N ° 28 .
THE GUARDIAN .
159
tians, that a certain ingenious foreigner ", who has publiſhed many exemplary jeſts for the uſe
of perſons in the article of death , was very much out of humour in a late fit of ſickneſs, till he was in a fair way of recovery
N° 28. Monday, April 13, 1713. By STEELE.
Ætas parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiofiorem .
Hor. 3 Od. vi. 46.
Our fathers have been worſe than theirs,
And we than ours : next age will ſee A race more profligate than we.
ROSCOMMON .
THEOCRITUS , Bion and Moſchus are the moſt
famous amongſt the Greek writers of paſtorals. The two latter of theſe are judged to be far ſhort of Theocritus, whom I ſhall ſpeakof more large
ly, becauſe herivals the greateſt of all poets, Vir gil himſelf. He hath the advantage confeſſedly of the Latin, in coming before him , and writing
in a tongue more proper for paſtoral. The ſoft neſs of the Doric dialect, which this poet is ſaid to have improved beyond any who came be fore him, is what the ancient Roman writers
owned their language could not approach. But beſides this beauty , he ſeems to me to have had
- M. Deſlandes, who came about this time from France
with the duke D'Aumont, was a Freethinker, and had pub
liſhed an hiſtorical liſt of all who died laughing. He had
the fmall-pox here in England, of which he recovered. See Guardian , Nº 39.
