OF THE UNivERsmr -^-*~l ~> 1 ■ ^nxatta lU^iutB Babn^y ^anta Carbarn formal #rI|ool ♦ * * -^ ^* -^ ^3 ♦ ♦ ♦ irv -» Vi ■^ ^.^, HAND-BOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE, FROM THE BEST AND LATEST AUTHORITIES: DESIGNED FOK POPULAR HEADING AND AS A TEXT-BOOK FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. BY ANNE C. LYNCH \BOTTA " Partout le vaste champ de lii llUerature ressemble k line immense arene, 06 pcu de valn- qucurs filevenl leurs tropheos sur les armes brisecs d'une grande masse de vaiucus ; ce n'esx que lorsque la dtfaite ett devenue mtmorable, que I'hidtolre peut s'en occuper." NEW YOrwK: DERBY & JACKSON, 498 BROADWAY 1860. fl^lilBB. Knieked, according to Act of Congress, in the yeai 1860, bj ANNK C. LYNCH BOTTA, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern Dislitol of New York. W. H. TI^so», Stereotyper. Geo. Russki.l & Co., Printers. N PREFACE -•♦♦- This work was begun many years ago, as a literary exercise, to meet the personal requirements of tlie writer, wliicli were such as most persons experience on leaving school and ^' completing their education," as the phrase is. Tlie world of literature lies before them, but where to begin, what course of study to per- sue, in order best to comprehend it, are the problems which present themselves to the bewildered questioner, who finds himself in a position not unlike that of a traveller suddenly set down in an unknown country, without guide-book or map. The most natural course under such circumstances would be to bescin at the be- ginning, and take a rapid survey of the entire field of literature, arriving at its details through this general view. But as this could be accomplished only by sub- jecting each individual to a severe and protracted course of systematic study, the idea was conceived of obviating this necessity to some extent by embodying the results of such a course in the form of the following work, which, after being long laid aside, is now at lengtli com- pleted. In conformity with this design, standard books have m IV PKEFACE. been condensed, with no alterations except sucli as were rerpired to give nnity to the whole work ; and in some instances a few additions have been made. Wliere stan- dard works have not been found, the sketches liave been made from tlie best sources of information, and sub- mitted to the criticism of able scholars. Tlie literatures of different nations are so related, and have so influenced each other, that it is only by a survey of all, that any single literature, or even any great literary work, can be fully comprehended, as the various groups and figures of a historical picture must be viewed as a whole, before thev can assume their true place and 2:)roportions. A. C. L. B. LIST OF AUTHORITIES. -•-e 9- The following worlcs ni'o the sources from whicli this book is wholly or chiefly derived : Dwigbt's Pliilologj' ; Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry ; Lowth's Hebrew Toetry ; Asiatic Researches ; the works of Gesenius, De Wette, Ewald, Colebrooke, Sir William Jones, Wilson, Ward ; Schlegel's Hindu Language and Literature ; Malcolm's History of Persia ; Piicbardson on the Language of Eastern Nations ; Adelung's Mithridates ; Chodzko's Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia; Costello's Rose Garden of Persia; B.em.usa.Vs Memoire sicr VEcriture Chinoise; Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese; Duholde's Description, de la Chine ; ChampoUion's Letters ; Wilkinson's Extracts from Hieroglyphical Subjects ; the works of Bunsen, Muller, and Lane ; Muller's History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, continued by Donaldson ; Browne's Histoiy of Roman Clas- sical Literature ; Fiske's Manual of Classical Literature ; Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe ; Goodrich's Universal History ; Sandford's Rise and Progress of Litera- ture ; Schlegel's Lectures on the Historj"- of Literature ; Schlegel's History of Dramatic Art ; Tkaboschi's History of Italian Literature ; Maffei, Corniani, and Ugoni on the same subject; Chambers' Hand-books of Italian and German Literature; Foster's Hand- book of French Literature; Nizard's TTlstoire de la Litterature Frangaise ; Demo- geot's do ; Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature ; Talvi's (Ttlrs. Robinson) Literature of the Sla^■ic Nations ; Mallet's Northern Antiquities ; Keyson's Religion of the Northmen ; Pigott's Northern Mythology ; William and Mary Howitt's Literature and Romance of Northern Europe; De s'Gravenweert /S'm?* la Litterahtre Xeerlandaise ; Siegenbeck's Hlstoire Litteraire des Pays-JBas ; Da Pontes' Poets and Poetry of Germany ; Menzel's German Literature ; Spaulding's History of English Literature ; Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature ; Shaw's English Literature ; Triibner's Guide to American Literature ; Duyckincks' Cyclopaedia of American Literature ; Griswold's Poets and Prose Writers of America ; Tuckerman's Sketch of American Literature. In addition to the above works, French, English, and American Encyclopaedias, Biographies, Dictionaries, and numerous other works of reference have been extensively consulted. CONTENTS. -♦-•-•- Preface ...........m List of Acthorities ......... v Classification of Languages . . . . . . • . xv HEBREW LITERATURE. 1. Hebrew Literature ; its Divisions. — 2. The Language ; its Alphabet ; its Struc- ture ; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases. — 3. The Old Testament. — 4. Hebrew Edu- cation.— 5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature. — 6. Hebrew Poetry. — 7. Lyric Poetry; Songs; the Psalms; the Prophets. — 8. Pastoral Poetry.— 9. Didactic Poetry ; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. — 10. Epic and Dramatic Poetry; the Book of Job. — 11. Hebrew History ; the Pentateuch and other Historical Books. — 12. Hebrew Philoso- phy. — 13. Restoration of the Sacred Books.— 14. Manuscripts and TranslaUons. — 15. Rabbinical Literature. ........ 9 SYRIAC,.CHALDAIC AND PH(EXICIAN LITERATURES. J.. The Languages. — 2. Syriac Language and Literature.— 3. Chaldaic Language and Literature. — 4. Phoenician Literature. . . . . . . .21 niXDU, OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. 1. Sanscrit Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Sanscrit Language and its Antiquity ; its Structure and Dialects. — 3. Social Constitution of India.— 4. Brahmanism.— 5. The Vedas and the other Sacred Books. — 6. Sanscrit Poetry.— 7. Epic Poetry ; the Rama- yana ; the Mahabharata.— 8. Lyric Poetry. — 9. Didactic Poetry ; the Hitopadesa. — 10. Dramatic Poetry. — ^11. History and Science. — 12. Philosophy.— 13. Buddhism. — 14. Moral Philosophy ; the Code of Manu.— 15. Modern Literatures of India. — 16. Edu- cation in India. .......... 23 PERSIAN LITERATURE. I. The Persian Language and its Divisions. — 2. Zendic Literature ; The Zendavesta. — 8. Pehlvi and Parsee Literatures.— 4. The Cuneiform Inscriptions. — 5. The Ancient Religion of Persia ; Zoroaster. — 6. Modern Literature. — 7. The Sufis. — 8. Persian Poetry. — 9. Persian Poets; Ferdusi ; Essedi of Tus ; Togray, etc. — 10. History and Philosophy. — 11. Education in Persia. . . . . . .33 vU VI 11 CONTENTS. CIIIXESE LITERATURE. 1. Chinese Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language, — 3. The Writing —4. Canoni- cal and Classic Writings. — The 'U-King; Ta-hio.— 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy ; Lao-tse ; Confucius ; Meng-ts6 ; the Iluligion of Fo. — 6. Social Constitution of China. — • ?. History. — S, Science. — 0. Poetry and Fiction ; Lyric Poetry ; The Drama ; PiO- mances — 10. Education in China. ....... 49 • EGYPTIAX LITERATURE. 1. Egyptian Literature. — 5. The Language. — 3. The Writing. — 4. The Discovery of Champollion, — 5. Egyptian Monuments. — G. History; Manetho. — 7. The Religion of Egypt. — S. Science. — 9. Literary Condition of modern Egypt. . . .07 GREEK LITERATURE. Introduction. — 1. Greek Literature and its Divisions.— 2. The Language. — 3. The Religion. Pehiod First.— 1. Ante-Homeric Songs and Bards. — 2. Poems of Homer ; the Iliad ; the Odyssey.— 3. The Cyclic Poets and the Homeric Hymns.— 4. Poems of Ilesiod ; the AVorks and Days ; the TheojOny.— 5. Elegy and Epigram ; Tyrtreus ; Arcliilochus ; Simonides.— 6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable and Parody ; ^sop. — 7. Greek JNIusic and LjTic Poetry ; Terpander. — 8. jEolic Lyric Poets ; Alcaeus ; Sappho ; Anacreon. — 9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poets; Alcman ; Stesichorus ; Pindar. — 10. The Orphic Doctrines and Poems.— 11. Pre-Socratic philosophy; Ionian, Eleatic, Pythagorean Schools. — 12. History ; Herodotus. Pkriod Second. — 1. Literary predominance of Athens.— 2. Greek Drama. — 3. Trage- dy — 4. The Tragic Poets ; iEschykis ; Sophocles ; Euripides. — 5. Comedy' ; Aristo- phanes ; Menander. — 6. Oratory, Rhetoric and History ; Pericles ; the Sophists ; Lysias ; Isocrates ; Demosthenes ; Thucydides ; Xenophon. — 7. Socrates and the So- cratic Schools ; Plato ; Aristotle. Pdkiod Third.— 1. Origin of the Alexandrian Li'erature.— 2. The Alexandrian Poets ; Philetas ; Callimachus ; Theocritus ; Dion ; Moschus. — .3. The Prose Writers of .\lexandna; Zenodotus ; Aristophanes; Aristarchus ; Eratosthenes ; Euclid; Archi- medes. — 4. Philosophy of Ale.xandria ; Neo-Platonism. — 5. Anti-Xeo-Platonic Tenden- cies ; Epictetus ; Lucian ; Longinus — G. Greek Literature in Rome ; Dionysius of Ilali- carnassus ; Flavius Josephus ; Polybius ; Diodorus ; Strabo ; riutarch.— 7, Continued decline of Greek Literature. S. Last echoes of the Old Literature ; Hypatia ; Nonnus ; Musaius; Byzantine Litcrature.~9. The New Testament and the Greek Fathers. . 6G ROMAN LITERATURE. Introduction.— 1. Roman Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language ; Ethno- graphical elements of the Latin Language ; the Umbrian ; Oscan ; Etruscan ; the old Roman tongue ; Salurnian verse ; peculiarities of the Latin language. — 3. The Roman Religion. Period First. — 1. Early Literature of the Romans ; the Fescennine Songs ; the Fabulae Atellana;. — 2. Early Latin Poets ; Livius Andronicus, Naivlus and Ennius. — 3. Roman Comedy. — 4. Comic Poets ; Plautus, Terence and Statius. — 5. Roman Tragedy.— 6. Tragic Poets ; Pacuvius and Attius. — 7. Satire ; Lucilius. — 8. History and Oratory ; Fabius Pictor; O-'ncius Alimentus ; Cato ; Varro ; ^L Antonius ; Crassus ; Ilortensius.— \). Roman .Juri^prudonce.— 10. Grammarians. COXTEXTS. IX Period Second.— 1. Development of the Roman Literature.— 2. Mimes, Miraogi-a- phers, Pantomime ; Laberius and P. Syrus.— 3. Epic Poetry ; Virgil; The.T:neid.-4. Di- dactic Poetry; the Bucolics; the Georgics ; Lucretius.— o. Lyric Poetry; Catullus; Uorace.— 6. Elegy ; Tibullus ; Propertius ; Ovid.— 7. Oratory and Philosophy; Cicero.— 8. History ; J. C«sar ; Sallust ; Livy.— 9. Other Prose Writers. Period TuiuD.—l. Decline of Roman Literature.— 2. Fable ; Phtedrus.— 3. Satire and Epigram ; Persius, Juvenal, Martial. — i. Dramatic Literature ; the Tragedies of Seneca. —5. Epic Poetry; Lucan ; Slius Italicus; Valerius Flaccus ; P. Statins— 6. History Paterculus ; Tacitus : Suetonius ; Q. Curtius ; Valerius MaxLmus.— 7. Rhetoiic and Eloquence; Quintilian ; Pliny the Younger.— 8. Philosopiiy and Science; Seneca; Pliny the Elder ; Celsus ; P.Mela; Columella; Frontinus.— 9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to Theodoric ; Claudian ; Eutropius ; A. Marcellinus ; S. Sulpicius ; Gellius ; Macrobius ; L Apulelus; Doethius-, the Latin Fathei-s.— 10. Roman Jurisprudence. 122 ARABIAN LITERATURE. 1. European Literature in the Dark Ages.— 2. The Arabian Language.— 3 Ara- bian Mythology and the Koran. — i. Historical Development of Arabian Lite- rature.— 5. Grammar and Rhetoric— 6. Poetry.— 7. The Arabian Tales.— S. History and Science .,.-.--.•• ISl ITALIAX LITERATURE. IsTRODUCTios.— 1. Italian Literature and its Divisions, — 2. The Language. Period First. — 1. Early Poetry and Prose.— 2. Dante; the Divine Comedy.— 3. Pe- trarch. — 4. Boccaccio and other prose writers ; Villani, Sacchetti. — 5. The first decline of Italian Literature ; the fifteenth Century. Period Second.- 1. The close of the fifteenth Century ; L^jrenzo de' Medici.— 2. The origin of the Drama and Romantic Epic ; Poliziano, Pulci, Boiardo. — 3. Romantic Epic Poetry; Ariosto.— 4. Heroic Epic Poetry; Tasso.— 5. Lyric Poetry; Bembo, Molza, Tarsia, V. Colonna.— 6. Dramatic Poetry; Trissino, Rucellai; the -writers of Comedy. —7. Pastoral Drama and Didactic Poetry; Beceari, Sannazzaro, Tasso, Guarini, Rucellai, Alamanni.— S. Satiricai Poetry, Novels and Tales ; Bernl, Graezini, Firenzu- ola, Bandello, and others.— 9. History; Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Nardi, and others. —10. Grammar and Rhetoric ; the Academy detla Criisca, Delia Casa, Speroni, and others.— IL Science, Philosophy and Politics; the Academy del C'im^nio, Galileo, Torricelli, Borelli, Patrizi, Telesio, Campanella, Bruno, Castiglione, Machiavelli, and others.- 12. Decline of the Literature in the seventeenth Century. — 13. Epic and Lyric Poetry; Marini, Fllicaja.— 14. Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama and Satire ; Tassoni, Bracciolini, Andreini, and others. — 15. History and epistolary writings ; Davila, Benti- voglio, Sarpi, Redi. Period Third.— 1. Historical Development of the Third Period.— 2. The Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio.— 3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and others. — i. Tragedy ; Mafl'ei, Alfieri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and others.— 5. Lyric, Epic, and Didactic Poetry ; Parini, ?.Ionti, XJgo Foscolo, Leopardi, Gross!, Lorenzi, and others. — 6. Heroic- Comic Poetry, Satire, and Fable ; Fortiguerri, Passeroni, G. Gozzi, Parini, Giusti, and others. — 7. Romances ; Verri, Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Cantu, GuerrazzL, and others, — 8. History; Muratori, Vico, Giannone, Botta, Colletta, Tiraboschi, and others. — 9. Esthetics, Criticism, Philology, and Philosophy; Baretti, I'arini, Giordani, Gioja, Comagnosi, Galluppi, Rosmioi, Gioberti ...... 198 1- CONTEXTS. FREXCH LITERATURE. IxTRODCCTiON. — 1. French Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language. Period First.— 1. The Troubadours.— 2. The Trouveres. — 3. French Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Charles of Orleans, Villon, Ville-Hardouin, Joinville, Froissart Philippe de Commines. Period Second. — 1. The Renaissance and the Reformation; Marguerite de Valois, Marot, Rabelais, Calvin, Montaigne, Charron, and others.— 2. Light Literature; Ronsard, Jodelle, Hardy, Malherbe, Scarron, Madame de Rambouillet, and others. — 3. The French Academy. — 4. The Drama; Corneille. — 5. Philosophy; Descartes, Pascal; Port Royal.— 6. The rise of the Golden Age of French Literature ; Louis XIV.— 7. Tragedy ; Racine.— 8. Comedy ; Moliere.— 9. Fables, Satires, Mock-IIeroic, and other Poetry ; La Fontaine, Boileau.— 10. Eloquence of the Pulpit and of the Bar ; Bourdaloue, Bos- suet, Massillon, Flechier, Le Maitre, D'Aguesseau, and others. — 11. Moral Philosophy ; Rochefoucauld, La Bruycre, Nicole.— 12. History and Memoirs ; Mtfzeray, Fleury^ RoUin, Brantome, the Duke of Sully, Cardinal de Retz.— 13. Romance and Lette- "Writing; Fenelon, Madame de Sevigne. Period Third.- 1. The Dawn of Skepticism ; Bayle, J. B. Rousseau, Fontenelle, Lamotte. — 2. Progress of Skepticism ; Montesquieu, Voltaire. — 3. French Literature during the Revolution ; D'Holbach, D'Alembert, Diderot, J. J. Rousseau, BufiFon, Beau- marchais, St. Pierre, and others. — i. French Literature under the Empire ; Madame de Stael, Chateaubriand, Royer-Collard, Bonald, De Maistre.— 5. French Literature from the age of the Restoration to the present time ; Barante, Guizot, Thierry, Miche- let, Thiers, Cousin, Lamennais, Comte ; the Romantic School ; Beranger, Delavigne, Lamartine, Victor Uusjo, Sand, Sue, Scribe, and others. . . . 249 SPANISH LITERATURE. iNTRODUcnos.— 1. Spanish Literature and its divisions. — 2. The Language. Period First.— 1. Early National Literature; the Poem of the Cid; Berceo, Alfonso the Wise, Segura ; Don Juan Manuel, the Archpriest of Hita, Santob, Ayala.— 2. Old Ballads.— 3. The Chronicles.— 4. Romances of Chivalry. — 5. The Drama.— 6. Provencal Literature in Spain.— 7. The influence of Italian Literature in Spain.— 8. The Canci- oneros and Prose writing. — 9. The Inquisition. Period Second. — The efifect of Intolerance on Letters— 2. Influence of Italy on Spanish Literature; Boscan, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego de Mendoza.— 3. History; Cortez, Gomara, Oviedo, Las Casas. — 4. The Drama, Rueda, Lope de Vega, Cal- deron de la Barca.— 5. Romances and Tales ; Cervantes, and other writers of fiction.— 6. Historical Narrative Poems; Ercilla.— 7. Lyric Poetry; the Argenso- las ; Luis de Leon, Quevedo, Ilerrera, Gongora, and others.— S. Satirical and other Poetry.— 9. History and other prose writing; Zurita, JIariana, Sandoval, and others. Period Third.— 1. French Influence on the Literature of Spain —2. The dawn of Spanish Literature in the ISth century; Feyjoo, Isla, Moratin the elder, Yriarte, Me- lendez, Gonzalez, Quintana, Moratin the younger.— 3. Spanish Literature in the 19th Century. .......•••• '^^^ PORTUGUESE LITERATURE. 1. The Portuguese Language.— 2. Early Literature of Portugal.— 3. Poets of tlie Fifteenth Century ; Macias, Ribeyro.— 4. Introduction of the ltali:'.n style ; Saa de CONTENTS. XI Miranda, Montemayor, Fcrreira.— 5. Epic Poetry ; Camoens ; the Lusiad. — 6. Dramatic Poetry' ; Gil Vicente. — 7. Prose Writing; Rodriguez Lobo, Barros, Brito, Veira. — 8. Portuguese Literature in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries ; Antonio Jose, Manuel do Nascimento, Manuel de Bocage .... &43 FIXNISn, HUNGARIAN, TURKISH AND ARMENIAN LITERATURES. 1. The Finnish Language and Literature: Poetry; thelvalevala; Kovonen. — 2. The Hungarian Language and Literature : the Age of Stephen I. ; Influence of the House of Anjou; of the Reformation; of the House of Austria; Kossuth; Josika ; EiJluos ; Kuthy ; Szigligeti ; Petcifi.— 3. The Turkish Language and Literature : two dialects ; Turkish Poetry and History : Mohammed Mir-Ali-Schir ; Mohammed Tschelebi ; Lami ; Baki ; Fasli ; Saad-Ed-Din ; Education. — 4. Armenian Language and Literature : Cha- racter of Armenian Literature ; its Golden Age, and its present condition. . 35S SLAVIC LITERATURES. 1. The Slavic Race and Language ; the Eastern and Western Stems ; the Alphabets ; the Old or Church Slavic Language ; St. Cyril's Bible ; the Pravda Russkaya ; the Annals of Nestor. — 2. The Russian Language and Literature ; from the earliest times to Peter the Great; from Peter the Great to Lomonosof; Kirsha Danilof, Kanteniir ; from Lomonosof to Karamsin ; Lomonosof, Sumarokof, Von Wisin, Dershavin ; from Karamsin to Nicholas I.; Karamsin, Dmitrief, Shukofsky, Koslof; from Nicholas I. to the present time ; Polevoi, Skromenko, Oustralof, Bestushef, Pushkin ; Popular Songs.— 3. The Servian Language and Literature; Popular Poetry ; the Female Songs ; the Heroic Poems. — 4. The Bohemian Language and Literature; from the earliest time to John Huss : Early Poetry ; John Huss, Jerome of Prague; Golden Age of the Bohe- mian Literature, its Decline and Revival ; Comenius, Kramerius, Dobrovsky, Kollar, Schaffarik. — 5. Tiie Polish Language and Literature ; from the Introduction of Christ- ianity to Casimir the Great ; from Casimir the Great to the beginning of the Seven- teenth Century ; Rey of Naglowic, John Kochanowskl, Rybinski, Copernicus ; Decline of the Polish Literature, and its revival ; Konarskl, Zaluski, Czartoryski, Naruszewicz, Krasicki, Niemcewicz ; from the Revolution of 1330 to the present time ; Mochnacki, Lelewel, Mickiewicz ; Popular Songs. ....... 365 SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. 1. Introduction. The Ancient Scandinavians ; their influence on the English race.— 2. The Mythology. — 3. The Scandinavian Languages. — 1. Icelandic, or old Norse Litfr rature : the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Scalds, the Sagas, the Heimskringla. The Folks-sagas and Ballads of the Middle Ages.— 5. Danish Literature : Saxo Gramma ticus and Theodoric. Arreboe, Kingo, Tycho Brahe, Holberg, Evald, Baggesen, Rah- bek, Oehlenschlager, Grundtvig, Blicher, Ingemann, Heiberg, Hans Christian Andersen and others. Malte Brun, Rask, Rafn, Magnusen, the brothers Oersted.— 6. Swedish Literature: Messenius, Stjernhjelm, Lucidor and others. The Gallic period; Dalin, Nordenflycht, Crutz and Gyllenborg, Gustavus III., Kellgren, Leopold, Oxenstjerna. The new Era ; Bellman, Hallman, Kexel, Wallenberg, Lidner, Thorild, Lengien, Fran» zen, Wallin. The Phosphorists ; Atterbora, Hammarskold and Palmblad. The Gothic School ; Geijer, Tegner, Stagnelius, Almquist, Vitalis, Runeberg and others. The Ro- mance writers ; Cederborg, Bremer, Carlen, Knorrinp:. Science ; Swedenborg, Liuna-ua and others 380 XU COXTEXTS. GERMAN LITERATURE. Introdcction. — 1. German Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Mythology.— S. Th« Language. Period First. — 1. Early Literature; Translation of the Bible by Ulphilas ; the Hildebrand Lied. — 2. The Age of Charlemagne ; his Successors ; the Ludwigs Lied ; Roswitlia ; the Lombard Cycle. — 3. The Suabian Age ; the Crusades ; the Minne- singers ; the Romances of Chivalry ; the Heldenbuch ; the Xibelungen Lied. — 4. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; the Master Singers; Satires and Fables; Mys- teries and Dramatic Representations ; the Mystics ; the Universities ; the invention of Printing. PtKioD Second — From 1517 to 1700. — 1. The Lutheran Period ; Luther, Melanchthon. — 2. Manuel, Zwingle, Fischart, Franck, Arnd, Boehm. — 3. Poetry, Satire and Demono- logy ; Paracelsus and Agrippa ; the Thirty Years' War. — 4. The Seventeenth Century; Opitz, Leibnitz, Pufendorf, Kepler, AVolf, Thomasius, Gerhard; Silesian Schools ; Uolf- manswaldau, Lohenstein. Pkriod Third.— 1. The Swiss and Saxon Schools ; Gottsched, Bodmer, Rabener, Gellert, Kastner, and others. — 2, Klopstock, Lessing, "Wieland and Herder.— 3. Goethe and Schiller.— 4 The GiJttingen School; Voss, Stolberg, Claudius, Burger and others. — ^. The Romantic School ; the Schlegels, Novalis ; Tieck, Korner, Arndt, Uhland, and otliers. — C. The Drama; Goethe and Schiller ; the Power Men ; Milliner, Werner, Ilowald and Grillparzer. — 7. Novels, Romances and Legends ; Goethe, Richter, Tieck, Novalis, and others.— S. Literary History and Criticism ; Winckel- niann; the Schlegels, Grimm, and others. — 9. History and Theology.— 10. Philosophy; Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. — 11. Miscellaneous Writings. . , . 404 DUTCH LITERATURE. 1. The Language.— 2. Dntth Literature to tlie IGth Century ; Maeilant ; Kiel's Stoke; DeWeert; The Chambers of Rlietoric; The Flemish Chronicle.s; The Rise of the Dutch Republic— 3. The Latin Writers ; Erasmus ; G.-otius ; Arminius ; Lipsius ; The Scali- gers, and others; Salmasius ; Spinoza; Boerhaave; Johannes Secundus. — 4. Dutch Writers of the 16th Century; Anna Byns; Coornhert ; Marnix de St. Aldegonde ; Bor, Vissclier and Spieghel. — 5. Writers of the 17th Century ; Hooft ; Vondel ; Cats ; Antonides; Brandt, and others; Decline in Dutch Literature.— 6. The ISth Century; Poot ; Langendijk ; Hoogvliet ; De Marre ; Feitama ; Huydecoper; The Van Harens ; Smits ; Ten Kate ; Vifti Winter ; Van Merken ; De Lannoy ; Van Alphen ; Bellamy ; Nieuwland, StyL and others.- 7. The 19th Century; Feith ; Helmers ; Bilderdyk ; Van der Palm ; Loosjes ; Loots, Tollens, Van Kampen, De s'Gravenweert, Van Hoevell, others. ........... 447 EXGLISH LITERATURE. I.VTHODUCTiON.— 1. Engliftli Literature.— l\s Divisions. 2. Tlie language. Period First.— 1. Celtic Literature.— Irish, Scotch, and Cymric Celts ; the Chroni- cles of Ireland ; Ossian's Poems ; Traditions of Arthur ; the Triads ; Tales. 2. Latin, Literature.— hede \ Alcuin ; Erigena. 3. Anglo-Saxon Literature.— Poetry ; Prose; Versions of Scripture ; the Saxon Chronicle ; Alfred. Pkriod Skco.nd.— The Norman Age and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.— 1. Literature in the Latin Tongue. 2. Literature in Norman-French.— Voeiry ; Jlomances of Chivalry. 3. S CONTEXTS. XUl Fourteenth Centiinj.—'Pcose Writers ; Occam, Duns Scotus, Wickliffe, Mandevllle, Chaucer. Poetrj-; Langland, Gower, Chaucer. 5. Literature in the Fifteenth Cen- 'e, Bacoii, and Milton (155S- 1660,). Scholastic and Ecclesiastical Literature; Translations of the Bible; Hooker, Andrews, Donne, Hall, Taylor, Baxter ; other Prose Writers ; Fuller, Cudworth, Ba- con, Hobbes, Kaleigh, Milton, Sidney, Selden, Burton, Browne, and Cowley ; Dramatic Poetry. Marlowe and Greene, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and others; Massinger, Ford, and Shirley ; Decline of the Drama. Non-dramatic Poetry; Spenser and the Minor Poets. Lyrical Poets ; Donne, Cowley, Denham, Waller, Mil- ton. 3. The Age of the Restoration and Revolution (lGGO-1702). Prose; Le'gh- ton, Tillotson, Barrow, Bunyan, Locke, and others. The Drama ; Dryden, Otway. Comedy ; Didactic Poetry ; Roscommon, Marvell, Butler, Pryoi-, Dryden. 4. The Eighteenth Century. The First Generation (1702-27); Pope, Swift, and others; the Periodical Essayists ; Addison, Steele. The Second Generation (1727-'60) ; Theology ; Warburton, Butler, Watts, Doddridge. Philosophy ; Hume. Miscella- neous Prose ; Johnson ; the Novelists ; Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. The Drama ; Non-dramatic Poetry ; Young, Blair, Akenside, Thomson, Gray, and Collins. The Third Generation (1760-lSOO) ; the Historians ; Hume, Robert- son, and Gibbon. Miscellaneous Prose ; Johnson, Goldsmith, " Junius," Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, and Burke. Criticism; Burke, Reynolds, Campbell, Kames. Political Economy ; Adam Smith. Ethics ; Paley, Smith, Tucker. Metaphysics ; Reid. Theo- logical and Religious AVriters; Campbell, Palej', Watson, Newton, Hannah More, and Wilberforce. Poetry ; Comedies of Goldsmith and Sheridan ; Minor Poets ; Later Poems; Beattie's Minstrel ; Cowper and Burns. 5. The Xineteenth Centurij. — First Age (1SOO-'30) ; the Poets ; Campbell, Southey, Scott, Byron, Coleridge, and Words- worth, Wilson, Shelley, Keats, Crabbe, Moore, and others. Prose ; the Waverley and other Novels. Periodical Writings ; the Edinburgh and Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine. Criticism ; Jeffrey, Coleridge, Hazlitt, Lamb, Wilson. Social Science; Bentham and others. Historj' ; Hallam and others. Theology; Foster, Hall, and Chalmers. Philosophy; Stewart, Brown, Mackintosh, and Bentham, Alison and others. The Second Age (ISSO-'GO).— Poets ; Tennj-son and others. Novels; BuL wer, Thackeray, and Dickens. History and Essaj's ; Hallam, De Quincoy, Macaulay, Carlyle. Religious Works ; Newspapers and Magazines ; Philologj- ; Travels; Physical Science ; Political Economy ; Logic ; Metaphj^sics, ..... 4(31 AMERICAN LITERATURE. The Colonial Pkriod. — 1. The seventeenth century. George Sandys ; The Bay Psalm Book; Anne Bradstreet, John Eliot and Cotton Mather.^ — 2. From 1700 to 1770 : Jona- than Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Cadwallader Colden. Fip.ST American Period from 1771 to 1S20. — 1. Statesmen and political writers : Washington, Jefiferson, Hamilton. The Federalist: Jay, Madison, Marshall, Fisher Ames and others. — 2. The Poets : Freneau, Trumbull, Hopkinson, Barlow, Clifton and Dwight. — 3. Writers in other departments : Bellamy, Hopkins, Dwight and Bishop White. Rush, McClurg, Lindley Murray, Charles Brockden Brown. Ramsay, Graydon. Count Rumford, Wirt, Ledyard, Piukney and Pike. Second American Period from 1S20 to ISGO. — 1. History, Biography, and Travels: Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Godwin, Ticknor, Schoolcraft, Hildreth, Sparks, Irving, XIV CONTENTS. Ileadley, Stephens, Kane, Squier, Perry, Lynch, Taylor, and others. — 2. Oratory ; Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton,^ Everett, and others. — 3. Fiction : Cooper, Irving, Willis, Hawthorne, Poe, Simms, Mrs. Stowe, and others. — 4. Poetry : Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Longfellow, Willis, Lowell, Allston, Ilillhouse, Drake, Whittier, Hoffman, and others. — 5. Miscellaneous writings : Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Whipple, Tuckerman, Ripley, Curtis, Briggs, Prentice and others. — 6. Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, and Educa- tional Books. The Encyclopaedia Americana. The New American Cyclopaedia. Allibone, Griswold, Duyckinck, Webster, Worcester, Anthon, Felton, Barnard, and others. — 7. Theology, Philosophy, Economy, and Jurisprudence : Stuart, Robinson, Wayland, Barnes, Channing, Parker. Tappan, Henry, Hickok, Haven. Carey, Kent, Wheaton, Story, Livingston, Bouvier. — S. Natural Sciences : Franklin, Morse, Fulton, SiUiman, Dana, Hitchcock, Rogers, Bowditch, Peirce, Bache, Holbrook, Audubon, Morton, Glid- don, Maury, and others. — 9. Foreign writers : Paine, Witherspoon, Rowson, Priestlej', Wilson, Agassiz, Guyot, Mrs. Robinson, Gurowski, and others. — 10. Newspapers and Periodicals. .......... 525 Index. .......... .551 CLASSIFICATION OF LAl^GUAGES. Modem philologists have made various classifications of the languages of tlie world, based upon difi*erent peculiarities. One of the most ingenious is that of Max Miiller, an eminent philologist of our time, who regards the development of human language as cor- responding to the social development of man, the antediluvian age being the epoch of roots, and the next, or family stage, being the phi- lologic epoch of juxtaposition and concentration, as in the Chinese. Then follows the nomadic or agglutinative stage of the Turanian tongues, and lastly the political stage, or that of amalgamation, represented in the two cardinal nuclei of the Semitic and Aiyan languages. Another arrangement, based on outward differences of form, divides the various languages of the world into three great classes : the Monosyllabic^ the Agglutinated^ and the Inflected. The first^ or Monosyllabic class, contains those languages which consist only of separate, unvaried monosyllables. The words have no organization that adapts them for mutual affiliation, and there is in them accordingly an uttor absence of all scientific forms and principles of grammar. The Chinese, and a few languages in its vicinity, doubtless originally identical with it. are all that belong to this class. The languages of the North American Indians, though differing in many respects, have the same general grade of character. The second class consists of those languages which are formed by agglutination. The words combine only in a mechanical way ; they have no elective affinity, and exhibit toward each other none of the active or sensitive capabilities of living organisms. Prepo- sitions are joined to substantives, and pronouns to verbs, but never so as to make a new form of the original word, as in the inflected languages, and words thus jjlaced in juxtaposition retain their per- sonal identity unimpaired. The agglutinative languages are known also as the Turanian, XT XVI CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES. from Turan, a name of Central Asia, and tlic principal varieticg of this family are the Tatar, Finnish, Lappish, Hungarian, and Caucasian. Thej are classed together almost exclusively on the ground of correspondence in their grammatical structure, but thej are bound together by ties of'farless strength than those which connect the inflected languages. The race by whom they are spoken has, from the first, occupied more of the surface of the earth than either of the others, stretching westward from the shores of the Japan Sea to the neighborhood of Yienna, and south- ward from the Arctic Ocean to Affghanistan and the southern coast of Asia Minor. The inflected languages form tlie tliini great division. They have all a complete interior organization, complicated with many mutual relations and adaptations, and are thoroughly systematic in all their parts. Between this class and the monosyllabic there is all the diflerence that there is between organic and inorganic forms of matter ; and between them and the agglutinative languages there is the same difference that exists in nature between mineral accretions and vegetable growths. The boundaries of this class of languages are the boundaries of cultivated humanity, and in their history lies embosomed that of the civilized portions of the world. Two great races speaking inflected languages, the Semitic and Indo-European, have shared between them the peopling of the historic portions of the earth; and on this account these two lan- guages have sometimes been called political or state languages, in contrast with the appellation of the Turanian as nomadic. The term Semitic is applied to that family of languages which are native in southwestern Asia, and whicli are supposed to have been spoken by the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah. They are the Hebrew, Aramsean, Arabic, the ancient Egyptian or Coptic, the Chaldean and Phoenician. Of these the only living language of note is the Arabic, which has supplanted all the others, and wonderfully diffused its elements among the constituents of many of the Asiatic tongues. In Europe the Arabic has left a deep im- press on the Spanish language, and is still represented in the Maltese, which is one of its dialects. The Semitic languages differ widely from the Indo-European in reference to their grammar, vocabulary and idioms. On account of the great preponderance of the pictorial element in them, they may be called the metaphorical languages, while the Indo-European, from the prevailing style of their liigher literature, may be called CLASSIFICATION OF LAXGCTAGES. XVll the philosopliical languages. The Semitic nations also diifer from the Indo-European in their national characteristics ; while they have lived with remarkable nuiformitj on the vast open plains, or wan- dered over the wide and drearj deserts of their native region, the Indo-Europeans have spread themselves over both hemispheres, and carried civilization to its highest development. But the Semitic mind has not been without influence on human progress. It early recorded its thoughts, its wants, and achievements in the hiero- glyphs of ancient Egypt ; the Phoenicians, foremost in their day in commerce and the arts, invented alphabetic letters, of which all the world has since made use. The Jewish portion of the race, long in communication with Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia, and Persia, could not fail to impart to these nations some knowledge of their religion and literature, and it cannot be doubted that many new ideas and quickening influences were thus set in motion, and communicated to the more remote countries both of the East and West. The most ancient languages of the Indo-European stock may be grouped in two distinct family pairs : the Aryan, which comprises two leading families, the Indian and Iranian, and the Grseco-Italic or Pelasgic, which comprises the Greek family and its various dia- lects, and the Italic family, the chief sub-divisions of which are the Etruscan, the Latin, and the modern languages derived from the Latin. The other Indo-European families are the Lettic, Slavic, Gothic, and Celtic, with their various sub-divisions. The word Aryan (Sanscrit, Arya), the oldest known name of the entire Indo-European family, signifies well-born, and was applied by the ancient Hindus to themselves in contradistinction to the rest of the world, whom they considered base-born and con- temptible. In the country called Aryavarta, lying between the Himalaya and the Yindhya Mountains, the high table-land of Central Asia, more than two thousand years before Christ, our Hindu ancestors had their early home. From this source there have been historically two great streams of Aryan migration. One, towards the south, stagnated in the fertile valleys where they were walled in from all danger of invasion, by the Himalaya Mountains on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the deserts of Bactria on the west, and where the people sunk into a life of inglorious ease, or wasted their powers in the regions of dreamy mysticism. The other mi- gration, at first northern, and then western, includes the great Xvm CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES. families of nations in northwestern Asia and in Europe. Forced by circumstances into a more objective life, and under the stimulus of more favorable influences, these nations have been brought into a marvellous state of individual and social progress, and to this branch of the human family belongs all the civilization of the present, and most of that which distinguishes the past. The Indo-European family of languages far surpasses the Semitic in variety, flexibility, beauty, and strength. It is remarkable for its vitality, and has the power of continually regenerating itself and bringing forth new linguistic creations. It renders most faithfully the various workings of the human mind, its wants, its aspirations, its passion, imagination, and reasoning power, and is most in har- mony with the ever progressive spirit of man. In its varied scien- tific and artistic development it forms the most perfect family of languages on the globe, and modern civilization, by a chain reaching through thousands of years, ascends to this primitive source. HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITEBATUKE. -4W- HEBEEW LITEEATUEE. 1. Hebrew Literature ; its Divisions. — 2. The Language ; its Alphabet ; its Struc- ture ; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases. — 3. The Old Testament. — L Hebrew Edu- cation.— 5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature.— 6. Hebrew Poetry. — 7. Lyric Poetry ; Songs ; the Psalms ; the Prophets. — 8. Pastoral Poetry.— 9. Didactic Poetry ; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. — 10. Epic and Dramatic Poetry ; the Book of Job. — 11. Hebrew History ; the Pentateuch and other Historical Books. — 12. Hebrew Philoso- phy. — 13. Restoration of the Sacred Books. — 14. ManuBcripts and Translationa. — 15. Rabbinical Literature. 1. Hebrew Literature. — The Hebrew Literature expresses the national character of that ancient people, who were selected by God as the conservators of His revelation, and who, for a period of four thousand years, through captivity, dispersion and persecution of every kind, present the wonderful spectacle of a race preserving its nationality, its peculiarities of worship, of doctrine and of literature. Its history reaches back to the earliest period of the world, its code of laws has been studied and imitated by the legislators of all ages and countries, and its Hterary monuments surpass in credibility, originality, poetic strength and rehgious importance those of any other nation before the Christian Era. The Hterature of the Hebrews may be divided into the four following periods : The first, extending from remote antiquity to the time of David, B.C. 1048, includes all the records of patriarchal civil- ization, transmitted by tradition, previous to the age of Moses, and contained in the Pentateuch, or five books, written by him under divine inspiration, after he had delivered the people from the bondage of Egypt. The seco'ud period extends from the time of David to the 9 10 nEKREW LITERATURE. dcalh of Solomon, b.c. 1048-962, and to it we refer tlie Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, the Proverbs, Eeclesiastes, Josliua, the Judges, Samuel, the Books of Kings, Esther, lluth, and the Chronicles. The third period extends from the death of Solomon to the return from the Babylonish captivity, 962-532, and to this age belong the writings of the Prophets, and those of Ezra and Xehemiah. The fourth period extends from the return from the Baljy- lonish caj^tivity to the present time ; to it belong the Septua- giut translation of the Bible, the writings of Josephus, of Philo of Alexandria, and the llabbinical literature. 2. The Language. — The Hebrew language is of Semitic origin ; its alphabet consists of twenty-two letters, of which five are considered as vowels, each divided into a long and short vowel, to which may be added others called semi-vowels, which serve to connect the consonants. The number of accents is nearly forty, some of which distinguish the sentences like the punctuation of our language, and others serve to determine the number of syllables, or to mark the tone with which they are to be sung or spoken. The Hebrew character is of two kinds, the ancient or square, and the modern or rabbinical. In the first of these the Scrip- tures were originally written. The last is deprived of most of its angles, and is more easy and flowing. The Hebrew words as well as letters are written from right to left in common with the Semitic tongues generally, and the language is regular, particu- larly in its conjugations. Indeed it has but one conjugation, but with seven or eight variations, having the effect of as many different conjugations, and giving great variety of expression. The predominance of these modifications over the noun, the idea of time contained in the roots of almost all its verbs, so expres- sive and so picturesque, and even the scarcity of its prepositions, adjectives and adverbs, make this language in its organic struc- ture breathe life, vigor and emotion, and its tenses, fluctuating between the past, present and future, express most truly and energetically the character of the divine poetry, by which the pro])hetic idea of the future is united with the present, and both are identified in eternity. If this language lacks the flowery and luxuriant elements of the other oriental idioms, no one of these can be compared with the Hebrew tongue for the richness of its figures and imagery, for its depth and for its majestic and imposing features. HEBREW LITER ATUEE. II 111 the formation, development and decay of this language, the following periods may be distinguished : First. From Abraham to Moses, when the old stock was changed by the infusion of the Eg^'ptiau and Arabic. Abraham, residing in Chaldea, spoke the Chaldaic language, then travel- ling through Egypt, and establishing himself in Canaan or Pales- tine, his language mingled its elements with the tongues spoken by those nations, and perhaps also with that of the Phenicians, who early established commercial intercourse with him and his descendants. It is probable that the Hebrew language sprung from the mixture of these elements. Second. From Moses and the composition of the Pentateuch to Solomon, when it attained its perfection, not without being influenced by the Phenician. This is the Golden Age of the Hebrew language. Third. From Solomon to Ezra, when, although increasing in beauty and sweetness, it became less pure by the adoption of foreign ideas and idioms. Fourth. From Ezra to the end of the reign of the Maccabees, when it was gradually lost in the Aramaean tongue, and became a dead languao:e. The Jews of the Middle Ages, incited by the learning of the Arabs in Spain, among whom they received the protection denied them by Christian nations, endeavored to restore their language to something of its original purity, and to render the Biblical Hebrew again a written language ; but the Chaldaic idioms had taken too deep root to be eradicated — and besides, the ancient language was found insufficient for the necessities of an advancing civilization. Hence arose a new form of written Hebrew, called rabbinical from its origin and use among the Rabbins. It bon*owed largely from many contemporary lan- guages, and though it became richer and more regular in its structure, it retained little of the strength and purity of the ancient Hebrew. 3. The Old Testament. — The literary productions of the Hebrews are collected in the sacred books of the Old Testament, in which, according to the celebrated Orientalist, Sir WiUiam Jones, we can find more eloquence, more historical and moral truth, more poetr\^ — in a word, more beauties than we could gather from all other books together of whatever country or language. Aside from its supernatural claims, this book stands alone among the literary monuments of other nations, for the sublimity of its doctrine, as well as for the simplicity of its style. 12 HEBREW LITERATUKE. It is the book of all centuries, countries and conditions, and affords the best solution of the most mysterious problems con- cerning God and the world. It cultivates the taste, it elevates the mind, it nurses the soul with the word of life, and it has inspired the best productions of human genius. 4. Hebrew Educatiox. — Religion, morals, legislation, history, poetry and music were the special objects, to which the atten- tion of the Levites and Prophets "was particularly directed. The general education of the people, however, was rather simple and domestic. They were trained in husbandry, and in mili- tary and gymnastic exercises, and they appHed their minds almost exclusively to religious and moral doctrines and to divine worship ; they learned to read and write their own language correctly, but they seldom learned foreign languages or read foreign books, and they carefully prevented strangers from obtain- ing a knowledge of their own. 5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature. — Monotheism was the fundamental idea of the Hebrew literature, as weU as of the Hebrew religion, legislation, morals, politics and philoso- phy. The idea of the unity of God constitutes the most striking characteristic of Hebrew poetry, and chiefly distinguishes it from that of all mythological nations. Other ancient literatures have created their divinities, endowed them with human passions, and painted their achievements in the glowing colors of poetry. The Hebrew poetry, on the contrary, makes no attempt to por- tray the Deity by the instruments of sensuous representation, but shnple, majestic and severe, it pours forth a perpetual anthem of praise and thanksgiving. The attributes of God, his power, his paternal love and wisdom, are described in the most sublhne language of any age or nation. His seat is the heavens, the earth is his footstool, the heavenly hosts his servants ; the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. Placed under the immediate government of Jehovah, having with Him common objects of aversion and love, the Hebrews reached the very source of enthusiasm, the fire of which burned in the hearts of the prophets so fervently, as to cause them to utter the denunciations and the promises of the Eternal in a tone suited to the inspired of God, and to sing his attributes and glories with a dignity and authority becoming them, as the Ticegerents of God upon earth. 6. Hebrew Poetry. — The character of the people and their HEBREW LITERATURE. 13 language, its mission, the pastoral life of the patriarchs, the beautiful and grand scenery of the country, the wonderful his- tory of the nation, the feeling of divine inspiration, the promise of a Messiah who should raise the nation to glory, the imposing- solemnities of the divme worship, and finally, the special order of the prophets, gave a strong impulse to the poetical genius of the nation, and concurred in producing a form of poetry which cannot be compared with any other for its simplicity and clear- ness, for its depth and majesty. These features of Hebrew poetry, however, spring from its internal force rather than from any external form. Indeed, the Hebrew poets soar far above all other poets in that energy of feeling, impetuous and irresistible, which penetrates, warms and moYes the very soul. They reveal their anxieties as well as their hopes; they paint with truth and love the actual condition of the human race, with its sorrows and consolations, its hopes and fears, its love and hate. Thev select their miages from the habitual ideas of the people, and they personify inanimate objects — the mountains tremble and exult, deep cries unto deep. Another characteristic of Hebrew poetry is the strong feeling of nationality it expresses. Of their two most sublime poets, one was their legislator, the other their greatest king. 7. Lyric Poetry. — In their national festivals the Hebrews sang the hymns of their lyric poets, accompanied by musical instruments. The art of singing, as connected with poetry, flourished especially under David, who instituted twenty-four choruses, composed of four thousand Levites, whose duty it was to sing in the public solemnities. It is generally believed that the Hebrew hTic poetry was not ruled by any measure, either of syllables or of time. Its predominant form was a succession of thou'i'hts and a rhvthmic movement, less of svllables and words than of ideas and images systematically arranged. The Psalms, especially, are essentially symmetrical, according to the ritual of the Hebrews, the verses being sung alternately by the Levites and by the people, both in the synagogues and more frequently in the open air. The song of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea is the most sublime triumphal hymn in any language, and of equal merit is his song of thanksgiving in Deuteronomy. Beautiful examples of the same order of poetry may be found in the song of Judith (though not canonical), and the songs of Deborah and Balaam. But Hebrew poetry attained its meridian splendor in the Psalms of David. The works of God in the creation of the world, and in the government of men ; the illus- 14 IIEIUIKW IJTEKATURE. trious deeds of the House of Jacob ; the wonders and mysteries of the new Covenant are sung by David in a fervent out-pouring of an impulsive, passionate spirit, that alternately laments and exults, bows in contrition, or soars to the sublimest heights of devotion. The Psalms, even now, reduced to prose, after three thousand years, present the best and most sublime collection of lyrical poems, unequalled for their aspiration, their living- imagery, their grand ideas, and majesty of style. When, at lenuth, the Hebrews, forgetful of their high duties and calling, trampled on their institutions and laws, prophets were raised up by God to recall his wandering people to their idlegiance. Isaiah, whether he foretells the future destiny of the nation, or the coming of the Messiah, in his majestic elo- (juence, sweetness, and simplicity, gives us the most perfect model of lyric poetry. He prophesied during the reigns of Azariah and Ilezekiah, and his writings bear the mark of true inspiration. Jeremiah flourished during the darkest period in the history of the kingdom of Judah, and under the last four kings, pre- vious to the Captivity. The Lamentations, in which he pours forth his grief for the fiite of his country, are full of touching melancholy and pious resignation, and, in their harmonious and beautiful tone, show his ardent patriotism and his unshaken trust in the God of his fathers. He does not equal Isaiah in the sublimity of his conceptions and the variety of his unagery, but whatever may be the imperfections of his style, they are lost in the passion and vehemence of his poems. Daniel, after having struggled against the corruptions of Babylon, boldly foretells the decay of that empu'e with terrible power. His conceptions and images are truly subhme ; but his style is less correct and regular than that of his predecessors, his language being a mixture of Hebrew and Chaldaic. Such is also the style of Ezekiel, a pupil of Daniel, who sings the development of the obscure prophecies of his mas- ter. His writings abound in dreams and visions, and convey rather the idea of the terrible than of the sublime. Tiiese four, from the length of their writings, are called the Greater Prophets, to distinguish them from the twelve Elinor Prophets : Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Joxah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zkphaniaii, IIagGxU, Zechariah, and Malachi, all of whom, though endowed with different characteristics and genius, show in their writings more or less of that fire and vigor, which can only be found in writers who were moved and warmed by the very spirit of God. HEBREW LITERATURE. 15 8. Pastoral Poetry. — The Song of Solomon and the history of lluth are the best specimens of the Hebrew idyl, and breathe all the simplicity of pastoral life. .9. Didactic Poetry. — The books of Proverbs and Ecclesi- astes contain treatises on moral philosopliy, or rather, didactic poems. The Proverb, which is a maxim of wisdom, greatly used by the ancients before the introduction of dissertation, is, as the name indicates, the prevalent form of the first of these books. In Ecclesiastes we have described the trials of a mind which has lost itself in undefined wishes and in despair, and the efficacious remedies for these mental diseases are shown in the pictures of the vanity of the world and in the final divine judgment, in which the problem of this life will have its complete solution. Solomon, the author of these works, adds splendor to the sub- limity of his doctrines by the dignity of his style. 