o come up to it. Our Praise is trifling when it
depends upon Fable; it is false when it depends upon wrong
Qualifications; it means nothing when it is general; it is extreamly
difficult to hit when we propose to raise Characters high, while we
keep to them justly. I shall end this with transcribing that excellent
Epitaph of Mr. _Cowley_, wherein, with a kind of grave and
philosophick Humour, he very beautifully speaks of himself (withdrawn
from the World, and dead to all the Interests of it) as of a Man
really deceased. At the same time it is an Instruction how to leave
the Publick with a good Grace.

Epitaphium Vivi Authoris.

'Hic, O Viator, sub Lare parvulo_
Couleius _hic est conditus, hic jacet
Defunctus Humani Laboris
Sorte, supervacuaque Vita,
Non Indecora pauperie nitens,
Et non inerti Nobilis Otio,
Vanoque dilectis popello
Divitiis animosus hostis.
Possis ut illum dicere mortuum
En Terra jam nunc Quantula sufficit?
Exempta sit Curis, Viator,
Terra sit illa laevis, precare.
Hic sparge Flores, sparge breves Rosas,
Nam Vita gaudet Mortua Floribus,
Herbisque Odoratis Corona
Vatis adhuc Cinerem Calentem.'

[The Publication of these Criticisms having procured me the following
Letter from a very ingenious Gentleman, I cannot forbear inserting it in
the Volume, though it did not come soon enough to have a place in any of
my single Papers.

_Mr_. SPECTATOR,

'Having read over in your Paper, No. 551. some of the Epigrams made by
the _Grecian_ Wits, in commendation of their celebrated Poets, I could
not forbear sending you another, out of the same Collection; which I
take to be as great a Compliment to _Homer_, as any that has yet been
paid him.

[Greek: Tis poth' ho ton Troiaes polemon, &c.]

Who first transcribed the famous_ Trojan _War,
And wise_ Ulysses' _Acts, O_ Jove, _make known:
For since 'tis certain, Thine those Poems are,
No more let_ Homer _boast they are his own.

If you think it worthy of a Place in your Speculations, for ought I
know (by that means) it may in time be printed as often in _English_,
as it has already been in _Greek_, I am (like the rest of the World)

_SIR_,

_Your great Admirer_,
G. R.
4th _Dec_.

The Reader may observe that the Beauty of this Epigram is different from
that of any in the foregoing. An Irony is look'