ad 
1805.] Lpigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pisces, from the Greek. 541 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE late John Ruffel, once Captain of 
{ the Byron, afterwards of the Claren- 
don, of Briftol, who died at Carmarthen 
about fix years ago, I have often heard 
relating, that large flocks of fwallows, 
confifting of many ened; two or 
three times, in the courfe’ of + 
rigging of his thip, in the middle of the 
Atlantic Ocean, and retied there for the 
night.. One inftance, in particular he 
fpecified, when hundreds of them defcend- 
ed under the deck, where he’made pri- 
foners cf. them. © Tho'e that were lodged 
at liberty in the open-air, with the dawn 
of day relumed their flight. 
no fooner_on the wing, than the wretched 
cries of the prifoners pierced the eas ‘of 
the compafficnate Captain, who immedi- 
ately removed their mifery by giving them 
liberty to join their amore fortunate fellow- 
travellers, whicn they foon did.. . 
Captain Roffel, though generally deem- 
ed an auliere man, never related the above 
anecdote without mainifetting a tendernefs 
of feeling which has. left upoa my mind 
indelible impreflions of the great benevo- 
lence of :his-heart. Me was prefent at the 
interefting death of General Welt, 
If you fhould deem the above anecdote 
worthy a place in your valuable Maga- 
zine, your infertion of it will much oblige, 
Sir, your's, &c. 
Neath, March 4, 1805. D. Davis. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EPIGRAMS, FRAGMENTS, aud FUGI- 
TIVE PIECES, from the GREEK. (Cou- 
tinued from p. 459 of laji Number.) 
NowV.:: Part Ii; 
MONG the Greek epigrammetifts, 
no obfervations on human lsfe-are 
moore frequent than thofe which are drawn 
from a pofition held for certain by moft 
of the ancient philofophers, and which 
we conitantly find repeated in our own 
days, of the great preponderance of evil 
in the affairs of man. To thofe whofe 
notions of a future ftate were perplexed, , 
dark, and uncertain ; whofe belief in re- 
tribution was unfettled aad wavering, and 
rather an object of fpeculation than a 
ground of hepe or fatistaétion, this pre- 
fent life mutt have appeared the boundary 
of all human defires and“fears ; and the 
very uncertainty of its duration, and the 
dark and miferable gloom which involved 
every thing beyond it, wiil, of itfelf, ac- 
count for the continual complaints of the 
MontTaty Mac, No, 130. 
hirty voy- 
ages to the Welt Indies, alighted on the: 
‘They were: 
fad lot of humanity, to be found among 
the ancient poets. Such is the melancholy 
firain of sea avai the poet of lave 
and pleafure. 
“Hjzeig 
We, too, as reside that inthe vernal hours 
Greet the new fun, fefrefh’d by fruitful 
fhow’rs, Poe . 
Rejoice, exulting in our verdant prime, 
Nor good nor evil marks our noifelefs time. 
But, round our birth the gloomy Fates preu 
fide, 
And fmile malignant on our fleeting pride 5 
One with old age prepar’d to blait our bloem, 
Gae arm’d with death to hide it in the tomb, 
Our better moments fmile and pafs away 
E’en as the fun that fhines and fets to day. 
When youthis fown, death only canafluage, 
And yield a refuge from the ills of ag». 
A‘l mourn adverfity. One, nobly bred, 
‘I! otis a poor flave to him his bounty fed ; 
One, folitary, feeks the tomb’s embrace, 
With no tranfmitter of his name and race ; 
While, fick and faint, or rack’d by ceafelefs 
fears, 
Another journeys down the vale of years. 
wr 7 
X 
4) 
ta TE purrg. 
The comparifon in thefe verfes will. 
bring to our recollection the beautiful but, 
melancholy fpeech of Glaucus to Diomed, : 
inthe 6th book of the Ihad.* Simonides , 
has introduced the beginning of the fame 
* There is likewife a refemblance, tod 
firong to be paffed over, between the paflage 
defcribing the two Fates, one armed with 
death, the other with oid age, which hang 
Gver our exiftence, and that in the Iliad 
which concludes the fpeech of Sarpedon to 
~ Glaucus 3 
Nov d enemas yp nines edecaciy Gavdroto 
Mupias ag "en “Ere piven Beorrsv ’ad “umanrveet, 
The fuperior genius of Homer ftrongly 
fhines forth in this inftance of ‘comparifon — 
Mimnermas is at pains to prefent a piture te- 
the imagination, on which he labours to give 
it the due effect. Homer, bya fingle ftroke, 
prefents an idea, vaft, majeftic, and general ; 
not divided into parts, not defcending inte 
particulars, difdaining every thing like con- 
celt or. epigram. Aan inftance, which will 
exemplify fill more ftrongly the diftinéion 
between true fublimity, and that point and 
accuracy which is the chayaéteriftic of the 
genuine epigram, isto be met with in the 
fame*verfes which probably fuggefted the 
idea of afmall poem of the jatter deferip- 
tion, of which I fhall, in the courfe of this 
paper, prefent a tranflation ; 
Tag 419 dvev Gavdre geo: tyos Bis 3 LUpia pag ow 
Avypd, x ete puyeiv “eummapes &TE pépsiv— 
where the point confifts in the antithefis, 
which Homer’s mighty genius SS de- 
{pifes. ; 
; 4A — Fpeech, 