10. Epic and Dramatic Poetry. — The Book of Job may be considered as belonging either to epic or to dramatic poetry. Its exact date is uncertain ; some writers refer it to the primitive period of Hebrew literature, and others to a later age ; and, while some contend that Job was but an ideal, represent- ing human sufiTering, and whose story was sung by an anonymous poet, others, with more probability, regard him as an actual person, exposed to the trials and temptations described in this wonderful book. However this may be, it is certain that this monument of wisdom stands alone, and that it can be compared to no other production for the subhmity of its ideas, the vivacity and force of its expressions, the grandeur of its imagery, and the variety of its characters. No other work represents, in more true and vivid colors, the nobility and misery of humanity, the laws of necessity and Providence, and the trials to which the good are subjected for their moral improvement. Here the great struggle between evil and good appears in its true light, and human virtue heroically submits itself to the ordeal of misfortune. Here we learn that the evil and good of this life are by no means the measure of morality, and here we witness the final triumph of justice. 11. Hebrew History. — Moses, the most ancient of all his- torians, was also the first leader and legislator of the Hebrews. When, at length, the traditions of the patriarchs had become obscured and confused among the different nations of the earth, God commanded Moses to write, under his own inspiration, the 16 HEBREW LITEllATUEE. history of the human race, and especially of his chosen people, in order to bequeath to coming centuries a memorial of the revealed truths and of the divine works of eternal Wisdom. Thus, ]\Ioses, in the first chapters of Genesis, without aiming to write the complete annals of the first period of the world, summed up the general history of man, and described, more especially, the genealogy of the patriarchs and of the genera- tions previous to the time of the dispersion. He then com- mences the particular history of the Hebrews, from Adam to Joseph, a period of two thousand four hundred years. Here, we find the history of the Creation, especially of man, in his first unfallen state, his subsequent fall and misery, the corrup- tion of mankind, the deluge, the origin of the arts, of govern- ments, the distribution of the land, the propagation of the race, and many other facts of no less importance. The book of Genesis bears internal evidence of its divine origin ; it is the foundation of all history, a precious monument of the first records of our race. The subject of the book of Exodus is the delivery of the peo- ple from the Egyptian bondage, and is not less admirable for the importance of the events which it describes, than for the manner in which they are related. In this, and in the following book of Numbers, the record of patriarchal life gives place to the teachings of Moses and to the history of the wanderings in the deserts of Arabia. In Leviticus the constitution of the priesthood is described, as well as the peculiarities of a worship, which was but the symbol and preparation of the future sacrifice of the Son of God. Deuteronomy records the laws of Moses, and concludes with his sublime hymn of thanksgiving. The historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, etc., contain the history of the Hebrew nation for nearly a thousand years, and relate the prosperity and the disasters of the chosen people, and the stupendous works which God wrought in their behalf. Here are recorded the deeds of Joshua, of Samson, of Samuel, of David, and of Solomon, the building of tlie Temple, the division of the tribes into two kin^ doms, the prodigies of EHjali and Elisha, the impieties of Ahab, the calamities of Jedekiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the first Temple, the dispersion and the Babylonish captivity, the deliverance under Cyrus, and the rebuilding of the city and temple under Ezra, and other great events in Hebrew history. The internal evidence derived from the peculiar character of each of the historical books is decisive of their genuineness, HEBREW LITEKATURE. 17 wMcli is supported above all suspicion of alteration or addition by the scrupulous conscientiousness and veneration with which the Hebrews regarded their sacred writings. Their authenticity is also proved by the uniformity of doctrine, which pervades them all, though written at different periods by the simplicity and naturalness of the narrations and by the sincerity of the writers. These histories display neither vanity nor adulation, nor do they attempt to conceal from the reader whatever might be considered as faults in their authors or their heroes. While they select facts with a nice judgment, and present the most luminous picture of events and of their causes, they abstahi from reasoning or speculation in regard to them. 12. Hebrew Philosophy. — Although the Hebrews, in their difl'erent sacred writings, have transmitted to us the best solu- tion of the ancient philosophical questions on the creation of the world, on the Providence which rules it, on monotheism, and on the origin of sin, yet they have nowhere presented us with a complete system of philosophy. During the Captivity, their doctrines were influenced by those of Zoroaster, and later, when many of the Jews established themselves in Egypt, they acquired some knowledge of the Greek philosophy, and the tenets of the sects of Essenes bear a strong resemblance to the Pythagorean and Platonic schools. This resemblance appears most clearly in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, a Jew, born a few years before the birth of our Saviour. Though not belonging to the sect of the Essenes, he followed their example in adopting the doctrines of Plato, and taking them as the criterion in the interpretation of the Scrip- tures. So, also, Flavins Josephus, born in Jerusalem, 37 a.p., and Numenius, born in Syria, in the second century a.d., adopted the Greek philosophy, and by its doctrines amphfied and expanded the tenets of Judaism. 13. Restoration of the Sacred Books. — One of the most important eras in Hebrew literature is the period of the resto- ration of the Mosaic institutions, after the return from the Captivity. At that time, Ezra established the great Synagogue, a college of one hundred and twenty learned men, who were appointed to collect copies of the ancient sacred books, the originals of which had been lost in the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and Kehemiah soon after placed this, or a new collection, in the temple. The design of these re- 18 HEBEEW LITEKATUKE. formers to give the people a religious canon in their ancient tongue induces the belief, that they engaged in the work with the strictest lidelitj to the old Mosaic institutions, and it is cer- tain that the canon of the Old Testament, in the time of the Maccabees, was the same as that which we have at present. 14. Maxuscripts and Translations. — Of the canonical books of the Old Testament we have Hebrew manuscripts, printed editions and translations. The most esteemed manuscripts are those of the Spanish Jews, of which the most ancient belong to the 11th and 12th centuries. The printed editions of the Bible in Hebrew are numerous. The earliest are those of Italy. Luther made his German translation from the edition of Brescia, printed in 1494. The earliest and most famous translation of the Old Testament is the Septuagint, or Greek translation, which was made about 283 B.C. It may, probal^ly, be attributed to the Alexandrian Jews, who, having lost tlie knowledge of the Hebrew, caused the translation to be made by some of their learned countrymen, for the use of the Syna- gogues of Egypt. It was probably accomphshed under the authority of the Sanhedrim, composed of seventy elders, and therefore called the Septuagint version, and from it the quota- tions in the New Testament are chiefly taken. It was regarded as canonical hj the Jews to the exclusion of other books written in Greek, but not translated from the Hebrew, which we now call, by the Greek name, the Apocrypha. The Vulgate or Latin translation, which has official authority in the Catholic Church, was made gradually from the 8th to the 16th century, partly from an old translation which was made from the Greek in the early history of the Church, and partly from translations from the Hebrew made by St. Jerome. The Enghsh version of the Bible now in use in England and America was made by order of James I. It was accomphshed by forty-seven distinguished scholars, divided into six classes, to each of which a part of the work was assigned. This transla- tion occupied three years, and was printed in 1611. 15. Rabbinical Literature. — Rabbinical literature includes all the writings of the rabbins, or teachers of the Jews in the later period of Hebrew letters, who have interpreted and deve- loped the literature of the earlier ages. The language made use of by them has its foundation in the Hebrew and Chaldaic, with various alterations and modifications in the use of words, the meaning of which they have considerably enlarged and extendec* HEBIIEW LITERATUEE. 19 The rabbins have frequently borrowed from the Arabic, Greek and Latin, and from those modern tongues spoKen where they ■ geverally resided. The Talviud, from the Hebrew word signifying he has learned, is a collection of traditions illustrative of the laws and usages of the Jews. The Talmud consists of two parts, the Mishna and the Gemara. The Mishna or sccoiid laio is a collection of rab- binical rules and precepts made in the second century. The Gemara {completion or doctrine) was composed in the third century. It is a collection of commentaries and explanations of the Mishna, and both together formed the Jerusalem Tal- mud. About 500 A.D., the Babylonian rabbins composed new com- mentaries on the Mishna, and this formed the Babylonian Tal- mud. At the period of the Christian Era, the civil constitution, language and mode of thinking among the Jews Imd undergone a complete revolution, and were euth'ely different from what they had been in the early period of the commonwealth. The Mosaic books contained rules no longer adapted to the situa- tion of the nation, and many difficult questions arose to which their law afforded no satisfactory solution. The rabbins under- took to supply this defect, partly by commentaries on the Mosaic precepts, and partly by the composition of new rules. The Talmud requires that wherever twelve adults reside together in one place, they shall erect a synagogue and serve the God of their fathers by a multitude of prayers and formali- ties, amidst the daily occupations of life. It allows usury, treats agricultural pursuits with contempt, and requires strict separa- tion from the other races, and commits the government to the rabbins. The Talmud is followed by the Rabbinites, to which sect nearly all the European and American Jews belong. The sect of the Caraites reject the Talmud and hold to the law of Moses only. It is less numerous and its members are found chiefly in the east, or in Turkey and Eastern Russia. The Cabala, or oral tradition, is, according to the Jews, a perpetual divine revelation, preserved among the Jewish people by secret transmission. It sometimes denotes the doctrines of the prophets, but most commonly the mystical philosophy, which was probably introduced into Palestine from Egypt and Persia. It was first committed to writing in the second century, a.d. The Cabala is divided into the symbolical and the real, of which the former o-ives a mvstical signification to letters. The latter com- prehends doctrines, and is divided into the theoretical and prac- tical. The first aims to explain the Scriptures according to the 20 HEBREW LITERATURE. secret traditions, while the last pretends to teach the art of performing miracles by an artificial use of the divine names and sentences of the sacred Scriptures. The Jews of the Middle Ages acquired great reputation for learning, especially in Spain, where they were allowed to study astronomy, mathematics and medicine in the schools of the Moors. Granada and Cordova became the centres of rabbinical literature, which was also cultivated in France, Italy, Portugal and Germany. In the 16th century the study of Hebrew and rabbinical literature became common among Christian scholars, and in the following centuries it became more interesting and important from the introduction of comparative Philology in the department of languages. At the present time, rabbhi- ical literature has its students and interpreters. In Padua, Berhn and Metz there are seminaries for the education of rab- bins, which supply with able doctors the synagogues of Italy, Germany and France ; the Polish rabbins and Talmudists, how- ever, are the most celebrated. SYRIAC, CHALDAIC A:N^D PHCEXICIAIjT LITEEATUEES. 1. The Languages. — 2. Syriac Language and Literature.— 3. Chaldaic Language and Literature. — 4. Phoenician Literature. 1. The Languages. — ^The Syriac, Chaldaic and Phenician languages bear a close analogy to tlie Hebrew, and belong like that to the Semitic family. The Syriac and Chaldaic are dis- tinguished from the Hebrew, however, by a less abundance of resounding vowels, fewer inflections, and by other pecuUarities, while the Phenician is almost identical with it. 2. Syriac Language and Literature. — The translation of the New Testament from the original Greek, made in the second century a.d., is the only monument of Syriac literatm'e which has been preserved. The language of the translation, hoY\'ever, is not pm*e, but contains many words and phrases of Greek origin, introduced into it during the domination of the successors of Alexander the Great in that country. The language spoken by the Jews in Syiia at the time of the birth of our Saviour, called the Syro-Chaldaic, was also impure, as is that spoken in our day in Mesopotamia. Since the fifth and sixth centuries, this language has been used by the Nestorians and Maronites in then* rehgious services and in their literary works. The spoken language of S}Tia has passed through many changes, corresponding to the political changes of the country. 3. Chaldaic Language and Literature. — The Chaldaic lan- guage was spoken by the people of the Babylonian Empire, the literary men of which were called Chaldeans, and under that name they formed a separate body among the people, and lived in a manner similar to that of the Egyptian priests. Their principal occupation was study, and they were exempted by law iVom any other office or duty. The Chaldeans made the earliest 22 STRIAC, CIIALDAIC AXD niCEXICIAN LITERATUEES. discoveries in astronomy ; they understood the movements of tha heavenly bodies, and the use of the sun-dial. They divided the year into 305 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes. CalUsthenes, who accompanied the expedition of Alexander, brought with him from Babylon on his return the astronomical observations of 1903 years. Unfortunately, the Chaldeans perverted astronomy to the service of astrology, and claimed from their astronomical ol3servations to foretell the future. Babylon retained for a long time its ancient splendor after the conquest by Cyrus and the final fall of the empu'e, and in the first period of the Mace- donian sway. But soon after that, its fame was extinguished, and its monuments, arts and sciences perished. A part of the books of Daniel and of Ezra were ^Titten in the Chaldaic language. Some fragments of the history of Babylon wiitten by Berosus, a Chaldean who lived in the third century e.g., were preserved by Josephus. Durinsc the Babvlonian exile, the Hebrews learned the Chal- daic language, which, as we have seen, was closely alUed to their own, and on their return to Palestine it was for some time used with the Hebrew, the latter remaining the written and sacred tongue. Gradually, however, the Hebrew lost this prerogative, and in the second century a.d. the Chaldaic was the only spoken lauo-uao-e in Palestine. O O 4. Phcexician Literature. — The Phoenicians from the earliest ages were noted for their knowledge of the arts and sciences, and above all for their extensive commerce. From Phoenicia Greece received the science of arithmetic and the invention of letters, but of its literature little is known. Theii' national his- torian, Sanconiathon, lived 1250 e.g. He wrote, besides a his- tory of the Phenicians, treatises on philosophy and Egyptian theology. Of these two works there are no remains. The history was translated into Greek in the second century a.d., but of this there remains only a long fragment preserved by Eusebius, the authenticity of v/hich is by some writers denied. HmDU OE SAKSCEIT LlTERxiTUEE. 1. Sanscrit Literature and its Divisions.— 2. The Sanscrit Language and its Antiquity; Its Structure and Dialects.— 3. Social Constitution of India.— 4. Brahmanism.— 5. The Vedas and tlie other Sacred Books. — 6. Sanscrit Poetry.— 7. Epic Poetry; the Rama- yana ; the Mahabharata. — S. Lyric Poetry. — 9. Didactic Poetry ; the Hitopadesa. — 10. Dramatic Poetry. — 11. History and Science. — 12. Philosophy. — 13. Buddhism. — 14. Moral Philosophy ; the Code of Manu. — 15. Modern Literatures of India. — 16. Edu- cation in India. 1. Sanscrit Literature and its Divisions. — The literary mouuments of the Sanscrit language are ranked among the most ancient in the world, and they correspond to the great eras of the history of India. The first period reaches back to that remote age, when those tribes of the Aryan race speaking Sanscrit emigrated to the northwestern portion of the Indian Peninsula, and established themselves there, an agricultural and pastoral people. That was the age in which were composed the prayers, hymns and precepts, afterwards collected in the form of the Vedas, the sacred books of the country. In the second period, the people, incited by the desire of conquest, penetrated into the fertile valleys lying between the Indus and the Ganges ; and the s-truggle with the aboriginal inhabitants, which followed their invasion, gave birth to epic poetry, in which the wars of the different races were celebrated and the extension of Hindu civilization related. The third period embraces the successive ages of the formation and development of a learned and artistic Uterature. It contains collections of the ancient traditions, expositions of the Yedas, works on grammar, lexicography and science ; and its conclusion forms the golden age of Sanscrit literature, when the country being ruled by liberal princes, poetry, and especially the drama, reached its higliest degree of perfection. The chronology of these periods varies according to the systems of different orientalists. It is, however, admitted that the Yedas are the first literary productions of India, and that their origin cannot be later than the 15th century b.c. The period of the Yedas embraces the other sacred books, or commentaries founded upon them, though written several centuries afterwards. The second period, to which belong the two great epic poems, 23 24 HINDU OR SAXSCRIT LITER ATUEE. the " Ramayana" and the '* Mahabharata/' according to the best authorities, ends with the Gth or tth century b.c. The third period embraces all the poetical and scientific works written trom that time to the 3d or 4th century e.g., when the language having been progressively refined, became fixed in the writings of Kalidasa, Jayadeva, and other poets. A fourth period, including the 10th century a.d., may be added, distinguished by its eru- dition, grammatical, rhetorical and scientific disquisitions, which, however, is not considered as belonging to the classical age. From the Hindu languages, origmating in the Sanscrit, new literatures have sprung ; but they are essentially founded on the ancient literature, which far surpasses them in extent and im- portance, and is the great model of them all. Indeed its influ- ence has not been limited to India ; all the poetical and scientific works of Asia, China and Japan included, have borrowed largely from it, and in Southern Russia the scanty literature of the Kalmucks is derived entirely from Hindu sources. The Sanscrit literature has been known to Europe only recently, through the researches of the English and German orientalists, and has now become the auxiliary and foundation of all philo- logical studies. 2. The Sanscrit Language. — Sanscrit is considered as the most primitive of all the idioms of the great Indo-European family, which more or less reflect the internal features of that language. Though in a rude state, long antecedent to the 15th century b.c. it must have been spoken in India. In a later age, used in the sacred writings, it acquired by degrees that softness, flexibility and polish, which appear in the great Sanscrit poems. It is probable that in the 3d or 4th century B.C., this language was yet spoken, though in a corrupt form orin-inatinGT in the mixture of diiferent races and in various political convulsions; till at length it was entirely superseded by new dialects, engrafted on the ancient stock of the Sanscrit, which, however, has continued to be revered and used by the Hindus as the sacred and literary language of the country. The Sanscrit, meaning 'perfected,, is founded on a vast logical system of grammar, whose equal cannot be found in any other language. It is written from loft to right, and its alphabet consists of fifty letters, of which sixteen are vowels and thirty- four consonants ; two accessory signs serve to modify and enrich the language. By different combinations of these letters all the vocal sounds and their numberless modifications can be clearly expressed, and an exact symmetry and an admirable clear- HINDU OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. 25 ness obtained. The Sanscrit is richly endowed with monosyllabic notes, and tliough inferior in yariety and richness to the Greek and some other languages of the Indo-European family, it unites many qualities which belong separately to them, and the study of it is important in a historical and philological point of view. Its declension is composed of three genders, three num- bers and eight cases, and its conjugation of three persons, six moods and six tenses. At an early period, Sanscrit became the language of the privileged classes. While the people of the north spoke the Prakrit, which contained the same elements, though in a differ- ent and less refined form, in the southern portion of the country the Pali prevailed, which was also a close derivative from the Sanscrit. Among the modern tongues of India, the Hindui and the Hindustani may be mentioned ; the former, the language of the pure Hindu population, is written in Sanscrit characters ; the latter is the language of the Moham- medan-Hindus in which Arabic letters are used. Many of the other dialects spoken and written in northern India are derived from the Sanscrit. Of the more important among them there are English grammars and dictionaries. 3. Social Constitutiox of India. — Hindu literature takes its character both from the social and the religious institutions of the country. The social constitution is based on the distinction of classes into which tlie people, from the earliest times, have been divided, and which were the natural effect of the long struggle between the aboriginal tribes and the new race which had invaded India. These castes are four : 1st. The Brahmins or priests ; 2d. The warriors and prmces ; 3d. The husband- men ; 4th. The laborers. There are besides several impure classes, the result of an intermingling of the different castes. Of these lower classes some are considered utterly abominable — as that of the Pariahs. The different castes are kept distinct from each other by the most rigorous laws ; though in modern times, the system has been somewhat modified. 4. Brahmanism. — The Hindu religion is called Brahmanism, from Brahman, or worship. In the period of the Yedas, this religion was founded on the simple worship of nature. In the succeeding period, that of the epic poetry, this was represented in vast cycles of myths and symbols whicli gave birth to innumerable divinities ; among them are three gods which constitute the Trimurfi, or god under three forms — • 2 26 HINDU OR SAKSCKIT LITEKATUllE. Brahma, Siva and Yishnu. Bralima, the impersonal soul of the universe, the essence of nature, immense, indeterminate and absolute, existed in itself from eternity ; from this principle nature emanated, and from it also the personal and active Brahma developed himself. The more this prmciple develops itself, the more it differs from itself ; hence the differences of all things consist only in the different degrees of their distance from Brahma, and the mixture of these degrees consti- tutes the multiplicity of things. Hence, nature is Brahma in an impure and degraded condition ; and it must return into Braluna by purification. The human soul can only obtain this purification through virtue and piety, and through an assiduous and silent contemplation of Brahma. According to the sins or merits of its former existence, the soul migrates into the body of a higher or lower being, either to finish or to begin anew its purification. Thus Brahmanism is essentially founded on the doctrines of emanation and metempsychosis. Siva is the second form of the Hindu deity, and represents the primitive animating and destroying forces of nature. His symbols relate to these powers, and are worshipped more espe- cially by the Sivaites — a numerous sect of this religion. The worshippers of Yishnu, called the Preserver, the first born of Brahma, constitute the most extensive sect of India, and their ideas relating to this form of the Divinity are represented by tradition and poetry, and are particularly developed in the great monuments of Sanscrit literature. The myths connected with Vishnu refer especially to his incarnations or corporeal appa- ritions both in men and animals, which he submits to in order to conquer the spirit of evil. These incarnations are called Avatars, or descendings, and form an important part of Hindu epic poetry. Of the ten Ava- tars, which are attributed to Yishnu, nine have already taken place ; the last is yet to come, when the god shall descend again from heaven, to destroy the present world, and to restore peace and purity. The three forms of the Deity, emanating mutually from each other, are expressed by the three sym- bols, A U M, forming the mystical name Om, which never escapes the lips of the Hindus, but is meditated on in silence. The predominant worship of one or the other of these forms constitutes the peculiarities of the numerous sects of this religion. There are other inferior divinities, symbols of the forces of nature, guardians of the world, demi-gods, demons and heroes, whose worship, however, is considered as a mode of reaching that divine rest, immersion and absorption in Brahma, which is HIXDU OR SAXSCKIT LITEKATUEE. 27 the object of this religion. To this end are directed the sacri- fices, the prayers, tlie ablutions, the pilgrhnagcs and the pen- ances, which occupy so large a place in the Hindu worship. 5. The Yedas and the other Sacred Books. — The Yedas (knowledge or science) are the Bible of the Hindus, and con- tain the revelation of Brahma, which was preserved by tradition and collected by Yyasa, a name which means compiler, and represents an epoch, probably the fifteenth century b.c, in which the Brahmauic traditions were collected and disposed in the form of a book. The Yedas are three in number : 1st. The Rig- Veda, consisting of hymns, and of mystic prayers ; 2d. The Yajur- Veda, containing the religious rites ; and, 3d. The Sama- Veda, with prayers in the form of songs. A fourth Yeda is usually added, which consists chiefly of formulas of consecration, expiation and imprecation. But this last book is evidently of a more recent date. Each Yeda is divided into two parts : the first contains the prayers and invocations, the most of which are of a rhythmical character ; the second records the precepts relative to those prayers and to the ceremonies of the sacrifices, and describes the religious myths and symbols. There are many commentaries on the Yedas of an ancient date, which are considered as sacred books, and relate to medi- cine, music, astronomy, astrology, grammar, philosophy, juris- prudence and, indeed, to the whole circle of Hindu science. The Puranas (ancient writings) hold an eminent rank in the religion and literature of the Hindus. Though of a more recent date than the Yedas, they possess the credit of an ancient and divine origin, and exercise an extensive and practical influ- ence upon the people. They comprise vast collections of ancient traditions relating to theology, cosmology and to the genealogy of gods and heroes. There are eighteen acknowledged Puranas, which altogether contain 400,000 stanzas. The Ujpafuranas, also eighteen in number, are commentaries on the Puranas. Finally, to the sacred books, and next to the Yedas both in antiquity and authority, belong the Manavadharmasastra, or the ordinances of Manu, spoken of hereafter. 6. SAXscRrr Poetry. — This poetry, springing from the lively and powerful imagination of the Hindus, is inspired by their religious doctrines, and embodied in the most harmonious lan- guage. Exalted by their peculiar belief in pantheism and metempsychosis, they consider the universe and themselves as directly emanating from Brahma, and they strive to lose their own individuality in its infinite essence. Yet, as impure beings, they 28 HINDU OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. feel their incfipacity to obtain the highest moral perfection, except through a continual atonement, to which all nature is condemned. Hence Hindu poetry expresses a profound melaii choly, which pervades the character as well as the literature of that people. This poetry breathes a spirit of perpetual sacrifice of the individual self, as the ideal of human life. The bards of India, inspired by this predominant feeling, have given to poetry nearly every form it has assumed in the western world, and in each and all they have excelled. Sanscrit poetry is both metrical and rhythmical, equally free from the confused strains of unmoulded genius and from the ser- vile pedantry of conventional rules. The verse of eight syllables is the source of all other metres, and the sloka or double distich is the stanza most frequently used. Though this poetry pre- sents too often extravagance of ideas, incumbrance of episodes, and monstrosity of images, as a general rule it is endowed with simplicity of style, pure coloring, sublime ideas, rare figures, and chaste epithets. Its exuberance must be attributed to the strange mythology of the Hindus, to the immensity of the fables which constitute the groundwork of their poems, and to the gigantic strength of their poetical imaginations. A striking peculiarity of Sanscrit poetry is its extensive use in treating of those subjects apparently the most difficult to reduce to a metri- cal form — not only the Yedas and Manu's code are composed in verse, but the sciences are expressed in this form. Even in the few works which may be called prose, the style is so modulated and bears so great a resemblance to the language of poetry as scarcely to be distinguished from it. The history of Sanscrit poetry is, in reality, the history of Sanscrit literature. 1. Epic Poetry. — ^The subjects of the epic poems of the Hindus are derived chiefly from their religious tenets, and relate to the incarnations of the gods, who, in their human forms become the heroes of this poetry. The idea of an Almighty power warrmg against the spirit of evil destroys the possibility of struggle, and impairs the character of epic poetry ; but the Hindu poets, by submitting their gods both to fiite and to the condition of men, diminish their power and give them the charac- ter of epic heroes. The Hindu mythology, however, is the great obstacle which must ever prevent this poetry from becoming popular in the western world. The great personifications of the Deity have not been softened down, as in the mythology of the Greeks, to the perfection of human symmetry, but are here exhibited in HINDU Oli SANSCRIT LITEEATUEE. 29 their original gigantic forms. Majesty is often expressed by enor- mous stature ; power, by multitudinous bands ; providence, by countless eyes ; and omnipresence, by innumerable bodies. In addition to this, Hindu epic poetry departs so far from what may be called the vernacular idiom of thought and feeling, and refers to a people whose political and religious institutions, as well as moral habits, arc so much at variance with our own, that no labor or skill could render its associations familiar. The Ramayana and the Mahal^harata are the most important and sublime creations of Hindn literature, and the most colos- sal epic poems to be found in the literature of the world. They surpass in magnitude the IHad and Odyssey, the Jerusalem Delivered and the Lusiad, as the Pyi*amids of Egypt tower above the temples of Greece. The Ramayana (^Rama and yana expedition) describes the exploits of Rama, an ijicarnation of Yishnu, and the son of Dasaratha, king of Oude. Ravana, the prince of demons, had stolen from the gods the privilege of being invulnerable, and had thus acquired an equality with them. He could not be over- come except by a man, and the gods implored Yishnu to become incarnate in order that Ravana might be conquered. The origin and the development of this Avatar, the departing of Rama for the battle-field, the divine signs of his mission, his love and marriage with Sita, the daughter of the king Janaka, the persecution of his step-motlier, by which the hero is sent into exile, his penance in the desert, the abduc- tion of his bride by Ravana, the gigantic battles that ensue, the rescue of Sita, and the triumph of Rama constitute the principal plot of this wonderful poem, full of incidents and episodes of the most singular and beautiful character. Among these may be mentioned the descent of the goddess Ganga, which relates to the mythological origin of the river Ganges, and the story of Yajnadatta, a young penitent, who through mistake was killed by Dasaratha ; the former splendid for its rich imag^ery, the latter incomparable for its elegiac character, and for its expres- sion of the passionate sorrow of parental affection. The Ramayana was written by Yalmiki, a poet belonging to an unknown period. It consists of seven cantos, and contains twenty-five thousand verses. The original, with its trans- lation into Italian, has recently been published in Paris by the o-overument of Sardinia. The Mahabharata (the great Bharata) has nearly the same antiquity as the Ramayana, It describes the greatest Avatar of Yishnu, the incarnation of the god in Krishna, and it 30 " HIXDU OR SAXSCniT LITEEATURE. presents a vast picture of the Ilmclu religion. It relates to the legendary history of the Bharata dynasty, especially to the wars between the Pandas and Kurus, two branches of a princely family of ancient India. Five sons of Pandu, having been unjustly exiled by their uncle, return, after many wonderful ad- ventures, with a powerful army to oppose the Kurus, and being aided by Krishna, the incarnated Vishnu, defeat their enemies and become lords of all the country. The poem describes the birth of Krishna, his escape from the dangers which surrounded his cradle, his miracles, his pastoral life, his rescue of sixteen thousand young girls wlio had become prisoners of a giant, his heroic deeds in the war of the Pandus, and finally his ascent to heaven, where he still leads the round dances of the spheres. This work is not more remarkable for the grandeur of its conceptions, than for the information it affords respecting the social and reli- gious systems of the ancient Hindus, which are here revealed with majestic and sublime eloquence. Five of its most esteemed episodes are called the Five Precious Stones. First among these may be mentioned the '' Bhagavad-Gita," or the Divine Song, con- tahiing the revelation of Krishna, in the form of a dialogue between the god and his pupil Arjuna. Schlegel calls this episode the most beautiful, and perhaps the most truly philosophical poem, that the whole range of literature has produced. The Mahabharata is divided into 18 cantos, and it contains 200,000 verses. It is attributed to Yyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, but it appears that it was the result of a period of liter- ature rather than the work of a single poet. Its different inci- dents and episodes were probably separate poems, which from the earliest age were sung by the people, and later, by degrees, collected in one complete work. Of the Mahabharata we possess only a few episodes translated into English, such as the 13haga- vad-Gita, by Wilkins. At a later period other epic poems were written, either as abridgments of tlie Rama3^ana and the Mahabharata, or founded on episodes contained hi them. These, however, belong to a lower order of composition, and cannot be com- pared with the great works of Valmiki and Yyasa. 8. L^TJc Poetry. — In the development of Lyric poetry the Hindu bards, particularly those of the third period, have been eminently successful ; their power is great in the sub- lime and tlie pathetic, and manifests itself more particularly in awakening the tender sympathies of our nature. Here we find many poems full of grace and delicacy, and splendid for their charming descriptions of nature. Such are the "Meghaduta" HINDU OR SANSCKTT LITERATUKE. 31 and the " Ritusanhara " of Kalidasa, the " Madhava and Kadha " of Jayadeva, and especially the " Gita-Govinda" of the same poet, or the adventures of Krishna as a shepherd, a poem in which the soft langnoi-s of love are depicted in enchanting colors, and which is adorned with all the magnificence of language and sentiment. 9. Didactic Poetry. — Hindu poetry has a particular tend- ency to the didactic style and to embody religious and his- torical knowledge ; every subject is treated in the form of verse, such as inscriptions, deeds and dictionaries. Splendid ex- amples of didactic poetry may be found in the episodes of the epic poems, and more particularly in the collections of fables and apo- logues in which the Sanscrit literature abounds. Among these the " Hitopadesa " is the most celebrated, in which Yishnu-sarma instructs the sons of a king committed to his care. Perhaps there is no book, except the Bible, which has been translated into so many languages as these fables. They have spread in two branches over nearly the whole civilized world. The one, under the original name of the Hitopadesa, remains almost con- fined to India, while the other, under the title of Calila and Dim- na, has become famous over all western Asia and in all the countries of Europe, and has served as the model of the fables of all languages. To this department belong also the Adven- tures of the " Ten Princes," by Dandin, which, in an artistic point of view, is far superior to any other didactic writings of Hindu literature. 10. Dramatic Poetry. — Hindu dramatic poetry had its most flourishing period in the 3d or 4th century B.C. It has a moral and a religious character. Its origin is attributed to Brahma, and its subjects are selected from the mythology. Whether the drama represents the legends of the gods, or the simple circum- stances of ordinary life ; whether it describes allegorical or histor- ical subjects, it bears always the same character of its origm and of its tendency. Simplicity of plot, unity of episodes, and purity of language, unite in the formation of the Hindu dramas. Prose and verse, the serious and the comic, pantomime and mu- sic are intermingled in their representations. Only the principal characters, the gods, the Brahmins, and the kings speak San- scrit ; women and the less unportant characters speak Prakrit, more or less refined according to their rank. Whatever may offend propriety, whatever may produce an unwholesome excite- ment, is excluded ; for the hilarity of the audience there is an 32 HIXDU OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. occasional mtroduction on the stage of a parasite or a buffoon. The representation is usually opened by an apologue and ahvays concluded with a prayer. Kalidasa, the Hindu Shakspeare, has been called by his coun- trymen the Bridegroom of poetry. His language is harmonious and elevated, and in his compositions he unites grace and ten- derness with grandeur and sublimity. Many of his dramas con- tain episodes selected from the epic poems and are founded on the principles of Brahmanism. The "Messenger Cloud" of this author, a monologue rather than a drama, is unsurpassed in beauty of sentiment by any European poet. *' Sakuntala," or the Fatal Ring, is considered one of the best dramas of Kahdasa. It has been translated into English by Sir W. Jones. Bhavabhuti, a Brahmin by birth, was called by his contem- poraries the Sweet Speaking. He was the author of many dramas of distmguished merit, which rank next to those of Kalidasa. 11. History and Science. — History, considered as the devel- opment of mankind in relation to its ideal, is unknown to San- scrit literature. Indeed, the only historical work thus far dis- covered is the " History of Cashmere," a series of poetical compo- sitions, written by different authors at different periods, the last of which brings down the annals to the 16th century a.d., when Cashmere became a province of the Mogul empire. In the scientific department, the works on Sanscrit Grammar and Lexicography come first, several of which are models of logical and analytical research. There are also some valuable works, and some rhythmical ones, on jurisprudence and its various divisions, on medicine, on rhetoric, poetry, music and other arts. Several works of modern times, on mathematics, are considered of a high standing ; and it is well established that the Arabs derived from India the figures which, at a later period, they communicated to Europe. It appears, also, that at an early age the Hindus were acquainted with the first principles of als-ebra. *o^ 12. Philosophy. — The object of Hindu philosophy consists in obtaining emancipation from metempsychosis, through the absorp- tion of the soul into Brahma, or the universal being. Accord- ing to the different principles Avhich philosophers adopt in attaining this supreme object, their doctrines are divided into the four following systems : 1st. Sensualism ; 2d. Idealism ; 3d. Mysticism ; 4th. Eclecticism. HINDU OK SANSCRIT LITERATURE. 33 Sensualism is represented in the school of Kapila, according to whose doctrine the purification of the soul must be eftected through knowledge, the only source of which lies in sensual perception. In this system, nature, eternal and universal, is considered as the first cause, which produces intelligence and all the other principles of knowledge and existence. This philoso- phy of nature leads some of its followers to seek their purifica- tion in the sensual pleasures of this life, "and in the loss of their own individuality in nature itself, in which they strive to -be absorbed. Materialism, fatalism and atheism are the natural consequences of the system of Kapila. Idealism is the foundation of three philosophical schools : the Dialectic, the Atomic and the Yedanta. The Dialectic school considers the principles of knowledge as entirely distinct from nature ; it admits the existence of universal ideas in the human mind ; it establishes the syllogistic form as the complete method of reasoning, and finally, it holds as fundamental the duality of intelligence and nature. In this theory, the soul is con- sidered as distinct from Brahma and also from the body. Man can approach Brahma, can unite himself to the universal soul, but can never lose his own individuaUty. The Atomic doctrine explains the origin of the world through the combination of eternal, simple atoms. It belongs to Ideahsm, for the predominance which it gives to ideas over sensation, and for the individuality and consciousness which it recognizes in man. The Yedanta is the true ideal pantheistic philosophy of India. It considers Brahma in two different states : first, as a pure, simple, abstract and inert essence ; secondly, as an active indi- viduality. Nature in this system is only a special quality or quantity of Brahma, having no actual reality, and he who turns away from all that is unreal and changeable and contemplates Brahma unceasingly, becomes one with it, and attains libera- tion. Mysticism comprehends all doctrines which deny authority to reason, and admit no other principles of knowledge or rule of life than supernatural or direct revelation. To this system belong the doctrines of Patanjali, which teach that man must emancipate himself from metempsychosis through contemplation and ecstasy to be attained by the calm of the senses, by cor- poreal penance, suspension of l3reath, and immobility of position. The followers of this school pass their lives in solitude, absorbecl in this mystic contemplation. The forests, the deserts and the environs of the temples are filled with these mystics, who, thus separated from external life, believe themselves the subjects of 2* 34 IIIXDU OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. supernatural illumination and power. The Bhagavad-Gita, already spoken of, is the best exposition of this doctrine. The Eclectic school comprises all theories which deny the authority of the Yedas, and admit rational principles borrowed both from sensualism and idealism. Among these doctrines, Buddhism is the principal. 13. BuDDHisii. — Buddhism is so called from Buddha, a name meaning deified teacher, which was given to Sakyamuni, or Saint Sakya, a reformer of Brahmanism, who introduced intis the Hindu religion a more simple creed, and a milder and more humane code of morality. The date of the origin of this reform is uncertain. It is probably not earlier than the sixth century, B.C. Buddhism, essentially a proselyting religion, spread over central Asia and tlirough the island of Ceylon. Its followers in India being persecuted and expelled from the country, penetrated into Thibet, and pushing forward into the wilderness of the Kalmucks and Mongols, entered China and Japan, where they introduced their worship under the name of the religion of Fo. Buddhism is more extensively diffused than any other form of religion in the world. Though it has never extended bevond the limits of Asia, its followers number three hundred millions. As a philosophical school. Buddhism partakes both of sen- sualism and ideahsm ; it admits sensual perception as the source of knowledge, but it grants to nature only an apparent exist- ence. On this universal illusion. Buddhism founded a gigantic system of cosmogony, establishing an infinity of degrees in the scale of existences, from that of pure being without form or quality to the lowest emanations. According to Buddha, the object of philosophy, as well as of rehgion, is the deliverance of the soul from metempsychosis, and therefore from all pain and illusion. He teaches that to break the endless rotation of transmigration the soul must l)e prevented from being born again, by purifying it even from the desire of existence. Buddha denied the authoritv of the Yedas, and abolished or ignored the division of the people into castes, admitting whoever desired it to the priesthood. Though his morals and his precepts are pure and elevated in theory, the metempsychosis and the panthe- ism, which are essential parts of the system, often inculcate in practice more regard to animals than to men, and place the highest moral perfection in the destruction of personality. In the course of time, much was added to the original doctrine of Buddha in the way of mythology, sacrifices, penances, hierarchy, and mysticism. HIXDU OR SAXSCRIT LITERATURE. 35 A complete collection of the sacred books of Buddhism forms a theological body of 108 volumes. These works were originally written in Sanscrit, and afterward translated into Thibetan. Buddhism possesses a literature of its own ; its language and style are simple and intelligible to the common people, to whom it is particularly addressed. For this reason, the priests of this religion prefer to write in the dialects used by the people, and indeed some of their principal works are written in Prakrit or in Pali. Among these are many legends, and chronicles, and books on theology and jurisprudence. The literary men of Buddhism are generally the priests, who receiye difierent names in different countries. 14. Moral Philosophy. — The moral philosophy of India is contained in the Sacred Book of Manavadharmasastra, or Code of Manu. This embraces a poetical account of Brahma and other gods, of the origin of the world and man, and of the duties arising from the relation of man towards Brahma and towards his fellow-men. Whether regarded for its great anti- quity and classic beauty, or for its importance as being con- sidered of divine revelation by the Hindu people, this Code must ever claim the attention of those who devote themselves to the study of the Sanscrit literature. Though inferior to the Yedas in antiquity, it is held to be equally sacred; and being more closely connected v/ith the business of life, it has done so much towards moulding the opinions of the Hindus, that it would be impossible to comprehend the literature or local usages of India without being master of its contents. It is believed by the Hindus, that Brahma taught his laws to Manu in 100,000 verses, and that they v^ere afterwards abridged for the use of mankind to 4,000. It is most probable, that the work attributed to Manu is a collection made from various sources and at different periods. Among the duties prescribed by the lav>"S of Manu, man is enjoined to exert a fidl dominion over his senses, to study sacred science, to keep his heart pure, without which sacrifices are use- less, to speak only when necessity requires, and to despise worldly honors. His principal duties toward his neighbor are to honor old age, to respect parents, the mother more than a thousand fathers, and the Brahmins more than father or mother, to injure no one even in wish. AVoman is taught that she cannot aspire to freedom, a girl is to depend on her father, a wife on her hus- band, and a widow on her son. The law forbids her to marry a second time. 36 HINDU OR SAXSCKIT LITERATURE. The Code of Manu is divided into twelve books or chap- ters, in which are treated separately the subjects of crea- tion, education, marriage, domestic economy, the art of living, penal and civil laws, of punishments and atonements, of trans- migration, and of the final blessed state. These ordinances or institutes contain much to be admired and much to be con- demned. They form a system of despotism and priestcraft, both limited by law, but artfully conspuing to give mutual support, tliouo-h with mutual checks. A spirit of sul^lime elevation and amiable benevolence pervades the whole work, sufficient to prove the author to have adored not the visible sun, but the incom- parably greater light, according to the Vedas, which illuminates all, delights all, from which all proceed, to which all must return, and which alone can irradiate our souls. 15. Modern Literatures of India. — The literature of the modern tongues of the Huidus consist chiefly of imitations and translations from the Sanscrit, Persian, Arabic, and from European languages. There is, however, an original epic poem, written in Ilindui by Tshand, under the title of the "Adventures of Prithivi Raja," which is second only to the great Sanscrit poems. This work, which relates to the twelfth century a.d., describes the struggle of the Hindus against their Mohamme- dan conquerors. The poem of "Ramayana," by Tulsi-Das, and that of the " Ocean of Love," are extremely popular in India. The modern dialects contain many religious and national songs of exquisite beauty and delicacy. Among the poets of India, who have written in these dialects, Sauday, Mir-Mohammed Taqui, Wali, and Azad are the principal. 16. Education in India. — The state of education is exceedingly backward; the women and children of the lower classes are in gene- ral entirely ignorant. Those in a higher station are instructed by the Brahmins in arithmetic, and taught to read and write. The pupil first begins to write upon the sand with his finger, and afterward upon palm leaves with the reed. There is no choice of profession, every one following that of his father ; and the student is instructed chiefly in the Yedas, and in the ceremo- nies of his religion. Tlie mass of the people, however, are entirely ignorant of the spirit of their religion, which consists for the most part in an endless detail of troublesome ceremonies deeply interwoven with the whole system of life. For the education of the Brahmins and of the higher classes, there is at Benares, the Hindu capital, a Sanscrit College, HINDU OR SANSCRIT LITERATURE. 37 founded in 1792. The course of instruction embraces Sanscrit, Persian, English, Hindu law and general literature. Lately a new English college has been established in Benares, in which the whole range of European literature and science is thrown open to the Hindus. Similar institutions may be found in Calcutta, and other cities. PEESIAK LITERATURE. 1. The Persian Language and its Divisions. — 2. Zendic Literature ; The Zendavesta. — 3. Pehlvl and Parsee Literatures.— 4. The Cuneiform Inscriptions. — 5. The Ancient Religion of Persia ; Zoroaster. — 6. Modern Literature. — T. The Sufis. — 8. Persian Poetry. — 9. Persian Poets; Ferdusi; Essedi of Tus ; Togi-ay, etc. — 10. History and Philosophy. — 11. Education in Persia. 