and the signification most conformed to the peculiar nature of the language is every day disputed. Many speak of glory, but few have the same understanding of it. . They are only simple sounds in the mouths of many, or at least their meanings are very indefinite. And in a discourse or conversation in which mention is made of honour, faith, grace, religion, the church, and above all in discussion, you will notice at once that men have different notions which they apply to the same terms. And if it is difficult to understand the meaning of the terms of the people of our time, it is much more difficult to understand ancient books. Fortunate is it that we may pass them by save when they contain what we should believe and do. Th. These remarks are good: but ill regard to ancient books, as we need to understand Holy Scripture above all, and as Roman laws are still of great use in a good part of Europe, we are indeed compelled to consult a great many other ancient books; the Rabbis, the Church Fathers, even the profane historians. Besides the ancient physicians also deserve to be understood. The practice of medicine by the Greeks came through the Arabs to us; the water from the fountain has been made turbid in the streams of the Arabs, and purified in many respects since we have begun to have recourse to the original Greeks. But these Arabs do not cease to be of use and we are assured that Ebenbitar, for example, who in his books on Simples has copied Dioscorides, often serves to throw light upon him. I find also that, next to religion and history, it is chiefly in medicine, as far as it is empirical, ‘that the tradition of the ancients preserved in writing, and in general the observations of another may be of service. I have therefore always held in high esteem physicians much versed in the knowledge of antiquity; and I was very sorry that Eeinesius, excellent in both departments (of knowledge), had turned aside to explain the rites and history of the ancients, rather than to recover a part of the knowledge they had of nature, in which it has been shown that he would have been able furthermore marvellously to succeed. When the Latins, Greeks, Hebrews and Arabs shall someday be exhausted, the Chinese, supplied also with ancient books, will enter the lists and furnish matter for the curiosity of our critics. Not to speak of some old books of the Persians, Armenians, Copts and Brahmins, which will be unearthed in time so as not to neglect any light antiquity