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in that of Mrs. Berkeley, of Spetchley, near Worcester. In the decline of life he retired to the English college at Liege, with the design, which he could not effect, of reentering into the society he had withdrawn himself from, for which he retained a tender regard and affection. During the last four or five years of his life he was afflicted with epileptic fits, and, as his temper was naturally eager, his friends were cautious not to engage him in conversation upon his past studies or literary subjects, by which they observed his infirmity was increased. He was, we are told, a man of eminent piety, and always appeared strongly affected with the idea of the presence of God, particularly in his last illness, which happened at Liege in 1774.

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He had a sister Elizabeth, who became abbess of the Benedictine nuns at Ghent, to whom he addressed some ́elegant and spirited poetry, which may be seen in our principal authority. Besides the pieces already mentioned, Mr. Cole attributes to him "Reasons for the repeal of the Laws against the Papists ;" and his biographer adds that he was the author of an elegant translation in metre, of the beautiful prose "Lauda Sion Salvatorem ;" and an equally elegant "Censura Commentariorum Cornelii a Lapide," in Latin, printed on a single sheet.1

PHILO (JUDÆUS), an ancient Greek writer, and of a noble family among the Jews, flourished at Alexandria in the reign of Caligula. He was the chief person of an embassy which was sent to Rome about the year 42, to plead the cause of his nation against Apion, who was commissioned by the Alexandrians to charge it with neglecting the honours due to Cæsar; but that emperor would not suffer him to speak, and behaved to him with such anger, that Philo was in no small danger of losing his life. He went a second time to Rome, in the reign of Claudius; and then, according to Eusebius and Jerome, became acquainted, and upon terms of friendship, with St. Peter. Photius says further, that he was baptized into the Christian religion, and afterwards, from some motive of resentment, renounced it; but there is much uncertainty in all this, and few believe that St. Peter was at Rome so early as the reign of Claudius, if he was there at all.

Philo was educated at Alexandria, and made an uncommon progress in eloquence and philosophy. After the fashion of the time, he cultivated, like many of his religion,

European Mag. for Sept. 1796.-Cole's MS Athenæ in Brit. Mus.

the philosophy of Plato, whose principles he imbibed so deeply, and whose manner he imitated so well, that it grew to be a common saying, "aut Plato philonizat, aut Philo platonizat." Josephus calls him a man "eminent on all accounts;" and Eusebius describes him "copious in speech, rich in sentiments, and sublime in the knowledge of holy writ." He is said, however, to have been so much immersed in philosophy, the Platonic in particular, that he neglected to acquaint himself with the Hebrew language, and the rites and customs of his own people. Scaliger, in his usual way, says that Philo "knew no more of Hebrew and Syriac than a Gaul or a Scythian." Grotius is of opinion that "he is not fully to be depended on, in what relates to the manners of the Hebrews;" and Cudworth goes somewhat farther when he says, that "though a Jew by nation, he was yet very ignorant of Jewish customs." Fabricius, however, while he allows some inadvertencies and errors of Philo with regard to these matters, yet he does not think them a sufficient foundation on which to charge so illustrious a doctor of the law with ignorance. Others think that Philo's passion for philosophy had made him more than half a Pagan; for it led him to interpret the law and the prophets upon Platonic ideas; and to admit nothing as truly interpreted, which was not agreeable to the principles of the academy. This led him still farther, to turn every thing into allegory, and to deduce the darkest meanings from the plainest words; which pernicious practice Origen imitated afterwards, and exposed himself by it to the scoffs of Celsus and Porphyry. The writings of Philo abound with high and mystical, new and subtile, farfetched and abstracted notions, where the doctrines of Plato and Moses are so promiscuously blended, that it is not an easy matter to assign to each his own principles. In the mean time, we should greatly injure this Jewish Plato not to own, that although he is continually Platonizing, and allegorizing the Scriptures, yet he abounds with just sentiments and lessons of morality: and his morals are rather the morals of a Christian than of a Jew. History likewise, as well as his own writings, gives us all imaginable reason to conclude, that he was a man of great prudence, constancy, and virtue.

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His works were first published in Greek by Turnebus, at Paris, in 1552; to which a Latin translation, made by Gelenius, was added in 1561, and printed several times

with it. The Paris edition of 1640, in folio, was the best that was published for a whole century; which made Cotelerius say, that "Philo was an author that deserved to have a better text and a better version." This was accomplished in 1742, in a handsome edition published at London, by Dr. Mangey, in 2 vols. folio.

In 1797, the learned Jacob Bryant published "The Sentiments of Philo Judæus concerning the Logos, or Word of God," with a view to prove that Philo borrowed his sentiments and expressions, relative to the second person of the Trinity, from the conversation or writings of the apostles, which he considers as a striking argument in favour of the truth of Christianity. Philo's authority, however, had been before repeatedly alleged by writers in favour of that fundamental principle of our religion, the existence of God in a trinity of persons; particularly by Dr. Allix in his "Judgment of the ancient Jewish church," 1699, and by the late Mr. Whitaker in his "Origin of Arianism disclosed," 1791.

