1805.) E’pigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces, from the Greek. 339 
The. attractions of thefe light compo- 
-fitions become Jefs ftriking as we advance; 
the colourings, no.longer vivid, -are mel- 
Jowed into the tints of autumn; but al- 
theugh * fallen into the fear and yellow 
Jeaf,”’ remain pleafing to the eye, and in- 
terefting even to their lateft decay. 
During the filent lapfe of more than five 
hundred years, the lyre of Greece hung 
hilent and unftrung ; and when Agathias, 
in the fixth century, attempted to give it 
found, a feeble tinkling was returned to 
the touch before it lay mute for ever. 
This colleétor raked together the Ioofe 
mifcellanies and {cattered fragments of his 
time ; aid knew not that by his exertions: 
he was bequeathing and perpetuating to 
fucceeding ages the figure of his country 
entfecbled, helplefs, exhaufted, and nearly 
funk into dotage, 
Some few of his own produStions may 
be brought forward to redeem it from this 
fecond childifhnefs. A miftrefs.in the 
golden days of Meleager would not have 
thought herfelf degraded by a tribute like 
the-follawing. I have fubftituted the fa- 
miliar Englifh name Janet for the Greek 
one Ereutho; 
Emevdow és pirees pes poadery Evdrmis "Epevdar. 
In wayward mood by artifice I ftrove 
To try the fervour of my Janet’s love ; 
And, ** Oh farewel, my deareft girl,” J 
cried—~ 
‘° Forget me not when feas and lands di- 
vide.” 
Pale at the news, fhe wept 3 and, in defpair, 
Her forehead ftruck, and tore her filken hair, 
And figh’d, ‘* Forfake me not ;” till, fweet- 
ly preft \ 
By her foft forrows, and her kind requeft, 
ZL yield, by generous felffhnefs infpir’s, 
And hardly grant her what I moft defir’d.* 
Yet have the labours of Agathias de- 
ferved well cf pofterity ; for as the public 
tafte declines with the morals and power 
of a people, he found admirers in his 
contemporaries, who feem to have given 
all the encouragement in their power to 
this unpromifing offspring of decrepitude, 
and to have watched over it with ficn 
jealous care, that we have more remains 
from the collection of Agathias than from 
his two predeceffors conjointly. Thus if 
we are not indebted to this colleGtor for 
any very refined pleafure in the perufal of 
his work, yet if it be true that muium ef 
pictura poefis, we are at leaft enabled to 
|. * The epigram beginning. with Zr prev 2 
bPiAcoves, which was inferted in the firft 
Humber, is there by miftake afcribed to Me- 
 deager : Agathias was its real author. — 
iF) 
judge from the preference given to the 
new over the old colle&tion, of the then 
prevailing tafte in literature. 
' “A more calamitous period in the hiftory 
of the world is not to be found than that 
which elapfed from the fourth to the fixth 
century. The Barbarians of ‘the North 
had not only fucceeded in their depreda- 
tions on the enfeebled inhabitants of the 
Eaftern and Weftern Empires, but had 
introduced their manners among them, 
and had even engrafted their jargons on 
the withering fflem of Grecian literature. - 
Atthe end of the fixth century; its uns 
happy country appears to ‘have become 
foreign to” herlelf ; sand none,except- 
ing thofe who devoted themfelves folely to 
the ffudy of ancient learning, were mat- 
ters of the dialects, metres, and nice dif-- 
criminations between words feemingly 
fynonimous. 
rent times, endeavoured ‘to affix, by ac- 
cents, certain rules for the railing and de- 
preffion of thevoice, which, if not invent- 
ed at this era, were at leaft more generally 
reforted to as the ftandards of tone and 
modulation. On proofs fo faithlefs and 
unfteady, the ancient fabric was not cal- 
culated long to brave the aflaults of bar- 
barifm. ‘The public tafte continued® to 
decline ; avd, while the colleétion of Aga- 
thias remained entire, thofe of Meleager 
and Ph.lip were, from two caufes, yearly 
lofing fome of their ornaments. 
The dec,y of the old manulcripts was 
net ft pplied by new tranicribers ; and ia 
fecond caufe, not lefs powerful than the 
firit, may be found in the gloomy and un. 
relenting zeal with which the minifters of 
religion perfecuted every work of inge- 
nay and fancy. rah 
The fir of Meleager’s collections, 
from the very plan and intention of the 
collegtor, was neceffarily expoled to their 
fury. The fpecimens’ of that work 
which yet remain, too abundantly jultity 
the perfecuiion. It was written for the 
xprefs purpole of celebrating eaftern fen- 
fuslity, and is faid to have contained no- 
thing but the d/wvilias miferas of a mind 
pregnant with ideas watied in the embel- 
I:fthment of vice. Kut anfortunately its 
undifcriminating enemies appear to have 
been actuated’ by a rage no lefs furious 
againtt thofe beautiful relics of affection 
and forrew by which the poet endeavoured 
‘to make amends to an intulted world for 
the extravagance of his youth, 
To Agatitas we are indebted for fix 
years of the reign of Juftinian, continued 
trom the Hiftory of Procopius to the laft 
yictory of Belifarius, in the year -5509, 
XX 2 ever 
Grammarians had, at diffe- © 
