abbé de Feschamps, contre les religieux de cette abbay;" and, as was usual with him, took an opportunity to attack the Benedictines.

But the first work of importance which he published, and that which rendered him most famous, was his "Critical History of the Old Testament," which appeared in 1678, but was immediately suppressed by the Messieurs du Port Royal; who alleged, that it contained things false and dangerous to religion and the church. It was reprinted the year after, and was so much admired for excellent learning and admirable criticism, that it became an object of attention to foreigners; and was published, in Latin, at Amsterdam 1681, and in English at London 1682, by R. H. i. e. R. Hampden (son of the celebrated John Hampden), who, we are told, declared on his death-bed, that father Simon's works had made him a sceptic.

After the publication of his "Critical History," he left the congregation of the Oratory, and went to Bolleville, a village in the pais de Caux, of which he had been curate from 1676, but resigning this office in 1682, removed for a short time to Dieppe, and thence again to Paris, to renew his studies, and make arrangements for the publication of some other works. In the mean time, as the Paris edition of his "Critical History" had been suppressed, it was reprinted at Amsterdam, by the Elzevirs, but from a very incorrect transcript. One more correct, and indeed the best, was printed at Rotterdam in 1685, with a "Ge-. neral Apology," &c. It then produced a controversy with many eminent protestant divines, Le Clerc, Jurieu, Isaac Vossius, and others.

In 1684 he published, at Francfort, "Histoire de l'Origine et du Progrès des Revenus Ecclesiastiques," or, "The History of the Rise and Progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues," under the name of Jerome a Costa. A second edition of it, with great additions, was printed at Francfort, 1709, in 2 vols. 12mo. In 1684 he published, at London, "Disquisitiones Criticæ de variis per diversa loca et tempora Bibliorum Editionibus," &c. and in the same year, at the same place, appeared an English translation of it, with this title, "Critical Enquiries into the various editions of the Bible, printed in divers places and at several times, together with animadversions upon a small treatise of Dr. Isaac Vossius concerning the oracles of the Sibyls." There is his usual display of learning in this

piece, which may be considered as an abridgment of his "Critical History of the Old Testament." In 1686, he published an answer to Le Clerc, who had criticised his work the year before; and, upon Le Clerc's replying in 1686, another in 1687, both under the name of the Prior of Bolleville, at which place he then resided.

In 1688 he published at Francfort, under the name of John Reuchlin, "Dissertation Critique sur la Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques par Du Pin, &c." in which he supports with great spirit some principles in his "Critical History of the Old Testament," which had been controverted by Du Pin. In 1689 came out his "Histoire Critique du Texte du Nouveau Testament," an English version of which was published the same year at London; in 1690, "Histoire Critique des versions du Nouveau Testament;" in 1693, "Histoire Critique des principaux Commentateurs du Nouveau Testament;" in all which, as indeed in every thing else he wrote, there appears great acuteness, and great learning, with, however, an unfortunate propensity to singularities and novelties of opinion, and too much contempt for those who differed from him, and in this last work he has perhaps unsettled more than he has settled. In 1702 he published a French translation of the New Testament, with critical remarks, in 2 vols. 8vo: which was censured by cardinal de Noailles, and Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. In 1714, was published at Amsterdam, in 2 vols. 12mo, "Nouvelle Bibliotheque Choisie," or, "A new select library, which points out the good books in various kinds of literature, and the use to be made of them;" but this must be reckoned a posthumous work; for Simon died at Dieppe in April 1712, in, his seventy-fourth year, and was buried in St. James's church.

He was the author and editor of other things, but they were less considerable: it is sufficient to have mentioned his principal works. He bequeathed to the library of the cathedral of Rouen a great number of his manuscript works, many printed books enriched by his manuscript notes, and a valuable collection of books in all the learned languages. He was unquestionably a man of great learning and acuteness; but a love of controversy, in all its bitterness, rendered him almost equally obnoxious to protestants and papists, yet there is evidence enough in his works to prove that he contributed in no small degree to weaken the au

thority and pretensions of his own church, and to strengthen the opinions of its adversaries.'

SIMONIDES, a Grecian poet, wit, and somewhat of a philosopher, was born in the 55th olympiad, or 558 B. C. and is said to have died in his ninetieth year. He was a native of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, in the neighbourhood of Attica, and became the preceptor of Pindar. Both Plato and Cicero speak of him, not only as a good poet and musician, but also as a man of wisdom and virtue. His lengthened life gave him an opportunity of knowing a great number of the first characters in antiquity, with whom he was in some measure connected. Fabricius informs us that he was contemporary, and in friendship with Pittacus of Mitylene, Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, Pausanias, king of Sparta; Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse: also with Themistocles, and with Aleuades, king of Thessaly. Xenophon, in his dialogue upon tyranny, makes him one of the interlocutors. His famous answer to Hiero, as recorded by Cicero, has been often quoted as a proof, not only of his wisdom, but his piety. When Hiero asked of him a definition of God, he requested a day to consider of it; when this was expired, he doubled the time, and thus he did repeatedly, till the monarch desired to know his reason for this proceeding: "It is," said he, "because the longer I reflect on the question, the more difficult it appears to be.”

