U. \ mm^ i ^^^3vC^^S^ S\ F CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRA? HHt 1 ,m>m^^>^mm^ i F CAI LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRAE F CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRAF If OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA £ LIE f OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LI f OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIB Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/commentariesonclOOurqurich COMMENTARIES ON CLASSICAL LEARNING, BY The Rev. D. H. JJRQUHART, M. A. PREBENDARY OF LINCOLN, {( Claffical /^miies extend the boundaries of human krowlcdge, and ppen fuch a new field of inquiry and observation a* Lad mankind to a j-tifcft acquaintance wiih the pcwus of the mind, with the heauties of poetry, the ufeiuinefs ol hjfiory, and the wifdom of phibfopby." , JF THE r y\ 1VERS1TY 0^to N DON PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIE S, STRAND. 1803. Printed by A. Strahan, Printers- Street. - 3 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND GEORGE PRETTMAN, LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN. MY LORD, I fhould not have afked permiffion to infcribe this volume to your Lord- {hip, had I not been perfuaded, that both its motive and its objed would obtain your approbation. At a time, when human learn^ ing is loudly decried by the igno- rant fanatic, I affured myfelf that its humblefl advocate would be fe- cure 103-348 ( iv ) cure of the countenance of a dif- tinguifhed Scholar. In the concluding fedion of this work, prefuming on the continuance of public tranquillity, I ventijred to recommend the patronage of literal ture to our rulers. But, alas! that flattering profped feems ijiow to have vanifhed from our view. Still, though it be the lucklefs condition of fociety, that, amidft the din of arms, the ingenuous arts are ne- glected j yoiir Lord fhip will allow, that, as learning always offers a temporary afylum from the ills of life, it frequently invites us to turn our eyes from the horrors of war to the contemplation of obje&s, which afford confolation, inftruc- tion, ( v ) tion, and delight. The man of letters finds alfo another powerful argument to ftimulate him in his favourite purfuit. r^pocnaiy $t$cL Ifocrates> Hype- rides, IfauSy AifchineSyDemofthencs, - - 192 SECTION VIII. On the Grecian Hijlorians. — Cadmus. — Hecat&us. — He* rodotus. — Thucidydes. — Xenophon. — Poly hi us, — Dio- dorus Siculus. — Dionyfius of Halicarnajfus.—Appian. —Arian. — Dion Cajftus. — Herodian y - 226 SECTION IX. Plutarch y - - - 279 SECTION X. Grecian Satire > - - - - 287 SECTION XI. On Roman Literature. — The Drama.—, Comedy. — Livius Andronicus, — Ennius. — Plautus.— Cacilius. —Terence. —Pantomime, - 293 SECTION XII. Roman Tragedy.— Pacuvius. — Accius.— Varius.— Ovid. Seneca, - - - - 321 ( xi ) SECTION XII. Roman Satire* — Ennius. — Lucilius.—VarrQ. — Horace.— Juvenal. — Per/ius, - - Page 331 SECTION XIII. Latin Epic Poetry. — Lucretius.— ~Virgil. — Ovid. — Lu- can.—Silius Italicus. — Valerius Flaccus. — Statius, 362 SECTION XIV. Latin Elegy. Ovid.— Catullus. — Tibullus. — Propertius, 415 SECTION XV. Martial. — Aufonius. — Claudian, - • 426 SECTION XVI. Roman Oratory. — "The Gracchi.-— Cato. — Cicero^ 433 SECTION XVII. Roman Moralifts and didaclic Writers. — Senec*. — S^uintilian.— Pliny the Tcunger, - - 465 SECTION XVIII. Roman Hiftorians. — Julius Cafar. — Sallujl. — Zn/y.— Tacitus. — ^uintus Curtius, - • 495 ( * ) SECTION XIX. Latin Hijlorians of the Jecotid Clafs. — Trogus Pompeius — Juflin. — Florus. — Velleius Pater cuius. — Cornelius H epos, — Suetonius, - - Page 526 SECTION XX. Conclufwn, - • - - - 535 COM. COMMENTARIES O N CLASSICAL LEARNING. SECTION I. On the general Advantages of ClaJJical Learning, and on its particular Advantages to the Lawyer — the Phy- .. Jician—the Divine— to the Naval and Military Officer -—the State/man — the Poet — the Painter— the Sculp* tor— the Mujician—and the Merchant. 1 hat the cultivation of the mental powers is amongft the higheft objects which can engage human attention, feems to be one of thofe proportions that demand and, receive a general aflent. In every civilized age and country, the laborious and fuccefsful enquirer after ufefu} B knowledge 2 COMMENTARIES ON knowledge has either been diftinguifhed by the praifes of his contemporaries, or duly appreciated by the jufler deciiion of pof- terity. It is therefore not the leaft grateful of our fpeculative employments, to mark the progreffive gradations of mankind from a ftate of ignorance and barbariim, to one of elegance and refinement. In fuch refearches our felf-love is grati- fied, and our patriotifm is warmed by the reflection that we are inhabitants of a country where art has embellifhed life, and icience enlightened the mind; where a fptrit of liberty which vindicates our civil rights, is, in a certain degree, the refult of that liberal information which has taught us to know their value. If the intellectual faculties be the higheft boon which the Deity has bellowed on the mofl favored work of his creation, the' honor of the individual, and the interefts of fociety, depend upon the improvement of them. That a ftate of nature is a ftate ii of CLASSICAL LEARNING. 3 of war, hiftory and experience combine to atteft 5 and though a fenfe of the iniecurity of fuch a ftate induced mankind to form a focial compact, its lirft elements were but an indigeited chaos, nor, until the mental faculties had been improved, were they ever duly difpofed in order and in har- mony. This becomes evident whenever we recur to thole Gothic ages anterior to the cafual invention of that uieful art, which like the birth-place of Homer, has been lb ftrenuoufly contefted. The annals of thole early times reflect no pleafing images on, the memory. Afli nutated in roughnefs to their brethren of the foreft, the Aborigines of our ifle difplayed none of the higher energies of the mind. The hut of the favage was little fuperior to the den of the wild beaft, and the ardor of the fportfrnan was analogous to the ferocity of his prey. Our country was long difgraced by in- terline difcord and by domeftic cruelty. A feeble monarch now furrendered the rights he ought to have maintained, an ufurper B 2 waded 4 COMMENTARIES ON waded through murder to the throne, a tyrannous ariftocracy attacked the regal privileges, and a bigoted prieflhood fettered the rights of a vaffal people. The revival of learning by enlightening the mind, and exciting habits of reflection, rendered men better adepts in the fcience of government, and taught them to doubt the purity of the national religion. Error will not ftand the teft of enquiry. Both were at length happily reformed : the fet- ters were taken from genius, and tafte, that refined quality which difcriminates excel- lence, began to diftinguifh the candidates for literary fame. The mind of man, natur- ally inquifitive, and eager to difcover the fources from which knowledge was origi- nally derived, is dire&ed to two countries as the parents of every thing valuable and ornamental in fcience. Their precious relics at firft cafually found, and now happily fecured from farther ruin, ought . to be explored and venerated by almoft all v defgriptions in fociety, becaufe every man 9 whfr CLASSICAL LEARNING. 5 who is placed above the neceffity of manual labour, would find the higheft utility and the moft exquifite pleafure to be the reward of his refearches. That which is emphati- cally ftyled Claffical Learning, the works of the poets, orators, and hiftorians of Greece and Rome, contains every thing that can awaken the genius and improve the tafte. Perfect models of both are ex- hibited in their epic, lyric, and dramatic w r riters, while their orators and hiftorians produce the moft ftriking examples of a difdain of the felfifh paffions, and that generous ardour for the public good which conftitutes unfufpeded patriotifrn. That our parents and children are dear to us is the voice of nature; and where cuftom has not hardened the mind, a favage will obey its di&ates. But ages of refine- ment alone could inform us, that the patriot acknowledges a higher objedl of his regard, and that the claims which our kin- dred have upon our affections are fubordi- nate to the claims of our country. B 3 and that Hygeia, the goddefs of health, was his daughter \ but the more fober and more credible page of hiftory informs ws, that experience was long reforted to before the art of medicine was converted into a fcience. The Babylonians obliged themfelves by an exprefs law, to carry their fick into places of public refort, and to enquire of all who paffed by, whether they ever had felt or CLASSICAL LEARNING. II feen any fuch diftemper as the Tick perfon laboured under, and what was done to remove it. The progrefs of phyfic was certainly very flow, although Herodotus calls this, as it really was, viftog his next neighbour killed him immediately. A learned phyfician who wrote in the middle of the laft century, declares, that many of the rules which Hippocrates left, although delivered above two thouiand years ago, are among the beft we have •even at this day ; and that the works of Galen, who flourifhed in the rpign of Mar- cus Antoninus, are ftill reforted to as the bafis and the model of all that has been .advanced, ever fince his time, on the im- portant fuhjeds which he treats. To fuppofe then the modern phyfician either ignorant of his art as praftifed by the CLASSICAL LEARNING* IJ the ancients, or of the language which has tranfmitted it to pofterity, would be a folecifm in times of general information* and a difgrace to a liberal profeffion. If the labout of learning the Spanifh. language could be compenfated by the pleafure of reading Don Quixote in the original, it is better worth the while of the phyfician to become acquainted with Thu- cydides, in order to draw much profeffional light from the defcription of the plague which defolated Athens* The empiric trufts to practice only, and the credulity of the multitude, for the efta- blifhment of his undeferved reputation ; but the regular phyfician founds his prac- tice on the bafis of theory, and ftill ac- knowledges Hippocrates and Galen to be the preceptors and legiflators of his art. But technical knowledge however pro- found, would be an inadequate accomplifti- ment to him j for he is expected to be con- verfant l6 COMMENTARIES ON verfant with all the departments of inge* nuous learning. To the fuccefsful pra&itioner of an art in fome degree conjectural, we look with a reverence not granted to the world at large; but if his converfation be confined merely to his profeffion, we withdraw much of our refpe£t from fuch narrownefs of acquirement. The confidence which Alexander repofed in Philip we are unwil- ling to bellow on meannefs and on igno- rance. In our phyfician we expect to find copioufnefs of information, and fuavity of manners; and thefe are exclufively the re- fult of. an ingenuous education. It is furely unneceffary to infift that claffical learning ought to form a part of the education of a clergyman. Subfervient as it is to the main obje£t of his purfuit, it will always be infeparable from his pro- feffional ftudies. No one but a claffical fcholar can, properly fpeaking, be a Divine, The CLASSICAL LEARNING. 17 The oracles of facred truth are beft to be underftood in their original language ; and the retirement and the leifure incident to the clerical character form an imperious claim of profound and general information. It has been the liberal policy of this country, to diffufe a fpecies of learning through all the clafles of fociety. It is its boaft, to enlighten the mind, as well as to exercife the hand, of the lower orders. The code of their religious duties is ren- dered acceffible to all ; nor does it appear probable, that the ftriking inftances of knowledge perverted to evil will ever clofe it to their pofterity. The ranks of fociety have been elegantly compared to a pyramid- rifing from a broad foundation, and di- minifhing to a point as it rifes. Not only ftation, therefore, but knowledge fhould be progreffive, and the degrees of each fhould be in exa£t proportion and harmony with' the other. To the chriftian teacher all the flores of Pagan antiquity fhould be dif- clofed, Hiftory, the mirror of human life, c muft l8 COMMENTARIES ON mull neceflarily be the obje£t of his con- templation. To trace the knowledge of a Creator from the earlieft ages of the hea- then world ; to fee the faint image of a Redeemer in the vi&ims and oblations which they offered ; to mark the prophe- cies of a true religion faintly fhadowed by the oracles of thofe which were falfe, im- plies no fmall acquaintance with the lan- guage and the cuftoms of early times. To fhew the Mofaic Hiftory verified by the pages of profane learning, and revela- tion confirmed by the evidence of perfons hoftile to its diffufion, is a tafk which re- quires no mean proficiency in the works of the Claffic Authors. To compare the do&rines of chriftianity with the tenets of the various feds that preceded it, afks an intimate acquaintance with the writings of the philofophers of Greece and Rome, But CLASSICAL LEARNING. Ip But this fubjedt is become more intereft- ing from the peculiar temper of the times in which we live. It is a fentiment amongft felf-taught inftru&ors, that hu- man learning is at leaft ufelefs, if not inju- rious to a clergyman ; and the perfon who gratifies his own vanity with the notion of a partial and celeftial illumination, or im- pofes the idle tale on the credulity of others, finds his perfonal credit to depend upon the removal of that venerable pillar which ftrengthens the hallowed edifice of religion. The Goths of ignorance are always nume- rous and violent, and it will require the combined efforts of its fteady friends to join in the defence of found claffical learning, as intimately conne&ed with the fupport of facred truth. It is the bufinefs of the pulpit orator, like that of qvery other, partly to convince his hearers by argument, and partly to allure them by perfuafion. To effect this purpofe, who of fober judgment will com- c 2 par$ 20 COMMENTARIES ON pare the clamorous zeal of the unlettered enthufiaft, with the aids which genuine piety has received from eloquence, from learning, and from tafte, as difplayed in the writings, of Barrow, of Lowth, and of Blair ? It may perhaps by fome be doubted if a claflical education be compatible with the early period at which naval gentlemen ufually enter upon their profeffion. This involves the queftion, whether the acquifi- tion of the dead languages require fo many years as are generally allotted to them*: Under a judicious affiftant, where much is required to be done in a little time, much might probably be effe&ed ; and the ground-work laid fo firmly and fkilfully, as to enable the young proficient to employ the intervals of an a£tive life in raifing the fuperftru&ure. It mult be confefled that his technical knowledge will be little bene- fited by an acquaintance with the ancient aautical art. The timid navigator, w T ho, as yet CLASSICAL LEARNING. 21 yet having no compafs to direct him, rarely ventured to fail at any confiderable diftance from the fhore, mult appear only an objed: of contempt or compaffion, at -a period when naval ta&ics have reached perfe&ion. In this view of the fubje<3:, no argu- ment of utility can be drawn from a fami- liarity with the claffics. But frequent as the ambition or the phrenzy of mankind has rendered the re- currence of war, the naval officer is not al- ways engaged in atchievements of perfonal valour and in a£ts of patriot heroifm. There are many hours in which he ho- nors the fociety that honors him by his prefence and his converfation. In the intervals of peace, and at length in the retirement from an arduous fervice, mute attention always hangs upon the eventful ftory of his life. c 3 A 32 COMMENTARIES ON A mind ipmroved by early culture, and manners foftened by as good an education as time and circumftances will allow, are required to give dignity and grace to the relation of interefting events, and to the defcription of other climes. It feemed in former times to be the falfe pride of the members of this pro- feflion, to exhibit an exterior as rough as the elements with which they were conver- fant; but the gentleft courtefy is now found to be confident with the braveft hearts, and wherever the mind has been duly cultiva- ted, the gallant defenders of their country are at the fame time its brighteft orna- ments. Gentlemen of the military profef- fion may derive much ufeful inform- ation from an acquaintance with claf- fic authors. Long before the monk by a pernicious chemiftry had facilitated the art of {laugh- ter, CLASSICAL LEARNING. 23 ter, ancient ta&ics had made a very confi- derable progrefs. From a Greek hiftorian, and from a Roman warrior, they may de- rive many precepts highly important to their art, Polybius and Caefar are authors more ufeful in the field than in the clofet : they have higher attractions for the fcientific foldier, than for the cloiftered fcholar. The valour of our contemporaries, it is true, re- quires not to be Simulated by ancient examples ; but the fchoolboy may be train- ed to afpire after the character of the hero, by contemplating the illuftrious models of Greece and Rome* He who aims at excellence of any kind, is naturally induced to place before his eyes, and to obferve as in a mirror, fome diftinguifhed pattern of it. The military fcholar will equally applaud the love of country and the contempt of c 4 death* 24 COMMENTARIES ON death, whether exhibited in ancient or in modern inftances, and be ready to yield his teftimony to that undying record of virtue, which equally immortalizes an Epaminondas and a Wolfe. The knowledge of univerfal hiftory is effential to the Statefman. Thoroughly tp underftand and appreciate the conftitution of his own country, he muft be familiarly converfant with that both of ancient and modern ftates. It behoves him to know by what wife regulations they -arofe to greatnefs and to glory, and by what errors in their adminiftration they funk into re- proach and ruin. Since four great monar- chies, bearing the appearance of impregna- ble ftrength and liability, have difappeared from public view, and live only in the records of the hiftorian, it becomes him, by literary refearch, to explore the caufes of their decay. He will find it to be the eager, but vain defire of man, to ftamp immortality upon his works; and that when. CLASSICAL LEARNING. 2J when, like father Paul, a patriot defires his country to be perpetual, he facrifices the dictate of reafon to the willies of his heart, the refult of his experience to the ardour of his hopes. The hiftory of empires has been truly faid to be that of the mifery of mankind ; the hiftory of learning, that of their grandeur and their happinefs. It is not only curious but inftru£tive to follow this revolution in the religion, government, and manners which have fucceffively defo^ lated and corrupted the world. The con- traft of the infancy with the grandeur of Rome, is worthy the attention of the ftatefman. In reading the iEneid of Virgil, he will be inftru&ed in all thefe points, and cannot fail to be ftruck at the comparifon of a fmall town covered with ftraw, to the fame town become the capital of the univerfe, of which " the houfes were palaces, the citizens princes, and the provinces empires." The pages of' Tacitus {hould be his fre- quent and attentive ftudy ; for by reading them, 26 COMMENTARIES ON them, he will read mankind. He will perceive fcenes of horror afted at Rome unexampled but in our own times, and paint- ed in colours which will never fade. A fran- tic people under the Praetorian bands and the German legions, friends to anarchy and leagued againft civil government, fum- mon his deepeft attention. In the manners of the Germans he will perceive the origin of the Britifh conftitu- tion ; and in the life of Agricola, the day- fpring of that liberty which is the boaft of Englishmen, and the wonder of foreign Hates. He will fee that if the Greeks had not a fecond time been flaves, the Latins would again have been barbarians. Con- ftantinople, it is true, fell beneath the fword of Mahomet ; but when the Medici re- ceived the persecuted mufes, and Erafmus cultivated them, Homer penetrated into regions unknown to Alexander, and Horace became the delight of countries invincible by the Romans- Thofe ages of reviving wifdjom found that- it w r as excellent to perufe CLASSICAL LEARNING. Q.