1. The Persian Language and its Divisions. — The Persian language and its varieties, as far as they are known, belong to the great Indo-European family, and this common origin explains the affinities that exist between them and those of the ancient and modern languages of Europe. During successive ages, four idioms have prevailed in Persia, and Persian literature may be divided into four corresponding periods. First. The period of the Zend (living), the most ancient of the Persian languages; it was from a remote, unknown age spoken in ]\Iedia, Bactria, and in the northern part of Persia. This lan- guage partakes of the character both of the Sanscrit and of the Chaldaic. It is written from right to left, and it possesses, in its grammatical construction and its radical words, many elements in common with the Sanscrit and the German languages. Second. Tlie period of the Pehlvi, or language of heroes, anciently spoken in the western part of the country. Its alpha- bet is closely allied with the Zendic, to which it bears a great resemblance. It attained a high degree of perfection under the Parthian kings, 246 B.C. to 229 a.d. Third. The i)criod of the Parsee or the dialect of the south- v/estern part of tlie country. It reached its perfection under the dynasty of the Sassanides, 229-636 a.d. It has great analogy with the Zend, Pehlvi and Sanscrit, and is endowed with peculiar grace and sweetness. Fourth. The period of the modern Persian. After the con- quest of Persia, and the introduction of the Mohammedan faith in the seventh century a.d., the ancient Parsee language became greatly modified by the Arabic. It adopted its alphabet, ad- ding to it, however, four letters and three points, and borrowed TEKSIAX LITERATURE. 39 from it not only words but whole phrases, and thus from the union of the Parsee and the Arabic was formed the modern Persian. Of its various dialects, the Deri is the language of the court and of literature. 2. Zexdic Literature. — To the first period belong the ancient sacred books of Persia, collected under the name of Ztiv- davesta (living word), which contain the doctrines of Zoroaster, the prophet and" lawgiver of ancient Persia. The Zendavesta is divided into two parts, one written in Zend, the other in Pehlvi ; it contains traditions relating to the primitive condition and colo- nization of Persia, moral precepts, theological dogmas, prayers, and astronomical observations. The collection originally con- sisted of twenty-one chapters or treatises, of which only three have been preserved. Besides the Zendavesta there are two other sacred books, one containing prayers and hymns, and the other prayers to the Genii who preside over the days of the month. To this first period some writers refer the fables of Lokman, who is supposed to have lived in the 10th century B.C., and to have been a slave of Ethiopic origin ; his apologues ha.ve been considered the model on which Greek fable was con- structed. The work of Lokman, however, existing now only in the Arabic language, is believed by other writers to be of Arabic origin. It has been translated into the European lan- guages, and is still read in the Persian schools. Among the Zendic books preserved in Arabic translations may also be men- tioned the " Giavidan Kird," or the Eternal Reason, the work of Ilushang, an ancient priest of Persia, a book full of beautiful and sublime maxims. 3. Pehl^t and Parsee Literatures. — The second period of Persian literature includes all the books vfritten in Pehlvie, and especially all the translations and paraphrases of the works of the first period. There are also in this language a manual of the religion of Zoroaster, dictionaries of Pehlvi explained by the Parsee, inscriptions and .legends. When the seat of the Persian empu-e was transferred to the southern states under the Sassanides, the Pehlvi gave way to the Parsee, which became the prevaihng language of Persia in the third period of its literature. The sacred books were translated into this tongue, in which many records, annals, and treatises on astronomy and medicine were also written. But all these monuments of Persian literature were destroyed by the conquest of Alexander the Great, and by the fury of the Mon- 40 PEKSIAX LITEKATUKE. gols and Arabs, This language, however, lias been immortal- ized by Ferdusi, whose poems contain little of that admixture of Arabic, which characterizes the writings of the modern poets of Persia. 4. The CuNEiFORii Ixscriptioxs. — To the period of the ancient dialects of Persia are referred the inscriptions found in the ruins of Persepolis. The single character used in these inscrip- tions engraved on rocks, monuments and public buildings, is in the shape of an arrow, or rather of a nail, and the writing is formed by its different combinations in vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines. It appears that this character was used only for inscriptions in all the countries which anciently composed the great Persian empire, and its combinations were probably modi- lied according to the different dialects. Similar inscriptions have been discovered in the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, and also in Egypt, where the cuneiform character was brought by the Persiaus, in their conquest of that country under Cambyses. 5. The Ancient Peligion of Persia. — The ancient litera- ture of Persia is mainly the exposition of its religion. Persia, Media and Bactria acknowledged as their first religious prophet Honover, or II om, symbohzed in the star Sirius, and himself the symbol of the first eternal word, and of the tree of knowledge. In the numberless astronomical and mystic personifications under which Hom was represented, his individuality was lost, and little is known of his history or of his doctrines. It appears, how- ever, that he was the founder of the magi (priests), the con- servators and teachers of his doctrine, who formed a particular order, like that of the Levites of Israel and of the Chaldeans of Assyria. They did not constitute a hereditary caste like the Brahmins of India, but they were chosen from among the people. They claimed to foretell future events. They wor- shipped fire and the stars, and believed in two principles of good and evil, of which light and darkness were the symbols. Zoroaster, one of these magi, who probably lived in the eighth century b.c, undertook to elevate and reform this rehgion, which had then fallen from its primitive purity. Availing himself of the doctrines of the Chaldeans and of the Hebrews, Zoroaster, endowed by nature with extraordinary powers, sustained by popular enthusiasm, and aided by the favor of powerful princes, extended his reform throughout the country, and founded a new religion on the ancient worship. According to this religion the two great principles of the world were represented by Ormuzd PEKSIAN LITER ATUKE. 41 and Ahriraan, botli born from eternity, and both contending for the dominion of the world. Ormuzd, the principle of good, is represented by light, and Ahriman, the principle of evil, by darkness. Light, then, being the body or symbol of Ormuzd, is worshipped in the sun and stars, in fire, and wherever it is found. Men are either the servants of Ormuzd, through virtue and wis- dom, or the slaves of Ahriman, through folly and vice. Zoroaster explained the hi^ory of the world as the long contest of these two principles, which was to close with the conquest of Ormuzd over Ahriman. The moral code of Zoroaster is pure and elevated. It aims to assimilate the character of man to light, to dissipate the dark- ness of ignorance ; it acknowledges Ormuzd as the ruler of the universe ; it seeks to extend the triumph of virtue over the mate- rial and spiritual world. The religion of Zoroaster prevailed for many centuries in Persia. The Greeks adopted some of its ideas into their philo- sophy, and through the schools of the Gnostics and Neo-Platon- ists, its influence extended over Europe. After the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedans, the Fire-worshippers were driven to the deserts of Kerman, or took refuge in India, where, under the name of Parsees or Guebers, they still keep alive the sacred fire, and preserve the code of Zoroaster. 6. Modern Literature. — Some traces of the modern litera- ture of Persia appeared shortly after the conquest of the country by the Arabians in the 7th century a.d. ; but the true era dates from the 9th or 10th century. It may be divided into the depart- ments of Poetry, History and Philosophy. T. The Sufis. — After the introduction of Mohammedanism into Persia, there arose a sect of pantheistic mystics called Sufis, to which most of the Persian poets belong. They teach their doctrine under the images of love, wine, intoxication, etc., by which, with them, a" divine sentiment is always understood. The doctrines of the Sufis are undoubtedly of Hindu origin. Their fundamental tenets are, that nothing exists absolutely but God ; that the human soul is an emanation from his essence and will finally be restored to him ; that the great object of life should be a constant approach to the eternal spirit, to form as perfect a union with the divine nature as possible. Hence all worldly attachments should be avoided, and in all that we do a spiritual object should be kept in view. The great end with these philosophers is to attain to a state of perfection in sphituality, 42 PERSIAN LITERATURE. and to be absorbed in holy contemplation, to the exclusion of all worldly recollections or interests. 8. Persian Poetry. — The Persian tongue is peculiarly adapted to the purposes of poetry, which in that language is rich in forcible expressions, in bold metaphors, in ardent sentiments, and in de- scriptions animated with the most lively coloring. In poetical composition there is much art exercised by the i*ersian poets, and the arrangement of their language is a work of great care. One fayorite measure which frequently ends a poem, is called the Suja, literally the cooing of doves. The poetical compositions of the Persians are of several kinds ; the gazel or ode usually treats of love, beauty or friendship. The poet generally introduces his name in the last couplet. The idyl resembles the gazel, except that it is longer. Poetry enters as a universal element into all compositions ; physics, mathematics, medicine, ethics, natural history, astronomy, grammar — all lend themselves to verse in Persia. The works of favorite poets are generally written on fine, silky paper, the ground of which is often powdered with gold or silver dust, the margins illuminated, and the whole perfumed with some costly essence. The magniiicent volume containing the poem of Yussuf and Zuleika in the public library at Oxford, afibrds a proof of the honors accorded to poetical composition. One of the finest specimens of caligraphy and illumination is the exor- dium to the life of Shah Jehan, for which the writer, besides the stipulated remuneration, had his mouth stuffed with pearls. There are three prmcipal love stories in Persia which, from the earliest times, have been the themes of every poet. Scarcely one of the great masters of Persian literature but has adopted and added celebrity to these beautiful and interesting legends, which can never be too often repeated to an Oriental ear. They are, the "History of Khosru and Shireen," the " Loves of Yussuf and Zuleika," and the "Misfortunes of Mejnoun and Leila." So powerful is the charm attached to theSe stories, that it appears to have been considered almost the imperative duty of all the poets to compose a new version of the old, familiar and beloved traditions. Even down to a modern date, the Persians have not deserted their favorites, and these celebrated themes of verse re- appear, from time to time, under new auspices. Each of these poems is expressive of a peculiar character. That of Khosru and Shireen may be considered exclusively the Persian romance ; that of Mejnoun the Arabian ; and that of Yussuf and Zuleika the sacred. The first presents a picture of happy love and female PEESIAN LITEIIATUKE. 43 excellenoe in Shireen ; Mejnoun is a representation of unfortu- nate love carried to loadness ; the third romance contains the ideal of perfection in Yussuf (Joseph) and the most passionate and imprudent love in Zuleika (the wife of Potiphar), and exhi- bits in strong relief the power of love and beauty, the mastery of mind, the weakness of overwhelming passion, and the victo- rious spirit of holiness. 9. Persian Poets.- — The first of Persian poets, the Homer of his country, is Abul Kasim Mansur, called Ferdusi or " Paradise," from the exquisite beauty of his compositions. He flourished in the reign of the Shah Mahmud (940-1020 a. d.). Mahmud commissioned him to write in his faultless verse a history of the monarchs of Persia, promising that for every thousand couplets he should receive a thousand pieces of gold. Por thirty years he studied and labored on his epic poem, "the Shah Namah," or Book of Kmgs, and when it was completed he sent a copy of it, exquisitely written, to the sultan, who received it coldly, and treated the work of the aged poet with contempt. Disappointed at the ingratitude of the Shah, Ferdusi wrote some satirical lines, which soon reached the ear of Mahmud, who, piqued and of- fended at the freedom of the poet, ordered sixty thousand small pieces of money to be sent to him, instead of the gold which he had promised. Ferdusi vras in the pubhc bath when the money was given to him, and his rage and amazement exceeded all bounds v/hen he found himself thus insulted. He distributed the paltry sum among the attendants of the bath and the slaves who brought it. He soon after avenged himself by writing a satire full of stinging invective, which he caused to be transmitted to the favorite vizier who had instigated the sultan against hun. It was carefully sealed up, with directions that it should be read to Mahmud on some occasion when his mind vras perturbed with affairs of state, and his temper ruffled, as it was a poem likely to afford him entertainment. Ferdusi having thus prepared his vengeance, quitted the ungrateful court without leave-taking, and was at a safe distance when news reached him that his lines had fully answered their mtended purpose. Mahmud had heard and trembled, and too late discovered that he had ruined his own reputation forever. After the satire had been read by Shah Mahmud, the poet sought shelter in the court of the caliph of Bagdad, in whose honor he added a thousand couplets to the poem of the Shah Namah, and who rewarded him with the sixty thousand gold pieces, which had been withheld by 44- PERSIAN LITERATURE. Malimud. Meantime, Ferdusi's poem of Yussuf, and his mag- niticont verses on several subjects, had received the fame they deserved. Shah Mahmud's late remorse awoke. Thinking by a tardy act of liberality to repair his former meanness, he dis- patched to the author of Shah Namah the 60,000 pieces he had promised, a robe of state and many apologies and expressions of friendship and admiration, requesting his return, and professing great sorrow for the past. But when the message arrived, Ferdusi was dead, and his family devoted the whole sum to the benevolent purpose he had intended, — the erection of public buildings, and the general improvement of his native village, Tus. He died at the age of 80. The Shah Namah contains the hi&- tory of the kings of Persia, down to the death of the last of the Sassanide race, who was deprived of his kingdom by th3 invasion of the Arabs during the caliphat of Omar, 63G a.d. The language of Ferdusi may be considered as the purest speci- men of the ancient Parsee — Arabic words are seldom intro- duced. There are many episodes in the Shah Namah of great beauty, and the power and elegance of its verse are unrivalled. Essedi, of Tus, is distinguished as having been the master of Ferdusi, and as having aided his illustrious pupil in the comple- tion of his great work. Among many poems which he wrote, the " Dispute between Day and Night " is the most celebrated. Togray was a native of Ispahan and contemporary with Fer- dusi. He became so celebrated as a writer, that the title of Honor of Writers was given him. He was an alchemist, and wrote a treatise on the philosopher's stone. Moasi, called King of Poets, lived about the middle of the 11th century. He obtained his title at the court of Ispahan, and rose to high dignity and honor. So renowned were his odes, that more than a hundred poets endeavored to imitate his style. Omar Khiam, who was one of the most distinguished of the poets of Persia, lived toward the close of the 11th century. He was remarkable for the freedom of his religious opinions, and the boldness with which he denounced hy])ocrisy and intol- erance. He particularly directed his satu'c against the mystic poets. Nizami, the first of the romantic poets, flourished in the latter part of the 12th century, a.d. His principal works are called the " Five Treasures," of which the '' Loves of Khosru and Shireen," is the most celebrated, and in the treatment of which he has succeeded beyond all other poets. Sadi (1194-1282) is esteemed among the Persians as a mas- ter in poetry and in morality. lie is better known in Europe PEESIAN LITERATUEE. 45 than any other eastern author, except Hafiz, and has been more frequently translated. Jami calls him the nightingale of the groves of Shu-az, of which city he was a natiye. He spent n part of his long life in travel and in the acquisition of knowledge, and the remainder in retkement and devotion. His works are termed the salt-mine of poets, being revered as unrivalled models of the first genius in the world. His phi- losophy enabled him to support all the ills of Ufe with patience and fortitude, and one of his remarks, arising from the desti- tute condition in which he once found himself, deserves preser- vation : "I never complained of my conchtion but once, when my feet were bare, and I had not money to buy shoes ; but I met a man without feet, and I became contented with my lot." The works of Sadi are very numerous, and are popular and faaaihar everywhere in the East. His two greatest works are the "Bostan" and " Gulistan," (Bostan, the rose garden, and Guhstan, the fruit garden). They abound in striking beauties, and show great knowledge of human nature. Attar (1119-1233) was one of the great Sufi masters, and spent his hfe in devotion and contemplation. He died at the advanced age of 114. It would seem that poetry in the East was favorable to human life, so many of its professors attained to a great age, particularly those who professed the Sufi doc- trine. The great work of Attar is a poem containing useful moral maxims. Roumi (1203-1272), usually called the Mulah, was an enthusiastic follower of the doctrine of the Sufis. His son suc- ceeded him at the head of the sect, and surpassed his father not only in the virtues and attainments of the Sufis, but by his splendid poetical genius. His poems are regarded as the most perfect models of the mystic stvle. Su' Wilham Jones savs, " There is a depth and solemnity in his works unequalled by any poet of this class, even Hafiz must be considered inferior to hun." Among the poets of Persia, the name of Hafiz (d. 1389), the prince of Persian lyric poets, is most famihar to the English reader. He was born at Shiraz. Leading a life of poverty, of which he was proud, for he considered poverty the companion of srenius, he constantly refused the mvitation of monarchs to visit their courts. There is endless variety in the poems of Hafiz, and they are replete with surpassing iDeauty of thought, feeling and expression. The grace, ease and fancy of his num- bers are inimitable, and there is a mao-ic in his lavs which few even of his professed enemies have been able to resist. To the 46 PERSIAN LITERATURE. young, tlic gay and the euthusiastic, liis verses are ever welcome; and the sage discovers in them a hidden mystery, which recon- ciles him to their subjects. His tomb, near Shiraz, is visited as a sacred spot by pilgrims of all ages. The place of his birth is held in veneration, and there is not a Persian whose heart does not echo his strains. Jami (d. 1492) was born in Khorassan, in the village of Jam, from whence he is named — his proper appellation being Abd Arahman. He was a Sufi, and preferred, like many of his fellow-poets, the meditations and ecstasies of mysticism to the pleasures of a court. His writings are very voluminous ; he composed nearly forty volumes, all of great length, of which twenty-two are preserved at Oxford. The greater part of them treat of Mohammedan theology, and are written in the mystic style. He collected the most interesting under the name of the " Seven Stars of the Bear," or the " Seven Brothers," and among these is the famous poem of Yussuf and Zuleika. This favorite subject, which every Persian poet has touched with more or less success, has never been so beautifully rendered as by Jami. Nothing can exceed the admiration which this poem inspires in the East. Hatifi (d. 1520) was the nephew of the great poet Jami. It was his ambition to enter the lists with his uncle, by composing poems on similar subjects. Opinions are divided as to whether he succeeded as well as his master, but none can exceed him in sweetness and pathos. His version of the sad tale of Mejnoun and Leila, the Borneo and Juliet of the East, is confessedly superior to that of Nizami. The lyrical compositions of Scheik Feizi (d. 15T5) are highly valued. In his mystic poems he approaches to tlie sublimity of Attar. His ideas are tinged with the belief of the Hindus, in which he was educated. When a boy he was introduced to the Brahmins by the Sultan Mohammed Akbar, as an orphan of their tribe, in order that he might learn their language and obtain possession of their religious secrets. He became attached to the daughter of the Brahmin who protected him, and she was offered to him in marriage by the unsuspecting parent. After a struggle between inclination and honor, the latter prevailed and he confessed the fraud. The Brahmin, struck with horror, attempted to put an end to his own existence, fearing that he had betravcd his oath and brouc-ht dano-er and disorrace on his sect. Feizi, with tears and protestations, besought him to for- bear, promising to submit to any command he might impose on him. The Brahmin consented to live, on condition that Feizi PERSIAN LITERATURE. 47 should take an oath never to translate the Yedas nor to repeat to any one the creed of the Hindus. Feizi entered into the desired obligations, parted with his adopted father, bade adieu to his love, and with a sinking heart returned home. Among his works the most important is the *'Mahabarit," which contains the chronicles of the Hindu princes, and abounds in romantic episodes. The most celebrated recent Persian poet is Blab Phelair (1^29- 1825.) He left many astronomical, moral, pohtical, and literary works. He is called the Persian Yoltaire. Among: the collections of novels and fables, the " Lio-hts of Canope" may be mentioned, imitated from the Hitopadesa. Persian literature is also enriched by translations of the standard works in Sanscrit, among which are the epic poems of Yalmiki and Yvasa. 10. History and Philosophy. — Among the most celebrated of the Persian historians is Mirkhond, who hved in the middle of the 15th century. His great work on universal history contains an ac- count of the origin of the world, the life of the patriarchs, prophets, and philosophers of Persia, and affords valuable materials, espe- cially for the history of the Middle Ages. His son, Khondemir, distinguished himself in the same branch of literature, and wrote two works which, for their historical correctness and elegance of stvle, are in ""reat favor amono; the Persians. Ferischta, who flourished in the beginning of the ITth century, is the author of a valuable history of India. Mirgholah, a historian of the 18th century, gives a contemporary history of Hindustan and of his own countrv, under the title of "A Glance at Recent Affairs," and in another work he treats of the causes which, at some future time, wiil probably lead to the fall of the British power in India. The " History of the Reigning Dynasty" is among the principal modern historical works of Persia. The Persians possess numerous works on rhetoric, geography, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, few of which are entitled to much consideration. In philosophy may be mentioned the " Essence of Logic," an exposition in the Arabic language of the doctrines of Aristotle on logic ; and the " Moral System of Nasir," published in the 13th century a.d., a valuable treatise on morals, economy, and politics. 11. Education in Persia. — There are established, in every town and city, schools in which the poorer children can be instructed in the rudiments of the Pei*sian and Arabic Ian Q:ua,i]re3 48 PERSIAN LITERATURE. The pnpil, after he has learned the alphabet, reads the Korau in Arabic ; next, fables in Persian ; and lastly is taught to write a beautiful hand, which is considered a great accomplish- ment. The Persians are fond of poetry, and the lowest artisans can read or repeat the finest passages of their most admired poets. For the education of the higher classes, there are in Persia many colleges and universities, where the pupils are taught grammar, the Turkish and Arabic languages, rhetoric, philosophy and poetry. The literary men are numerous ; they pursue their studies till they are entitled to the honors of the colleges ; afterwards they devote themselves to copying and illuminating manuscripts. CHINESE LITEKATUEE. 1. Chinese Literature and its Divisions.— 2. The Language,— 3. The Writing — i. Canoni- cal and Classic Writings.— The 'U-King; Ta-hio.— 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy ; Lao-tse ; Confucius ; Meng-tse ; the Religion of Fo.— 6. Social Constitution of China. — 7. History.- 8. Science.— 9. Poetry and Fiction ; Lyric Poetry ; The Drama ; Ro- mances. — 10. Education in China. 1. Chinese Literature and its Divisions. — The Chinese literature ranks among the most important of those of Asia. Originating in a vast empire, it is diffused among a population numbering nearly half the inhabitants of the globe ; it is ex- pressed by an original language differing entirely from all others ; it refers to a nation whose history may be traced back nearly five thousand years in an almost unbroken series of annals, and it illustrates the peculiar character of a people long unknown to the western world. It is one of the most voluminous of all literatures ; the printed catalogue of the Hbrary of the emperor Khian-Lung, who reigned at the close of the last century, con- sists of 122 volumes, and a selection only of works from this literature ordered by the same emperor was to have contained 180,000 volumes, of which 78,t81 had already appeared in 1818. The Chinese literature may be divided into four departments. 1st. The canonical and classic writings. 2d. History. 3d. Science. 4th. Poetry and Fiction. 2. The Language.— The Chinese belongs to the monosyllabic family of languages. In it every syllable expresses an idea or a woi-d, and every syllable begins with a consonant or with a pecu- liar aspiration, and ends in a vowel or in a sign expressing a nasal sound. Its radical words number 450 ; but, as many of these, by being pronounced with a different accent, convey a different meaning, in reality they amount to 1,203. The system of its declensions and conjugations is chiefly based on particles, which, prefixed or suffixed to the nouns or verbs, produce their different modifications. Its construction is regular, and the meaning of a word often depends on its position. Its pro- 3 50 CHINESE LITEKATUEE. nimciation varies in the different provinces, but that of Nan- king, the ancient capital of the empire, is considered the most pure. Man}^ dialects also are spoken in the various parts of the country. The Chinese proper, however, is the literary tongue of the nation, the language of the court, of high officers, of polite society, and it is vernacular in that portion of China which is called the Middle Kingdom. 3. The Wkitixg. — There is an essential difference between the Chinese language as spoken and written ; and the poverty of the former presents a striking contrast with the exuberance of the latter. Chinese writing, generally speaking, does not express the sounds of the words, but it represents the ideas or the objects indicated by them. Its alphabetical characters are there- fore ideographic and uot phonetic. They were originally rude representations of the thing signified ; but they have undergone various changes from picture-writing to the present more sym- bolical and more complete system. As the Chinese alphabetic signs represent objects or ideas, it would follow that there must be in writing as many characters as words in the spoken language. Yet many words, which have the same sound, represent different ideas ; and these must be represented also in the written language. Thus the number of the written words far surpasses that of the spoken language. As far as they are used in the common writing, they amount to 2,425. These characters are divided into six classes. The 1st consists of single images of perceptible objects, as of the sun, moon, etc. The 2d, of those formed of two or more images, as of an eye and water, meaning tear. The 3d, of those ex- pressing position, as above, below, etc. The 4th, of those representing certain relations of position, as up to down, left to right, etc. Tiie 5th, of metaplioric and symbolic signs, as heart for affection, etc. Finally, the 6th class embraces characters botli phonetic and ideographic ; or those images which have been chosen for signs of sound, and which, as such, have lost their original meaning. So the word iz, written alone, signifies a mile, but united to the image of a fish, conveys the idea of a carp. The greater part of the Chinese signs belong to this class ; they amount to 21,810. The number of characters in the Chinese dictionary is 40,000, of which, however, only 10,000 are re- quired for the general purposes of literature. They are disposed under 214 signs, which serve as keys, and which correspond to our alphabetic order. The Chinese language is written from right to left, in vertical columns or in horizontal lines. CHINESE LITERATLKE. 51 4. Canoxical and Classic Wpjtixgs. — The ' U-Jdng (fiyo canons, or fundamental doctrines) are the most ancient monu- ments of the Chinese poetry, history, philosophy and legislation, and some fragments of them, at least, belong to the most ancient writings of the world. They are divided as follows : 1st, Y-king, or the book of transformations, the oldest of the five canons. Its date is probably not later than 2,800 b.c. It contains a system of symbolic combinations of signs, which refer to the first principles of all existence and knowledge. Many commentaries have been written on this singular book. 2d. Shu-ldng, or annals, containing a collection of documents relat- ing to the history of the first four dynasties of China. 3d. Shi-king, or the book of chants, a collection of songs and hymns, some of which are remarkable for tlieir subHraity. 4th. Li-ki, or the ritual and mirror of morality, a collection of moral laws and precepts, which is still the basis of the religion of the cultivated classes. 5th. Chun-tsieu, or the Spring-Autumn, a history of China, beginning from the year 770 b.c, and con- tinued to 550. Of these canonical books, the three first were collected and arranged by Confucius, the two last were written cither by Confucius himself or by some of his disciples. To Confu- cius are also referred the Sse-shu, or the four classic books ; the most important of which is Ta-hio, the Great Doctrine, or the art of good government through self-dominion. This book, how- ever, with the exception of the first chapter, like the other three attributed to Confucius, was probably written by his disciples from his oral instructions, and all of them are full of practical wisdom and moral precepts of the purest and most sublime character. Innumerable commentaries, having great authority, have been written on all these works. In the 3d century b.c, one of the emperors conceived the mad scheme of destroying all existing records, and writing a new set of annals in his own name, in order that posterity might con- sider him the founder of the empu'e. Sixty years after this bar- ba,rous decree had been carried into execution, one of his suc- cessors, who desired as far as possible to repair the injury, caused these books to be re-written from a copy which had escaped destruction. 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy. — Three periods may be distinguished in the history of the religious and philosophical progress of China. The first relates to ancient tradition, to the idea of one supreme God, to the patriarchal institutions, which were the foundation of the social organization of the empire, and 52 CHINESE LITEKATUEE. to the primitive customs and moral doctrines. It appears that this religion at length degenerated into that mingled idolatry and indiilerence, which still characterizes the peo})le of China. In the Gth century b.c, the corruption of the ancient religion having reached its height, a reaction took place, which gave birth to the second, or philosophical period, which produced three sys- tems. Lao-tse, born 604 B.C., was the founder of the religion of the Tao, or of the external and supreme reason. The Tao is the primitive existence and intelligence, the great principle of the spiritual and material world, which must be worshipped through the purification of the soul, by retirement, abnegation, contem- plation and metempsychosis. This school gave rise to a sect of mystics similar to those of India. Confucius was the founder of the second school, which has exerted a far more extensive and beneficial influence on the political and social institutions of China. Confucius is a Latin name corresponding to the original Kuug-fu-tse, Kung being the proper name, and Fu-tse signifying reverend teacher or doctor. He was born 551 b.c, and educated by his mother, who impressed upon him a strong sense of morahty. After a careful study of the ancient writings, he decided to undertake the moral reform of his country, and giving up his high position of prime mmister, he travelled extensively in China, preaching justice and virtue wherever he went. His doctrines, founded on the unity of God and the necessities of human nature, bore essentially a moral character, and being of a practical tendency, they exerted a great influence not only on the morals of the people, but also on their legislation, and the authority of Confucius became supreme. He died 479 b.c, at the age of 72, eleven years before the birth of Socrates. He left a grandson, through whom the succession has been transmitted to the present day, and his descendants consti- tute a distinct class in Chinese society. At the close of the 4th century b.c, another philosopher appeared by the name of Meng-tse, or eminent and venerable teacher, whose method of instruction bore a strong similarity to that of Socrates. His books rank among the classics, and breatlie a spirit of freedom and independence ; tliey are fall of irony on petty sovereigns and on their vices ; they establish moral good- ness above social position, and the will of the people above the ar])itrary power of their rulers. He was much revered, and con- sidered even bolder and more eloquent than Confucius. The third period of the intellectual development of the Chinese dates from the introduction of Buddhism into the country, under the name of the religion of Fo, 70 years a.d. The emperor him- CHINESE LITERATURE. 53 self professes this religion, and its followers have tlie largest number of temples. Buddhism, however, has lost in China much of its originality, and for the mass it has sunk into a low and debas- ing idolatry. Recently a new religion has sprung up in China, a mixture of ancient Chinese and Christian doctrines, which apparently finds great favor in some portions of the country. 6. Social Constitution of China. — The social constitution of China rests on the ancient traditions preserved in the canonical and classic books. The Chinese empire is founded on the patri- archal system, in which all authority over the family belongs to the pater-familias. The emperor represents the great father of the nation, and is the supreme master of the state and the head of religion. All his subjects being considered as his chil- dren, they are all equal before him, and according to their capacity are admitted to the public offices. Hence no distinction of castes, no privileged classes, no nobility of birth ; but a gene- ral equality under an absolute chief. The public administration is entirely in the hands of the emperor, who is assisted by his mandarins, both military and civil. They are admitted to this rank only after severe examinations, and from them the members of the ditferent councils of the empire are selected. Among these the Board of Control, or the all-examining Court, and the Court of history and literature, deserve particular mention, as being more closely related to the subject of this work. The duty of this Board consists in examining all the official acts of the govern- ment, and in preventing the enacting of those measures which they may deem detrimental to the best interests of the country. They can even reprove the personal acts of the emperor, an office which has afforded many occasions for the display of elo- quence. The courage of some of the members of this Board has been indeed sublime, and gave to their Avords wonderful power. The Court of history and literature superintends public educa- tion, examines those who aspire to the degree of mandarins, and decides on the pecuniary subsidies, which the government usually grants for defraying the expenses of the publication of great works on history and science. 1. History and Geography. — The historical and geographical works of China form the most valuable and interesting depart- ment of its hterature. The historical era of the empire begins 2691 B.C. The Chinese eras are not formed of centuries, but of cycles of 60 years, each of which has a particular namev 54 CHINESE LITEEATUEE. Chinese history, however, refers rather to the dynasties than to the people, as every fact of any importance, every invention and improvement, is attributed to the emperor, who thus becomes a symbol of his age. Generally speaking, the history of one dynasty is not written until after the succession of another. Among the Chinese historians, Sse-mathan is called the prince of history, as he was the collector and the compiler of the ancient documents relating to the history of China. The ** His- torical Memoirs" of his son, Sse-ma-thian, pubhshcd 100 years B.C., contains the history of China from the earliest times to the begimiing of the second century e.g. This work has been conti- nued under the patronage of the different dynasties, and forms, with the exception of a few interruptions, a most complete collec- tion of the annals of the empire to the year 1643 a.d. There exists another collection called the 22 Histories, divided into 416 volumes, and containing official annals from 2698 b.c. to 1645 A.D. The ''Exact Examination of Documents," written in the 14th century by Ma-tuan-lin, is a complete historical, geo- graphical and universal history ; it is divided into 348 books, and covers a period of forty centuries. This, and many similar contributions, either of a general or of a local character, unite in rendering this department rich and important for tliose who are mterested in tlie history of Asiatic civilization. To these great works may be added many chronological tables, numerous biographies and 1)iographical lexicons, the " General Geography of the Chinese Empire," the huge collection of the statistics of the country, divided into 260 volumes, with maps and tables, and above all, the great collection of the " Statutes of the reigning Dynasty from tlie year 1818," which alone forms more than one thousand volumes. 8. Science. — Comparing the scientific development of the Chinese with that of the western world, it may be said that they have made little progress in any branch of science. There are, however, to be found in almost every department some works of no indiiferent merit. In mathematics, tliey begin only now to make some progress, since the mathematical works of Eurojie have been introduced into their country. Astrology still takes the place of astronomy, and the almanacs prepared at the ob- servatory of Pe-king are made chiefly by foreigners. Books on natural philosophy abound, some of which are written by the emperors themselves. ^ledicine is imperfectly understood. They possess several valuable works on Chinese jurisprudence, on agriculture, economy, mechanics, trades, many cyclopedias CHINESE LITERATURE. 55 and compendia, and several dictionaries, composed with extra- ordinary skill and patience. To this department may be referred all educational books, the most of them written in rhym?, and according to a system of intellectual gradation. 9. Poetry axd Fiction. — Chinese poetry consists chiefly of short measured sentences, delivered as instructions to the people, such as are found in the ancient writings and in the moral maxims of Confucius. The Chinese people are all fond of poetry, and the literary man who does not WTite verses is compared to a flower without fragrance. They have their rules of rhyme, measure and quantity, the last of which is given by the tones and accentuations, which are entirely modern. The Chinese have no epic poems, pastorals nor satires, but they have songs, and a variety of other poems. The Shi-king is a collection of upwards of three hundred odes. The lines consist of no definite number of syllables, some con- taining three, some seven, but the greater part limited to four. The rhyme is equally irregular, some having none, in others every line terminating with the same word. Sometimes six lines rhyme in a stanza of eight hues, occasionally four, three, and sometimes only the first and last. There is not much subhmity or depth of thought in these odes, but they abound in touches of nature, and are exceedingly interesting and curious, as show- ing how little change time has effected in the manners and cus- toms of this singular people. Similar in character are the poems of the Tshian-teug-shi, another collection of lyrics published at the expense of the emperor in several thousand volumes. Among modern poets, may be mentioned the emperor Khian-lung, who died at the close of the last century. Dramatic poetry constitutes a large department in Chinese literature, though there are, properly speaking, no theatres in China. A platform in the open air is the ordinary stage, the decorations are hangmgs of cotton supported by a few poles of bamboo, and the action is frequently of the coarsest kind. When an actor comes on the staa-e he savs, ''I am the mandarin so-and-so." If the drama requires the actor to enter a house, he takes some steps and says, '' I have entered ;" and if he is supposed to travel, he does so by rapid running on the stage, cracking his whip, and saying afterwards, *' I have arrived." The dialogue is written partly in verse and partly in prose, and the poetry is sometimes sung and sometimes recited. Many of then* dramas are full of bustle and abound in incident. They 56 CHINESE LITERATLTRE. often contain the life and adventures of an individual, some great sovereign or general, a history, in fact, thrown into action. Two thousand volumes of dramatic compositions are known, and the best of these amount to five hundred pieces. Among them may be mentioned the " Orphan of the House of Tacho," and the " Heir in old Age," which have much force and character, and vividly describe the habits of the people. The Chinese are fond of historical and moral romances, which, however, are founded on reason and not on imagination, as are the Hindu and Persian tales. Their subjects are not submarine abysses, enchanted palaces, giants and genii, but man as he is in his actual life, as he lives with his fellow-men, with all his virtues and vices, sufferings and J03's. But the Chinese novelists show more skill in the details than in the conception of their works ; the characters are finished and developed in every respect. The pictures with which they adorn their works are minute and the descriptions poetical, though they often sacrifice to these qualities the unity of the subjecib. The characters of their novels are principally drawn from the middle class, as governors, literary men, etc. The episodes are, generally speak- ing, ordinary actions of common life — all the quiet incidents of the phlegmatic life of the Chinese, coupled with the regular and mechanical movements which distinguish that people. Among the numberless Chinese romances, there are several which are considered classic. Such are the " Four great Marvels' Books," and the " Stories of the Pirates on the coast of Kiang- nan." 10. Education in China. — Most of the Chinese people have a knowledge of the rudiments of education. There is scarcely a man who does not know how to read the books of his profession. Public schools are everywhere established ; in the Cities there are colleges, in which pupils are taught the Chinese literature ; and in Pe-king there is an imperial college for the education of the mandarins. The offices of the empire are only attained by scholarship. There are four literary degrees, which give title to different positions in the country. The government fosters the higher branches of education, patronizes the publication of lite- rary works, which are distributed among the libraries, colleges, and functionaries. The press is restricted only from publishing licentious and revolutionary books. EGYPTIAN LITEEATUEE. 1. Egyptian Literature.— 2. The Language.— 3. The Writing.^. The Discovery of ChampoUion. — 5. Egyptian Monuments. — 6. History; Manetho.— 7. The Religion of Egypt. — 8. Science. — 9. Literary Condition of Modern Egypt. 1. Egyptian Literature. — Tlie ancient literature of Egypt i3 enveloped in the darkness of antiquity and in the symbols of mythology. Such remains of it as have been preserved, consist of papyrus manuscripts, sculptures, inscriptions and tablets found in the tombs, temples and in other ruins. They are either his- torical or religious. The historical papyri are either records of the exploits of the Egyptian kings, or accounts of contemporary events. The religious manuscripts contain portions or entire copies of the Funeral Eitual — which was a collection of prayers and instructions, belonging, probably, to different ages, and re- lating to the future state of the soul. Tlie historical inscriptions are generally inflated records of the successes of the kings, in explanation of the historical scenes engraved and sculptured on the walls of the temples and of the tombs. The religious inscri|> tions are often taken from the funeral ritual, but sometimes they are simple prayers to the gods, or an enumeration of their titles. The history of the Dynasties of Egypt, by Manetho — or, rather, the few remaining fragments, though originally written in Greek, are important memorials of Egyptian literature. According to the mythological traditions of the Egyptians, the god or demi-god Hermes was the inventor of letters and science, and transmitted his wisdom to posterity by engraving it upon pillars of stone. These inscriptions were afte;'wards col- lected, and became the sacred books of the nation. It is doubtful if any of th>i literary productions of ancient Egypt were written in verse. 2. The Language. — -While some Egyptologists consider the ancient language of Egypt as belonging to the Semitic family, others regard it as essentially distinct from that branch. From the earliest times, it was divided into three dialects : The Memphitic or Coptic, spoken in Memphis, and througli Lower 3* ' 57 58 EGYPTIAX LITERATUllE. Egypt ; the Thchan or Saliiclic, spoken ia Thebes and through Upper Egypt, and the Bashiimric, a provincial variety, be- longing to the oases of the Libyan Desert. The Coptic, though afterward mingled witli Greek and Arabic words, and written in the Greek alphabet, was used in Egypt until the 10th cen- tury A.D., when it gave way to the Arabic. It is still in use, however, in the monasteries of the Copts, the principal sect of Christians in Egypt, who preserve it in their worship, and in their translation of the Bible. By rejecting all the foreign elements of the Coptic, Egyptolo- gists have been enabled to study this ancient language in its purity, and to establish its grammar and construction. Though the spoken and written language of Egypt was originally the same, a vulgar dialect made its appearance about the 7 th cen- tury B.C., which, at a later age, was written in the demotic alphabet. 3. The Writing. — Three different modes of writing prevailed among the ancient Egyptians. The characters used in the first were the hieroglyphic; in the second the hieratic; and in the third the demotic. The hieroglyphics expressed words partly by representation of objects, or by symbols of ideas, and partly by phonetic signs, indicating the letters of a word. At first, these characters were a combination of picture-writing with signs indicating sounds ; but soon more simple forms and outlines of objects were introduced, and formed with one or two strokes. The hieroglyphics are written either horizontally, or vertically downward, from right to left, or from left to right. The earliest hieroglyphic writings found in Egypt date 2440 B.C., and the latest, 250 a.d. The hieroglyphic signs were used chiefly for inscriptions. The hieratic characters present a flow- ing and abbreviated form of hieroglyphic writing, and are usually written in horizontal lines, from right to left. They were used more particularly in the papyri. The hieratic system must have been invented soon after the hieroglyphic. Its latest remains extant date 1220 b.c, though it was probably employed as late as the 2d century a.d. The demotic characters were formed from tlie hieratic, and composed of fewer signs, more rude and simple, and more easily written, and among them the phonetic pre- dominated. This wTiting arose from the necessity of new char- acters adapted to express the vulgar dialect, which had long before, as we have seen, arisen from the corruption of the ancient language. It was written in horizontal lines, from right to left, and used especially in legal documents and religious manuscripts. EGYPTIAN LITEEATURE. 59 This system did not come into c-eneral use until the 2d or 3d century e.g., and it seems to have been abandoned about the close of the od century a.d., when the Coptic borrowed from the Greek its alphabet, using, however, demotic signs for those sounds which had no equivalent letters in the Greek language. In these three forms of Egyptian writing, the characters are iigurative, symbolical, or phonetic. The figurative signs repre- sent the visible objects which they are intended to indicate. Thus, the idea of a horse, a crown, etc., is expressed by a draw- ing of these objects, either entirely, or by some contraction. The symbolic signs express abstract ideas by the figure of a physical object whose qualities bear some analogy with the idea to be expressed, and the phonetic signs represent the sounds of the spoken language. 4. The Discovery of Champollion. — During the expedition into Egypt, in 1799, in throwing up some earthworks near Ro- setta, a town on tlie western arm of the Nile, an officer of the French army discovered a block or tablet of black basalt, upon which were engraved inscriptions in Egyptian and Greek characters. This tablet, called the Rosetta iStone, was sent to Erance and submitted to the orientalists for interpretation. The inscription was found to be a decree of the Egyptian priests in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes (196 e.g.) which was ordered to be engraved on stone in sacred (hieroglyphic), common (demotic), and Greek characters. Through this interpretation, Champol- lion (1190-1832), after much study, discovered and established the alphabetic system of Egyptian writing, and applying his discovery more extensively, he was able to decipher the names of the kings of Egypt from the Roman emperors back, throusxh the Ptolemies, to the Pharaohs of the elder dynasties. The opinion which had previously prevailed among scholars, that this writing was only intelligible to the priests and to those initiated into their mysteries, was thus overthrown. This discov- ery was the key to the interpretation of all the ancient monu- ments of Egypt ; by it the history of the country was thrown open for a period of twenty-six centuries, the annals of the neigh- boring nations were rendered more intelligible, the religion, arts, sciences, life, and manners of the ancient Egyptians were re- vealed to the modern world, and the obehsks, the innumerable papyri, and the walls of the temples and tombs were transformed into inexhaustible mines of historical and scientific knowledge. 