ADVERTISEMENT.

THERE is nothing more natural than when we read any fine writings, and are charmed with them, to desire to be acquainted with their author. Pity it is that our curiosity can be so little satisfied with what is entertaining in the life of HIEROCLES. What can be gleaned from antiquity, concerning him, may be comprised in the following narrative.

* See the book on Providence in Photius, codex 214.

OF the name of Hierocles, antiquity furnishes us with several eminent personages; but the author of the philosophical COMMENTARY upon the GOLDEN VERSES far outshined them all. He was born about the year four hundred and ten of the Christian era, and was much of the same age with PROCLUS, the famous Platonic philosopher. In his youth, he attended the lectures of the younger PLUTARCH *,