was fought the decifive battle between the Persian army and the united militia of Greece under Pausanias and Ariftides.-Cimon the Athenian erected a trophy in Cyprus for two great victories gained on the fame day over the Perfians by sea and land. Diodorus Siculus has preserved the infcription which the Athenians affixed to the confecrated spoils after this great fuccefs; in which it is very remarkable, that the greatnefs of the occafion has raised the manner of expreffion above the usual fimplicity and modefty of all other ancient infcriptions. It is this:

ΕΞ. ΟΥ. Γ'. ΕΥΡΩΠΗΝ. ΑΣΙΑΣ. ΔΙΧΑ. ΠΟΝΤΟΣ. ΕΝΕΙΜΕ.

ΚΑΙ ΠΟΛΕΑΣ. ΘΝΗΤΩΝ. ΘΟΥΡΟΣ. ΑΡΗΣ. ΕΠΕΧΕΙ.
ΟΥΔΕΝ. ΠΩ. ΤΟΙΟΥΤΟΝ. ΕΠΙΧΘΟΝΙΩΝ. ΓΕΝΕΤ'. ΑΝΔΡΩΝ.
ΕΡΓΟΝ. ΕΝ. ΗΠΕΙΡΩΙ. ΚΑΙ. ΚΑΤΑ. ΠΟΝΤΟΝ. ΑΜΑ.
ΟΙΔΕ. ΓΑΡ. ΕΝ. ΚΥΠΡΩΙ. ΜΗΔΟΥΣ. ΠΟΛΛΟΥΣ. ΟΛΕΣΑΝΤΕΣ
ΦΟΙΝΙΚΩΝ. ΕΚΑΤΟΝ. ΝΑΥΣ. ΕΛΟΝ. ΕΝ. ΠΕΛΑΓΕΙ,

ΑΝΔΡΩΝ. ΠΛΗΘΟΥΣΑΣ. ΜΕΓΑ. Δ'. ΕΣΤΕΝΕΝ. ΑΣΕΙΣ. ΥΠ' ΑΥΤΩΝ.
ΠΛΗΓΕΙΣ, ΑΜΦΟΤΕΡΑΙΣ ΧΕΡΣΙ. ΚΡΑΤΕΙ. ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ,

The following translation is almost literal:

Since firft the fea from Afia's hoftile coaft

Divided Europe, and the god of war
Affail'd imperious cities; never yet,
At once among the waves and on the shore,
Hath fuch a labour been atchiev'd by men
Who earth inhabit. They, whofe arms the Medes
In Cyprus felt pernicious, they, the fame,
Have won from skilful Tyre an hundred ships
Crouded with warriors. Afia groans, in both

Her hands fore fmitten, by the might of war.

11. 3.

O nobleft, happiest age!..

When Ariftides rul'd, and Cimon fought;

When all the generous fruits of Homer's page Exulting Pindar faw to full perfection brought.

O Pindar,

• Pindar was contemporary with Ariftides and Cymon, in whom the glory of ancient Greece was at his height. When Xerxes invaded Greece, Pindar was true to the common intereft of his country; though his fellow-citizens, the Thebans, had fold themfelves to the Perfian king. In one of his odes he expreffes the great diftress and anxiety of his mind, occafioned by the vast preparations of Xerxes against Greece, (Ifthm. 8.) In another he celebrates the victories of Salamis, Plata, and Himera. (Pyth. 1.) It will be neceffary to add two or three other particulars of his life, real or fabulous, in order to explain what follows in the next concerning him. First then, he was thought to be so great a favourite of Apollo, that the priests of that deity allotted him a constant share of their offerings. It was faid of him, as of fome other illuftrious men, that at his birth a fwarm of bees lighted on his lips, and fed him with their honey. It was also a tradition concerning him, that Pan was heard to recite his poetry, and feen dancing to one of his hymns on the mountains near Thebes. But a real historical fact in his life is, that the Thebans impofed a large fine upon him on account of the veneration which he expreffed in his poems for that heroic spirit, fhewn by the people of Athens in defence of the common liberty, which his own fellow-citizens had fhamefully betrayed. And, as the argu ment of this ode implies, that great poetical talents, and high fentiments of liberty, do reciprocally produce and affift each other, so Pindar is perhaps the moft exemplary proof of this connection, which occurs in history The Thebans were remarkable, in general, for a flavith disposition

through

O Pindar, oft fhalt thou be hail'd of me:
Not that Apollo fed thee from his shrine;
Not that thy lips drank sweetness from the bee;
Nor yet that, ftudious of thy notes divine,
Pan danc'd their measure with the fylvan throng;
But that thy fong

Was proud to unfold

What thy base rulers trembled to behold;
Amid corrupted Thebes was proud to tell
The deeds of Athens and the Perfian fhame:
Hence on thy head their impious vengeance fell.
But thou, O faithful to thy fame,

The Mufe's law didst rightly know ;
That who would animate his lays,
And other minds to virtue raise,
Muft feel his own with all her spirit glow.
III. I.

Are there, approv'd of later times,
Whose verse adorn'd a tyrant's crimes?
Who faw majestic Rome betray'd,

And lent the imperial ruffian aid?

through all the fortunes of their commonwealth; at the time of its ruin by Philip; and even in its best ftate, under the adminiftration of Pelopidas and Epaminondas: and every one knows, they were no less remarkable for great dulnefs, and want of all genius. That Pindar fhould have equally distinguished himself from the rest of his fellow citizens in both these respects seems somewhat extraordinary, and is Scarce to be accounted for but by the preceding obfervation.

Octavius Cæfar.

Alas!

Alas! not one polluted bard,

No, not the strains that Mincius heard,
Or Tibur's hills reply'd,

Dare to the Mufe's ear afpire;

Save that, inftructed by the Grecian lyre,

With freedom's ancient notes their shameful task they hide.
III. 2.

Mark, how the dread Pantheon stands,
Amid the domes of modern hands:

Amid the toys of idle state,

How fimply, how feverely great!

Then turn, and, while each western clime
Prefents her tuneful fons to Time,

So mark thou Milton's name:

And add,Thus differs from the throng "The spirit which inform'd thy aweful fong, "Which bade thy potent voice protect thy country's fame.' III. 3.

Yet hence barbaric zeal

His memory with unholy rage pursues ;

While from these arduous cares of public weal

She bids each bard be gone, and rest him with his Muse.

O fool! to think the man, whofe ample mind

Must grasp at all that yonder stars furvey;
Muft join the nobleft forms of every kind,
The world's most perfect image to display,
Can e'er his country's majesty behold,

Unmov'd or cold!

O fool!

O fool! to deem

That He, whofe thought muft vifit every theme,
Whose heart must every strong emotion know
By nature planted, or by fortune taught ;
That He, if haply fome prefumptuous foe,
With falfe ignoble science fraught,
Shall spurn at freedom's faithful band:
That He, their dear defence will shun,
Or hide their glories from the fun,

Or deal their vengeance with a woman's hand!
IV. 1.

I care not that in Arno's plain,

Or on the sportive banks of Seine,

From public themes the Mufe's quire

Content with polish'd ease retire.

Where priests the ftudious head command,
Where tyrants bow the warlike hand

To vile ambition's aim,

Say, what can public themes afford,

Save venal honours to an hateful lord,

Referv'd for angry heaven, and fcorn'd of honeft fame?

IV. 2.

But here, where freedom's equal throne

To all her valiant fons is known;

Alluding to his "Defence of the people of England" against Sakmafius. See particularly the manner in which he himself speaks of that undertaking, in the introduction to his reply to Morus.

Where