5. Egyptian Monuments. — The literary remains of ancient 60 EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. Egypt consist of inscriptions painted or engraved on monuments, or of written manuscripts buried in the tombs, or beneath the ruins of temples. The inscriptions and manuscripts, both histor- ical and rehgious, have either a sepulchral or a votive character, as they generally refer to the dead or to the deities, most fre- quently to both. The inscriptions which relate to the triumphs of the kings have also a votive character, ascribing their exploits to the gods. The papyri, frequently found in the sarcophagi of monuments, contain prayers to certain gods expressed in the name of the deceased ; the upper part of each manuscript is occupied by a series of pictured tablets, and under them are vertical columns of hieroglyphics, divided into paragraphs with a tablet between each ; the lirst words are written in red ink, the others in black. Names of the gods, and symbolical signs representing their dif- ferent powers and the reverence due to them, are almost always found in these manuscripts. The monuments of Egypt are religious, as the temples ; sepul- chral, as the necropoles ; or triumphal, as the obelisks. The temples were the principal structures of the Egyptian cities, Memphis, Thebes, and other localities present splendid remahis of these edifices, covered with inscriptions relating to the history and to the religion of the country. In the vicinity of all the principal cities, there are necropoles, or catacombs, excavated into the mountains or hillsides, or constructed within the pyramids ; they consist of rows of chambei*s with halls supported l)y columns, which, with the walls, are often covered with paint- ings in fresco, or with painted reliefs, partly historical and partly monumental, representing, for the most part, scenes from domes- tic or civil life. The most splendid necropoles of Egypt are those of Memphis and Thebes, and to the necropolis of the for- mer the pyramids of El-Geezeh, near Cau'o, are especially related. The Egyptian pyramids are gigantic quadrangular structures, having a broad base, contracting gradually toward the top, sometimes terminating in a point, sometimes in a plane surface. They are generally built of large limestones, with the four sides placed so as to face the four cardinal points. Their interior is divided into various chambers, in which are found sar- cophagi of granite. The great pyramids were probably built for the sepulchres of the kings and their families, and the smal- ler ones for the tombs of inferior persons — their walls are cov- ered with painted sculptures. The great pyramids of El-Geezeh were probably erected during the four centuries which preceded the invasion of the Shepherd Kings, from the year 2200 to 1800 B.C. EGYPTIAX LITERATURE. Gl Of the triumphal monuments the most magnificent are the obeUsks, which are gigantic monohths of red or white granite, some more than 200 feet in height, covered with inscriptions, on which the image of the triumphant king was engraved or painted. The splendid obelisk, which adorns the Place de la Concorde in Paris, was removed from the portal of the temple of El-Uksur, of Thebes, and placed where it now stands in 1836. It has on each side three vertical lines of hieroglyphics, beauti- fully cut, which celebrate the glories of llameses II. One of the most characteristic of the Egyptian monuments is the enigmatic statue of the Sphinx, so frequently found in the temples and the necropoles of Egypt. It is a recumbent figure formed of a human head and breast and the body of a lion, with the fore paws stretched forward. Whatever idea the Egyptians may have attached to tliis symbol, the sphinx represents most truly the character of that people, and the struggle of mind to free itself from the instincts of brutal nature. 6. History. — All the literary remains of ancient Egjrpt relate either to its history or to its rehgion. The Egyptian priests, from the earMest times, must have preserved the annals of their country, though obscured by myths and symbols. These, how- ever, were entirely destroyed by Cambyses (500 e.g.), who during his invasion of Egypt, burned the temples where they were pre- served. They were doubtless soon composed agani by the priests, as Herodotus, in visiting Egypt 450 years e.g., was shown a fist of 330 kings who had been the predecessors of Moeris, who reigned in the 17 th century e.g. The history of the succession of the kings of Egypt was written in the Greek language by JSIanetho, a priest and librarian of Heliopohs, who hved in the 3d century e.g., and who numbered thirty dynasties from Mencs, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, to Nectanebes II., the last native king. Though the original work of Manetho was lost, important fragments of it have been preserved by other writers. Archaeologists do not agree as to the antiquity of the history of Egypt, according to the dynasties of Manetho. Some suppose these dynasties to have ruled consecutively ; and assign to the Egyptian monarchy, from its origin to its fall (350 e.g.), a dura- tion of upward of 5,000 years. Others maintain that many of them were contemporaneous in different parts of Egypt, and thus reduce the period. Whatever be the true solution of this ques- tion, the duration of the monarchy cannot have been less than 2,700 years, and its history, founded on the computations of Manetho, may be divided into four periods, each of which was 62 EGYPTIAX LITERATURE. marked b}^ great changes in the social and pohtical constitution of the country. In the first epoch, when, according to Manetho, Egypt was under the rule of the gods, demi-gods and heroes, the country was probably colonized, and ruled by the priests in the name of the gods. The second period extends from Menes, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, to the invasion of the Shepherd Kings, probably from 2200 to 1800 b.c. In this era, hereditary monarchy took the place of theocracy. On the extinction of each dynasty, the election of the succeeding one was chiefly in the hands of the priests. The third period (1800-1580 b.c.) em- braces the invasion and the dominion of the country by foreign tribes, probably Phoenicians, who, under the title of Shepherd Kings, ruled Egypt for three centuries, and established in the country a kind of feudal system. It was one of these kings or Pha- raohs, of whom Joseph was the prime minister. They were at last expelled by the native inhabitants and the Egyptian rule restored. The fourth period (1580 — 350 b.c.) comprises the history of the other dynasties to Nectanebes II., when Egypt fell under the power of Persia. This period is perhaps the richest in historical materials, and to it belong the most numerous and important inscriptions, sculptures and papyri. The dynasties of Manetho embrace the whole range of these periods, which contain the entire history of ancient Eg3'pt. From the middle of the 4th century b.c. to the present time, a period of twenty-two centu- ries, no native ruler has sat on the throne of that country. It was conquered by Alexander the Great, who left it under the sway of the Ptolemies ; it was then conquered by the Romans ; it became a province of the Byzantine emi)ire ; then the prey of the Saracens, next of tlie Mamelukes, afterwards of the Turks ; and since 1841 it has been governed by a viceroy, under a nomi- nal dependence on the sultan. *I. The Heligion of Egypt. — Though the popular religion of Egypt, by confounding symbols with realities, early degenerated into materialism and idolatry, the secret doctrines of the priests were more elevated ; they were founded on a personification of the forces of nature identified and centred in a mysterious unity. According to their belief, Kum, under various names, was the soul of the univ^erse, the pro-creator of the material world, of divinities and of men. Primitive matter sprang from his mouth, a sphere, the ogg of the- universe. Athor, the goddess of daik- ness, generated the seed of all things ; and matter, united to the liglit which flashed from Num, produced Phtha, the god of fire and of life, the creator of the sun and moon, symbohzed by Osiris and I I EGYPTIAN LITEKATUEE. C3 Isis, a god and goddess who in turn produced Horus and other divinities. Osiris instructed mankind in the useful arts, and was more highly revered than the other gods of Egypt. He was slain by Typhon, his adversary, but rose again, and became the judge of the dead. Isis, the consort of Osiris, presided over funeral rites, and was present with Horus and assisted in the judgment of men after death. The gods of Egypt, like those of India, were grouped in trinities, which presided over all things. Osiris, Isis, and Horus composed the trinity to which the govern- ment of our world was intrusted, and they formed the last link in the great theogonic chain that encircled the universe, and that from trinity to trinity extended at last to Num, the great original source of all thing's. The worship of animals and reverence for the dead formed the two principal features of the religion of the Egyptians. Their innumerable divinities, doubtless, in the minds of the priests, originally personified attributes of the one supreme deity, and these attributes they represented under the form of such animals as were endowed with like qualities. Every god was symbolized by some animal, which thus became an object of worship. But the immaterial was soon lost sight of in the material, and this worship sunk into a degrading idolatry. Among the Egyptians, a belief in the humortality of the soul, and in metempsychosis, was, doubtless, connected with their reverence for the dead. The judgment after death is frequently represented on the sarcophagi. The deceased is brought before Osiris, and his heart weighed against the feather of truth. If he is found guiltless, he takes the form of Osiris, and lives in a state of happiness among the gods, in a region of perpetual day. If guilty, he is changed into the form of an animal, or is con- signed to a fiery place of punishment, in perpetual night. 8. Egyptian Science. — The priests of Egypt were the scien- tific and literary men of the country ; and whatever written knowledge they possessed, was engraved on stone, or transcribed on papyrus, and jealously concealed in subterranean parts of their temples. Their science or philosophy was secret and sym- bolical, while that which they imparted to the people was of a more material and sensuous character. The Greek philoso- phers, many of whom visited Egypt, borrowed freely from their doctrines. Geometry originated with the Egyptians, who, from remote ages, must have been acquainted with the principles of this science as well as with those of hydrostatics and mechanics, as 64 EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. is proved by their immense structures, and by those great "works which still speak of the past grandeur of the country. As- tronomy was cultivated from the earliest times by them, and history has transmitted to us their observations on the move- ments of the stars and planets. The obelisks served them as sun-dials, and the pyramids as astronomical observatories. They had great skill in medicine, and much knowledge of anatomy, and they possessed the art of preparing mummies, many of which have remained perfect four thousand years. Egypt, in its flourishing period, having contributed to the civilization of Greece, became, in its turn, the pupil of that country. In the century following the age of Alexander the Great, under the rnle of the Ptolemies, the philosophy and lit- erature of Athens were transfered to Alexandria. Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the 3d century b.c, completed the celebrated Alexandrian Library, formed, for the most part, of Greek books, and presided over by Greek librarians. The school of Alexandria had its poets, its grammarians and philosophers ; but its poetry lacked the fire of genius, and its grammatical pro- ductions were more remarkable for sophistry and subtility, than for soundness and depth of research. In the philosophy of Alexandria the Eastern and Western systems combined, and this school had many distinguished disciples. In the first century of the Christian era, Egypt passed from the Greek kings to the Roman emperors, and the Alexandrian school continued to be adorned by the first men of the age. This splendor, more Grecian than Egyptian, was extinguished in the tth century ]3y the Saracens, who conquered the country, and, it is believed, burned the great Alexandrian Library. After the wars of the immediate successors of Mohammed, the Arabian princes protected literature, Alexandria recovered its schools, and other institutions of learning were established ; but in the conquest of the country by the Turks, in the 13th century, all literary light was extinguished. 9. Literary Condition of Modern Egypt. — AVhen Moham- med Ali was confirmed as viceroy of Egypt under the sultan of Turkey, in 1841, he endeavored to improve the means of educa- tion by establishing common and special schools, and by sending young men to Europe for scientific study. He founded, besides elementary schools, schools of language and medicine, and established a printing press, which has been used for the jmblication of valuable works ; but at his death in 1848, his re- forms had not produced all the anticipated results. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 65 At tlie ancient Arabic university of Cairo, students receive free instruction in grammar, rhetoric, versification, logic, the- ology, religious, moral and civil law, and devote much time to the study and interpretation of the Koran. The number of students is from 1,500 to 2,000. The middle and higher classes of Egypt speak Arabic with more or less correctness — the mass of the people are entkely ignorant, particularly the women, for whose education no pro- vision is made. GEEEK LITEEATUEE. Introduction. — 1. Greek Literature and its Divisions.— 2. The Language. — 3. The Religion. Period First.— 1. Ante-IIomeric Songs and Bards.— 2. Poems of Homer ; the Iliad ; the Odj'ssey.— 3. The Cyclic Poets and the Homeric Hymns. — 4. Poems of Ilesiod ; the Worlvs and Days ; the Theogony.— 5. Elegy and Epigram ; Tyrtaeus ; Archilochus ; Simonides.— 6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable and Parody ; yEsop. — 7. Greek Music and Lyric Poetry ; Terpander. — 8. iEolic Lyric Poets ; Alcaeus ; Sappho ; Anacreon. — 9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poets ; Alcman ; Stesichorus ; Pindar. — 10. The Orphic Doctrines and Poems.— 11. Pre-Socratic philosophy ; Ionian, Eleatic, Pythagorean Schools. — 12. History ; Herodotus. Period Second. — 1. Literary predominance of Athens.— 2. Greek Drama.— 3. Trage- dy. — i. The Tragic Poets ; /Eschylus ; Sophocles ; Euripides. — 5. Comedy ; Aristo- phanes ; Menander.— 6. Oratory, Pthetoric and History ; Pericles ; the Sophists ; Lysias ; Isocrates ; Demosthenes ; Thucydides ; Xenophon. — 7. Socrates and the So- cratic Schools ; Plato ; Aristotle. Period Third.— 1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature.— 2. The Alexandrian Poets ; Philetas ; Callimachus ; Theocritus ; Dion ; Moschus. — 3. The Prose Writers of Alexandria; Zenodotus ; Aristophanes; Aristarchus ; Eratosthenes ; Euclid; Archi- medes. — 4. Philosophy of Alexandria ; Neo-Platonism. — 5. Anti-Neo-Platonic Tenden- cies ; Epictetus ; Lucian ; Longinus — 6. Greek Literature in Rome ; Dionysius of Hali- carnassus ; Flavius Josephus ; Polybius"; Diodorus ; Strabo ; Plutarch. — 7. Continued decline of Greek Literature. S Last Echoes of the Old Literature ; Hypatia ; Nonnus ; Musteus; Byzantine Literature.— 9. The New Testament and the Greek Fathers. IXTRODUCTIOX. 1. Greek Literature and its Divisions. — The literary his- tories thus far sketched, with tlie exception of the Hebrew, occupy a subordinate position, and constitute but a small part of the general and continuous history of literature. As there are States whose interests are so detached from foreign nations and so centred in themselves, that their history seems to form no link in the great chain of political events — so there are bodies of literature cut off from all connection with the course of general refinement, and bearing no relation to the develop- ment of mental power in the most civilized portions of the globe. Thus, the literature of India — with its great antiquity — its laii"- guage, whicli, in fulness of expression, sweetness of tone, and regularity of structure, rivals the most perfect of those western tongues to which it bears such an affinity, with all its aflluence of imagery and its treasm'cs of thought, has hitherto been desti- GREEK LITEKATUEE. 67 tute of any direct influence on the progress of general literature; and China has contributed still less to its advancement. Other branches of Oriental literature, as the Persian and Arabian, were equally isolated, until they were brought into contact with the European mind through the medium of the Crusaders and of the Moorish empire in Spain. We come now to speak of the literature of the Greeks ; a literature whose continuous current has rolled down from remote ages to our own day, and whose influence has been more exten- sive and lasting than that of any other nation of the ancient or modern world. Endowed with profound sensibility and a lively imagination, surrounded by all the circumstances that could aid in perfecting the physical and intellectual powers, the Greeks early acquh'ed that essentially literary and artistic character, which became the source of the greatest productions of literature and art. This excellence was, also, in some measure, due to their institutions ; free from the system of castes which prevailed in India and Egypt, and which confined all learning by a sort of hereditary right to the priests, the tendency of the Greek mind was, from the first, liberal, diffusive and aesthetic. The manifestation of their genius, from the first dawn of their intel- lectual culture, was of an original and pecuhar character, and their plastic minds gave a new shape and value to whatever materials they drew from foreign sources. The ideas of the Egyptians and Orientals which they adopted into their mytho- logy, they cast in new moulds, and reproduced in more beautiful forms. The monstrous they subdued into the vast, the gro- tesque they softened into the graceful, and they diffused a line spirit of humanity over the rude proportions of the primeval figures. So with the dogmas of their philosophy borrowed from the same sources ; all that could beautify the meagre, harmonize the iuconoTuous, enliven the dull or convert the crude materials of metaphysics into an elegant department of literature, belongs to the Greeks themselves. The Grecian mind became the foundation of the Roman and of all modern literatures, and its master-pieces afford the most splendid examples of artistic beauty and perfection that the world has ever seen. The history of Greek literature may be divided into three periods. The first, extending from remote antiquity to the age of Herodotus (484 b.c), includes the earliest poetry of Greece, the ante-Homeric and the Homeric eras, the origin of Greek elegy, epigram, iambic and I^tIc poetry, and the first develop- ment of Greek philosophy. The second, or Athenian period, the golden age of Greek 68 GREEK LITERATURE. literature, extends from the age of Herodotus (484 b.c.) to the death of Alexauder the Great (323 b.c), and comprehends the development of the Greek drama in the works of ^schylus, Sophocles and Euripides, of political oratory, history and phi- losophy, in the works of Demosthenes, Thucydides, Xenoj^hon, Plato and Aristotle. The third, or the period of the decline of Greek literature, extending- from tlie death of Alexander the Great (323 b.c.) to the fall of the Byzantine empire (1453 a.d.), is characterized by the removal of Greek learning and literature from Athens to Alexandria, and by its gradual dechne and extinction. 2. The Language. — Of all known lanQ-uaires, none has attained so high a degree of perfection as that of the Greeks. Belonging to the great Indo-European family, it is rich in sig- nificant words, strong and elegant in its combinations and phrases, and extremely musical, not only in its poetry, but in its prose. The Greek language must have attained great excel- lence at a very early period, for it existed in its essential perfec- tion in the time of Homer. It was, also, earlv divided into dia- lects, as spoken by the various Hellenic tribes that inhabited dif- ferent parts of the country. The principal of these found in writ- ten composition are . the ^olic, Doric, Ionic and Attic, of which the ^olic, the most ancient, was spoken north of the Isthmus, in the .iEolic colonies of Asia Minor and in the northern islands of the ^gean Sea. It was chiefly cultivated by the lyric poets. The Doric, a variety of the JEolic, characterized by its strength, was spoken in Peloponnesus, and in the Doric colonies of Asia Minor, Lower Italy and Sicily. The Ionic, the most soft and liquid of all the dialects, belonged to the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor and the islands of the Archipelago. It was the language of Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus. The Attic, which was the Ionic developed, enriched and refined, was spoken in At- tica, and prevailed in the flourishing period of Greek literature. After the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, the Greek language, which had been gradually declining, became entirely extinct, and a dialect, which had long before sprung up among the common people, took the place of the ancient, majestic and refined tongue. This popular dialect in turn continued to degenerate until the middle of the last century. Recently, institutions of learning have been established, and a new impulse given to improvement in Greece. Great progress has been made in the cultivation of the language, and great care is taken by modern Greek writers to avoid the use of foreign idioms and to preserve GKEEK LITERATUEE. 69 the ancient orthography. Many newspapers, periodicals, origi- nal works and translations are published every year in Greece. The name Romaic, which has been applied to modern Greek, is now almost superseded by that of Xeo-Hellenic. 3. The Religion. — In the development of the Greek religion two periods may be distinguished, the ante-Homeric and the Homeric. As the heroic age of the Greek nation was preceded by one in which the cultivation of the land chiefly occupied the attention of the inhabitants, so there are traces and remnants of a state of the Greek religion, in which the gods were considered as exhibiting their power chiefly in the changes of the seasons, and in the operations and phenomena of outward nature. Imagination led these early inhabitants to discover, not only in the general phenomena of vegetation, the unfolding and death of the leaf and flower, and in the moist and dry seasons of the year, but also in the peculiar physical character of certain districts, a sign of the alternately hostile or peaceful, happy or ill-omened interference of certain deities. There are still preserved in the Greek mythology many legends of charming and touching sim- plicity, which had then* origin at this period, when the Greek religion bore the character of a worship of the powers of nature. Though founded on the same ideas as most of the religions of the East, and particularly of Asia Minor, the earhest religion of the Greeks was richer and more various in its forms, and took a loftier and a wider range. The Grecian worship of nature, in all the various forms which it assumed, recognized 07ie deity, as the highest of all, the head of the entire system, Zeus, the god of heaven and light ; with him, and dwelHng in the pure expanse of ether, is associated the goddess of the earth, who, in different temples, was worshipped under different names, as Hera, Devieter and Dioiie. Besides this goddess, other beings are united with the supreme god, who are personifications of certain of his ener- gies ; powerful deities who carry the influence of light over the earth, and destroy the opposing powers of darkness and confu- sion ; as Athena, born from the head of her father, and Apollo, the pure and shining god of light. There are other deities allied with earth and dwelling in her dark recesses ; and as life appears not only to spring from the earth but to return whence it sprung, these deities are, for the most part, also connected with death ; as Hermes, who brings up the treasures of fruitfulness from the depths of the earth, and Coro^, the child, now lost and now recovered by her mother Demeter, the goddess both of reviving and of decaying nature. The element of water, Poseidon, 70 GREEK LITERATURE. was also introduced into tliis assemblage of the jiersonified powers of nature, and peculiarly connected with the goddess of the earth ; fire, Hephaestus, Avas represented as a powerful prin- ciple derived from heaven, having dominion over the earth, and closely allied with the goddess, who sprang from the head of the supreme god. Other deities form less important parts of this system, as Dionysus, whose alternate joys and sufferings show a strong resemblance to the form which religious notions assumed in Asia Minor. Though not, like the gods of Olympus, recog- nized by all the races of the Greeks, Dionysus exerted an important influence on the spirit of the Greek nation, and in sculpture and poetry gave rise to bold flights of imagination, and to powerful emotions, both of joy and sorrow. These notions concerning the gods must have undergone many changes before they assumed the form under which they appear in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. The Greek religion, as mani- fested through them, reached the second period of its develop- ment, belonging to that time when the most distinguished and prominent part of the people devoted their lives to the affairs of the state and the occupation of arms, and in which the heroic spirit was manifested according to these ideas. On Olympus, ly- ing near the northern boundary of Greece, the highest mountain of that country, whose summit seems to touch the heavens, there rules the assembly or family of tlie gods ; the chief of which, Zeus, summons at his pleasure the other gods to council, as Aga- memnon summons the other princes. He is acquainted with the decrees of fate, and able to control them, and being himself king among the gods, he gives the kings of the earth their powers and dignity. By his side is his wife, Hera, whose station entitles her to a larore share of his rank and dominion : and a daughter of masculine character, Athena, a leader of battles and a protectress of citadels, who, by her wise counsels, deserves the confidence which her father bestows on her ; besides these, there is a number of gods, with various degrees of kindred, who have each their proper place and allotted duty on Olympus. The attention of this divine councfl is chiefly turned i6 the fortunes of nations and cities, and especially to the adventures and enter- prises of the heroes, who, being themselves, for the most part, sprung from the blood of the gods, form the connecting link between them and the ordinary herd of mankind. At this stage the ancient religion of nature had disappeared, and tlie gads, who dwelt on Olympus, scarcely manifested any connection with natural phenomena, Zeus exercises his power as a ruler and a king ; Hera, Athena and Apollo no longer symbolize GREEK LITERATURE. 71 the fertility of the earth, the clearness of the atmosphere and the arrival of the serene spring ; Hephaestus has passed from the powerful god of fire in heaven and earth into a laborious smith and worker of metals ; Hermes is transformed into the messen- ger of Zeus ; and the other deities which stood at a greater dis- tance from the afifaurs of men, are entirely forgotten, or scarcely mentioned in the Homeric mythology. These deities are known to us chiefly through the names given to them by the Komans, who adopted them at a later period, or identified them with deities of their own. Zeus was called by them Jupiter ; Hera, Juno ; Athena, Minerva ; Ares, jMars ; Artemis, Diana ; Hermes, Mercury ; Cora, Proserpine ; Hephcestus, Yulcan ; Poseidon, IS'eptune ; Aphrodite, Tenus ; Dio^iysus, Bacchus. TERIOD FIRST. FROii Remote Antiquity to Herodotus (484 B.C.). 1. AxTE-HoMERic Songs and Bards. — Many centuries must have elapsed before the poetical language of the Greeks could have attained the splendor, copiousness and fluency found in the poems of Homer. The first outpourings of poetical enthusiasm were, doubtless, songs describing, in few and simple verses, events which powerfully affected the feelings of the hearers. It is probable that the earliest were those that referred to the seasons and their phenomena, and that they were sung by the peasants at their corn and wine harvests, and had their origin in times of ancient rural simplicity. Songs of this kind had often a plaintive and melancholy character. Such as the song Linus mentioned by Homer, which was frequently sung at the grape-picking. This Linus evidently belongs to a class of heroes or demi-gods, of which many instances occur in the religions of Asia Minor. Boys of extraordinary beauty and in the flower of youth were supposed to have been drowned, or devoured by raging dogs, and their death was lamented at the harvests and other periods of the hot season. According to the tradition, Linus sprang from a divine origin, grew up with the shepherds among the lambs, and was torn in pieces by wild dogs, whence arose the festival of the lambs, at which many dogs were slahi. The real object of lamentation was the tender beauty of spring destroyed by the summer heat, and other phenomena of the same kind, which the imagination of those times invested with a personal form, and represented as beings of a divine nature. Of similar 72 GPvEEK LITERATURE. meaning are many other songs, which were sung at the time of the summer heat or at the cutting of the corn. Such was the song called Bormus from its subject, a beautiful boy of that name, who, having gone to fetch water for the reapers, was, while drawing it, borne down by the nymphs of the stream. Such were the cries for the youth Hylas, swallowed up by the waters of a fountain, and the lament for Adonis, whose untimely death was celebrated by Sappho. The Paans were songs originally dedicated to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods ; their tune and words expressed hope and confidence to overcome, by the help of the god, great and imminent danger, or gratitude and thanksgiving for victory and safety. To this class belonged the vernal Pecans, which were sung at the termination of winter, and those sung in war before the attack on the enemy. The Threnos, or lamentations for the dead, were songs containing vehement expressions of grief, sung by professional singers standing near the bed upon which the body was laid, and accompanied by the cries and groans of women. The Hyinen(Eos was the joyful bridal song of the wed- ding festivals, in which there were ordinarily two choruses, one of boys bearing burning torches and singing the hymenoios to the clear sound of the pipe, and another of young girls dancing to the notes of the harp. The Chorus originally referred chiefly to dancing. The most ancient sense of the word is a jilace, for dancing, and in these choruses young persons of both sexes danced together in rows, holding one another by the hand, while the citharist, or the player on the lyre, sitting in their midst, accompanied the sound of his instrument with songs, which took their name from the choruses in which they were sung. Besides these popular songs, there were the religious and heroic poems of the bards, who were, for the most part, natives of that portion of the country which surrounds the mountains of Helicon and Parnassus, distinguished as the home of the Muses. Among the bards devoted to the worship of Apollo and other deities, were Marsyas, the inventor of the flute, Musa3us and Or- pheus. Many names of these ancient poets are recorded, but of their poetry, previous to Homer, not even a fragment remains. The bards or chanters of epic poetry were called Rhapsodists, from the manner in which they delivered their compositions ; this name was applied equally to the minstrel who recited his own poems, and to him who declaimed anew songs that had been heard a thousand times before. The form of these heroic songs, probably settled and fixed by tradition, was the hexame- ter, as this metre gave to the epic poetry repose, majesty, a GREEK LITERATURE. 73 lofty and solemn tone, and rendered it equally adapted to the pythoness who announced the decrees of the deity, and to the rhapsodist who recited the battles of heroes. The bards held an important post in the festal banquets, where they flattered the pride of the princes by singing the exploits of their forefathers. 2. PoEiis OF Homer. — Although seven cities contended for the honor of giving birth to Homer, it was the prevalent belief, in the* flourishing times of Greece, that he was a native of Smyrna. He was probably born in that city about 1000 b.c. Little is known of his life, but the power of his transcendent genius is deeply impressed upon his works. He was called by the Greeks themselves, the poet ; and the Ihad and the Odyssey were Avith them the ultimate standard of appeal on all matters of religious doctrine and early history. They were learned by boys at school, and became the study of men in their riper years, and in the time of Socrates there were Athenians who could repeat both poems by heart. In whatever part of the world a Greek settled, he carried with him a love for the great poet, and long after the Greek people had lost their independence, the Iliad and the Odyssey continued to maintain an undiminished hold upon their affections. The pecuhar excellence of these poems lies in their sublimity and pathos, in their tenderness and simplicity, and they show in their author an inexhaustible vigor, that seems. to revel in an endless display of prodigious energies. The universaUty of the powers of Homer is their most astonish- ing attribute. He is not great in any one thing ; he is greatest in all things. He imagines with equal ease the terrible, the beautiful, the mean, the loathsome, and he paints them all with equal force. In his descriptions of external nature, in his exhibitions of human character and passion, no matter what the subject, he exhausts its capabiUties. His pictures are true to tlie minutest touch ; his men and women are made of flesh and blood. They lose nothing of their humanity for being cast in a heroic mould. He transfers himself into the identity of those whom he brings into action ; masters the interior springs of their spiritual mechanism ; and makes them move, look, speak and do exactly as they would in real life. In the legends connected with the Trojan war, the anger of Achilles and the return of Ulysses, Homer found the subjects of the Iliad and Odyssey. The former relates that Agamemnon had stolen from Achilles, Briseis, his beloved slave, and describes the fatal consequences which the subsequent anger of Achilles brought upon the Greeks ; and how the loss of his dearest 4 Y4 GREEK LITEllATUKE. friend, Patroclus, suddenly clianged his liostile attitude, and brought about the destruction of Troy and of Hector, its mag- nanimous defender. The Odygsey is composed on a more arti- ficial and comphcatcd plan than the Iliad. The subject is the return of Ulysses from a land beyond the range of human know- ledge to a home invaded by bands of insolent intruders, who seek to kill his son and rob him of his wife. The poem begins at that point where the hero is considered to be furthest from his home, in the central portion of the sea, where the iiymph Calypso has kept him hidden from all mankind for seven years. Having by the help of the gods passed through innumerable dangers, after many adventures he reaches Ithaca, and is finally introduced into his own house us a beggar, where he is made to suffer the harshest treatment from the suitors of his wife, in order that he may afterwards appear with the stronger right as a terrible avenger. In this simple story a second was interwoven by the poet, which renders it richer and more complete, though more intricate and less natural. It is probable that Homer, after having sung the Ihad in the vigor of his youthful years, either composed the Odyssey in his old age, or communicated to some devoted disciple the plan of this poem. In the age immediately succeeding Homer, his great poems were doubtless recited as complete wholes, at the festivals of the princes ; but when the contests of the rhapsodists became more animated, and more weight was laid on the . art of the reciter than on the beauty of the poem he recited, and when other musical and poetical performances claimed a place, then they were permitted to repeat separate parts of poems, and the Iliad and Odyssey, as they had not yet been reduced to writing, existed for a time only as scattered and unconnected fragments ; and we are still indebted to the regulator of the poetical con- tests (either Solon or Pisistratus), for haviug compelled the rhapsodists to follow one another according to the order of the poem, and for having thus restored these great works to their pris- tine integrity. The poets, who either recited the poems of Homer or imitated him in their compositions, were called Homeridcs. 3. The Cyclic Poets and the Homeric Hyjixs. — The poems of Homer, as they became the foundation of all Grecian litera- ture, are likewise the central point of the epic poetry of Greece. All that is most excellent in this line originated from them, and was connected with them in the way of completion or continua- tion. After the time of Homer, a class of poets arose who. from their constant endeavor to connect their poems with those GREEK LITERATUEE. 75 cf this master, so that they might form a great cycle, were called the Cyclic Pods. They were probably Homeric rhapsoclists by profession, to whom the constant recitation of the ancient Ho- meric poems would natm-ally suggest the idea of continuing them by essays of their own. The poems known as Homeric hymns formed an essential part of the epic style. They were hymns to the gods, bearing an epic character, and were called jprocmia, or preludes, and served the rhapsodists either as introductory strains for then* recitation, or as a transition from the festivals of the gods to the competition of the singers of heroic poetry. • 4. Poems of Hesiod. — Nothing certain can be affirmed respectmg the date of Hesiod ; a Boeotian by bh'th, he is con- sidered by some ancient authorities as contemporary with Homer, while others suppose him to have flourished two or three genera- tions later. The poetry of Hesiod is a faithful transcript of the whole condition of Boeotian life. It has nothing of that youth- ful and inexhaustible fancy of Homer, which lights up the sub- lime images of a heroic age, and moulds them into forms of surpassing beauty. The poetry of Hesiod appears struggling to emerge out of the narrow bounds of common life, which he strives to ennoble and to render more endurable. It is purely didactic, and its object is to disseminate knowledge, by which life may be improved, or to diffuse certain religious notions as to the influence of a superior destiny. His poem entitled '' Works and Days " is so entirely occupied with the events of connnon life, that the author would not seem to have been a poet by pro- fession, but some Boeotian husbandman whose mind had been moved by circumstances to give a poetical tone to the course of his thoughts and feelings. The unjust claim of Perses, the brother of Hesiod, to the small portion of their father's land which had been allotted to him, called forth this poem, in which he seeks to improve the character and habits of Perses, to deter him from acquiring riches by litigation, and to incite him to a life of labor, as the only source of permanent prosperity. He points out the succession in which his labors must follow if he determines to lead a life of industry, and gives wise rules of economy for the management of a family ; and to illustrate and enforce the principal idea, he ingeniously combines with his pre- cepts mythical narratives, fables and descriptions. The " The- ogony " of Hesiod is a production of the highest importance, as it contains the religious faith of Greece, It was through it that Greece first obtained a reliaious code, which, althono-h without external sanction or priestly guardians and interpreters. 1Q GREEK LITERATURE. must have produced the greatest influence on the religious condition of the Greeks. 5. Elegy axd Epigram. — Until the beginning of the 1th. century e.g., the epic was the only kind of poetry cultivated in Greece, with the exception of the early songs and hymns, and the hexameter the only metre used by the poets. This exclusive prevalence of epic poetry was doubtless connected with the pohtical state of the country. The ordinary subjects of these poems must have been highly acceptable to the princes who derived their race from the heroes, as was the case with all the royal families of early times. The republican movements, which deprived these families of their privileges, were favorable to the stronger development of each man's individuality, and the poet, who in the most perfect form of the epos was completely lost in his subject, now came before the people as a man with thoughts and objects of his own, and gave free vent to the emo- tions of his soul in elegiac and iambic strains. The word degeion means nothing more than the combination of a hexame- ter and a pentameter, making together a distich, and an elegy is a poem of such verses. It was usually sung at the Symposia or literary festivals of the Greeks ; in most cases its main sub- ject was political ; it afterwards assumed a plaintive or amatory tone. The elegy is the first regularly cultivated branch of Greek poetry, in which the flute alone and neither the cithara nor lyre was employed. It was not necessary that lamentations should form the subject of it, but emotion was essential, and excited by events or circumstances of the time or place the poet poured forth his heart in the unreserved expression of his fears and hopes. Tyrtffius (fl. 694 b.c.) who went from Athens to Sparta, com- posed the most celebrated of his elegies on the occasion of the Messenian war, and when the Spartans were on a campaign, it was their custom after the evening meal, when the posan had been sung in honor of the gods, to recite these poems. From this time we find a union between the elegiac and iambic poetry ; the same poet, who employs the elegy to express his joyous and melancholy emotions, has recourse to the iambus when his cool sense prompts him to censure the follies of mankind. The rela- tion l)etween these two metres is observable in Archilochus (11. G88 B.C.) and Simonides (fl.664 e.g.). The elegies of Archi- lochus, of which many fragments are extant (while of Simonides we only know that he composed elegies), had nothing of that spirit of which his iambics were full, but they contain the frank expression of a mind powerfully affected by outward circum' GEEEK LITERATUKE. 77 stances. With the Spartans, wme and the pleasures of the feast became the subject of the elegy, and it was also recited at the solemnities held in honor of all who had fallen for their country. The elegies of Solon (592-559 B.C.) were pure expres- sions of his political feelings. Simonides of Scios, the renowned lyric poet, the contemporary of Phidar and ^Eschylus, was one of the great masters of elegiac song. The epigram was originally an inscription on a tombstone, or a Yotive offering in a temple, or on any other thing which required explanation. The unexpected turn of thought and pointedness of expression, which the moderns consider the essence of this species of composition, were not requmed in the ancient Greek epigram, where nothing was wanted but that the entire thought should be conveyed within the hmit of a few distichs, and thus, in the hands of the early poets, the epigram was remarkable for the conciseness and expressiveness of its language and differed in this respect from the elegy, in which full expres- sion was given to the feelings of the poet. It was Simonides that first gave to the epigram all the per- fection of which it was capable, and he was frequently employed by the States which fought against the Persians, to adorn with inscriptions the tombs of their fallen warriors. The most cele- brated of these is the inimitable inscription on the Spartans who died at Thermopylae: " Foreigner, tell the Lacedaemonians that we are lying here in obedience to their laws." On the Rhodian lyric poet, Timocreon, an opponent of Simonides in his art, he wrote the following in the form of an epitaph : " Having eaten much and drank much and said much evil of other men, here I lie, Timocreon the Khodian." G. Iambic Poetry, the Fable and Parody. — The kind of poetry known by the ancients as Iambic was created among the Athenians by Archilochus at the same time as the elegy. It arose at a period when the Greeks, accustomed only to the calm, unimpassioned tone of the epos, had but just found a tem- perate expression of lively emotion in the elegy. It was a light, tripping measure, sometimes loosely constructed, or purposely halting and broken, well adapted to vituperation, unrestrained by any regard to morality and decency. At the public tables of Sparta keen and pointed raillery was permitted, and some of the most venerable and sacred of their religious rites afforded occasion for their unsparing and audacious jests. Tliis raillery was so ancient and inveterate a custom, that it had given rise to a peculiar word, which originally denoted nothing but the 78 GKEEK LITEEATUKE. jests and banter used at tlicse festivals, namely lamlus. All the wauion extravagance which was elsewhere repressed by law or custom, here, under the protection of religion, burst forth with boundless license, and these scurrilous effusions were at length re- duced by Archilochus into the systematic form of iambic metre. Akin to the iambic are two sorts of poetry, the fable and the parody, which, though differing widely from each other, have both their source in the turn for the delineation of the ludicrous, and both stand in close historical relation to the iambic. The fable in Greece originated in an intentional travesty of human affairs. It is probable that the taste for fables of beasts and numerous similar inventions found its way from the East, since this sort of symbolical narrative is more in accordance with the oriental than with the Greek character. JEsop (fl. 5T2 B.C.) was very far from being regarded by the • Greeks as one of their poets, and still less as a writer. They considered him merclv as an ino-enious fabulist, to whom, at a later period, nearly all fables, that were invented or derived from any other source, were attributed. He was a slave, whose wit and pleasantry procured him his freedom, and who finally perished in Delphi, where the people, exasperated by his sar- castic fables, put him to death on a charge of robbing the temple. No metrical versions of these fables are known to have existed in earlv times. The word jparody means an adoption of the form of some celebrated poem with such changes as to produce a totally different effect, and generally to substitute mean and ridiculous for elevated and poetical sentiments. The "Battle of the Frogs and Mice," attributed to Homer, but bearing evident traces of a later age, belongs to this species of jooetry. '1. Greek jNIusic axd LyPwIc Poetry. — It was not until the minds of the Greeks had been elevated by the productions of the epic muse, that the genius of original ])oets broke loose from the dominion of the epic style, and invented new forms for express- ing the emotions of a mind profoundly agitated by passing- events ; with few innovations in the elegy, but with greater boldness in the iambic metre. In these two forms, Greek poetry entered the domain of real life. The Elegy and Iambus contain the germ of the lyric style, though they do not themselves come under that head. The Greek lyric poetry was characterized by the expression of deeper and more impassioned feeling, and a more impetuous tone than the Elegy and Iambus, and at the same time the effect was heightened by appropriate Tocal and GREEK LITERATUrwE. 79 instrumental music, and often by the figures of the dance. In this union of the sister arts, poetry was indeed predominant, yet music, in its turn, exercised a reciprocal influence on poetry, so that as it became more cultivated, the choice of the musical measure decided the tone of the whole poem. The history of Greek music begins with Terpander the Les- bian (fl. GtO B.C.), who was many times the victor in the musical contests at the Pythian temple of Delphi. He added three new strings to the cithara which had consisted only of four, and this heptachord was employed by Pindar, and remained long in high repute; he was also the first who marked the different tones in music. With other musicians, he united the music of Asia Minor with that of the ancient Greeks, and founded on it a system in which each style had its appropriate character. By the efforts of Terpander and one or two other masters, music was brought to a high degree of excellence, and adapted to express any feeling to which the poet could give a more definite character and meaning, and thus they had solved the great problem of their art. It was in Greece the constant endeavor of the great poets, thinkers and statesmen who interested them- selves in the education of youth, to give a good direction to this art; they all dreaded the increasing prevalence of a luxuriant style of instrumental music and an unrestricted flight into the boundless realms of harmonv. The lyric poetry of the Greeks was of two kinds, and cultivated by two different schools of poets. One, called the JEolic, flourished among the J^olians of Asia Minor, and par- ticularly in the island of Lesbos ; the other, the Doric, which, although diffused over the whole of Greece, was at first prin- cipally cultivated by the Dorians. These two schools diflered essentially in the subjects, as in the form and style of their poems. The Doric was intended to be executed by choruses, and to be sung to choral dances ; while the JEolic was recited by a single person, who accompanied his recitation with a stringed instrument, generally the lyre. 8. ^OLic Lyric Poets. — Alciieus (G. 611 b.c), born in Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, being driven out of his native city for poUtical reasons, wandered about the world, and, in the midst of troubles and perils, struck the lyre and gave utterance to the ixissiouate emotions of his mind. Ilis war-songs express a stirring, martial spirit ; and a noble nature,' accompanied with strong passions, appears in all his poems, especially in those in which he sings the praises of love and wine, though little of 80 GREEK LITERATURE. Lis erotic poetry has reached our time. It is evident that poetry was not with him a mere pastime or exercise of skill, but a means of pouring out the inmost feelings of the soul. Sappho (11. 600 B.C.), the other leader of the ^olic school of poetr}^, was the object of the admiration of all antiquity. She was contemporary with Alcaeus, and in her verses to him we plainly discern the feeling of unimpeached honor proper to a free-born and well-educated maiden. Alca^us testifies that the attractions and loveliness of Sappho did not derogate from her moral worth when he calls her 'Wiolet-crowned, pure, sweetly smihng Sappho." This testimony is, indeed, opposed to the accounts of later writers, but the probable cause of the false imputations in reference to Sappho seems to be that the refined Athenians were incapable of appreciating the frank simplicity with which she poured forth her feelings, and therefore they confounded them with unblushing immodesty. While the men of Athens were distinguished for their perfection in every branch of art, none of their women emerged from the obscurity of domestic hfe. "That woman is the best," says Pericles, "of whom the least is said among men, whether for good or for evil." But the ^olians had in some degree preserved the ancient Greek manners, and their women enjoyed a distinct individual existence and moral character. They doubtless participated in the general high state of civilization, which not only fostered poetical talents of a high order among women, but produced in them a turn for philosophical reflection. This was so utterly inconsistent with Athenian manners, that we cannot wonder that women, who had in any degree overstepped the bounds pre- scribed to their sex at Athens, should be represented by the Licentious pen of Athenian comic writers as lost to every sense of shame and decency. Sappho, in her odes, made frequent mention of a youth to whom she gave her whole heart, while he requited her love with cold indifference ; but there is no trace of her having named the object of her passion. She may have celebrated the beautiful and mythical Phaon in such a manner, that the verses were supposed to refer to a lover of her own. The account of her leap from the Leucadian rock is rather a poetical image, tlian a real event in the life of the poetess. The true conception of the erotic poetry of Sappho can only be drawn from the fragments of her odes, which, though numerous, are for the most part very short. Among them, we must dis- tinguish the Epithalamia or hymeneals, which were peculiarly adapted to the genius of the poetess from the exquisite perce}> tion she seems to have had of whatever was attractive in either GREEK LITERATURE. 