*J perufe the ancients, and to admire them. The warrior read them in his tent, and the ftatefman ftudied them in his clofet. The keen eye of Grotius pierced through the veil of antiquity. By its light he read the oracles of facred truth, with whofe powerful weapons he combated fuperfti- tion and ignorance, and with whofe amiable precepts he foftened the rigours of war. A retrofpe£l of paft times will perhaps tend to render the ftatefman not only the lover of literature, but the public and avowed patron of learned men. When aflailed by the war-whoop of enthu- fiafm againft profane learning, his mind, foaring to a nobler height and taking a wider furvey of things, will perceive that when found learning flourifhes, and good tafte prevails, the maintenance of focial order and legitimate government is recog- nized amidft his higheft duties by the en- lightened citizen. It has been contended that a poet is born and not made, and the declarations of a Roman 28 COMMENTARIES ON Roman and a Britifli bard are adduced in favor of this hypothefis. But neither Ovid nor Pope would have afferted that he was not indebted to the great models he had before him, for many of his pretenfions to poetical reputation. The two epic poets amongft the ancients, whofe works have immortalized their names, befides the con- current advantages refulting from the cli- mate of the countries, and the (late of the times in which they lived, were pofleffed of all the learning then in the world. No one can doubt this affertion refpedting the friend of Auguftus; and a little inquiry- will fatisfy us as to the acquired knowledge of Homer. Homer was educated by Phe- mius, one of the bards probably whofe public recitations contained and conveyed all the learning of thofe early times. To his office was attached a dignity of which the moderns can form a very inadequate conception, Hq CLASSICAL LEARNING. 2<) He charmed the ears of a fimple age by the fp.ontaneous efFafions of unwritten and harmonious verfe; he inftru&ed them in the hiftory of their progenitors ; he enter- tained them with agreeable allegory and fable ; and, while he aftonifhed them with finging the harmony of the univerfe and the viciffitudes of nature, he profefled to be under the immediate diredlion of the gods. Though he could not boaft of wealth or power, his fituation was always attended with eafe and honor. He was well re- ceived at the courts of kings, neceflary at facrifices, and reverenced by the people. * At that period, the philofopher, the divine, and the legiflator were all united in the fame perfon : fuch was Orpheus and his fcholar Mufeus ; and all the ancient law- givers employed the mufes to difpenfe their inftru&ions and recommend theit morals. In fuch a fchool was Homer taught. He was firft placed in the houfe of his 1 3 mailer 30 COMMENTARIES ON mafter to be inftru&ed in poetry and phi- lofophy, and he afterwards fucceeded him in his office. There were poems in exiftence before the Trojan war ; and in allegory and fable, Homer found many celebrated models worthy of his imitation. Partly from ftudy and partly from travel, he had become learned in all the wifdom of Egypt, and acquainted with all the arts of Phoenicia. His poverty as a man conftituted no fmall part of his happinefs as a poet ; for when he aflumed the profeffion of a ftrolling bard, he difplayed the higheft effort of his de- lightful art When the council of the Amphi&yons were met at Delphi to con- fult on the general welfare of Greece, his hymn to Apollo and Diana expreiTes the felicity attendant on his fituation. u Hail> heavenly powers, whofe praifesl fing," fays the bard, " let me alfo hope to be remem- bered in the ages to come ! And when any one born of the tribes of man comes hither 5 weary CLASSICAL LEARNING. 31 a weary traveller, and inquires who is the iweeteft of the finging men that refort to your feafts, and whom you moft delight to hear ? then do you make anfwer for me, It is the Wind man that dwells in Chios j his fongs excell all that can be fung." At the Pythian games the public a&ors were the rhapfodifts; and it was long before the mufcular could vie with the mental, be- fore horfe racing and wreftling made part of the entertainment. Although Euftathius fays of Homer, that he breathed nothing but verfe, and was fo poiTeffed with the heroic mufe as to fpeak in numbers with more eafe than others in profe ; yet no infpira- tion can account for his being a great genealogift, a correct hiftorian, and an admirable geographer. From Orpheus and Mufeus he is faid to have borrowed largely: nor was he the author of the Polytheifm of the Iliad, or the inventor of its religious and philofophical allegories, but recorded them as he received them from the Egyp- tians. 42 COMMENTARIES ON ■ *j tians. In addition, therefore, to the ad- vantage of living at a period of fociety, when he could from obfervation delineate the varieties of the human character, kings, princes, warriors, artifans and peafants ; when his mind had been expanded, and his views enlarged by foreign travel, he fearched diligently every avenue to fcience, and verified the aflertion I have made, that he poffefTed himfelf all the learning then in the world. Horace propofes the queftion refpecting the fuperior advantage of genius and learn- ing to a poet, and determines them to be equally necefTary to the perfection of his artj " Ego nee {ludium fine divite vena, ** Nee rude quid profit video ingenium : alterius fie u Altera pofcit opem res, et conjmat amice." It would be fuperfluous to bring any argument to prove how much the epic poet of our own country was indebted to claf- fical learning ; for this is evident on the flighted perufal of his works. In what fublime CLASSICAL LEARNING. 33 fublime ftrains does he acknowledge his obligation to the who come to bribe him with prefents, would he withhold the circum- ftance of the herbs which he prepared himfelf, and placed before them, faying, " You fee that he who- lives in this man- ner, has no want of any thing. The Ro- mans do not care about having gold them- felves; they wifh to command thofe who have it." The moft reafonable cenfure brought againft the author of the Iliad, is the te- dious repetition of combats which occupy nearly half the work : the nature of his fubje£t is however partly an apology, and the richnefs of imagination with which he has ornamented them, in a great degree redeems the fault. " One while he de- fcribes the character, age, and nation of the dying hero ; at another time he defcribes different kinds of wounds and death ; fometimes by tender and pathetic ftrokes he reminds the reader of the aged parent, who is fondly expe&ing the return of his mur- dered fon 5 of the defolate condition of the widows CLASSICAL LEARNING. 8$ widows who will now be enflaved, and of the children that will be dafhed againft the ftones." A Grecian would have heard thofe recitals with enthufiam, which we perufe with coldnefs and faftidioufnefs. Envy is infeparable from excellence : two centuries and a half before the Chris- tian a?ra, Zoilus, a fophift, a defclaimer, and a hungry critic, prefented his ftriftures on the works of Homer, to Ptolemy Phila- delphus ; but the monarch of Egypt re- je£led them with difdain. The temerity of the defamer was feverely punifhed by the inhabitants of Smyrna, who ordered him to be burned, as a memorial of their regard for a poet, whom they claimed as their citizen. Had Homer feen the criticifms of Zoilus, he would perhaps have been equally un- moved with the epic poet of our own country, when his bookfeller offered him five pounds for the copyright of his Para- dife loft. Like Milton, he would have known that immortality was the price of c 3 his 86 COMMENTARIES ON his works, and that the difcerntnent of pofterity would fpontaneoufly pay it. The Emperor Caligula has completed his character by having endeavoured, hap- pily in fcvain, to deftroy the productions of Homer, The witty and the powerful were amongft his adverfaries ; yet though the fplendor of his name irritated pride and envy in a fimilar degree, neither fpecies of enmity could lefTen his reputa- tion. Merit which can fuftain fuch proofs, is gold tried by the furnace. Our admira- tion of Homer yields only to his genius and his fame : three thoufand applauding years have confecrated his name, and we exult to find a poet fo great, and mankind fo juft, Longinus fays, that " Homer in the Odyffey is like the fetting fun, which is ftilj great to the eyes, but we no longer feel its warmth. It is no longer the fire which animates the whole of the Iliad, that height of genius which never debafes itfelf, that activity CLASSICAL LEARNING. 87 a&ivity which never repofes, that torrent of paffions which hurries us away, that crowd of fidions happy and probable; but as the ocean at the moment of its reflux, and when it leaves its (hores, is ftill the ocean, the old age of which I fpeak, is ftill the old age of Homer." Thofe who are difpofed to depreciate the Odyfley, fay of it, that its fables are only fitted for the amufement of children, that its progrefs languifhes, that the poem drags on from adventure to adventure without attracting attention or exciting intereft. That the fituation of Penelope and Telemachus is the fame during twenty- four books, — a conftant re-iteration of out- rages on the part of the fuitors, and funilar complaints on the part of the mother and the fon. That Ulyfles is in Ithaca fo early as in the 12th book; that he lives a very long time with Eumaeus difguifed as a beggar, while the a£Uon of the poem does not advance a ftep. That in the menial offices and indignities fuftained by him there, Homer has outraged the effeft of g 4 contraft> 88 . COMMENTARIES ON contrail, and palled all the bounds of deco- rum. That the meeting of the hufband and the wife fo long expe&ed, is cold and unprodu&ive of the effe&s of which it is fufceptible ; and, what is revolting to good fenfe, that fcarcely had Ulyfles been re- cognifed by Penelope, before he informs her that fate condemns hiip again to tra- verfe the world with an oar upon his fhoulder until he meet a man who may take it to fan his corn :-~ " To this the king : ah, why mull I difclofe A dreadful ftory of approaching woes ? Why in this hour of tranfport wound thy ears ? When thou mull learn what I mull fpeak with tears, Heaven by the Theban Gholl thy fpoufe decrees Torn from thy arms to fail a length of feas." It is obje&ed too, that the fojourning of Ulyffes in the ifland of Calypfo and of Circe, offers nothing interefting to the reader ; and that if Calypfo be the original of Dido, it is a drop of water converted into a pearl : that in his defcent to the fhades below, UlyfTes entertains himfelf with a crowd of ghofts who are abfolutely Grangers to CLASSICAL LEARNING. 89 to him, and who recount adventures in which he is entirely uninterefted. Thefe ftrictures are undoubtedly too fevere, and not warranted by the impref- iion which the perufal of the Odyfley makes upon our minds. It prefents us with a pleafing pi&ure of ancient manners, with the virtues of hofpi- tality and refpe£t for age, of patience, pru- dence, wifdom, temperance and fortitude. Menelaus, Neftor and Eumseus, difplay the firft ; Telemachus is a ftriking inftance of the fecond, together with courage, candour and noblenefs of nature; and the others fhine in an unexampled manner in the character of Ulyfles. The addrefs of Eu- maeus to his unknown mailer, is very attractive. u The fwain replied ; It never was our guife To flight the poor, or ought humane defpife. For Jove unfolds our hofpitable door, 'Tis Jove that fends the ftranger and the poor." If Ulyfles be too much degraded by his difguife, and too long in inaction, yet thefe circumftances produce a. fufpenfion and 90 COMMENTARIES ON and an attention to the cataftrophe, which render it more bold and lively. The flaughter of the fuitors is traced with colours which recal the pictures of the Iliad. Of the two poems the moral of the Odyfley is preferable. The qualities I have mentioned are of general concern, and all ranks of life may be benefited by the cultivation of them. The Iliad has been called the ma- nual of monarchs, and it undoubtedly furnifhes an awful leflbn againft the impe- tuofity and tyranny of power. But its ufefulnefs is lefs extenfive, as its applica- tion is more limited. Of the fubjccls of the Odyfley one is perfedly in unifon with the nature of refentment, the other with our experience. Ulyfles is driven by the fury of the winds and waves, becaufe Nep- tune was juftly enraged at his treatment of his fon Polypheme; and the devaluation and ruin confequent upon his abfence from home, allowing fomewhat for poetical em- bellifhment, would occur in any family where the beauty of .the miftrefs fhould invite fuitors, and the rapacity and info- 2 lence CLASSICAL LEARNING. 91 lence of fervants fhould be without control. The progrefs and cataftrophe of the poem, are equally probable as the plan. When a ftorm has compelled Ulyfles to afk the hofpitality of the Phaeacians, they entertain him in a manner fuitable to the kindnefs and fimplicity of the times. A bard then fumiflied the higheft entertain- ment at every feaft, and Demodorus recited the interefting ftory of the fall of Troy. We may eafily imagine what an effedt this would produce on Ulyfles, and that the curiofity of the king Alcinous and his aflembled guefts would lead to the difcovery of the ftranger. Although modern refinement renders fimi- lar incidents impoflible, we feel no repug- nance in believing, that the Phseacians were moved by the relation of his melancholy ad- ventures to fo great a degree, as to conduct him fafely to Ithaca. There the circum- ftance of his faithful dog, who recognifes him with all the acutenefs and affection which inftindt boafts, and then expires at his feet, affefts the reader in the mod m Uvely manner ; and the doubts, and fears, and 92 COMMENTARIES ON and hopes of Penelope, are the natural fuggeftions of a mind long habituated to misfortune, at the fudden dawn of unex- pected happinefs. It is the glory of Homer to have been an original writer. The arts have been brought to perfection in corrupt times ; but poetry- may challenge to itfelf this honorable dis- tinction, that it attained its higheft excel- lence in an age of purity and Simplicity. Homer has been truly faid to be the great fource whence all the Greek writers derive their chief excellence. He gave rife to all the various kinds of compofition ; he is the beft poet and orator in the various kinds of elocution ; he excels all mankind in grandeur, vehemence, fweetnefs, and accu- racy of ftyle. There is, however, a queftion which naturally fuggefts itfelf on this fubjeCt. Admitting the fad, we are defirous to know the caufe of Homer's pre-eminence above all fubfequent poets. At firft view it mould feem paradoxical, that all the writers of every age and country muft yield CLASSICAL LEARNING. 93 yield the palm to him, fince his compofi- tion, his ftyle, his di&ion, his manner, his fublimity, have prefented a model to their eyes, which while it inftru&ed and formed tKeir underftanding, has ever ftimulated them to a defire of competition and of ex- cellence. Sir William Temple has refolved the doubts of every fceptic in this interefting enquiry. " Of all the numbers of man- kind," fays he, " that live within the com- pafs of a thoufand years, for one man that is born capable of making a great poet, there may be a thoufand born capable of making as great generals or minifters of ftate as the moft renowned in ftory. Con- junctures and manners are not fufficient to produce poets. Greece and the climate of Afia, though in a proper temperament, for the fpace of two or three hundred years, produced only one Homer. Something more than thefe is necefTary, an univerfal and elevated genius, .a quality as rare as it is valuable : certainly many circumftances of life, many advaqtages of education, and 5 opportunities 94 COMMENTARIES ON opportunities of knowing mankind, are neceffary ; great travelling, and wide ob- fervation. HESIOD. Of the precife period when Hefiod was born we have no certain account, but Afcra in Bceotia is faid to have been the place of his nativity* He who fearches moft anx~ ioufly for the date of that event, finds himfelf loft in the clouds by which anti- quity is obfcured. Whether he w r ere anterior to the time of Homer, his contemporary, or fucceflfor, has been a fubjedt on which an- cient writers have differed ; and their con- trary afTertions ftill require the corrobora- tion of proof. One thing is certain, that he had feen his works, for he has entire verfes which are borrowed from him. My- thology feems to have had tw r o fathers ; and thefe moft ancient poets may alike lay claim to the production. Only two complete poems written by him are ftill extant, the one entitled Works and CLASSICAL LEARNING. 95 and Days, the other the Theogony or the Birth of the Gods. The firft contains precepts of agriculture, from which proba- bly Virgil firft conceived his idea of the Georgics. But reflections which would do honor to a philofopher, are interfperfed throughout the work. It is divided into three parts, the one mythological, the other moral, the laft dida&ic. Hefiod begins by recounting the fable of Pandora; and if he be the inventor of it, no fcanty portion of praife is due to his imagination. We feel a confiderable gra- tification on its firft perufal ; and it is never read with difguft. He defcribes alfo the birth of Venus, and of thofe coy females, the nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemo- fyne. Then follows a defcription of the differ- ent ages of the world, which has been imitated by Ovid; but the former poet adds one to the general number. Like every writer on this fubje£t, he confiders himfelf as living in the age of iron ; this age, there- fore, $6 COMMENTARIES ON fore, muft have been of wonderful dura- tion. A courfe of morals fucceeds to his my- thology ; it is addreffed to his brother Perfeus, with w;hom he had been engaged in a law-fuit refpe&ing their paternal fuc- ceffion ; and in this part of his work, precepts of hufbandry are blended wijh leflbns of wifdom. He was a prieft of the Temple of the Mufes on Mount Helicon, and the gravity of his office was well fuited to the inftru&ions which he gave. The conclufion of the work is a tiflue of the moft abfurd fuperftitions. Particular days of the month are ftated as favorable to the celebration of marriage, to the fhearing of fheep, and to the produ&ion of children. Experience has not confirmed the hypo- thefis, which was the fuggeftion of the groffeft ignorance. The Theogony fatigues the reader with its long catalogue of gods and goddefies of every fpecies ; but at the end of the work it repays him for his labour by an animated defcription CLASSICAL LEARNING. 97 defcription of the war of the gods againft the giants. This defcription, indeed, to- gether with that of winter in the Works and Days, is worthy to be compared with the fined pafTages of Homer. The picture of Tartarus where the Titans are thrown down by the thunder of Jupiter, has certain traits of refemblance to the Hell of Milton fo , ftriking, that the one was probably the model of the other. A very fingular co- incidence, if we confider the difference in the religious fentiments of the authors. It is not true, as has been afferted, that Hefiod vanquilhed Homer in a poetical conteft at the funeral of Amphidamas ; but his verfes, which are poffeffed of elegance of ftyle and fweetnefs of poetry, were written on tablets in the temple of the mufes, and the Greeks compelled their children to learn them by heart. Cicero confers upon him a handfome eulogium ; but Quintilian will not allow that he often rifes to excellence. He grants him only the praife which belongs to fmoothnefs of language, and refufes him H the 98 COMMENTARIES ON the palm that is due to fuperiority of talents. JPOLLONIUS RHODIUS. This writer was born at Naucratis in Egypt, about two hundred and thirty years before Chrift. He was furnamed the Rho- dian from his refidence in that ifland. His education was the beft, for Callimachus and Panaetius were his preceptors. He was one of the keepers of the famous library of Alexandria under Ptolemy Evergetes. No- thing remains of his writings but his poem on the Expedition of the Argonauts in four books. The plan of his work has been generally confidered as having too little of the epic in it. It is too hiftorical in the order of the facts, and overcharged with epifodes, which are introduced without feleclion,and told without effect. In fome parts the execution is not deftitute of merit. The love of Medea for Jafon, is painted in glowing colours; and Virgil has not dis- dained to borrow ideas from Apollonius. But CLASSICAL LEARNING. 99 But he has given to Dido a force of ex- preflion from which the Greek poet is far diftant. His plagiarifms are few, and his fuperiority is infinite. n 2 IOO COMMENTARIES ON SECTION III. Lyric Poetry. Linus, Orpheus, Mufeus, Stefichorus, Sappho, Simonider, Anacreon, Pindar. The origin of lyric poetry is loft in fable. Linus has been faid to be the inventor of rhythm and melody, and being bom at Thebes in Bceotia, is one amongft many inftances to prove how little is the influence of climate and local fituation on original genius. The poetry of the Greeks being always accompanied by mufic, produced that enthufiafm both in the hearer and the compofer, which was eafily excited in men remarkable for the fenfibility of their or- gans. The Mantuan bard affigns to Linus, in his fixth eclogue, the moft diftinguifhed place amongft the favorites of the mufes, and honors him with the appellation of their interpreter. Mortals of great celebrity were CLASSICAL LEARNING. 