Quem Deus vult perdere, &c

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."