v. 20. Witchcraft. Rather, poisoning. Dealing in unlawful drugs pappákela' an offence very commonly practised in Rome, wheu St. Paul wrote. This interpretation is controverted by Leigh, Parkhurst, and Doddridge; but, I think, not on sufficient grounds.

Ephes. iv. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed, &c. This text may fairly be adduced in proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit, if we render év u in or by whom, instead of whereby.

Phil. ii. 15. Ye shine as lights in the world. Gr. pworñpes. St. Paul did not mean to call the Philippians lights; but to compare them to candelabra or light-houses, such as the Pharos at Alexandria. (See Fragments to Calmet, No. cclxxv.) The apostle here uses the same word as that employed by the LXX. to express maa. (Gen. i. 14.) See the note on Gen. and compare Matt, v. 14, 16.) Hence it appears that our version of Wisdom xiii

. 2. Dworīpas oupavoī, lights of Heaven,' is not quite correct. It may be remarked, that the last cited chapter contains an admirable exposure of the folly of Sabæan worship.

iv. 12. I know how to abound. Rather, to excel, to be eminentπερισσεύειν-opposed to ταπεινούσθαι in the first case, and to ύστεpełosa, in the second. “ I am instructed. Gr. I have been initiated. Meuvíual-initiatus sum.”—Beza.

i Pet. i. 12. Which things the angels desire to look into. This expression falls far short of the force of the original word, mapákvyat, which so clearly denotes the position of the Cherubim expanding their wings over the Ark of the Covenant, and looking down upon the mercy seat.'—(See Exod. xxv. 18-20. xxvii. 7-9.)

Tansor, July, 1818.

AN ESSAY

ON THE GREEK PASTORAL POETS.

NO. III.- (Continued from NO. XXXV. p. 47.]

SECT. VIII. – That Theocritus observed the slighter and more im

perceptible shades of Nature. Thus we have sufficiently illustrated how much Theocritus was struck with the charms of nature in general, which he describes with singular pleasure,.“ ingenti perculsus amore.” He could also discriminate the slighter and more imperceptible shades of external scenery

and inward sentiment. It is this quality which particularly distinguishes the poetic eye. It appears very conspicuous in Thomson, and Cowper the author of The Task. We meet with descriptions which charm at first sigh and of objects which seem to be familiar, yet which no one ever thought of describing before. The rich embroidery of nature is infinitely diversified, and new events continually arise in the moral world; so that to the want of a capacity for observation and description we must, in some measure at least, ascribe the scarcity of original poetry. Theocritus frequently strikes us with these minuter and more delicate shades. Thus when the goat-herd in the first Idyllium excuses himself from playing on his pipe for fear of disturbing Pan, who then rests, weary after hunting, he adds:

εντί γε πικρός,
Και οι αεί δριμεία χολά ποτί ρινί κάθηται. v. 18.

-and he is of bitter temper, And sharp anger always sits on his nostrils. Now we may often observe a kind of venom playing in the noses of some choleric persons when they are provoked; yet it is not a common appearance.

In the same Idyllium, when describing the figures on the cissybium, he mentions a fox laying his measures to steal the dinner of a little boy who tended the vineyard, and who amused himself with forming a gin for grasshoppers with reeds and bulrushes. To show us that a boy prefers his own pleasure and amusement to every thing, he says:

--μέλεται δέ οί ούτε τι πήρης, Ούτε φυτών τοσσήνον όσον περί πλέγματι γαθεί.

-but he cares not for the scrip (which contains his dinner,) Nor cares so much for the vine, as be is delighted with his twining.

In the Pharmaceutria (Idyllium ii.) Simætha, who is deeply in love with Delphis who had forsaken her, observing that the sea and air are calm and silent, surprises us with a sudden and unexpected contrast in these two soft and plaintive lines, which have always particularly struck me.

Ηνίδε, σιγά μεν πόντος, σιγώντι δ' αήται:
“Αδ' εμά ού σιγά στέρνων έντοσθεν ανία. Idyl. ii. ν. 38. 39.
Behold! the sea is silent, the breezes are silent,

But the grief within my breast is not silent. When her lover came to see her first, she was in such confusion that she could not speak :

ουδ' όσσον εν ύπνο Κυδώνται φωνεύντα φίλαν ποτί ματέρα τέκνα. Idyl. ii. v. 108.