101 were frequently dignified by a fuppofed celeftial origin ; and the fon of Ifmenias the mufician, who had this tribute paid to his art by a certain king of Scythia, that he preferred his mufic to the braying of an afs, was poetically defcended from Mercury and Urania. Similar legendary tales in- form us, that he was killed by a ftroke of the lyre from his pupil Hercules, and that Apollo deprived him of life for prefuming to imitate him. It is unfortunate for his fame, that none of his poems remain to enable pofterity to eft i mate the quantity of truth which is blended with fiction, or to determine how well qualified Linus was to be the rival of a God. Orpheus, whether the fon of a Thraciau king, or of Apollo, is generally faid to have been the offspring of Caliope, and to have attained a reputation fuperior to that of his preceptor Linus, becaufe he rendered poetry and mufic tubfervient to the ceremonies of religion. h 3 Thefe IO& COMMENTARIES ON Thefe ceremonies he borrowed from the Egyptians and introduced into Greece. He inftituted the myfteries of Bacchus, and the Eleufinian Ceres in imitation of thofe of Ifis and Ofiris. Some fragments attri- buted to him are preferved, which have no corruption of polytheifm, but which a chriftian and a philofopher may perufe with no fmall gratification. " God alone exifts of himfelf and by himfelf; he is in all things ; no mortal can fee him, and he fees every thing. He alone in his juftice diftributes the evils which afflict mankind, war and mifery. He governs the winds which agitate the air, and he lights the fires of the thunder. He fits on high in the heavens on a throne of gold, and the earth is under his feet. He ftretches his hand to the utmoft limits of the ocean, and the mountains tremble to their foundations. It is he who made every thing in the univerfe, and who is at once the beginning, the middle, and the end." This fragment preferved by Suidas, feems to give fome fan£tion to what has been CLASSICAL LEARNING. I03 been eonfidered a fanciful notion of Bifhop Warbu'rton, refpedting the grand fecret in the Eleufinian myfteries. But if the unity of God were the belief of fages, the popular creed was eflential to the prefervation of focial order amid ft* a people whofe imagi- nation was ardent, and whofe minds on this important fubje£t were unenlightened. So correct was the conduct of Orpheus, that whoever led a life of more than ordi- nary purity, was faid to be his fcholar. Indeed, his elevated fentiments of Deity would naturally operate on his morals and his heart, for poetry in his time was always intimately connected with ethics and reli- gion. Mufseus was the difciple of Orpheus, and prefided over the Eleufinian myfteries at Athens.- Virgil in his fixth iEneid, places him at the head of the poets in the Elyfian Fields, where they celebrate thofe who are worthy of Apollo. None of his compofitions remain. In fearching into antiquity, we have perpetually to lament the depredations which time and violence and h 4 bigotry 104 COMMENTARIES ON bigotry have made on the proudeft monu- ments of genius and of (kill. But it is fome confolation to reflect that if the offer were given us to exchange what has been preferved for that which has been loft, we fhould not for a moment hefitate in retain- ing the valuable relics of which we are in pofTeffion. Where is the literary epicure of refined tafte, who would fteal a moment from the enchanting entertainment with which Ho- mer and Pindar are ever ready to prefent him, in order to lament the lofs of thofe lefler dainties that Bacchylides and Mu- fasus might once have afforded ? Thefe lyrical writers flourifhed nearly thirteen centuries before the chriftian sera ; and of many others who fucceeded them, after a lapfe of feveral centuries, we poffefs only a dull catalogue of names, and a few fragments contained in Athenceus. Amongft thefe is Alcseus, who lived about fix hundred years before Chrift, a native of Mitylene, and the fuppofed in- ventor of the harp, and of Alcaic metre. His CLASSICAL LEARNING. I05 His works are faid to have been ferviceable to the public manners ; concife, dignified and accurate in the ftyle, and not diflimi- lar to that of Homer. Still he could de- fcend to trifle on fubjedts of fport and love, and to pay his addrefles to the much cele- brated inventrefs of Sapphic verfe. Poets have not been very remarkable for their courage. Alcseus fled from a battle in which Pittacus delivered his country from the power of the Athenians, and his arms were fufpended in the Temple of Minerva, as a monument of his dis- grace. Horace in defcribing the amufement of the manes in Elyfium, fays, " Whene'er Alcasus lifts the {train, To deeds of war and tyrants flain ; In thicker crowds the fhadowy throng Drink deeper down the martial fong." Stefichorus was a native of Himera in Sicily ; he lived about five hundred and feventy years before Chrift, and received his name from fome alteration that he 4 made lo6 COMMENTARIES ON made in the chorus which he fung to the accompaniment of his harp. Of twenty- fix books which he wrote in the Doric dia- led, but a few lines have reached pofterity. His merit muft have been confiderable, for his funeral was magnificently celebrated at the public coft, by the inhabitants of Catana ; and Phalaris the tyrant of Agri- gentum, eredled a temple to his name, and decreed him divine honors. About fix hundred years before the chriftian sera, Sappho, equally "renowned for beauty, poetry, and ill-requited love, gave celebrity to the Ifle of Lefbos, the place of her nativity. The ufual cure for lovers, a leap from mount Leucate, put a period to her woes and her exiftence ; and the fpecimens of her talents which have reached us, a hymn to Venus, and an ode to Lefbia, together with the appellation of the tenth mufe, given to her by the an- cients, have induced the literary world to lament the lofs of her three books of lyrical compofitions, her elegies, and her epigrams. Philips CLASSICAL LEARNING. 107 Philips has done himfelf fo much credit by his tranflation of thofe odes, that my readers will probably not cenfure me for tranfcribing the firft flanza of one of them. " O Venus ! beauty of the {kies, To whom a thoufand temples rife ; Gaily falfe in gentle fmiles, Full of lovt -perplexing wiles. O Goddefs ! from my heart remove The wafting cares and pains of love." Plutarch compares Sappho to Cacus the fon of Vulcan, who breathed nothing but flame ; and Horace fays, that the fire of her love ftill burns in her verfes. It is well obferved by Mr. Addifon, of this un- fortunate poetefs " that he does not know by the character that is given of her works, whether it be not for the benefit of man- kind, that they are loft. They were filled with fuch bewitching tendernefs and rap- ture, that it might have been dangerous to have given them a reading. From the time of Homer till that of Sappho, there is almoft a total blank in literature ; nor are 1 any Io8 COMMENTARIES ON any produ&ions preferved between the time of Sappho and Anacreon, who flou- rifhed at the diftance of feventy years from each other. Between Anacreon and Pin- dar, another chafm appears. After this the works of the tragedians, hiftorians, and philofophers were produced, all within three hundred years ; the moft illuftrious period of human genius !" Simonides a celebrated poet of Cos, was born about five hundred and thirty-feven years before Chrift, and lived in the court of Hipparchus the Athenian tyrant. He wrote elegies, epigrams, and dramatical pieces, efteemed for their fweetnefs and elegance. He compofed alfo an epic poem on Cambyfes king of Perfia ; and another on the battle of Salamis. It was his hap- pinefs to be courted by all the princes of Greece and Sicily. Phsedrus fays when a houfe fell upon the guefts at a feaft, the gods fpared the life of Simonides. He obtained a prize in the eightieth, and fur- vived to the ninetieth year of his age. The Syracufans ere&ed a monument to his CLASSICAL LEARNING. IO9 his memory. His ftyle was fo formed for exciting pity, that fome critics have de- clared him in that refpedt, to excel all other writers. Plato mentions him with praife, and Dionyfius places him amongft thofe poliflied writers who excel in a fmooth volubility, and flow like plenteous and perennial ftreams. The ftory of Danae enclofed in a cheft with her infant Perfeus, and thrown into the fea by her father, is related by the poet in very beautiful verfes. The following is, I fear, an inadequate attempt at a tranflation : •' While forrow chills thy mother's breaft, Sleep feals thy lovely eyes my boy j Clofe cradled in thy darkfome cheft, No fears thy innocence annoy. Unheard, the winds around thee howl, The waves unfeen their fury try ; Enveloped in thy purple ftole, Sweet fleep can all their power defy. Did'it thou the impending danger know, And fears that rack a parent's heart, Then would'ft thou liften to my woe> And from thy peaceful flumbers dart. But 110 COMMENTARIES ON But ftill fleep on my beauteous child, Ye waves to Halcyon calm fubfide ; Sleep too my griefs, left accents wild Should wake and fcare my darling pride. ,, From thefe poets, of whom fo few frag- ments remain, we pafs on to one who is immortalized by all the devotees of plea- fure, and whofe name will probably de- fcend to pofterity, with thofe authors who have deferved to be remembered by the utility of their labors. About five hun- dred and thirty years before Chrift, Ana- creon was born at Teos in Ionia. This vo- luptuous bard feems to have had no other ambition, than to love and to fport ; no other defire of glory than to fing his loves and his joys. Plato will have him to have been royally defcended from Codrus the laft king of Athens ; if that account be true, his fpirit was perfectly different from that of his progenitor. He lived a long time at Samos in the court of Polycrates, who was a tyrant only in name. This prince prefented him with five talents, which with CLASSICAL LEARNING. Ill with a difintereftednefs equal to the muni- ficence of his patron, he refufed. He is faid to have been a martyr in the caufe he adored, and to have been choked by a grape ftone in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His poetry is replete with fuch deli- cacy and grace, as to render all attempts to tranflate it into the Englifh language unfatisfa£tory : a language encumbered with coarfe confonants, can never exprefs the fweet ftrains of Anacreon. He does not write in the formal manner of a per- fon who means to attract the public eye, but he appears at table with his Grecian beauties, where flowers are interwoven in his locks, and he joins them in the dance with all the frolic gaiety of youth. Sometimes he affumes his lyre, and in Lydian ftrains, he pours forth a hymn to the rofe. I hefitate in prefenting the following Odes from a tranflation of this enchanting poet. " The rofe, love's favorite flower divine, Shall grace our circling bowls of wine ; With 112 COMMENTARIES ON With its fair leaves our temples bound, The toaft and laugh {hall both go round* v Rofe, fweeteft flower, fpring's partial love, Delight of all the gods above ; With thee, the boy of Venus crowned, The Graces joins in mazy round. Crown me, and inftant, God of wine, Strains from my lyre mall reach thy fhrine : Whilft decked with rofes, I prepare, To trip it with the well-made fair." If he fpeaks of age or of death, it is not to brave them with Stoic apathy, but to exhort himfelf to lofe nothing of all that can difrobe them of their terrors. '< Care fleeps whene'er I drink my wine, Then why thus anxioufly repine ? Since fadnefs cannot death defer, Why does my life from reafon err. With Bacchus let us revels keep, For while we drink our forrows fleep." Sometimes he invites his miftrefs to a de- lightful retreat, fuch as would furnifh a painter with a fubjecT: for his art. « Sit in this made : the lovely tree Expands its tender leaves for thee : Soft is each branch that on it grows, Hard by, Perfuafion's fountain flows : So CLASSICAL LEARNING. II3 So exquifite a lodging nigh, Who in his fenfes would pafs by ?" It is an opinion I am not likely to fur- render, that whoever would perceive the foftnefs of the colouring, the happy mix- ture of light and ihade, the eafy, fimple graces of Anacreon, will find them only in the original compofition. In quitting Anacreon to contemplate the firft of lyric poets, the tranfition is parti- cularly ftriking. Bceotia boafts the nativity of Pindar, who lived* at the time of the expedi- tion of Xerxes, about four hundred and eighty years before our Saviour, and was then about forty years old. Paufanias fays, that the inhabitants of Delphi were commanded by an oracle of Apollo, to fet apart for Pindar, one half of the firft-fruit offerings brought by the religious to his fhrine, and to allow him a place in his temple. The iron chair in which he was accuftomed to fit, and fing his hymns in honor of the god, was fhewn to Paufanias many centuries after, as a re- 114 COMMENTARIES ON lie not unworthy the fandity of the place. Unhappily for the learned world, his hymns to the heathen deities are loft, and his odes only remain. Horace fays of this poet, that to relifh him thoroughly, we ought to tranfport ourfelves to the time in which he lived. The theory is indifputable, but the practice is difficult. We are fo full of modern ideas, manners, and prejudices, that we do not eafily obey any admoni- tions to defert them. The account of Hercules and Thefeus, the adventures of Cadmus, and the war of the giants, the Olympic games, and the Argonautic expe- dition, do not touch us as they did the Greeks ; and the odes which contain only allufions to thefe ftories, are not fufficient- ly ftriking to excite any very pleafurable emotions in us : but the hiftory of their country would be fupremely interefting to the Greeks; and while their fables were in a great degree their hiftory, they alfo contained the eflence of their religion. The Olympic, Ifthmian, Pythian, and Nemean CLASSICAL LEARNING. II5 Nemean games, were all in their origin, religious ads ; folemn feftivals in honor of their gods. The poet therefore a&ed agreeably to the fentiments of the people, when he blended the names of the deities who prefided over thefe games, with thofe of the Athletae who triumphed at them. The enraptured hearers have been falfely fuppofed to have difpenfed with the regu- lar order of compofition, and willingly to have furrendered method and clearnefs to harmony of numbers, and fublimity of di&ion. Congreve on the other hand fays that cc there is nothing more regular than the odes of Pindar, both as to the exact obfervation of the meafures and numbers of his ftanzas and verfes, and the perpetual coherence of his thoughts. For though his digreffions are frequent, and his tranf- itions fudden, yet is there ever fome fecret connexion, which though not always ap- pearing to the eye, never fails to commu- nicate itfelf to the underftanding of the reader." The firft Pythian ode of Pindar was compofed in honor of Hiero, king of I 2 Syracufe, Il6 COMMENTARIES ON , Syracufe, a vi&or in a chariot race. Of fuch fpedtacles the Greeks were fo ena- moured, that they could not fufficiently celebrate him who had procured himfelf the beft coachmen and the fleeted horfes ; for to thefe, after all, the praife of vidtory was due. From an invocation to his lyre, and a defcription of the effe&s produced by its' delightful harmony, he pafles on a fudden to the defcription of Typhaeus, the terror of the gods ; at length after numerous confli&s, chained under Mount iEtna. ■ " Now under fmoking Cuma's fulphurous coail, And vaft Sicilia, lies his tortured breaft, By fnowy iEtna, nurfe of endlefs froft, The mighty prop of Heaven, for ever preft : Forth from whofe flaming caverns iffuing rife Tremendous fountains of pure liquid fire, Which veil in muddy mift the noon -day fides ; While wrapt in fmoke the eddying flames afpire, Or gleaming through the night with hideous roar, Far o'er the reddening main huge rocky fragments roar." West. Hiero reigned over Sicily, it was natu- ral therefore for the poet who mentioned jEtna CLASSICAL LEARNING. II7 jEtna to fpeak of Typhaeus, and thus to gratify the paffion of the Greeks for de- fcriptive poetry. Every vi&or at the public games was folicitous to have Pindar for his panegyrift, which accounts for the great number of odes written by him on the fame occafion. Certainly there cannot be a ftronger tefti- mony of his extraordinary powers, than is deducible from the manner in which fimilar fcenes are reprefented to the reader. His exalted ideas of the deity are worthy to be imprinted on the mind of a chriftian. " God dire&s all events according to his will ; God who feizes the towering eagle in his flight, outruns the marine dolphin, overthrows proud mortals, and beftows a never-fading glory on the humble." In the third Pythian he fays, **■ His burning thunderbolt is winged with death." The odes contain many references to hiftorical fa&s, which have not defcended to our times ; many allufions to perfons and places of which we have never heard ; and thefe throw fometimes a veil of ob- 1 3 fcurity Il8 COMMENTARIES ON fcurity over them, through which we can-* not penetrate.. ?ut good fenfe defies the obliteration^ of time, and the judicious refle&ions and the moral fentiments of Pindar, atone for the obfcurity of particular parts. He, is not lefs celebrated for the tender- nefs than for the fublimity of his fenti- ments. It is impoffible to read many paf- fages without being fenfibly afFe&ed by them ; as where the. aged iEfon recognifes his fon Jafon, an all accomplifhed youth whom he had lamented as dead ; or where Antilochus rufhes with eagernefs againft Memnon, and gives himfelf a willing facri- fice to fave the life of his father Neftor — aa a&ion which has carried with it the renowr^ of piety throughout all fucceeding ages. He yields a due eulogium to conquerors of the loweft order, and with a noble fpi-; rit of independence difdains to be the flat- terer of kings. To them hi§ admonitions are bold and forcible : " Be juft in all your actions, faithful in all yoyjr words, and .remember that thoufands of witneffes haye their CLASSICAL LEARNING. II9 their eyes fixed upon you." Pindar teaches us, with the wifdom of the philofopher, to be contented with our ftation, and to pre- fer mediocrity to greatnefs ; with the mo- ralift to cultivate truth, and to pradife fin- cerity, and to leave to pofterity the exam- ple of a fpotlefs name. He concludes that the firft of human bleffings is to be virtuous, the fecond to be praifed ; and that the man who at the fame time enjoys both thefe diftin&ions, is arrived at the fummit of earthly felicity. " The firft, the greateft blifs on man conferr'd, Is in the acts of virtue to excel ; The fecond to obtain their high reward, The foul- exalting praife of doing well. Who both thefe lots attains is blefs'd indeed, Since fortune here below can give no richer meed." As a poet his vigorous genius is bold, irregular, and impetuous. When he foars to heaven, it is with the eagle's flight, *' With terror in his beak, and lightning in his eye." When he rufhes amidft the lifts of man, it U with the fury of the war-horfe, If '' Whofe 120 COMMENTARIES ON " Whofc neck is clothed with thunder." The images he ufes are fublime, and the didion is refplendent. He gives an air of majefty to all his fubjeds, fo that the rea- der is raifed from the grofs atmoiphere of earth, and conveyed into regions of empy- rean purity. It is faid by Weft that his faults are the excefs of his acknowledged beauties, of his poetical imagination, his warm and enthufiaftic genius, his bold and figurative expreffion, his concife and fen- tentious ftyle. The praifes he beftowed on the vidors in the plains of Olympia, were at once au excitement and a reward of their patriot- ifm. They recalled to their memory their recent vidories over the Perfians, and ani- mated them to every gallant deed in de- fence of their liberty. Indeed the exercifes in general of the Grecian youth, were in- tended to render them ftrenuous defenders of their country. The beauty of Corinna might win from him thofe prizes which were not due to her compositions ; CLASSICAL LEARNING. 121 compositions ; but while he furpafled every other competitor in the public aflemblies of Greece, it might be no difgrace to Apollo to (hare with him the offerings of his al- tar. Pofthumous honors are not only a tri- bute of juftice, but an incitement to lauda- ble emulation. The nobleft employment of ancient ftatuary was to perpetuate the memory of the deferving ; and fix cen- turies after his death, Paufanias faw with admiration the tribute which the Thebans had paid to their countryman. His worth is fealed by the atteftation of enemies, as well as by the enduring record of his friends. Dionyfius Halicarnaffus fays that Pindar is admirable for the choice of his words and of his thoughts : that he has grandeur, harmony, copioufnefs, order, vigour in his exprefiions ; and all this ac- companied with a certain gravity and force, but always mixed with an agreeable fweetnefs : that he is wonderful in his fen- tences, his energy, his figures, his addrefs in expreffing the manners, his amplifica- tions, 122 COMMENTARIES ON tions, his elocution ; and above all for that integrity of mind which appears in his writings ; where temperance, piety, and greatnefs of foul are difplayed throughout. The teftimony to his tranfcendant merit given by the firft of Roman lyric poets, in the fourth ode of his fecond book, deferves our recolle&ion, " He who afpires to reach the towering hefght Of matchlefs Pindar's heaven-afcending flrahi, Shall fink, unequal to the arduous flight ; JLike him who, falling, named the Icarian main. Prefumptuous youth ! to 'tempt forbidden fkies, And hope above the clouds on waxen plumes to rife, Pindar, like fome fierce torrent fwollen with fhower§ Or fudden cataracts of melting fnow, Which from the Alps its headlong deluge pours, And foams and thunders o'er the vales below, With defultory fury borne along, Rolls his impetuous, vaft, unfathomable fong." Francis, Let us hear too our own unrivalled Britifti poet $ f Four fwans Main a car of fjlver bright, With heads advanced, and pinions ftretched for flight j Here, like fome furious prophet, Pindar rode, And feemed to labour with the infpiring god, Acrofs the harp, a carelefs hand he flings, And bpldly links into the founding firings. CLASSICAL LEARNING. 