1806.] 
ty. The ingenious author gave it fora 
title Mane tras Kvbeperas, “©The Wrath 
of Venus ;” and it may not be unamufing 
to compare it, inan Englifh drefs, with the 
tranflations I have already given from the 
ancient. poets :— 
As Love on Venus’ bofom lay, 
He faw the wife of Fleury ftray, 
And charm’d he flew to meet the dame, 
And call’d her by a mother’s name. 
Negleéted Venus ftrove in vain 
The little rover to reftrain ; 
For Cupid, preffing to the fair, 
Lurk’d in the tangles of her hair. 
No more the Queen of Cyprus fmil’d, 
But wept, deferted by her child, 
Till awful vengeance fhe demands— 
Page’ fills her bveaft, and-arms her hands. 
The earthly Goddefs the affails, 
And furious tears with pointed nails 
The rofeate face, and heavnly breaft, 
Where Love delighted lay at reft ; 
And left her rival to deplore 
Her ivory forehead fpotted oer, 
And drooping, as the flow’ret pale 
Shrinks from the wind and beating hail. 
Now fhuddering Love began to mourn 
By cruel hands her beauty torn— 
Each foft perfuafion he applies 
And words of fweeteft promife tries, 
And charms of healing power he chofe 
That fmooth the fkin, revive. the rofe, 
And call’d his brother Loves to grace 
With heavenly aid a mortal face. 
To beauty and to health reftor’d 
By Cupid’s art, fhe charms her lord, 
And foon a blooming infant fmil’d, 
Like Cytherea’s darling child.* . 
But it was not always beauty that lit 
the flame in the breaft of the Grecian 
lover ; and it was not every philofopher, 
or even poet, who indulged or encouraged 
the licence and voluptuoufnefs of his age. 
The romantic but elevated notions con- 
cerning love which Plato inculcated to his 
difciples, were very generally admired, and 
often even followed. ‘* Anacreon (faysFa.- 
yorinus (apud Stob.) was abfurd when he 
reproved a beautiful boy for cutting off his 
hair, faying that he tore away the lovely 
flower of his head. Wait but a little, 
Oh Anacreon! and you will fee every 
thing cut off ; every grace of the eyes 
and of the countenance deftroyed. As 
Ulyfles is reprefented in the Od; flzy when 
Minerva transformed him to an old man, 
the very fame metamorghofis waits for 
thofe charms and beauties which you now 
admire, and vainly with to perpetuate !— 
* See §* Mem. de Literature, par Monf, 
Salengre,” tom, i. 
mo 
Epigrams, Fragments, 9c. from the Greek, 
geet 
“the mind of man; one that was by all 
19 
Maple pev 0: ypda narov Emyragerroics mEherre 
EarvOag Mew nepadng orece tTebyac deeds Oz Depeace 
Thayrerst medtercs wands Sine yeooyros.” 
By others love was confidered and treat- 
_edeas a difeafe of the moft fatal nature to 
_ poffible means to be reduced and eradicat- 
ed. Remedies were prefcribed, fome of a 
wife and philofophical, others of a fanci- 
ful and ridiculous, nature. The ancient 
Greeks had a water of forgetfulnefs, fimi- 
lar to the fabulous fountain in the foreft 
of Ardennes, fo celebrated by the poetry 
of Boiardo and Arioto. Selemnus was 
a river of Achaia, which had the virtue 
of making every one who bathed in it 
from that moment lofe all recollection of 
the objet of their moft violent defires ; 
and Paufanias fpeaks very highly in com- 
mendation of this wonderful quality :— 
v4 
Ed: peters crnQiins Tw Aoyw, Tiiwreeor 
NPNMATUY TorAwY Esty “Avboumors ax) wdwp 
Te Leréure.—Pauf, Achaic. 
One epigram of a humourous nature 
occurs, in which the romantic vifions of 
Platonic love are perhaps intended to be 
fatirized :-— 
"Oux €60° etog "Eeog. RuFINUS. 
Cali it not a teft of love 
If fun-like beauty light the flame. 
Beauty every heart can move, 
Ir delights e’en gods above, 
And is to all the fame. 
But if your fond, doting, eye 
The reverfe has learnt to prove 3 
If for wrinkled age you'll die, 
Or adore deformity, 
Then you may beaft you love. 
The words and confira&tion of this 
little compofition have fuggefted the fol- 
lowing very different turn of thoughr, 
which (‘hough by no means authorifed by 
the Greek) I fhall infert merely for the 
purpofe of introducing a few poems of a 
different nature from all which have pre. 
ceded it :— 
Callit not love with fudden warmth to glow, 
And pine, enamour’d of a wanton’s brow ° 
But if with fenfe and modefty alone 
Some maid for want ef beauty fhall atone, 
From her if Cupid aim an arrow fure, 
Feed the foft flame, and own the paffion 
pure. 
This, this is love-=-mere beauty lights her 
fire 
In all alike, and bids the world admire. 
In every age, in every ftate of civilized 
fociety, however diflolute the manners, 
and depraved the tafte, of the peoole with 
regard to the intercourfe of the fexcs, there 
Crz have 
