ty books, John Leunclavius has printed, (Basil, 1575,)
an eclogue or synopsis. The cxiii. novels, or new laws, of Leo, may be
found in the Corpus Juris Civilis.]

[Footnote 6: I have used the last and best edition of the Geoponics,
(by Nicolas Niclas, Leipsic, 1781, 2 vols. in octavo.) I read in the
preface, that the same emperor restored the long-forgotten systems
of rhetoric and philosophy; and his two books of Hippiatrica, or
Horse-physic, were published at Paris, 1530, in folio, (Fabric. Bibliot.
Graec. tom. vi. p. 493-500.)]

[Footnote 7: Of these LIII. books, or titles, only two have been
preserved and printed, de Legationibus (by Fulvius Ursinus, Antwerp,
1582, and Daniel Hoeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603) and de Virtutibus et
Vitiis, (by Henry Valesius, or de Valois, Paris, 1634.)]

A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift, and the
gratitude of posterity: in the possession of these Imperial treasures we
may still deplore our poverty and ignorance; and the fading glories
of their authors will be obliterated by indifference or contempt. The
Basilics will sink to a broken copy, a partial and mutilated version, in
the Greek language, of the laws of Justinian; but the sense of the
old civilians is often superseded by the influence of bigotry: and the
absolute prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest for money,
enslaves the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life. In the
historical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the inimitable
virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a pitch of energy
and elevation the human character had formerly aspired. But a contrary
effect must have been produced by a new edition of the lives of the
saints, which the great logothete, or chancellor of the empire, was
directed to prepare; and the dark fund of superstition was enriched by
the fabulous and florid legends of Simon the Metaphrast. [8] The merits
and miracles of the whole calendar are of less account in the eyes of a
sage, than the toil of a single husbandman, who multiplies the gifts
of the Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royal
authors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in expounding the
precepts of the destroying art, which had been taught since the days of
Xenophon, [9] as the art of heroes and kings. But the Tactics of Leo and
Constantine are mingled with the baser alloy of the age in which they
lived. It was destitute of original genius;