81 sex. From the numerous fragments that remain, these poems appear to have had great beauty and much of that expression which the simple and natural manners of the times allowed, and the warm and sensitive heart of the poetess suggested. That Sappho's fame was spread throughout Greece, may be seen from the history of Solon, who was her contemporary. Hearhig his nephew recite one of her poems, he said that he would not willingly die until he had learned it by heart. And, doubtless, from that circle of accomplished women, of whom she formed the brilliant centre, a flood of poetic light was poured forth on every side. Among them may be mentioned the names of Damophila, and Erinna, whose poem, the '' Spindle," was highly esteemed by the ancients. The genius of Anacreon (fl. 540 e.g.), though akin to that of Alcaeus and Sappho, had an entirely different bent. He seems to consider life as valuable only so far as it can be spent in wine, love and social enjoyment. The Ionic softness and departure from strict rule may also be perceived in his versification. The different odes preserved under his name are the productions of poets of a much later date. With Anacreon ceased the species of lyric poetry in which he excelled ; indeed he stands alone in it, and the tender softness of his soug: was soon drowned by the louder tones of the choral poetry. The Scol'm were a kind of lyric songs sung at social meals, when the spirit was raised by wine and conversation to a lyrical pitch. The lyre or a sprig of myrtle was handed round the table and presented to any one who could amuse the company by a song or even a good sentence in a lyrical form. 9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poets. — The chorus was in general use in Greece before the time of Homer, and nearly every variety of the choral poetry, which was afterwards so brilliantly developed, existed at that remote period in a rude, unfinished state. After the improvements made by Terpander and others in musical art, choral poetry rapidly progressed towards perfec- tion. The poets during the period of progress were Alcman and Stesichorus, while finished lyric poetry is represented by Ibycus, Simouides, his disciple Bacchylides and Pindar. These great poets were only the representatives of the fervor with v»^hich the religious festivals inspired all classes. Choral dances were performed by the whole people with great ardor and enthusiasm ; every considerable town had its poet, who devoted his whole life to the trainins: and exhibition of choruses. Alcman (b. 660 e.g.) was a Lydian of Sardis, and an eman- 4^ 82 GREEK LITEKATURE. cipated slave. His poems exhibit a great variety of metre, of dialect and of poetic tone. He is regarded as having overcome the difficulties jn-escnted bv the rougli dialect of Sparta, and as having succeeded in investing it with a certain grace. He is one of the poets whose image is most effaced by time, and of whom we can obtain little accurate knowledge. The admiration awarded him by antiquity is scarcely justified by the extant re- mains of his poems. Stesichorus (fl. 611 e.g.) lived at a time when the predominant tendency of the Greek mind was towards lyric poetry. His sj^ecial business was the training and dii'ection of the choruses, and he assumed the name of Stesichorus, or leader of choruses, his real name being Tesias. His metres approach more nearly to the Epos than those of Alcman. As Quintiliau says, he sustained the weight of epic poetr}' with the lyre. His language accorded with the tone of his poetry, and he is not less remarkable in him- self, than as the precursor of the perfect lyric poetry of Pindar. Arion (025-585 e.g.) was chiefly known in Greece as the perfecter of the " Dithyramb," a song of Bacchanalian festivals, douljtless of great antiquity. Its character, like the vrorship to which it belonged, was always impassioned and enthusiastic; the extremes of feeling, rapturous pleasure and wild lamentation, were both expressed in it. Ibycus (b. 528 e.g.) v\"as a wandering poet, as is attested by the story of his death having been avenged by the cranes. His poetical style resembles that of Stesichorus, as also his subjects. The erotic poetry of Ibycus is most celebrated, and breathes a fervor of passion far exceeding that of any similar production of Greek literature. Simonides (556-408 e.g.) has already been described as one of the great masters of the Elegy and Epigram. In depth and novelty of ideas, and in the fervor of poetic feeling, he was far inferior to his contemporary Pindar, but he was probably the most prolific lyric poet of Greece. According to the frequent reproach of the ancients, he was the first that sold his poems for money. His style was not as lofty as that of Pindar, but what he lost in subhmity he gained in pathos. Bacchylides (fl. 450 e.g.), the nephew of Simonides, devoted his genius chiefly to the pleasures of private life, love and wine, and his productions, when compared with those of Simonides, are marked by less moral elevation. Timocreon the Rhodian (fl. 471 e.g.) owes his chief celebrity among the ancients to the hate he bore to Themistoclcs in politi- cal life, and to Simonides on the field of poetry. GREKK LITEllATURE. 83 Pindnr (522-435 b.c.) was the contemporary of jEscliylus, but as the causes which deterramed his poetical character are to be sought ill an carher age, and in the Doric and J^ohc parts of Greece, he may properly be placed at the close of the early period, while JEschylus stands at the head of the new epoch of literature. Like Hesiod, Pindar was a native of Boeotia, and that there was still much love for music and poetry there, is proved by the fact that two women, Myrtis and Corinna, had obtained great celebrity in these arts during the youth of this poet. Myrtis (fl. 490 b.c.) strove with him for the prize at the public games, and Corinna (fl. 490 b.c.) is said to have gained the victory over him five times. Too little of the poetry of Corinna has been preserved to allow a judgment on her style of composition. Pindar made the arts of poetry and music the business of his life, and his fame soon spread throughout Greece and the neighboring countries. He excelled in all the known varieties of choral poetry, but the only class of poems that enables us to judge of his general style are his triumphal odes. When a victory was gained in a contest at a festival by the speed of horses, the strength and dexterity of the human body, or by skill in music, such a victory, which shed honor not only on the victor, but also on his family, and even on his native city, de- manded a public celebration. An occasion of this kind had always a religious character, and often began with a procession to an altar or temple, where a sacrifice was offered, followed by a banquet, and the solemnity concluded with a merry and bois- terous revel. At this sacred and at the same time joyous festival, the chorus appeared and recited the triumphal hymn, which was considered the fairest ornament of the triumph. Such an occasion, a victory in the sacred games and its end, the ennobling of a ceremony connected with the worship of the gods, required that the ode should be composed in a lofty and dignified style. Pindar does not content himself with celebrating the bodily prowess of the victor alone, but he usu- ally adds some moral virtue which he has shown, and which he recommends and extols. Sometimes this virtue is modera- tion, wisdom, or filial love, more often piety to the gods, and he expounds to the victor his destiny, by showing him the dependence of his exploits on the higher order of things. Mythical narratives occupy much space in these odes, for in the time of Pindar the mythical past was invested with a splendor and sublimity, of which even the faint reflection was sufficient to embellish the present. 84 GREEK LITERATLUIE. 10. Orphic Doctrines and Poems. — The interval between Homer and Pindar is an important period in the history of Greek civihzation. In Homer we perceive tliat infancy of the mind which hves in seeing and imagining, and whose moral judgments are determined Ijy impulses of feeling rather than by rules of conduct, while with Pindar the chief elfort of his genius is to discover the true standard of moral gov- ernment. This great change of opinion must have been effected by the efforts of many sages and poets. All the Greek religious poetry, treating of death and of the world beyond the grave, refers to the deities whose influence was supposed to be exer- cised in the dark regions at the centre of the earth, and who had little connection with the political and social relations of human life. They formed a class apart from the gods of Olympus; the mysteries of the Greeks were connected with their worship alone, and the love of immortality first found support in a belief in these deities. The mysteries of Demcter, especially those celebrated at Eleusis, inspired the most animating hopes with regard to the soul after death. These mysteries, however, had little inQuence on the literature of the nation ; but there "was a society of persons called the followers of Orpheus, who published their notions and committed them to literary works. Under the guidance of the ancient mystical poet, Orpheus, they dedicated themselves to the worship of Bacchus or Dionysus, in which they sought satisfaction for an ardent longing after the soothing and elevating influences of religion, and upon the worship of this deity they founded their hopes of an ultimate immortality of the soul. Unlike the popular worshippers of Bacchus, they did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure or frantic enthusiasm, but rather aimed at an ascetic purity of life and manners. It is difficult to tell when this association was formed in Greece, but we find in Hcsiod something of the Orphic spirit, ajid the begin- ning of higher and more hopeful view^s of death. The endeavor to obtain a knowledge of divine and human things was in Greece slowly and with difficulty evolved from their religious notions, and it was for a long time confined to the refining and rationalizing of their mythology. An extensive Orphic literature first appeared at the time of the Persian war, when the remains of the Pythagorean order hi jSIaii'na Gra3cia united themselves to the Orphic associations. The phi- losophy of Pythagoras, however, had no analogy with the spirit of the Orphic mysteries, in which the worship of Dionysus w^as the centre of all religious ideas, while the Pythagorean philoso- phers preferred the worship of Apollo and the Muses. In the GKEEK LITERATURE. 85 Orpliic theogouy we find, for the first time, the idea of creation. Another diflerence between the notions of the Orphic poets and those of the early Greeks was that the former did not Hmit their views to the present state of mankind, still less did they acquiesce in Hesiod's melancholy doctrine of successive ages, each one worse than tlie preceding; but they looked for a cessa- tion of strife, a state of happiness and beatitude at the end of all things. Their hopes of this result were founded on Dionysus, from the worship of whom all their pecuhar rehgious ideas were derived. This god, the son of Zeus, is to succeed him in the government of the world, to restore the Golden Age, and to libe- rate human souls, who, according to an Orphic notion, are pun- ished by being confined in the body as in a prison. The suffer- ings of the soul in its prison, the steps and transitions by which it passes to a higher state of existence, and its gradual purifica- tion and enlightenment, were all fully described in these poems. Thus, in the poetry of the first five centuries of Greek literature, especially at the close of this period, we find, instead of the calm enjoyment of outward nature which characterized the early epic poetry, a profound sense of the misery of human hfe, and an ardent longing for a condition of greater happiness. This feel- ing, indeed, was not so extended as to become common to the whole Greek nation, but it took deep root in individual minds, and was connected with more serious and spiiitual views of human nature. 11. Pre-Socratig Philosophy. — Philosophy was early culti- vated bv the Greeks, who first among- all nations distiuf^uished it from religion and mythology. For some time, however, after its origin, it was as far removed from the ordinary thoughts and occupations of the people, as poetry was intimately connected with them. Poetry idealizes all that is most characteristic of a nation ; its rehgion, mythology, political and social institutions and manners. Philosophy, on the other hand, begins by de- taching the mind from the opinions and habits in which it has been bred up, from the national conceptions of the gods and the universe, and from traditionary maxims of ethics and politics. The philosophy of Greece, antecedent to the time of Socrates, is contained in the doctrines of the Ionic, Eleatic and Pythagorean schools. Thales of Miletus (639-5-18 e.g.) was the first in the series of the Ionic philosophers. He was one of the Seven Sages, who by their practical wisdom nobly contributed to the flourishing condition of Greece. Thales, Solon, Bion (fl. 5*10 e.g.), Cleobulus (fl. 542 E.G.), Periander (fl. 598 e.g.), Pittacus of Mytilene 8G GKEEK LITERATURE. (5T9 B.C.), and Chiloii (fl. 542 b.c), were the seven phi- losopliev* called the seven sages bj their countrymen. Thales is said to have foretold aji eclipse of the sun, for which lie doubtless employed astronomical formula?, which he Lad obtained from the Chaldeans. His tendency was practical, and where his own knowledge was insufficient, he applied the discoveries of other nations more advanced than his own. He considered all natures as endowed with life, and sought to dis- cover the principles of external forms in the powers which lie beneath ; he taught that water was the principle of things. Anaximander (fl. 547 b.c), and Anaximenes (fl. 543 e.g.) were the other two most distinguished representatives of the Ionic school. The former believed that chaotic matter was the prin- ciple of all things, the latter taught that it was air. The Ele- atic school is represented by Xenophanes, Parmenides and Zeno. As the philosophers of the first school were called lonians from the country in which they resided, so these were named from Elea, a Greek colony of Italy. Xenophanes (fl. 538 b.c), the founder of this school, adopted a different principle from that of the Ionic philosophers, and proceeded upon an ideal system, while that of the latter was exclusively founded upon experience. He began with the idea of the godhead, and showed the neces- sity of considering it as an eternal and unchanging existence, and represented the anthropomorphic conceptions of the Greeks concerning their gods as mere prejudices. In his works he re- tained the poetic form of composition, some fragments of which he himself recited at public festivals, after the mauner of the rhapsodists. Parmenides flourished 504 years b.c His philoso- phy rested upon the idea of existence which excluded the idea of creation, and thus fell into pantheism. His poem on *'Xature" was composed in the epic metre, and in it he ex- pressed in beautiful forms the most abstract ideas. Zeno of Elea (fl. 500 B.C.) was a pupil of Parmenides, and the earliest prose writer among the Greek philosophers. He developed the doc- trines of his master, by showing the absurdities involved in the ideas of variety and of creation, as opposed to one and universal substance. Other philosophers belonging to Ionia or Elea may be referred to these schools, as Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, and Auaxagoras, vrhose doctrines, however, vary from those of the representatives of the philosophical sys- tems above named. Heraclitus (fl. 505 b.c) dealt rather in intimations of important truths than in popular exposition of them ; his cardinal doctrine seems to have been that cvervthinc: is in perpetual motion, that nothing has any permanent existence, GREEK LITER ATUKE. , 87 and that everything is assuming a new form or perishing : the principle of this perpetual motion he supposed to be fire, though probably he did not mean material lire, but some higher and more universal agent. Like nearly all the philosophers, he de- spised the popular rehgion. Empedocles (fl. 440 b.c.) wrote a doctrinal poem concerning nature, fragments of which have been preserved. He denied the possibility of creation, and held the doctrine of an eternal and imj^erishable existence ; but he considered this existence as having diiferent natures, and ad- mitted that fire, earth, air, and water were the four elements of all things. These elements he supposed to be governed by two principles, one positive and one negative, that is to say, connecting love and dissolving discord. Democritus (fl. 460 b.c.) embodied his extensive knowledge in a series of writings, of Y\diich only a few fragments have been preserved. Cicero compared him with Plato for rhythm and elegance of language. He derived the manifold phenomena of the world from the different form, dis- position and arrangement of the innumerable elements or atoms as they become united. He is the founder of the atomic doctrine. Anaxagoras (fl. 456 e.g.) rejected all popular notions of religion, excluded the idea of creation and destruction, and taught that atoms were unchangeable and imj^crishable; that spirit, the purest and subtlest of all things, gave to these atoms the impulse by which they took the forms of individual things and beings ; and that this impulse was given in circular motion, which kept the heavenly bodies in their courses. But none of his doctrines gave so much offence or was considered so clear a proof of his atheism, as his opinion that the sun, the bountiful god Hehos, who shines both upon mortals and immortals, was a mass of red- hot iron. His doctrines tended powerfully by their rapid diffu- sion to undermine the principles on which the worship of the ancient gods rested, and they therefore prepared the way for the subsequent triumph of Christianity. The Pythagorean or Italic School was founded by Pythagoras, who is said to have flourished between 540 and 500 b.c. Pytha- goras was probably an Ionian who emigrated to Italy, and there established his school. His principal efforts were directed to practical life, especially to the regulation of political institutions, and his influence was exercised by means of lectures, or sayings, or by the estabhshment and direction of the Pythagorean asso^ ciations. He encouraged the study of mathematics and music, and considered singing to the cithara as best fitted to produce that mental repose and harmony of soul, which he regarded as the highest ol^ject of education. 88 GREEK LITER ATUEE. 12. History. — It is remarkable, that a people so cultivated as the Greeks should have been so long without feeliug the want of a correct record of their transactions in war and peace. The difference between this nation and the Orientals, in this respect, is very great. But the division of the country into numerous small States, and the republican form of the governments, pre- vented a concentration of interest on particular events and per- sons, and owing to the dissensions between the republics, their historical traditions could not but offend some while they flat- tered others ; it was not until a late period, that the Greeks con- sidered contemporary events as worthy of being thought or written of. But for this absence of authentic history, Greek literature could never have become what it was. By the purely lictitious character of its poetry, and its freedom from the shackles of particular truths, it acquired that general probability, which led Aristotle to consider poetry as more philosophical than history. Greek art, likewise, from the lateness of the period at which it descended from the representation of gods and heroes to the portraits of real men, acquired a nobleness and beauty of form, which it could not otherwise have obtained. This poet- ical basis gave the literature of the Greeks a noble and liberal turn. Writing was probably known in Greece some centuries before the time of Cadmus of Miletus (fl. 522 e.g.), but it had not been employed for the purpose of preserving any detailed histo- rical record, and even when, towards the end of the age of the Seven Sages (550 b.c), some writers of historical narratives be- gan to appear, they did not select recent historical events, but those of distant times and countries ; so entirely did they believe, that oral tradition and the daily discussions of common life were sufficient records of the events of their own time and country Cadmus of Miletus is mentioned as the first historian, but his works seem to have been early lost. To him, and other Greek historians before the time of Herodotus, scholars have given the name of Logograjphers, from Logos, signifying any dis- course in prose. The first Greek, to whom it occurred that a narrative of facts might be made intensely interesting, was Herodotus (484-432 B.C.), a native of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, the Homer of Greek history. Obliged, for political reasons, to leave his native Land, he visited many countries, such as Egypt, Babylon and Persia, and spent the latter years of his life in one of the Gre- cian settlements in Italy, where he devoted himself to the com- position of his work. His travels were undertaken from the GREEK LITERATURE. 89 pure spirit of inquiry, and for that age they were very extensive and important. It is probable that his great and intricate plan, hitherto unknown in the historical writings of the Greeks, did not at first occur to him, and that it was only in his later years that he conceived the complete idea of a work so far be- yond those of his predecessors and contemporaries. It is stated that he recited his history at different festivals, which is quite credible, though there is little authority for the story that at one of these Thucydides was present as a boy, and shed tears, drawn forth by his own desire for knowledge and his intense interest in the narrative. His work comprehends a history of nearly all the nations of the world at that time kno\\Ti. It has an epic character, not only from the equable and uninterrupted flow of the narrative, but also from certain pervading ideas which give a tone to the whole. The principal of these is the idea of a fixed destiny, of a wise arrangement of the world, which has pre- scribed to every being his path, and which allots ruin and de- struction not only to crime and violence, but to excessive power and riches and the overweening pride which is their companion. In this consists the envy of the gods so often mentioned by He- rodotus, and usually called by the other Greeks the divine Kc- Tuesis. He constantly adverts in his narrative to the influence of this divine power, the Dannonion, as he calls it. He shows how the Deity visits the sins of the ancestors upon then* de- scendants, how man rushes, as it were, wilfully upon his own destruction, and how oracles mislead by their ambiguity, when interpreted by blind passion. He shows his awe of the divine Xemesis by his moderation and the firmness with which he keeps down the ebullitions of national pride. He points out traits of greatness of character in the hostile kings of Persia, and shows his countrymen how often they owed their successes to Providence and external advantages rather than to their own valor and ability. Since Herodotus saw the working of a divine agency in all human events, and considered the exhibition of it as the main object of his history, his aim is totally difierent from that of a historian who regards the events of life merely with reference to men. He is, in truth, a theologian and a poet as well as a historian. It is, however, vain to deny that when Herodotus did not see himself the events which he describes, he is often deceived by the misrepresentations of others ; yet, with- out his single-hearted simplicity, his disposition to listen to every remarkable account, and his admiration for the wonders of the eastern world, Herodotus would never have imparted to us many valuable accounts. Modern travellers, naturalists and 90 GREEK LITER ATUKE. geographers have often had occasion to admire the truth and correctness of the information contained in his simple and mar- vellous narratives. But no dissertation on this writer can con- vey any idea of the impression made by reading his work; his lan- guage closely approximates to oral narration ; it is like hearing a person speak who has seen and lived through a variety of re- markable things, and whose greatest delight consists in recalhng these images of the past. Though a Dorian by birth, he adopted the Ionic dialect, with its uncontracted terminations, its accu- mulated vowels, and its soft forms. These various elements con- spire to render the work of Herodotus a production as perfect in its kind as any human work can be. PERIOD SECOXD. The Epoch of the Athenian Literature (48-4-322 b.c.) 1. Literary Predominance of Athens. — Among the Greeks a national literature was early formed. Every literary work in the Greek language, in whatever dialect it might be composed, was enjoyed by the whole nation, and the fame of remarkable writers soon spread throughout Greece. Certain cities were considGrcd almost as theatres, where the poets and sages could Ijring their powers and acquirements into public notice. Among these, Sparta stood highest down to the time of the Persian war. But when Athens, raised by her political power and the mental qualities of her citizens, acquired the rank of the capital of Greece, literature assumed a different form, and there is no more important epoch in the history of the Greek intellect, tlian the time when she obtained this preeminence over her sister States. The character of the Athenians peculiarly fitted them to take this lead; they were lonians, and the boundless resources and mobiUty of the Ionian spirit are shown by their astonishing pro- ductions in Asia Minor and in the islands, in the two centuries previous to the Persian war ; in their iambic and elegiac poetry, and in the germs of pliilosophic inquiry and historical composi- tion. The literature of those who remained in Attica seemed poor and meagre when compared with that luxuriant outburst; nor did it appear, till a later period, that the progress of the Athenian intellect was the more sound and lasting. The lonians of Asia Minor, becoming at length enfeebled and corrupted by the luxuries of the East, passed easily under the power of the Persians, while the inhabitants of Attica, encompassed and GREEK LITERATURE. 91 oppressed by the manly tribes of Greece, aucl forced to keep tbe sword constantly in their hands, exerted all their talents and thus developed all then* extraordinary powers. Solon, the great lawgiver, arose to combine moral strictness and order w^ith freedom of action. After Solon came the do- minion of the Pisistratids, which lasted from about 560 to 510 B.C. Thev showed a fondness for art, diffused a taste for poetry among the Athenians, and naturalized at Athens the best literary productions of Greece. They were unquestionably the first to introduce the entire recital of the Ihad and Odyssey; they also brought to Athens the most distinguished lyric poets of the time, Anacreon, Simonides and others. But, notwith- standing their patronage of literature and art, it was not till after the fall of their dynasty that Athens shot up with a vigor, that can only be derived from the consciousness of every citizen that he has a share in the common weal. It is a remarkable fact that Athens produced her most excel- lent works in literature and art in the midst of the greatest pohtical convulsions, and of her utmost efforts for conquest and self-preservation. The long dominion of the Pisistratids produced nothing more important than the first rudiments of the tragic drama, for the origin of comedy at the country festivals of Bac- chus falls in the time before Pisistratus. On the other hand, the thirty years between the expulsion of Hippias, the last of the Pisistratids, and the battle of Salamis (b.c. 510-480), was a period marked by great events both in politics and literature. Athens contended with success ac^ainst her warlike neighbors, supported the lonians in their revolt against Persia, and warded t)ff the first powerful attack of the Persians upon Greece. Dur- ing the same period, the pathetic tragedies of Phrynichus and the lofty tragedies of ^schylus appeared on the stage, political eloquence was awakened in Themistocles, and everything seemed to give proraise of future greatness. The political events which followed the Persian war gradu- ally gave to Athens the dommion over her alUes, so that she became the sovereign of a large and flourishing emph'e, compre- hendiug the islands and coasts of the ^Egean and a part of the Euxine sea. In this manner was gained a wide basis for the lofty edifice of political glory, which vras raised by her states- men. The completion of this splendid structure vras due to Pericles (500-429 b.c.) Through his influence Athens be- came a dominant communitv, whose chief business it was to administer the afluirs of an extensive empire, flourishing in agri- culture, industry aud commerce. Pericles, how^ever, did not 92 GREEK LITERATURE. make the acquisition of power the highest object of his exertions; his aim was to reahze in Atliens the idea which he had con- ceived of human greatness, that great and noble thoughts should pervade the whole mass of the ruling people ; and this was, in fact, the case as long as his influence lasted, to a greater degree than has occurred in any other period of history. The objects to which Pericles directed the people, and for which he accumulated so much power and wealth at Athens, may be best seen in the still extant works of architecture and sculpture which originated under his administration. He induced the Athenian people to expend on the decoration of Athens a larger part of its ample revenues than was ever applied to this purpose in any other State, either republican or monarchical. Of the surpassing skill with which he collected into one focus the rays of artistic genius at Athens, no stronger proof can be afforded, than the fact that no subsequent period, through the patronage of Macedonian or Koman princes, produced works of equal excellence. Indeed, it may be said that the creations of the age of Pericles are the only works of art which completely satisfy the most refined and cultivated taste. But this brilliant exhibition of human excellence was not without its dark side, nor the flourishing state of Athenian civilization exempt from the elements of decay. The political position of Athens soon led to a conflict between the patriotism and moderation of her citizens, and their interests and passions. From the earliest times, this city had stood in an unfriendly relation to the rest of Greece, and her policy of compelling so many cities to contribute their wealth in order to make her the focus of art and civilization was accompanied with offensivj:) pride and selfish patriotism. The energy in action, which dis- tinguished the Athenians, degenerated into a restless love of adventure ; and that dexterity in the use of words, which they cultivated more than the other Greeks, induced them to subject everything to discussion, and destroyed the habits founded on unreasoning faith. The principles of the policy of Pericles were closely connected with the demoralization which followed his administration. By founding the power of the Athenians on the dominion of the sea, he led them to aloandon land war and the military exercises requisite for it, which had hardened the old warriors at Marathon. As he made them a dominant people, w^iose time was chiefly devoted to the business of governhig their widely-extended empire, it was necessary for him to pro- vide that the common citizens of Athens should be able to gain a livelihood by their attention to public business, and accord- GREEK LITERATURE. 93 inglj, a large revenue was distributed among them in the form of wages for attendance in the courts of justice and other pubUc asseml3lies. These payments to citizens for their share in the pubhc business were quite new in Greece, and many considered the sitting and hstening in these assemblies as an idle life in comparison with the labor of the ploughman and vine-grower in the country, and for a long time the industrious cultivators, the brave warriors, and the men of old-fashioned morality, were opposed, among the citizens of Athens, to the loquacious, luxurious and dissolute generation, who passed their whole time in the market-place and courts of justice. The contests between these two parties is the main subject of the early Attic comedy. Literature and art, however, were not, during the Pelopon- nesian war, affected by the corruption of morals. The works of this period exhibit not only a perfection of form but also an ele- vation of soul and a grandeur of conception, which fill us with admiration not only for those who produced them, but for those who could enjoy such works of art. A step further, and the love of genuine beauty gave place to a desu'e for evil pleasures, and the love of wisdom degenerated into an idle use of words. 2. The Drama. — The spirit of an age is more completely represented by its poetry than by its prose composition, and accordingly we may best trace the character of the three different stages of civihzation among the Greeks in the three grand divisions of their poetry. The epic belongs to the monarchical period, when the minds of the j^eople were impreg- nated and swayed by legends handed down from antiquity. Elegiac, iambic and lyric poetry arose in the more stirring and agitated times which accompanied the development of republican governments, times in which each individual gave vent to his personal aims and wishes, and all the depths of the human breast were unlocked by the insph'ations of poetry. And now, when at the summit of Greek civilization, in the very jOTme of Athenian power and freedom, we see dramatic poetry spring up as the organ of the prevailing thoughts and feelings of the time, we are naturally led to ask, how it comes that this style of poetry agreed so well with the spirit of the age, and so far outstripped its competitors in the contest for public favor. Dramatic poetry, as its name implies, represents actions, which are not as in the epos merely narrated, but seem to take place before the eyes of the spectator. The epic poet appears to regard the events, which he relates from afar, as objects of calm con- 94 GEEEK LITEKATURE. templation and admiration, and is always conscious of tlie great interval between him and them, -while tiie dramatist plunges with his entire soul into the scenes of human life, and seems himself to experience the events which he exhibits to our view. The drama comprehends and develops the events of human life with a force and depth, which no otlier style of poetry can reach. If we carry ourselves in imagination back to a time wlien dramatic composition was unknown, we must acknowledge that its creation required great boldness of mind. Hitherto the bard had only sung of gods and Iieroes ; it was, therefore, a great change for the poet himself to come forward all at once in the character of the god or hero, in a nation which, even in its amusements, had always adhered closely to established usages. It is true that there is much in human nature which impels it to dramatic representations, such as the universal love of imitating other persons, and the child-like liveliness with wdiich a narrator, strongly impressed with his subject, delivers a speech vvdiich he has heard or perhaps only imagined. Yet there is a wide step from these disjointed elements to the genuine drama, and it seems that no nation, except the Greeks, ever made this step. The dramatic poetry of the Hindus belongs to a time when there had been much intercourse betw^een Greece and India : even in ancient Greece and Italy, dramatic poetry, and especially tragedy, attained to perfection only in Athens, and here it was only exhibited at a fe^v festivals of a single god, Dionysus, while epic rhapsodies and lyric odes were recited on various occasions. All this is incomprehensible, if ^ve suppose dramatic poetry to have originated in causes independent of the peculiar circum- stances of time and place. If a love of imitation and a delight in disguising the real person under a mask, were the basis upon which this style of poetry was raised, the drama w'ould have Ijeen as natural and as universal among men, as these qualities are common to their nature. A more satisfactory explanation of the origin of the Greek drama may be found in its connection with the worship of the gods, and particularly that of Bacchus. The gods were supposed to dwx41 in their temples and to participate in their festivals, and it was not considered presumptuous or unbecoming to represent them as acting like human beings, as was frequently done by mimic representations. The worsliip of Bacchus had one quality, which was more than any other calculated to give birth to the drama, and particularly to tragedy, namely, the enthusiasm which formed an essential part of it, and which proceeded from an impassioned sympathy with the events GREEK LITERATURE. 05 of nature in connection with the course of the seasons. The original participators in these festivals beheyecl that they per- ceived the god to be really affected by the changes of nature, killed or dyhig, flying and rescued, or reanimated, victorious and dortiinaut. Although the great changes, which took place in the religion and cultivation of the Greeks, banished from their minds the conviction that these events really occurred, yet an enthusiastic sympathy with the god and his fortunes, as with real events, always remained. The swarm of subordinate beings by whom Bacchus was surrounded — satyrs, nymphs, and a variety of beautiful and grotesque forms — were ever present to the fancy of the Greeks, and it was not necessary to depart very widely from the ordinary course of ideas, to imagine them visible to human eyes among the solitary woods and rocks. The custom, so prevalent at the festivals of Bacchus, of taking the disguise of satyrs, doubtless originated in the desire to approach more nearly to the presence of then- divinity. The desire of escaping from self into somethino: new and strans-e, of livino: in an imaginary world, broke forth in a thousand instances in those festivals. It was seen in the coloring of the body, the wearing of skins and masks of wood or bark, and in the complete costume belonoing to the character. The learned writers of antiquity agree in stating that tragedy, as well as comedy, was originally a choral song. The action, the adventure of the gods, was presupposed or only symbolically indicated; the chorus expressed then* feelings upon it. This choral song belonged to the class of the dithyramh, an enthusiastic ode to Bacchus, capable of expressing every variety of feeling excited by the worship of that god. It was first sung by revellers at convivial meetings, afterwards it was regularly executed by a chorus. The subject of these tragic choruses sometimes changed from Bacchus to other heroes distinguished for their misfortunes and suffering. The reason why the dithyramb and afterwards tragedy was transferred from that god to heroes and not to other gods of the Greek Olympus, was that the latter were elevated above the chances of fortune and the alternations of joy and grief, to which both Bacchus and the heroes were subject. It is stated by Aristotle, that tragedy originated with the chief singers of the dithyramb. It is probable that they repre- sented Bacchus himself or his messengers, that they came for- ward and naiTated his perils and escapes, and that the chorus then expressed their feeling, as at passing events. The chorus thus naturally assumed the character of satellites of Bacchus, 96 GREEK LITERATURE. whence they easily fell into the parts of satyrs, who were his com- panions in sportive adventures, as well as in combats and misfor- tunes. The name of tragedy, ovgoafs song, was derived from the resemblance of the sinirers, in their character of satvrs, to c'oats. Thus far tragedy had advanced among the Dorians, who, therefore, considered themselves the inventors of it. All its further development belongs to the Athenians. In the time of Pisistratus, Thespis (506 b.c.) first caused tragedy to become a drama, though a very simple one. He connected with the choral representation a regular dialogue, by joining one person to the chorus who was the first actor. He introduced linen masks, and thus the one actor might appear in several charac- ters. In the drama of Thespis we find the satyric drama con- founded with tragedy, and the persons of the chorus frequently representing satyrs. The dances of the chorus were still a prin- cipal part of the performance ; the ancient tragedians, in general, were teachers of dancing, as well as poets and musicians. In Phrynichus (fl. 612 b.c.) the lyric predominated over the dramatic element. Like Thespis, he had only one actor, but he used this actor for different characters, and he was the first who brought female parts upon the stage, which, according to the manners of the ancients, could be acted only by men. In seve- ral instances it is remarkable that Phrynichus deviated from mythical subjects to those taken from contemporary history. 3. Tragedy. — The tragedy of antiquity was entirely different from that which, in progress of time, arose among other nations; a picture of human life, agitated by the passions, and corre- sponding as accurately as possible to its original in all its fea- tures. Ancient tragedy departs entirely from ordinary life; its character is in the highest degree ideal, and its development necessary, and essentially directed by the fate to which gods and men were subjected. As tragedy and dramatic exhibitions, generally, were only seen at the festivals of Bacchus, they re- tained a sort of Bacchic coloring, and the extraordinary excite- ment of all minds at these festivals, by raising them above the tone of everv-dav existence, c-ave l3oth to the trao:ic and comic muse unwonted energy and fire. The Bacchic festal costume, which the actors wore, consisted of long striped garments reaching to the ground, over which were thrown upper garments of some brilliant color, with gay trimmings and gold ornaments. The choruses also vied with each other in the splendor of their dress, as well as in the excel- lence of their sinu-ino* and dancin"*. The chorus, which alwavs GREEK LITEEATUEE. 97 bore a subordiuate part in the action of tlie tragedy, was in no respect distinguished from the stature and appearance of ordinary men, while the actor, who represented the god or hero, required to be raised above the usual dimensions of mortals. A tragic actor was a strange, and, according to the taste of the ancients them- selves at a later period, a very monstrous being. His person was lengthened out considerably beyond the proportions of the human figure by the very high soles of the tragic shoe, and by the length of the tragic mask, and the chest, body, legs and arms were stuffed and padded to a corresponding size; the body thus lost much of its natural flexibility, and the gesticulation consisted of stiff, angular movements, in which little was left to the emotion or the inspiration of the moment. Masks, which had originated in the taste for mumming and disguises of all sorts, prevalent at the Bacchic festivals, were an indispensable accompaniment to tragedy. They not only concealed the indi- vidual features of well-known actors, and enabled the spectators entirely to forget the performer in his part, but gave to his whole aspect that ideal character which the tragedy of antiquity demanded. The tragic mask was not intentionally ugly and caricatured like the comic, but the half open mouth, the large eye-sockets, and sharply-defined features, in which every charac- teristic was presented in its utmost strength, and the bright and hard coloring were calculated to make the impression of a being agitated by the emotions and passions of human nature in a de- gree far above the standard of common life. The masks could, however, be changed between the acts, so as to represent the necessary changes in the state or emotions of the persons. The ancient theatres were stone buildings of enormous size, calculated to accommodate the whole free and adult population of a great city at the spectacles and festal games. These the- atres were not designed exclusively for dramatic poetry ; choral dances, processions, and revels, all sorts of representations were held in them. We find theatres in every part of Greece, though dramatic poetry was the peculiar growth of Athens. The whole structure of the theatre, as well as the drama itself, may be traced to the chorus, whose station was the original ceiisre of the whole performance. The orchestra, which occu- pied a circular level space in the centre of the building, grew out of the chorus or dancing place of the Homeric times. The altar of Bacchus, around which the dithyrambic chorus danced in a circle, had given rise to a sort of raised platform in the cen- tre of the orchestra, which served as a resting-place for the chorus. 98 GREEK LITEIIATURE. The chorus sang alouc when the actors had quitted the stage, or alternately with the persons of the drama, and sometimes en- tered into dialogues with them. These persons represented heroes of the mythical world, whose whole aspect bespoke some- thing mightier and more subhme than ordinary humanity, and it was the part of the chorus to show the impression made by the incidents of the drama on lower and feebler minds, and thus, as it were, to interpret them to the audience, with whom they owned a more kindred nature. The ancient stage was remark- ably long, and of little depth; it was called the proscenium, be- cause it was in front of the scene. Scene properly means tent or hut, such as originally marked the dwelhng of the principal per- son. This hut at length gave place to a stately scene, enriched with architectural decorations, yet its purpose remained the same. We have seen how a single actor was added to the cho- rus by Thespis, who caused him to represent in succession all the persons of the drama. iEschylus added a second actor in order to obtain the contrast of two acting persons on the stage; even Sophocles did not venture beyond the introduction of a third. I3ut the ancients laid more stress upon the precise num- ber and mutual relations of these actors, than can here be ex- plained, 4. The Tragic Poets. — ^Eschylus (525-477 B.C.), like almost all the great masters of poetry in ancient Greece, was a jioet by profession, and from the great improvements which he introduced into tragedy, he was regarded by the Athenians as its founder. Of the seventy tragedies which he is said to have written, only seven are extant. Of these, the '' Prometheus" is beyond all question his greatest work. The genius of ^schylus inclined rather to the awful and sublime, than to the tender and pathetic. He excels in representing the superhuman, in depict- ing demigods and heroes, and in tracing the irresistible march of fate. The depth of poetical feeling in him is accompanied with intense and philosophical thought; he does not merely represent individual tragical events, but he recurs to the greater elements of tragedy — the subjection of the gods and Titans, and the original dignity and greatness of nature and of man. He de- lights to portray this gigantic strength, as in his Prometheus chained and tortured, but invincible ; and these representations have a moral sublimity far above mere poetic beauty. His tra- gedies were at once political, patriotic and religious. Sophocles (495-40 G e.g.), as a poet, is universally allowed to have brought the drama to the highest degree of perfection of GREEK LITER ATUKE. 99 which it was susceptible. Indeed, the Greek mind may be said to have cuhniuated in him; his writings Overflow with that inde- scribable charm, which only flashes through those of other poets. Ilis plots are worked up with more skill and care than those of either of his great rivals, J^schylus or Euripides, and he added the last improvement to the form of the drama by the introduc- tion of a third actor — a change which greatly enlarged the scope of the action. Of the manv trao:edies which he is said to have Avritten, only seven are extant. Of these, the " Oedipus Tyran- nns " is particularly remarkable for its skillful development, and for the manner in which the interest of the piece increases through each succeeding act. Of all the poets of antiquity, Sophocles has penetrated most deeply into the recesses of the human heart. His tragedies appear to us as pictures of the mind, as poetical developments of the secrets of our souls, and of the laws to which their nature makes them amenable. In Euripides (480-407 B.C.), we discover the first traces of decline in the Greek tragedy. He diminished its dignity by depriving it of its ideal character, and by bringing it down to the level of every-day life. All the characters of Euripides have that loquacity and dexterity in the use of words which distin- guished the Athenians of his day; yet in spite of all these faults he has many beauties, and is particularly remarkable for pathos, so that Aristotle calls him the most tragic of poets. Eighteen of his trao'edies are still extant. The contemporaries of the three great tragic poets, JEschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, must be regarded for the most part as far from insignificant, since they maintained their place on the stage beside them, and not unfrequently gained the tragic prize in competition with them; yet the general character of these poets must have been deficient in that depth and pecuhar force of genius, by which these great tragedians were distinguished. If this had not been the case, their works would assuredly have attracted greater attention, and would have been read more fre- quently in later times. 5. Comedy. — Greek comedy was distinguished as the Old, the Middle and the Xew. As tragedy arose from the winter feast of Bacchus, which fostered an enthusiastic sympathy with the apparent sorrows of the god of nature, comedy arose from the concluding feast of the vintage, at which an exulting joy over the inexhaustible riches of nature, manifested itself in wantonness of every kind. In such a feast, the Comus, or Bacchanalian procession, was a principal ingredient. This was a tumultuous 100 GREEK LITERATURE. mixture of the wild carouse, the noisy song and the drunken dance ; and the meaning of the word comedy is a comus song. It was from this lyric comedy that the dramatic comedy was gradually produced. It received its full development from Cra- tinus, who lived in the age of Pericles. Cratinus and his younger contemporaries, Eupolis (431 e.g.) and Aristophanes (452-380 B.C.), were the great poets of the old Attic comedy. Of their works, only eleven dramas of Aristophanes are extant. The chief object of these comedies was to excite laughter by the boldest and most ludicrous caricature, and, provided that end was obtained, the poet seems to have cared little about the jus- tice of the picture. It is scarcely possible to imagine the un- measured and unsparing license of attack assumed by these com- edies upon the gods, the institutions, the politicians, philoso- phers, poets, private citizens and women of Athens. With this universal liberty of subject there is combined a poignancy of de- rision and satire, a fecundity of imagination, and a richness of poetical expression, such as cannot be surpassed. Towards the end of the career of Aristophanes, however, this unrestricted license of the comedy began gradually to disappear. The Old comedy was succeeded by the Micldle Attic comedy, in wdiich the satire was no longer du'ccted against the influential men or rulers of the people, but was rich in ridicule of the Pla- tonic Academy, of the newly revived sect of the Pythagoreans, and of the orators, rhetoricians and poets of the day. In this tran- sition from the Old to the Middle comedy, we may discern at once the great revolution that had taken place in the domestic history of Athens, when the Athenians, from a nation of politi- cians became a nation of literary men ; when it was no longer the opposition of political ideas, but the contest of opposing schools of philosophers and rhetoricians, which set all heads in motion. Tiie poets of this comedy were very numerous. The last poets of the Middle comedy were contemporaries of the writers of the New, who rose up as their rivals, and who were only distinguished from them by following the new ten- dency more decidedly and exclusively. Menander (342-293 n.c.) was one of the first of these poets, and he is also the most per- fect of them. The Athens of his day differed from that of the time of Pericles, in the same way as an old man, weak in body but fond of life, good-humored and self-indulgent, differs from the vigorous, middle-aged man at the summit of his mental strength and bodily energy. Since there was so little hi politics to interest or to employ the mind, the Athenians found an ob- ject in the occurrences of social life and the charm of dissolute GREEK LITERATURE. 