142 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



times, under the title of Aipctj Quvriivrw The judgment of the 

 Vowels ; where that exquifite author, with his ufual talent for 

 ludicrous compofition, has introduced the letter Tiypu, arraign- 

 ing the letter Tav before the tribunal of the feven Vowels, and 

 calling out loudly for juftice againft the encroachments made 

 upon him by this atrocious delinquent. It is fcarcely poffible 

 to render the performance intelligible to a mere Englifh reader, 

 as the ridicule chiefly arifes from the folemnity with which an 

 •unimportant fubftitution of certain Greek letters in the place of 

 others, is treated. But it may be translated in fuch a manner 

 as to amufe this learned audience, and ferve perhaps as fome 

 fort of atonement for the trefpafs committed againft their pa- 

 tience, in the former part of a dry grammatical difcuffion. 

 The humour of the piece is heightened, by its being a very 

 fuccefsful and well fupported imitation of an ancient pleading. 



Lucian's Judgment of the Vowels. 



<( 



IN the Archonfhip of Aristarchus of Phalerum*, on the 

 " 7th of November f, the letter Siy^a commenced a profe- 

 " cution againft the letter Tav, at the bar of the feven 

 '* Vowels, for violent diftraining of goods, alleging that he 

 " was plundered of all thofe words ufually pronounced with 

 " a double Tkv. 



" Ye 



* The learned Corsini, merely upon the authority of this paflage of Lucian, has 

 inferted in his FuJIi Attici, the name of Aristarchus Phalereus, as Archon Eponytnus at 

 Athens, in the ifl: year of the CCXXII. Olympiad, and of the Chriftian aera, 109. It 

 may be fuppofed, however, that, in a ludicrous compofition of this fort, Lucian would 

 not mind an adherence to the truth of chronology, but might pitch upon an Archon on 

 this occafion called Aristarchus, in allufion to the famous grammarian of that name 

 who was born in Samothracia, and flourifhed at Alexandria about the CLVI. Olympiad j 

 and who was fo eminent in his art, that the name Aristarchus became fynonymous with 

 the word Critic. See Corsini Fqfti Attici, Tom. II. p. 104. and Tarn. IV. p. 165. 



•j- Scaliger and others fuppofe Hvxvi\,wv to correfpond to the month of October. I 

 have preferred the opinion of Petau and Corsini, who make it to agree with November. 



On 



