It has been supposed by some writers that Anacreon and Sappho were
contemporaries; and the very thought of an intercourse between persons so
congenial, both in warmth of passion and delicacy of genius, gives such
play to the imagination that the mind loves to indulge in it. But the
vision dissolves before historical truth; and Chamaeleon, and Hermesianax,
who are the source of the supposition, are considered as having merely
indulged in a poetical anachronism.
To infer the moral dispositions of a poet from the tone of sentiment
which pervades his works, is sometimes a very fallacious analogy; but the
soul of Anacreon speaks so unequivocally through his odes, that we may
safely consult them as the faithful mirrors of his heart. We find him
there the elegant voluptuary, diffusing the seductive charm of sentiment
over passions and propensities at which rigid morality must frown. His
heart, devoted to indolence, seems to have thought that there is wealth
enough in happiness, but seldom happiness in mere wealth. The
cheerfulness, indeed, with which he brightens his old age is interesting
and endearing; like his own rose, he is fragrant even in decay. But the
most peculiar feature of his mind is that love of simplicity, which be
attributes to himself so feelingly, and which breathes characteristically
throughout all that he has sung.
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