THE TREATISE of Longinus “On the Sublime” is second in importance among the critical essays of antiquity only to the “Poetics” of Aristotle. If he cannot claim such strength of intellect as Aristotle possessed, Longinus is unquestionably his superior in taste and appreciation for the subtleties of poetry as well as inherent sympathy for its sublimity. He is, in fine, much more nearly a poet himself than Aristotle, the light from whose intellect is always as dry as it is steady. Longinus frequently flames up into a brilliancy of which there is no trace in the “Poetics.” His essay “On the Sublime” has been admired by the greatest intellects of modern times. It was the model of Burke’s essay “On the Sublime and Beautiful,” and it seems to have been oftener in the hands of Dr. Johnson than any other critical essay. The text which has come down to us is incomplete, but the treatise is made up of essays, which, though connected by a thread of well-sustained argument, have each an individuality which would make any one of them valuable, if all the rest were lost. Longinus Cassius (sometimes called also Dionysius Cassius Longinus) was a Greek, perhaps born at Emesa in Syria, where his nearest relatives are known to have resided. He was a disciple of Plato, and became celebrated not only for his own works in philosophy, but as the tutor of the equally celebrated Porphyry. The date of his birth is not known, but that of his death is fixed by the tragical circumstance that, becoming secretary to the unfortunate Zenobia, he was put to death by the Roman Emperor Aurelian because his loyalty to his queen made him hostile to Roman supremacy. The question of his authorship of the treatise “On the Sublime” has been disputed by professional critics of the classics, who have found thus some amusement for themselves without discrediting the title of Longinus to this great work, or at least without discrediting it more seriously than the title of Homer to the “Odyssey” and of Shakespeare to “Hamlet” has been discredited by similar recreations in “Higher Criticism.”