1805.] Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces^ fmm the Greek. 



25 



Yet even this is an exaft parody on an- 

 other poem written by Pofidippus, and 

 was only made as an exeicilt: of wit, and 

 as the indulgence ot an idle momtnt. — 

 The reverie of the picture will iunredi- 

 atfciy bring us back where we were be- 

 fore. 

 What path of life can man (lefire to tread ? 



Strife and unworthy deeds tlie fenate 

 yields, 

 At home bhck cares are feated on your beJ, 



And never-ending labour hauiits the fields. 



Terrors and tempefts rule the 'ooifterous main. 

 The wealthy traveller fears and dangers 

 claim ; 



Eut crov.'ds of ills the needy muft fuftain. 

 Hunger and toil, and inColence and /hame. 



If married, cares corrode the marriage ftate j 



If' fingle, joyous gloom is all thy fee ; 

 The father, plagues — the childlefs, furrows 

 wait ; 

 Folly 's in youth, in age new inf incy. 

 The only choice of wiCies life can give, 

 Is, ne'er to have been born, or then have 

 ceas'd to live.* 



A fragment of Antiphanes, preferved 

 by Stobaeus, contains the foUowi.ig ienti- 

 ment : 

 Man never willingly embraced his fate, 



But oft reluflant, in life's golden hours, 

 Is downward dragg'd, by Charon's gloomy 

 hate, 

 From his glad banquets and his rofeate 

 bowers. 



This prefents a lively piffure of ihe 

 gloomy notions of the ancients refj^ec^ing 

 death. How dieadlul, then, mull be ihe 

 fuffcrings of life, when even deaih itlclf is 

 confideied by them in tiie light of a re- 

 fuge and a bleflirg \ That this was not 

 the mere imagination of a poeiical mind, 

 a fancy that would Ihrir.k from the afliial 

 trill, appears from the frequency of fui- 

 tide among the ancients. The mofc tri- 

 vial circumftances, the mod tranfieiit 

 feelings, fcem to tiave occalioned and juf- 

 lified it. Speufiopus killed h'.mftlf to get 

 rid of the dropfy, after heaiing the fpeech 

 of Diogenes, whom he bade good- morrow, 

 and who thereupon faid, " No good- 

 mcrrijw to you, who can bear to live in 

 fiich a Hate." Aiher.^eus records theltory 

 of two young Aihtni;ir.s, Antocles and 

 Epicles, who, having m;ids an agreement 

 to live logrtlier, fptiit all th'-ir Jubilance 

 in ihc excefs of voluptuoufnds, and ihtn 

 put an end to their lives by pledging each 

 otiier in a bowl of hemlock-juice at their 



laft feaft. A ftory fomewhat fimilar, but 

 worked up with circumiVances of fingubr 

 hdrjor, appeared fome years fmce in the 

 Antijacobin Review, of Ibnie German 

 gentlemen who had entered into fuc'o an- 

 other confederacy ;o deiiroy ihemfelves. 

 Callimachus iias left us an epigram on the 

 death of a young man, a native of Am- 

 bracia, who killrd him''elf after reading 

 Plato's book on the Immortality ot the 

 Soul. The llorv is taken notice of by 

 Cicew) (Tufc. Difp. i) 



Cleombrotus, upon the rampart's height, 

 Bade the bright fun fatewel, then plung'd td 



night. 

 The cares of life to him were yet unknown ; 

 Gay were his hours, his days unclouded 



fhone ; 

 But Plato's word had fir'd his youthful eye. 

 And fix'd his foul on immortality. 



We have many initances, in ancient 

 hlftoiy, of that fatal precipitancy wriicli 

 hui.'iesmen fometimes to the conmiillion 

 ot th.s defprrate aft to avoid only expe6lcd 

 evils, or to get rid of merely fancied ones. 

 It was fuch a death by which Brutus and 

 Callius were I'wept ofl" from the theatre of 

 the world. I faw a ft;o. t time ago in 

 Montaigne a fingubr aneedo'e of the fame 

 n.iture connef^ed with a fignal event in 

 modern liillory. The Duke d'Engliien, 

 who commindcd at the battle of Cerifoles, 

 attempted twice during that day to put 

 an ':ni\ to h:s life on account of advantages 

 apparently giired by the enemy ; but 

 bei'!g fortun.Uely prevented from- execut- 

 ing his puri^ofe, he afterwards gained a 

 complete viflory. 



Suicide was, however, even by the an- 

 cients, confidered as a crime, and to be 

 punKhed as fuch in another world. 



Proxima deinde tenent msefti loca qui fibi 



Lethum 

 Infontes pepercre mar.ii, lucemque pcrofi 

 Projtccre animas.* JEn. lib. vi. 



Plato (f/^ Legil'us) allows but three rea- 

 fonable caufes of fuicide ; public trial, 

 unavoidable and dreadful change of for- 

 tune, and inluppoi tab'e difgiace. The 

 fpeech of the Spartan king Cleomenes (re- 

 corded by Pltitaicli in liis Life) fo one 

 who advifed him to killhimlelf after his 

 deieat by Antigonns, was rii^.ited by 

 real courage andnoblcnefs of f ul. 



But what mult ihst poor man have fuf- 

 fer-d, in what fcenes ot agun-zing diiiiefs 

 mult he have borne a part, wholorlbik 



Parii. 



Vid. Op?niry of Kot«;bue'« Travels i» 



Vid. Somii. Sc.ipionis. 



the 



