“524 
. In Anacreon the fame idea occurs with 
the utmoft precifion in a variety of places, 
and the fame preference is uniformly 
given to the flowing bowl of the ban- 
quet, rather than to its more folid trea- 
fures. It would be idle to quote more 
than the following example, which is as 
confentaneous to the above in its general 
turn of expreffion, as in the metaphor it 
conveys: - ) 
Tov Avanpesv7a wink 
Tov Qoleiuoy WExITVY Ys 
Piarry TsoTlve TAIT, 
Biaryy roywr scavyyys 
Amd vEexracos worolo 
: ° 
Tlapapoudioy Aavorrecy 
Proyepoy Guyovrss acroiy— 
In Englifh thus: 
Learn from Anacreon, bard of fire, 
With peerlefsteuch who ftrikes the lyre, 
O from Anacreon fearn to fip 
The dulcet draught of beanty’s tip ! 
Avoid the dog-ftar’s fierce controul, 
And with this ne@ar cheer thy foul. 
Yet perhaps the following from the 
exquifite Song of Solomon has, upon thé 
whole, a greater refemblance ftill, eap.i. 2, 
DID. PMD MP. pw 
PY FINI 
66 Let him kifs me with the kiffes of his 
mouth; for thy love is better than 
zine.” 
Our readers will here be readily re- 
‘minded of B. Jonfon’s celebrated imita- 
tion, as well as of many othiérs. 
A vaft variety of fimilar parallelifms 
might be adduced, but’ it would require 
an exprefs diflertation inftead of a cafual 
letter to point them out. I cahnot, how- 
ever, avoid noticing ofie prominent fea- 
ture which appears to be the peculiar 
characteriftic of the ~Afiatic gazel, and 
‘the Grecian as well as the Roman ode, 
and that is. the frequent adoption of 
the anaphora, or figure of iterdtion; 
which indeed recurs {fo perpetually in the 
_ lyric effufions of all Afiatic and Eurepean 
bards, but more particularly of Hafiz and 
Anacreon, that it is néedlefs to addtice 
inftances. I fhall rather clofe this epiftle 
with a few obfervations upon the proba- 
ble origin of an ornament fo unanimoufly 
adverted to. | 
Againft iterations of every kind, but 
particularly thofe of the fame Tetter, Dr. 
ohnfon has entered his decifive proteft, 
if I recolle& aright, in the Life of Mr. 
Gray: but, I think, unreafonably. It is 
faid that iterations of all kinds are figures 
merely mechanic; that they are Milf and 
Mr. Good on Oriental Petry. 
_latively holy month.” 
“fhout.” Hence alfo. béyond a doubt, 
» ocy 
: e 
{ Jan. ly 
cumberfome, and never add to the force 
of the diction employed. Letus examine 
this affertion. No language, in its firft 
rude and unfinifhed ftate, can exprefs, by 
the ufe of an individual term, more than 
a fimple affent or negation: different 
degrees of comparifon, by an inflexion or 
variation of the fame term, is the work 
of ages, and the effect of high cultivation. 
To add therefore to the ftrength of fuck 
affent or negation, the bafbarous poet or 
orator is under the abfolute neceflity of 
repeating or iterating the term originally 
employed, and a word thus duplicated 
*. becomes with him a /uperlative expreffion 
of the idea only /imply or pofitively con- 
veyed by its ndeeideal ueoeatee All 
Yanguages bear evidence to the truth of 
this affertion. We have nothing to de 
but to turn to the flender vocabularies 
we poffefs of the Hottentot and Ota- 
heitan tongues, and we fhall find that 
they have no poffible mode of adding 
to the force of any fimple term what- 
foever, but by the duplication or repeti- 
tion-of that term: and hence favages are 
perpetually reiterating the fame word, 
and even the fame fentence, upon the 
eats of their auditors. It was precifely 
thus with every ancient nation: Tartar 
or Tartarus is derived from the Chaldee 
Tar or Tor 5), which fignifies diftant 
or extreme; the duplication of this term, 
therefore, as above, implies obvioufly 
“* the place moft diftant, or moft extreme.” 
© IT (Hip) among the Egyptians is 3 
“ boat” or “ ark,” and in a variety of in- 
{tances is applied to the idolatrous wors 
fhip of Ifis, or the Egyptian Aphrodite, 
who is nothing more than a perfonifica- 
tion ofthe ark deified; CrirtrrerE ring 
(epipi) is a mere duplication of the radical 
©, LI omitting the afpirate alone; and 
when therefore appropriated, as it was 
uniformly accuitomed to be, to theeleventh 
month of the Egyptian calendar, coni- 
mencing with the 25th of our Janes 3 
month peculiarly dedicated to the wor- 
thip of this divinity, it means nothiag 
more than ‘ the moft hely,” or “ fuper- 
The term Al or 
El is apphed, aritohe all eaftérn nations, to 
the Supreme Being: atid henee their vo- 
ciferation of Alal or Elel in time of battle 
is only an iterated invocation of the Deity 
in their favour. Hence probably the 
Greek term AAaAay195, which, accord- 
the to Hefychius, is ewivixiog vmyos, 
*©a fong of victory :” as alfo EAcAev, 
ETE WIN UA GOAEMIAGY, “ a warlike 
the 
