Hermes, or Mercurius; and had another named Dionysius, or
Bacchus. Dr. Geddes and others object to the existence of St.
Almnachius, St. George, St. Wenefred, &c., but we shall find their
honor supported in this work by irrefregable authorities. Longinus
not only signifies a spear, but was a Roman name, and that of a
soldier and martyr, on the 15th of March: whether he be the person
who opened the side of Christ with a spear or no, is a point of less
importance. Mr. Addison and Dr. Middleton thought they had hit on a
great discovery when they transformed Mount Soracte into St.
Orestes. But that mountain is commonly called, not St. Orestes, but
San Sylvestro, together with the monastery on its summit. Moreover,
we find both in the Roman Martyrology and Greek Menaea two saints of
the name of Orestes recorded, the one on the 9th of November, the
other on the 19th of December, who both suffered under Dioclesian,
one in Armenia, the other in Cappadocia. The latter is also named by
St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration on St. Basil. If, by slips of
copiers, mistakes have happened to some names, of accidental
circumstances; or if certain private persons should be convicted of
having been any time deceived in some saint, this would not affect
the credit of authentic general Martyrologies.
5. Mrs. Dacier, Mr. Rowe.
6. This made Theodorus Gaza say, that if learning must suffer a general
shipwreck, and he had only his choice left him of preserving one
author, Plutarch should be the man.
7. With this fault the famous king of Prussia, who is perfectly
acquainted with the affairs of the North, charged the florid author
of the history of Charles XII. of Sweden. Nor could this historian,
as it is said, give any other answer to the complaint of the
Hamburghers, that he had notoriously slandered them with regard to
their conduct towards the citizens of Altena, than that his fiction
was plausible and ingenious, founded in their mutual jealousy,
according to the maxim of dramatic writers, _Feign with
probability_. Of this cast, indeed, though we have many modern
examples, we know, perhaps, none among the authors of antiquity.
8. Thirty thousand various readings were found by Mr. Mills in the
Greek New Testament; Dr. Bentley reckoned twenty thousand in
Terence, and twice as many as there are verses in the poet Ma