“ faint tremors seiz'd my tongue, “ And on my lips the faltering accents hung : “ As when from babes imperfect accents fall, “When murmuring in their dreams they on their mothers call.”

Fawkes. Who ever described this circumstance of babes before ?

In the Comastes (Idyl. iii.) the lover says to bis mistress--"I bring you

V. 54.

ten apples.” The value of this present is heightened by this circumstance: “I took them from the place from which you ordered me to take them.”

Ηνίδε τοι δέκα μάλα φέρω τηνώθε καθεϊλον,
"Ω μ' εκέλευ καθελεϊν τυ" και αύριον άλλά τοι οίσω.

Idyl. iii. ν. 10. In the “Οδοιπόροι (Idyl. v.) Comatas, contending in extemporary poetry and singing with his rival, delights us with a trivial but natural incident:

Βάλλει και μάλoισι τον αιπόλον & Κλεαρίστα

Τας αίγας παρελώντα, και αδύ τι ποππυλιάσδει. Idyl. v. V. 88. « Clearista pelts the goat-herd with apples, “When driving his goats, and she hums something sweet." The present which he promises his mistress is no less agreeable :

Κήγω μεν δωσω τα παρθένο αυτίκα φάσσαν,

Εκ τας αρκεύθω καθελών τηνεί γάρ έφίσει. Idyl. V. V. 96. And I will give to the virgin a wood-pigeon,

Taking it from the juniper-tree; for there it builds its nest. This circumstance has been literally imitated by Virgil, but Mr. Shenstone has made a new and nobler use of it in his pastoral ballad. I have found out a gift for

my

fair,
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed;

But let me that plunder forbear,
She will say t’was a barbarous deed.
&c. &c.

Shenstone. In the sixth Idyllium, Daphnis singing tells Polyphemus that his mistress Galatea pelts his flock with apples. He then adds a simple circumstance, which, as described by him, gives the reader much pleasure.

πάλιν άδ', ίδε, ταν κύνα βάλλει
"A του ταν δίων έπεται σκοπός· α δε βαύσσει,
Εις άλα δερκομένα τα δέ νιν καλά κύματα φαίνει
"Ασυχα καχλάξoντα, επ' αιγιαλοίο θέoισαν.
Φράξεο μή τας παιδός επί κνάμαισιν ορούση
Εξ άλος έρχομένας, κατά δε χρόα καλόν αμύξη. Idyl. vi. ν. 9.

See! She again pelts the dog
Which follows as the guardian of the sheep: while he barks
Looking into the sea : for the beautiful waves
Soft murmuring show the reflection of him running on the shore.
Take care lest he rush against the legs of the nymph
Energing from the sea, and tear her beautiful body.

There immediately follows another circumstance, of a more singular kind:

“A δε και αυτόθι του διαθρύπτεται, ως απ’ ακάνθας
Tαι καπυραι χαϊται, το καλόν θέρος ανίκα φρύττει.

Idyl. vi. ν. 13.
“ But there she frolics for you, as from the thistle
The down adust flies, when beautiful summer burns it.”

I shall pass

this :

as

To compare the frolics of the nymph to the bounding of the filmy gossamer, is surely something out of the common way. by many instances of this habit of delicate observation in Theocritus. A few more, however, I may be permitted to add.

I
In the xiv. Idyllium we have this remark :

-από κροτάφων πελόμεσθα
Πάντες γηραλέοι, και επισχερώ ές γένυν έρπει
Λευκαίνων ο χρόνος.

Idyl. xiv. v. 68. We all grow old from the temples, And time bringing white hairs creeps gradually to the cheek, In Chaucer, in the Reve's Prologue, we have something very like This white top writeth mine old yeres,

&c. In the xv. Idyllium, or Sicilian Gossips, we have many nice traits:

“the strange look of the little boy, when his mother spoke ill of his father without adverting to the child's being present; Praxinoe's attention to her dress; her care of her cats; her fear of a horse and a serpent, &c.” Gorgo also ends with a singular but just observation :

"Ώρα όμως κ' εις οίκον" ανάριστος Διοκλείδας.

Χώνηρ όξος άγαν πεινάντί γε μηδέποτ' ένθης. "“ But it is time to go home: Diocleides has not dined: And the man is of a sour temper: you must not meet him when he is

hungry.” I believe those who bave been accustomed to ask favors of the great, and to watch the “mollia tempora fandi," bave often experienced the truth of this observation.

