soar so high and with such rapidity, as to carry it at once to the utmost perfection; which seldom or never happens in other arts, but by slow degrees, and after a long series of years.

The kind of poetry we are speaking of is the Epic Poem, so called from the Greek word ros; because it is an action related by the poet. The subject of this poem must be great, instructive, serious, containing only one principal event, to which all the rest must refer and be subordinate; and this principal action must have passed in a certain space of time, which must not exceed a year at most.

Homer has composed two poems of this kind, the Iliad and the Odyssey; the subject of the first is the anger of Achilles, so pernicious to the Greeks, when they besieged Ilion, or Troy; and that of the second is the voyages and adventures of Ulysses, after the taking of that city.

It is remarkable, that no nation in the world, however learned and ingenious, has ever produced any poems comparable to his; and that whoever have attempted any works of that kind, have all taken their plans and ideas from Homer, borrowed all their rules from him, made him their model, and have only succeeded in proportion to their success in copying him. The truth is, Homer was an original genius, and fit for others to be formed upon: Fons ingeniorum Homerus.1 All the greatest men, and the most exalted geniuses that have appeared for these two thousand and five or six hundred years in Greece, Italy, and elsewhere; those whose writings we are still forced to admire; who are still our masters, and who teach us to think, to reason, to speak, and to write; all these, says Madame Dacier,' acknowledge Homer to be the greatest of poets, and look upon his poems as the model on which all succeeding poets should form their taste and judgment. After all this, can there be any man so conceited of his own talents, be they never so great, as reasonably to presume, that his decisions should prevail against such a universal concurrence of judgment in persons of the most distinguished abili

ties and characters ?

So many testimonies, so ancient, so uniform, and so universal, entirely justify Alexander the Great's favourable judgment of the works of Homer, which he looked upon as the most excellent and valuable production of the human mind: pretiosissimum humani animi opus.

Quintilian, after having made a magnificent encomium upon Homer, gives us a just idea of his character and manner of writing in these few words: Hunc nemo in magnis sublimitate, in parvis proprietate, superaverit. Idem lætus ac pressus, jucundus et gravis, tum copiâ tum brevitate mirabilis. In great things, what a sublimity of expression; and in little, what a justness and propriety! Diffusive and concise, pleasant and grave, equally admirable both for his copiousness and his brevity.

HESIOD. The most common opinion is, that he was contemporary with Homer. It is said, that he was born at Cuma, a town in Æolis, but that he was brought up at Ascra, a little town in Boeotia, which has since passed for his native country. Thus Virgil calls him the old man of Ascra. We know little or nothing of this poet, but by the few remaining poems which he has left, all in hexameter verse; which are, 1st, The Works and Days; 2dly, The Theogony, or the genealogy of the gods; 3dly, The Shield of Hercules: of which last some doubt whether it was written by

Hesiod.

times, seasons, and days. This poem is full of excellent sentences and maxims for the conduct of life. He begins it with a short, but lively description of two sorts of disputes; the one fatal to mankind, the source of quarrels, discords, and wars; and the other infinitely useful and beneficial to men, as it sharpens their wits, excites a noble and generous emulation among them, and prepares the way for the invention and improvement of arts and sciences. He then makes an admirable description of the four different ages of the world; the golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron age. The persons who lived in the golden age are those whom Jupiter after their death turned into so many Genii or spirits, and then appointed them as guardians over mankind, giving them a commission to go up and down the earth, invisible to the sight of men, and to observe all their good and evil actions.

This poem was Virgil's model in composing his Georgics, as he himself acknowledges in this verse

Ascræumque cano Romana per oppida carmen.

