^42 ANALOGY of GREEK LET'TERS; 



times, under the title of Aix>) ^uvnivrm- The judgment of the 

 Vowels ; where that exquifite author, with his ufual talent for 

 ludicrous compofition, has introduced the letter STy^a arraign- 

 ing the letter TaZ before the tribunal of the feven Vowels, and 

 calling out loudly for juflice againft the encroachments made 

 upon him by this atrocious delinquent. It is fcarcely poflible 

 to render the performance intelligible to a mere Englifh reader, 

 as the ridicule chiefly arifes from the folemnity with which an 

 xmimportant fubftitution of certain Greek letters in the place of 

 others, is treated. But it may be tranflated in fuch a manner 

 as to amufe this learned audience, and ferve perhaps as fome 

 fort of atonement for the trefpafs committed againft their pa- 

 tience, in the former part of a dry grammatical difcufTion. 

 The humour of the piece is heightened, by its being a very 

 fuccefsful and well fupported imitation of an ancient pleading. 



Lucian's fudgment of the Vowels. 



" IN the Archonfhip of Aristarchus of Phalerum *, on the 



" yth of November f , the letter ITyf^a, commenced a profe- 



" cution againft the letter T«y, at the bar of the feven 



" Vowels, for violent diftraining of goods, alleging that he 



" was plundered of all thofe words ufually pronounced with 



" a double Tau. 



" Ye 



• The learned Corsini, merely upon the authority of this paflage of Lucian, has 

 inferted in his Fiijli Atlici, the name of Aristarchus PhaUreus, as Archon Eponymus at 

 Athens, in the ift year of the CCXXII. Olympiad, and of the Chriftian aera, 109. It 

 may be fuppofed, however, that, in a ludicrous compofition of this fort, Lucian would 

 not mind an adherence to the truth of chronology, but might pitch upon an Archon on 

 this occafion called Aristarchus, in allufion to the famous grammarian of that name 

 who was born in Samothracia, and flouriflied at Alexandria about the CLVI. Olympiad ; 

 and who was fo eminent in his art, that the name Aristarchus became lynonymous with 

 the word Critic. See Corsini Fajli Attici, Tom. II. p. 104. and Tom. IV. p. 165. 



f ScALiGER and others fuppofe Xluats^.m to correfpond to the month of October. I 

 have preferred the opinion of Petau and Corsini, who make it to agree with November. 



On 



