philosophical view, which enabled him to satirize mankind, without disturbing the calmness and tranquillity of his thoughts; while at the same time his scenes of common life were marked with the acute and penetrating genius which characterized the Sicilians.(1673) 5. Notwithstanding this excellence, the comedy of Epicharmus was only an insulated and passing phenomenon, as we are not informed of any successors of that great poet, except Deinolochus(1674) his son, or rather his disciple. But about half a century after Epicharmus,(1675) Sophron, the mimographer, made his appearance, who was the author of a new species of comedy, though in many respects resembling that of his predecessor. Still this variety of the drama differed so much, not only from that of Sicily, but from any other which existed in Greece, that its origin must, after all our attempts at explanation, remain involved in great obscurity. The mimes of Sophron had no accompaniment of music or dancing, and they were written, not in verse, but in prose, though perhaps in certain _rhythmical divisions_.(1676) This latter circumstance seems quite singular, and without example in the Greek literature which has been transmitted to us. But that it was in reality so, seems improbable, when we remember that there would naturally be an intermediate rhythm, formed at the transition from the metrical to the prosaic style;(1677) and with the Dorians this would have taken the form of concise and disjointed sentences, a periodical style being more suited to the Athenians. We are led to this notion by the consideration of some remains of Lacedæmonian composition, in which no one can fail to see the rhythmical form and symmetry of the sentences. Thus in the famous letter of Hippocrates,(1678) ἔρρει τὰ καλά. Μίνδαρος γ᾽ ἀπεσσούα; πεινῶντι τὤνδρες; ἀπορέομες τι χρὴ δρᾶν. and also in that of the Lacedæmonian women, preserved by Plutarch,(1679) κακὰ τεῦ φάμα κακκέχυται; ταύταν ἀπωθεῦ, ἢ μὴ ἔσο, where the rhythm passes insensibly into verse; which is less strikingly the case in other instances.(1680)