101 enjoyment. Dramatic poetry now, for tlie first time, centred in love, as it lias since done among all nations to whom the Greek cultivation has descended. But it certainly was not love in those nobler forms to which it has shace elevated itself. Menan- der painted truly the degenerate world in which he lived, actu- ated by no mighty impulses, no noble aspirations. He was con- temporary with Epicurus, and their characters had much in com- mon ; both were deficient in the inspiration of high moral ideas. The comedy of Menander and his contemporaries completed what Euripides had begun on the tragic stage a hundred years before then* time. They deprived then- characters of that ideal grandeur which had been most conspicuous in the creations of ^schylus and the earlier poets, and thus tragedy and comedy, which had started from such different beginnings, here met as at the same point. The comedies of Menander may be considered as almost the conclusion of Attic literature ; he was the last original poet of Athens; those who arose at a later period were but gleaners after the rich harvest of Greek poetry had been gathered. G, Oratory, Rhetoric and History. — ^We may distinguish three epochs in the history of Attic prose from Pericles to Alex- ander the Great : first, that of Pericles and Thucydides; second, that of Lysias, Socrates and Plato ; and, third, that of Demosthenes and^schines. Public speaking had been com- mon in Greece from the earliest times, but as the works of Athe- nian orators alone have come down to us, we may conclude that oratory was cultivated in a much higher degree at Athens than elsewhere. No speech of Pericles has been preserved in writ- ing; only a few of his emphatic and nervous expressions were kept in remembrance; but a general impression of the grandeur of his oratory long prevailed among the Greeks, from which we may form a clear conception of his style. The sole object of the oratory of Pericles was to produce conviction ; he did not aim to excite any sudden or transient burst of passion by working on the emotions of the heart ; nor did he use any of those means employed by the orators of a later age to set in motion the un- ruly impulses of the multitude. His manner was tranquil, with hardly any change of feature ; his garments were undisturbed by any oratorical gesticulations, and his voice was equable and sus- tained. He never condescended to flatter the people, and his dignity never stooped to merriment. Although there was more of reasoning than imagination in his speeches, he gave a vivid and impressive coloring to his language by the use of striking 102 GREEK LITERATURE. metaphors and comparisons, as when, at the funeral of a number of young persons who had fallen in battle,, he used the beautiful figure, that " the year had lost its spring," The cultivation of the art of oratory among the Athenians was due to a combination of the natural eloquence displayed by the Athenian statesmen, and especially by Pericles, with the rhetori- cal studies of the sophists, who exercised a greater influence on the culture of the Greek mind than any other class of men, the poets excepted. The sophists, as their name indicates, were persons w^ho made knowledge their profession, and undertook to. impart it to every one whowas willing to place himself under their guidance; they were reproached with being the first to sell knowledge for money, for they not only demanded it from those who came to hear their lectures, but they undertook, for a certain sum, to give young men a complete sophistical education. Pupils flocked to them in crowds, and they acquired such riches as neither art nor science had ever before earned among the Greeks. If we con- sider their doctrines philosophically, they amounted to a denial or renunciation of all true science. They were able to speak w4th equal plausibility for and against the same position ; not in order to discover the truth, but to show the nothingness of truth. In the improvement of written composition, however, a high value must be set on their services. They made language the object of their study ; they aimed at correctness and beauty of style, and they laid the foundation for the polished diction of Plato and Demosthenes. They taught th.at the sole aim of the orator is to turn the minds of his hearers into such a train as may best suit his own interest ; that, consequently, rhetoric is the agent of persuasion, the art of all arts, because the rhetorician is" able to speak well and convincingly on every subject, though he may have no accurate knowledge respecting it. The Peloponnesian war, which terminated in the downfall of Athens, was succeeded by a period of exhaustion and repose. The fine arts were checked in their progress, and poetry degene- rated into empty bombast. Yet, at this very time, prose literature began a new career, which led to its fairest develop- ment. Lysias and Isocrates gave an entirely new form to oratory by the happy alterations which they in diflerent ways introduced into the old prose style. Lysias (fl. 359 e.g.), in the 50th year of his age, began to follow the trade of writing speeches for such private individuals as could not trust their own skill hi addressing a court ; for this object, a plain, unartificial style was best suited, because citizens who called in the aid of the speech* GREEK LITERATUEE. 103 writer had no knowledge of rhetoric, and thus Lysias was obliged to originate a style, which became more and more con- firmed by habit. The consequence was, that for his contem- poraries and for all ages, he stands forth as the first and in many respects the perfect pattern of a plain style. The narrative part of the speech, for which he was particularly famous, is always natural, interesting and lively, and often relieved by mimic touches which give it a wonderful air of reality. The proofs and confutations are distinguished by a clearness of reasoning and a boldness of argument which leave no room for doubt; in a word, the speeches are just what they ought to be in order to obtain a favorable decision, an object in which, it seems, he often succeeded. Of his many orations, thirty-five have come down to us. Isocrates (fl. 338 e.g.) established a school for political oratory, which became the first and most flourishing in Greece. His orations were mostly destined for this school. Though neither a great statesman nor philosopher in himself, Isocrates constitutes an epoch as a rhetorician or artist of language. His influence extended far beyond the limits of his own school, and without his reconstruction of the style of Attic oratory, we could have had no Demosthenes and no Cicero ; through these, the school of Isocrates has extended its influence even to the oratory of our own day. The verdict of his contemporaries, ratified by posterity, has pronounced Demosthenes (380-322 e.g.) the greatest orator that has ever lived, yet he had no natural advantages for oratory. A feeble frame and a weak voice, a shy and awkward manner, the ungraceful gesticulations of one whose limbs had never been duly exercised, and a defective articulation, would have deterred most men from even attempting to address an Athenian assem- bly; but the amliition and perseverance of Demosthenes enabled him to triumph over every disadvantage. He improved his bodily powers by running, his voice by speaking aloud as he walked up hill, or declaimed against the roar of the sea ; he practised graceful delivery before a looking-glass, and controlled his unruly articulation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth. His want of fluency he remedied by diligent composition and by copying and committing to memory the works of the best authors. By these means, he came forth as the acknowledged leader of the assembly, and, even by the confession of his deadliest enemies, the first orator of Greece. His harangues to the people, and his speeches on public and private causes, which have been preserved, form a collection of sixty-one orations. 10-4 GREEK LITEKATUEE. The most important efforts of Demosthenes, however, were the series of public speeches referring to PhiHp of Macedon, and known as the twelve Philippics, a name which has become a general designation for spirited invectives. The main charac- teristic of his eloquence consisted in the use of the common language of his age and country. He took great pains in the choice and arrangement of his words, and aimed at the utmost conciseness, making epithets, even common adjectives, do the work of a whole sentence, and thus, by his perfect dehvery and action, a sentence composed of ordinary terms sometimes smote with the weight of a sledge-hammer. In his orations, there is not any long or close train of reasoning, still less any pro- found observations or remote and ingenious allusions, but a con- stant succession of remarks, bearing immediately on the matter in hand, perfectly plain, and as readily admitted as easily under- stood. These are intermingled with the most striking appeals either to feelings which all were conscious of, and deeply agitated by, though ashamed to own; or to sentiments which every man was panting to utter and delighted to hear thundered forth, — bursts of oratory, which either overwhelmed or relieved the audience. Such characteristics constituted the principal glory of the great orator. The most eminent of the contemporaries of Demosthenes, were Isa:us (420-348 e.g.), an artificial and elaborate orator; Lycurgus (393-328 B.C.), a celebrated civil reformer of Athens; Hypereides, contemporary of Lycurgus; and, above all, ^Eschines (389-314 b.c), the great rival of Demosthenes, of whose numerous speeches only three have been preserved. At a later period, we find two schools of Rhetoric, tlie Attic, founded by ^Eschines, and the Asiatic, established by Hegesias of Magnesia. The former proposed as models of oratory the great Athenian orators, the latter depended on artificial man- ners, and produced speeches distinguished rather by rhetorical ornaments and a rapid flow of diction, than by weight and force of style. In the historical department, Thucydides (471-391 b.c.) com- menced an entirely new class of historical writing. While Herodotus aimed at giving a vivid picture of all that fell under tlie cognizance of the senses, and endeavored to represent a superior power ruling over the destinies of princes and people, the attention of Thucydides was directed to human action, as it is developed from the character and situation of the individual. Ilis history, from its unity of action, may be con- sidered as a historical drama, the snlyect being the Athenian GREEK LITEllATUEE. 105 domiuation over Greece, and the parties the belUgerent repub- lics. Clearness in the narrative, harmony and consistency of the details with the general history, are the characteristics of his work ; and in his style, he combines the concise and pregnant oratory of Pericles with the vigorous but artificial style of the rhetoricians. Demosthenes was so diligent a student of Thucydides, that he copied out his history eight times. Xenophon (445-391 e.g.) may also be classed among the great historians, his name being most favorably known from the " Anabasis," in which he describes the retreat of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus, the Persian king, among whom he himself played a prominent part. The minute- ness of detail, the picturesque simplicity of the style, and the air of reality which pervades it, have made it a favorite with every ao'e. In his memorials of Socrates, he records the conversations of a man whom he had admired and listened to, but whom he did not understand. In the language of Xenophon, we find the first approximation to the common dialect, which became after- wards the universal language of Greece. He wrote several other works, in which, however, no develoi3ment of one great and pervading idea can be found; but in all of them there is a •singular clearness and beauty of description. 7. Socrates and the Socratig Schools. — Although Socrates (4G8-399 B.C.) left no writings behind him, yet the intellect of Greece was powerfully aftected by the principles of his philoso- phy, and the greatest literary genius that ever appeared in Hellas owed most of his mental training to his early intercourse with him. It was by means of conversation, by a searching process of question and answer, that Socrates endeavored to lead his pupils to a consciousness of their own ignorance, and thus to awaken in their minds an anxiety to obtain more exact views. This method of questioning he reduced to a scientific pro- cess, and "dialectics" became a name for the art of reasoning and the science of logic. The subject-matter of this method was moral science considered with special reference to politics. To him may be justly attributed induction and general defini- tions, and he applied this practical logic to a common sense estimate of the duties of man both as a moral being and as a member of a community, and thus he first treated moral philo- sophy according to scientific principles. Xo less than ten schools of philosophers claimed him as their head, though the majority of them imperfectly represented his doctrines. By his influence 5* 106 GREEK LITERATURE. on Plato, and through him on Aristotle, he constituted himself the founder of the philosophy which is still recognized in the civilized world. From the doctrine held by Socrates, that virtue was depend- ent on knowledge, Eucleides of Megara (fl. 398 e.g.), the founder of the Megaric school, submitted moral philosophy to dialectical reasoning and logical refinements; and from the ISocratic princi- ple of the union between virtue and happiness, Aristippus of Oyrene (fl. 396 e.g.) deduced the doctrine, which became the characteristic of the Cyrenian school, affirming that pleasure was the ultimate end of life and the higher good; while Antis- thenes (fl. 396 e.g.) constructed the Cynic philosophy, which placed the ideal of virtue in the absence of every need, and hence in the disregarding of every interest, wealth, honor and enjoyment, and in the independence of any restraints of life and society. Diogenes of Sinope (fl! 300 e.g.) was one of the most prominent followers of this school. He, like his master, Antis- thenes, always appeared in the most beggarly clothing, with the staff and wallet of mendicancy ; and this ostentation of self- denial drew from Socrates the exclamation, that he saw the vanity of Antisthenes through the holes in his garments. Plato (429-348 e.g.) was the only one of the disciples of Socrates, who represented the whole doctrines of his teacher. We owe to him that the ideas which Socrates awakened have been made the germ of one of the grandest systems of specula- tion that the world has ever seen, and that it has been conveyed to us in literary compositions which are unequalled in rehue- ment of conception, or in vigor and gracefulness of style. At the age of nineteen he became one of the pupils and associates of Socrates, and did not leave him until that martyr of intellec- tual freedom drank the fatal cup of hemlock. He afterwards travelled in Asia Minor, in Egypt, in Italy and Sicily, and made himself acquainted with all contemporary philosophy. During the latter part of his life he was engaged as a public lecturer on philosophy. His lectures were delivered in the gardens of the Acadcmia, and they have left proof of their celebrity in the structure of language, which has derived from them a term now common to all places of instruction. Of the importance of the Socratic and Pythagorean elements in Plato's philosophy there can be no doubt; but he transmuted all he touched into his own forms of thought and language, and there was no branch of speculative literature which he had not mastered. By adopting the form of dialogue, in which all his extant works have come down to us, he was enabled to criticise the various systems of GKEEK LITERATURE. 107 philosophy then current in Greece, and also to gratify his own dramatic genius, and his almost unrivalled power of keeping up an assumed character. The works of Plato have been divided into three classes: first, the elementary dialogues, or those which contain the germs of all that follows, of logic as the instru- ment of philosophy, and of ideas as its proper object; second, ' ■roo:ressive dialogues, which treat of the distinction between J. O O / pi ilosophical and common knowledge, in their united application to the proposed and real sciences, ethics and physics; third, the constructive dialogues, in which the practical is completely united with the speculative, with an appendix containing laws, epis- tles, etc. The fundamental principle of Plato's philosophy is the belief in an eternal and self-existent cause, the origin of all things. From this divine Being emanate not only the souls of men, which are immortal, but that of the universe itself, which is sup- posed to be animated by a divine spirit. The material objects of our sight, and other senses, are mere fleeting emanations of the divine idea; it is only this idea itself that is really existent; the objects of sensuous perception are mere appearances, taking their forms by participation in the idea ; hence it follows, that in Plato's philosophy all knowledge is innate, and acquired by the soul before birth, when it was able to contemplate real exist- ences, and all our ideas of this world are mere reminiscences of their true and eternal patterns. The belief of Plato in the im- mortality of the soul naturally led him to establish a high standard of moral excellence, and, like his great teacher, he con- stantly inculcates temperance, justice and purity of life. His political views are developed in the "Ilepublic" and in the " Laws," in which the main feature of his system is the subor- dination, or rather the entire sacrifice of the individual to the State. The style of Plato is in every way worthy of his position in universal literature, and modern scholars have confirmed the en- comium of Aristotle, that all his dialogues exhibit extraordinary acuteness, elaborate elegance, bold originality and curious specu- lation. In Plato, the powers of imagination were just as con- spicuous as those of reasoning and reflection; he had all the chief characteristics of a poet, especially of a dramatic poet, and if his rank as a philosopher had been lower than it is, he would still have ranked high among dramatic writers for his life-like representations of the personages whose opinions he wished to combat or to defend. Aristotle (384-322 e.g.) occupies a position among the 108 GREEK LITEllATUKE. leaders of human thought not inferior to that of his teacher, Plato, He was a native of Stag:3'ra, in Macedonia, and is hence often called the Stagyrite. He early repaired to Athens, and became a pupil of Plato, who called him the soul of his school. He was afterwards invited by Philip of Macedon to undertake the literary education of Alexander, at that time thirteen years old. This charge continued about three years. He afterwards returned to Athens, where he opened his school in a gymnasium called the Lyceum, and here he delivered his lessons walking to and fro, and from these saunters his scholars were called Peripatetics, or saunterers. During this period he composed most of his extant works. Alexander placed at his disposal a large sum for his collections in natural history, and employed some thousands of men in procuring specimens for his museum. After the death of Alexander, he was accused of blasphemy to the gods, and warned by the fate of Socrates, he withdrew from Athens to Chalcis, where he afterwards died. In looking at the mere catalogue of the works of Aristotle, we are struck with his vast range of knowledge. He aimed at nothing less than the completion of a general encyclopaedia of philosophy. He was the author of the first scientific cultivation of each science, and there was hardly any quality distinguishing a philosopher as such, which he did not possess in an eminent degree. Of all the philosophical systems of antiquity, that of Aristotle was the best adapted to the physical wants of man- kind. His works consisted of treatises on natural, moral, and political philosophy, history, rhetoric, criticism — indeed, there was scarcely a branch of knowledge which his vast and compre- hensive genius did not embrace. His greatest claim to our ad- miration is as a logician. He perfected and brought into form those elements of the dialectic art which had been struck out by Socrates and Plato, and wrought them, by his additions, hito so complete a system, that he may be regarded as, at once, the founder and perfecter of logic as an art, which has since, even down to our own days, been but very little improved. The style of Aristotle has nothing to attract those who prefer the embel- lishments of a work to its subject-matter and the scientific re* suits which it presents. GKEEK LITEKATUEE. 109 PERIOD THIRD. The epoch of the Decline of Greek Literature, 322 B.C.-1453 A.D. 1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature. — As the literary predominance of Athens was clue mainly to the political impor- tance of Attica, the downfall of Athenian independence brought with it a deterioration, and ultimately an extinction of that in- tellectual centralization, which for more than a century had fos- tered and developed the highest efforts of the genius and culture of the Greeks. While the living literature of Greece was thus dying away, the conquests of Alexander prepared a new home for the muses on the coast of that wonderful country, to which all the nations of antiquity had owed a part of their science and religious belief. In Egypt, as in other regions, Alexander gave directions for the foundation of a city to be called after his own name, which became the magnificent metropolis of the Hellenic world. This capital was the residence of a family who attracted to their court all the living representatives of the literature of Greece, and stored up in their enormous library all the best works of the classical period. It was chiefly during the reign of the first three Ptolemies that Alexandria was made the new home of Greek literature. Ptolemy Soter (306-285 e.g.) laid the foundations of the hbrarv, and instituted the Museum, or temple of the muses, where the literary men of the age were maintained by endowments. This encouragement of hterature was continued by Ptolemy Philadelphus (2 85-24 1 e.g.). He had the celebrated Callimachus for his librarian, who bought up not only the whole of Aristotle's great collection of works, but transferred the native annals of Egypt and Judea to the domain of Greek literature by employing the priest Manetho to trans- late the hieroglyphics of his own temple-archives into the lan- guage of the court, and by procuring from the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem the first part of that celebrated version of the Hebrew sacred books, which was afterwards completed and known as the Septuagint, or version of the Seventy. Ptolemy Euergetes (247-222 E.G.) increased the library by depriving the Athenians of their authentic editions of the great dramatists. In the course of time the hbrary founded at Pergamus was transferred to Egypt, and thus we are indebted to the Ptolemies for pre- serving to our times all the best specimens of Greek literature, 110 GREEK LITERATUHE. which liave come down to us. This encouragement of letters, however, called forth no great original genius; but a few eminelit men of science, many second-rate and artilicial poets, and a host of grammarians and literary pedants. 2. The Alexaxdriax Poets. — Among the poets of the period, Philetas, Callimachus, Lycophron, Apollonius and the writers of idyls, Theocritus, Bion and Moschus are the most eminent. The founder of a school of poetry at Alexandria, and the model for imitation with the Roman writers of elegiac poetry, was Phi- letas of Cos (fl. 260 B.C.), whose extreme emaciation of person ex- posed him to the imputation of wearing lead in the soles of his shoes, lest he should be blown away. He was chiefly celebrated as an elegiac poet, in whom ingenious, elegant, and harmonious versification took the place of higher poetry. Calhmachus (fl. 2G0 B.C.) was the type of an Alexandrian man of letters, distinguished by skill rather than genius, the most finished speci- men of what might be effected by talent, learning, and ambition, backed by the patronage of a court. He was a living repre- sentative of the great library over which he presided; he was not only a writer of all kinds of poetry, but a critic, grammarian, historian and geographer. Of his writings, a few poems only are extant. jSext to Callimachus, as a representative of the learned poetry of Alexandria, stands the dramatist Lycophron (fl. 250 B.C.). All his works are lost, with the exception of the oracular poem called the ** Alexandra," or " Cassandra," on the merits of which very opposite opinions are entertained. Apol- lonius, known as the llhodian (fl. 240 b.c), was a native of Alexandria, and a pupil of Callimachus, through whose influence he was driven from his native city, when he established himself in the island of Rhodes, where he w^as so honored and distin- guished that he took the name of the Rhodian. On the death of Callimachus, he was appohited to succeed him as librarian at Alexandria. His reputation depends on his epic poem, the " Argonautic Expedition." Of all the writers of the Alexandrian period, the bucolic poets have enjoyed the most popularity. Their pastoral poems were called Idyls, from their pictorial and descriptive character, that is, little pictures of common life, a name for which the later writers have sometimes substituted the term Eclogues, i. e., selec- tions, which is applicable to any short poem, whether com[)kte and original, or appearing as an extract. The name of Idyls, however, was afterwards applicable to pastoral poems. Theo- critus (fl. 272 B.C.) gives his name to the most important of these GIIEEK LITEKATURE. Ill extant bucolics. He had an original genius for poetry of the highest kind; the absence of the usual affectation of the Alex- andrian school, constant appeals to nature, a line perception of character, and a keen sense of both the beautiful and the ludicrous, indicate the high order of his literary talent, and account for his universal and undiminished popularity. The two other bucolic poets of the Alexandrian school were Bion (fi. 275 B.C.), born near Smyrna, and his pupil Moschus of Syracuse (fl. 273 e.g.). It appears, from an elegy by Moschus, that Bion mis:rated from Asia Minor to Sicily, where he was poisoned. He wrote harmonious verses with a good deal of pathos and tenderness, but he is as inferior to Theocritus as he is superior to Moschus, whose artificial style characterizes him rather as a learned versifier than a true poet. 3. Pkose Writers of Alexandria. — Many of the most emi- nent poets were also prose writers, and they exhibited their ver- satility by writing on almost every subject of literary interest. The progress of prose writing manifested itself from grammar and criticism to the more elaborate and learned treatment of history and chronology, and to observations and speculations in pure and mixed mathematics. Demetrius the Phalerian (fl. 295 B.C.), Zenodotus (fl. 279 b.c), Aristophanes (fl. 200 b.c), and Aristarchus (fl. 156 b.c), the three last of whom were succes- sively intrusted with the management of the Library, were the representatives of the Alexandrian school of grammar and criti- cism. They devoted themselves chiefly to the revision of the text of Homer, which was Anally established by Aristarchus. In the historical department, may be mentioned Ptolemy Soter, who wrote the history of the wars of Alexander the Great; ApoUodorus (fl. 200 b.c), whose " Bibliotheca" con- tains a general sketch of the mystic legends of the Greeks ; Eratosthenes (fl. 235 b.c), the founder of scientific chronology in Greek history ; Manetho (fl. 280 b.c), who introduced the Greeks to a knowledge of the Egyptian religion and annals; and Berosus of Babylon, his contemporary, whose work, fragments of which were preserved by Josephus, was known as the " Baby- lonian Annals." While the Greeks of Alexandria thus gained a knowledge of the religious books of the nations concpiered by Alexander, the same curiosity, combined with the necessities of the Jews of Alexandria, gave birth to the translation of the Bible into Greek, known under the name of Septuagint, which has exercised a more lasting influence on the civilized world than that of any book that has ever appeared in a new tongue. The 112 GREEK LITERATURE. beginning of tliat translation was probably made in the reigns of the first Ptolemies (320-249 b.c), while the remainder was completed at a later period. The ^vonderful advance, which took place in pure and applied mathematics, is chiefly due to the learned men who settled in Alexandria ; the greatest mathematicians and the most eminent founders of scientific geography were all either immediately or indirectly connected with the school of Alexandria. Euclid (fl. 300 B.C.) founded a famous school of geometry in that city, in the reign of the first Ptolemy. Almost the only incident of his hfe, which is knov»'n to us, is a conversation between him and that king, who having asked if there was no easier method of learning the science, Euclid is said to have rephed, that " there was no royal path to geometry." His most famous work is his " Ele- ments of Pure Mathematics," at the present time a manual of in- struction and the foundation of all geometrical treatises. Archi- medes (287-212 B.C.) was a native of Syracuse, in Sicily, but he travelled to Egypt at an early age, and studied mathematics there in the school of Euclid. He not only distinguished himself as a pure mathematician and astronomer, and as the founder of the theory of statics, but he discovered the law of specific gravity, and constructed some of the most useful machines in the mechanic arts, such as the pulley and the hydraulic screw. His works are written in the Doric dialect. Apollonius of Perga (221-204 b.c.) distinguished himself in the mathematical department by his work on " Conic Elements." Eratosthenes was not only promi- nent in the science of chronology, but was also the founder of astronomical geography, and the author of many valuable works in various branches of philosophy. Hipparchus (fl. 150 b.c) is considered the founder of the science of exact astronomy, from his great work, the " Catalogue of the Fixed Stars," his disco- very of the precession of the equinoxes, and many other valuable astronomical observations and calculations. 4. Alexandrian Philosophy. — Athens, which had been the centre of Greek literature during the second or classical period of its development, had now, in all respects but one, resigned the intellectual leadership to the city of the Ptolemies. While Alexandria was producing a series of learned poets, scholars, and discoverers in science, Athenian literature was mainly repre- sented ])y the establishment of certain forms of mental and moral philosophy founded on the various Socratic schools. Two schools of philosophy were established at Athens at the time of the death of Aristotle : that of the Academy, in which he him- GREEK LITEKATURE. 113 self had studied, and that of the Lyceum, which he had founded, as the seat of his peripatetic system. But the older schools soon reappeared under new names : the Megarics, with an infusion of the doctrines of Democritus, revived in the skeptic philosophy of Pyrrhon (375-285 e.g.). Epicurus (342-370 e.g.) founded the school to which he gave his name, by a similar combination of Democritean philosophy with the doctrines of the Cyrenaics; the Cynics were developed into Stoics by Zeno (341-260 e.g.), who borrowed much from the Megaric school and from the old Aca- demy; audfinalk, the Middle and New Academy arose from a com- bination of doctrines, which were peculiar to many of these sects. Though these different schools, which flourished at Athens, had early representatives in Alexandria, their different doctrines, coming in contact with the ancient religious systems of the Persi- ans, Jews and Hindus, underwent essential modifications, and gave birth to a kind of eclecticism, which became later an important element in the development of Christian history. The rational- ism of the Platonic school and the supernaturalism of the Jew- ish scriptures were chiefly mingled together, and from this amal- gamation sprang the system of Neo-Platonism. When the early teachers of Christianity at Alexandria strove to show the harmony of the Gospel with the great principles of the Greco- Jewish philosophy, it underwent new modifications, and the Neo- Platonic school, which sprang up in Alexandria three centuries e.g., was completed in the 1st and 2d centuries of the Christian era. The common characteristic of the Neo-Platonists was a tendency to mvsticism. Some of them believed that tlicv were the sub- jects of divine inspiration and illumination ; aljle to look into the future and to work miracles. Philo-Judseus (fl. 20 e.g.), Numen- ius (fl. 150 A.D.), Ammonius Saccas (fl. 200 a.d.), Plotinus (fl. 260 A.D.), Porphp-y (fl. 200 a.d,), and several fathers of the Greek Church are among the principal disciples of this school. 5. Axti-Xeo-Platonic Tendencies. — While theXeo-Platonism of Alexandria introduced into Greek philosophy oriental ideas and tendencies, other positive and practical doctrines also prevailed, founded on common sense and conscience ; first among these were the tenets of the Stoics, who owed their system mainly and immediately to the teaching of Epictetus (fl. 60 a.d.), who op- posed the oriental enthusiasm of the Xeo-Platonists. He v,'as originally a slave, and became a prominent teacher of philosophy in Rome, in the reign of Domitian. He left nothing in writ- ing, and we are indebted for a knowledge of his doctrines to Arrian, who compiled his lectures or philosophical dissertations 114 GREEK LITER ATLTRE. in eight books, of wliicli only fonr are preserved, and the " Manual of Epictetus," a valuable compendium of the doc- trines of the Stoics. The Euiperor Marcus Aurelius not only lectured at Rome on the principles of Epictetus, but he left us his private meditations, composed in the midst of a camp, and exhibiting the serenity of a mind which had made itself indepen- dent of outward actions and warring passions within. Lucian (fl. 150 A.D.) may be compared to Yoltaire, whom he equalled in his powers both of rhetoric and ridicule, and surpassed in his more conscientious and courageous love of truth. Though the results of his efforts against heathenism v^ere merely negative, he prepared the way for Christianity by giving the death-blow to declining idolatry. Lucian, as a man of letters, is on many accounts interestino-, and in reference to his own ati'e and to the literature of Grreece he is entitled to an important posi- tion both with regard to the religious and philosophical results of his works, and to tlie introduction of a purer Greek style, which he taught and exemplified. Longinus (fl. 230 a.d.), both as an opponent of Neo-Platonism and as a sound and sensible critic, occupies a position similar to that of Lucian, in the de- clining period of Greek literary history. During a visit to the East, he became known to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who adopted the celebrated scholar as her instructor in the language and literature of Greece, her adviser and chief minister ; and when Palmyra fell before the Roman power he was put to death by the Roman emperor. To his treatise on '' The Sublime" he is chiefly indebted for his fame. When France, in the reign of Louis XIY., gave a tone to the literary judgments of Europe, this work was " translated by Boileau, and received by the wits of Paris as an established manual in all that related to the sublime and beautiful. 6. Greek Literature ix Rome. — After the subjugation* of Greece by the Romans, Greek authors wrote in their own lan- guage and published their works in Rome ; illustrious Romans chose the idiom of Plato as the best medium for the expression of their own thoughts; dramatic poets gained a reputation by imitat- ing the tragedies and comedies of Athens, and every versifier felt compelled by fashion to receive the metres of ancient Greece. This naturalization of Greek Kterature at Rome was due to the rudeness and poverty of the national literature of Italy, to the influence exerted by the Greek colonies, and to the political subju- gation of Greece. In Rome, Greek libraries were established by the emperor Augustus and his successors ; and the knowledge of the GREEK LITEKATURE. 115 Greek language was considered a necessary accomplishment. Cicero made his countrymen acquainted with the philosophical schools of Athens, and Rome became more and more the rival of Alexandria, both as a receptacle for the best Greek writings and as a seat of learning, where Greek authors found apprecia- tion and patronage. The Greek poets, who were fostered and encouraged at Rome, were chielly writers of epigrams, and their poems are preserved in the coUectiojis called Anthologies. The growing demand and forensic eloquence naturally led the Roman orators to find their examples in those of Athens, and to the study of rhetoric in the Grecian writers. Among the writers on rhetoric, whose works seem to have produced the greatest effect at the beginning of the Roman period, we mention Dionysius of Halicarnassus (fl. *I B.C.). As a critic, he occupies the first rank among the ancients. Besides his rhetorical treatises, he wrote a work on " Roman Archaeo- logy," the object of which was to show that the Romans were not, after all, barbarians, as was generally supposed, but a pure Greek race, vrhose institutions, rehgion and manners were traceable to an identity with those of the noblest Hellenes. What Dionysius endeavored to do for the gratification of his own countrymen, by giving them a Greek version of Roman history, an accomplished Jev/, who lived about a century later, attempted, from the opposite point of view, for his own fallen race, in a work which was a direct imitation of that just described. Flavius Josephus (fl. GO a.d.) wrote the " Jewish ArchiBology " in order to show the Roman conquerors of Jeru- salem that the Jews did not deserve the contempt with which they were universally regarded. His '' History of the Jewish Wars " is an able and valuable vrork. At an earlier period, Polybius (204-122 b.c.) wrote to explain to the Greeks how the povrer of the Romans had estab- lished itself in Greece. His great work was a universal history, "but of the forty books of which it consisted only five have been preserved ; perhaps no historical work has ever been writ- ten with such definiteness of purpose or unity of plan, or with such self-consciousness on the part of the writer. The object to which he directs attention is the manner in which fortune or providence uses the ability and energy of man as instruments in carrying out what is predetermined, and specially the exempli- fication of these principles in the wonderful growth of the Roman power during the fifty-three years of which he treats. Taking his history as a whole, it is hardly possible to speak in too high terms of it, though the style has many blemishes, such as endless 116 GKEEK LITEKATURE. digressions, wearisome repetition of his own principles and collo- qnial vulgarisms. Diodorus, a native of Sicily, generally known as the Sicilian, (Siculus), flourished in the time of the lirst two Ca3sars. In his great work, the "Historical Library," it was his object to write a history of the world down to the commencement of Caesar's Gallic wars. He is content to give a bare recital of the facts, which crowded upon him and left him no time to be diffuse or ornamental. The geography of Strabo (II. 10 a.d.), which has made his name familiar to modern scholars, has come down to ns very nearly complete. Its merits arc literary rather than scientific. His object was to give an instructive and readable account of the known world, from the point of view taken by a Greek man of letters. His style is simple, unadorned and unaf- fected. Plutarch (40-120 a.d.) may be classed among the philo- sophers as well as among the historians. Though he has left many essays and works on different subjects, he is best known as a biographer. His lives of celel)rated Greeks and Romans have made his name familiar to the readers of every country. The miiversal popularity of his biographies is due to the fact that they are dramatic pictures, in which each personage is represented as acting according to his leading characteristics. Pausanias (fl. 184 a.d.), a professed dcscriber of countries and of their antiquities and works of art, in his " Gazetteer of Hellas " has left the best repertory of information for the topo- graphy, local history, religious observances, architecture and sculpture of the different states of Greece. Among the scientific men of this period we find Ptolemy, whose name for more than a thousand years was coextensive with the sciences of astronomy and geography. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished about the latter part of the second century. The best known of his works is his " Great Construc- tion of Astronomy." He was the first to indicate the true shape of Spain, Gaul and Ireland; as a writer, he deserves to be held in high estimation. Galen (fl. 130 a.d.) was a writer on philosophy and medicine, with whom few could vie in productiveness. It was his object to combine philosophy with medical science, and his works for fifteen centuries were received as oracular authori- ties throughout the civilized world. 7. ContinuedDecline of Greek Literature. — The adoption of the Christian religion by Constantine, and his establishment of the GREEK LITEEATURE. 117 seat of government in his new citj of Constantinople concurred in causing the rapid decline of Greek literature in the fourth and following centuries. Christianity, no longer the object of persecution, became the dominant reUgion of the State, and the profession of its tenets was tlie shortest road to influence and honor. The old literature, with its mythological allusions, became less and less fashionable, and the Greek poets, philoso- phers and orators of the better periods gradually lost their attrac- tions. Greek, the official language of Constantinople, was spoken there, with difierent degrees of corruption, by Syrians, Bulga- rians and Goths, and thus, as Christianity undermined the old classical hteratui'e, the political condition of the capital deterio- rated the language itself. Other causes accelerated the deca- dence of Greek learning : the great Ubrary at Alexandria, and the school which had been estabUshed in connection with it, were destroyed at the end of the fourth century by the edict of Theodosius, and the conquest of Egyjot by the Saracens in the seventh century only completed the work of destruction. Justinian closed the schools of Athens, and prohibited the teach- ing of philosophy ; the Arabs overthrew those established else- where, and there remained only the institutions of Constanti- nople. But long before the estabUshment of the Turks on the ruins of the Byzantine empire, Greek literatui'e had ceased to claim any original or independent existence. The opposition between the literary spirit of heathen Greece and the Christian scholarship of the time of Constantine and his immediate suc- cessors, which grew up very gradually, was the result of the oriental superstitions, which distorted Christianity and disturbed the old philosophy. The abortive attempt of the emperor Julian to create a reaction in favor of heathenism was the cause of the open antagonism between the classical and Christian forms of literature. The church, ho^vever, was soon enabled not only to dictate its own rules of Hterary criticism, but to destroy the writings of its most formidable antagonists. The last rays of heathen cultivation in Italy were extinguished in the gloomy dungeon of Boethius, and the period so justly designated as the Dark Ages commenced both in eastern and western Europe. 8. Last Echoes of the Old LiTERATtRE. — From the time when Christianity placed itself in opposition to the old culture of heathen Greece and Rome down to the period of the revival of classical literature in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the classical spirit was nearly extinct both in eastern and west- 118 GEEEK LITERATUrvE. em Europe. lu Italy, the triumpli of barbarism was more sudden and complete. In the eastern empire there was a cer- tain literary activity, and in the department of history, By- zantine hterature was conspicuously prohfic. The imperial family of the Commeni, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the Palieologi, who reigned from the thirteenth century to the end of the eastern empire, endeavored to revive the taste for literature and learning. But the echoes of the past became fainter and fainter, and when Constantino- ple fell into the hands of the Turks, 1453 a.d., the wandering Greeks who found their way into Italy could only serve as lan- guage-masters to a race of scholars, who thus recovered the learning that had ceased to exist among the Greeks them- selves. The last manifestations of the old classical learning by the Alexandrian school, which had done so much in the second and first centuries before our era, n:iay be divided into three classes. In the first are placed the mathematical and geographical studies, which had been brought to such perfection by Euclid, his successors, and after him by Ptolemy. In the second class we have the substitution of prose romances for the bucolic and erotic poetry of the Alexandrian and Sicilian writers. In the third class the revival, by Nonnus and his followers, of a learned epos, of much the same kind as the poems of Callimachus. Among the representatives of the mathematical school of Alex- andria was Theon, whose celebrity is obscured by that of his daughter Hypatia (11. 415 a.d.), whose sex, youth, beauty and cruel fate have made her a most interesting martyr of philosophy. She ])resided in the public school at Alexandria, where she taught mathematics, and the philosophy of Ammonius and Plotinus. Her influence over the educated classes of that city excited the jealousy of the arclii)ishop. She was given up to the violence of a superstitious and brutal mob, attacked as she was passing through the streets in her chariot, torn in pieces, and her mutilated body thrown to the flames. When rhetorical prose superseded composition in verse, the greater facility of style naturally led to more detailed narratives, and the sophist who would have been a poet in the time of Calli- machus, became a writer of prose romances in the final period of Greek Hterature. The first ascertained beginning of this style of light reading, which occupies so large a space in the catalogues of modern libraries, was in the time of the Emperor Trajan, when a Syrian or Babylonian I'reedman, named lamblichus, published a love story called the " Baljylonian Adventures." Among his GREEK LITERATURE. 119 snccGssors is Longus, of whose work " The Lesbian Adventure," it is suflicient to say, that it was the model of the "Diana" of Montemayor, the " Aminta" of Tasso, the "Pastor Fido" of Guarini, and the " Gentle Shepherd" of Allan Eamsay. While the sophists were amusing themselves by clothing erotic and bucolic subjects in rhetorical prose, an Egyptian boldly revived the epos which had been cultivated at Alexandria in the earliest days of the Museum. Nonnus probably flourished at the commencement of the fifth century a.d. His epic poem, which, in accordance with the terminology of the age, is called " Dionysian Adventures," is an enormous farrago of learning on the well-worked subject of Bacchus. The most interesting of the epic productions of the school of Nonnus is the story of ** Hero and Leander," in 340 verses, which bears the name of Musasus. For grace of diction, metrical elegance and simple pathos, this little canto stands far before the other poems of the same age. The Hero and Leander of Musoeus is the dying swan-note of Greek poetry, the last distinct note of the old music of Hellas. In the Byzantine literature, there are works which claim no originality, but have a higher value than their contemporaries, because they give extracts or fragments of the lost writings of the best days of Greece. Next in value follow the lexi- cographers, the grammarians and commentators. The most voluminous department, however, of Byzantine literature, was that of the historians, annalists, chroniclers, biographers and antiquarians, whose Avorks form a continuous series of Byzantine annals from the time of Constantine the Great to the taking of the capital by the Turks. This literature was also enlivened by several poets, and enriched by some writers on natural history and medicine. 9. The New Testament axd the Greek Fathers. — The history of Greek literature would be imperfect without some allusion to a class of writings not usually included in the range of classical studies. The first of these works, the Septiia- gint version of the Old Testament, before mentioned, and the Greek Apocrypha, may properly be termed Hebrew-Grecian. Their spirit is wholly at variance with that of pagan literature, and it cannot be doubted that they exerted great influence when made known to the pagans of Alexandria. Many of the books termed the Apocrypha were originally written in Greek, and mostly before the Christian era. Many of them contain authentic narratives, and are valuable as illustrating the circumstances of 120 GREEK LITERATURE. tlie ao'e to whicli thcv refer. The other class of writincrs alluded to comprehends the works of the Christian authors. As the in- fluence of Christianity became more diifused during the first and second centuries, its regenerating power became visible. After the time of Christ, there appeared, in both the Greek and Latin tongues, works wholly difierent in their spirit and character from all that is found in pagan literature. The collection of sacred writings contained in the jN'ew Testament and the works of the early fathers, constitute a distinct and interesting feature in the literature of the age in which they appeared. The writings of the New Testament, considered simply in their literary aspect, are distinguished by a simplicity, earnestness, naturalness and beauty, that find no parallel in the literature of the world. But the consideration must not be overlooked, that they were the work of those men who wrote as they were moved of the Holy Ghost, that they contain the life and the teachings of the great Founder of our faith, and that they come to us invested with divine authority. Their influence upon the ages which have succeeded them is incalculable, and it is still widen- ing as the knowledge of Christianity increases. The composition of the Nev.^ Testament is historical, epistolary and prophetic. The first five books, or the historical division, contain an account of the life and death of our Saviour, and some account of the first movements of the Apostles. The epistolary division consists of letters addressed by the Apostles to the different churches or to individuals. The last, the book of "Revelation," the only part that is considered prophetic, diflers from the others in its use of that symbolical language which had been common to the Hebrew prophets, in the sublimity and majesty of its imagery, and in its prediction of the final and universal triumph of Christianity. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers, or the immediate suc- cessors of the Apostles, were held in high estimation by the primitive Christians. Of those who wrote under this denomina- tion, the venerable Polycarp and Ignatius, after they had both attained the age of eighty years, sealed their faith in the blood of martyrdom. The former was burned at the stake in Smyrna, and the latter devoured by lions in the amphitheatre of Rome. In the second and third centuries, Christianity numbered among its advocates many distinguished scholars and philosophers, par- ticularly among the Greeks. Their productions may be classed under the heads of biblical, controversial, doctrinal, historical and homiletical. Among the most distin^-uished of the Greek fathers, were Justin Martyr (fl. 89 a.d.), an eminent Christian GREEK LITERxVTURE. ' 121 pliilosoplier and speculative thinker ; Clement of Alexandria (fl. 190 A.D.), who has left us a collection of works, which, for learning and literary talent, stand unrivalled among the writings of the early Christian fathers ; Origen (184-253 a.d.), who in his numerous works attempted to reconcile philosophy with Christianity; Eusebius (fl. 325 a.d.), whose ecclesiastical history is ranked among the most valuable remains of Christian antiquity ; Athanasius, famous for his controversy with Arius ; Gregory Kazianzen (329-390 a.d.), distinguished for his rare union of eloquence and piety, a great orator and theologian ; Basil (329-379 A.D.), whose works, mostly of a purely theological character, exhibit occasionally decided proofs of his strong feel- ing for the beauties of nature ; and John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.), the founder of the art of preaching, w^hose extant homilies breathe a spu'it of sincere earnestness and of true genius. To these may be added Nemesius (fl. 400 a.d.), whose work on the " Nature of Man " is distinguished by the purity of its style and by the traces of a careful study of classical authors, and Syne- sius (378-430 a.d.), who maintained the parallel importance of pagan and Christian literature, and who has always been held in high estimation for his epistles, hymns and di'amas eo:m:ae" literatuke. Introduction. —1. Roman Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Lar.guage ; Ethno- graphical elements of the Latin Language; the Umbrian ; Oscan ; Etruscan; the old Roman tongue ; Saturnian verse ; peculiarities of the Latin language. — 3. The Roman Religion. Period First. — 1. Early Literature of the Romans ; the Fescennine Songs ; the Fabulse Atellante. — 2. Early Latin Poets; LiViUS Andronicus, Naevius and Ennius. — 3. Roman Comedy. — 4. Comic Poets ; Plautus, Terence and Statius. — 5. Roman Tragedy.