1800 | 
ding to this philofophy, all men alike vir- 
tuous? 
I certainly have no objeétion with your 
two able correfpondents to difcufs any fub- 
je&ts conneéted with thofe mentioned in 
this letter; but I fhould be unwilling in- 
deed to fee your agreeable mifcellany con- 
verted into a magazine for the horrid wea- 
pons of religious controverfy. Your cor- 
refoondents dilguife no opinions, and I 
meet them wish equal opennefs ; we leave 
others to difeover the diguije of fuch as 
purfue literature as a profefion, ox that of 
inch as purfue religion as a@ profeffon. 
That is an inofienfive hoftility, a pleafing 
combat, where nothing is gained by vic- 
tory or loft by deteat! 
Permit me here to exprefs my admira- 
tion of the papere in your magazine under 
the title of the Enquirer, and to intimate 
a wilh that they may be foon made a {e- 
parate publication. 
_A. RoBiNnson. 
Loaden, 12th OF. 1800. 
—< 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE explanation and folution, given 
ae by Mr. Dyer of thofe laborious tri- 
fles, the iwownPa, or (as the term may be 
tranflated ) parzzumeral verfes—which had 
fo completely bafiled the fagacity of the 
acute and learned Stephanus*—having at- 
traéted my cafual and momentary atten- 
tion to the fixth book of the 4nzthologia, I 
there obferved another fpecies of poetic 
foolery, which I know not whether Mr. 
Dyer meant to include in the lift of thofe 
he intends to make the fubjeéts of his re- 
marks. At all events, my object in no- 
ticing thofe bagatelles being altogether 
different from his, I truft that I fhail fand 
exempt from any imputation of the flight- 
eit wifh to encroach upon his province. 
The bagatelles to which I allude are the 
suTeoTPeDavra, or pieces of which (not the 
individual letters as in the xapxsyos or crab- 
verfes noticed by Mr. Dyer, but) the en- 

* See his Greek Thefaurus, vol. iv. col, 
724, g h.—And here J beg leave toenter my 
proteft againit a ‘kind of national plagiarifm 
of which many perfons in this country are 
guilty, who convert Stephanus into an Englifh- 
man by calling him Steewens. His name was 
Eflienne or Etienne (equivalent in French to our: 
Englith Stephen or Steewens, as Monfieur Le 
Blane is to Mr. White) which he tranflated 
into Stephanus, according to the cuftom pre- 
valent among the literati of that age, as the 
reformer Chaxzin latinifed his name into Ga/- 
winus Or Calvin, 
Mr. Carey on the Greek Prinunctatione 
299 
the words, being read in inverfe order, 
prefent the fame kind of verfe, and the 
fame fenfe, as when read in the ufual way. 
For example— 
Tinvehoan, rode o% papog Has YAawWay OdvocEuG 
Hyeyxev, dorsyny eLavureg arpemoy—— 
or, in retrogade order, ' 
Avpamoy elavrce SoAiyny, nveynev Odvaceug 
Khaway warhagos cos voce, WnveAorn— 
of which, for the fake of fuch among 
your readers as happen to underiiand 
Latin without being acquainted with 
Greek, I fubjoin a joofe imitation, in 
which little regard was paid to either ac- 
curacy of fenfe or elegance of diflion; bare 
exemplification being the only thing I had 
in view: for I fhould have a€tually deem- 
ed it a fia to wafte precious time in fo 
unprofitable an employment. Indeed, as 
an apology for baving been guilty of even 
making the attempt, I think neeeflary to 
add that it was only during a folitary walk 
through the fields that I tuffered it for a 
moment to engage my thoughts. 
Penelope, tibi dat zonam hanc et peplon 
Ulyffes, . 
Optatus conjux, en, tuus, adveniens—~ 
thus, backwards— 
Adveniens tuus, en, conjux optatus, Ulyffes. © 
Peplon et hanczonam dat tibi, Penelope, 
But, to proceed to my primary and in- 
deed my fole object in adverting to thefe— 
filly and contemptible produétions of mif- 
applied indnftry—I obferve, among the 
number preferved in the dzthologia, the 
four following — 
Kurpid: noveotpopm Sagearsy pelavres, epuCer 
Xatpovres vyepas EK @AAAMON ayouey. 
Aidouevars uno Sgow EN EYPYXOP» , xarpo¢ 
OLN y 
‘Tlapdevov ex yetpwv nyayoreny Kumedoc. 
Osdimrodng Kacis nY TEKEWY, Has ANTE TooTIC 
[ipveTos Har Tarapans av TUpdcg EK 2OE= — 
TEPHS. 
TON TPATONMOYN ee IIava, prov Bposrsoso, 
Hat Usov i 
Aptados, avr” aduas eypadey Qpedswy. 
To read thefe backwards as._verfes, we 
are obliged to take ex Sarauwy asa fingle 
word, and to do the fame with refpeét to ex 
evpuxoow—ex oPeTspyc—and toy tpayorrouy. 
I know not what age gave ‘virth to 
the trifler who wrote thofe pieces: burt, 
from his example, I prefume thit the 
Greeks, at leaft the Greeks of his tine 
were accuftomed, intheir pronunciation, fo 
to incorporate the article’ with the noun to 
which it belonged (when no other word in- 
tervened), as to form of the two a fingle 
Qq2 word 
