The Poet addresses also the following thoughtful couplet to Thestorides :

Θεστορίδη, θνητοῖσιν ἀνωΐστων πολέων περ,
οὐδὲν ἀφραστότερον πέλεται νοὸς ἀνθρώποισι. *
Many things obscure, Thestorides,-
But nought obscurer than the Mind of Man!

I reserve some remarks on the very peculiar character of the Greek Epigram till hereafter: it is sufficient at present to say that it is so far from being the same with, or even like to, the Epigram of modern times, that sometimes it is completely the reverse. In general the Songs in Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Waller, and, where he writes with simplicity, in Moore, give a better notion of the Greek Epigrams than any other species of modern composition.

* Epig. VI.

the fortunes of

Varause Dot: & the Lac.

Veau aur un E. and also as

At LA and sve o test works, which

I former ages. DIY which have
The subject of

the Little Iliad was the continuation of the Trojan war from the death of Hector.

Αὐτὰρ ̓Αχιλλῆος μεγαθύμου φαίδιμος υἱὸς
Εκτορέην άλοχον κάταγεν κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας·
παῖδα δ ̓ ἑλὼν ἐκ κόλπου ἐϋπλοκάμοιο τιθήνης
ῥίψε, ποδὸς τεταγὼν, ἀπὸ πύργου· τὸν δὲ πεσόντα
ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταίη·
ἐκ δ' έλετ' Ανδρομάχην, ή ΰζωνον παράκοιτιν
Εκτορος· ἦν τέ οἱ αὐτῷ ἀριστῆες παναχαιῶν
δῶκαν ἔχειν, ἐπίηρον ἀμείβόμενοι γέρας ἀνδρί·
αὐτόν τ' ̓Αγχίσαο γόνον κλυτὸν ἱπποδάμοιο,
Αἰνείαν, ἐν νηυσὶν ἐβήσατο ποντοπόροισιν,
ἐκ πάντων Δαναῶν, ἀγέμεν γερας ἔξοχον ἄλλων. *

But great Achilles' glorious son led down
The wife of Hector to the hollow ships;
And from the bosom of the fair-haired nurse
Seiz'd by the foot her child, and from the tower
Hurl'd headlong to dark death and final fate.
He out of all chose Hector's bright-zon'd spouse,
Andromache, whom the assembled chiefs
Gave to the Hero, valor's meet reward.
And he Anchises' famous son embark'd
Captive Æneas in the seaward ship,

Midst all the Greeks a great selected prize.

There is a very remarkable couplet amongst these Fragments, found indeed in Plato,† but which seems almost Christian in its turn of

* Fragm. e Ttetze ad Lycophr. 1263.

+ Alcibid. II.

thought. That thought was never expressed with more brevity or energy than thus:—

Ζεῦ βασιλεῦ, τὰ μὲν ἐσθλὰ καὶ εὐχομένοις καὶ ἀνεύκτοις
ἄμμι δίδου τὰ δὲ λυγρὰ καὶ εὐχομένων ἀπάλαλκε.
Ask'd and unask'd Thy blessings give, Ο Lord !
The Evil that we pray for, from us ward!

Half of the following is also found in Hesiod:*—

ἀεὶ Θεῷ εὔχε ̓ ἄνακτι, ἢ μὲν ὅτ ̓ εὐνάζῃ, καὶ ὅταν φάος ἱερὸν ἔλθῃ.

Pray always to the King divine, At bed-time and when sacred dawn doth shine.

* Op. et Di. v. 339.

21 *

CONCLUSION.

IN parting with Homer, I cannot forbear once more and for the last time earnestly advising such of my readers, as are really desirous of acquiring a pure and healthful taste and a clear and vigorous style, to study the Homeric poems with care and perseverance. It is too generally the case that the Iliad and the Odyssey, from the comparative facility of their construction, are classed as School books only; but in truth they are fit to be the studies of every age and of all men. If there be such a thing as a royal road to a just and manly feeling of what is great and animated in Poetry, it is to be found in a Knowledge of Homer. To be Homeric, is to be natural, lively, rapid, energetic, harmonious; the ancient critics used the epithet as a collective term to express these qualities, however exhibited. They called Sophocles, Homeric-Pindar, Homeric-Sappho, Homeric; because all three have that clearness, picturesqueness and force which the Iliad and the