The last instance of this kind which I shall mention is of a very sublime and unusual nature. It is where he compares in Hercules the lion-killer, (Idyll. xxv.) the herds of cows which belonged to Augeas to successive masses of clouds.

Αυταρ έπειτα βόες μάλα μυρίαι άλλαι επ' άλλαις
'Ερχόμεναι φαίνονθ' ωσεί νέφη υδατόεντα,
"Οσσα τ' εν ουρανό εισίν ελαυνόμενα προτέρωσε
Hέ νότοιο βίη ηε Θρηκός βορέαο:
Τών μέν τ' ούτις αριθμός εν ήέρι γίνεται όντων,
Οδ' άνυσις" τόσα γάρ τε μετά πρώτοισι κυλίνδει
"Ιε ανέμου, τα δέ τ' άλλα κορύσσεται αύθις επ' άλλους:

Τόσσ’ αιεί μετόπισθε βοών επί βουκόλι’ ήει. Idyl. xxv. v. 88.
But afterwards innumerable cows, one set after another
Arriving, appeared like the watery clouds,
Which pass in the sky driven forward
By the violence either of the south-wind, or Thracian north-wind :
Of these clouds in the air there is no numbering
Or measuring: for the force of the wind rolls so many after the first,
And some again rise in curves over others :
So innumerable droves of cows followed each other.

To the same turn of genius we may ascribe the exact paintings of persons, dresses, and animals, which 'Theocritus presents to us. His images are not vague and general, but picturesque and particular.

When he describes in the first Idyllium the woman who appears

in relievo on the cissybium, she is represented as 'Ασκητά πέπλο τε και άμπυκι, ornata peplo et reticulo: her two lovers are, άνδρες Καλών έθειράξοντες, viri pulchris « comis ornati,” and υπ' έρωτος Δηθά κυλοι

“ διώντες, prae “amore Diu oculis tamentes.”. The description of the old fisherman is still more lively:

γριπεύς τε γέρων, πέτρα τε τέτυκται
Λεπρας, εφ' 4 σπεύδων μέγα δίκτυον ές βόλος έλκει
“Ο πρέσβυς, κάμνοντι το κρατερόν ανδρί έoικώς:
Φαίης κεν γνίων νιν όσον σθένος ελλοπιεύειν,
Αι δε οι ωδήκαντι κατ' αυχένα πάντοθεν ίνες,
Και πολιό περ εόντι" το δε σθένος άξιον άβας.

Idyl. i. v. 39. &c.
An old fisherman is represented, and a rugged rock,
On which the old man exerting himself like to a man laboring
Very much, pulls a great net for the draught :
You would say that he fish'd with all the strength of his limbs :
His veins swell every where in his neck:
Tho' he is grey-hair'd, his vigor is worthy of youth.

In the sixth Idyllium, when he mentions the meeting of Damotas and Daphnis, he describes them particularly, and specifies the place where they sat down, and the time of the day, and the season of the year:

ο μεν αυτών Πυρρός, ο δ' ημιγένειος" επί κράναν δέ τιν' άμφω Εσσόμενοι θέρεος μέσω άματι τοιάδ: άειδον. Idyl. vi. ν. 2.

one of them Had a ruddy beard; the other half-appearing down on his cheeks; Both sitting down by a certain fountain, In the middle of the day in summer, sung these strains.

In the seventh Idyllium, let us observe what a lively picture he gives us of the Cretan goat-lherd Lycidas :

καί τιν' οδόταν
'Εσθλόν συν Μοισαισι Κυδωνικών εύρομες άνδρα.
"Ώνομα μεν Λυκίδαν, ώς δ' αιπόλος ουδέ κε τίς μιν
Ηγνοίησεν ιδών, επεί αιπόλω έξοχ’ εώκει.
Εκ μέν γάρ λασίοιο δασύτριχος είχε τράγοιο
Κνακόν δέρμ’ ώμοισι, νέας ταμίσοιο ποτόσδον:
'Αμφί δε οι στήθεσσι γέρων εσφίγγετο πέπλος
Ζωστήρι πλακερό ρουκάν δ' έχεν άγριελαίω
Δεξιτερά κορύναν-