Ocellus Lucanus On the Nature of the Universe (Taylor 1831)

“With respect to the commentaries by me about which you write, they are not yet finished. However, such as they are, I have sent them to you. As to guardianship, we both agree in our sentiments, so that in this particular there is no need of exhortation.”

“In the preface to the Marquis d’Argens’ French translation of this tract, he says: ‘I have often thought that it would be much more advantageous to read what some of the Greek authors have said of the philosophy of the ancients, in order to obtain a knowledge of it, than to consult modern writers, who, though they may perhaps write well, are in general too prolix Of the philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, very few of the moderns have any accurate knowledge, and therefore on this subject they may be prolix, but they cannot write well. See this largely and incontrovertibly proved in the third and fourth books of my Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle..’

“In 1762, the Marquis d’Argens published Ocellus Lucanus and afterwards Timaeus Locrus—both writers who, according to Chalmers’ Biography, had been neglected by universal consent. To show, however, the glaring absurdity and outrageous injustice of what Chalmers says of this tract of Ocellus, it is necessary to observe that, independently of the approbation of this work by those two great luminaries of philosophy, Plato and Aristotle, an enumeration of the various…”