]

Sweetness and natural elegance characterise the writings of this Poet,
as much as carelessness and ease distinguished his manners. In some of
his pieces there is exuberance and even wildness of imagination, as in
that particularly which is addressed to a young girl, where he wishes
alternately to be transformed into a mirror, a coat, a stream,
a bracelet, and a pair of shoes, for the different purposes which he
recites[37]. This is meer sport and wantonness, and the Poet would
probably have excused himself for it, by alledging that he took no
greater liberties in his own sphere than his predecessors of the same
profession had done in another. His indolence and love of ease is often
painted with great simplicity and elegance[38], and his writings abound
with those beautiful and unexpected turns which are characteristic of
every species of the Ode[39].

[Footnote 37: Anac. p. 87.]

[Footnote 38: This appears remarkably in that piece, where he
gives so ingenuous a character of himself.

+Hon moi melei Gugou
Tou Sardeon Anaktos
To semeron melei moi.+ p. 28.]

[Footnote 39: The reader will find a striking example of this
beauty, in the Ode addressed to a swallow, where he runs a
comparison betwixt the liberty of that bird and his own bondage.

+Su men phile chelidon+, &c. p. 60.]

Though we must allow Anacreon to have been an original Genius, yet it is
probable, as I formerly observed, that he took Lyric Poetry as he found
it; and without attempting to correct imperfections, of which he might
have been sensible, made on the contrary the same use of this which a
man of address will do of the foibles of his neighbour, by employing
them to promote his own particular purposes. We may conclude indeed from
the character of this Poet, that he was not fitted to strike out new
lights in the field of Science, or to make considerable deviations from
the practice of his Predecessors. He was, no doubt, of opinion likewise,
that his manner was authorised in some measure by the example of the
Mitylenian Poetess, whose pieces are celebrated for softness and
delicacy[40], and who possessed above all others the art of selecting
the happiest circumstances which she placed likewise in the most
striking points of view[41]. Longinus produceth, as a proof of this, her
fine Ode inscribed to a favourite attendant, in which the progression of
that tumultuous emotion, which deprived her of