yourself from the rest.

After this right done to the Greek author, I shall not need to say what profit and delight will accrue to the English reader from this version, when he shall see this illustrious piece in his own mother tongue, and the very spirit of the original transfused into the traduction; and in one word, Plutarch's Worthies made yet more famous by a translation that gives a farther lustre even to Plutarch himself.

Now as to the bookseller's part, I must justify myself that I have done all that to me belonged; that is to say, I have been punctually faithful to all my commissions toward the correctness and decency of the work; and I have said to myself that which I now say to the publick,

It is impossible but a book that comes into the world with so many circumstances of dignity, usefulness, and esteem, mustturn to account."

DEDICATION

OF THE

HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE."

SIR,

TO THE KING.

HAVING received the honour of your Majesty's commands to translate the HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE, I have applied myself with my utmost diligence to obey them; first by a thorough.

THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE, written in French by the Jesuit, Louis Maimbourg, was translated by our author, and published in 8vo. in 1684.-Dr. Johnson has said, that this work was undertaken "with the hopes of promoting popery;" but this is certainly a mistake. The translation was made previous, as it should seem, to Dryden's conversion to popery; and the object in view undoubtedly was, to strengthen the hands of government, and to discredit the party who had acted with Lord Shaftesbury, between whom and the French Leaguers our author in a former work, published in the preceding year, (VINDICATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE,) had endeavoured to shew there was a strong similitude.

The Leaguers in France were a party of noblemen and gentlemen, headed by the Duke of Guise, who in 1576 associated, and bound themselves to each other by a