philosopher, and that our eyes are blinded by that resplendent blaze of truth, upon which his eagle sight could gaze without injury.

The truth appears to have been, that Plato, ambitious of the honour of forming a new sect, and endued by nature with more brilliancy of fancy than strength of judgment, collected the tenets of other philosophers, which were, in many particulars, contradictory, and could by no exertion of ingenuity be brought to coalesce; and that, out of this heterogeneous mass, he framed a confused system, destitute of form or consistency. This will be acknowledged by every one, who, in perusing the philosophical writings of Plato, is capable of divesting himself of that blind respect for antiquity, by which the learned so frequently suffer themselves to be misled. The followers, too, of Plato, far from dispersing the clouds which from the first, hung over his system, appear to have entered into a general combination to increase its obscurity. The successive changes, which took place in the academy after the death of its founder, by introducing a succession of new opinions, continually increased the difficulty of arriving at the true sense of Plato. And when, in a subsequent period, the Platonic philosophy was professed in Alexandria, it was still further adulterated by an injudicious and absurd attempt to mould into one system the doctrines of Plato, the traditionary tenets of Egypt and the eastern nations, and the sacred creeds of the Jews and Christians: a coalition which proved exceedingly injurious both to philosophy and religion. 1

PLAUTUS (MARCUS ACCIUS), a comic writer of ancient Rome, was born at Sarsina, a small town in Umbria, a province of Italy; his proper name was Marcus Accius: he is supposed to have acquired the surname of Plautus, from having broad and ill-formed feet. His parentage seems to have been mean; and some have thought him the son of a slave. Few circumstances of his life are known; Cicero has told us in general that he was some years younger than Nævius or Ennius, and that he died the first year of the elder Cato's censorship, when Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Portius Licinius were consuls. This was about the year of Rome 569, when Terence was about nine years old, and 184 years B. C. A. Gellius says, that

1 Brucker.-Encyclopædia Britannica (Dr. Gleig's edition), vol. XV.

Plautus was distinguished at the same time for his poetry upon the theatre, that Cato was for his eloquence in the forum; and observes elsewhere, from Varro, that he was so well paid for his plays, as to think of doubling his stock by trading; in which, however, he was so unfortunate, that he lost all he had got by the Muses, and for his subsistence was reduced, in the time of a general famine, to work at the mill. How long he continued in this distress, is uncertain; but Varro adds, that the poet's wit was his best support, and that he composed three plays during this daily drudgery.

It is doubtful how many plays he composed. We have only twenty extant, and not all entire. Varro allowed twenty-six to be of his composition, which were all extant in Gellius's time. Some made the number of his plays to exceed an hundred; but this might arise from his revising the plays of other poets, which Gellius supposes he did; and Varro's account ought to be decisive. This learned Roman had written a particular treatise on Plautus's works, from the second book of which, quoted by Gellius, the preceding particulars are taken. Many other critics are there mentioned by Gellius, who had all written some pieces upon Plautus, which shew the great admiration in which he was held by the Romans; and it should seem as if this admiration continued long; for there is a passage in Arnobius, whence it seems reasonable to infer that some of his plays were acted on solemn occasions, so late as the reign of Dioclesian. Two circumstances contributed to his fame; the one, his style, which was thought the standard of the purest Latin, for the learned Varro did not scruple to say, that were the Muses to speak Latin, they would certainly speak in the language of Plautus; the other, the exquisite humour of his characters, which set him above all the Roman comic writers. This is the constant opinion of Varro, Cicero, Gellius, Macrobius, and the most eminent modern critics, as Lipsius, the Scaligers, Muretus, Turnebus, &c. Horace only blames the coarseness of his wit, in which opinion a modern reader of taste will perhaps be inclined to join. Bonnell Thornton endeavoured to naturalize them by a translation, which however is too liberal to afford the mere English reader an idea of the humour which delighted a Roman audience.

The first edition of Plautus was edited by George Merula, and published at Venice in 1472, fol. The most

E2

valuable of the subsequent editions are, that of Camerarius, Basil, 1551, and 1558, 8vo; of Lambinus, Paris, 1577, fol.; of Taubman, Francfort and Wittemberg, 1605, 1612, and 1622, 4to; the Variorum by Gronovius, Amst. 1684, 8vo; of Ernesti, Leipsic, 1760, 2 vols. 8vo; and of Schmeider, at Gottingen, 1804, 2 vols. 8vo.1

1

PLAYFORD (JOHN), a man distinguished in the musical world, was born in 1613. He was a stationer and a seller of musical instruments, music-books, and musicpaper, and was clerk of the Temple church. What his education had been, is not known; but that he had attained to a considerable proficiency in the practice of music and musical composition, is certain. His skill in music was not so great as to entitle him to the appellation of a master; he knew nothing of the theory of the science, but was very well versed in the practice, and understood the rules of composition well enough to write good harmony. He was also the first and the most intelligent printer of music during the seventeenth century; and he and his son Henry, appear, without a special licence, or authorized monopoly, to have had almost the whole business of furnishing the nation with musical instruments, music books, and music paper, to themselves. In 1655 he published the first edition of his "Introduction to the Skill of Music," a compendium compiled from Morley, Butler, and other more bulky and abstruse books, which had so rapid a sale, that in 1683 ten editions of it had been circulated through the kingdom. The book, indeed, contained no late discoveries or new doctrines, either in the theory or practice of the art; yet the form, price, and style, were so suited to every kind of musical readers, that it seems to have been more generally purchased and read, than any elementary musical tract that ever appeared in this or in any other country.

