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The vulgar Christian era is the invention of Dionysius Exiguus.

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The book of Judith was originally written in Chaldee, and thence translated into Latin by St. Jerom. There are several particulars in our English version which are not to be found in St. Jerom's, and which seem to be those readings which he professes to omit as vicious corruptions.

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The proverb, "Evil communications corrupt good manners," which is found in Corinthians, is a quotation, intended as such, from Euripides.

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Varro reckons three epochs: the first from the beginning of the world to the first flood, which he calls uncertain; the second from the flood to the first Olympiad, fabulous; the third from the first Olympiad to his own time, historical.

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Politian, the poet and scholar, was an admirer of Alessandra Scala, and addressed to her this extempore:

To teach me that in hapless suit

I do but waste my hours,

Cold maid, whene'er I ask for fruit,

Thou givest me naught but flowers.

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In the Latin version of Herodotus, the lowest of the towers forming the temple of Belias, is said to be a furlong thick and a furlong high; and some writers concluding each of the eight to be as high, make the whole one mile in height. In the Greek text, however, the lowest tower is merely said to be a furlong through — nothing is said of its height. Strabo makes the temple a furlong altogether in altitude.

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Jacobus Hugo was of opinion that by the Harpies Homer intended the Dutch; by Euenis, John Calvin; by Antinous, Martin Luther; and by the Lotophagi, Protestants in general.

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"Impune quae libet facere id est esse regem," is a definition of a king to be found in Sallust.

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The first collection of the Iliad was by Pisistratus, or some of the Pisistratida. There were, after this, innumerable editions — but Aristarchus in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, B. C. 150, published from a collection of all the copies then existing, a new edition, the text of which has finally prevailed.

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Some one after the manner of Santeuil, composed the following quatrain for the gates of the market to be erected on the site of the famous Jacobin Club at Paris,

Impia tortorum longas hic turba furores

Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit.

Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris antro,

Mors ubi dira fuit, vita salusque patent.

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A version of the Psalms was published in 1642 William Slatyer, of which this is a specimen:

The righteous shall his sorrow scan

And laugh at him, and say 'Behold!

What hath become of this here man

That on his riches was so bold.'

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At the bottom of an obelisk which Pius VI was erecting at great expense near the entrance of the Quirinal Palace in 1783, while the people were suffering for bread, were found written these words,

Signore, di a questa pietra clite divenga pane.

Lord, command that these stones be made bread.

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Constantine Koliades wrote a book to prove that Homer and Ulysses were one and the same-but Joshua Barnes attributes the authorship of the Iliad to Solomon.

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In E. xviii. 192, of the Iliad, Achilles says none of the armor of the chieftains will fit him except the shield of Ajax: how then did his own armor fit Patroclus?

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In the reign of Edward VI, Dr. Christopher Tye turned the Acts of the Apostles into rhyme. They begin thus,

In the former epistle to thee

Dear friend Theophilus

I have written the veritie

Of the Lord Christ Jesus.

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Empedocles professed the system of four elements, and added thereto two principles which he called 'principium amicitime and principium contentionis.' What are these but attraction and repulsion?

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The Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry is' L'art d'exprimer les pensees par la fiction.' The German terms Dichtkunst, the art of fiction, and Dichten to feign, which are used for Poetry, and to make verses, are in full accordance with his definition.

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The Germans have epic poems