And sing the Ascrean verse to Roman swains: The choice made by these two illustrious poets of this subject for the exercise of their muse, shows in* what honour the ancients held agriculture, and the feeding of cattle, the two innocent sources of the wealth and plenty of a country. It is much to be deplored, that in after-ages a taste so agreeable to nature, and so well adapted to the preservation of innocence of manners, should have gone to decay. Avarice and luxury have entirely depressed it. Nimirum alii subiere ritus, circaque alia mentes hominum detinentur, et avaritiæ tantùm artes coluntur.a

2. The Theogony of Hesiod, and the poems of Homer, may be looked upon as the surest and most authentic archives and monuments of the theology of the ancients, and of the opinion they had of their gods. For we are not to suppose, that these poets were the inventors of the fables which we read in their writings. They only collected and transmitted to posterity the traces of the religion which they found established, and which prevailed in their time and country.

3. The Shield of Hercules is a separate fragment of a poem, wherein it is pretended that Hesiod celebrated the most illustrious heroines of antiquity: and it bears that title, because it contains, among other things, a long description of the shield of Hercules, concerning whom the same poem relates a particular adventure.

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The poetry of Hesiod, in those places that are susceptible of ornament, is very elegant and delightful, but not so sublime and lofty as that of Homer. Quintilian reckons him the chief in the middle manner of writing. Datur ei palma in illo medio dicendi genere. ARCHILOCHUS. The poet Archilochus born in Paros, inventor of the Iambic verse, lived in the time of Ant. J. C. 724. this advantage in common with Homer, according to Candaules, king of Lydia. He has Velleius Paterculus, that he carried at once that kind of poetry which he invented to a very great perfection. The feet which gave their name to these verses, and which at first were the only sort used, are composed of one short and one long syllable. The Iambic verse, such as it was invented by Archilochus, seems very proper for a vehement and energetic style: accordingly we see that Horace, speaking of this poet, says, that it was his anger, or rather his rage, that armed him with his Iambics, for the exercising and exerting of his vengeance.

Archilochum proprio rables armavit lambo.10

And Quintilian says,' 11 he had an uncommon force of expression, was full of bold thoughts, and of those strokes that are concise, but keen and piercing; in a Δαίμονες.

6

Geor. 1. ii. v. 176. ⚫ Lib. i. c. 5.

11 Summa in hoc vis

Plin. in Procem. 1. xiv. 10 Art. Poët.

elocutionis, cùm validæ tum breves vibrantesque sententiæ, plurimum sanguinis atque nervorum. Quin. 1. x. c. 1.

word, his style was strong and nervous. The longest of his poems were said to be the best. The world have passed the same judgment upon the orations of Demosthenes and Cicero; the latter of whom says the same of his friend Atticus's letters.

The verses of Archilochus were extremely biting and licentious; witness those he writ against Lycambes, his father-in-law, which drove him to despair. For this double reason, his poetry, how excellent soever it was reckoned in other respects, was banished out of Sparta, as being more likely to corrupt the hearts and morals of young people, than to be useful in cultivating their understanding. We have only some very short fragments remaining of this poet. Such a niceness in a heathen people, with regard to the quality of the books which they thought young persons should be permitted to read, is highly worth our notice, and will rise up in condemnation against many Christians.

HIPPONAX. This poet was of Ephesus, and signalized himself some years after Archilochus, in the same kind of poetry, and with the same force and vehemence. He was ugly, little, lean, and slender. Two celebrated sculptors, who were brothers, Bupalus and Athenis (some call the latter Anthermus), diverted themselves at his expense, and represented him in a ridiculous form. It is dangerous to attack satiric poets. Hipponax retorted their pleasantry with such keen strokes of satire, that they hanged themselves out of mortification: others say they only quitted the city of Ephesus, where Hipponax lived. His malig nant pen did not spare even those to whom he owed his life. How monstrous was this! Horace joins Hipponax with Archilochus, and represents them as two poets equally dangerous. In the Anthologia there are three or four epigrams, which describe Hipponax as terrible even after his death. They admonish travellers to avoid his tomb, as a place from whence a dreadful hail perpetually pours, ye rd xadačený Tápov, rdv Opixrów. Fuge grandinantem tumulum, horrendum.

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It is thought he invented the Scazon verse, in which the Spondee is used instead of the Iambus in the sixth foot of the verse that bears that name.

