But a fmall Portion of his Works has efcap'd the Malice of Time; for, befides Odes, he compos'd Elegies, Hymns, and Iambics. Some Writers honour him with the Invention of the Lyre. He wrote in & Jonich Dialec How much he was the Delight of the Ancients, appears from thofe extravagant Praises which they have beftow'd upon him; particularly Horace, in that Paffage which I have chofen for a Motto to the Work, which I will here give the English Reader a Version of: We read Anacreon's wanton Toys, Whilst they our Paffions gently move, No Envy blafts, no Age destroys; And Sappho's charming Lyre Preferves her foft Defire, And tunes our ravish'd Souls to love. But I remember no one who has given a jufter Character of his Writings, than that little God who inspir'd them, as taught to fpeak by Mr. Cowley: All thy Verfe is fofter far, Than the downy Feathers are "E AET |