148 



mode of life, the occupations and amufements of this mild and harmlefs 

 race appear to have undergone very little change, during a long fucceffion 

 of ages. The reader will find an interefting account of the prefent Hate, 

 and exifting manners of the Laplanders, in a lively and entertaining 

 work entitled, " Letters from Scandinavia*" 



I fliall not here mention fuch a writer as Mekjger Gadarenus,^ as 

 claiming a title to the palm of erotic poetry : notwithftanding the beauty 

 and elegance of his compofitions, and his having devoted his ftrains ex- 

 clufively to the effufions of paflion. It would be a profanation of the 

 name of love, to apply it to the licentious and unblufliing mufe, and the 

 criminal deCres of this writer. The reader will pleafe to recollect, that 

 I wifli to diftinguifh between the poetry of the voluptuary and the 

 lover. He will perceive, that the latter has more of fentiment and lefs 

 of fenfuality, and to this alone fliould I be difpofed to allow the name 

 of erotic poetry, acd flill lefs am I inclined to concede it to thofe 

 polluted rhymes, that proftitute the mufes in the fervice of vice, ob- 

 fcenity, and licentioufnefs. 



Neither do I fpeak of the fwarm of comparatively modern novel- 

 ifts of the Mile/tan fchool, the fpawn of corrupted literature, and de- 

 generate times : but of the claflical and pure ages of Grecian learn- 

 ing. 



As I have already obferved, that, on confideration of the manners 

 of the heroic ages, of ancient Greece, the reader will find many ftrong 

 reafons, which may lead him to think, that erotic poetry coulJ not 

 flourifli, nay, could fcarcely have been known, in that flate and pe- 

 riod of fociety : fo, it feems to be very manifeft, that, in facceeding 

 ages, the democratic inftitutions, and republican forms of government, 

 which were eftablifhed in general through moft ftates of Greece, prov- 

 ed 



* This work though a compilation, has a a great air of originality, 

 f Meleager the Gadarenian, a Syrian by birth, flourilhed about q6 years before Chrifi. 

 Tee Fabric. Bibl, Groec c. 28, pa t%l, vol. 2. Saxxii Onomajl : v. i. p. 142. The 

 works of Meleager are chiefly fliort epigrams, replete as well with licentioufnefs, as with 

 tafte and elegance. Their number is conGderable ; they are to be found in the firft 

 volume of Brunei's jinakaa. 



