a perfon, for example, fhould read in Plutarch-"We find it related, that the letter of Marcellus, on being received at Rome, did not alleviate the forrow of the Romans, but rather inftilled more terror into them ";" he would conclude from this paffage"that in the time of Plutarch, credible documents concerning the affairs of the Romans fomewhere exifted;"-but he would not be inclined to prove from it, that Livy had written a Roman history.

If we caft our eyes on the catalogue of fcriptural paffages, which the Apoftolical Fathers are faid to have quoted,

This paffage is actually found in the above mentioned author, in his life of Marcellus, Vitar. Parall. vol. ii. p. 273. edit. London. 729. in v. vol. 4to. He is fpeaking of a letter, in which the Proconful comforts the Romans after a fevere defeat which they had fuffered from Hannibal, in this manner:-" For he himfelf was on his march to drive Hannibal out of the country. Και ταυτα μεν, (continues Plutarch) ὁ Λίβιος φησιν αναγνωσθεντα τα γραμματα μη της λυπης αφελειν αλλα το φόβῳ προσθείναι.”