— G. Tragic Poets ; Pacuvius and Attius. — 7. Satire ; Lucihus. — 8. History and Oratory ; Fabius Pictor ; Cencius Alimentus ; Cato ; Varro ; M. Antonius ; Crassus ; Ilortensius. — 9. Roman Jurisprudence.— 10. Grammarians. Period Second. — 1. Development of the Roman Literature. — 2. Mimes, Mimogi-a- phers, Pantomime; Laberius and P. Lyrus. — 3 Epic Poetry; Virgil; The.Eneid.— 4. Di- dactic Poetry; the Bucolics; the Georgics ; Lucretius.- 5. Lyric Poetry; Catullus; Horace. — 6. Elegy ; Tibullus ; Propertius ; Ovid. — 7. Oratory and Philosophy ; Cicero. — S. History; J. Cajsar; Sallust ; Livy. — 9. Other Prose Writers. Period Thikd. — 1. Decline of Roman Literature. — 2. Fable ; Phjedrus. — 3. Satire and Epigram; Persius, Juvenal, Martial. — 4. Dramatic Literature; the Tragedies of Seneca. ^5. Epic Poetry; Lucan ; Slius Itallcus; Valerius Flaccus ; P. Statius. — 6. History; Paterculus ; Tacitus : Suetonius ; Q. Curtius ; Valerius Maximus. — 7. Rhetoric and Eloquence ; Quintilian ; Pliny the Younger.— 8. Pliilosophy and Science ; Seneca ; Pliny the Elder ; Celsus ; P. Mela ; Columella ; Frontinus.— 9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to Theodoric ; Claudian ; Eutropius; A. IMarcelllnus ; S. Sulpicius; Gellius ; Macrobius ; L. Apuleius; Boethius ; the Latin Fathers. — 10. Roman Jurisprudence. IXTRODUCTIOX. 1. RoMAX LiTER.vTURE AND ITS Divisioxs. — lufcrior to Grccce ill the genius of its inhabitants, and, perliaps, in tlie intrinsic greatness of the events of wliieh it was the theatre, un- questionably inferior in the fruits of intellectual activity, Italy holds the second place in the classic literature of antiquity. Etruria could boast of arts, legislation, scientific knowledge, a fanciful mythology, and a form of dramatic spectacle, l^efore the foundations of Rome were laid. But, like the ancient Egvptians, the Etrurians made no progress in composition. A-'erses of an irregular structure and rude in sense and harmony appear to liave formed the highest limit of their literary achievements. Nor did even the opulent and luxurious Greeks of Southern Italy, while they retained their independence, contribute much to the glory of letters in the West. It was only in their fall that they did good service to the cause, when they redeemed the dis- 122 EOilAX LITEKATURE. 123 grace of their political liiimiliatioii by the honor of communicat- ing the first impulse towards intellectual refinement to the bosoms of their conquerors. When, in the process of time, Sicily, Macedonia and Achaia had become Roman provinces, some acquaintance with the language of their new subjects proved to be a matter almost of necessity to the victorious people; but the first impression made at Rome by the pro- ductions of the Grecian Muse, and the first efi'orts to create a similar literature, must be traced to the conquest of Tarentum, (272 B.C.) From that memorable period, the versatile talents which distinguished the Greeks in every stage of national decline, began to exercise a powerful influence on the Roman mind, which was particularly felt in the departments of education and amusement. The instruction of the Roman youth was committed to the skill and learning of Greek slaves ; the spirit of the Greek drama was transferred into the Latin tongue, and, somewhat later, Roman genius and ambition devoted their united energies to the study of Greek rhetoric, w^hich long con- tinued to be the guide and model of those schools, in whose exercises the abilities of Cicero himself were trained. Prejudice and patriotism were powerless to resist this flood of foreign innovation ; and for more than a century after the Tarentine war, legislative influence strove in vain to counteract the pre- dominance of Greek philosophy and eloquence. But this imita- tive tendency was tempered by the pride of Roman citizenship. That sentiment breaks out, not merely in the works of great statesmen and warriors, but quite as strikingly in the productions of those in whom the literary character was all in all. It is as prominent in Yirgil and Horace as in Cicero and Caesar ; and if the language of Rome, in other respects so inferior to that of Greece, has any advantage over the sister tongue, it lies in that accent of dignity and command which seems inherent in its tones. The austerity of power is not shaded down by those graceful softenings so agreeable to the disposition of the most polished Grecian communities. In the Latin forms and syntax we are everywhere conscious of a certain energetic majesty and forcible compression. We hear, as it were, the voice of one who claims to be respected, and resolves to be obeyed. The Roman classical literature may be divided into three periods. The first embraces its rise and progress, oral and traditional compositions, the rude elements of the drama, the introduction of Greek literature, and the construction and per- fection of comedy. To this period the first five centuries of the republic may be considered as introductory, for Rome had, 124 r.OMAX LITERATURE. properly speaking, no literature until the conclusion of tlie first Punic war (241 e.g.), and the first period, commencing at that time, extends through 160 years — that is, to the first appear- ance of Cicero in public life, 74 e.g. The second period ends with the death of Augustus, 14 a.d. It comprehends the age of which Cicero is the representative as the most accomplished orator, philosopher and prose-writer of his time, as well as that of Augustus, which is commonly called the Golden Age of Latin poetry. The third and last period terminates with the death of Theodoric, 526 a.d. Notwithstanding the numerous excellences which distinguished the literature of this time, its decline had evidently commenced, and, as the age of Augustus has been distinguished by the epithet " golden," the succeeding period, to the death of Hadrian, 138 a.d., on account of its comparative inferiority, has been designated ''the Silver Age." From this time to the close of the reign of Theodoric, only a few distin- guished names arc to be found. 2. The Language. — The origin of the Latin language is necessarily connected with that of the Romans themselves. In the most distant ages to which tradition extends, Italy appears to have been inhabited by three stocks or tribes of the great Indo-European family. One of these is commonly known by the name of Oscans; another consisted of two branches, the Sabelians or Sabines, and the Umbrians; the third was called Sikeli, sometimes Vituli or Itali. The original settlements of the TJmbrians extended over the district bounded on one side by the Tiber, and on the other by the Po. All the country to the south was in possession of the Oscans, with the exception of Latium, which was inhabited by the Sikeli. But, in process of time, the Oscans, pressed upon by the Sabines, invaded the abodes of this peaceful and rural people, some of whom submitted, and amalgamated with their conquerors; the rest were driven across the narrow sea into Sicily, and gave their name to the island. These tribes were not left in undisturbed possession of their rich inheritance. More than 1000 e.g. there arrived in the northern part of Italy the Pelasgians (or dark Asiatics), an en- terprising race, famed for their warlike spirit and their skill in the arts of peace, who became the civilizers of Italy. They were far advanced in the arts of civilization and refinement, and in the sciem'e of politics and social life. They enriched their newly acquired country with commerce, and filled it with strongly KOMAX LITERATURE. 125 fortified and populous cities, and their dominion rapidly spread 'over the whole peninsula. Entering the territory of the Um- brians, they drove them into the mountainous districts, or com- pelled them to live among them as a subject people, while they possessed themselves of the rich and fertile plains. The head- quarters of the invaders was Etruria, and that portion of them who settled there were known as Etrurians. Marching southward, they vanquished the Oscans and occupied the plains of Latium. They did not, however, remain long at peace in the districts which they had conquered. The old inhabitants returned from the neighboring highlands to which they had been driven, and subjugated the northern part of Latium, and established a federal union between the towns of the north, of which Alba was the capital, while of the southern confederacy the chief city was Lavinium. At a later period, a Latin tribe, belonging to the Alban federation, established itself on the Mount Palatine, and founded Rome, while a Sabine community occupied the neighboring heights of the Quu'inal. Mutual jealousy of race kept them, for some time, separate from each other; but at length the two communities became one people, called the Romans. These were, at an early period, subjected to Etruscan rule, and when the Etruscan dynasty passed away, its influence still remained, and permanently affected the Roman language. The Etruscan tongue being a compound of Pelasgian and Um- brian, the language of Latium may be considered as the result of those two elements combined with the Oscan, and brought to- gether by the mingling of those different tribes. These elements, which entered in the formation of the Latin, may be classified under two heads: the one which has, the other which has not a re- semblance to the Greek. All Latin words which resemble the Greek are Pelasgian, and all which do not are Etruscan, Oscan or Umbrian. From the first of these classes must be excepted those words which are directly derived from the Greek, the origin of which dates partly from the time when Rome began to have intercourse with the Greek colonies of Magna Grsecia, partly after the Greeks exercised a direct influence on Roman literature. Of the ancient languages of Italy, which concurred in the formation of the Latin, little is known. The Eugubine Tables arc the only extant fragments of the Umbrian language. These were found in the neighborhood of Ugubio, in the year 1444 A.D. ; they date as early as 354 b.c, and contain prayers and rules for religious ceremonies. Some of these tables were engraved in Etruscan or Umbrian characters, others in Latin 126 ROMAN LITERATUEE. letters. The remains wliicli have come down to us of the Oscaii language, belong to a composite idiom made up'of tlie Sabine and Oscan, and consist chiefly of an inscription engraved on a brass plate, discovered in 1793 a.d. As the word Baiisce occurs in this inscription, it has been supposed to refer to the town of Bantia, which was situated not far from the spot where the tablet was found, and it is, therefore, called the Bantine Table. The similarity between some of the w^ords found in the Engubine Tables and in Etruscan inscriptions, shows that the Etruscan language was composed of the Pelasgian and Umbrian, and from the examples given by ethnographers, it is evident that the Etruscan element was most influential in the formation of the Latin language. The old Roman tongue, or lingua prisca, as it was composed of these materials, and as it existed })revious to coming in con- tact with the Greek, has almost entirely perished ; it did not grow into the new, like the Greek, by a process of intrinsic development, but it was remoulded by external and foreign influences. So different was the old Roman from the classical Latin, that some of those ancient fragments were with difiiculty intelligi- ble to the cleverest and best educated scholars of the Augustan age. An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in the sacred chant of the Fratres Arvnks. These were a college of priests, whose function was to offer prayers for plenteous har- vests, in solemn dances and processions at the opening of spring. Their song was chanted in the temple with closed doors, accom- panied by that peculiar dance which was termed the tripudium, from its containing three beats. The inscription which embodied this litanv was discovered in Rome in 17T8 a.d. The monument belongs to the reign of Heliogabalus, 218 a.d., but although the date is so recent, the permanence of religious formulas renders it probable that the inscription contains the exact words sung by this priesthood in the earliest times. The " Carmen Saliare," or the Salian hymn, the leges rcgice, the Tiburtine inscription, the inscription on the sarcophagus of L. Cornelius Scipio Barl)a- tus, the great-grandfather of the conqueror of Hannilial, the epitaph of Lucius Scipio his son, and above all, tlie Twelve Tables, are the other principal extant monuments of ancient Latin. The laws of the Twelve Tables were engraven on tablets of brass, and publicly set up in the comitium; they were first made public 449 e.g. Most of these literary monuments were written in Saturnian verse, the oldest measure used by the Latin poets. It was pro- bably derived from the Etruscans, and until Ennius introduced EOMAN LITEKATUEE. 127 the heroic hexameter, the strains of the Itahan bards flowed in this metre. The structm'e of the Satm-nian is very simple, and its rhythmical arrangement is found in the poetry of every age and country. Macaulay adduces, as an example of this measure, the following line from the well known nursery song : " The queen was m her parlor, { eating bread and honey." From this species of verse, which probably prevailed among the natives of Provence (the Roman Provincia), and into which, at a later period, rhyme was introduced as an embellishment, the Troubadours derived the metre of their ballad poetry, and thence introduced it into the rest of Europe. A wide gap separates this old Latin from the Latin of Ennius, whose style was formed by Greek taste ; another not so wide is inteii^osed between the age of Ennius and that of Plautus and Terence, and lastly, Cicero and the Augustan poets mark another age. But in all its periods of development, the Latin bears a most intimate relation with the Greek. This similarity is the result both of then* common origin from the primitive Pelasgian. and of the intercourse which the Romans at a later period held with the Greeks. Latin, however, had not the plastic property of the Greek, the faculty of transforming itself into every variety of form and shape conceived by the fancy and imagination ; it partook of the spirit of Roman nationality, of the conscious dignity of the Roman citizen, of the indomitable will that led that people to the conquest of the world. In its construction, instead of conforming to the thought, it bends the thought to its own genius. It is a fit language for expressing the thoughts of an active and practical, but not of an imaginative and speculative people. It was propagated, like the dominion of Rome, by conquest. It either took the place of the language of the conquered nation, or became ingrafted upon it, and gradually pervaded its composition ; hence its presence is discernible in all European languages. 3. The Religion. — The religion and mythology of Etruria left an indelible stamp on the rites and ceremonies of the Roman people. At first they worshipped heaven and earth personified in Saturn and Ops, by wiiom Juno, Festa and Ceres were generated, symbolizing marriage, family and fertility ; soon after, other Etruscan divinities were introduced, such as Jupiter, Minerva and Janus : and Svlvanus and Faunus, who delighted in the simple occupations of rural and pastoral life. Fronx the 128 ROMAN LITEExVTUKE. Etrurians the Romans borrowed, also, tlie institution of the Vestals, whose duty was to watch and keep alive the sacred fire of Vesta ; the Lares and the Penates, the domestic gods, which presided over the dwelling and famik; Terminus, the god of property and the rites connected with possession ; and th\3 orders of Augurs and Aruspices, whose ofiice was to consult the flight of birds or to inspect the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice, in order to ascertain future events. The familv of the Roman gods continued to increase by adopting the divinities of the conquered nations, and more particularly by the introduc- tion of those of Greece. The general division of the gods was twofold — the superior and inferior deities. The first class con- tained the Consentes and the Selccti; the second, the Iiidigetcs and SemoTies. The Consentes, so called because they were supposed to form the great council of heaven, consisted of twelve : Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Vulcan, Juno, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus and Vesta. The Selecli were nearly ecjual to them in rank, and consisted of eight : Saturn, Pluto, Bacchus, Janus, Sol, Genius, Rhea and Luna. The Indigetes were heroes who were ranked among the gods, and included particularly Hercules, Castor and Pollux, and Quirinus or Romulus. The Semones com- prehended those deities that presided over particular objects, as Pan, the god of shepherds ; Flora, the goddess of flowers, etc. Besides these, there were among the inferior gods a numerous class of deities, including the virtues and vices and other objects personified. The religion of the Romans was essentially political, and employed as a means of promoting the designs of the state. It was prosaic in its character, and in this respect differed essen- t ially from the artistic and poetical religion of the Greeks. The Greeks conceived religion as a free and joyous worship of nature, a centre of individuality, beauty and grace, as well as a source of poetry, art and independence. AVith the Romans, on the contrary, religion conveyed a mysterious and hidden idea, which gave to this sentiment a gloomy and unattractive character, without either moral or artistic influence. PERIOD FIRST. IKOM THE COXCLUSION OF THE FIRST FUXIC WAR TO THE AGE OF CICERO (241-74 B.C.) 1. Early Literature of the Romans.' — The Romans, like all other nations, had oral poetical compositions before they pos- sessed any written literature. Cicero speaks of the banquet being KOMAX LITEEATUEE. 129 enlivened by the songs of bards, in which the exploits of heroes were recited and celebrated. By these lays national pride and family vanity were gratified, and the anecdotes thus preserved, furnished sources of early legendary history. But these legends must not be compared to those of Greece, in which the religious sentiment gave a supernatural glory to the effusions of the bard, painted men as heroes and heroes as deities, and, while it was the natural growth of the Greek intellect, twined itself around the affections of the people. The Roman religion was a ceremonial for the priests, and not for the people, and in Roman tradition there are no traces of elevated genius or poetical inspiration. The Romans possessed the germs of those faculties which admit of cultivation and improvement, such as taste and genius, and the appreciation of the beautiful; but they did not possess those natural gifts of fancy and imagination which formed part of the Greek mind, and which made that nation in a state of infancy, almost of barbarism, a poetical people. With them literature was not of spontaneous growth; it was chiefly the result of the influence exerted by the Etruscans, who were their teachers in everything mental and spbitual. The tendency of the Roman mind was essentially utihtarian. Even Cicero, with all his varied accomplishments, will recognize but one end and object of all study, namely, those sciences which will render man useful to his country, and the law of literary development is modified according to this ruling principle. From the very beginning, the first cause of Roman literature will be found to have been a view to utility and not to the satisfaction of an impulsive feeling. In other nations, poetry has been the first spontaneous pro- duction. With the Romans, the first written hterary effort was history; but even their early history was a simple record of facts, not of ideas or sentiments, and valuable only for its truth and accuracy. Their original documents, mere records of memorable events anterior to the capture of Rome by the Gauls, perished in the conflas-ration of the citv. o V The earliest attempt at versification made by the rude ij^habit- ants of Latium was satire in a somewhat dramatic form. The Fescennim songs were metrical, for the accompaniments of music and dancing necessarily restricted them to measure, and, like the dramatic exhibitions of the Greeks, thevhad their oriorin amono-the rural population, not like them in any religious ceremonial, but in the pastimes of the village festival. At first they were inno- cent and gay, but liberty at length degenerated into license, and gave bu'th to malicious and h1)ellous attacks upon persons of 130 ROMAN LITEEATUKE. irreproachable character. This infancy of song illustrates the character of the Romans in its rudest and coarsest form. They loved strife, both bodily and mental, and they thus early displayed that taste which, in more polished ages, and in the hands of cul- tivated poets, was developed in the sharp, cutting wit, and the lively but piercing points of Roman satire. In the Fescennine songs the Etruscans probably furnished tlie spectacle, all that which addresses itself to the eye, while the habits of Italian rural life supplied the sarcastic humor and ready extemporaneous gibe, which are the essence of the true comic. The next advance in point of art must be attributed to the Oscans, whose entertainments were most popular among the Itahan nations. They represented in broad caricature national peculiarities. Their language was, originally, Oscan, as well as the characters represented. The principal one resembled the clown of modern pantomime ; another was a kind of pantaloon or charlatan, and much of the rest consisted of practical jokes, like that of the Italian Polincinella. After their introduction at Rome, they received many improvements; they lost their na- tive rusticity; their satire was good-natured; their jests were seemly, and kept in check by the laws of good taste. They were not acted by common professional performers, and even a Roman citizen might take part in them without disgrace. They were known by the name of *' Fabulae Atellana?," from A ttela, a town in Campania, where they were first performed. They re- mained in favor with the Roman people for centuries. Sylla amused his leisure hours in writing them, and Suetonius bears testimony to their having been a popular amusement under the empire. Towards the close of the 4th century, the Etruscan histr'wncs were introduced, whose entertainments consisted of graceful national dances, accompanied with the music of the flute, but without either sontirs or dramatic action. With these dances the Romans combined the old Fescennine songs, and the varied metres, which their verse permitted to the vocal parts, gave to this mixed ^tertainment the name of Satura (a hodge-podge or pot- pourri), from which, in after times, the word satire was derived. 2. Early Latin Poets. — At the conclusion of the first Punic war, when the influence of Greek intellect, which had already long been felt in Italy, had extended to the capital, the Romans were prepared for the reception of a more regular drama. But not only did they owe to Greece the principles of literary taste; their earliest poet was one of that nation. Livius Aiidronicus KOMAiSr LITERATURE. 131 (fl. 240 B.C.), thougli born in Italy, and educated at Rome, is sup- posed to have been a native of the Greek colony of Tarentum. He was at first a slave, probably a captive taken in war, but was finally emancipated by his master, in whose family he occu- pied the position of instructor to his children. He wrote a translation, or perhaps an imitation of the Odyssey, in the old Saturnian metre, and also a few hymns. His principal works, however, were tragedies; but, from the few fragments of his writings extant, it is impossible to form an estimate of his ability as a poet. According to Livy, Audrouicus was the first who substituted, for the rude extemporaneous effusions of the Fescen- nine verse, plays with a regular j^lot and fable. In consequence of losing his voice, from being frequently encored, he obtained permission to introduce a boy to sing the ode or air to the ac- companiment of the flute, while he himself represented the action of the song by his gestures and dancing. jS^eevius (fl. 235 e.g.) was the first poet who really deserves the name of Roman. He was not a servile imitator, but applied Greek taste and cultivation to the development of Roman senti- ments, and was a true Roman in heart, unsparing in his censure of immorality and his admiration for heroic self-devotion. His honest principles cemented the strong friendship between him and the upright and unbending Cato, a friendship which probably contributed to form the political and literary character of that stern old Roman. The comedies of Nsevius had undoubted pretensions to originahty ; he held up to public scorn the vices and follies of his day, and, being a warm supporter of the people against the encroachments of the nobility, and unable to resist indulgence in his satiric vein, he was exiled to Utica, where he died. He was the author of an epic poem on the Punic war. Ennius and Yh*gil unscrupulously copied and imitated him, and Horace writes that in his day the poems of Naevius were in the hands and hearts of everybody. The fragments of his wi'itings extant are not more numerous than those of Livius. XcBvius, the last of the older school of writers, by introducing new principles of taste to his countrymen, prepared the way for a new one; and Greek literature having now driven out its prede- cessor, a new school of poetry arose, of which Ennius (239-169 b.c.) was the founder. He earned a subsistence as a teacher of Greek, was the friend of Scipio, and, at his death, was buried in the family tomb of the Scipios, at the request of the great conqueror of Hannibal, whose fame he contributed to hand down to posterity Cicero always uses the appellation, our own Ennius, when he quotes his poetry. Horace calls him Father Ennius — ^a term im- 132 ROMAN LITERATURE. plying reverence and regard — as much as that he was the founder of Latin poetry. He was,hke his friends Cato the censor, and Scipio Africanus the elder, a man of action as well as philosophical thought, and not only a poet, but a brave soldier, with all the singleness of heart and simplicity of manners which marked the old times of Koman virtue. Ennius possessed great power over words, and wielded that power skillfully. He improved the language in its harmony and its grammatical forms, and in- creased its copiousness and power. What he did was improved upon, but was never undone, and upon the foundations he laid the taste of succeedhig ages erected an elegant and beautiful superstructure. His great epic poem — the " Annals " — gained him the attachment and admiration of his countrymen. In this he first introduced the hexameter to the notice of the Romans, and detailed the rise and progress of their national glory, from the earliest legendary period down to his own times. The fragments of this work which remain are amply sufficient to show that he possessed picturesque power, both in sketching his narratives and in portraying his characters, which seem to live and breathe ; his language, dignified, chaste and severe, rises as high as the most majestic eloquence, but it does not soar to the sublimity of poetry. As a dramatic poet, Ennius docs not deserve a higli reputation. In comedy, as in tragedy, he never emancipated himself from the Greek originals. 3. Roman Comedy. — The rude comedy of the early Romans made little progress beyond personal satire, burlesque extrava- gance and licentious jesting, but upon this was ingrafted the new Greek comedy, and hence arose that phase of the drama, of which the representatives were Plautus, Statius and Terence. The Roman comedy was calculated to produce a moral result, although the morality it inculcated was extremely low. Its standard was worldly prudence, its lessons utilitarian, and its philosophy Epicurean. There is a want of variety in the plots, but this defect is owing to the social and political condition of ancient Greece, which was represented in the Greek comedies and copied by the Romans. There is also a sameness in the dramatis persona;, the principal characters being always a morose or a gentle father, who is sometimes also tlie henpecked husband of a rich wife, an affectionate or domineering wife, a good- natured profligate, a roguish servant, a calculating slave-dealer, and some others. The actors wore appropriate masks, the features of which were not only grotesque, but much exaggerated and magnified. EOilAX LITER ATUEE. 133 This was rendered necessary by the hnmense size of the theatre and stage, and the mouth of the mask answered the purpose of a speaking trumpet, to assist in conveying the voice to every part of the vast building. The characters were known by a con- ventional costume; old men wore robes of white, young men were attired in gay clothes, rich men in purple, soldiers in scarlet, poor men and slaves in dark and scanty dresses. The comedy had always a musical accompaniment of flutes of dif- ferent kinds. In order to understand the principles which regulated the Roman comic metres, it is necessary to observe the manner in which the language itself was affected by the common conver- sational pronunciation. Latin, as it was pronounced, was very different from Latin as it is written ; this difference consisted in abbreviation, either by the omission of sounds altogether, or by tlie contraction of two sounds into one, and in this respect the conversational langruao-e of the Romans resembled that of modern nations ; with them, as with us, the mark of good taste was ease and the absence of pedantry and affectation. In the comic writers we have a complete representation of Latin as it was commonly pronounced and spoken, and but little trammelled or confined by a rigid adhesion to Greek metrical laws. 4. Comic Poets. — Plautus (22T-18-1: b.c.) was a contem- porary of Ennius ; he was a native of Umbria, and of humble ori!2:in. Education did not overcome his vuliraritv, althou2:h it produced a great effect upon his language and style. He mast have lived and associated with the people whose manners he describes, hence his pictures are correct and truthful. The class, from which his representations are taken, consisted of clients, the sons of freedmen and the half-enfranchised natives of Italian towns. He had no aristocratic friends, like Ennius and Terence ; the Roman public were his patrons, and notwithstand- ing their faults, his comedies retained their popularity even in the Augustan age, and were acted as late as the reign of Diocletian. Life, bustle, surprise, unexpected situations, sharp, sparkling raillery that knew no restraint nor bound, left his audience no time for dullness or weariness. Although Greek was the fountain from which he drew his stores, his wit, thought and lanoruasre were entirelv Roman, and his stvle was Latin of the purest and most elegant kind — not, indeed, controlled by much deference to the laws of metrical harmony, but full of pith and sprightliness, bearing the stamp of colloquial vivacity, and suitable to the general briskness of his scenes. Yet we miss all 134 KOMAN LITEKATUKE. symptoms of deference, in the tone of his dialogue, to the taste of the more polished classes of society. Almost all his comedies were adopted from the new comedy of the Greeks, and though he had studied both the old and the middle comedy, Menauder and others of the same school furnished him the originals of his plots. The popularity of Plautus was not confined to Rome, either republican or impsrial. Dramatic writers of modern times, as Shaks])eare, Dryden and Moliere, have recognized the effect- iveness of his plots, and have adopted or imitated them. About twenty of his plays are extant, among which the Captivi, the Epidicus, the Cistellaria, the Aulularia and the Rudens are considered the best. Terence (193-158 b.c.) was a slave in the family of a Roman senator, and was probably a native of Carthage. His genius presented the rare combination of all the fine and delicate qualities which characterized Attic sentiment, without corrupt- ing the native purity of the Latin language. The elegance and gracefulness of his style show that the conversation of the accomplished society, in which he was a welcome guest, was not lost upon his correct ear and quick intuition. So far as it can be so, comedy was, in the hands of Terence, an instrument of moral teaching. Six of his comedies only remain, of which the Andrian and the Adelphi are the most interesting. If Terence was inferior to Plautus in life, bustle and intrigue, and in the delineation of national character, he is superior in elegance of language and refinement of taste. The justness of his reflections more than compensates for the absence of his predecessor's humor ; he touches the heart as well as gratifies the intellect. Of the few other writers of comedy among the Romans, Statins may be mentioned, who flourished between Plautus and Terence. He was an emancipated slave, born in Milan. Cicero and Yarro have pronounced judgment upon his merits, the substance of which appears to be, that his excellences consisted in the conduct of the plot, in dignity and in pathos, while his fault was too little care in preserving the purity of the Latin style. The frag- ments, however, of his works, which remain, are not sufficient to test the opinion of the ancient critics. 5. RoMAX Tragedy.^ — While Roman comedy was brought to perfection under the influence of Greek literature, Roman tragedy, on the other hand, was transplanted from Athens, and, with few exceptions, was never anything more than translation or imitation. In the century diu'ing which, together with comedy, it flourished and decayed, it boasted of five distin- ROMAN LITERATURE. 135 guished TrtTiter.^, Livius, jSTievius, Ennms (already spoken of), Pacuviiis and Attius. In after ages, Rome did not produce one tragic poet, unless Yarius be considered an exception. The tragedies attributed to Seneca were never acted, and were only composed for readiug and recitation. Among the causes which prevented tragedy from flourishing at Rome, was the little influence the national legends exerted over the people. These legends were more often private than public property, and ministered more to the glory of private families than to that of the nation at large. Thev were embalmed by their poets as curious records of antiquity, but they did not, like the venerable traditions of Greece, twine them- selves around the heart of the nation. Another reason why Roman legends had not the power to move the affections of the Roman populace, is to Ije found in the changes the masses had undergone. The Roman people were no longer the descendants of those who had maintained the national glory in the early period ; the patrician families were almost extinct ; war and poverty had extinguished the middle classes and miserably thinned the lower orders. Into the vacancy thus caused, poured thousands of slaves, captives in the bloody wars of Gaul, Spain, Greece and Africa. These and their descendants replaced the ancient people, and while many of them by their talents and energy arrived at Avealth and station, they could not possibly be Romans at heart, or consider the past glories of their adopted country as their own. It was to the rise of this new element of population, and the displacement or absorption of the old race, that the decline of patriotism was owing, and the disregard of everything except daily sustenance and daily amusement, which paved the way for the empire and marked the downfall of liberty. With the people of Athens, tragedy formed a part of the national religion. By it the people were taught to sympathize with their heroic ancestors; the poet was held to be inspired, and poetry the tongue in which the natural held communion with the supernatural. With the Romans, the theatre was merely a place for secular amusement, and poetry only an exercise of the fancy. Again, the religion of the Romans was not ideal, like that of the Greeks. The old national faith of Italy, not being rooted in the heart, soon became obsolete, and readily admitted the ingraft- ing of foreign superstitions, which had no hold on the belief or love of the people. ISTor was the genius of the Roman people such as to sympathize with the legends of the past ; they lived only in the present and the future ; they did not look back on their national heroes as demigods; they were pressing forward to 136 ROM AX LITER ATUllE. extend the frontiers of their empire, to bring under their yoke nations which their forefathers had not known. If they re- garded their ancestors at all, it was not in the light of men of heroic stature as compared with themselves, but as those whom they could equal or even surpass. The scenes of real life, the bloody combats of the gladiators, the captives and malefactors stretched on crosses, expiring in excruciating agonies or mangled by wild beasts, were the tragedies which most deeply interested a Roman audience. The Romans were a rough people, full of physical rather than of intellectual energy, courting peril and setting no value on human life or suffering. Their very virtues were stern and severe ; they were strangers to both the passions which it was the object of tragedy to excite — pity and terror. In the public games of Greece, the refinements of poetry mingled with those exercises which were calculated to invigorate the physical powers, and de\ elop manly beauty. Those of Rome were sanguinary and brutalizing, the amusements of a nation to whom war was a pleasure and a pastime. It cannot be asserted, however, that tragedy was never to a certain extent an acceptable entertainment at Rome, but only that it never flourished there as it did at Athens, and that no Roman tragedies can be compared with those of Greece. 6. Tragic Poets. — Three separate eras produced tragic poets. In the first flourished Livius Andronicus, Nasvius and Ennius ; in the second, Pacuvius and Attius ; in the third, Asinius Pollio wrote tragedies, the plots of which seem to have been taken from Roman history. Ovid attempted a " Medea," and even the emperor Augustus, with other men of genius, tried their hand, though unsuccessfully, at tragedy. In the second of the eras mentioned, Roman tragedy reached its highest degree of perfection simultaneously with that of comedy. While Terence was successfully reproducing the wit and manners of the new Attic comedy, Pacuvius (220-130 b.c.) was enriching the Roman drama with free translations of the Greek tragedians. He was a native of Brundusium and a grandson of the poet Ennius. At Rome he distinguished him- self as a painter as well as a dramatic poet. Ilis tragedies were not mere translations, but adaptations of Greek tragedies to the Roman stage. The fragments which are extant are fall of new and original thoughts, and the very roughness of his style and auda- city of his expressions have somewhat of the solemn grandeur and picturesque boldness, which distinguish the father of Attic tragedy. ROMAN LITERATL'RE. 137 Attius (fl. 138 B.C.), though born later than Pacuvius, was almost his contemporary, and a competitor for popular applause. He is said to have written more than fifty tragedies, of which fragments only remain. His taste is chastened, his sentiments noble, and his versification elegant. With him, Latin tragedy disappeared. The tragedies of the third period were written expressly for reading and recitation, and not for the stage — they were dramatic poems, not dramas. Amidst the scenes of horror and violence which followed, the voice of the tragic muse was hushed. Massacre and rapine raged through the streets of Rome, itself a theatre, where the most terrible scenes were daily enacted. t. Satire. — The invention of satire is universally attributed to the Romans, and this is true as far as the external form is concerned, but the spirit is found in many parts of the literature of Greece. Ennius was the inventor of the name, but Lucilius (148-102 b.c.) was the father of satire, in the proper sense. His satires mark an era in Roman literature, and prove that a love for this species of poetry had already made great progress. Hitherto, literature, science and art had been con- sidered the province of slaves and freedmen. The stern old Ro- man virtue despised such sedentary employment as intellectual cultivation, and thought it unworthy of the. warrior and states- man. Some of the higher classes loved literature and patronized it, but did not make it their pursuit. Lucilius was a Roman knight, as well as a poet. His satires were comprised in thirty books, numerous fragments of which are still extant. He was a man of high moral principle, though stern and stoical; a relent- less enemy of vice and profligacy, and a gallant and fearless defender of truth and honesty. After the death of Lucilius satire languished, until half a century later, when it assumed a new garb in the descriptive scenes of Horace, and put forth its original vigor in the burning thoughts of Persius and Juvenal. 8. History and Oratory. — Prose was far more in accordance with the genius of the Romans, than poetry. As a nation, they had little or no imaginative power, no enthusiastic love of natural beauty, and no acute perception of the sympathy between man and the external world. The favorite civil pursuit of an en- lightened Roman was statesmanship, and the subjects akin to it, history, jurisprudence and oratory, the natural language of which was prose, not poetry. And their practical statesmanship gave an early encouragement to oratory, which is peculiarly the litera- 138 EOMAN LITERATURE. < ture of active life. As matter was more valued than manner by this utilitarian people, it was long before it was thought 'necessary to embelUsh prose composition with the graces of rhetoric. The fact that lloman literature was imitative rather than inventive, gave a historical bias to the Roman intellect, and a tendency to study subjects in a historical point of view. But even in history, they never attained that comprehensive and philosophical spirit, which distinguished the Greek historians. The most ancient writer of Roman history was Fabius Pictor (fl. 219 B.C.) His principal work, written in Greek, was a history of the first and second Punic war, to which subsequent writers were much indebted. Contemporary with Fabius was Cincius Alimentus, also an annalist of the Punic Avar, in which he was personally engaged. He was a prisoner of Hannibal, who de- lighted in the society of literary men, and treated him with great kindness and consideration, and himself communicated to him the details of his passage across the Alps. Like Fabius, he wrote his work in Greek, and prefixed to it a brief abstract of Roman history. Though the works of these annalists are valu- able as furnishing materials for more philosophical minds, they are only such as could have existed in the infancy of a national literature. They were a bare compilation of facts — the mere framework of history — diversified by no critical remarks or political reflections, ,and meagre and insipid in style. The versatility of talent displayed by Cato the censor (22-4-144 B.C.) entitles him to a place among orators, jurists, economists and historians. His life extends over a wide and important period of literary history, when everything was in a state of change in morals, social habits and literary taste. Cato was born in Tusculum, and passed his boyhood in the pursuits of rural life at a small Sabine farm belonging to his father. The skill with which he pleaded the causes of his clients before the rural magistracy, made his abilities known, and he rose rapidly to eminence as a pleader. He filled many high oflices of state; his energies were not weakened by advancing age, and he was always ready as the advocate of virtue, the champion of the oppressed, and the punisher of vice. With many defects, Cato was morally and intellectually one of the greatest men Rome ever produced. He had the ability and the determination to excel in everything which he undertook. His style is rude, unpolished, ungraceful, because to him polish was superficial, and, therefore, unreal. His statements, however, were clear, his illustrations striking; the words with which he enriched his native tongue were full of meaning; his wit was keen and lively, and his argu- ROMAN LITEKATUKE. 139 ments went straight to the intellect, and carried conviction with them. Cato's great historical and antiquarian work, ** The Origins," was a history of Italy and Rome from the earliest times to the latest events which occurred in his own lifetime. It was a work of great research and originality, but only brief fragments of it remain. In the " De Ke Rustica," which has come down to us in form and substance as it was written, Cato maintains, in the introduction, the superiority of agriculture over other modes of gaining a livelihood. The work itself is a common- place book of agriculture and domestic economy; its object is utility, not science : it serves the purpose of a farmer's and gar- dener's manual, a domestic medicine, herbal and cookery book. Cato teaches his readers, for example, how to plant osier beds, to cultivate vegetables, to preserve the health of cattle, to pickle pork, and to make savory dishes. Of the " Orations " of Cato, ninety titles are extant, together with numerous fragments. In style he despised art. He was too fearless and upright, too confident in the justness of his cause to be a rhetorician ; he imitated no one, and no one was ever able to imitate him. ^Niebuhr pronounces him to be the only great man in his generation, and one of the greatest and most honorable characters in Roman history. Yarro (116-28 e.g.) was an agriculturist, a grammarian, a critic, a theologian, a historian, a philosopher, a satirist. Of his miscellaneous works con^siderable portions are extant, sufficient to display his erudition and acuteness, yet, in themselves, more curious than attractive. Eloquence, though of a rude, unpolished kind, must have been, in the very earliest times, a characteristic of the Roman people. It is a plant indigenous to a free soil. As in modern times it has flourished especially in England and America, fostered by the unfettered freedom of debate, so it found a congenial home in free Greece and republican Rome. Oratory was, in Rome, the unwritten literature of active life, and recommended itself to a warlike and utilitarian people by its utility and its antagonistic spirit. Long before the art of the historian was sufficiently advanced to record a speech, the forum, the senate, the battle- field, and the threshold of the jurisconsult had been nurseries of Romau eloquence, or schools in which oratory attained a vigorous youth, and prepared for its subsequent maturity. While the legal and political constitution of the Roman people gave direct encouragement to deliberative and judicial oratory, respect for the illustrious dead furnished opportunities 140 EOMAX LITERATURE. for panegyric. The song of the bard in honor of the departed warrior gave place to the funeral oration. Among the orators of this time were the two Scipios, and Galba, whom Cicero praises as having been the first Roman who understood how to apply the theoretical principles of Greek rhetoric. All periods of pohiical disquiet are necessarily favorable to eloquence, and the era of the Gracchi was especially so. After a struggle of nearly four centuries, the old distinction of plebeian and patrician no longer existed. Plebeians held high offices, and patricians, hke the Gracchi, stood forward as champions of popu- lar rights. These stirring times produced many celebrated orators. The Gracchi themselves were both eloquent and pos- sessed of those qualities and endowments which would recommend their eloquence to their countrymen. Oratory began now to be studied more as an art, and the interval between the Gracchi and Cicero boasted of many distinguished names ; the most illustrious among them are M. Antonius, Crassus, and Cicero's contemporary and most formidable rival, Hortensius. M. Antonius (fl. 119 e.g.) entered public life as a pleader, and thus laid the foundation of his brilhant career ; but he was through life greater as a judicial than as a deliberative orator. He was indefatigable in preparing his case, and made every point tell. He was a great master of the pathetic, and knew the way to the heart. Although he did not himself give his speeches to posterity, some of his most pointed expressions and favorite passages left an indelible impression on the memories of his hearers, and many of them were preserved by Cicero. In the prime of life he fell a victim to political fury, and his bleeding head was placed upon the rostrum, which was so fre- (piently the scene of his eloquent triumphs. L. Licinius Crassus was four years younger than Antonius, and acquired great reputation for his knowledge of jurisprudence, for his eminence as a pleader, and, above all, for his powerful and triumphant orations in support of the restoration of the judicial office to the senators. From among the crowd of orators, which were thea flourishing in the last days of expiriug Roman liberty, Cicero selected Crassus to be the representative of his sentiments in his imaginary conversation in " The Orator." Like Lord Chatham, Crassus almost died on the floor of the Senate house, and his last effort was in support of the aristo- cratic party. Q. Hortensius was born 114 b.c. He was only eight years senior to the greatest of all Roman orators. He early com- menced his career as a pleader, and he was the acknowledged EOilAX LITERATURE. 141 leader of the Roman bar, until the star of Cicero arose. His political connection with the faction of Sjlla, and his unscrupulous support of the profligate corruption which characterized that administration, both at home and abroad, enlisted his legal talents in defence of the infamous Yerres; but the eloquence of Cicero, together with the justice of the cause which he espoused, ])revailed ; and from that time forward, his superiority over Hortensius was estabhshed and complete. Tlie style of Hortensius was Asiatic — more florid and ornate than polished and refined. 9. KoiiAN Jurisprudence. — The framework of their juris- prudence the Romans derived from Athens, but the complete structure was built up by their own hands. They were the authors of a system possessing such stability that they bequeathed it, as an inheritance, to modern Europe, and traces of Roman law are visible in the lesral systems of the whole civilized world. The complicated principles of jurisprudence of the Roman constitution became, in Rome, a necessary part of a liberal education. AYhen a Roman youth had completed his studies, under his teacher of rhetoric, he not only frequented the forum, in order to learn the application of the rhetorical principles he had acquired, and frequently took some celebrated orator as a model, but also studied the principles of jurisprudence under eminent jurists, and attended the consultations in which they gave to their clients their expositions of law. The earliest systematic works on Roman law were the " Manual " of Pomponius, and the " Institutes " of Gains, who flourished in the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. Both of ^ these works were, for a long time, lost, though fragments were preserved in the pandects of Justinian. In 1816, however, Niebuhr discovered a palimpsest MS., in which the epistles of St. Jerome were written over the erased " Institutes " of Gaius. From the numerous misunderstandings of the Roman historians respecting the laws and constitutional history of their country, the subject continued long in a state of confusion, until Yico, in his " Scienza nuova," dispelled the clouds of error, and reduced it to a system ; and he was followed so successfully by Xiebuhr, that modern students can have a more comprehensive and antiquarian knowledge of the subject, than the writers of the Augustan age. The earliest Roman laws were the "Leges Regiai," which were collected and codified by Sextus Papuius, and were hence called the Papirian code; but these were rude and unconnected, 142 EOilAN LITER ATtrPwE. — simply a collection of isolated enactments. The laws of the " Twelve Tables " stand next in point of antiquity. They exhibited the first attempt at regular system, and embodied not only legislative enactments, but legal principles. So popular were they that when Cicero was a child every Roman boy com- mitted them to memory, as our children do their catechism, and the c-reat orator laments that in the course of his lifetime this practice had become obsolete. The oral traditional expositions of these laws formed tlie groundwork of the Roman civil law. To these were added, from time to time, the decrees of the people, the acts of tlie senate, and pretorian edicts, and from these various elements the whole body of Roman law was composed. So early was the sul)ject diligently studied, that the age preceding the first two cen- turies of our era was rich in jurists, whose powers are celebrated in historv. The most eminent jurists, who adorned this period, were tlie Scoevoke, a family in whom the profession seems to have been hereditary. After them flourished ^Elius Gallus (123-6T e.g.), eminent as a law reformer, C. Juventius, Sextus Papirius and L. Lucilius Balbus, three distinguished jurists, who were a few years senior to Cicero. 