Seidel cnr i NN 
a dl a AE I el he ace Sell ty 
Dae 
_ Jowing lines. 
Applicable to the prefent fubject, not- 
‘ 
542 Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces, fromthe Greek, {July 3, 
fpeech, and commented upon it in the fol- 
They are not wholly un- 
withftanding the recommendation they 
tend to enforce. 
’Oudey "ev "AvOodaact. 
Nothing that’s mortal can continue long ; 
And well the Man of Chios tun’d his fong— 
«¢ Like leaves on trees the race of man is 
found ;” 
Yet few receive the melancholy found, 
Or in their breafts imprint this folemn truth, 
For hope is near to all, and moft to youth. 
In the gay {pring of life her flowers arife, 
Swell the Hight mind and blind the ardent 
eyes 5 
Old age and death are ftrangers to the ear, 
And ficknefs claims no momentary fear. | 
Alas’! how little thinks the giddy crowd 
Of the thort fpace to youth and life allow’d ! 
Ye who refleét, that tranfient {pace employ, 
And, while the pow’r remains, indulge your 
tt a 
We find the fame complaint of the 
fhortnefs and uncertainty of life very fre- 
quent among the epigrammatiits. Such 
is the following of Palladas : 
Q rng Boayeiag, &c. 
Oh tranfitory joys of life! ye mourn 
Rightly thofe winged hours that ne’er ree 
turn ! 
We, let us fit, or lie,-ortoil, or feaft, 
Time ever runs (our perfecuting gueft) 
A hateful race againft our wretched ftate, 
And bears th? unconquerable will of Fate. 
The philofephers have ever made it 
a fubjec&t of complaint, that life is 
fort for the perfection of any art or 
fcience. Now and then (among the 
myriads of ephemeral,infecis that {warm 
upon the furface of the earth for a few 
hours,.and are then heard of no. more), 
fome giorious fou!, fome almoft divine ge- 
nius, arifes, calculated to difperfe the 
cleuds of ignorance and folly, to pierce 
the myfterious veil of nature, aad to make 
clear the incomprehenfible ways of Hea- 
ven. He fets out on his undertaking : 
all eyes are fixed on his progrefs: all 
. minds are afonifhed at his powers:—but 
death arrfts him in the middle of his 
journey. No ‘fecond genius furvives to 
catch his falling mantle: his grand 
fchemes, his mighty dilcoveries, remain 
unprofecuted ; they fink, perhaps, into 
oblivion’; or, if, feme traces of them yet 
exift, they exift only asthe. memorials of.a 
great namq as the proud, humiliating, 
empty monuments of human power and 
of human weaknefs. Befides, even in 
lite itfeif, how many obftacles-are there to 
the accomplifhment of fchemes, however 
excellent, to the profecution of ftudies, 
however worthy of the higheft faculties of 
our nature! Sicknefs, want, domefiic 
forrows, public calamities, the neceflary 
avocations of bufinefs, or the calls of 
friendfhip and humanity, fome of thefe in- 
terrupt the moft profperous labours.— 
Then comes envy to impede and poifon 
them. ** Whoever is good (fays Sotades), 
whoever is ingenious, jut, fortunate, fome 
portion of envy is bis inevitable lot : fome 
flander fl:all annoy, fome calumny bla&, 
him.” 24 
But to return to the evils attending on 
life itfelf, unconneéted with the views of 
death and futurity: the fenfe of fatiety 
alone, of that wretched vacuum which our 
keeneft ehioyments fometimes, leave behind 
them, of the fhortnefs of the time that 
pleafure fixes her refidence in our fouls be- 
fore we are cloyed with the pofleffion, and 
the want we feel of perpetual novelty. to, 
aid even that fhort delufion of happisefs 
(without taking into our account the many 
pofitive evils that embitter our exiftence), 
affords ample room for the indulgence of 
melancholy thoughts and gloomy images : 
Tidvray podv nopog ect, % Unve x inornTog 
Moanis +6 yrunepiig, % aL uuprovog opynOxcot0. 
« In every thing (fays the poet) there is 
fatiety ; in fleep and in love, in {weet 
mufic, and in the delightful dance.” And 
fo Pindar, Nem. vil.: a 
dele EEL Képov. 3° Eyer 
Kal pint, 3 Ta Tépmv avbe Adpodicia. 
«© Even honey pal!ls upon the. fenfes, and 
the lovely flowers of Venus.” 
y 
This idea of the preponderance of evil: 
will be naturally found molt frequent 
among the earlier and darker ages of: fo- 
cicty. Homer abounds with thefe un- 
comfortable reflections; and among the 
early poets (whofe fragments have reached. 
us) ot cur northern clima‘es, the remark 
is 4if] more evident. It cafts a penfive 
melanc cly over all their writings, which, 
even when war, or love, or the feaft, isthe 
immediate fubject, equally pervades their 
fierceft and their moftjoyous lays. . 
The mind untaught 
Is a dark waite, where fiends and tempefts 
Hewi": > Jae 
As Phebus to the world, is fcience to the 
foul, BEaTTYye’s Minftrele 
It has often ftruck me, that:no paflage 
throughout the Iliad exceeds in wild and 
gloomy grandeur that in which Achilles is 
reprefented as putting to death Lycaon, 
the fon of Priam. It is one of thofe 
tg Wess where 
4 
