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Alexis to an inquifitive fellow, who obferved him in his latter years flowly crawling along the ftreets of Athens, and demanded what he was doing-Nothing; replied the feeble veteran, and of that very difeafe I am dying.-Stobæus has the fame anecdote, and I think it unlikely for a man, who preferved fo vigorous a mind, as Plutarch fays he did, to extreme old age, to be what Athenæus calls him 'Oopávos, a glutton; I conclude therefore that the Deipnofophift was in the mistake of Congreve's Jeremy, who suspected Epictetus was a real cook, whereas he only wrote receipts. I have one of these now before me from the pen of Alexis, which does not feem to speak of the Epicurean fummum bonum with all that respect and approbation, which a glutton would naturally profefs for it-This it is

"I figh'd for eafe, and, weary of my lot,
"Wish'd to exchange it: In this mood I stroll'd
"Up to the citadel three feveral days;
"And there I found a bevy of preceptors

"For my new fyftem, thirty in a group;
"All with one voice prepar'd to tutor me-
"Eat, drink and revel in the joys of love!
"For pleasure is the wife man's fovereign good."

I think it will alfo bear a doubt whether a vo

luptuary could find in

his heart to vent such F 3

irony

irony as the following against the great fupporters of his system, harlots and procureffes; I confefs it fhews Alexis to have been deep in the fecrets of their vocation, but a libertine in practice would be branded for a traitor, if he was to tell fuch tales of the academy he belonged to— He is speaking of the commodious sisterhood of procureffes

"They fly at all, and, as their funds encrease, "With fresh recruits they still augment their stock, "Moulding the young novitiate to her trade; "Form, feature, manners, every thing fo chang'd, That not a trace of former felf is left.

"Is the wench fhort? a triple fole of cork
"Exalts the pigmy to a proper fize.

"Is he too tall of ftature? a low chair
Softens the fault, and a fine easy stoop
Lowers her to flandard-pitch-If narrow-hipt,
"A handfome wadding readily fupplies
"What Nature ftints, and all beholders cry,

See what plump haunches !-Hath the nymph

" perchance

"A high round paunch, ftuft like our comic drolls,
"And ftrutting out foreright? a good ftout busk
"Pushing athwart shall force th' intruder back.

"Hath the red brows? a little foot will cure 'em.
"Is fhe too black? the cerufe makes her fair:
"Too pale of hue? the opal comes in aid.
"Hath fhe a beauty out of fight? Difclofe it!
"Strip nature bare without a blush-Fine teeth?
Let her affect one everlasting grin,

"Laugh without ftint-But ah! if laugh she cannot,

"And

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"And her lips won't obey, take a fine twig
"Of myrtle, shape it like a butcher's skewer,
"And prop them open, fet her on the bitt
"Day after day when out of fight, till ufe
"Grows fecond nature, and the pearly row,
"Will the or will the not, perforce appears."

This paffage I have literally rendered, and I suspect it describes the artifices of an impure toilet with precision enough to fhew that these Grecian models are not abfolutely antiquated by. the intervention of fo many centuries. Our modern puffers in perfumery may have carried artificial complexions and Circaffian bloom to a

higher state of perfection; I dare say they have more elaborate means of ftaining carrotty eyebrows than with fimple foot, and cannot think of comparing a little harmless opal with their poisonous farrago of pastes, pomatums and pearl powders; but I would have my fair and virtuous countrywomen take notice that the fubftitution of fluft hips originated with the Athenian proftitutes, with this advantage on the fide of good fenfe, that the inventors of the fashion never applied falfe bottoms to thofe, whom Nature had provided with true ones; they feem to have had a better eye for due proportion than to add to a redundancy, becaufe in fome cafes it was con venient to fill up a vacuum.

As I address this friendly hint to the plumper part of the fair fex, I fhall rely upon the old proverb for their good-humour, and hope they will kindly interpret it as a proof that my eye is fometimes directed to objects, which their's cannot fuperintend, and as they generally agree to keep certain particulars out of fight, a real friend to decency will wish they would consent to keep them a little more out of mind also.

WE

N° CI,

E are indebted to Vitruvius for a quotation in the beginning of his Sixth Book, taken from one of the dramas of Alexis, to the following effect-" Whereas all the other "ftates of Greece compel the children of defti"tute parents without exception to provide for "the fupport of them who begot them, we of "Athens," fays the poet, "make the law bind❝ing upon such children only, who are be"holden to their parents for the bleffing of a <liberal education."-The provifo was certainly a wife one, and it is with justice that the

poet

poet gives his countrymen credit for being the authors of it.

Alexis in one of his comedies very appositely remarks" that the nature of man in fome re"fpects resembles that of wine, for as fermen"tation is necessary to new wine, fo is it alfo "to a youthful spirit; when that process is over and it comes to fettle and subside, we

may then and not till then expect to find a permanent tranquillity." This allufion he again takes up, probably in the fame scene, though under a different character, and cries out—“ I am now far advanced in the evening "of life's day, and what is there in the nature " of man, that I should liken it to that of wine,

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feeing that old age, which recommends the "latter, mars the former? Old wine indeed "exhilarates, but old men are miferable to them"felves and others." Antiphanes the comic poet has ftruck upon the fame comparifon but with a different turn-" Old age and old wine," fays he, "may well be compared; let either of "them exceed their date ever fo little, and the "whole turns four."

Julius Pollux fays that Alexis named one of his comedies Γυναικοστρατία, and there are fome paffages, which we may prefume are reliques of

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