and elegant gaiety. The complaint is juft, though feldom made before. We begin, therefore, with the following infcription for his ftatue, as placed by the image of Cupid. "Menander, fweet Thalia's pride, To fmile, and pleafe, and breathe in thee; To fee thee and to love are one. "In fupporting the characters of fathers, fons, husbands, foldiers, peafants, the rich and the poor, the violent and the gentle, Menander furpaffed all in confiftency, and by the brilliance of his imagery threw every rival into the fhade. Such is the character given of him by Quintilian. The natural partiality of Cæfar for his countrymen, only permits him to give a fecondary place to Terence, the imitator of the elegant, but not of the witty, Grecian. Aufonius couples our poet with Homer; and he is extolled by all thofe who had access to his work, with an enthusiasm not inferior to that with which the name of that prince of poets is mentioned. "I have heard that a great English orator now living, the only scholar who has made the ftyle of Demofthenes his own, and adapted it to prefent politics and the events of the times, has frequently declared his opinion, founded on the fpecimens of our poet which yet remain, and the praifes of all the difcerning antients, that the lofs of his dramas is more to be deplored than of any other antient writings whatever. Alas! Menander is no more; and all the praifes of antiquity and the regret of fubfequent ages refemble only the rich mantle which wraps the corpse of a monarch, or the frankincenfe which burns upon his pile! "A few relics, among thofe of leffer note yet remaining (which, like the bones of fome giant picked up in the field, once the theatre of his exploits, cannot be fitted to any other than the huge body to which they belonged) give us fome idea of the vaftnefs of Menander.-But " quantum mutatus ab illo !" Where are the flowers, perfumes, garlands, the breathings of gallantry and tenderness, the fprightly fallies of wit, and all the apparatus and circumftance of love, youth, and delight, that conveyed and recommended morality to the gay and thoughtless, by attiring her in a dress that enamoured her beholders? That his aim was morality, is evident from the praifes bestowed on him by Plutarch and other writers. This end he kept in view "unmixed with bafer matter," and by a fort of Пbarayen, by an equal exertion of force and perfuafion, commanded the hearts of his readers and auditors. And yet the fragments that have come down to us Ramp ftamp him with the character of morofe, farcaftic, and querulous. But these fentiments were put by him into the mouths of characters whom he defigned to hold up to deteftation or ridicule—and what remains of him does not mark fo ftrongly his own peculiar genius, as the taste of those selectors who have chofen his words to illuftrate their own ideas. Thus to the faturnine and melancholy felector we owe the furvival of the fad, peevish, and infantine complaints on the many forrowful items" which flesh is heir to," and which, inftead of offering an alleviation to the evils we fuffer, tend to aggravate their load and debilitate the bearer. On the other hand, the ftrikingly moral paffages with which his works abounded, alone caught the attention of the fathers of the primitive church, who found in the Greek comedian a strain of piety fo nearly approaching to their own belief and feelings, that all ideas of a preponderance of fatire over moral precept muft yield to evidence fo irrefiftible as the approbation of Ciemens Alexandrinus and Eufebius. In fhort, it is from these two sources alone, the writings of the melancholy and religious man, that we are furnished with our fpecimens of the great Menander. Happy were it for us and for pofterity, had the gay, the lively, and the witty, finished the portrait of the bard by tranfmitting to after ages examples that would have enabled us to measure him by the standards of humour, sprightlinefs, and fancy." P. xlii. Among the fpecimens of the Anthology, as we cannot introduce many, we shall take one for its clofe adherence to the Greek, combined with a freedom which gives it the air of an English original; the other for its elegance. FROM PARMENIO OF MACEDON. ON THE DEFEAT OF XERXES AT THERMOPYLE. "Him who revers'd the laws great nature gave, Have stopp'd--Oh blush ye mountains, and thou main!" P. 53. Whoever recollects the original, will know that, from its extreme compreffion, a tranflation of it was difcult. The other is this. FROM CARPHYLIDES. AN EPITAPH, "Think not, whoe'er thou art, my fate fevere; And children's children fmiled my board around, And, often pillowed on their grandfire's breaft, And hymn my spirit to a bleft repose," P. 68. One more, from Paul the Silentiary, for the fake of the very appropriate and pleasing modern illuftration produced in the note. "For me thy wrinkles have more charms, I'd rather fold thee in my arms Than younger, fairer nymphs embrace. So potent as thy winter glows." P. 75. "In the fair and courteous days of France, when a gay and half-romantic gallantry was the univerfal tafte of the young and old, the lofty and the humble, Madame la Marefchale de Mirepoix, already in the winter of her days, but with more wit and warmth of imagination remaining than most of the youngest and gayeft ladies of the court, fent to her old admirer, M. le duc de Nivernois, a lock of her grey hair, accompanied by some very pretty and elegant verfes, defcriptive of the regard fhe felt for him, which age could not extinguifh nor diminish. The duke's reply is one of the fweeteft fpecimens of united tenderness and gaiety that I ever remember to have met with. "Quoi! vous parlez de cheveux blancs? Que nous importe fon ravage? Et les Graces font de tout age. "Pour moi, Themire, je le fens, Mais non pas aimer d'avantage. For the confolation of those English ladies who, like Madame de Mirepoix, are growing grey, and to affure them that the aged themfelves, although not likely to make new conqueits, have at leaft the power of retaining the admirers of their youth, I venture to infert this rude copy of a beautiful original, Talk "Talk not of fnowy locks-have done→ To us what boots the tyrant's rage? To thee, Themira, when I bow, But, dearer, could not love thee." P. 150. Some original poems of great merit also adorn this volume; among which are the prologue and epilogue to the fpecimens. In the former, the thought of which is from Meleager, the poet repeats, with rather a degree of exaggeration, his complaints of the partial felection from Menander which is preferved to us. After the anthological poems, are placed fome tales and other pieces; the first of which, giving the conclufion of the loves of Paris and none, is distinguished by a pure, vigorous, and manly ftyle of heroic couplet, very different from the tinfel decorations of the Darwinian school. After a fanciful and elegant picture of Ida, as a kind of Elyfium, and the Oreads and water nymphs that fported in it, the following defcription of none dwelling with them, and her prophecy of the impending fall of Troy, are in a high ftrain of poetry. "As on he went, with fear and mix'd delight, Bright was her eye-her cheek with nature's rofe A panther's hide was o'er her shoulder flung, Her huntress' arms, the quiver, bow, and spear. And tow'rs, and domes, and temples, fair to fight, T4 There There timbrels feem to found-the jovial throng Gaze on the upward fhew with frightful joy. Then caft the melancholy web afide. Touch'd the bright tenants of this happy plain, Haply that blifs unbroken might not cloy." P. 177. } Her fubfequent difcovery of Paris, and denunciation of his fate, are alfo finely conceived and expreffed. The other poems are of a lighter kind, and among them imitations of Horace; but all have merit in their refpective ftyles. ART. VII. The Watchers and the Holy Ones. A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of Saint Alaph, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 1805; being the Day of Public Thanksgiving, for the Victory obtained by Admiral Lord Vifcount Nelfon, over the Combined Fleets of France and Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. By Samuel, by Divine Permiffion, Lord Bifhop of Saint Afaph. 4to. 27 pp. 25. Hatchard. A 1806. GREAT man makes an uncommon ufe, even of a common opportunity. The thank fgiving, which, to preachers in general, offered little more than exhaufted topics, to the Bifhop of St. Afaph has afforded an occafion for refuting fome very extended errors, and for fettling the interpretation of an important text of fcripture. The |
