[12] See the Latin translation of these Sentences by Ruffinus, in the Opuscula Mythologica of Gale. The Sentences which are to be found in this Epistle of Porphyry, were published by me, with some animadversions, in the Classical Journal, about two years ago; but on account of the great importance of these Sentences, and for the sake of those who may not have this Journal in their possession, I shall here repeat what I have there said on this subject. After having premised that great praise is due to the editor for the publication of this Epistle, but that, as he has taken no notice of the sources whence most of the beautiful moral sentences with which this Epistle abounds, are derived, it becomes necessary to unfold them to the reader, particularly as by this means several of the Sentences of Sextus Pythagoricus may be obtained in the original Greek;—I then observe: Previous, however, to this development, I shall present the reader with the emendation of the following defective sentence in p. 19: Το δε πεπαιδευσθαι ουκ εν πολυμαθειας αναληψει ... παλαξει δε των ψυχικων παθων εθεωρειτο. The editor, not being an adept in the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, conceived that παλαξει was a genuine word; for he remarks, “Nota vocabulum παλαξις,” whereas it is only a part of a word, _i.e._ it is a part of απαλλαξει. Hence, if after αναληψει, the words εν απαλλαξει are inserted, the sentence of Porphyry will be perfect both in its construction and meaning, and will be in English, “Erudition does not consist in the resumption of polymathy, but is to be surveyed in a liberation from the passions pertaining to the soul.” The editor, not perceiving the necessity of this emendation, has, by the following version, totally mistaken the meaning of the sentence: “Bonam autem institutionem nunquam æstimem, quæ cum eruditionis copia, animalium quoque passionum contaminatione sordescat.” The first sentence of which I have discovered the source, is from Sextus, and is the following, in p. 23: θεος μεν γαρ δειται ουδενος· σοφος δε μονου θεου: _i.e._ “For God is not in want of any thing; but the wise man is alone in want of God.” This, in the version of Ruffinus, is: “Deus quidem nullius eget, fidelis autem Dei solius.” (Vid. Opusc. Mytholog. 8vo. 1688, p. 646.)