i 805.1 Epigrams, Fragments^ ^c. from the Greek. 



211 



Kow on the world's bleak wafte I ftand 

 alone, — 



An unprotected orphan I am left ; 

 To me the names of kindred are unknown,— 



Of eachendearing comfort I'm bereft. 



Yet though a tender forrow fills my bread, 

 I forrow not as thofe who have no hope ; 



For to that God who gives the weary reft, 

 With humble confidence I dare look up. 



I know my Heav'nly Father, good and kind, 

 Will not without a caufe his children 

 grieve ; 



His promifes fupport and cheer my mind, 

 And countlefs mercies I from him receive. 



TO MY INFANT ASLEEP. 



SLEEP on, fweetBabe ! for thou canft deep ; 



No forrows rend thy peaceful breaft : 

 Thypenfivc Mother wakes to weep, 



Depriv'd by grief of balrriy reft I 



May Angels walch around thy bed. 

 Thee fafe from ev'ry ill defend ; 



May Heav'n unnumber'd blcfTings (hed. 

 And be thy never- failing friend I 



Sleep on, fleep on, my Raby dear ! 



Thy little heart, from forrow free, 

 Knows nut the anxious pangs that tear 



Thy Mother's breaft, fweet Babe ! for 

 thee. 



Soft be thy flumbers, Sorrow's child ! 



Serene and tranquil be thy reft ; 

 Oft have thy faults my pai,)s beguil'd. 



And footh'd my agitated breaft ! 



Thine infant tongue has never known 

 A Father^s name, iior can thine eyel 



Recal to mind the graceful form 

 That low in Death's embraces liei i 



But I in thee delight to tracr 



That form fo tenderly belov'd i 

 To pifture in thy fmiling face 



His image, far from earth remov'J ! 



His pious cares thou canft net ihare. 

 Nor can he guide thy tender youth. 



Or guarrtthee from each hunful fnare, 

 Ur lead thee in the paths of truth ! 



The fad yet pleafing talk be mine, 

 ■ To virtue's ways thy mind to form. 



To point thee to thofe truths divine. 

 Which in the Gofpel are made known • 



With Rcafon's dawn thou (halt be taught 

 Thy Father's God betimes to know j 



The wonders he for us hath wrought 

 Shall be thy Mother's talk to Jhev/. 



Each rifmg and each fctting Sun 



Tliy little hands in pray'r (hall raife. 



And early (hall thine infant tongue 

 fit taught t» Iiff thy M<ik.ci't praife ! 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



EPIGRAMS, FRAOMtNTS, and FUGr- 



TivE PIECES, from the greek.— 



(^Continued from page ii6 of our lafi 



Number.) 



FEW fragments of the writings of 

 Stefichorus* are preferved to us by 

 the old Greek colleiflors, but rune of fuf- 

 ficient confequence to enab e us to judge 

 how far he deferveJ the prail'e of affinity 

 to Homer which is beftowcd on him by 

 the auihor ot the poem iaft quoted. Of 

 Alc32us I (hall probably find occafi.^n to 

 fpeak hereafter. Anacreon and Pmdar 

 are too well known to the Englifti reader - 

 to need in this place any account of them- 

 felves or any illurtrati.ns Irom their 

 works. 



But the firft, afier Alcman, whofe de* 

 votion to love particularly claims our no« 

 tice in thi.s place, is Sappho, the poeteft 

 of Mytiiene.'t' Her character has been 

 the ftihje6> of fo much con;roverfy, that it 

 may fecm impoflible to allege any new ar- 

 gument to rel'cue it from the abhorrence 

 with wiiich htfr fuppofed irregularitiet 

 have loaded her n-me. Yet we may bm 

 better inclined to liften to what has been 

 faid in her vindication, when it is confi. 

 dered that feme of the fables recorded of 

 her are full of the molt palpable abfurdi» 

 ties and anachronilms. At lealt, wheix 

 wei are told by grave authors that 

 Anacreon, Arch.locrius, and Hipponax, 

 were arnong her gallants, we may be 

 dilpofed to hefitate in admitting every 

 other (tor/ that has been circulated 

 to her prejudice. The exii^ei'ce of an- 

 other Sappho, a native of Ereffiis, of in. 

 famous charailer, may explain away fome 

 of thele inconfiftencies ; and we may, I 

 fiiould imagine, without being called dif- 

 c uncoils, transfer to a prcltitute who has 

 been dead for 2500 years the calumnies 

 which have been injurioufly levelled againft 

 the fame of an exalicd ipiiit that will lire 

 for ever. 



With regard to her Jove for Phaon, it 

 IS nut fuipriiing that a woman of lb ar- 

 dent an imagination as our pociel's flioiild 

 be hurried away by the violence of paf- 

 fion to a con lucf generally reputed irre- 

 gular and difgrareful ; and as (he f lared 

 above her lex in the wonderful endow- 



• Stcficliorus was born at Himera, in Si- 

 cily, and flourilhed aaout 556 yean B. C— 

 He Is celebrated as the inventor of the Epi- 

 thalamium He died at the advanced age of 

 85 at Catana. 



■\ Flor Olym^ 41t 



Dda nent% 



