FROM THE LITHICS. TH' immortal Gods will view thee with delight, In part a branchy wood; in part a stone. Shall lean from Heaven, and scatter harvests down. Bacchylides. BACCHYLIDES. Bef. Ch. 450. LYRICAL FRAGMENTS. BACCHYLIDES was the nephew of Simonides, and was born in the Isle of Cos. He was a writer of hymns and odes. Hiero, king of Sicily, is said to have esteemed his Pythian odes above those of Pindar. Longinus however asks, “Had you rather be Bacchylides than Pindar, in lyric poetry; and Ion, in tragedy, rather than Sophocles; because Bacchylides and Ion are faultless, florid, and elegantly phrased; while Pindar and Sophocles set every thing in a flame by the burst of their enthusiasm, but often end absurdly in smoke, and have an unhappy fall?" The censure mixed with this commendation of Sophocles and Pindar seems built upon the vulgar notion that all the passages in a tragedy or poem should be equally sublime. It is somewhere said, that a palace must have its passages: a poem, in the same manner, must have its inequalities; which are not only unavoidable and necessary, but contribute by their relief to the effect of the whole. Yet I have heard an entire epic poem condemned, without further investigation, on the ground, that a single verse was, as it is senselessly termed, prosaic. The critical decisions of Longinus are not always philosophical; but his judgment of Bacchylides, as a sweet and flowery writer, seems to be confirmed by the fragments. Ammianus Marcellinus relates that Bacchylides was a favourite poet with the emperor Julian. BACCHYLIDES. ANACREONTIC. A THE goblet's sweet compulsion moves Flush'd with the vision of his mind Thus, while the frenzying draught he sips PEACE. PEACE upon men abundant showers From woolly sheep, and oxen's savoury thighs. joice, Mingle in social feast, and give the flute a voice. Round the rings of iron mail Their webs the blackening spiders trail; And the red rust with eating canker wears The two-edged swords, and pointed spears. The hollow brazen tubes no longer fill Despoil'd from human eyes: |