In his old age, perhaps from seeing the respect which money procured to such as had lost the charms of youth, and the power of attaching mankind by other means, he became somewhat mercenary and avaricious. He was frequently employed by the victors at the games to write panegyrics and odes in their praise, before his pupil Pindar had exercised his talents in their behalf; but Simonides would never gratify their vanity in this particular, till he had first tied them down to a stipulated sum for his trouble: and, upon being upbraided for his meanness, he said that he had two coffers, in one of which he had, for many years, put his pecuniary rewards; the other was for honours, verbal thanks, and promises; that the first was pretty well filled, but the last remained always empty. And he made no scruple to confess, in his old age, that of all the enjoyments of life, the love of money was the only one of which time had not deprived him. He was of course frequently reproached with this vice, but always defended himself

1 Moreri.-Niceron, vol. I.-Dict. Hist.

with good humour. Upon being asked by Hiero's queen, whether it was most desirable to be learned or rich, he answered that it was far better to be rich; for the learned were always dependent on the rich, and waiting at their doors; whereas he never saw rich men at the doors of the learned. When he was accused of being so sordid as to sell part of the provisions with which his table was furnished by Hiero, he said he had done it, in order, "to display to the world the magnificence of that prince, and his own frugality." To others he said, that his reason for accumulating wealth was, that "he would rather leave money to his enemies, after death, than be troublesome to his friends when living."

He obtained the prize in poetry at the public games when he was eighty years old. According to Suidas, he added four letters to the Greek alphabet: and Pliny assigns to him the eighth string of the lyre; but these claims are disputed by the learned. Among the numerous poetical productions, of which, according to Fabricius, antiquity has made him the author, were his many songs of victory and triumph, for athletic conquerors at the public games. He is likewise said to have gained there, himself, the prize in elegiac poetry, when Eschylus was his competitor. His poetry was so tender and plaintive, that he acquired the cognomen of Meliceutes, i. e. sweet as honey, and the tearful eye of his muse was proverbial. Dr. Warton, who has an elegant paper in the ADVENTURER (No. 89) partly on the merits of this poet, remarks that he was celebrated by the ancients for the sweetness, correctness, and purity of his style, and his irresistible skill in moving the passions. Dionysius places him among those polished writers, who excel in a smooth volubility, and flow on, like plenteous and perennial rivers, in a course of even and uninterrupted harmony. Addison has an ingenious paper on Simonides' "Characters of Women," in the Spectator (No. 209). This considerable fragment of Simonides, preserved by Stobæus, was published in Greek by Kohler, at Gottingen, 1781, 8vo, and he also published the Latin only, in 1789, to which professor Heyne prefixed a letter on the condition of women in ancient Greece. Simonides's fragments of poetry are in Stephens's Pindar, 1560, and other editions of the ancient lyric poets.'

1 Fabric. Bibl. Græc.-Burney's Hist. of Music, vol. I.-Hist. de Simonide, by M. de Boissy, 1755, 8vo.-Saxii Onomast.

SIMPLICIUS, an ancient philosopher of the sixth century, was a native of Cilicia, a disciple of Ammonius, the peripatetic, and endeavoured to unite the Platonic and Stoic doctrines with the peripatetic. Distrusting his, situation under the emperor Justinian, he went to Cosroes king of the Persians: but returned to Athens, after it had been stipulated in a truce between the Persians and the Romans, A. D. 549, that he and his friends should live quietly and securely upon what was their own, and not be compelled by the Christians to depart from the religion of their ancestors. From his wish to unite discordant sects, he is called by a modern (Peter Petit)" omnium veterum philosophorum coagulum." He wrote commentaries upon several of Aristotle's works, once thought to be valuable in themselves, but now consulted only for some curious fragments of ancient philosophers preserved in them. Of these there are three Aldine editions, 1526 and 1527. But, of all his productions, some of which are lost, at least unpublished, his "Commentary upon Epictetus" has obtained most reputation. Fabricius is of opinion, that there is nothing in Pagan antiquity better calculated to form the manners, or to give juster ideas of a Divine Providence. It has been several times printed in Greek and Latin, particularly at Leyden, 1639, in 4to, and at London, in 1670, in 8vo. Dacier published a French translation of it at Paris, 1715, 12mo; and Dr. George Stanhope an English one at London, 1704, 8vo.1

SIMPSON (EDWARD), a learned English divine, the son of Edward Simpson, rector of Tottenham, was born there in May 1578. His father taught him the rudiments of Latin, and when he had attained the age of fourteen, placed him at Westminster school, where he was under the celebrated Camden for four years, at the expiration of which, in 1596, he was elected to Trinity-college, Cambridge. In 1600 he took his degree of A. B. and next year was admitted fellow of his college. In 1603 he was admitted to his master's degree, and in 1610 to that of bachelor of divinity. In 1611 he went into the family of sir Moyle Finch, knt. of Kent, as chaplain, and remained four years in that station, until the death of his patron, whose funeral sermon he preached. He then returned to the university, and had a church in Cambridge for three years,

1 Fabric. Bibl. Græc.-Brucker.-Saxii Onomast.