51 



nified nothing more than a tune or fong; but thefe fongs leading their 

 youth to the praftice of virtue by precept and wholefomc dicipline, in 

 procefs of time obtained the name of laws. (vid. Arijlot. Prob. 19.) It 

 is aftonifliing therefore that thefe fongs, prompt at firfl and inartificial, 

 like thofe of other unpoliflred ftates, (for then fuch was Greece) fhould 

 not have borne any mark of the rhime, influenced as their firft poetry was 

 by its oriental origin. And this is the more extraordinary, becaufe on 

 amatory and fympofial occafions, man is naturally given to turn his dif-. 

 courfe into cadence and metre, as the fage Plutarch has obferved.* Nor 

 the lefs fo, as the mufic that always accompanied the fong, and infpired 

 the fallies of their mirth, while the branch of myrtle pafled from hand 

 to hand,t might have either edged the jocofe and playful Zy.<!,/,fii», or pointed 

 the clofe of their N»f«(», which Ariftotle exprefsly tells us were fung p-i 

 erciha^uncu, left they fliould be forgotten ; \ and we know that nothing 

 impreffes a gnome or proverb ftronger on the memory than a rhitne. Yet, 



G 2 after 



Tzvofj^tvoi ^£ Totyroi, iT^o^ raff ETrw^ojf Kxi fftJ/w/AETpoi; fj.a\irtit ^uva^ cx^epotTKu JSi qui tahi 

 funt reddil't, ad canttlandum voce/que metifura cotilenlas maxime ejsruntur. (Symp. Lit. I. 



■f- hiav wpo; i/.vffifnv, is a Well known fentence or gnome of the Greeks. See Plut. Symp. 

 Lib. I. Queft. I. AefTEpav ^£ aipE|'/3j ExatjTW f^vfaiv^^ irxfCc^i^outv^iCf y, t. h* deinde unufque 

 propriam cantilenam, acceptam myrto &c. {^Plut. Ibid) This circumftance may account 

 for the conftant mention of the myrtle, by Anacreon and other Greek poets, in their fongs^ 

 as it always accompanied their repafts. The Zwrips^dfof-i in the catch tranflated in a former 

 note, fliews that the myrtle, as a lureath at ieaft, formed a part of their entertainments. 

 Sometimes they introduced the rofe, from whence our proverb under the rofe, taken pro- 

 bably from fome moral fcolion now loft; and fometimes the laurel: but the myrtle was 

 the never-failing attendant on the Athenian featls. 



\ Whatever fome moderns may think, the memory of old was held in high refpefl, and 

 even came to be deified. The mufes themfelves were faid to be the daughters of Mnemofyne, 

 and are invoked as fuch. 



** M^E|!AO£rL'k»)J 0LJ7*T£pE.:," ( Arlu. El? Ef)yy. ) 



And Virgil, 



Et meminiftis enim, Divcej et memorare poteftis. ^ 



jEn. 7. v, 64J. 