STESICHORUS. He was of Himera, a city in Sicily, and excelled in Lyric poetry, as did those other poets of whom we are going to speak. Lyric poetry is that, the verses of which, digested into odes and stanzas, were sung to the Lyre, or to other such like instruments. Stesichorus flourished betwixt the 37th and 47th Olympiads. Pausanias," after many other fables, relates, that Stesichorus having been punished with the loss of sight for his satirical verses against Helen, did not recover it till he had retracted his invectives, by writing another ode contrary to the first; which latter kind of ode is since called Palinodia. Quintilian says, that he sang of wars and illustrious

ticum.

1 Ut Aristophani Archilochi iambus, sic epistola longissima quæque optima videtur. Cic. Epist. xi. 1. 16. ad At 2 Hor. Epod. Od. vi. et Epist. xix. l. i. * Lacedæmonii libros Archilochi è civitate suâ exportari jusserunt, quòd eorum parùm verecundam ac pudicam lectionem arbitrabantur. Noluerunt enim eà liberorum suorum animos imbui, ne plùs moribus noceret, quàm ingeniis prodesset. Itaque maximum poëtam, aut certè summo proximum, quia domum sibi invisum obscœnis maledictis laceraverat, carminum exilio mulctârunt. Vel. Pat. 1. vi.

c. 3.

Hipponacti notabilis vultus fœditas erat; quamobrem imaginem ejus las civiâ jocorum ii proposuere ridentium circulis. Quod Hipponax indignatus amaritudinem carminum distrinxit in tantum, ut credatur aliquibus ad laqueum eos impulisse; quod falsum est. Plin. l. xxxvi. c. 5. In malos asperrimus

Parata tollo cornua;
Qualis Lycambe spretus infido gener,
Aut acer hostis Bupalo. Epod. vi.
Anthol. 1. iii.
Paus. in Lacon. p. 200.

Stesichorum, quàm sit ingenio validus, materiæ quoque ostendunt, maxima bella et clarissimos canentem duces, et epici carminis onera lyrâ sustinentem, L. x, c. 1.

heroes, and that he supported upon the lyre all the dignity and majesty of epic poetry.

ALCMAN. He was of Lacedæmon, or as some will have it, of Sardis, in Lydia, and lived much about the same time as Stesichorus. Some make him the first author of amorous verses.

ALCEUS. He was born at Mitylene, in Lesbos: it is from him that the Alcaic verse derived its name. He was a professed enemy to the tyrants of Lesbos, and particularly to Pittacus, against whom he particularly inveighed in his verses. It is said of him, that being once in a battle, he was seized with such fear and terror, that he threw down his arms and ran away. Horace has thought fit to give us the same account of himself.10 Poets do not value themselves so much upon prowess as upon wit. Quintilian says, 11 that the style of Alcæus was close, magnificent, and chaste; and to complete his character, adds, that he very much resembled Homer.

SIMONIDES. This poet was a native of Ceos, an island in the Egean sea. He continued to flourish at the time of Xerxes's expedition. He excelled principally in elegy.12 The invention of local memory is ascribed to him, of which I have spoken elsewhere." At twenty-four years of age he disputed for, and carried the prize of poetry.

The answer he gave a prince, who asked him, what God was, is much celebrated. That prince was Hiero, king of Syracuse. The poet desired a day to consider the question proposed to him. On the morrow he asked two days; and whenever he was called upon for his answer, he still doubled the time. The king, surprised at this behaviour, demanded his reason for it.-It is, replied Simonides, because the more I consider the question, the more obscure it seems: Quia quanto diutiùs considero, tanto mihi rés videtur obscurior. The answer was wise, if it proceeded from the high idea which he conceived of the Divine Majesty, which no understanding can comprehend, nor any tongue express. 15

After having travelled through many cities of Asia," and amassed considerable wealth by celebrating, in his verses, the praises of those who were capable of rewarding him well, he embarked for the island of Ceos, his native country. The ship was cast away. Every one endeavoured to save what they could. Simenides did not encumber himself with any thing; and when he was asked the reason of it, he replied,— I carry all I have about me: Mecum, inquit, mea sunt cuncta. Several of the company were drowned, being overwhelmed by the weight of the things they attempted to save, and those who got to shore were plundered by thieves. All that escaped went to Clazomena, which was not far from the place where the vessel was lost. One of the citizens who loved learning, and had read the poems of Simonides with great admiration, was exceedingly pleased, and thought it an honour, to receive him into his house. He supplied him abundantly with necessaries, whilst the rest were obliged to beg through the city. The poet, upon meeting them, did not forget to observe

Herod. 1. v. c. 95.

