a young man of Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos, received from Venus, as fable reports, an alabaster vase filled with an essence which had the virtue of conferring beauty. He had no sooner anointed his body with it than he became the most beautiful of men. The ladies of Mytilene fell desperately in love with him; and the celebrated Sappho threw herself down a precipice because he would not encourage her passion. He is said to have been killed by a husband who surprised him with his wife. We have in Ovid a letter from Sappho to Phaon, which Mr Pope has translated into English verse.