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458 Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces, from the Greek. [June 1 
tive church, who found in the Greek co- 
median a_ ftrain of piety fo nearly ap- 
proaching to their own belief and feel- 
ings, that all ideas cf a preponderance of 
fatire over moral precept muft yield to 
evidence fo irrefiftible as the approbation 
of Clemens Alexandrinus and Eutfebius. 
It may not be amifs to foften the drynefs 
of theferemarks by introducing a few in- 
ftances from his works of the paflages 
which have been, by this means, trant- 
mitted to us, in however imperfect or 
mutilated a ftate:— 
Es yap eyeva cv Tpodhszé Tov TAavT@y moves, 
Hadft thou alone of all mankind been born 
To walk in paths untroubled with a thorn, 
From the firft hour that gave thee vital air, 
Configned to pleafure, and exempt from 
care, 
Heedlefs to wile away the day and night 
In one unbroken banquet of delight, 
Pamper each ruling fenfe, fecure from ill, 
And own no law {uperior to thy will ; 
If partial Heav’n had ever fworn to give 
This happy Right as thy prerogative; 
Then, blame the Gods; and call thy life 
the worft, 
Thyfelf of all mankind the moft accurtt ! 
But if with us the common air thou draw, 
Subject, alike, to Nature’s general law, 
If on thy head an equal portion fall 
Of life’s afflicting weight impws’d on all, 
Take courage from neceflity, and try 
Boldly to meet the foe thou canft not fly. 
Thou art a man, like others, doom’d to 
feel 
The quick defcent of Fortune’s giddy wheel. 
Weak human race!) We ftrive to foar from 
fight 
With wings unfitted to the daring flight, 
Reftlefs each fleeting cbjeét to obtain, 
We lofe in minutes what in years we gain. 
But why fhouldft thou, my honour’d friend, 
repine ? 
No grief peculiar or unknown is thine ; 
Tho’ Fortune fmile no more as unce fhe 
{mil’d, of 
Nor pour her gifts on thee, her favourite 
child, 
Patient and firm, the prefent ill redrefs, 
Nor by defpairing make thy little lefs. 
Toy Meutuyeraroy AEy Or 
——Moft bleft, my friend, is he 
Who, having once beheld this glorious frame 
‘Of Nature, treads again the path he came. 
The common fun, the clouds, the ftarry 
train, 
The elemental fire, and wat’ry main, 
if for a hundred years they glad our fight, 
Or but a moment ere they fade in night, 
"Tis all the fame—-we never fhall furyey 
Scenes half fo wond’rous fair and blef as they, 
Beyon "tis all an empty, giddy fhow, 
solic, tumult, firife, extravagance, and woe ; 
-ocritus ended his career by the halter. 
He who can firft retire departs the befte— 
His reckoning paid, he finks unharm’d to 
reft. 
But him who ftays, fatigue and forrows wait, 
Old age, and penury’s unhappy ftate ; x 
By the world’s tempefts toffd, a prey he lies 
To open force, and ambufh’d enemies, 
Till his long-fuffering frame and ling’ring 
breath 
He yields at laft to agonizing Death. 
In fhort, it is from! thefe two fources 
alone, the writings of the melancholy and 
pious man, that we are furnifhed with our 
fpecimens of the great Menander. Hap- 
py were it, for us and for pofterity, had 
the gay, the voluptuous, and the witty, 
finifhed the portrait of the bard by tran{- 
mitting to after ages examples that would 
have enabled us to meafure him by the 
ftandards of humour, fprightlinefs, and 
fancy. at 
The fuperiority.of the Grecian drama- 
tifls was felt and acknowledged by their 
Roman imitators and admirers; and Ci- 
cero frequently reprobates the prevailing 
partiality of his countrymen for thefe fo- 
reign authors. He fuppofes a Roman 
thus to object to his arguments: ‘ Shall 
I toil through the Synephebi of Cacilius, 
and the Andria of Terence, when I may 
as eafily read the fame plays in Menan- 
cer??? The aniwer of Cicero is not very 
convincing, nor likely to turn the {cale in 
favour of the Roman ftage. i 
Menander was drowned in the harbour 
of Pireus (A. C.'293), at a time of life 
when he had done enough for immortality, 
but while the powers of his mind were, 
yet unimpaired by age, and his genius 
fufficiently ardent to do ftill more. He is 
faid to have thrown himfelf into the fea in 
a fit of jealoufy, occafioned by his unfor.~ 
tunate competition with Philemon, his 
contemporary in the middle comedy. He 
was vanquifhed, as Aulus Gellius afferts, 
by the fuperior intereft rather than talents 
of his fuccefsful rival, and the fame writer 
relates, that, meeting him fhortly after 
the conteft had been decided, he afked 
him ‘If he did not blufh at gaining the 
prize againft him >”? ~ Menander is to be 
clafled in the melancholy lit of great men 
to whom the jealouly, bad tafte, or in- 
trigues of the time in which they lived, 
denied juftice, and to whofe names fame 
and honour were attached when they no 
longer lived to enjoy them. : . 
By a ftrange fatality, a great propor- 
tion of the writers as well as the warriors — 
of alitiquity were thus prematurely cut 7 
off from exiftence. Euripides and Hera= — 
clitus were torn to pieces by dogs. The- 
Empedocles | 
