53 



Euphonic AiTonant of TheocrituSa which I believe has never been noticed. 

 Alcrasena fays to her twin-infants, whom ihe had put to reft. 



Idyll. H- 

 Thefe lines became a kind of Nt.»,o», or Nurfe'sfong, as it jvas called ; 

 for the Greeks had almoft as many kind of fongs, as fubjefts. The •"»»'="» 

 or Nienia, was divided into two kinds, one that cheared and invited the 

 infant to fuck ; as an authority for which Quintiliian (L. i. c. lo.^ quotes 

 Chryfippus ; " Chryftppus etiam nutricum qtae adhibentur infantibus al- 

 leilationi fuum quoddan carmen afftgnat." The other, we are told by 

 Athenseus, (Deip7i. L. 14. c. 3.) was fung as a (laTaiJa^xaAw;, or lullaby, as 

 Hefychius interprets it, a fort of ^■^cc^^h-^, like this before us, that huflied 

 and compofed the infant to fleep. But although the affonants in the laft 

 line are not a direft rhime, I cannot help imputing the words EfwC""^^' and 

 »ioii7^i to fomething more than mere accident, the plaintive reft or paufe on 

 the words in the pofition they hold in the verfe, having fomething in it 

 uncommonly foothing and mufical, independent of the beauty of the fen- 

 timent. But if the words were accident only, it proves that cm fame 

 occafions the 'c./*o«5rruTo» might not be unfavorable to the Greek, but 

 even be employed with advantage. I will venture to fay, the moft 

 learned critic cannot fubftitute a word for ii-ok^Ss— a word not echoing to its 

 fifter-word — that fliall have an eifeft half fo graceful and harmonious. 

 The rhimes, for fo I would call them,* are emphatic ; and not only 

 happy in the place they occupy in the verfe, but in the very fentiment 

 itfelf : each is a fort of fet-ofF againft the other, and both harmonize in 

 the fame fortunate point. I know of no rhime in the Englilh language 

 fo truly mufical, or that poffefles a more elegant antithefis. And this 

 again leads us to the point, where we fet out ; that rhime is natural to 



children, 



* Quintilian entertains the very fame idea of it. " Tertium eft, quod in candem finem 

 venit OfitiioT£^si/To» : Ea vero videlur optima in quibus initia fententiarum et fines confentiunt ; 

 ut et pene fimilia fint verbis, et paribus cadant, ut eodem mode definant. {Rhet. defg. 

 •verb.') 