10 Tecum Philippos et celerem fugam

Sensi, relictâ non bene parmula. Hor. Od. ii. 7. 9. 11 In eloquendo brevis et magnificus et diligens, plerumque Homero similis.

12 Sed me relictis, Musa procax, jocis

Ce retractes munera næniæ. Horat. Mæstius lacrymis Simonideis. Catull. 13 Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres. 14 Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. i. n. 15.

15 Certè hoc est Deus, quod et cùm dicitur, non potest dici: cùm æstimatur, non potest æstimari; cùm comparatur, non potest comparari; cùm definitur, ipsâ definitione crescit. S. Aug. serm. de temp. cix.

Nobis ad intellectum pectus angus tum est. Et ideo sic eum (Deum) dignè æstimamus, dum inestimabilem dicimus. Eloquar quemadmodum sentio. Magnitudinem Dei qui se putat nôsse, minuit: qui non vult minuere, non novit. Minut. Felix. 16 Phædr. l. iv.

how justly he had answered them in regard to his effects: Dixi, inquit, mea mecum esse cuncta; vos quod rapuistis, perit.

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He was reproached with having dishonoured poetry by his avarice, in making his pen venal, and not composing any verses till he had agreed on the price to be paid for them. In Aristotle, we find a proof of this, which does him no honour. A person who had won the prize in the chariot-races, desired Simonides to compose a song of triumph upon that subject. The poet, not thinking the reward sufficient, replied, that he could not treat it well. This prize had been won by mules, and he pretended that animal did not afford the proper matter for praise. Greater offers were made him, which ennobled the mule; and the poem was made. Money has long had power to bestow nobility and beauty:

Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat.

As this animal is generated between a she-ass and a horse, the poet, as Aristotle observes, considered them at first only on the base side of their pedigree. But money made him take them in the other light, and he styled them illustrious foals of rapid steeds: Χαίρετ' ἀελλοπόδων θύγατρες ἵππων.

SAPPHO. She was of the same place, and lived at the same time, with Alcæus. The Sapphic verse took its name from her. She composed a considerable number of poems, of which there are but two remaining: these are sufficent to satisfy us that the praises given her in all ages, for the beauty, pathetic softness, numbers, harmony, and infinite graces, of her poetry, are not without foundation. As a farther proof of her merit, she was called the Tenth Muse; and the people of Mitylene engraved her image upon their money. It were to be wished, that the purity of her manners had been equal to the beauty of her genius; and that she had not dishonoured her sex by her vices and irregularities.

ANACREON. This poet was of Teos, a city of Ionia. He lived in the 72d Olympiad. Anacreon' spent a great part of his time at the court of Polycrates, that fortunate tyrant of Samos; and not only shared in all his pleasures, but was of his council. Plato tells us, that Hipparchus, one of the sons of Pisistratus, sent a vessel of fifty oars to Anacreon, and wrote him a most obliging letter, entreating him to come to Athens, where his excellent works would be esteemed and relished as they deserved. It is said, the only study of this poet was joy and pleasure: and those remains we have of his poetry sufficiently confirm it. We see plainly in all his verses, that his hand writes what his heart feels and dictates. It is impossible to express the elegance and delicacy of his poems: nothing could be more estimable, had their object

been more noble.

THESPIS. He was the first inventor of Tragedy. I defer speaking of him, till I come to give some account of the tragic poets.

Of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. These men are too famous in antiquity to be omitted in this present history. Their lives are written by Diogenes Laertius.

