Moore always smiles whenever he recites;

He smiles, you think, approving what he writes:
And yet in this no vanity is shown;

A modest man may like what's not his own.

Both these are epigrams; yet, except in the number of lines, there is no similitude. Agreeably to modern phraseology, the former is an epitaph, the latter an epigram. But the Greeks had not this distinction, nor does the etymology of the word "epigram" warrant it. The epitaph is only one of the forms of the epigram.

According to its etymology, the epigram is a writing on -an inscription. The word was first appropriated by the Greeks to certain short sentences attached to offerings in the temples. It was afterwards more generally used for all inscriptions on religious and other public edifices; and was in time employed to express any record, whether in prose or verse, which was engraved on statues of gods and men, and on the wayside tombs of the dead. It was invariably short, because, being cut in brass or marble, a long inscription would have been, not only inappropriate, but inconvenient. A fine example of a short and noble epigram on the tomb of Plato, by Speusippus, may be cited (Jacobs I. 109, translated by Merivale):

Plato's dead form this earthly shroud invests :
His soul among the godlike heroes rests.

In process of time the brevity of the epigram recommended it for other purposes than mere superscriptions. Striking events in contemporary history, the noble deeds of illustrious patriots, and the important decisions of wise lawgivers, were embodied in a few terse lines, which were readily fixed in the memory of the people. Nor was this all. Love breathed forth its tender and impassioned sentiments in short thrilling verse, and spoke in the epigram of the ancients as in the love-sonnet of the moderns. Thus every subject which kindles the heart of man,—devotion, affection, patriotism, chivalry, love, wine,-found its expression in the epigram; and the word, which was originally confined to an inscription, became the term for every short poem which expressed one definite idea.

Such was the epigram at the period at which it is first presented to view in the earliest specimens which the Greek Anthology contains. For this Anthology we are indebted to Meleager, the Syrian, who flourished about a century before the Christian era, and who was the first collector of epigrams. He gathered into a garland the scattered fragments, which, engraved on marble or dispersed abroad as fugitive pieces, were in danger of being irretrievably lost. This garland, or Anthology, received subsequent additions, and at a later period sustained severe loss through the decay of manuscripts, and the indifference of librarians in an ignorant age. But a noble store of Greek epigrams is still extant, gathered together in the "Anthologia" of Jacobs, 1794-1814, where a collection of these beautiful pieces is presented, which have defied the ravages of time, and are preserved as models of simplicity of thought and elegance of language.

A few examples from the earlier Greek authors will show the simplicity, and display the character, of the epigrams. The first is an inscription by Simonides, which serves the double purpose of commemorating the deeds o the dead, and of impressing on the living the glory gained by the Athenian arms (Jacobs I. 68, xlv., translated by Merivale):

Hail, great in war! all hail, by glory cherish'd!
Athena's sons, in chivalry renown'd!

For your sweet native soil in youth ye perish'd,
When Hellas leagued in hostile ranks was found.

It can well be imagined with what feelings an Athenian would read these pregnant lines; how he would cherish them in his heart; act upon their spirit in future wars; and repeat them to his children, when in old age—

He counts his scars, and tells what deeds were done.

The next example, by the poetess Anyte, is of a very different character. It displays the devotion to their deities, as the guardian beings who presided over wood and water, calm and tempest, as well as over every incident of life, which was so forcibly felt by the Greeks; and which

made their religion not only a beautiful poetic fiction, but a reality to themselves, evidence of which is sought in vain in the merely voluptuous worship of the Romans. The epigram is on a statue of Venus on the sea-shore (Jacobs I. 131, v., translated by Bland):

Cythera from this craggy steep

Looks downward on the glassy deep,
And hither calls the breathing gale,
Propitious to the venturous sail;
While Ocean flows beneath, serene,
Awed by the smile of Beauty's Queen.

From Rhianus an example of an impassioned lover's cry may be selected (Jacobs I. 231, vi., translated by Sir Charles Elton):

Dexionica, with a limed thread,

Her snare beneath a verdant plane-tree spread,
And caught a blackbird by the quivering wing:
The struggling bird's shrill outcries piping ring.
O God of Love! O Graces, blooming fair!
I would that I a thrush or blackbird were;
So, in her grasp, to breathe my murmur'd cries,
And shed a sweet tear from my silent eyes!

