The design of exhibiting in an English version some of the most beautiful, or otherwise remarkable, of the pieces ascribed to the Minor Poets of Greece, more especially the writers of the Anthology, originated at a very early period with my deceased friend. He commenced the execution of his plan by the publication of two or three papers in the Monthly Magazine, beginning in March, 1805; and these became subsequently the groundwork of a Preface, reprinted without alteration in the present volume. The series thus commenced was continued at intervals during the remainder of the year 1805 and part of 1806, under the title of " Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pieces, from the Greek," to which was affixed the signature "Narva ;” and in the course of the last-mentioned year, the greater part of those contributions, with some additions, were collected together and published in a small octavo volume, entitled, "Translations, chiefly from the Greek Anthology; with Tales and Miscellaneous Poems," (Phillips, 1806.) The arrangement of Brunck and Jacobs, according to the names of authors, was here followed, with a short appendix of "Fragments from the

Comic Poets," and with notes following the translation. I was myself a contributor to this volume, in about equal partnership; and we enjoyed the valuable accession of three pieces (The Complaint of Danaë, and Two Versions of the Hymn to Harmodius,) from the pen of the present Lord Chief Justice Denman, and of a few from that of our mutual friend the Rev. Francis Hodgson, which in the later edition were distinguished by his initial. Of the success of the small volume thus ushered into the world, it does not become me to say more than that it received from Lord Byron, in his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," first published not long after it made its appearance, the compliment of a few lines, beginning,

"And ye, associate Bards," &c.

Between the time of this first publication and that of the second, the joint authors, besides having been emboldened by the recommendation of the noble poet, separately, on various occasions, to encounter the risk of original composition, were prevented by other circumstances, arising out of occupations and engagements of the most

foreign nature, from bestowing much thought on the subject of republication. In the mean time, however, the portfolios of each had received large additions from the same rich storehouse of the Anthology, as well as from other classical sources, and each had continued occasionally to contribute to the periodicals of the day-first to the Monthly Magazine (as before), and afterwards to Dr. Aikin's Athenæum-some of the fruits of their respective gleanings. I may here be allowed to mention, with satisfaction, that this example was thought worthy of imitation by so distinguished and elegant a scholar as Dr. Haygarth, with some of whose specimens, as printed in the last-named classical and useful, though short-lived, miscellany, I have not scrupled to enrich the present volume.

It was not till 1813, that my friend and myself jointly resolved on the publication of a new Work, which was to contain the entire substance of the former, together with such additions as each of us had since made; and the result of this resolution was the production of the volume entitled "Collections from the Greek Anthology, and from the Pastoral, Elegiac, and Dramatic

Poets of Greece, by the Rev. Robert Bland and others," (Murray, 1813.) This new Work, besides the insertion of the very considerable additions already spoken of, was constructed on the principle of an entirely new arrangement; being divided into distinct heads or subjectsthe Amatory-the Convivial-the Moral-the Sepulchral—the Descriptive—the Dedicatory— and the Humorous, or Satirical-together with a pretty copious infusion, in the midst of one of these departments, of irrelevant matter, consisting of metrical versions of passages from the Grecian drama-each division being followed by notes, to the extent in bulk of nearly half the volume, and containing a variety of illustrations both in prose and in verse.

The defects of such an arrangement were too glaring to escape the just censure of even the most indulgent critics, and I have not ceased, during the period of twenty years which have now elapsed since its appearance, to entertain the desire and intention, should circumstances ever permit, of giving to the world a new edition, freed from the most striking blemishes as well as superfluities of the former, besides ex

hibiting a more correct and classical representation of the original Anthology, by a more abundant infusion of the best specimens, and by returning to our early plan of assigning each to its several author, and placing the authors themselves in chronological order of succession. This design even acquired strength from a circumstance which might be supposed to have been rather calculated to check it,-the premature death of my early associate-by exciting the wish of doing honour to his memory, and at the same time (if possible) of deriving benefit to his children from the profits of a new undertaking.

A constant succession of other pursuits and engagements occasioned the postponement, until the present moment, of the accomplishment of this long-cherished intention; and, without further reflection on the past, it now remains for me to state shortly in what points the present publication will be found principally to differ from the two that preceded it.

In the first place, it will be obvious that the present volume, although in itself complete, as containing specimens of all the poets whom it is its professed design to illustrate, comprises, ne