THALES, the Milesian. If Cicero is to be believed, Thales was the most illustrious of the seven wise men. It was he that laid the first foundations of philosophy in Greece, and gave rise to the sect called the Ionic

sect; because he, the founder of it, was of Ionia.

He held water to be the first principle of all things; and that God was that intelligent being, by whom all things were formed from water. The first of these opinions he had borrowed from the Egyptians, who, seeing the Nile to be the cause of the fertility of all

their lands, might easily imagine from thence, that water was the principle of all things.

He was the first of the Greeks that studied astronomy. He had exactly foretold the time of the eclipse of the sun that happened in the reign of Astyages, king of Media, of which mention has been made already.

He was also the first that fixed the term and duration of the solar year among the Grecians. By comparing the bigness of the sun's body with that of the moon, he thought he had discovered, that the body of the moon was in solidity but the 720th part of the sun's body, and consequently, that the solid body of the sun was above 700 times bigger than the solid body of the moon. This computation is very far from the truth; as the sun's solidity exceeds not only 700 times, but many millions of times, the moon's magnitude or solidity. But we know, that in all these matters and particularly in that of which we are now speaking, the first observations and discoveries were very imperfect.

When Thales travelled into Egypt, he discovered an easy and certain method for taking the exact height of the pyramids, by observing the time when the shadow of our body is equal in length to the heighth of the body itself.

To show that philosophers were not so destitute, as some people imagined, of that sort of talents and for business; proper capacity which is and that they would be as successful as others in growing rich, if they thought fit to apply themselves to that pursuit, he bought the fruit of all the olive-trees in the territory found knowledge he had of nature had probably enaof Miletus before they were in blossom. The probled him to foresee that the year would be extremely fertile. It proved so in fact; and he made a considerable profit by his bargain.

He used to thank the gods for three things: that he was born a reasonable creature, and not a beast; a man, and not a woman; a Greek and not a Barba rian. Upon his mother's pressing him to marry when he was young, he told her, it was then too soon; and after several years were elapsed, he told her it was

then too late.

As he was one day walking, and very attentively contemplating the stars, he chanced to fall into a ditch.-Ha! says a good old woman that was by, how will you perceive what passes in the heavens, and what is so infinitely above your head, if you cannot see what is just at your feet, and before your

nose?

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the 35th, and died the first year of He was born the first year of the 58th, Olympiad; consequently, Ant. J. C. 547. he lived to be above ninety years

of age.

SOLON. His life has been already related at length. CHILO. He was a Lacedæmonian: very little is related of him. Esop asking him one day, how Jupiter employed himself? In humbling those, says he, that exalt themselves, and exalting those that abase

themselves.

He died of joy at Pisa, upon seeing his son win the prize at boxing, in the Olympic games. He said himself of having committed any fault during the when he was dying, that he was not conscious to whole course of his life (an opinion well becoming the pride and blindness of a heathen philosopher;) simulation and evasion, in giving judgment in favour unless it was once, when he made use of a little disof a friend: in which action he did not know, whether he had done well or ill. He died about the 52d Olympiad.

PITTACUS. He was of Mitylene, a city of Lesbos. Joining with the brothers of Alcæus, the famous lyric poet, and with Alcæus himself, who was at the head

Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 12.
Cic. lib. i. de Divín. n. 111.

of the exiled party, he drove the tyrant who had usurped the government out of that island.

The inhabitants of Mitylene being at war with the Athenians, gave Pittacus the command of the army. To spare the blood of his fellow citizens, he offered to fight Phrynon, the enemy's general, in single combat. The challenge was accepted. Pittacus was victorious, and killed his adversary. The Mitylenians, out of gratitude, with unanimous consent, conferred the sovereignty of the city upon him; which he accepted, and behaved himself with so much moderation and wisdom, that he was always respected and beloved by his subjects.

In the mean time Alcæus, who was a declared enemy to all tyrants, did not spare Pittacus in his verses, notwithstanding the mildness of his government and temper, but inveighed severely against him. The poet fell afterwards into Pittacus's hands, who was so far from taking revenge, that he gave him his liberty, and showed by that act of clemency and generosity, that he was only a tyrant in name.

