The epigrams extant in literature which are not in the Anthology are, with a few exceptions, collected in the appendix to the edition of Jacobs, and are reprinted from it in modern texts. They are about four hundred in number, and raise the total number of epigrams in the Anthology to about four thousand five hundred; to these must be added at least a thousand inscriptional epigrams, which increase year by year as new explorations are carried on. It is, of course, but seldom that these last have distinct value as poetry. Those of the best period, indeed, and here the best period is the sixth century B.C., have always a certain accent, even when simplest and most matter of fact, which reminds us of the palace whence they came. Their simplicity is more thrilling than any eloquence. From the exotic and elaborate word-embroidery of the poets of the decadence, we turn with relief and delight to work like this, by a father over his son: {Sema pater Kleoboulos apepsthimeno Xenopsanto thexe tod ant aretes ede saopsrosunes}[6] (This monument to dead Xenophantus his father Cleobulus set up, for his valour and wisdom); or this, on an unmarried girl: {Sema PHrasixleias xoure xexlesomai aiei anti gamou para theon touto lakhous onoma}[7] (The monument of Phrasicleia; I shall for ever be called maiden, having got this name from the gods instead of marriage.) So touching in their stately reserve, so piercing in their delicate austerity, these epitaphs are in a sense the perfection of literature, and yet in another sense almost lie outside its limits. For the workmanship here, we feel, is unconscious; and without conscious workmanship there is not art. In Homer, in Sophocles, in all the best Greek work, there is this divine simplicity; but beyond it, or rather beneath it and sustaining it, there is purpose. ---------- [1] Anth. Pal. vii. 249; Hdt. vii. 228. [2] Ibid. vii. 256. [3] Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta. Berlin, 1878. [4] Infra, III. 35, 47; XI. 48. [5] Infra, XII. 6, 17, 37. [6] Corp. Inscr. Att. 477 B. [7] Ibid. 469. IV