There are two others of the name of PHILO on record, but little is known of them; the one, PHILO BIBLIOS, from Biblios, the place of his nativity, flourished from the reign of Nero to that of Adrian, and wrote in Greek, "De Parandis et Deligendis Libris ;"" De Urbibus ;" "De claris Viris ;" and "De Imperio Adriani:" but he is chiefly known as the translator of Sanchòniatho's Phoenician history into Greek, of which a few fragments only remain.The other, PHILO of Byzantium, an architect, flourished about 300 years before the Christian æra, and wrote a treatise of machines used in war, which is printed with " Mathematici veteres," in 1693. There is also a piece attributed to him, entitled "De septem Orbis Spectaculis," printed at Rome in ́1640.1

PHILOLAUS, of Crotona, was a celebrated philosopher of the ancients, who flourished about 375 B. C. He was of the school of Pythagoras, to whom that philosopher's Golden Verses have been ascribed. He made the heavens his chief object of contemplation; and has been said to be the author of that true system of the world which Copernicus afterwards revived; but erroneously, because there is undoubted evidence that Pythagoras learned that system

1 Fabric. Bibl. Græc. vol. III.-Cave, vol. I.-Joseph. Antiq. Judæor. lib. xviii. c. 8.-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. II. c. 17.-Hieron. de Script. Eccles, c. 11. cod. 105.-Saxii Onomast.-Brucker.-Brit. Crit. vols. VIII. and XI.

in Egypt. On that erroneous supposition however it was, that Bulliald placed the name of Philolaus at the head of two works, written to illustrate and confirm that system.

"He was (says Brucker) a disciple of Archytas, and flourished in the time of Plato. It was from him that Plato purchased the written records of the Pythagorean system, contrary to an express oath taken by the society of Pytha goreans, pledging themselves to keep secret the mysteries of their sect. It is probable that among these books were the writings of Timæus, upon which Plato formed the dialogue which bore his name. Plutarch relates, that Philolaus was one of the persons who escaped from the house which was burned by Cylon, during the life of Pythagoras; but this account cannot be correct. Philolaus was contemporary with Plato, and therefore certainly not with Pythagoras. Interfering in affairs of state, he fell a sacrifice to political jealousy.

"Philolaus treated the doctrine of nature with great subtlety, but at the same time with great obscurity; re ferring every thing that exists to mathematical principles. He taught, that reason, improved by mathematical learning, is alone capable of judging concerning the nature of things: that the whole world consists of infinite and finite; that number subsists by itself, and is the chain by which its power sustains the eternal frame of things; that the Monad is not the sole principle of things, but that the Binary is necessary to furnish materials from which all subsequent numbers may be produced; that the world is one whole, which has a fiery centre, about which the ten celestial spheres revolve, heaven, the sun, the planets, the earth, and the moon; that the sun has a vitreous surface, whence the fire diffused through the world is reflected, rendering the mirror from which it is reflected visible; that all things are preserved in harmony by the law of necessity; and the world is liable to destruction both by fire and by water. From this summary of the doctrine of Philolaus it appears probable that, following Timæus, whose writings he possessed, he so far departed from the Pythagorean system as to conceive two independent principles in nature, God and matter, and that it was from the same source that Plato derived his doctrine upon this subject."1

1 Diogenes Laertius,-Stanley's Philosophy.-Brucker. VOL. XXIV.

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PHILOSTORGIUS, an ancient ecclesiastical historian, was born in Cappadocia, about the year 388, or as some say. 368. He pursued his studies principally at Constantinople; but we have few particulars of his life, and no account of his death. He wrote an ecclesiastical history in twelve books, which begins with the controversy between Arius and Alexander, and ends about the year 425. As he was brought up in Arian principles, his history is not free from partiality; but there are many useful things in his writings relating to the antiquities of the church. We have only extant an abridgement of it in Photius, and some extracts taken out of Suidas and other authors. Jac. Gothofredus, a learned lawyer, first published them at Geneva, in 1643, 4to, with a Latin translation and large notes. Valesius, having reviewed this abridgement by the manuscripts, and corrected the text in several places, caused it to be printed with the other ecclesiastical historians, at Paris, in 1673, folio. It was afterwards reprinted at London, in 1720, when Reading republished Valesius's edition, in three volumes, folio. '

PHILOSTRATUS (FLAVIUS), an ancient Greek author, who wrote the life of Apollonius Tyanensis, and some other works still extant, was either of Athens, or Lemnos, and educated in the schools of the Sophists. He lived in the reign of the emperor Severus, from the years 193 to 212, and becoming known afterwards to Julia Augusta, the consort of Severus, he was one of those learned men whom this philosophic empress had continually about her, and it was by her command, that he wrote the "Life of Apollonius Tyanensis." Suidas and Hesychius say, that he taught rhetoric, first at Athens, and then at Rome, from the reign of Severus to that of Philippus, who obtained the empire in the year 244. This "Life of Apollonius" is his most celebrated work, as far as celebrity can depend on imposture, of which it contains abundant proofs. We have already, in our account of Apollonius, noticed its being refuted by Dupin, as a collection of fables, either invented or embellished by himself; but some of the most judicious strictures on Philostratus with which we are acquainted, may be found in bishop Douglas's Criterion from p. 50, edit. 1807.

1 Vossius de Hist. Græc.-Dupin.-Cave, vol. I.-Blount's Censura.-Fabric, Bibl. Græc.-Saxii Onomast.

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