123 The figured games of Greece the column grace ; Neptune and Jove furvey the rapid race. The youth hang o'er their chariots as they run ; The fiery fteeds feem darting from the Hone ; The champions in diftorted poftures threat ; And all appears irregularly great." Temple of Fame. When the Spartans razed the city of Thebes, they fpared the houfe which Pin- dar had inhabited, and Alexander difplay- ed a fimilar veneration For the prince of ly- rifts. How infignificant then is the influence of climate on the genius and character of man, fince Boeotia can boaft of Epaminon* das as its hero, and of Pindar as its poet ! 124 COMMENTARIES ON SECTION IV. Greek Tragedy. Tbefpis, JEfchylux, Sophocles-y Euripides* I ragedy was in its origin only a ruflic fong in honor of Bacchus, f who had found out the fecret .of drawing wine from the grape. The god is fabled to have communicated the invention to Icarius, an inhabitant of Attica, who one day obferving a goat in the a£t of deftroying his vines, facrificed him to his benefa&or. The peafants who were witneffes of the fcene, danced round the vi£tim ; and this cafual frolic became an annual cuftom, and in procefs of time a very folemn rite. In ruftic antiquity all was facred ; fports and amufements were converted into fefti- vals, and temples were frequently meta- morphofed into theatres. The prize con- tended CLASSICAL LEARNING. I 25 tended for by the earlieft poets was a cafk of wine; and the Bacchic hymn, ilnce called tragedy, was denominated the fong of the cafk or of the vintage. The progrefs of the drama to perfection was regular, but flow. To relieve the finger from the preffure of fatigue, Thefpis, a native of Icaria, above five hundred and thirty years before Chrift, introduced a fingle a£tor on the ftage who perfonated fome hero, and pronounced a difcourfe which was called an epifode. Improving on this fimple plan, he exhibited the fame fpeaker in various parts of the imperfect drama, as the narrator of an uniform ftory. For this purpofe he eredted , a temporary ftage upon a cart, and conveyed his rough machinery from town to town, where the faces of his a£tors fmeared with the lees of wine, were the amufement and admiration of a people fond of pleafure, but as yet un- enlightened by tafte. iEfchylus not long poflerior to Thefpis, muft however be regarded as the true in- ventor of tragedy. He was born in Attica, of 126 COMMENTARIES ON of an old and honorable family, and divided his time between philofophy, war, and the theatre. He was initiated in the dodtriner of Pythagoras ; he was prefent at the battle of Salamis, and wounded on the plains of Marathon. The triumphs of his country* therefore, he was well able to celebrate on the ftage ; and in his tragedy of the Per- fians, he difplayed a victory in which him- felf had borne no inconfiderable part. Abftradted from the nature of the fubjedts which were reprefented, tragedy muft have produced a far more powerful efFedt upori the Greeks than on the moderns. It was exhibited by the magiftrates to the whole colledlive body of the people in an immenfe amphitheatre. So mild was the air, that no other canopy than that! of fimple linen was required, and while the magnificence of the ftru&ure captivated the eye, the ear was charmed by the declama- tion of the adtors, which was fuited to a regular rhythm and movement given by an orcheftra of wonderful extent. When we add to this, that the events they cele- 1 3 brated CLASSICAL LEARNING. I27 brated were domeftic, and the heroes their own countrymen, that the epochs were ever prefent to their memory, becaufe the details were the leffons of their childhood, we (hall no longer be furprifed at the eager intereft which was felt by the Greeks in fcenical entertainments. To poetical genius, iEfchylus joined a fpirit inventive of every thing that regards mechanifm and theatrical decoration. He formed thofe majeftic robes which the mi- nifters of the altar borrowed for the cere- monies of religion. The theatre ornamented with the beft paintings of the time, repre- fented all obje&s conformably to the rules and effects of perfpedlive. The ancient, like the modern ftage, exhibited temples, fepulchres, armies, fleets, flying cars, and apparations. He inftituted a choir of figure dancers, and was the creator of panto- mime. The apparatus of the theatre was analo- gous, and indeed neceflary to its fize. The actors were mounted on ftilts ; the maflcs they wore, augmented the natural founds of the 128 COMMENTARIES ON the voice, and veffels of brafs placed in the concavities of the theatre, re-echoed them in a manner and degree altogether incon- ceivable by us. The whole tended to form a fpeftacle which enchanted a people whofe fouls were equally fenfible to harmony and alive to glory. When iEfchylus added a fecond a&or to the individual reciter of Thefpis, Dialogue the germ of tragedy began ; before this innovation, the exhibition was only a fpe- cies of epic poetry, but the tranfition from the epopee to tragedy was more natural and eafy than from the fimple chorufles of Bacchus to the invention of Thefpis. If delufion be at all neceflary to the audience of a theatre, they would be with lefs difficulty deceived into the opinion that the reprefentation was a reality wheri two adtors were introduced, than when the fame a&or played firft the part of Aga- memnon and then of Achilles. Homer, under the guidance of a fuperior understanding, feledted one fubjedt which he has conduced through the whole of his 5 poem. CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1 29 poem. The fame ' principle adtuated iEf- chylus in the choice of one grand, illuf- trious, interefting aftion. He knew that tragedy is but an epic poem abbreviated, that they chiefly differ in the developement of the fubjedt, that the former ought to be lefs charged with incidents, and more lively than the latter. The military genius of iEfchylus is evident in his works; and he was indebted to his martial profeflion for his acquittal before the Areopagus, when accufed by the priefts for exhibiting the myfteries of religion upon the ftage. The wounds he had received at Marathon, pleaded his caufe better than his inno- cence. When far advanced in life, Sophocles, then only twenty-four years of age, became his fuccefsful competitor in a poetical con- teft. He then quitted his country, and retired to the court of Hiero king of Sicily, the friend and protestor of literary men. Here he died in the fixty-fifth year of his age ; and the credulity of the times liftened to a tale, that an eagle miftaking his bald K head 130 COMMENTARIES ON head for a ftone, dropped a tortoife upon it to break the fliell, which inftantly de- firoyed him. Of nearly a hundred tragedies written by iEfchylus* only feven have come down to us; and on thefe, by different critics, extravagant cenfure and unqualified praife have been beftowed. It has been faid that they all favour of the infancy of the art, and that their beauties are more thofe of an epic poem than of tragedy. That the plan of the Prometheus is monftrous ; that the Perfians is without any trace of a&ion or plot ; that the Agamemnon is coldly atro- cious ; that the Coephori is nothing but the well known fubjeft of Eledtra and Oreftes ; and that the Furies is more eftranged from our manners than the Prometheus ; that the Suppliants is a very abfurd ftory, and that the Seven Chiefs at Thebes, except in the chorufles, is extremely tedious. Thefe ftri&ures do not proceed from the coldnefs of criticifm, but from the gall of fatire. It CLASSICAL LEARNING. I3I It may give us fome idea of the eftima- tion in which iEfchylus was holden by his contemporaries, when we are informed that forty of his tragedies were rewarded with the public prize ; and this is an une- quivocal teftimony of his extraordinary merit. So powerful was the effe£t of his genius in exciting martial ardor, that the people marched immediately from the theatre to the battle of Marathon. The engines of terror were fo much at his command, that many perfons died at the exhibition of the Furies. The Agamemnon, the Coephori, and the Furies, form one complete ftory. Agamemnon had promifed his wife Cly- temneftra that if he fhould take Troy, he would apprize her of it by a burning torch placed' on an eminence, which was to be repeated by other torches till the light mould reach to Argos. The information thus communicated by this telegraph of ancient times, and his arrival with his captive Caflandra, the prophetic daughter "k 2 of I32 COMMENTARIES ON of Priam, were not fo defired by Clytem- neftra as the news of his defeat. With the affiftance of iEgifthus, her paramour, fhe projects and perpetrates the murder of her hufband ; and this tragedy, written when ^Efchylus was in the decline of life, deferved the high applaufe and re- ward which it received. The paflions are carried to the higheft pitch, the prophecies of Caflandra are terrific to the greateft degree. Such are her agonies of divination, that we contemplate with filent wonder, an human imagination capable of furnifh- ing her with the ideas, and with words to give them utterance. - In the Agamemnon, the crime is punifh- ed only by thefe predi&ions ; but we find the continuation and the dreadful cata- ftrophe in the Coephori and the Furies, which depi&ure the revenge of Oreftes on the murderers of his father, his madnefs, and his re-eftablifhment on the throne. The opening of the Coephori, or carriers of libations to the tomb of Agamemnon, is CLASSICAL LEARNING. 13 J is Angularly ftriking and noble ; the vene- ration paid by the Greeks to the memory of their parents, and the ceremonies which attended their funerals, ftill excite agreeable fenfations in the feeling mind, although every trace of fuperftition has departed. When Oreftes implores Jupiter to aid him in his proje£t of vengeance, the force and energy of his expreffions feem to defy tranflation. The fufpenfe, the hopes and fears of Ele£tra till Oreftes appears ; his eloquent prayer to Jupiter, after the firft tranfports of their meeting to preferve the few relics of an illuftrious family ; the conflict which pafles in his breaft between the defire of obeying the oracle and fatif- fying his revenge, and the confcioufnefs of the dreadful punifhment which would re- fult to himfelf from his obedience to the god ; thefe various emotions of tendernefs, filial piety, indignation, and terror, have feldom been exhibited in a more impreffive manner, and are fufficient to evince that iEfchylus was a mafter of the tragic art, k 3 and 134 COMMENTARIES ON and capable of producing in his audience thofe effects which hiftory has recorded. If there appear fomewhat of abfurdity in the plan and conduct of the Furies, ftill it difplays an ancient and noble painting of the remorfe which flings a guilty con- fcience. Do not imagine, fays the Roman orator, as you fee reprefented in fables, that thofe who have committed any thing impious, are really terrified and agitated by the torches of Furies. Their own wicked^ nefs, their own fears, are the furies that torment them ; their own crimes affedt them with madnefs; their own evil thoughts and confcioufnefs affright them ; thefe are to the impious conftant and domeflic furies, which day and night demand from wicked children the punifhments due to them by their parents. The fubjed: of thefe tragedies has produced more than a temporary intereft ; fince, befides being con- tended for by the three Greek tragedians, it has been reprefented with general ap- probation on modern theatres. The CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1 35 The Seven Chiefs at Thebes poflefles beauties of a very appropriate kind. The chorufles, one of the mod: brilliant parts of JEfchylus, are here particularly admira- ble. The piece is full of noble traits, and warlike movements ; the fufpenfions are extremely affecting, and the fpedtacle it exhibits is truly aftonifhing. The fubjecl: of the Perfians is the defeat of that people at the battle of Salamis. If it be read by us with indifference, we can eafily acquiefce in the applaufe beftowed upon it by the Athenians. Its recitals, defcriptions, prefages, dreams, and lamentations, which now appear tedi- ous and infipid from the abfence of a com- plicated plot, called forth correfpondent paffions in contemporary fpe&ators, and gratified that ardent love of their country which every circum fiance they faw tended to excite within their bofoms. The Prometheus combines tendernefs with elevation and grandeur. The uncon- querable fpirit of the fon of Japetus, ex- hibits a fpecies of the fublime very different K 4 from 136 COMMENTARIES ON from that fortitude which refults from firm- nefs of nerves or inflexible obftinacy of mind. He whom misfortune cannot fubdue, and whom torture cannot move ; he who pro- FefTes to refill the tyranny of a "cruel deity, and braves every effort of his power, the vulture that tears, and the lightening that blafts, difplays a character fo far fuperior to that which common life prefents, either in the philofopher or the *hero, that we regard him with the veneration due to unexampled magnanimity. If jEfchylus be fometimes obfcure, he is very often fublime ; if his plots be inarti- ficial, his characters are well fuftained. He thoroughly underftood the difpofitions of the Athenians ; he knew them to be fond of liberty, idolaters of their country and of their cuftoms, and difdainful or indifferent about thofe of other nations. If the fubje&s he treated were fimple, they were interefting ; if few in number, they were fele&ed with judgment. On the Grecian ftage, we muft not look for love or galantry. The fpedtators, political and ambitious CLASSICAL LEARNING. 137 ambitious in their views and their purfuits, would have been (hocked at the reprefenta- tion of paffions unworthy the majefty of the tragic theatre. The overthrow oi ftates, the fplendor of republics, the conflid of the higher paffions, were objects con- formed to their chara&er. The writings of -/Efchylus received perhaps a colour from his profeffion as a foldier. They are vivid, bold, and impetuous ; and have been refem- bled to a torrent which rolls down rocks, forefts, and precipices. If his language be fometimes too figura- tive, if his epithets be occafionally too harfh, ftill the claffic can never forget the obligations which he owes to him who firft introduced dialogue on the ftage, rectified the office of the chorus, produced the beau- ties of fcenic decoration, and muft ever be confidered as the great inventor of the ancient drama. When the prize was voted to Sophocles in preference to him, he ap- *1 JL* pealed from the fentence of the judges to the opinion of pofterity, who decreed that bis tragedies fhould be performed at the 4 public I38 COMMENTARIES ON public expence. A ftatue ajui a painting which defcribed his conduct at Marathon; confecrated his memory at Athens. SOPHOCLES. Sophocles was born at Colone, a town of Attica, four hundred and ninety-feyen years before the birth of Chrift. It is rather a remarkable co-incidence, that both he and iEfchylus acquired repu- tation in arms as well as in poetry, So- phocles was a commander in the army of Pericles, and was elevated to the dignity of archon, the firft honor in the republic of Athens. He is faid to have written one hundred and twenty tragedies, of which feven only remain. In domeftic life he was lefs fortunate than in his public career ; his children, difappointed in their eager wifhes for his death, and folicitous for the immediate poiTeflion of his fortune, ac- cufed him of infanity before the Areo- pagus. He CLASSICAL LEARNING. I39 He was acquitted by reading to his judges his play of CEdipus at Colone, which reprefents an old man defpoiied by his children. More flexible and indulgent than CEdipus, he forgave their crime, and admitted them again to his favor. He lived to the age of ninety, and is reported to have died through excefs of joy at having obtained a prize in the Olympic games. Sophocles added a third fpeaker to the dialogue, and advanced the drama in every refpect to perfection. He has no unnecef- fary prologues or epifodes, no violations of probability. His explanations are fine, his plans fagacious, his dialogues noble and animated. His ftyle is never too figura- tive like that of iEfchylus, nor too familiar like that of Euripides. The language of nature, and the eloquence of misfortune, are often with him carried to the higheft point of excellence. Such is the language of the panegyrifts of Sophocles ; and it muft be confefled, upon a review of his writings, I40 COMMENTARIES ON writings, that the ftyle of panegyric is the voice of truth. Ariftotle defines tragedy to be an imita- tion of fome a&ion that is important, entire, and of a proper magnitude, by em- bellifhed language, effeding through terror and pity, the correction and refinement of the paffions. In the Eumenides the chorus confifted of fifty furies, whofe habits, gefture, and whole appearance, was by the art of the poet rendered fo formidable as to frighten the whole audience. A decree was im- mediately iiTued to limit the number of the chorus. The chorus filled up the vacant parts of the drama, particu- larly in an afTecling tragedy, better than the jigs of an Englifh orcheftra, which break in upon and enfeeble the warmed fenfations of the human heart, by a ftrange and unjuftifiable interruption. The play of CEdipus Tyrannus when brought to the teft, will be found fully to correfpond with the definition given by the great CLASSICAL LEARNING. I4X great mafter of criticifm. The ftory of a monarch of a neighbouring country, whofe misfortunes were unparalleled, muft have wonderfully interefted an Athenian au- dience ; for the perufal of it fixes the at- tention, and excites the fympathy of every reader, though ages have elapfed, and though the fcene of adtion is fo diftant. Of the proper decoration of tragedy, we cannot conceive a better idea than from the fcene that firft prefents itfelf. The view is fplendid and multiform : on one fide appears the royal palace with different profpe&s of Thebes : the peftilence which rages i the city has aflembled a crowd of trembling citizens. On all fides groans of lamentation are heard, and the bodies of the dying and the dead obftrucl the paffen- ger in the flreets. Eager every where is the refort to the temples of the gods, and fuperftition alone affords a ray of hope to the wretched fuppliants. In the vefiibule of the palace a triple row of boys, .of youths, and of priefts, is difcovered prol- trate at the altars. CEdipus, routed by the mournful 142 I COMMENTARIES ON mournful clamour, comes forth, and then begins the moft interefting part of the dra- ma, namely the fable. We read of the fall of empires with lefs emotion than is excited by the woes of a imgle family ; nor does Virgil's account of the fatal night in which Troy fell, ftrike the mind with fimilar regret. The conduct of the fable is in every view correfpondent to the ftri&eft rules of the Stagyrite. From the prologue the mind is kept in an awful fufpence and dread ; the difcoveries are moft artfully conducted 5 the revolutions are of the moft tremendous kind ; and unexampled horror attends the cataftrophe. The manners are fuch as become the illuftrious perfonages of the drama; and as they always receive a tincture from the temper of the times, they ihew us that Athens was arrived at its high- eft ftate of politenefs in the time of Sopho- cles. He lived at the moft brilliant sera of the Athenians; in an age of grandeur, replete with the magnificence of riches, of monuments, and o£ fpectacles ; an age of poets, CLASSICAL LEARNING. I43 poets, philofophers, orators, hiftorians, heroes, and great men in every department, above all in that of tragedy ; and was one of the three contemporary authors who raifed it to its higheft eminence. The diction of the CEdipus Tyrannus is uniformly elegant ; the odes are fometimes highly beautiful, fometimes peculiarly fub- lime. The fentiments are fuch as become the fituation of all the fpeakers, and thofe of the chorus are the refult of benevolence, patriotifm, and piety. When (Edipus re- commends his children to the care of Creon, the heart of every parent is thrilled at his expreffions. *■ My fons are men, and wherefoever fortune May place them, cannot want the means of life; They fliall not burthen thee : but, oh ! my friend, What will become of my unhappy daughters, With tendered love, beneath a father's hand Cherimed fo long ? O take them to thy care, Thou belt of men ! O might I but embrace them ; But (bed a tear o'er their difaftrous fate ! Might I bi fiitTcred but to touch them here, I mould rejoice, and think I faw them ftill." Franklin. 