ch his Fancy is alternately
soothed and transported with a delightful succession of the most
agreeable objects, whose combination at last suggests an important moral
to be impressed upon the memory. The Ancients appear to have been fully
sensible of the advantages of this method of illustrating truth, as the
works not only of their Poets, but even those of their Philosophers and
Historians abound with just and beautiful personifications[78]. Their
two allegorical Philosophers, Prodicus and Cebes, carry the matter still
further, and inculcate their lessons, by substituting in place of cool
admonition a variety of personages, who assume the most dignified
character, and address at the same time the imagination, the passions,
and even the senses of mankind[79]. These Authors consider man as a
creature possessed of different, and of limited faculties, whose actions
are directed more frequently by the impulse of passion, than regulated
by the dictates of reason and of truth[80].

[Footnote 77: Thus the reader, who would pay little regard to the
person who should forbid him to trust the world too much, will yet
be struck with this simple admonition, when it appears in the work
of a genius.

Lean not on earth, 'twill pierce thee to the heart;
A broken reed at best, but oft' a spear,
On its sharp point Peace bleeds, and Hope expires.
NIGHT THOUGHTS.]

[Footnote 78: Thus Xenophon, the simplest and most perspicuous of
Historians, has borrowed many noble images from Homer; and Plato
is often indebted to this Poet, whom yet he banished from his
Commonwealth. Cicero in his most serious pieces studies the
_diction_, and copies the _manner_ of the Greek Philosopher; and
it evidently appears, that Thucydides has taken many a _glowing
Metaphor_ from the Odes of Pindar. We might produce many examples
of this from their writings, if these would not swell this note to
too great a length. The reader of taste may see this subject fully
discussed in Mr. Gedde's ingenious Essay on the Composition of the
Ancients.]

[Footnote 79: +Dei de tous muthous sunistanai, kai te lexei
sunapergazesthai onti malista pros ommaton tethemenon. Houto gar an'
enargestata horon hosper par autois gignomenos tois prattomenois,
heuriskoi to prepon, kai hekista an' lanthanoito ta hupenantia.+
Arist. Poet. c. 17.]

[Footnote 80: Thus Cicero tells us.