1 It does not appear to have been very difficult to become a philosopher amongst the ancients. A moderate store of learning, with a considerable portion of confidence, and just wit enough to produce an occasional apophthegm, seem to have been all the qualifications necessary for the purpose. The principles of moral science were so very imperfectly understood that the founder of a new sect, in forming his ethical code, might consult either fancy or temperament, and adapt it to his own passions and propensities; so that Mahomet, with a little more learning, might have flourished as a philosopher in those days, and would have required but the polish of the schools to become the rival of Aristippus in morality. In the science of nature, too, though some valuable truths were discovered by them, they seemed hardly to know they were truths, or at least were as well satisfied with errors; and Xenophanes, who asserted that the stars were igneous clouds, lighted up every night and extinguished again in the morning, was thought and styled a philosopher, as generally as he who anticipated Newton in developing the arrangement of the universe. For this opinion of Xenophanes, see Plutarch. de Placit. Philosoph. lib. ii. cap. 13. It is impossible to read this treatise of Piu And often, as she smiling said, In fancy's hour, thy gentle rays Shall guide my visionary tread Through poesy's enchanting maze. Thy flame shall light the page refin'd, Where still we catch the Chian's breath, Where still the bard, though cold in death, Has left his soul unquench'd behind. Or, o'er thy humbler legend shine, Oh man of Ascra's dreary glades!" To whom the nightly warbling Nine A wand of inspiration gave, Pluck'd from the greenest tree, that shades The crystal of Castalia's wave. Then, turning to a purer lore, I'll tell thee, as I trim thy fire, "Swift, swift the tide of being runs, "And Time, who bids thy flame expire, "Will also quench yon heaven of suns.' Oh, then if earth's united power tarch, without alternately admiring the genius, and smiling at the absurdities of the philosophers. 2 The ancients had their lucernæ cubicularis or bed-chamber lamps, which, as the emperor Galienus said, "nil cras meminere:" and, with the same commendation of secrecy, Praxagora addresses her lamp in Aristophanes. Excing. We may judge how fanciful they were, in the use and embellishment of their lamps, from the famous symbolic Lucerna, which we find in the Romanum Museum Mich. Ang. Causei, p. 127. 3 Hesiod, who tells us in melancholy terms of his father's flight to the wretched village of Ascra. Epy, was Huep. v. 251. 4 Ευτυχίαι στείχου, περικαλλέα όσσαν ιείσαι, Theog. v. 10. 5. Και μου σκήπτρον εδον, δάφνης αριθηλια όζον. Id. ν. 30. 6 Ρειν τα όλα ποταμού δίκην, 1s expressed among the dogmas of e raclitus the Ephesian, and with the same image by Seneca, in whom we find a beautiful diffusion of the thought. "Nemo est mane, qui fuit pridie. Corpora nostra rapiuntur fluminum more; quidd vides currit cum tempore. Nihil ex his quæ videmus manet. Ego ipse, dum loquor mutari ipsa, mutatus sum," &c. That would our joys one hour delay! Love calls us to in youth's bright day, Ne'er wert thou form'd, my Lamp, to shed Of thoughtful lore and studies sage, Of heaven's young wanderer in the west; When seers are gazing on the sky, To find their future orbs of rest; SONG. WHY does azure deck the sky? 'Tis to be like thy looks of blue; Why is red the rose's dye? Because it is thy blushes' hue. All that's fair, by Love's decree, Has been made resembling thee! Why is falling snow so white, But to be like thy bosom fair? Why are solar beams so bright? That they may seem thy golden hair! All that's bright, by Love's decree, Has been made resembling thee! mêmes plaisirs." See his Vénus Physique. This appears to be one of the efforts at Fontenelle's gallantry of manner, for which the learned President is so well and justly ridiculed in the Akakia of Voltaire. Maupertuis may be thought to have borrowed from the ancient Aristippus that indiscriminate theory of pleasures which he has set forth in his Essai de Philosophie Morale, and for which he was so very justly condemned. Aristippus, according to Laertius, held μη διαφέρειν τα ήδονην ήδονης, which irrational sentiment has been adopted by Maupertuis: "Tant qu'on ne considère que l'état présent, tous les plaisirs sont du même genre," &c. &c. THIS tribute's from a wretched elf, LIGHT SOUNDS THE HARP. LIGHT Sounds the harp when the combat is over, When heroes are resting, and joy is in bloom; When laurels hang loose from the brow of the I lover, And Cupid makes wings of the warrior's plume. But, when the foe returns, Again the hero burns; High flames the sword in his hand once more: Is then the sound that charms, pour; Then, again comes the Harp, when the combat is over When heroes are resting, and Joy is in bloomWhen laurels hang loose from the brow of the lover, And Cupid makes wings of the warrior's plume. Light went the harp when the War-God, reclining, Lay lull'd on the white arm of Beauty to rest. When round his rich armour the myrtle hung twining, And flights of young doves made his helmet their nest. But, when the battle came, The hero's eye breath'd flame: FANNY, DEAREST. YES! had I leisure to sigh and mourn, That even the time it would take to weep Is more than my heart can give. Then bid me not to despair and pine, Fanny, dearest of all the dears! The love that's order'd to bathe in wine, Would be sure to take cold in tears. Reflected bright in this heart of mine, THE RING. ΤΟ No-Lady! Lady! keep the ring : May sleep within its holy sphere. Do not disturb their tranquil dream, Though love hath ne'er the myst'ry warm'd; Yet heav'n will shed a soothing beam, To bless the bond itself hath form'd. But then, that eye, that burning eye, Oh! it doth ask, with witching power, If heaven can ever bless the tie Where love inwreaths no genial flower? Away, away, bewildering look, Or all the boast of virtue's o'er; Go-hie thee to the sage's book, And learn from him to feel no more. |