The Greeks, whatever the theme of their epigrams, were always most happy, when Nature in its varied forms or the natural objects around them supplied their similitudes, and pointed their aspirations. The struggling bird seeking pity from Dexionica, affords the illustration of the state of the lover, enthralled in the chains of beauty. Could he excite compassion by his tears, as the bird by its cries, he might have hope, for near akin to pity is love in every maiden's breast. Such a similitude would be far from the thoughts of a modern. He would scorn the homely idea, forgetting that the nearer the writer is to nature the nearer always he is to truth, and that simplicity is the best guarantee for fidelity.

The date of the latest of the authors quoted is previous to B.C. 200. At this early period scarcely any epigrams of a sarcastic character are to be found. Nothing was required to constitute a Greek epigram but brevity and unity of thought. There is no stinging point, as in modern

times. Hence it is, that these refined verses have gained little favour with those whose vitiated taste is pleased with such epigrams as the quatrain describes :

The qualities all in a bee that we meet,
In an epigram never should fail:

The body should always be little and sweet,
And a sting should be felt in its tail.

The author of the "Dissertation on Epigrammatic Writing," in the "Collection of Epigrams," 1735, says of the Greek epigrams: "They are only capable of giving pleasure to very delicate tastes, by a natural and elegant expression; now and then a pleasing hyperbole, or an ingenious antithesis, may be found in them, which is the most they can ever pretend to: we are not to seek for point in them; good sense, and pure language, somewhat raised above ordinary conversation, are all that are necessary to constitute a Greek epigram. But the moderns will not allow these any share of perfection; the French wits call any insipid copy of verses, Epigramme à la Grecque.'" This cold praise suited the days in which it was written. But even the French wits, if they had deigned to examine the Anthology with any attention, might have found some epigrams more to their taste in the latter part. Lucian and Lucillius and those who came after them, though they penned many pieces which show all the grace and beauty of an earlier period, fell often into sarcasms and strained conceits, which contrast unfavourably with the simple style of their predecessors. Even the worst of modern epigrams is scarcely inferior to one by Lucian (Jacobs III. 23, x., translated by Bland):

You feed so fast-and run so very slow

Eat with your legs, and with your grinders go!

Ammianus lowered himself by writing with silly humour on long noses (Jacobs III. 95, xv., translated by Major Macgregor):

Proclus' hand can never wipe his nose;

Short of the end its utmost tension goes.

Sneezing (his nose too distant from his ears),

He ne'er says "Bless you," for no sound he hears.

b

Yet the same author could compose as beautiful an epigram as any of those of an earlier date. So, Palladas could be satirical upon women (Jacobs III. 115, vi., translated by Merivale):

All wives are bad-yet two blest hours they give,
When first they wed, and when they cease to live.

And yet he penned some of the finest and most touching epigrams in the Anthology. Witness the following on Life (Jacobs III. 141, cxxviii., translated by Bland):

Waking, we burst, at each return of morn,
From death's dull fetters and again are born;
No longer ours the moments that have past,
To a new remnant of our lives we haste.

Call not the years thine own that made thee gray,
That left their wrinkles and have fled away;
The past no more shall yield thee ill or good,
Gone to the silent times beyond the flood.

Unfortunately the noblest and purest epigrams of the Greek writers exercised very little influence on the Roman Epigrammatists. Refined simplicity was unsuited to the court of the Caesars. Flattery and satire were necessary to the satiated palates of the emperors, who set the fashion to their subjects, and thus caused a change to be wrought in the character of the ancient epigram. Many pieces of great beauty are found in the Latin Anthology, but few of these are original; they are translations from the Greek. Of the small number of Latin Epigrammatists of any note Martial is the chief. So great an effect have his writings had on modern authors, that it is of importance to examine the character of his epigrams, and the cause and result of his influence.

Martial wrote for bread, and he consequently formed his style in accordance with the tastes of those, whose patronage was in a pecuniary sense the most valuable. Flattery of the Emperor Domitian and of the wealthy men of Rome, satirical abuse of those who were out of favour at court, and indecent pandering to the vile lusts of an unchaste people, form the staple of his writings. There are left "about a fifth part only," remarks the "Quarterly Review"