Quid O participes rationis audetis homines proloqui, quid effutire, quid promere temerariæ vocis desperatione tentatis? Deum principem, rerum cunctarum quæcunque sunt dominum, summitatem omnium summorum obtinentem, adorare, obsequio venerabili invocare, in rebus fessis totis ut ita dixerim sensibus amplexari, amare, suspicere, execrabilis religio est et infausta, impietatis et sacrilegii plena, cærimonias antiquitus institutas novitatis suæ suspicione contaminans ?—ARNOBIUS adversus Nationes, Liber I. cap. xxv. M. MINUCII FELICIS OCTAVIUS THE TEXT NEWLY REVISED FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. WITH AN ENGLISH COMMENTARY ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION AND INDICES Edited for the Syndics of the University Press BY THE REV. HUBERT ASHTON HOLDEN M.A. FELLOW AND CLASSICAL LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE Οπλα λαμβάνεις κατὰ ἀντικειμένης ενεργείας, Cyril. Præfat. Catech. CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 294.5.10. BIBL PREFACE. A MONG the writings of the early Apologists of Christianity, it may be doubted whether (excepting the eight books of Origen against Celsus) there be any which has much stronger claims to our notice, it is certain that none has gained more admirers, than the Dialogue of Minucius Felix, which is known by the name of Octavius. Considering the universal testimony which has been borne to the peculiar elegance, if not classical purity, of its style, it is only surprising that so valuable a treatise should have hitherto failed to find a place, as a Class-book, in our Schools and Universities, by the side of or as a substitute for some Pagan writer, of inferior claims1. 1 The remarks of CELLARIUS in the Introduction to his Edition of this Dialogue, (A.D. 1726), where he is speaking de usu antiquitatis Ecclesiastica Christianis scholis commendanda, will, I trust, be considered pertinent. "Quapropter ita sentio, atque sic animum induco, non bene consuli Christianorum scholis, si ecclesiastici veteres scriptores, iique puri ac elegantes, in iis omnes præterean-tur: nec illarum fructus magnos esse experimur, ex quibus omnes sæcu lares sive ethnici exterminantur; sed "Non puto multos esse qui con |