In the same year this diligent editor also published, in two separate books, small 8vo, " Court Ayres, by Dr. Charles Colman, William Lawes, John Jenkins, Simpson, Child, Cook, Rogers," &c. These being published at a time when there was properly no court, were probably tunes which had been used in the masques performed at Whitehall during the life of Charles I. In 1671 he published the first edition of his "Psalms and Hymns in solemn Musick, in foure Parts, on the common Tunes to Psalms in Metre used in Parish churches. Also six Hymns for one Voice to the Organ," folio. The several editions of this work, published in various forms, at a small price, rendered its sale very general, and psalm-singing in parts, a favourite amusement in almost every village in the kingdom. He died about 1693, and Tate, then poet-laureat, wrote an elegy upon him.

His second son, HENRY, succeeded his father as a musicseller, at first at his shop in the Temple, but afterwards in the Temple Exchange, Fleet-street; but the music-books advertised by him were few compared with those published by his father. Among them were the "Orpheus Britannicus," and the ten sonatas and airs of Purcell. He published, in 1701, what he called the second book of the "Pleasant Musical Companion, being a choice collection of catches for three or four voices;" published chiefly for the encouragement of the musical societies, which, he said, would be speedily set up in the chief cities and towns of England. We know not that this was the case, but eertainly the publication of Purcell's catches in two small volumes of the elder Walsh in queen Anne's time, was the means of establishing catch-clubs in almost every town in the kingdom. It is conjectured that Henry Playford survived his father but a short time, for we meet with no publication by him after 1710.1

PLEMPIUS (VOPISCUS FORTUNATUS), an eminent physician, was born at Amsterdam in December 1601. He studied at Ghent, Louvain, Leyden, Padua, and Bologna, at which last university he took his degree of doctor. On his return to Holland, he began practice, but was induced to accept the vacant professorship of the Institutes of Medicine, at Louvain, of which he took possession in 1633. At the same time he abjured the Protestant faith, became a Catholic, and took a new degree of doctor, in conformity with the rules of the university. In the following year, however, he quitted this chair, for the professorship of pathology. He was soon afterwards nominated principal of the college of Breugel. He died at Louvain, in December 1671, aged seventy.

Plempius left the following works: "A Treatise on the Muscles," in Dutch. "Ophthalmographia, sive de Oculi

Hawkins and Burney's Hist. of Music.

Fabricâ, Actione, et Usu," Amst. 1632; Lovæn. 1648. A translation of the Anatomy of Cabrolius into Dutch, with notes, Amst. 1633. "Fundamenta, seu Institutiones Medicinæ," Lov. 1638, 1644, &c. In the first edition of this work, Plempius doubted the circulation of the blood; but in the second, he was a strenuous advocate for that doctrine. "Animadversiones in veram Praxim curandæ Tertianæ propositam à Doctore Petro Barba;" ibid. 1642. "Antimus Coningius Peruviani pulveris defensor, repulsus à Melippo Protymo;" ibid. 1655. Coningius is the assumed name of Honoratus Fabri; Protymus was that assumed by Plempius, in order to decry the use of cinchona. "Avicennæ Canonis Liber primus et secundus ex Arabica Lingua in Latinam translatus," ibid. 1658. "Tractatus de Affectuum Pilorum et Unguium," ibid. 1662. "De Togatorum Valetudine tuendâ Commentarius," Brux. 1670. The two following are generally ascribed to this author, though Mangetus and Lipenius (probably misinterpreting the initial) ascribe them to Francis Plempius, viz. "Munitio Fundamentorum Medicinæ V. F. Plempii adversus Jacobum Primerosium," Amst. 1659. "Loimographia, sive, Tractatus de Peste," ibid. 1664.1

PLINIUS SECUNDUS (CAIUS), called the elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, was one of the most learned of the ancient Roman writers, and was born in the reigu of Tiberius Cæsar, about the year of Christ 23. His birth-place was Verona, as appears from his calling Catuilus his countryman, who was unquestionably of that city. Tho ancient writer of his life, ascribed to Suetonius, and, after him, St. Jerom, have made him a native of Rome: father Hardouin has also taken some pains to confirm this notion, which however has not prevailed. We can more readily believe Aulus Gellius, who represents him as one of the most ingenious men of his age; and what is related of his application by his nephew the younger Pliny, is almost incredible. Yet his excessive love of study did not spoil the man of business, nor prevent him from filling the most important offices with credit. He was a procurator, or manager of the emperor's revenue, in the provinces of Spain and Africa; and was advanced to the high dignity of augur. He had also several considerable commands in the army, and was distinguished by his courage in the field, as well as by his eloquence at the bar.

Eloy, Dict. Hist.-Rees's Cyclopædia.