7 The 144 COMMENTARIES ON The introdudion of mufic on the Gre- cian theatre, feems to have been attended with the beft effects. The reftrided cho- rus, confiding of fifteen perfons, always in- terefted in the fubjed of the drama, fills up the vacuity of adion, by addrefling the gods in fupplicating ftrains, or by uttering fentiments well worthy of a democratical people. If terror and pity be the true ingredients of tragedy, we cannot refufe our aflent to the affertion of Scaliger, that the CEdipus Tyrannus is the moft tragical of all drama- tic compofitions. But if the end of poetry be to inftrud as well as to pleale, I am bold enough to think that there is an objedion againft the fable of CEdipus, and a defed in the re- quifites which Ariftotle demands. It leaves the mind in a flate of abiolute defpair : the heart is not meliorated, the underftanding is not improved. It does not combine tragic efled with moral tendency; for it enforces no important truths to regulate the condud of human lite. "It CLASSICAL LEARNING. I45 It is faid by Franklin, " that the play of Philo&etes, though extremely barren of dramatic incidents, and diverted of every theatrical ornament, abounds at the fame time in fuch amiable fimplicity, fuch ftrength of colouring, and propriety of chara&er and manners, as may render it even more pleafing to the judicious and claffical reader, than thofe plays of Sopho- cles where the fable is apparently more interefting." There is certainly more dif- ficulty in fpeaking to the heart by the ex- preffion of true fentiments, than in gaining attention by a train of events. When we confider that this play is conftituted of only three perfonages in a defert ; that it never languifhes for an inftant, but, on the other hand, that the intereft rifes and fup- ports itfelf by the moft natural means ; that Philo&etes is in himfelf one of the moft theatrical perfons we can conceive, uniting the greateft bodily miferies with refent- ments the moft natural ; that the cry of vengeance is with him only the cry of op- preffion ; in fhort, that his part is through- ly out I46 COMMENTARIES ON out a perfed model of tragic eloquence : we (hall agree that thofe are juftified, who think they find in this piece the fineft dramatic invention which antiquity can boaft. EURIPIDES. Euripides was about twelve years younger than Sophocles, and born at Salamis in the midft of the fetes which celebrated the de- feat of Xerxes ; an event that has rendered the name of that ifland fo illuftrious. His birth was humble, but his eagernefs for literary acquifitions was very remarkable. Anaxagoras taught him natural philofo- phy, Prodicus inftru&ed him in rhetoric, and the great Socrates was his matter in moral philofophy. To acquire the power of writing tragedy, he is faid to have fequeftered himfelf from the world, and to have lived for a confider- able time in a wild and horrid cave, calcu- lated to infpire him with ideas of terror and fublimity. The jealoufy natural to rivals CLASSICAL LEARNING. I47 rivals exifted for a while between him and Sophocles ; but reflection, the frequent cor- rector of the paflions, at length reconciled them, when they rendered reciprocal juftice to each other, and exhibited mutual proofs of unequivocal friendfhip. Envy and un- popularity, the too conftant attendants on genius, induced him to quit Athens, and to accept the invitation of Archelaus king of Macedon, to refide within the precincts of his court. Here he enjoyed the favor of royal munificence, and the tranquillity of learned eafe. But who has ever been able to boaft of continued happinefs ! Removed from the feat of competition and ridicule, he fuffered a domeftic calamity greater than ufually falls to the lot of man. He loft his wife and three children at one time, and the dire event is faid to have been always prefent to his mind. It had a powerful influence on his temper and his fpirit, and produced that plaintivenefs of manner which is fo confpicuous in his writings. Athenams fpeaks of an epigram written by l 2 him I48 COMMENTARIES ON him on the lofs of his family, of which this is the fenfe. " O fun, who travelled over the immenfity of the heavens, haft thou ever feen fo dreadful a calamity ? What a mother and three children torn at once from my fight !" In this fimple, pa- thetic, and afFe&ing ftyle, does he exprefs the feverity of his anguifh. His death was very unfortunate, for he was torn to pieces by the dogs of Arche- laus; but honors were heaped upon him when he was no longer confcious of their value. The Athenians demanded his body to give it an honorable burial, but Arche- laus refufed to reftore it, being defirous to preferve to his country the remains of a great man ; and the Athenians were redu- ced to the honorable confolation of railing a cenotaph to his memory. A fmall but valuable portion of his plays, nineteen out of eighty, are come down to us : againft fome of thefe the voice of critic cifm has been loudly indignant. The Bacchantes has been faid not to deferve the name CLASSICAL LEARNING. I49 name of tragedy, but to be a dramatic monfter without fhape or comelinefs; It is indeed, throughout, an eulogium on wine and temulence. The Suppliants has more of the tone of tragedy, but the fpecies of intereft it con- tains is purely national, and could not exift but among the Greeks. It is a ques- tion about burial, and Sophocles alone knew how to place in fcenes like thefe a fpecies of beauty that is equally linking and permanent. The Oreftes refembles an opera rather than a tragedy ; the marvellous is employ- ed without art, and the events are accumu- lated without preparation, and without ef- fect The Medea has been imitated by a crowd of authors. There is in that bold forcerefs, a certain fplendor that captivates every beholder. The female character, ren- dered furious by the defertion of him for whom fhe had facrificed every thing, is enfeebled only by her crimes, and by the coldnefs of Jafon. l 3 ' sun %50 COMMENTARIES ON Still the refentments of a wife outraged by an ungrateful man, her defire of ven- geance, her maternal tendernefs, and the diffi mulation with which fhe conceals her fell defigns, produce emotions fo terrific and fo pathetic, as to furnifli fcenes which have never been furpafled. The Iphigenia in Aulis may be regarded not only as the mafter-piece of Euripides, but as the tragedy in which the dramatic art has reached the fummit of perfection. The conteft between nature and ambi- tion, which forms the bafis of the character of Agamemnon ; the joy which appears at the arrival of the mother and the daughter, a circumftance of heart-rending woe to the father ; the moving fcene between him and Clytemneftra ; the horror produced by Areas — " He attends at the altar for the facrifice;" the pretended marriage of Achil- les ; the defpair of Clytemneftra proftrate at the feet of the only defender that remains to her daughter ; the noble indignation of the young hero whofe name is fo impro- perly ufurped ; the tranfports of maternal tendernefs CLASSICAL LEARNING. ijt tendernefs defending a daughter againft an inhuman Kufband ; the modeft refignation of the vidtim, and the fervent and filial prayers fheaddrefles to her father; all thele beauties are the exclufive prerogative of Euripides. The character of Andromache in the play which bears her name, that of Alcefte, that of Medea, many fcenes of the Trojans, the three firft ads of the Hecuba, the two plays of Iphigenia, are monuments of a great genius, and vindicate Ariftotle in deno- minating Euripides the 'mod tragic of poets. If he want the fublimity of iEfchylus, if he do not pofTeis the fweetnefs of Sopho- cles, he balances thefe advantages by fo much pathos and moral fentimcnt as to exhibit the moft touching fcenes of the Grecian drama. The following lines on the origin and progrefs of the drain a, are fubmitted to the candour rather than to the criticifm of the reader: i 4 * Err »5 2 COMMENTARIES ON " Ere art had fmoothed, or fcience had refined The unpolifh'd marble, and uncultured mind Where fam'J Uyfius rolled his filver tide, The'Attic mufes rofe with patriot pride. Here firft Melpomene's foft bofom heav'd, Awaked to life, and triple aid received ; Here the bed patrons rear'd her tender form, And taught her mind to glow like nature warm ; Gave foft eyed Pity, poured Diftraaion wild, And lent Perfuafion's tongue to Virtue's child. Thofe generous thoughts which patriot fouls engage, Were formed and cherifhed by the Athenian ftage ; Thofe arts which mark refinement's early dawn Here burft to light, and beamed a golden morn. The God of war appeared in vivid ftone, And beauty's queen in breathing canvas (hone. Yet rifing Commerce fcarce her fails unfurled, When Roman eagles fought the eaflern world ; Soon as they came, fierce rapine marked their way, Sad was the fcene, for beauty was the prey ; Soon as they came, fell Conquefl: flapped her wing, And every tuneful mufe forgot to finer ; Borne from their Greece to drag the victor's chains, And fwell triumphant pomp on Latian plains. Long did they mourn their native freedom loft, Their much loved patrons, and congenial coaft ; While Tyber's ftreams, with human blood fupplied, O'erflowed his banks, and roll'd in barb'rous pride : The tragic mufe whom love had erft infpir'd Now felt her bread by wildeR paffions fir'd ; Caught the fierce manners of a Roman foul, The reeking dagger, and the poifon'd bowl ; Shewed CLASSICAL LEARNING. I53 Shewed nature's law3, by cuftom's force withftood, And female foftnefs pleafed with fcenes of blood. This her fad tafk, till Latium's happier days, When every art received its meed of praife ; When every mufe might boaft a patron's name. And Rofcius claimed a fhare in Tully's fame ; Again me urged the liberal tear to flow, Nor virtue blufhed to weep at tales of woe 5 No favage pafiions Pity now dethrone, But all again is Attic, and her own. Awhile (he grew beneath the foftering hand, Till Gothic fury fcoured corruption's land ; When boding augurs fpoke the awful doom Of art and fcience, Majefty and Rome, Chafed from her feat, fhe drooped her languid head, Her charms forgotten, and her vigour fhed ; Campania's every elegance lay wafte, And the mufe (lumbered through long nights of tafte. At learning's fecond dawn again fhe rofe, And genius refcued her from bigot foes With joy elate, from all reftraint fet free, Awhile fhe wantoned in her liberty. Her early patrons, formed in rougher mould, Approved her zonelefs veil, and geflures bold. In vain contending lovers fought her fmile, When Britain's guardian (hewed her Britain's IUC She viewed the profpect which his zeal difplay'd, And matchlefs beauties ftruck the ravifh'd maid ; No more fhe mourns the fcenes of early love, Her Homer's martial fields, her Plato's grove ; No more UyfTus is her envied boaft, But freedom's fmiling plains and fea-gtrt coall ; Twai 154 COMMENTARIES ON 'Twas (he who gave to Shakfpeare's deathlefs page, The glowing thoughts that fire the rifing age ; 'Midft fcenic beauties bade the artift trace The forms of fprightly eafe and heaven-born grace ; Taught the young fculptor's hand to ftamp the mien Of love's fly god, and beauty's peerlefs queen ; Well pleafed for Britain's iflc her Greece to quit Where Spartan virtue blends with Attic wit." CLASSICAL LEARNING, I55 SECTION V. On Greek Comedy, the old, the middle, and the new. Anjlophanes, Menander and many Writers, of whom only Fragments are extant. As the manners are its obje&s, comedy, it is probable, would have preceded tra- gedy, which delineates the paffions, had not a cafual circumftance given priority to the latter. The drama was originally under the patronage of the magiftrates; and it was not till a late period that they exhibited comic chorufTes to the people; but although many centuries elapfed before comedy was written, yet, a thoufand years anterior to Chrift, there were a£tors who played for their own advantage. Its complexion indeed was then of the moft extravagant kind. It was an extempore village mafk, where ignorance was invited to applaud the grotefque mimickry of the low and I impudent Ij6 COMMENTARIES Ott impudent buffoon. The ancient comedy- appeared under three forms, and as many appellations. It is at this day not eafy to determine if it had only a fingle, or many contemporary inventors ; but it's mutations appear to havearifen not only from the genius of the writers, but from the laws of magiftrates, and the change of the popular government. Sufarion and Dolon have been called the inventors of comedy, which was acted at Athens on a moveable fcaffold five hundred and fixty-one years before Chrift. But a ftatue of brafs ere&ed to Epicharmus, the Syracufan fchoolm after, announces him, by the infcription on its pedeflal, to have been the firft writer of comedy. He lived four hundred and fifty years before Chrift, during the reign of Hiero the tyrant of Sicily, who punifhed him for certain im- proper jefts exhibited before his queen. All the ancient dramatic writers furnifh us with a fubjecT: of admiration in the num- ber of their works. Epicharmus is faid to have written fifty comedies ; and from the 4 fpecimen CLASSICAL LEARNING. 157 fpecimen of his manner of writing, pre- ferved in a few fragments which have reached us, we have reafon to lament the lofs of the entire compofnions. The author of the Obferver has afforded much enter- tainment to all readers of curiofity and tafte, by prefenting them with many pieces from the ancient comic writers in an En- glifh drefs. An occafional quotation from them will I think not be unacceptable to my readers, who, recollecting from whence they are copied, may perhaps apply to the fame fource for a larger portion of fimilar amufement. Epicharmus introduces a perfon of igno- ble birth, thus addrefling an old woman who had boafted of her anceftry j " Good goffip, if you love me, prate no more ; What are your genealogies to me ? Away to thofe who have more need of them J Let the degenerate wretches if they can, Dig up dead honor from their fathers' tombs. And boail it for their own. Vain, empty boaft J When every common fellow that they meet, If accident hath not cut off the fcroll, Can fhew a lift of anceftry as long. You call the Scythians barbarous, and dcfpife them ; Yet I58 COMMENTARIES ON Yet Anacharfis was a Scythian born : And every man of a like noble nature, Though he were moulded from an JEthiop's loins, Is nobler than your pedigrees can make him." Epicharmus had four contemporary poets who were joint fathers of comedy, but not a veftige remains of their works. A decree which continued in force only two years, prohibiting the reprefentation of comedies, is a convincing proof of the fentiments of the magiftracy on the fubjed, if not of the licentioufnefs of the early dra- ma. It appears then that the comic mufe was not firft introduced, as Horace fays, but re-inftated under Eupolis, Cratinus, and Ariftophanes. Thefe writers of the old comedy, reprefented the habits, ges- tures, and airs of thofe whom they wifhed to expofe to public fcorn. Even perfonal defe&s were not fecure from ftri&ures offeverity. Horace has drawn the cha- racter of thefe poets in a few mafterly ftrokes. " The comic poets in its earlieft age, Thus paint the manners of the Grecian ftage. Was CLASSICAL LEARNING. I59 Was there a villain who might juftly claim* A better right of being doomed to fame, Rake, cutthroat, thief, whatever was his crime, They freely iligmatized the wretch in rhyme." Francis. But it was not the expofure of vice or folly, with which thefe writers were con- tented. Nothing was fpared in fo libertine a ftate as Athens, not even the firft magis- trates, nor the judges who had the power to fandtion or profcribe the comedies. The works of Eupolis and Gratinus are loft ; of the former we have only the titles of twenty of his comedies, and a few frag- ments. It was his character that he ter- rified vice by the feverity of his lafhes ; but he was deftitute of all purity and all grace of ftyle. He flourifhed about four hun- dred and thirty-five years before Chrift, but the fcanty memorials of ancient times fur- nilh us with no other particulars of his pro- feffion or his life. Cratinus was the countryman of Eupo- lis, and fomewhat his fenior. It is record- ed of him, that he abounded in imagina- tion* l6o COMMENTARIES ON tion, and was in pofleffion of an orna- mented ftyle. He obtained nine prizes at the public games, and fuccefsfully repelled the attack of Ariftophanes, who had ridi- culed his infirmities in a comedy denomi- nated the Flaggon. He obtained the laurel from his opponent, and fhortly after expi- red amidft the exultations of his victory. Thirty comedies, the effufions of his genius, have perifhed in the abyfs of time, and fcarcely left a wreck behind. Of the old comedy we fhould have known nothing but the name, had not a part of the writings of Ariftophanes been refcued from the made of oblivion. He was a native of iEgina, a fmall ifiand near Peloponnefus, born about four hundred and thirty-four years before Chrift, and acqui- red by his talents, what he had no legal title to by his birth, the privileges of a citi- zen of Athens. He flourifhed in an age of illuftrious men, when the philofophy of Socrates, the oratory of Demofthenes, and the drama of Euripides, were the admira-. tion of the polifhed ftates of Greece. During CLASSICAL LEARNING. l6l During the Peloponnefian war, he ap- peared lefs as a comic writer whofe obje£t it was to amufe the people, than as a cenfor of their government, and a general reformer. Of above fifty comedies, eleven only have defcended to pofterity ; and of his cha- racter as a writer, it may perhaps be pro- per to form an accurate eftimate, by adopt- ing the mean between the two extremes of his ceniurers and his panegy rifts. It has been objected to him by the for- mer, that he is carelefs in the conduit of his fables, that his fictions are improbable^ and that his jefts are obfcene: that his raillery is rudenefs ; that his language is obfcure, embarrafled, low, and trivial ; that his frequent play upon words, and his mixture of ftyle tragic and comic, are in bad tafte. Plutarch fays that his poetry is a courte- zan on the ftool of repentance, who affe&s the airs of a prude, but cannot place her impudence under fuch reftraints as to be pardoned by the people. That his fait m is 10a COMMENTARIES ON is bitter, fharp, cutting, and ulcerating. He much difapproves his puns and and- thefes, and thinks his jokes more likely to excite a hifs than a laugh ; his amours lefs gay than indecent ; and in fhort that it is not (b much for fcnfible people that he has written, as for men confumed by envy calumny, and debauchery. The enemies of his fame are however at leaft balanced by the zeal of his admirers* The divine Plato, who w r as his contempo- rary, gives him a diftinguifhed place in his banquet ; and is reported to have fent a co- py of the plays of Ariftophanes to Diony- fitis the tyrant, exhorting him to read them with attention, if he wiflied to know tho- roughly the republic of Athens. He adds this hyperbole of praife — that the graces fought for a durable manfion, and fixed at length in the bofom of Ariftophanes. His works are faid to have been refcued from the deftrudtion to which all the comic writers were deftined, by the tafte of St. Chryfoftom, who placed them under bis pillow, as Alexander did the Iliad of Homer, CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1 63 Homer, to read them at night before he went to fleep, and in the morning at waking. A modern French encomiaft, Madame Dacier, thing comparable to the pleafure of reading him. When on common topics, he is not low ; when fublime, he rifes without ob- fcurity, and is then equal to iEfchylus and M 2 to 164 COMMENTARIES ON to Pindar. That his wit is of various kinds, general and local ; his powers of humour unrivalled. That his fatire againft vice, leaves no fhelter to ignorance or immora- lity. That whoever has ftudied the re- mains of ancient Greece, but has not read Ariftophanes, cannot know all the charms and all the beauties of the language." Ariilotle defines comedy to be a picture of human nature worfe and more deform- ed- than the original. The firft part of this definition only feems to be correfl:, and thofe critics who accufe Ariftophanes of adopting the latter part of it, feem to forget that the applaufe given to a writer by the general voice of his contemporaries, at a time.w T hen envy interpofes its baneful influence, may be confidered as the true teft of his merit. The comedies of Ariftophanes being written during the Peloponnefian war, an intimate acquaintance with the events of that period is required, to enable us tho- roughly to underftand his allufions. He CLASSICAL LEARNING. 