_Quem Deus vult perdere, &c._ (No. 22. p. 351.).--The correct reading
is, "Quem Jupiter vult perdere, dementat prius." See Duport's
_Gnomologia Homerica_, p. 282. (Cantab. 1660.) Athenagoras quotes Greek
lines, and renders them in Latin (p. 121. Oxon. 1682):
"At dæmon homini quum struit aliquid malum,
Pervertit illi primitus mentem suam."
The word "dementat" is not to be met with, I believe, in the works of
any real classical author. Butler has employed the idea in part 3. canto
2. line 565. of _Hudibras_:
"Like men condemned to thunderbolts,
Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts."