[the Monks'] Minds Were Inaccessible To Reason

[we Should] Suspend Our Belief Of Every Tale That Deviates From The Laws Of Nature And The Character Of Man.

Recluse Fanatics Have Few Ideas Or Sentiments To Communicate . . .

Majorian Presents The Welcome Discovery Of A Great And Heroic Character, Such As Sometimes Arise, In A Degenerate Age, To Vindicate The Honor Of The Human Species.

Inclined To Peace By His Temper And Situation, It Was Easy For [augustus] To Discover That Rome, In Her Present Exalted Situation, Had Much Less To Hope Than To Fear From The Chance Of Arms; And That, In The Prosecution Of Remote Wars, The Undertaking Became Every Day More Difficult, The Event More Doubtful, And The Possession More Precarious And Less Beneficial.

The Land Was Then Covered With Morasses And Forests, Which Spread To A Boundless Extent, Whenever Man Has Ceased To Exercise His Dominion Over The Earth.