165 He has been much cenfured for his ridi- cule of Socrates. The fchools of the fophifts were fair objects of derifion ; their contra- dictory firft principles, their daemons, clouds, water, and fire ; their devices to catch the vulgar, and the affected rigour of their manners, were fit fubje&s for the ftriftures of the fatirift. In the play of the Clouds, Ariftophancs laughs at the doctrine of the philofopher, and fhews how the cunning of his difciples might draw fuch inferences from it as would annihilate all fubordination, and give colour to every fpecies of difhonefty and fraud. The fon who beats his father, and who defrauds his creditors, arguing philo- fophically that he has a right to do fo, is an inftance of the facility with which the fcholars of Socrates could pervert the pre- cepts of their mailer. Although the interval between the re- prefentation of this play, and the trial of Socrates, was twenty-five years, it prepared the unjuft procefs againft that incompara- ble man, for the accufations of Anytus M 3 were 1 66 COMMENTARIES ON were precifely the fame with thofe which the poet brings againft the philofopher. If it be obferved that fuch a fpedtacle of buf- foonery and impiety was never endured a in any other nation, it may be anfwered that the Athenians, efcaped from the tyranny of the Pififtratides, patted to the extreme of liberty, and to all the abufes of democracy. Thefe abufes were balanced by the patriot fpirit that animated all Greece at the mo- ment of the invafion of Darius and Xerxes. But as danger produced virtue, victory brought luxury and corruption in its train. Athens was the mod powerful, the richeft, the vaineft, and the mod diflblute of all the republics of Greece, in the time of Pericles, which was that of Ariftophanes. On the other hand, the Archons found the fchools fo detrimental to the morals of youth, that they expelled the mafters ; and the Lacedaemonians, a grave and virtuous people, fuffered no philofophers to open feminaries of education. It is the bufmefs of comic writers to paint the manners as they rife. Thefe are perpetually CLASSICAL LEARNING. 167 perpetually changing : in'paffing to pofte- rity, they come to a new world which does not recognife them ; the fame obje&s and the fame tafte of ridicule do not exift in diftant ages ; and hence it is that the mufe of Ariftophanes appears to us with the wildnefs of a bacchante, and that (he feems to carry under her tongue the poifon of the viper or the afp. But is not comedy to be an image of common life ? Is it not her province to exhibit on the theatre the. prevalent vices and follies of the age, and to correct them by the fear of ridicule ? Ariflophanes might plead the cuftom of the times, in vindication of his introducing individual chara&ers into his drama. A better tafte prevailed a fhort time after, and it is more grateful to our feelings to fee general vices attacked upon the ftage, than the defe&s of particular perfons expofed to public derifion. " Bond ig but one, but Harpax is a feore." M 4 It l68 COMMENTARIES ON It is not wonderful that Plutarch, a Greek, a courtier, and one who lived in the time of Trajan, fhould be offended with the ftyle of Ariftophanes. Its variations, however, were fuitable to the variety of his characters. Quintilian greatly approves the old comedy, and fays that it almoft ex- clufively retains the Attic purity ; that it is energetic, elegant, and graceful ; and, next to Homer, is better adapted to form the orator than any other compofition. But it muft be confefled that mortifica- tion and chagrin Simulated Ariftophanes to vilify the moft refpe&able chara&ers. He hated and burlefqued Euripides, Socrates^ and Anaxagoras, becaufe they defpifed his comedies too piuch to attend the reprefen- tation of them, and denominated them fcandalous farces : perhaps they ought to have remembered, that comedy is the flave of the reigning tafte. Ariftophanes, as it is well faid by the author of the Obferver, f fnakes ufe of choruffes, fome fo fanciful and imaginary, as to be obliged to create as CLASSICAL LEARNING. 169 as it were a new language for them. Gods and heroes demand a fwelling tragic pomp, fuch as that of the tragedians ; and this ex- cellence is difcrimination of character. If we are allowed to argue and decide by events, we fhall not be difpofed to lavifh a large {hare of blame on him for his expo- fure of the fophifts, from the reflection that the liberties of Athens were victims at the fhrine of falfe philofophy. When Arifto- phanes attacked Pericles, whofe name was revered throughout Greece, the Athenians were not difpleafed, becaufe they confi- dered it as a fymbol of republican equality. A comic poet was then a party man, who offered his advice on public affairs, and fpoke on the ftage as declaimers did in the affemblies of the people. The fubjed: of the Acarnanians, for inftance, is entirely a political one. "When Athens and Lace- daemon had mutually ravaged each other, and a negociation for peace was propofed, the generals Cleon and Lamachus refill the • overtures, which Ariftophanes advifes them to accept. He burlefques thefe generals ^without I70 COMMENTARIES ON without due difcrimjnation : he reprefents Cleon in his true character, intriguing and eloquent ; but he does not treat Lamachus with the candour which is his due ; Lama- chus, a noble foldier who died fighting for his country before Syracufe ! The Athenians, light and frivolous, heard with more attention the fatire of their comic poets, than the more labored and ferious harangues of their orators". With refpedt to the charge of indecency of language, it may be obferved, that the Greeks had a general cuftom of living with courtezans in the mod free and unreferved manner in their own houfes, while their wives were kept with great ftridtnefs in the interior, intent on domeftic affairs, and the nurture of their children. This fort of life, which the religion of the Athenians fanfti- fied, would have a natural tendency to pro- duce laxity of manners and converfation ; and perhaps every exception we take to the writings of Ariitophanes, may find a pal- liation in the reigning modes, the fpirit, and the government, of Athens. There is, at CLASSICAL LEARNING. 171 at firft view, a feeming contradiction in the chara&er of the Athenians, who punifhed a contempt of the gods with the utmoft Severity, and yet allowed it in Euripides and Ariftophanes. Comedies were not per- formed by public authority more than three or four times in a year : but thofe were the feafls of Bacchus, when unbri- dled licence was allowed both to the wri- ters and the a£tors. Judges named by the ftate examined the merit of the pieces be- fore their reprefentation, and the fuffrages of the majority determine^ which fhould be crowned as victorious, and exhibited with all poffible pomp to the people. An olive crown was affigned to Arifto- phanes in a public aflembly; nor is it fair to acquiefce in the partiality of which his judges have been fufpeded, fince felicita- tion and cabal, caprice and prejudice, have in all ages been imputed by the unfuccefsful candidates, and fometimes perhaps too juftly, to the deciders on literary fame. The following are fome pleafant frag- ments of the writers of the old comedy, who IJZ COMMENTARIES ON who fee m to have abounded both in wit and fentiment. Crates a comic poet, and a celebrated a£tor, two characters very frequently com- bined at that time, has left us the following refle&ions on old age. *' Thefe (hrivelled finews, and this bending frame, The workmanship of time's ftrong hand proclaim ; Skilled to reverfe whate'er the gods create, And make that crooked which they fafhion ftraight. Hard choice for man ! to die, or elfe to be That tottering, wretched, wrinkled, thing you fee f Age, then, we all prefer ; for age we pray ; And travel on to life's laft lingering day. Then finking flowly down from worfe to worfe, Find heaven's extorted boon our greateft curfe." Pherecrates a comic writer contemporary with Plato and Ariftophanes, and the in- ventor of one of the metres ufed by Horace, " Grato Pyrrha fub antro" has left only a few lines, and thofe no very flattering teftimony to the fobriety of his country-* women. " Remark how wifely ancient art provides The broad-brimmed cup with flat expanded fides 5 A cup CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1^3 A cup contrived for man's difcreter ufe, And fober potions of the generous juice. But woman's more ambitious, tbirfty foul, Soon longed to revel in the plenteous bowl : Deep and capacious as the fwelling hold Of fome flout bark, (he (haped the hollow mould ; Then turning out a vefTel like a tun, Simpering, exclaimed, Obferve ! I drink but one." Amipfias, another writer at the fame period, has left us the titles only of his plays, but from them we may form a cor- rect judgment of their tendency. They are, the Gamefters, the Glutton, the Beard, the Adulterers, and the Philofo- pher's cloak. Every relique of their works {hew, that with an unfparing hand they laihed all the prevailing vices of their country, and that their inftruments of punifhment infli&ed wounds too deep and fevere for the delicate texture of the Athe-* nian character. Impiety having fucceeded to lnfolence, the licence of which Socrates was the vic- tim, was at length reftrained by law, and the middle comedy was fubftituted for the old. In this the writers traced living cha- racters 174 COMMENTARIES ON rafters under' fictitious names, and the people delighted in finding out the refem- blance. Controlled by the Macedonian princes, the mufe of Ariftophanes was com- pelled to take a milder ftrain ; and death had flopped the impetuous tongue of De- mofthenes. The bitter Cratinus himfelf was compelled to war only with the dead, and to ridicule the Odyfley of Homer. The author of the Obferver juftly re- marks, that the loofe hold which the efta- bliflied religion had upon the minds of the common people, arifing probably from the influence of the new philofophy, may be feen in fome of the writers of the middle comedy, whofe fatire againft the gods would not have been tolerated" in iEfchylus or Ariftophanes, Diodorus was a native of Senope, a city of Pontus, the birth-place of many eminent poets and philofophers. The following fragment written by him remains, and was fpoken by a perfon fuftaining the character of a parafite. " All other arts, have been of man's invention without the help of the 1 1 gods ; CLASSICAL LEARNING. I75 gods; but Jupiter himfelf, who is our part- ner in trade, firft taught us how to play the parafite; and he, without difpute, is of all the gods the greater!:. 'Tis his cuf- tom to make himfelf welcome in every houfe he enters, rich or poor, no matter which ; w r herever he finds the dinner table neatly fpread, the couches ready fet, and all things in decent order, down fits he without ceremony, eats, drinks, and < makes merry, and all at free coft, cajoling his poor hofl: ; and in the end, when he has filled his belly and bilked his club, cooly walks home at his leifure." Very copious collections from the writers of the middle comedy have been made, and well tranflated by the fame ingenious author. . Eubulus, a native of Atama in Lefbos, a celebrated poet, and the author of fifty comedies, introduces Bacchus laying down thefe temperate and moral rules : " Three cups of wine a prudent man may take; The firft of thefe foi conftitution's fake: The I76 COMMENTARIES Otf The fecond to the girl he loves the bed : The third and laft to lull him to his reft : Then home to bed. But if a fourth he pours, That is the cup of folly and not ours. Loud noify talking on the fifth attends ; The fixth breeds feuds and falling out of friends. Seven beget blows and faces^ftained with gore ; Eight, and ths watch patrole breaks ope the door. Mad with the ninth, another cup goes round, And the fwilled fot drops fenfelefs on the ground. " Plato was ftyled the prince of the middle comedy. The following are his lines on the tomb of Themiftocles : " By the fea's m?.rgin on the watery ilrand, Thy monument Themiftocles mall ftand : By this directed to thy native more, The merchant mail convey his freighted ftore. And when our fleets are fummoned to the fight, Athens mail conquer with thy tomb in fight." The licentioufnefs of the Athenian ftage being thus in fome degree corrected, a way- was made for the introdu&ion of the third epoch called the New Comedy, This was an exquifite refinement of the rnagiftrates, who having firft abolifhed real 2 names, CLASSICAL LEARNING. I77 names, they now abolifhed real fubjeds, and a too flanderous chorus. The poets were therefore reduced to the neceffity of pro- ducing on the ftage, fubjeds and names of pure invention, by which the theatre was both purified and enriched, for then comedy ceafed to be a Megsera armed with torches, and became an agreeable and innocent mirror of human life. Such was the comedy of Menander, of whom Quintilian fays, that he has obliterated the name of all the writers in that depart- ment, and thrown them into the fhade by the tranfcendency of his own luftre. Me- nander was born, about three hundred and forty-five years before Chrift, at Athens, and educated under the peripatetic philo- fopher Theophraftus. He began to write for the ftage at twenty years of age, and did not difgrace his compofitions by per- fonal fatire, but was replete in the elegance of ftyle, refined wit, and corred judgment. Terence borrowed all his plays from him but his Phormio and Hecyra, hence Csefar ftyled him the Demi-Menander. Of a hun- *J dred I78 COMMENTARIES ON dred plays, only fomc fragments and titles remain, containing fentiments of various kinds, moral, fublime, and gloomy. The teftimonies in his favour are numerous and refpeftable. Quintilian fays he eclipfes every writer of his clafs ; Dion Chryfoftom recommends him as a model for all who jftudy to excel in oratory. The ftyle of Menander, fays Plutarch, is always uniform and pure. He has the addrefs to adjuft himfelf to the different characters without neglecting the comic in any degree, where the nature of the object renders it neceffary. He attained a per- fection to which no artizan has known how to reach. For what man has ever had the art to form a mafk calculated alike for children and women, divinities and heroes? but Menander has found this happy fecret. His works difparage thofe of the philofophers ; and he is, with regard to them, a meadow enamelled with flowers, where one delights to refpire -an air that is pure. He CLASSICAL LEARNING. I79 He does not neglect the comic, nor out- rage it. He never lofes fight of nature, and the fupplenefs and flexibility of his ftyle has never been furpafled. It is like a limpid ftream which, running between ir- regular and tortuous banks, takes all forms without loling aught of its purity. He writes like a man of fpirit, a man of the world ; he was made to be read, repre- fented, learned by heart ; to pleafe in all places, and at all times ; and in reading his pieces, we are not furprifed to find that he pafled as a man who expreffed himfelf moft agreeably, both in converfation and in wri- ting, of any of his age. How can we fufficiently lament the lofs of an author of w^hofe excellence we may form fome judgment, both from the tefti- mony of the ancients, and the valuable works of Terence, who clofely imitated, if he did not literally tranflate him ! Menander was drowned as he w r as bathing ; fome fay he drowned himfelf becaufe Philemon triumphed over him in a poetical conteft. n 2 The l80 COMMENTARIES ON The fragments of his works cited by- various authors are not very favourable to his philanthropy. There is one, however, of a comic turn from the minftrel, pointed at avarice* •' Ne'er truft me, Phemius, but I thought till now That you rich fellows had a knack of fleeping A gbod found nap, that held you all the night. And not like us poor rogues who tofs and tumble, Sighing ah me ! and gtumbling at our being. But now I find, in fpite of all your money, You reft no better than your needy neighbours, And forrow is the common lot of all." The new comedy continued from the death of Alexander of Macedon to that of Menander. It was a fplendid aera, abound- ing in comic writers of great celebrity, of whom we have now only a barren catalogue of names. Philemon, the fuccefsful rival of Menander, feems to have been plaintive and melancholy in his writings. The author of the Obferver confirms this opinion by his tranfiation of the fol- lowing fragments : CLASSICAL LEARNING. ?8l 11 O Cleon, ceafe to trifle thus with life, A mind fo barren of experience Can hoard up nought but mifery, believe me; The (hip-wrecked mariner muft fink outright Who makes no effort to regain the more. The needy wretch who never learned a trade And will not work, muft ftarve. What then ? you cry My riehes ! frail fecurity : — my farms, My houfes, my eflate : alas ! my friends, Fortune makes quick defpatch, and in a, day Can ftrip you bare as beggary itfelf. Grant that ye now had piloted your bark Into good fortune's haven, anchored there, And moored her fafe as caution could devife ; t Yet if the headftrong paflion feize the helm And turn her out tofea, the ftormy gufts Shall rife, and blow you out of fight of port, Never to reach profperity again. What tell you me ? have I not friends to fly to ? I have : and will not thofe kind friends protect me ? Better it were you mould not need their fervice, And fo not make the trial. Much I fear Your finking hand would only grafp a made." The fame poet fings thus alfo : M Still to be rich, is ftill to be unhappy j Still to be envied, hated, and abufed, Still to commence new law-fuits, new vexation^ ; Still to be racking, ftill to be collecting, Only to make your funeral a feaft And hoard up riches for a thriftlefs heir. Let me be light in purfe, and light in heart , n 3 Give 18: COMMENTARIES ON Give me fmall means, but give content withal. Only prcferve me from the law, kind gods ! And I will thank you for your poverty." Philemon lived above a hundred yeau and feems to the lateft period of his life to have derived his happinefs from his mufe. This was the laft fpecies of Grecian comedy, and the Romans fhewed their high eft^mation of it, for they did not at- tempt to imitate the works of Menander, but were the fervile and literal tranflators of them. The models indeed had much merit to recommend them, and from the fcanty fpecimens that remain, we may pre- fume that they abounded in juft opinions cf life and manners; by indulging their talent for ridicule on topics of a general nature, they were more likely to benefit fociety than their predeceffors, who grati- fied their fpleen by the representation of perfonal defe&s, and the expofure of the vices and the follies of individuals. This is an imperfed, but as far as it goes, I truft, a juft account of the progrefs of 4 the CLASSICAL LEARNING. • l8j the Grecian drama. It owed its origin mod unqueftionably to the peruiul or" the poems of Homer ; and Pififtratus, who ob- tained them by public proclamation from the rhapfodifts, and preferved them from political interpolations, and the mutilations of defective memory, mud be coniidered as worthy the perpetual veneration and gratitude of learned men. The tafte of an age and country may in general be known by the particular fpecies of its literary works. ' It appears wonderful to us at this day, to be told that Euclid had collected three thoufand plays, and that his collection was imperfect, and that when Terence was writing, Rome had two thoufand Greek comedies. But we mud not imagine that an idle fondnefs for fpectacles actuated the Athenians in their rage for theatrical amufe- ments ; the reprefentations came home both to their bufinefs as republicans, and to their boibms as men. In their dra na we fhall find, as Francklin has obferved, M a moft exact and faithful picture of the manners of Greece, its religious and civil n 4 poiLy, 184 COMMENTARIES ON policy, fublimity both of fentiment and di&ion, regularity, fymmetry and propor- tion, excellent moral aphorifms and reflec- tions, together with a moft elegant and amiable fimplicity diffufed throughout every page. Befides this, it was not as with us a mere matter of amufement, but the channel of public inftru&ion, and the inftrument of public policy," CLASSICAL LEARNING, I 8j SECTION VI. Pajioral Poetry. — Epigram, — Theocritus.— Bion.—Mof • cbus.