Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 368, June 1846

73

Du Feu Greçois, des Feux de Guerre, et des Origines de la Poudre-à-Canon. Par MM. Reinaud et Favé.

74

– "Conductâ Paulus agebat Sardonyche." – Juv. Sat. vii.

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Poor Seneca, for a moral philosopher, seems to have been somewhat harshly handled: here patronised by cheats and gamblers, and here censured by philosophy and dissent! Now invoked by Rusca to assist him in his ingannations; now lugged on the stage to be commented on by the valet of a gambler,[Le Joueur] as he debits him, for his master's consolation, under his losses; here glanced at by Coleridge for his splendid "inconsistencies;" and here by the sour Dissenter, who accuses our Church's ministers of borrowing their sermons from his precepts.

"Preaching the trash they purchase at the stalls,

And more like Seneca's, than HIS!! or Paul's!"

And, as he could make no higher appeal for human virtue than the authority of human wisdom for the plea of expediency, it was not to be wondered at if he should have met with no better fate than to be praised of fools, and neglected of the wise, who wisely deemed him an insufficient, and therefore a dangerous guide.

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The name of "half honest" exactly suits this class of men, who, adopting one half of what our admirable Taylor lays down in his golden "rules and measures of justice in bargaining," neglect the other half. "In prices of bargaining concerning uncertain merchandises, you may buy as cheap, ordinarily, as you can, and sell as dear as you can;" so far they and Taylor are of a mind. "Provided," continues he, "that you contract on equal terms with persons in all senses (as to the matter and skill of bargaining) equal to yourself; that is, merchants with merchants, wise men with wise men, rich with rich" – and here the mezzo galant'uomo gives up Taylor, to keep true to his name and calling.

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Mionnet, De la Rareté et du Prix des Medailles Romaines, a very useful work, which no amateur collector should fail to possess, and to carry constantly about with him, non obstant all the abuse heaped upon it by all the dealers.