It seems very unlikely that he should intend any general censure, when he wishes to be considered as the Roman Callimachus. To reconcile this difficulty, and yet maintain his construction, Scaliger supposes that he aimed at a particular piece which his friend might think of translating. If this conjecture be right, probably the poem which Scaliger conceives to be alluded to is right also: namely, Tà Aria, a harsh and obscure work, if we may believe Martial, who says: "Legas Etia Callimachi," speaking of a person who took pleasure in obscure writings. It is further to be observed, in proof that even Scaliger did not think the sarcasm involved in his construction general; that in the passage of the ninth elegy of the third book, the two old readings were Coë poeta, and Dure poeta. Scaliger himself proposed to read Pure Poeta, for Dure. But the substitution of 9 for u, instead of P for D, has been established in the text of all the later and most approved editions. Quinctilian also says: -"Tunc et elegiam vacabit in manus sumere cujus princeps habetur Callimachus."-Institutiones Oratoriæ, lib. x. cap. 1,

To establish the real character of a poet, who is said to have composed eight hundred pieces, of which only some hymns and epigrams remain, is extremely difficult; and may have led my respected friend, the Bishop of Chester, to decline the task: for if he will not venture to appreciate a Greek poet, who shall? Certainly not I: and therefore I shall only subjoin specimens; and leave the reader, which perhaps is the safest and best, though the privative mode of criticism, to form his own decision according to his natural taste and judg

ment.

The conclusion of the hymn to Apollo shows that he had a satirical turn, even in his religious compositions. His enemies alleged, that he was incompetent to the composition of any extended work. He answers them sarcastically by versifying the proverb, Μέγα βιβλίον, μέγα κακόν. But he wrote his Hecate, a lost work of magnitude, to refute the calumny.

Ο φθόνος ̓Απόλλωνος ἐς οὔαλα λάθριος εἶπεν,
Οὐκ ἄγαμαι τὸν ἀοιδὸν, ὃς οὐχ, ὅσα πόνος, ἀείδει.
Τὸν φθόνον ̓Απόλλων ποδί τ ̓ ἤλασεν, ὧδέ τ ̓ ἔειπεν·
Ασσυρίου ποταμοῖο μέγας ῥόος, ἀλλὰ τὰ πολλὰ
Λύματα γῆς καὶ πολλὸν ἐφ ̓ ὕδατι συρφετὸν ἕλκει·
Δηοῖ δ ̓ οὐκ ἀπὸ παντὸς ὕδωρ φορέουσι Μέλισσαι,
Αλλ' ήτις καθαρή τε καὶ ἀχράανος ἀνέρπει
Πίδακος ἐξ ἱερῆς ὀλίγη λιβὰς, ἄκρον ἄωλον.

The following passage, in the hymn to Jupiter, contains an important sentiment. The poet is speaking of Jupiter's title to the empire of Heaven, as acknowledged without jealousy by his two brothers; and he is philosopher enough to question the rationality of the old story; which makes the three sons of Saturn divide the three kingdoms by lot :

Δηναιοὶ δ ̓ οὐ πάμπαν ἀληθέες ἦσαν ἀοιδοί·

Φάνιο πάλιν Κρονίδῃσι διὰ τρίχα δώματα νείμαι·
Τίς δέ κ' ἐπ ̓ Οὐλύμπῳ τε καὶ ἄΐδι κλῆρον ἐρύσσαι,
Ος μάλα μὴ νενίηλος; ἐπ ̓ ἰσαίῃ γὰρ ἔοικε
Πήλασθαι τὰ δὲ τόσσον ὅσον διὰ πλεῖςον ἔχουσι.

The farewell prayer to the deity has an extraordinary mixture, which in a very early poet might

be considered as simple and natural, but in a courtier savours of sarcasm or luxury:

Χαῖρε μέγα, Κρονίδη πανυπέρβαλε, δῶτος ἐάων,
Δῶτος ἀπημονίης· τεὰ δ ̓ ἔργματα τίς κεν ἀείδοι ;
Οὐ γένετ', οὐκ ἔςαι· τίς κεν Διὸς ἔργματ ̓ ἀείσαι ;
Χαῖρε, πάτερ, χαῖρ ̓ αὖθι· δίδου δ' ἀρειήν τ ̓ ἄφενόν τε.
Οὔτ ̓ ἀρετῆς ἄτες ὄλβος ἐπίςαλαι ἄνδρας ἄεξειν,

Οὔτ ̓ ἀρετὴ ἀφένοιο· δίδου δ ̓ ἀρετήν τε καὶ ὄλβον.