-mAnthologia. i astoral poetry is more at variance with our experience than any other. Our climate, and the ignorance of our (hepherds, gives it an air of fi&ion and of fable which takes away much of the pleafure it might otherwife afford to the reader. But in ancient times every fhepherd was mufical and poetical ; and in Sicily to this day there are contentions between the ruftic performers on the flute. Theocritus was born, nearly three cen- turies before the chriftian sera, at Syracufe. He has written thirty eclogues, and the Doric dialed gives him a decided pre- eminence in this fpecies of poetry. Some of his lines on the paflions are well expref- fed. That poem in which he reprefents a fhepherdefs l86 COMMENTARIES ON fhepherdefs employing magic to bring back a fugitive lover, has-been confulered as one of the mod impaffioned pieces which the ancients poffefTed. His predo- minant chara&er is fimplicity, but this fimplicity fometimes defcends to groffheis. He prefents the reader with too many indifferent circumftances, and his fubje.cls have too much refemblance. Contentions on the flute, and quarrels between fhep- herds, are to us infipid in themfelves, and tirefome by their repetition. They neither excite our curiofity, nor awaken our fym- pathy. The half-attentive reader begins with languor and finifhes with difguft. Bion and Mofchus were contemporaries of Theocritus, the one of Smyrna, the other of Syracufe. They both wrote with eafe and elegance. Their IdylHa pofTefs a pecu- liar delicacy, and their elegies are tender and fentimental. The ode of the former on the death of Adonis has been much celebrated, and in- deed in general the verfes of both thefe poets feem to have been written with more care CLASSICAL LEARNING. I 87 care than thofe of Theocritus, but are not wholly devoid of affe&ation. The lover of rural fcenes will be grati- fied by the images which theyprefent him, and cannot fail to admire the fweetnefs and elegance of the poetry. GREEK EPIGRAM. In the modern fenfe of the word, the epigram is, of all kinds of poetry, that which approaches neareR to fatire, fince it has the fame objects, cenfure and raillery. The word now applies to an ingenious thought or turn of expreffion, which con- ftitutes the merit of a fhort poem. But the term in itfelf fignifies only an infcrip- tion, and it has retained amongft the Greeks its etymological acceptation. The epigrams colle&ed by Agathias, Planudes, Conftantine, Hierocles and others, which compofe the Greek Anthologia, are but little more than infcriptions for reli- gious offerings, for tombs, ftatues and monuments. They are for the mod part extremely l88 COMMENTARIES ON extremely fimple, in conformity to their objeft, which is only to relate a fa Fhefe, proftrate all, in duft and ruins lie, But thy tranfcendent fame can never die. 'Tis not in fate to fink thy glories paft ; They fill the world, and with the world (hall lift." LTCOPHRON. Lycophron was born at Chalcis in Eubcea in the time of Ptolemy Philadel- phus, about two hundred and feventy-fix years before Chrift, when a galaxy of learned men gave fplendour to the age. All that remains of his writings, except the mere titles of fome tragedies, is a work intitled the Caffandra, containing the fup- pofed prophecies of the daughter of Priam uttered during the Trojan War. They are delivered, by the keeper of the tower in which {he was lodged, to the king. Lyco- phron has been acculed of great obfeurity : but, as the reader is informed at the outfet that the prophetefs was dark in her pre- fages, he cannot furely, after that informa- tion, expe& to find the poet afford him a very intelligible recital. In defence of this writer, it has been faid that the nature of his poem involved dif- 2 ficulty IgO COMMENTARIES ON Acuity in it ; but as he has always under- flood himfelf, by due labour and attention he may be uuderftood by the reader : that where it was permitted him to be clear, no poet is mQre fo : that he has all the fire, of Pindar, and contains paffages which would gladly have been claimed by the firft writers in Greece and Rome : that when Horace delivers the beautiful pro- phecy of the deftruction that was to be the confequence of the rape of Helen, he is a dole imitator of the Caffandra. It ieems to have been the cuftom with the Latin poets to confider the works of the Greeks as a common (lock which they had a right to pillage: but the poem of Lycophron has been fo little read, that many plagiarifms from him have efcaped cMervation. There is a certain intellectual cowardice in the generality of fcholars* which renders them unwilling to attack the works of authors who have too rafhly been condemned and laid a fide for a fuppofed impenetrable obfcurity. He CLASSICAL LEARNING. I9I He who has the fpirit to think for him- felf, and the refolution to encounter labour, will find that the apparent difficulties of Lycophron are not infuperable as he at firft conceived ; but that they yield to the pet fevering efforts of application. Every obftacle is eafily removed w T hen the powers of mechanifin are furnmoned to the aid of individual ftrength. A vigorous exertion of the fame talents which finds connexion in the choruffes of iEfchylus, will difperfe the clouds that darken the prophecies of Caffandra. I9 2 COMMENTARIES ON SECTION VII. On Grecian Oratory. Pericles, Lyfias, Ifocrates, Hype- rides, If&us, JEfchines, Demojlhenes. W hen we pafs from poetry to eloquence* objects the moft ferious and important, ftudies the moft fevere and demanding the deepeft reflection, take place of the fports of the imagination. I do not mean to fay that imagination is not eflential to the orator ; or that the poet, in the moft lofty flights of enthufiafm, ought to lofe light of reafon ; but the one predominates in eloquence, the other in poetry. The tranfition, however, is from the amufements of youth to the labours of maturerage ; for, poetry is converfant with pleafure, eloquence with bufmefs. Poetry is a ferious occupation to the writer only, and a delightful entertainment to the reader of tafte and feeling. But when the orator declaims CLASSICAL LEARNING. 193 declaims, or the ftatefman deliberates in a popular affembly, eloquence is a moft ufeful art, and well calculated to attract the vene- ration of the citizens. It fhews that there is a natural connection between genius and virtue, and that knowledge and talents are the true inftruments of national fafety and felicity. If they have fometimes deviated from their original inftitution, the inference is, that being a fpecies of power, they have in bad hands been perverted into inftru- ments of oppreflion. No argument is hence to be drawn againft their dignity or their value. The qualifications neceflary to form the orator have been delineated by one of the gr^ateft that ever appeared, and are fo numerous as to render men of common acquirements hopelefs of obtaining them. When the theatre reprefents to us tem- ples, palaces and groves, the fpe&ator is enchanted by the fpectacle ; but he ought to remember that the artift who produces * this agreeable illufion, muft have ftudied the effects of perfpe&ive, the advantage o gf 194 COMMENTARIES ON of light and fhade, and the magic of co- lours. It is a remarkable trait in the hiftory of the human mind, that there have been only two republics which have left to the world perpetual models of poetry and eloquence. It is as from the bofom of liberty that thofe lights of good tafte were twice dif- fufed which now illuminate the polifhed nations of Europe. Of thefe two great empires, nothing remains except the recol- lection of annihilated grandeur, but the fine arts are the noble inheritance which we have recovered from the ruins of Athens and of Rome. It is in Athens, fays Cicero, that the firft orator exifted, and this orator was Pericles. He flourifhed, about four hun- dred and twenty years before Chrift; and although Pififtratus and Clifthenes, who preceded him, had merit for their time, and Themiftocles poffeffed the art in a confiderable degree, yet before him there was no true eloquence. The names of many orators who were contemporary with Pericles CLASSICAL LEARNING. I9J Pericles remain, but as none of their works are in exiftence, we can only loofely con- jecture the reigning tafte of the age. Their ftyle was fententious, but on account of its precifion* it was fomewhat obfcure. From perceiving the effefts which a well compofed difcourfe could produce, there ftarted up a race who offered themfelves as profeflbrs of the art of oratory. Gorgias Leontinus, Thrafimachus, Protagoras, Pro- dicus Hippias, and many others obtained celebrity in their profeffion ; but it was not much in favour of their art that they de- clared themfelves capable of making a bad caufe appear a good one. Lyfias, the fon of Cephalus, was a native of Syracufe, and born about four hundred and fixty years before our sera. Imme- diately after his birth his father removed to Athens, and there he carefully educated his lbn. In his fifteenth year, Lyfias ac- companied the colony which the Athenians fent to Thurium ; and after along refidence in that place, returned home in his forty- feventh year. He diftinguifhed himfeif o 2 by I96 COMMENTARIES ON by the pure ftyle of his orations, of which thirty- four only remain out of two hundred and thirty. The manners of the Athenians may be feen in a clear point of view in his firft oration, and the learned reader will think that the fcene lies in London, and that the event has taken place in the nine- teenth century. The moft celebrated lawyer at the Eng- lifli bar would be delighted with the perufal of this oration, and not difdain on a fimilar occafion to defend his client with the arms of L\fias. He furvived to the eighty-firft year of his age. Ifocrates was born at Athens about four hundred and -thirty-feven years before Chrift. His father was a maker of mufical inftruments. He never fpoke in public, but opened a fchool of eloquence* Thirty- one of his orations are (till extant. His fchool, which was open fixty years, was the moft celebrated in Greece, and ren- dered great fervice to the art of oratory, as Cicero attefts in thefe words : " He was a great orator, a perfect matter of the art, 1 i and, CLASSICAL LEARNING. I97 and, without fhining in the roftrum, with- out quitting his own houfe, arrived at a degree of celebrity which no one elie had attained. He wrote well, and taught others to write well. He knew better than his predeceflbrs the oratorical art in all its departments. But, above all, he was the firft to underftand that if profe ought to have the rhythm of verfe, it ought at leaft to have numbers, and an harmony which are proper to itfelf." The remains of his orations infpire the reader with the higheft veneration for his abilities, and his virtues. He was intimate with Philip ; and to this the Athenians owed fome years of peace. The afpiring ambition of that monarch however, difgufted him ; and after the battle of Chseronea he did not furvive the difgrace of his country, but died after refu- fing aliment for four days, in the ninety- ninth year of his age. The fevere conduit of the Athenians againft Socrates had fo highly difpleafed him, that he put on mourning the very day of his death. o 3 The I98 COMMENTARIES ON The beauties of language may fucceff- fully be fought for in Ifocrates. The fmoothnefs of his ftyle, the eafe, the ele- gance, the delicacy, and the fweetnefs of his expreffions, captivate every ear that is attuned to harmony. His attention to excellencies of this fort was laborious and minute. Ten years, he confefles to have been employed on one of his orations, and many of the others are the fruit of long protracted induftry. The qualifications with which nature endowed Ifocrates, he wifely cultivated and improved. His knowledge was fuperipr to his rhetoric. While we admire the orator, we reverence the philofopher, and are enchanted at his delivery of truths which evince an en- lightened underftanding and an upright heart. The love of his country was an aftive principle which warmed him to en- thufiafm, but it did not exclude the more generous principle of philanthropy. The great orator of Greece could difcern no- thing worthy of praife but in his native Athens, CLASSICAL LEARNING. I99 Athens, and Rome exclufively might boaft the eulogies of Tully ; but merit, whether in Greek or Barbarian, was recognized by Ifocrates. He well knew that genius and virtue are not the growth or invention of any particular country, but the ornament and pride of every one where they flou- rifh. Hyperides had every advantage which could attend the education of an orator, for he was taught by Plato and by Socrates. We learn that he was frequently oppofed to Demofthenes, and from this circum- ftance we may form fome judgment of his merit. One only of his orations is extant, a fair fpecimen of his ability ; but Longinus, who read them all, decides his character. He fays that Hyperides has all the qualities wanting to Demofthenes, but that he never elevates himfelf to the fublime. Amidft the firft orators in the fecond rank, is Ifseus the preceptor of Demofthenes, born about three hundred and eighty years before Chrift* He was born at Chalcis in o 4 Euboea, 20O COMMENTARIES ON Euboea, and when he came to the feat of learning, he placed himfelf under the in- ftru&ion of Lyfias. His eloquence was vigorous and energetic; and thofe qualities obtained him the praife and imitation of his illuftrious pupil. Ten out of fixty-four of his orations are extant, and they vindi- cate the approbation bellowed upon him by Demofthenes. JEfchines flourifhed at Athens about three hundred and forty-two years before Chrift. It was his glory to have been the rival of Demofthenes, and his difgrace to have been bribed by Philip of Macedon. To his envy of the former we are in- debted for the two orations De Corona, when Ctefiphon propofed to reward the patriotifm of his friend, and the fpeakers exerted all their powers, the one in op- pofing, the other in defending the pro- pofal. However well known the fubjecl, it may not be improper to refer to thefe two celebrated fpeeches in confidering the lite- rary character of thefe diftinguifhed orators. There CLASSICAL LEARNING. 201 There could not be produced a ftronger proof of their abilities, for each of them employed more than four years in pre- paring himfelf for the conteft. Their ani- mofity was fo well known throughout Greece, that it drew together an immenfe concourfe from all parts to fee the combat between thefe two great men who had become fo celebrated by their rivalry. After their defeat at Chasronea, the Athenians, fearful of being befieged, began to repair their walls. Demofthenes ad- vifed the meafure, and was charged with the execution of it. In this office he ac- quitted himfelf fo nobly that he furnifhed from his private fortune, a confiderable fum for this patriotic purpofe. Gtefiphon de- manded of the Athenians that they fhould honor him with a crown of gold as a reward of his generofity. The decree pafled, importing that the proclamation fhould be made in the theatre during the feftival of Bacchus, when all Greece was aflembled to behold the fpe&acle. jEf- chines had long been the enemy of Demofthenes, 202 COMMENTARIES ON Demofthenes, and the " Odium in longum jacens" gladly feized on the prefent favour- able occafion to difplay itfelf. He was pofleffed of great talents, and a happy organization, which he had exer- cifed ^very early in life, having been bred up a comedian. But he had alfo a venal foul, and was one of the J many orators who had bartered his independence for money. < The prefent accufation of iEfchines turned on three points of law. That no citizen charged with any admi- niftration fhould be crowned, and that Demofthenes had been charged with the expence of the public fpe&acles, and the reparation of the walls. That a decree of coronation carried by the fenate fhould not be proclaimed elfe- where than in the fenate itfelf, whereas that of Ctefiphon ought to have been proclaimed according to its tenor in the theatre. That the decree imported that the crown was to be given to Demofthenes. for the fervices CLASSICAL LEARNING. 20$ fervices which he had rendered to the ftate, while, on the contrary, Demofthenes had done nothing but injury to the ftate. Notwithftanding the brilliant eloquence of iEfchines, we difcern every moment the feeblenefs of his arguments, and the arti- fice of his falfehoods. He gives a forced fenfe to all the laws he cites, and a malig- nant interpretation of all the a&ions of his adverfary. He accufes him of every thing in which he is himfelf culpable ; he re- proaches him with being fold to Philip, whofe penfioner he himfelf is, and the more he feels the defe&s of his proofs, the more he accumulates his expreffions of calumny and detra&ion. iEfchines begins by infifting upon the religious veneration which all men ought to have for the laws of their country, and particularly in a free ftate. This is the bafis of his exordium, and he treats it with that noble gravity which becomes the fubjedt. We may pafs over the juridical part of the oration, and come to that Yfhere iEfchines flatters himfelf with the 1 poffeffion 204 COMMENTARIES ON poffeffion of the vantage ground, namely, the bad fuccefs of the war, and the delin- quency of the orator who had advifed it. Here he exerts all his abilities to make Demofthenes unpopular and odious. He invokes the fhades of thofe citizens who had fallen, and furrounds him with their avenging manes, forming them around him as a rampart from which he thinks it im- poflible for him to efcape. The world are too often guided in their opinions of men and things, by the impro- per criterion of events. * But fo far were the Athenians from imputing their mif- fortunes to the advifer of the war, that they had unanimoufly appointed him to the honor of pronouncing the funeral eulogy on the foldiers who had died in it, and to whom a monument had been raifed at the public expence. This appointment w r as fo defirable, that many orators, and amongft them iEfchines, had been candidates to ob- tain it. From the two principal points which iEfchines treats in the latter part of his difcourfe, it is plainly fhewn what a great CLASSICAL LEARNING. 205 great* degree of terror the eloquence of Demofthenes infpired. For he endeavours to prefcribe to him the precife mode of his defence, and petitions the judges to oblige him to conform to the fame order as he had done in his accufation. Finally, he at- tempts to prove that Ctefiphon ought to defend himfelf ; and that, when in com- pliance with the ufual form, he Ihould fay, permit me to call Demofthenes to fpeak for me, that they mould from that mo- ment refufe to attend to him. The art of iEfchines here feems to defert him ; his demand was revolting to common fenfe, as well as to juftice, and could not be granted, Demofthenes, not Ctefiphon, had been the main objecl: of attack, and jEfchines was injudicious in a double view, both in al- lowing his fears of his rival to appear, and in pevfuading himfelf that the judges of Athens would deprive themfelves of the pleafure of hearing fo great an advocate in his own caufe. But iEfchines well knew that misfortune, which exafperates a people, frequently renders 2o6 COMMENTARIES ON renders them unjuft, and is apt to excite refentment againft the innocent caufe of it. He thought it likely that he would fink under the weight of the public difafters, and that as events were all hoftile to him, he would not find an adequate apology in the purity of intention. He was befides amply furnifhed with all thofe common- place arguments which are fo powerful in aiding a weak caufe — the blood of fo many citizens fhed in the war, the devaftation of cities, the grief of families, which he details with all the infidioufnefs of art, the bitter- nefs of indignation, and the perfidy of hatred. Demofthenes was extremely wife, as well as fpirited, in refufing to purfue the plan of defence which the artifice of iEfchines had prefcribed to him, when he would have obliged him to anfwer firft to the infraction of legal forms. He well knew that the legal difcuflion, already too long in the fpeech of iEfchines, would ap- pear ftill more tedious by a repetition ; that k would refrigerate his exordium, weary and difguft his audience. It was his bufi- nefs CLASSICAL LEARNING. 207 nefs to prove that he deferved the crown, by placing before their eyes all that he had done for the ftate. The pi&ure he draws of his adminiftration, traced with all the glowing colours he poffefled, muft have tended to humiliate his adverfary, by ag- grandizing himfelf in the eyes of the Athenians, and placing his caufe in the mod favourable point of view. He well knew how to infinuate himfelf into the hearts of his hearers, by the delicate man- ner in which he bears teftimony in favour of his own conduct. It is the Athenians who have done every thing; his thoughts, his refolutions, have always been theirs. His advice has always been in congfuity with their fentiments. Whence we may conceive to what degree he muft pleafe a people naturally vain, and how little furprizing it is, that he ob- tained all their fuffrages. When he comes to the moft difficult part of the queftion, he thus addreffes iEfchines; " Unhappy man ! If it be the public difafters which have given you fuch auda- city, 2o3 COMMENTARIES ON city, and which, on the contrary, you ought to lament, together with me, I chal- lenge you to exhibit a fingle inftance in which I have contributed to the misfor- tune. Wherever I have been ambaffador, have the envoys of Philip had any advan- tage over me ? No, never ; not in any place, neither in Theflaly, nor Thrace, nor Byzantium, nor Thebes, nor Illyri- cum. But that which I accomplimed by words, Philip overturned by force ; and you complain of me for this v and do not blufh to demand of me an account of it. This fame Demofthenes whom you repre- fent to be fo feeble a man, you will have it, ought to have prevailed over the armies of Philip ; and with what ? with words 1 for I had only words to ufe : I had not the difpofal of the arms, nor the fortune of any one. I had no military command, and no one but you has been fo fenfelefs as to de- mand from me the reafon of it. But what could, w T hat ought an Athenian orator to have done ? To fee the evil in its birth, to make others fee it, and that is what I have CLASSICAL LEARNING. 