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

editions of it will be sufficient. Ocellus was first printed in Greek at Paris in 1539, and afterwards with a Latin version by Chretien in 1541; by Bosch in 1554 and 1556; by Nogarola, Venice in 1559; by Commelin in 1596; at Heidelberg in 1598; Bologna in 1646, and revised by Vizanius in 1661; and lastly, by Gale, Cambridge, in 1671. Here are ten editions, the last of which is only 49 years prior to the year 1700; so that the universal consent had not yet been given to neglect this work. Let us see when it could have taken place afterwards. D'Argens' translation appeared in 1762. A new French translation by the Abbé Batteux was printed in 1768; and he made it without knowing of the other. D'Argens' version was reprinted in 1794; and an amended Greek and Latin text by Rudolph was printed at Leipsic in 1801; so that there are in all fourteen known editions, of which Gale's is the best. This book has certainly been read in Greek, Latin, and French, and it most certainly will be read in English, if any competent translator will favour us with a good version.

"In addition to the testimonies of Plato and Aristotle in favour of this work, Philo, the platonizing Jew Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who synthesized Judaism with Platonic thought., says: 'Some are of opinion, that it was not Aristotle, but certain Pythagoreans Followers of the philosopher Pythagoras., who first maintained the eternity of the world; but I have seen a treatise of Ocellus, in which he says, the