After having governed ten years with great equity and wisdom, he voluntarily resigned his authority, and retired. He used to say,' that the proof of a good government was to engage the subjects not to be afraid of their prince, but to be afraid for him. It was a maxim with him, that no man should ever give himself the liberty of speaking ill of a friend, or even of an enemy. He died in the 52d Olympiad.

BIAS. We know but very little of Bias. He obliged Alyattes, king of Lydia, by a stratagem, to raise the siege of Priene, where he was born. The city was hard pressed with famine; upon which he caused two mules to be fattened, and contrived a way to have them pass into the enemy's camp. The good condition they were in astonished the king, who thereupon sent deputies into the city, upon pretence of offering terms of peace, but really to observe the state of the town and people. Bias, guessing their errand, had ordered the granaries to be filled with great heaps of sand, and those heaps to be covered with corn. When the deputies returned, and made report to the king of the great plenty of provisions they had seen in the city, he hesitated no longer, but concluded a treaty, and raised the siege. One of the maxims Bias particularly taught and recommended, was, to do all the good we can, and ascribe all the glory of it to the gods.

CLEOBULOS. We know as little of him as of the former. He was born at Lindos, a town in the Isle of Rhodes; or, as some will have it, in Caria. He invited Solon to come and live with him, when Pisistratus had usurped the sovereignty of Athens.

at the same time, that the decent simplicity of it, adapted to the taste and character of the persons entertained, did him much more honour than the greatest magnificence could have done. The subject of their discourse at table was sometimes grave and serious, and sometimes pleasant and gay. One of the company proposed this question: Which is the most perfect popular government?-That, answered Solon, where an injury done to any private citizen is such to the whole body :-That, says Bias, where the law has no superior:-That, says Thales, where the inhabitants are neither too rich nor too poor:-That, says Anacharsis, where virtue is honoured and vice detested :-says Pittacus, Where dignities are always conferred upon the virtuous, and never upon the wicked :-says Cleobulus, Where the citizens fear blame more than punishment:-says Chilo, Where the laws are more regarded and have more authority, than the orators. From all these opinions, Periander concluded, that the most perfect popular government would be that which came nearest to aristocracy, where the sovereign authority is lodged in the hands of a few men of honour and virtue.

Whilst these wise men were assembled together at Periander's court, a courier arrived from Amasis, king of Egypt, with a letter for Bias, with whom that king kept a close correspondence. The purport of this letter was to consult him how he should answer a proposal made him by the king of Ethiopia, of his drinking up the sea; in which case the Ethiopian king promised to resign to him a certain number of cities in his dominions: but if he did not do it, then he, Amasis, was to give up the same number of his cities to the king of Ethiopia. It was usual in those days for princes to propound such enigmatical and puzzling questions to one another. Bias answered him directly, and advised him to accept the offer on the condition that the king of Ethiopia would stop all the rivers that flow into the sea: for the business was only to drink up the sea, and not the rivers. We find an answer to the same effect ascribed to Æsop.

I must not here forget to take notice, that these wise men, of whom I have been speaking, were all lovers of poetry, and composed verses themselves, some of them a considerable number, upon subjects of morality and policy, which are certainly topics well worthy of the muses.-Solon, however, is reproached for having written some licentious verses; which may teach us what judgment we ought to form of these pretended wise men of the pagan world.

Instead of some of these seven wise men, which I have mentioned, some people have substituted others; as Anacharsis, for example, Myso, Epimenides, Pherecydes. The first of these is the most known in history.

no great honour to me; and you, Sir, are no great honour to your country.-His good sense, profound knowledge, and great experience, made him pass for one of the seven wise men. He wrote a treatise in verse upon the art military, and composed another tract on the laws of Scythia.

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Being inured to the austere and poor life of the Scythians, he set little value upon riches. Croesus invited him to come and see him, and without doubt hinted to him, that he was able to mend his fortune. I have no occasion for your gold, said the Scythian in