209 have done. To prevent as far as it was poC- fible the delays, the falfe pretences, the oppofition of interefts, the miftakes, the faults, the obftacles of every fpecies fo common amidft republics jealous of each other : and that is what I have doile. To oppofe to all thefe difficulties zeal, prompt- nefs, love of duty, friendfhip, concord : and that is what I have done. On any of thefe points, I defy any one to find me in fault ; and if they afk me how Philip has prevailed, all the world will anfwer for me : by his arms which have invaded every thing ; by his gold which has corrupted every thing. It was not in my power to combat either the one or the other ; I had neither treafures nor foldiers : but as far as was in my power, I dare fay this, I have conquered Philip — and* how ? by re. fufing his prefents, by refufing to be bri- bed. When a man allows himfelf to be bought, the buyer may fay that he has triumphed over him ; but he who lives in- corruptible, may fay that he has triumphed over the corrupter* So then as much as it P depended 2IO COMMENTARIES ON depended on Demofthenes, Athens has been vi&orious, Athens has been invin- cible." This fpeech is the firft in point of orato- rical argumentation that ever was made ; we may think we ftill hear the acclama- tions which purfued it : nothing could refill . a genius of fuch force ; they do honor both to the head, and to the heart. When Demofthenes deigns to come to the legal details, he deftroys in a few lines the ibphifms accumulated by iEfchines un- der the pretended violation of the laws in the form of the coronation, ordered by the decree of Ctefiphon. jEfchines had very adroitly feized that part which feemed favo- rable to him, and which he could not have done withotit catching at the words of the law. Demofthenes withdraws rapidly from a fubjeft which is dryly contentious, and roufes himfelf to new rhetorical argumen- tation. Having refuted the different points of accufation preferred againft him, he expofes the ftates of Greece at the mo- 4 ment CLASSICAL LEARNING. 211 mcnt when he undertook the adminiftration of the public affairs ; the ambition, the intrigues of Philip, and the venality of orators fuch as iEfchines, who ferved that prince at the expence of their country. How nobly does he exprefs himfelf on the fubject of the war againft Philip, which he had been reproached with having advifed ! What a fublime ejaculation of patriot en- thufiafm, and how infignificant at the mo- ment does iEfchines appear when com- pared with him ! He recalls the recollec- tion of that terrible day when the news of the capture of Platsea was brought to Athens, which opened a paflage for Philip into Attica. The Athenians muft either have remained expofed to an invafion, or united themfelves with the Thebans, their ancient enemies. We ought here to recoiled that the Greeks regarded the Macedonians as bar- barians, and that the different dates of Greece, though often divided amongft each other, thought themfelves bound by a fpecies of national confraternity to combat p 2 every 212 COMMENTARIES ON every thing that was not Grecian. It was not till after the reign of Philip, whofe in- fluence was fo powerful, and under Alex- ander, who caufed himfelf to be named generaliflimo of Greece againft the Per- fians, that the Macedonians mingled amongft the other Greek nations in the general league againft their common ene- mies. Demofthenes founds his peroration upon the honor which they had done him, in confiding to him the funeral eulogy of the citizens killed at Chaeronea. iEfchines had compelled him to this by making it a lubjedt of reproach ; and as he had himfelf vainly folicited the office, he draws from it an additional triumph for himfelf, and a new humiliation for his accufer. It muft be confefled, that the profufion of perfonal allufions on both fides, appears at this day very objedionable ; but it was authorifed by the coarfenefs of republican manners, and at that period had its full effe<3. An Athenian accufer could not exercife his talent without confiderable hazard ; for unlefs CLASSICAL LEARNING. 21$ unlefs a fifth part of the votes were with him, he was condemned to baniftiment. This happened to iEfchines '• having reti- red to Rhodes, where he opened a fchool of rhetoric, it is very remarkable, that his firft eflay was the recital of the two fpeeches which had caufed his condem- nation. It is difficult to conceive how he had the courage to read to his fcholars that of Demofthenes. It is not a crime to be lefs eloquent than another perfon, but how could he without a blufh confefs that he had been convicted of being a calumniator and a bad citizen ? When iEfchines had read the fpeech of Demofthenes, and the greateft applaufe was given to it, he very ingenuoufly exclaimed, " What would you have faid had you heard him deliver it ?" This accounts for the remarkable exclama- tion of Demofthenes, meaning that adtion is the fovereign quality, the firft, the fecond, and the third part of eloquence. iEfchines wrote three orations, and nine . epiftles, the former only are extant. They p 3 received £14 COMMENTARIES ON received the name of the graces, as the lat- ter did of the mufes. The greateft part of the works of Demofthenes have for their objeft the roufing the indolence* of the Athenians, and arming them againft the artful ambi- tion of Philip. Under this name we may comprehend not only the four harangues which particularly bear the title of Philip- pics, but all thofe which refpedt the dis- putes of the Athenians with the " man of Macedcn," fuch as the three orations gene- rally called Olynthiacs, that on the propo- fal of peace to Philip, that which was made on the occafion of the letter of the fame prince, and that which is entitled * On the Cherfonefe." In reafoning, and in emotion, confifts the eloquence of Demofthenes, No man has ever given to reafon more penetrating and inevitable weapons. Truth is in his hand a piercing dart which he throws with as much rapidity as force, and without ceafmg repeats his attack, His ftyle is nervous CLASSICAL LEARNING. 2IJ nervous and bold, analogous to a foul free and impetuous. He rarely condefcends to add ornament to his thoughts. This care appears below him ; he only thinks of conveying them to the hearts of his hearers. In his rapid march he draws them whither- foever he pleafes, and that which diftin- guifhes him from all other orators is, that the attention he gains is to the object of which he treats, and not to himfelf. Of others, we fay they fpeak well ; of De- mofthenes, he is in the right. Sentiments and paffions conflitute the affe&ions of the foul — compaflion and vengeance, love and hatred, emulation and fhame, fear and hope, prefumption and humility; — in all thefe Demofthenes excels. He has not ufed the tender pathetic, becaufe his fub- je&s would not bear it ; but he has in a fuperior manner managed the vehement pathetic, which is peculiarly adapted to declamatory oratory. An orator mud be a logician, he mult feize the connexion and oppofition of ideas ; mark with precifion the main point of a difputed queftion, dif- p 4 cover 2l6 COMMENTARIES GN cover the mazes in which it has been invol- ved ; define his terms, apply the principle to the queftion, and the confequences to the principle, and then break the threads of fophiftry, in which perfidy would en- tangle ignorance. All thefe powers be- longed to Demofthenes, the moft terrific vrarrior that ever ufed the armour of words. When he attacks his adverfary, it is Entellus driving Dares from one fide of the arena to the other. ei Praecipitemque Daren ardens agit sequore toto " Creber utraque manu pulfat verfatque Dareta." This great man had governed Athens by his oratory for twenty years ; the conteft therefore between him and ijifchines was a deadly one, for in Athens and Rome banifhment was confidered as a fort of capital punifhment. Whilft he had there- fore on one fide his mortal enemy, and on the other his affembled country, the one ■yvhiph outraged, the other, which honored him, his foul muft have been elevated by all the fentiments of national grandeur, and warme4 CLASSICAL LEARNING. 21J warmed by all the emotions of perfonal indignation. Thoroughly to underftand the impor- tance attached to the character of an orator, we fliould know that it was a fpecies of jnagiftracy, and conveyed fo much power to Demofthenes, that Philip faid, of all the Greeks, he feared only him. His temperament was naturally melancholy, and this gave him a ferioufnefs and feve- rity of manner, which much contributed to heighten the eftimation of his moral character. It was this which produced a boldnefs that would declare itfelf fo loudly againft Philip, and againft Alexander the conqueror of the world. Demofthenes always treats them with a haughtinefs which kings have never experienced from any other individual, who had no autho- rity but what was derived from his reputa- tion, no power but what depended on his eloquence. Atticifm is faid to confift in a perfe& purity of language, an entire freedom from plj affeftation, in a certain noble fimplicity, I which 2l8 COMMENTARIES ON which ought to have the air of converfa- tion, although much more dignified and elevated. In all thefe qualities Demo- fthenes excelled. He had received from na- ture a vaft and elevated genius, and a cou-* rage and application which nothing could ever check. When accompliftied with all the knowledge requifite to his profeffion, he placed himfelf for the practical part of it under the care of the beft aftors on the theatre, who, by their recitation of verfes from Sophocles and Euripides, convinced him of what importance pronunciation is to eloquence. Hence he acquired, in addi- tion to his native vehemence, fo animated an exterior, that his hearers felt to the bot- tom of their hearts the effect of his action. Longinus fays of him that he does not , fucceed in moderate movements, that he wants flexibility, and has a certain degree of harfimefs, which knows not how to manage pleafantry. It was for the fublime that Demofthenes was born : nature and ftudy had given him every thing that could conduce to this. He united all thofe qua- lities CLASSICAL LEARNING. 2I<) lities which conftitu.te the great orator ; a tone of majefty, a vehemence, a richnefs of endowments, addrefs, rapidity, and vigor in the higheft degree, Valerius Maximus reports that he had a piercing vivacity in his eyes, which had a wonderful effect in rendering his counte- nance menacing and terrible. That he could give an inflexion to his voice, a tone to his words, an air to his whole perfon, which riveted the attention and com- manded the admiration of all who heard him. Dionyfius Halicarnaflus makes it evi- dent, that Demofthenes fometimes imitates him, and copies thofe qualities which neither Lyfias nor Ifocrates could boaft, as that vehemence and ardour, roughnefs and acrimony which give fpirit and force to oration, and are wonderfully fuccefsful in raifing the paffions ; and that he entirely avoids his obfeurity, uncommon phrafes, prepofterous figures, and irregular arrange- rnent of periods. That he retains only what is ufeful and intelligible j his fliort, abrupt, 220 COMMENTARIES ON abrupt, and pungent fentences ; his euthy- memes which are of admirable ufe in ora- tory, when properly introduced. Of all uninfpired writers, he is certainly the firft mafter of the fublime. Cicero, having complimented the other Grecian orators, fays, Demofthenes unites in himfelf the purity of Lyfias, the fpirit of Hyperides, the fweetnefs of ^Efchines, and in power of thought and movement of difcourfe, he is above them all ; in a word, we can imagine nothing more divine. This all-accomplifhed orator was de- fended of very low parents, his father having been only a blackfmith. He was born about three hundred and eighty-two years before Chrift. Having loft his pa- rents when he was young, he fell into the hands of tutors who, through negligence or parfimony, took no care of his educar tion. His mother feconded this negled by a falfe tendernefs to her fon. He was indeed of a delicate conftitution, which would not permit his being much prefled by ftudy : fo that at the age of fixteen, the period CLASSICAL LEARNING, 221 period fixed for the learning of rhetoric inftead of placing him under Ifocrates, who then had the higheft reputation, they fent him to the rhetorician Ifseus, where the expence was kfs ; and in whofe fchool he learned thofe bad habits, of which after- wards he took fuch pains to divert him- felf. This circumftance accounts for the ne- glect of his early education, but he after- wards became the pupil and ftudied the works of the beft preceptors. The fortune acquired by his father in trade enabled him to place himfelf under their care, and the acquirements he derived from them gave him the power of exhibiting the firft fruits of his education in an eloquent and fuccefsful fpeech againft his guardians, who had embezzled his eftate. The difficulties he laboured under from nature and from habit, and the means he ufed to remove them, are too commonly known to need repetition, but it may be an encouragement to thofe who have fimilar defers, whether natural or acquired, to be reminded that he got ±2t COMMENTARIES ON got the better of an hefitation in his fpeech by reciting with pebbles in his mouth ; of diftorted features, by fpeaking before a mirror ; and that he ftrengthened a weak voice by running up the fteepeft hills, and, by declaiming aloud on the fea fhore, taught himfelf to brave the tumult of a popular affembly. Hence the eloquence which w r as natural to Cicero, was the effect of much perfonal exertion in Demofthenes- This was inftigated by the moft laudable ambition of becoming an orator ; this it was that enabled him to vanquifli the bad inclinations of an age which pants only fof pleafure, although he lived in a city aban- doned to delicacy and debauchery. Still he found it neceffary for a time to retire from the buftle of the world, and having fliaved one half of his head, that a fenfe of decen- cy might compel him to be invifible, he applied himfelf entirely to the ftudy of eloquence. His paffion for the acquifition of this art, was firft excited by the applaufe which he faw given to Calliftratus in a caufe lie pleaded, and from that moment it CLASSICAL LEARNING. 223 it was the increafing objed of his contem- plation and defire. It has indeed been faid that the firmnefs of Demofthenes £b long immoveable, his difintereftednefs fo long fuftained, at length was found to faulter ; that, having for fome time elevated his voice againft the tyranny of Alexander, with the fame vehemence aa he had attacked Philip, he in the end allowed himfelf to be bribed ; that twen- ty talents and a golden vafe induced him to feign illnefs that he might not mount the roftrum ; and that this diflionorable conduct loft him the affe&ions of the peo- ple, and compelled him to leave Athens as a banifhed man : Dinarchus, a venal orator, was his acculer. But Paufanias treats the charge as a calumny ; and it is fair to doubt the report, fince his end, in the eye of an heathen the moft courageous and laudable, appears a complete refutation of it. Returned to Athens after the death of Alexander, he did not ceafe to declaim againft the tyranny of the Macedonians until Antipater their king had obtained fuch power, 224 COMMENTARIES ON power, as enabled him to feize all thd orators who declared themfelves his ene- mies. Demofthenes attempted flight, but, find- ing himfelf in danger of being captured by his purfuers, he had recourfe to poifon, which he always carried with him, as an antidote againft a difgraceful death. Taking the cup in the prefence of Archias, who prefled him to yield to the conqueror of Greece, he faid, " Tell your mailer that Demofthenes will owe nothing to the ty- rant of his country." Thus perifhed this great man at the age of fixty. As feveral reafons concurred to give a decided pre-eminence to the poetry of the Greeks, fo the inftitutions of Athens exci- ted the talents of the orator, and called every one who diftinguifhed himfelf in that tranfcendent art to places of diftin&ion. They occupied them in the government of their country, and rivalry and praife were the incitement and the reward of genius and of learning. Greece was in the envied polfeffion of the moft tuneable language the world CLASSICAL LEARNING. 1Z$ world has ever known ; and the diale&s gave a grace and variety, a force and em- phafis to the expreffion of the fpeaker, in vain attempted amidft the poverty of mo- dern tongues. In refleding on the productions of the ancients, the poet and the orator of modern times will be led to confider the advan- tages which the former had to boaft both in point of climate, language, and political arrangements. Thefe confiderations will not prevent the moft vigorous efforts of in- genious minds to a laudable although hopelefs competition, and may at once fur- nifh them with a fubjed of defpair and confolation. 256 COMMENTARIES ON SECTION VIII. On the Grecian Hiftorians.-^C admits. — Hecataus. — Hero* dotus.—Thucidydes. — Xenophon. — Polybius. — Diodorus Siculus. — Dionyfius of HalicarnaJJ'us.—Appian. — Ar- rian.—Dion Cajfius. — Herodian. .History feems in its origin to have been only a colle&ion of fimple fadts entrufted to oral tradition and engraven on the memory by the affiftance of poetry, or elfe recorded by public monuments calculated to perpetuate the remembrance of impor- tant events. It has been frequently committed to the durable memorials of brafs and ftone, of ftatues and medallions. Of the latter, a great number have efcaped the ravages of time ; and have not only gratified the cu- riofity of the antiquary, but enabled men of laborious and ufeful refearch to clear up CLASSICAL LEARNING. 227 tip difputed points of hiftory and to efta- blifli the epochs of the remoteft ages. The early writers were compelled by their education and other circumftances to confine their hiftory to the account of a fingle city or ftate, becaufe they were igno- rant of the fituation of the different nation s of the world. Above five hundred years before Chrift, Cadmus wrote an account of the antiquities of Miletus the capital of Ionia, his native country; and Hecataeua his countryman, ventured to extend his views to Egypt, and to throw a ray of light on geography by his defcription of the earth. But thefe topographers were not deferving the name of hiftorians ; and their reputation, whatever it might have been, was loft in the blaze of glory which ftiortly after their day furrounded the great father of hiftory. Herodotus was born about four hundred and eighty-four years before Chrift at Halicarnaflus in Caria. The troubles of his country firft brought him into Greece^ 0^2 where 228 COMMENTARIES OK where his talents obtained him a welcome reception. It is to him we are indebted for the lit- tle we know of the ancient dynafties of the Medes, Perfians, Phoenicians, Lydians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Scythians. He had the merit of conne&ing the events of time and place, and forming one regular whole from a number of detached parts. The Greeks acknowledged their high obli- gations to him, for unfolding to them the hiftory of the then known world for two hundred and forty years. He fhewed them nations jealous and difquiet, difunited by intereft yet conne&ed by the alliances produced in times of war, fighing for liber- ty and groaning under tyranny. When he read publicly at the Olympic games his account of the bloody contefts between the Perfians and the Greeks from Cyrus to Xerxes, compofed in his thirty-ninth year^ his veracity receives an atteftation from the high honor which was given to him at this great afTembly of the Greeks. The name ** of CLASSICAL LEARNING. 229 of one of the mufes was beftowed on each of his nine books by his contemporaries* and will be attached to them as long as the writings of the hiftorian (hall exift. " His eager country, in the Olympic vale Throngs with proud joy to catch the martial tale. Behold where Valour, reiting on his lance, Drinks the fweet found in rapture's filent trance : Then with a grateful fhout of loud acclaim, Hails the juft herald of his country's fame." Hayley. Herodotus has frequently been accufed of neglecting that fincerity which is the higheft merit of an hiftorian, to record the marvellous and incredible. Such accufa- tions may probably be in a great meafure repelled. The moderns are too apt to doubt every thing which is contrary to their expe- rience, and to impute to Greek hiftorians a defire of gratifying their countrymen in their eager love for whatever was connect- ed with novelty or with fable. The de- fcriptions given of Egypt by Herodotus, have frequently been verified by travellers in points where he was difcredited ; and it