As a specimen of his sepulchral poetry, we may take, in addition to his inscription on his father, the following epitaph on a friend drowned at sea:

Ωφελε μηδ' ἐγένοντο οαὶ νέες· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἡμεῖς

Παΐδα Διοκλείδου Σώπολιν ἐςένομεν·

Νῦν δ' ὁ μὲν εἶν ἁλι που φέρεται νέκυς· ἀντὶ δ ̓ ἐκείνου
Οὔνομα καὶ κενεὸν σῆμα παρερχόμεθα.

But the most distinguished of his very numerous pieces were those in the elegiac strain, of which only Minerva's Bath has come down to posterity. Yet his compositions in this line constituted the firm foundation of his character among the ancients, who estimated his merit in this elegant and pathetic style most highly. The poem on Queen Berenice's hair still lives in the translation of Catullus, and proves that he was worthy to rank with the Roman triumvirate in the expression of such natural thoughts, as Ovid, who imputes art without genius to him, could not equal with all his wit and refined imagery. It seems that Ovid was like le commun des Martyrs; and saw most clearly those faults in others, which were most rank, but to which he was completely blind, in himself. The following lines will give some notion of the turn of

thought. The star is supposed to speak in the language of compliment to its mistress:

Sed quamquam me nocte premunt vestigia Divum,
Luce autem canæ Tethyi restituor;
(Pace. tua fari hæc liceat, Rhamnusia virgo;
Namque ego non ullo vera timore tegam ;
Non, si me infestis discerpant sidera dictis,
Condita quin veri pectoris evolüam)

Non his tam lætor rebus, quam me abfore, semper'
Abfore me a dominæ vertice discrucior :

Quîcum ego, dum virgo quondam fuit, omnibus expers
Unguentis, una millia multa bibi.

Sidera cur retinent? utinam coma regia fiam:
Proximus Hydrochoi fulgeret Oarion.

The general character of the hymns, which constitute the largest portion of this Greek poet's extant works, partakes much of the lyric, though written in heroic verse; they are composed in a free style, with much spirit, and full of curious matter, illus. trative of other authors on subjects of rites, ceremonies, and mythology. The accumulation of epithets and proper names, or what the French call sobriquets, may appear tiresome to the reader who reads only for momentary entertainment; but the mythologist, the enquirer into early antiquity, the comparer of idolatrous errors with the true knowledge, the investigator of the fallacious paths which polytheism trod, after its descent from the immoveable mountain of one and undivided truth; of the labyrinth and the darkness in which it wandered after the light was hidden from its eyes, and the guide withdrawn from its steps, in consequence of its waywardness and obstinacy, may find much food for speculation in the Hymns of Callimachus.

Sapiens, vitatu quidque petitu

Sit melius, causas reddet tibi: mî satis est, si
Traditum ab antiquis morem servare, tuamque,
Dum custodis eges, vitam famamque tueri
Incolumem possim : simul ac duraverit ætas
Membra animumque tuum, nabis sine cortice.
HOR. lib. i. sat. 4.

HORACE, as an article in biography, lies within a very narrow compass. Suetonius despatches him in three pages. His story may be told almost in three lines. He was a man of humble birth, patronised for his talents, which were of the most marketable kind: brilliant, and convivial. He became a court poet, and consequently a rake. Had he not been a time-server and a turn-coat, he could not so have risen: but he was not a malignant turn-coat, and he did not vilify his brother poets of more strict principle, either alive or dead. In fact, he lived on terms of friendship and good-will with all of them who were respectable. He was a poet of that class in society, which in modern lan, guage is termed the man of fashion; and however his life or his writings might fall short, or even offend against what the strict moralist or the divine might require, we shall find him to have retained more right principle, more genuine feeling, more heart, than a licentious court usually leaves to the