10. GRAMMAmANS.' — Towards the conclusion of this literary period a great increase took place in the numbers of those learned men whom the Romans at first termed literati, but afterwards, following the custom of the Greeks, grammarians. To them literature was under great obligations. Although few of them were authors, and all of them possessed acquired learning rather than original genius, they exercised a powerful influence over the public mind as professors, lecturers, critics and schoolmasters. By them the youths of the best families not only were imbued with a taste for Greek philosophy and poetry, but were also taught to appreciate the literature of their own country. Livius Androiiicus and Ennius may be placed at the head of this class, followed by Crates Mallotes, C. Octavius Lampadio, La^lius, Archelaus, and others, most of whom were emancipated slaves, either from Greece, or from other foreign countries. EOMAX LITERATURE. 143 PERIOD SECOXD. FROM THE AGE OF CICERO TO THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS (t-i B.C. 14 A.D.) 1. Development OF the Roman Literature. — Latin literature, at first rude, and, for live centuries, unable to reach any high excellence, was, as we have seen, gradually developed by the example and tendency of the Greek mind, which moulded Roman civilization anew. The earliest Latin poets, historians and e-rammarians were Greeks. The metre which was broua,-ht to such perfection by the Latin poets was formed from the Greeks, and the Latin language more and more assimilated to the Hellenic tongue. As civilization advanced, the rude literature of Rome was compared with the great monuments of Greek genius, their superiority was acknowledged, and the study of them encouraged. The Roman youth not only attended the schools of the Greeks, in Rome, but their education was considered incomplete, unless they repaired to those of Athens, Rhodes and Mytilene. Thus, whatever of national character existed in the literature, was gradually obliterated, and what it gained in harmony and finish it lost in originality. The Roman writers imitated more particu- larly the writers of the Alexandrian school, who, being more artificial, were more congenial than the great writers of the age of Pericles. Roman genius, serious, majestic, and perhaps more original than at a later period, was manifest even at the time of the Punic wars, but it had not yet taken form ; and while thought was vigorous and powerful, expression remained weak and uncertain. But, under the Greek influence, and aided by the vigor imparted by free institutions, the union of thought and form was at length consummated, and the literature reached its culminating point in the great Roman orator. The fruits whicli had grown and matured in the centuries preceding, were gathered by Augustus ; but the influences that contributed to the splendor of his age belong rather to the republic than the empire, and with the fall of the liberties of Rome, Roman literature de- clined. 2. Mimes, Mimographers and Pantomime. — Amidst all the splendor of the Latin literature of this period, dramatic poetry never recovered from the trance into which it had fallen, though 144 EOMAX LITEKATUEE, the stage had not altogether lost its popularity, ^sopus and Koscius, the former the great tragic actor, and the latter the favorite comedian, in the time of Cicero, enjoyed his friendship, and that of other great men, and both amassed large fortunes. But although the standard Roman plays were constantly repre- sented, dramatic literature had become extinct. The entertain- ments, which had now taken the place of comedy and tragedy, were termed mmes. These were laughable imitations of manners and persons, combining the features of comedy and farce, for comedy represents the characters of a class, farce those of in- dividuals. Their essence was that of the modern pantomime, and their coarseness, and even indecency, gratified the love of broad humor which characterized the Roman people. After a time, when they became established as popular favorites, the dialogue occupied a more prominent position, and was written in verse, like that of tragedy and comedy. During the dictator ship of Ca3sar, a Roman knight named Laberius (107-45 b.c. became famous for his mimes. The profession of an actoi of mimes was infamous, but Laberius was a writer, not an actor. On one occasion, Caesar offered him a large sum of money to enter the lists on a trial of his improvisatorial skill. Laberius did not submit to the degradation for the sake of the money, but he was afraid to refuse. The only method of retaliation in his power was sarcasm. His part was that of a slave; and when his master scourged him, he exclaimed: " Porro, Quirites, libertatem perdimus!" His words were received with a round of applause, and all eyes were fixed on Caesar. The dictator restored him to the rank of which his act had deprived liim, but he could never recover the respect of his countrymen. As he passed the orchestra, on his way to the stalls of the knights, Cicero cried out: *' If we were not so crowded, I would make room for you here." Laberius replied, alluding to Cicero's lukewarmness as a political partisan: " I am astonished that you should be crowded, as you generally sit on two stools." Another writer and actor of mimes was Publius Syrus, originally a Syrian slave. Tradition has recorded a hon mot of his which is as witty as it is severe. Seeing an ill-tempered man named Mucius in low spirits, he exclaimed: "Either some ill fortune has happened to Mucius, or some good fortune to one of his friends!" The Roman pantomime diifered somewhat from the mime. It was a ballet of action, performed by a single dancer, who not only exhibited the human figure in its most graceful attitudes, but represented every passion and emotion with such truth that KOMAN LITERATURE. 145 the spectators could, without difficulty, understand the story. The pantomime was licentious in its character, and the actors were forbidden by Tiberius to hold any intercourse with Romans of equestrian or senatorial dignity. These were the exhibitions which threw sucli discredit on the stage, which called forth the well-deserved attacks of the early Christian fathers, and caused them to declare that whoever at- tended them was unworthy of the name of Christian. Had the drama not been so abused, had it retained its original purity, and carried out the object attributed to it by Aristotle, they would have seen it, not a nursery of vice, but a school of virtue ; not only an innocent amusement, but a powerful engine to form the taste, to improve the morals, and to purify the feelings of a people. 3. Epic Poetry. — The epic poets of this period selected their subjects cither from the heroic age and the mythology of Greece, or from their own national history. The Augustan age abounds in representatives of these two poetical schools, though possess- ing little merit. But the Romans, essentially practical and positive in their character, felt little interest in the descriptions of manners and events remote from their associations, and poetry, restrained within the limits of their history, could not rise to that height of imagination demanded by the epic muse. Yirgil united the two forms by selecting his subject from the national history, and adorning the ancient traditions of Rome with the splendor of Greek imagination. Yirgil (70-19 e.g.) was born at Andes, near Mantua; he was educated at Cremona and at Naples, where he studied Greek literature and philosophy. After this he came to Rome, where, through Maecenas, he became known to Octavius, and basked in the sunshine of court favor. His favorite residence was Naples. On his return from Athens, in company with Autz-ustus, he was seized with an illness of which he died. He was buried about a mile from Naples, on the road to Pozzuoli ; and a tomb is still pointed out to the traveller which is said to be that of the poet. Yirgil was deservedly popular both as a poet and as a man. The emperor esteemed him and people respected him ; he was constitutionally pensive and melancholy, temperate and pure-minded in a profligate age, and his popularity never spoiled his simplicity and modesty. In his last moments he was anxious to burn the whole manuscript of the JEneid, and directed his executors either to improve it or commit it to the flames. 1 146 KOMxiN LITER ATUKE. The idea and plan of the J^neid are derived from Homer. As the wrath of Achilles is the mainspring of the Iliad, so the unity of the ^Eneid results from the anger of Juno. The arrival of yEneas in Italy after the destruction of Troy, the obstacles that opposed him through the intervention of Juno, and the adventures and the victories of the hero form the subject of the poem. Leaving Sicily for Latium, JEneas is driven on the coast of Africa by a tempest raised against him by Juno ; at Carthage he is welcomed by the queen Dido, to whom he relates his past adventures and sufferings. By his narrative he wins her love, but at the command of Jupiter abandons her. Unable to retain him, Dido, in the despair of her passion, destroys her- self. After passing through many dangers, under the guidance of the Sibyl of Cuma, he descends into the kingdom of the dead to consult the shade of his father. There appear to him the souls of the future heroes of Rome. On his return, he becomes a friend of the king of Latium, who promises to him the hand of his daughter, which is eagerly sought by King Turnus. A fearfnl war ensues between the rival lovers, which ends in the victory of JEueas. Though the poem of Virgil is in many passages an imitation from the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Roman element predomi- nates in it, and the ^neid is the true national poem of Rome. There was no subject more adapted to flatter the vanity of the Romans, than the splendor and antiquity of their origin. Augustus is evidently typified under the character of ^Eneas ; Cleopatra is boldly sketched as Dido ; and Turnus as the popular Anthony. The love and death of Dido, the passionate victim of an unrequited love, give occasion to the poet to sing the victories of his countrymen over their Carthaginian rivals ; the Pythagorean metempsychosis, which he adopts in the descrijv tion of p]lysium, affords an opportunity to exalt the heroes of Rome; and the wars of JKneas allow him to describe the localities and the manners of ancient Latium with such truth- fulness, as to give to his verses the authority of historical quotations. In style, the J^neid is a model of purity and elegance, and for the variety and the harmony of its incidents, for the power of its descriptions, and for the interest of its plot and episodes, second only to the Iliad. It has been observed that VirgiFs descriptions are more like landscape painting than those of any by his predecessors, whether Greek or Roman, and it is a remarkable fact, that landscape painting was first intro- duced in his time. ROMAN LITEKATUFvE, 147 4. Didactic Poetry. — The poems, wliicli first established the reputation of Yirgil as a poet, belong to didactic poetry. They are his Bucolics and Georgics. The Bucohcs are pastoral idyls; the characters are Italian in all their sentiments and feehugs, acting, however, the unreal and assumed part of Greek shepherds. The Italians never possessed the elements of pasto- ral life, and could not furnish the poet with originals and models from which to draw his portraits. When represented as Yirgil represents them in his Bucolics, they are in masquerade, and the drama in which they form the characters is of an allegorical kind. Even the scenery is Sicilian, and does not truthfully describe the tame neighborhood of Mantua. In fact, these poems are imitations of Theocritus ; but, divesting our- selves of the idea of the outward form which the poet has chosen to adopt, we are touched by the simple narrative of disappointed loves and childlike woes ; we appreciate the delicately-veiled compliments paid by the poet to his patron ; we enjoy the inventive genius and poetical power which they display, and we are elevated by the exalted sentiments which they sometimes breathe. The Georgics are poems on the labors and enjoyments of rural life, a subject for which Kome offered a favorable field. Though in this style Hesiod was the model of Yirgil, his system is per- fectly ItaUan, so much so, that many of his rules may be traced in modern Itahan husbandry, just as the descriptions of imple- ments in the Greek poet are frequently found to agree with those in use in modern Greece. The great merit of the Georgics consists in their varied digressions, interesting episodes, and in the sublime bursts of descriptive vigor which are interspersed throughout them. They have frequently been taken as models for imitation by the didactic poets of all nations, and more particularly of England. The *' Seasons," for instance, is a thoroughly Yirgihan poem. Lucretius (95-51 e.g.) belongs to the class of didactic poets. He might claim a place among philosophers as well as poets, for his poem marks an epoch both in poetry and philosophy. But his philosophy is a mere reflection from that of Greece, while his poetry is bright with the rays of original genius. His poem on " The Mature of Things" is in imitation of that of Empedocles. Its subject is philosophical and its puq^ose didactic ; but its unity of design gives to it almost the rank of an epic. Its structure prevents it from being a complete and systematic survey of the whole Epicurean philosophy, but as far as the form of the poem 148 nOMAN LITERATURE. permitted, it presents an accurate view of tlie pliilosopLy which then enjoyed the highest popularity. The object of the poem of Lucretius is to emancipate man- kind from the debasing effects of superstition by an exposition of pliilosoph}^, and though a follower of Epicurus, he is not entirely destitute of the rehgious sentiment, for he deifies nature and has a veneration for her laws ; his infidelity must be viewed rather in the light of a philosophical protest against the results of heathen superstition, than a total rejection of the principles of religious faith. Lucretius valued the capabilities of the Latin language ; he wielded at will its power of embodying the noblest thoughts, and showed how its copious and flexible properties could overcome the hard technicalities of science. The great beauty of his poetry is its variety ; his fancy is always lively, his imagination has always free scope. He is sublime, as a philosopher who penetrates the secrets of the natural world, and disclosQS to the eyes of man the hidden causes of its wonderful phenomena. His object was a lofty one ; for although the absurdities of the national creed drove him into skepticism, his aim was to set the intellect free from the trammels of superstition. But besides grandeur and sublimity, we find the totally different qualities of softness and tenderness. Rome had long known nothing but war, and was how rent by civil dissension. Lucretius yearned for peace ; and his prayer, that the fabled goddess of all that is beautiful in nature would heal the wounds which discord had made, is distinguished by tenderness and pathos even more than by sublimity. He is superior to Ovid in force, though inferior in facility; not so smooth or harmonious as Yirgil, his poetry always falls upon the ear with a swelling and sonorous melody. Yirgil appreciated his excellence, and imitated not only single expressions, but almost entire verses and passages ; and Ovid exclaims, that the sublime strains of Lucretius shall never perish until the world shall be given up to destruction. 5. Lyric Poetry. — The Romans had not the ideality and the enthusiasm, which are the elements of lyric poetry, and in all the range of their literature, there are only two poets who, greatly inferior to the lyi'ic poets of Greece, have a positive claim to a place *in this department, Catullus and Horace. Catullus (8G-46 B.C.) was born near Yerona. At an early age he went to Rome, where he plunged into all the excesses of the capital, and where his sole occupation was the cultivation of his literary tastes and talents. A career of extravagance and debauchery TcOMAX LITERATUKE. 149 terminated iu the ruin of his fortune, and he died at the age of forty. The works of Catullus consist of numerous short pieces of a lyrical character, elegies and other poems. He was one of the most popular of the Roman poets, because he possessed those qualities which the hterary society at Kome most valued, polish and learning, and because, although an hnitator, there was a truly Roman nationality in all that he wrote. His satire was the bitter resentment of a vindictive spirit ; his love and his hate were both purely selfish, but his excellences were of the most alluring and captivating kind. He has never been sur- passed in gracefulness, melody and tenderness. Horace (65-8 e.g.), like Yirgil and other poets of his time, enjoyed the friendship and intimacy of Miecenas, who procured for him the public grant of his Sabine farm, situated about fifteen miles from Tivoli. At Rome he occupied a house on the beautiful heights of the Esquiline. The rapid alternation of town and country life, which the fickle poet mdulged in, gives a peculiar charm to his poetry. His Satires were followed by the publication of the " Odes " and the "Epistles." The satires of Horace occupied the position of the fashionable novel of our day. In them is sketched boldly, but good-humoredly, a picture of Roman social life, with its vices and follies. They have nothing of the bitterness of Lucilius, the love of purity and honor that adorns Persius, or the burnin2: indio-nation of Juvenal at the loathsome corruption of morals, Yice, in his day, had not reached that appalling height, which it attained in the time of the emperor who succeeded Augustus, Deficient in moral purity, nothing would strike him as deserving censure, except such excess as would actually defeat the object vrhich he pro- posed to himself, namely, the utmost enjoyment of life. In the " Epistles," he lays aside the character of a moral teacher or censor, and writes with the freedom with which he would con- verse with an intimate friend. But it is in his inimitable " Odes" that the genius of Horace as a poet is especially dis- played ; they have never been equalled in beauty of sentiment, gracefulness of language and melody of versification ; they com- prehend every variety of subject suitable to the lyric muse ; they rise without effort to the most elevated topics ; and they descend to the simplest joys and sorrows of every-day 4ife. The life of Horace is especially histructive, as a mirror in which is reflected a faithful image of the manners of his dav. He is the representative of Roman refined society, as Yirgil is of the national mind. His morals were lax, but not worse than those of his contemporaries. He looked at virtue and vice from 150 , r.OMAX LITERATURE. a worldly, uot from a moral point of view, and witli him the one was prudence and the other folly. In connection with Horace, we may mention Moscenas, who, by his good taste and munificence, exercised a great influence upon literature, and literary men of Rome were much indebted to him for the use he made of his friendship with Augustus, to whom, probably, his love of literature and of pleasure and his imperturbable temper recommended him as an agreeable com- panion. He had wealtli enough to gratify his utmost wishes, and his mind was so full of the delights of refined society, of palaces, gardens, wit, poetry and art, that there was no room in it for ambition. All the most brilliant men of Rome were found at his table — Yirgil, Horace, Propertius and Yarius were amons* his friends and constant associates. He was a fair specimen of the man of pleasure and society — liberal, kind- hearted, clever, refined, but luxurious, self-indulgent, indolent and volatile, with good impulses, but without principle. 6. Elegy. — Tibullus (h. 54 b.o.) was the father of the Roman elegy. He was a contemporary of Yirgil and Horace. The style of his poems and their tone of thought are like his character, deficient in vigor and manliness, but sweet, smooth, polished, tender, and never disfigured by bad taste. He passed his short life in peaceful retirement, and died soon after Yirgil. The poems ascribed to Tibullus consist of four books, of which only two arc genuine. Propertius (b. 150 e.g.), although a contemporary and friend of the Augustan poets, may be considered as belonging to a somewhat different school of poetry. While Horace, Yirgil and Tibullus imitated the noblest poets of the Greek age, Propertius, like the minor Roman poets, aspired to nothing more than the imitation of the graceful, but feeble strains of the Alexandrian poets. If he excels Tiijullus in vigor of fancy, expression and coloring, he is inferior to him in grace, spontaneity and delicacy; he cannot, also, be compared with Catullus, who greatly sur- passes him in his easy and effective style. Ovid (43 B.C. — 6 A.D.),the most fertile of the Ijatin poets, uot only in elegy, but also in other kinds of poetry, was enabled by his rank, fertune and talents to cultivate the society of men of congenial tastes. A skeptic and an epicurean, he lived a life of continual indulgence and intrigue. He was a universal admirer of the female sex, and a favorite among them. He was popular as a poet, successful in society, and possessed all the enjoyments that wealth could bestow ; but later in life he incurred the auger EOMAX LITER ATUEE. 151 of Augustus, and was banished to the very frontier of the Koman empire, where he lingered for a few years and died in great misery. The "Epistles to and from women of the heroic age," are a series of love-letters ; with the exception of the " Metamorphoses," they have been greater favorites than any other of his works. Love, in the davs of Ovid, had in it nothinir pure or chivalrous. The age in which he lived was morally pol- luted, and he was neither better nor worse than his contem- poraries, hence grossness is the characteristic of his " Art of Love." His "Metamorphoses" contain a series of mythological narratives from the earliest times to the translation of the soul of Julius Caesar from earth to heaven, and his metamorphosis into a star. In this poem especially may be traced that study and learning, by which the Roman poets made all the treasures of Greek literature their own. " The Fasti," a poem on the Koman calendar, is a beautiful specimen of simple narrative in verse, and displays, more than any of his works, his power of telhng a story without the slightest effort, in poetry as well as prose. The five books of the "Tristia," and the "Epistles from Pontus," were the outpourings of his sorrowful heart, during the gloomy evening of his days. *I. Oratory and Philosophy. — As oratory gave to Latin prose-writing its elegance and dignity, Cicero (106-43 e.g.) is not only the representative of the flourishing period of the language, but also the instrumental cause of its arriving at per- fection. He Grave a fixed character to the Latin tono;ue ; showed his countrymen what vigor it possessed, and of what elegance and polish it was susceptible. The influence of Cicero on the language and literature of his day was not only extensive, but permanent, and it survived almost until the language was corrupted by barbarism. After travelling in Greece and Asia, and holdino: a hiffh office in Sicilv, he returned to Rome, resumed his forensic practice, and was made consul. The conspiracy of Catiline was the great event of his consulship. The prudence and tact, with which he crushed this, gained him the applause and gratitude of his fellow-citizens, who hailed him as the father of his country ; but he was obliged, by the intrigues of his enemies, to fly from Rome ; his exile was decreed, a^d his town and country houses given up to plunder. He was, however, recalled, and appointed to a seat hi the college of Augurs. In the struggle between Pompey and Ca}sar, he followed the for- tunes of the former; but CiBsar, after his triumph, granted him a full and free pardon. After the assassination of Caesar, Cicero 152 EOMAN LITERATUEE. . delivered that torrent of indignant and eloquent invective, his twelve Philippic orations, and became again the popular idol ; but when the second triumvirate was formed, and each member gave up his friends to the vengeance of his colleagues, Octavius did not hesitate to sacrifice Cicero. Betrayed by a treacherous freedman, he would not j^ermit his attendants to make any resistance, but courageously submitted to the sword of the assassins, who cut off his head and hands, and carried them to Anthony, whose wife, Julia, gloated with inhuman delight upon the pallid features, and in petty spite pierced with a needle the once eloquent tongue. Cicero had numerous faults ; he was vain, vacillating, inconstant, timid, and the victim of morbid sen- sibility; but he was candid, truthful, just, geneious, pure-minded and warm-hearted. Gentle, sympathizing an i affectionate, he lived as a patriot and died as a philosopher. The place, which Cicero occupies in the history of Koman literature, is that of an orator and philosopher. The effective- ness of his oratory was mainly owing to his knowledge of the human heart, and of the national peculiarities of his countrymen. Its charm was owing to his extensive acquaintance with the stores of literature and philosophy, which his sprightly wit moulded at will ; to the varied learning, which his unpedantic mind made so pleasant and popular; and to his fund of illustra- tion, at once interesting and convincing. He carried his hearers with him ; senate, judges and people understood his arguments, and felt his passionate appeals. Compared with the dignihed energy and majestic vigor of Demosthenes, the Asiatic exuber- ance of some of his orations may be fatiguing to the more sober and chaste taste of modern scholars ; but in order to form a just appreciation, we must transport ourselves mentally to the excitements of the thronged forum, to the senate, composed of statesmen and warriors in the prime of life, maddened with the party-spirit of revolutionary times. Viewed in this light, his most florid passages will appear free from affectation — the natural flow of a speaker carried away with the torrent of his enthusiasm. Among his numerous orations, in which, according to the criticisms of Quintilian, he combined the force of Demos- thenes, the copiousness of Plato, and the elegance of Isocratcs, we mention the six celebrated Yerrian harangues, which are considered masterpieces of Tullian eloquence. In the speech for the poet Archias, he had evidently expended all his resources of art, taste and skill ; and his oration in defence of Milo, for force, pathos and the externals of eloquence, deserves to be reckoned among his most wonderful efforts. The oratory of s ROMAN LITEBATUPwE. 153 Cicero was essentially judicial ; even his political orations are rather judicial than deliberatiye. He was not born for a politician ; he did not possess that analytical character of mind, which penetrates into the remote causes of human action, nor the synthetical power, which enables a man to follow them out to their furthest consequences. Of the three qualities necessary for a statesman, he possessed only two — honesty and patriotism; he had not political wisdom. Hence, in the finest specimens of his political orations, his Catilinarians and Philippics, we look in vain for the calm, practical weighing of the subject, which is necessary in addressing a deliberative assembly. Is evertheless, so irresistible was the influence which he exercised upon the minds of his hearers, that all his political speeches were triumphs. His panegyric on Pompey carried his appointment as commander- in-chief of the armies of the East ; he crushed in Catiline one of the most formidable traitors that had ever menaced the safety of the republic, and Anthony's fall followed the complete exposure of his debauchery in private life, and the factiousness of his public career. In his rhetorical works, Cicero left a legacy of practical in- struction to posterity. The treatise " On Invention'' is merely interesting as the juvenile production of a future great man. "The Orator," "Brutus, or the illustrious Orators," and "The Orator to Marius Brutus," are the results of his matured ex- perience. They form together one series, in which the princi- ples are laid down, and their development carried out and illus- trated ; and in the Orator he places before the eyes of Brutus the model of ideal perfection. In his treatment of that subject, he shows a mind imbued with the spirit of Plato ; he invests it with dramatic interest, and transports the reader into the scene which he so graphically describes. Roman philosophy was neither the result of original investi- gation, nor the gradual development of the Greek system. It arose rather from a study of ancient philosophical literature, than from an emanation of philosophical principles. It consisted in a kind of eclecticism with an ethical tendency, bringing to- gether doctrines and opinions scattered over a wide field in reference to the political and social relations of man. Greek philosophy was probably first introduced into Rome, 166 e.g. But although the Romans could appreciate the majestic dignity and poetical beauty of the style of Plato, they were not equal to the task of penetrating his hidden meaning ; neither did the peripatetic doctrines meet with much favor. The philosophical system which first arrested the attention of the Romans, and 7* 154: koma:^ literature. gained an influence over their minds, was tlie Epicurean. That of the Stoics also, the severe principles of Avhich were in har- mony with the stern old Roman virtues, had distinguished disci- ples. The part, which Cicero's character qualified him to per- form in the philosophical instruction of his countrymen, was scarcely that of a guide ; he could give them a lively interest in the subject, but he could not mould and form their behef, and train them in the vv'ork of original investigation. Not being de- voutly attached to any system of philosophical belief, he would be cautious of offending the philosophical prejudices of others. He was essentially an eclectic in accumulating stores of Greek erudition, while his mind had a tendency, in the midst of a va- riety of inconsistent doctrines, to leave the conclusion undeter- mined. He brought everything to a practical standard ; he ad- mired the exalted purity of stoical morality, but he feared that it was impractical. He believed in the existence of one supreme cre- ator, in his spiritual nature, and the immortality of the soul ; but his belief was rather the result of instinctive conviction, than of proof derived from philosophy. The study of Cicero's philosophical works is invaluable, in order to understand the minds of those who came after him. Xot only all Roman philosophy after his time, but a great part of that of the middle ages, was Greek philosophy filtered through Latin, and mainly founded on that of Cicero. Among his works on speculative philosophy are " The Academics, or a history and defence of the belief of the new Academy ;" '' Dia- logues on the Supreme Good, the end of all moral action ;" " The Tuscuhin Disputations," containing five treatises on the fear of death, the endurance of pain, power of wisdom over sor- row, the morbid passions, and the relation of virtue to happiness. His moral philosophy comprehends the " Duties," a stoical treatise on moral obligations, and the unequalled little essays on " Friendship and Old Age." His political works are " The Republic" and " The Laws ;" but these remains are fragment- ary. The extent of Cicero's correspondence is almost incredible. Even those epistles, which remain, consist of more than eight hundred. In them we find the eloquence of the heart, not of the rhetorical school ; they are models of pure Latinity, elegant without stiffness, the natural outpourings of a mind which could not give birth to an ungraceful idea. In his letters to Atticus he lays bare the secrets of his heart ; he trusts his life in his hands ; he is not only his friend but his confidant, his second self. In the letters of Cicero we have the description of the KOMA.X LITElRlTURE. 155 period of Roman history, and the portrait of the inner life of Roman society in his day. 8. History. — In their historical literature the Romans exhi- bited a faithful transcript of their mind and character. History at once gratitied their patriotism, and its investigations were in accordance with their love of the real and the practical. In this department, they were enabled to emulate the Greeks and to be their rivals, and sometimes their superiors. The elegant simplicity of Caesar is as attractive as that of Herodotus ; none of the Greek historians surpasses Livy in talent for the pictur- esque and in the charm with which he invests his spirited and living stories ; while for condensation of thought, terseness of expression and political and philosophical acumen, Tacitus is not inferior to Thucydides, The catalogue of Roman historians con- tains many wi'iters whose works are lost ; such as L. Lucretius, the friend and correspondent of Cicero, L. Lucullus, the illustrious conqueror of Mithridates, and Cornelius Nepos, of whom only one work was preserved, the "Lives of Eminent Generals •/' the authenticity of this work is, however, disputed. But, at the head of this department, as the great representatives of Roman history, stand Julius Casar, Sallust, Livy and Taci- tus, all of whom, except the last, belong to the Augustan age. Julius Caesar (100-44 b.c.) was descended from one of the oldest among the patrician families of Rome. He attached himself to the popular party, and his good taste, great tact, and pleasing manners contributed, together with his talents, to insure his popularity. He became a soldier in the nineteenth year of his age, and hence his works display all the best qualities which are fostered by a military education — frankness, simplicity and brevity. His earliest literary triumph v\^as as an orator, and according to Quintilian, he was a worthy rival of Cicero. When he obtained the office of Pontifex Maximus, he diligently exa- mined tlie history and nature of the Roman beUef in augury, and published his investigations. When his career as a military commander began, whatever leisure his duties permitted him to enjoy, he devoted to the composition of his memoirs, or commen- taries of the Gallic and civil wars. He wrote, also, some minor works on different subjects, and he left behind him various let- ters, some of which are extant. But by far the most important of the works of Cassar is his " Commentaries," which have come down to us in a tolerably perfect state. They are sketches taken on the spot, in the D:iid£t of action, while the mind was full, and they have all tlie 156 KOMAX LITEEATUIIE. graphic power of a master-mind and the vigorous touches of a master-hand. The Commentaries are the materials for history, notes jotted do\Yn for future historians. The very faults, which mav jiistlv be found with the style of Ciesar, are such as reflect the man himself. The majesty of his character consists chiefly in the imperturbable calmness and equanimity of his temper ; he had no sudden bursts of energy and alternations of passion and inactivity. The elevation of his character was a high one, but it was a level table-land. This calmness and equability pervades his writings, and for this reason they have been thought to want hfe and energy. The beauty of his language is, as Cicero savs, statuesque rather than picturesque. Simple and severe, it con- veys the idea of perfect and well-proportioned beauty, while it banishes all thoughts of human passion. In relating his ovrn deeds, he does not strive to add to his ovrn reputation by de- tracting from the merits of those who served under hmi. He is honest, generous and candid, not only towards them, but also towards his brave enemies. He recounts his successes without pretension or arrogance, though he has evidently no objection to be the hero of his own tale. His Commentaries are not confes- sions, although he is the subject of them ; not a record of a weakness appears, nor even a defect, except that which the Ro- mans would readily forgive, cruelty. His savage vraste of hu- man hfe he recounts with perfect self-complacency. A^anity, the crowning error in his career as a statesman, though hidden by the reserve with which he speaks of himself, sometimes discovers itself in the historian. The Commentaries of Ca3sar have been compared with the work of the great soldier-historian of Greece, Xenophon. Both are eminently simple and unaffected, but there the parallel ends. The severe contempt of ornament, which characterizes the stern Roman, is totally unlike the mellifluous sweetness of the Attic writer. Sallust ( 85-35 b.c.) was born of a plebeian family, but having served the offices of tribune and qua?stor, attained senatorial rank. He was expelled from the Senate for his profligacy, but restored again to his rank throuijh the influence of Caesar, whose party he espoused. He accompanied his patron in the African Avar, and was made governor of Xumidia. While in that capa- city, he accumulated by rapacity and extortion enormous wealth, which he lavished in expensive but tasteful luxury. The gar- dens on the Quirinal, which bore his name, were celebrated for their beauty ; and there, surrounded by the choicest works of art, he devoted his retirement to composing the historical re- EOMAX LITERATURE. 157 cords \Yhicli survived him. As a politician, he was a mere par- tisan of Cajsar, and therefore a strenuous opponent of the higher classes and of the supporters of Ponipey. The object of his ha- tred was not the old patrician blood of Rome, but the new aris- tocracy, which had of late years been rapidly rising up and dis- placing it. That new nobility was utterly corrupt, and their corruption was encouraged by the venality of the masses, whose poverty and destitution tempted them to be the tools of unscru- pulous ambition. Sallust strove to place that party in the un- favorable light which it deserved ; but notwithstanding the truthfulness of the picture which he draws, selfishness and not patriotism was the mainspring of his politics ; he was not an honest champion of popular rights, but a vain and conceited man, who lived in an immoral and corrupt age, and had not the strength of principle to resist the force of example and tempta- tion. If, however, we make some allowance for the political bias of Sallust, his histories have not only the charms of the his- torical romance, but are also valuable political studies. His characters are vigorously and naturally drawn, and the more his histories are read, the more obvious it is that he always writes with an object, and uses his facts as the means of enforcing a great political lesson. His first work is on the " Jugurthine War ;" the next related to the period from the consulship of Lepidus to the preetorship of Cicero, and is unfortunately lost. This was followed by a history of the conspiracy of Catiline, "The war of Catiline," in which he paints in vivid colors the depravity of that order of society who, bankrupt in fortune and honor, still plume them- selves on their rank and exclusiveness. To Sallust must be con- ceded the praise of having first conceived the notion of a history, in the true sense of the term. He was the first Roman histo- rian, and the guide of future historians. He had always an ob- ject to which he wished all his facts to converge, and he brought them forward as illustrations and developments of principles. He analyzed and exposed the motives of parties, and laid bare the inner life of those great actors on the pubhc stage, in the inter- esting historical scenes which he describes. His style, although ostentatiously elaborate and artificial, is, upon the whole, ])leasing, and almost always transparently clear. Following Thucydides, whom he evidently took as his model, he strives to imitate his brevity; but while this quality with the Greek his- torian is natural and involuntarv, with the Roman it is inten tional and studied. The brevity of Thucydides is the result of condensation, that of Sallust is elhptical expression. 158 ROMA^ LITEItATUIlE. Livy (59-18 b.c.) was born in Padua, and came to E,omo during the reign of Augustus, Avliere he resided in the enjoyment of tlie imperial tavor and patronage. lie was a warm and open admirer of the ancient institutions of the country, and esteemed Pompey as one of its greatest heroes; but Augustus did not allow political opinions to interfere with the regard which he en- tertained for the historian. His great work is a history of Rome, which he modestly terms " Annals," in 142 books, of which 35 are extant. Besides his history, Livy is said to have written treatises and dialogues, which were partly philosophi- cal and partly historical. The great object of Livy's history was to celebrate the glories of his native country, to which he was devotedly attached. He was a patriot : his sympathy was with Pompey, called forth by the disinterestedness of that great man, and perhaps by his sad end. He delights to put forth his powers in those passages which relate to the affections. He is a biographer quite as much as a historian; he anatomizes the moral nature of his heroes, and shows the motive springs of their noble exploits. His cha- racters stand before us like epic heroes, and he tells his story like a bard singing his lay at a joyous festive meeting, checkered by alternate successes and reverses, though all tending to a happy result at last. But while these features constitute his charm as a narrator, they render him less valuable as a historian. Although he would not be willfully inaccurate, if the legend he was about to tell was interesting, he would not stop to inquire whether or not it was true. Taking upon trust the traditions which had been handed down from generation to generation, the more flattering and popular they were, the more suitable would he deem them for his purposes. He loved his country, and he would scarcely believe anything derogatory to the national glory. Whenever Rome was false to treaties, unmerciful in victory, or unsuccessful in arms, he either ignores the facts or is anxious to find excuses. He does not appear to have made researches into the many ori- ginal documents which were extant at his time, but he trusted to the annalists, and took advantage of the investigations of pre- ceding historians. His descriptions of military affairs are often vague and indistinct, and he often shows himself ignorant of the locahties which he describes. Such are the principal defects of Livy, who otherwise charms his readers with his romantic narra- tives, and his lively, fresh, and fascinating style. t: 9. Other Prose Writers. — Though the grammarians of this period were numerous, tliey added little or nothing to its literary ROilAN LITERATURE. 150 reputation. The most conspicnous among tliem were Atteius, a friend of Sallust ; Epirota, the correspondent of Cicero ; Juhus Hv"'iuus, a friend of Ovid ; and Xiii'idius Fis-nlus, an orator as well as o-rammariau. M. Altruvius PoUio, the celebrated archi- tect, deserves to be mentioned for his treatise on architecture. He was probably native of Yerona, and served under Julius Caesar in Africa, as a military engineer. Notwithstanding the defects of his stvle, the lano-uage of Yitruvius is viirorous, and his descriptions bold ; his work is valuable as exhibiting the prin- ciples of Greek architectural taste and beauty, of which he was a devoted admirer. PERIOD THIRD. FROM THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF THEODORIC (14-5 2 G A.D.) 1. Decline of Roman Literature. — With the death of Auo:us- tus commenced the decline of Roman literature, and a few names only rescue the first years of this period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated taste. After a while, indeed, political cir- cumstances again became more favorable ; the dangers, which paralyzed genius and talent and prevented their free exercise under Tiberius and his tyrannical successors, diminished, and a more liberal system of administration ensued under Yespasian and Titus. Juvenal and Tacitus then stood forth, as the repre- sentatives of the old Roman independence. Yigor of thought communicated itself to the language ; a taste for the sublime and beautiful, to a certain extent, revived, although it did not attain to the perfection which shed a lustre over the Augustan age. Between the ages of Horace and Juvenal, Cicero and Tacitus, there was a gap of half a century, in which Roman genius was slumbering. The gradual growth of a spirit of adulation de- terred all, who were qualified for the task of the historian, from attempting it. Fear, during the lifetime of Tiberius and Cali- gula, Claudius and Nero, and hatred, still fresh after their deaths, rendered all accounts of their reigns false. And the same causes which silenced the voice of historv, extiuGruished the o:enius of poetry and oratory. As liberty decUned, natural eloquence de- cayed ; the orator sought only to please the corrupt taste of his audiences with strange and exaggerated statements ; the poet aimed to win pubUc admiration through a style overladen with ornament, and florid and diffuse descriptions. Literature, in order IGO EOMAX LITEKATUKE. to flourish, requires the genial sunshine of human sympathy ; it needs either the patronage of the great, or the favor of the people. Immediately after the death of Augustus, patronage was with- drawn, and there was no public sympathy to supply its place. In the reign of Nero, literature partially revived ; for though the bloodiest of tyrants, he had a taste for art and poetry, and an ambition to excel in refinement. 2. Fable. — In fable, as in other fields of literature. Home was an imitator of Greece, but nevertheless Phasdrus struck out a new line for himself, and through his fables became not only a moral instructor, but a political satirist. Phredrus (fl. 16 a.d.), the originator and only author of Roman fable, though born in the reign of Augustus, wrote when the Augustan age had passed away. His works are, as it were, isolated ; he had no contemporaries. Nevertheless, his solitary voice was lifted up when those of the poet, the historian and the philosopher were silenced. The moral and political lessons conveyed in his fables were suggested by the evils of the times in which he lived. Some of them illustrate the danger of riches and the comparative safety of obscurity and poverty, in an age when the rich were marked for destruction, in order that the confiscation of their property might glut the avarice of the emperor and of his servants; others were suggested by historical events, being nevertheless satirical strictures on individuals. The st3ie of Phadrus is pure and clas- sical, and combines the simple neatness and graceful elegance of the golden ac-e with the vigor and terseness of the silver one. He has the facility of Ovid and the brevity of Tacitus. In the construction of his fables, he displays observation and ingenuity ; but he is deficient in imagination. He makes his animals the vehicles of his wisdom, but he does not throw himself into them, or identify himself with them; while they look and act like ani- mals, they talk like human beings. In this consists the great superiority of JEsop to his Poman imitator; his brutes are a superior race, but they are still brutes, and it would seem that the fabulist had lived among them, as one of themselves, had adopted their mode of life, and conversed with them in their own language. In Pha3drus we have human sentiments translated into the language of beasts, while in ^Esop we have beasts giving utterance to such sentiments as would be naturally theirs if they were placed in the position of men. 3. Satire axd Epigram.- -Poman satire, subsequently to Horace, is represented by Persius and Juvenal. Persius (34- EOMAN LITEExiTUEE. 161 62 A.D.) early attached himself to the Stoic philosophy. He was pure in miud, and free from the corrupt taint of an unmoral age. Although Lucilius was, to a certain extent, his model, he docs not attack vice with the biting severity of the old satir- ist, nor do we find in his writings the enthusiastic indignation wiiicli burns in the verses of Juvenal. His purity of mind and kindliness of heart disinclined him to portray vice in its hideous and loathsome forms, and to indulge in that bitterness of invective which the prevalent enormities of his times deserved. His up- rightness and love of virtue are shown by the uncompromising severity with which he rebukes sins of not so deep a die ; and the heart which was capable of being moulded by his example, and influenced by his purity, would have shrunk from the fearful crimes which deform the pages of Juvenal. The greatest defect in Persius as a satirist is, that the Stoic philosophy in which he was educated rendered him indifferent to the affairs of the world. His contemplative habits led him to criticise, as his favorite subjects, false taste in poetry and empty pretensions to philosophy. Horace mingled in the society of the profligate, and considering them as fools, laughed their folly to scorn. Juvenal looked down upon the corruption of the age from the eminence of his virtue, and punished it like an aveughig deity. Persius, pure in heart and passionless by education, while he lashes wick- edness in the abstract, almost ignores its existence, and shrinks from probing to the bottom the vileness of the human heart. His works comprise six satires, all of which breathe the natural amiability and placid cheerfulness of his temper. Juvenal flourished in the reign of Domitian, towards the close of the first century a.d., a dark period, which saw the utter moral degradation of the people, and the bloodiest t}Tanny and oppression on the part of their rulers. The picture of Roman manners, as painted by his glowing pencil, is truly appalling. The fabric of society was in ruins, the popular religion was rejected with scorn, and the creed of natural religion had not occupied its place. The emperors took part in public scenes of folly and profligacy, and exposed themselves as charioteers, as dancers and as actors. ]S^othing was respected but wealth, nothing provoked contempt but poverty. Players and dancers had all honors and offices at their disposal ; the city swarmed with informers, who made the rich their prey; every man feared his most intimate friend, and the only bond of friendship was to be an accomplice in crime. The teacher would corrupt his pupil, and the guardian defraud his ward. Crimes which cannot be named were common, and the streets of Rome were the con- 1G2 ro:m:an literatuue. stant scene of robbery, assault and assassination. The morals of women were as depraved as those of men, and there was no puljlic amusement so immoral or so cruel, as not to be countenanced by their presence. In this period of moral dearth, the fountains of genius and literature were dried up. There was criticism, declamation, panegyric and verse wTiting, but no oratory, history or poetry. Juvenal, though himself not free from the decla- matory affectation of the da}^, attacked the false literary taste of his contemporaries, as unsparingly as he did their depraved morality. His sixteen sath-es exhibit an enlightened, truthful and comprehensive view of Roman manners, and of the mevitable result of such depravity. The two finest of them are those which Dr. Johnson has thought worthy of imitation. The historical value of these satu'es must not be forgotten. Tacitus lived in the same perilous times as Juvenal, and when they bad come to an end and it was not unsafe to speak, he wrote their public history, which the poet illustrates by chsplayiug the social and inner life 'of the Romans. Their works are parallel, and each forms a commentary upon the other. The style of Juvenal is vigorous and lucid ; his morals were pure in the midst of a debased age, and his language shines forth in classic elegance, in the midst of specimens of declining and degenerate taste. Juvenal closes the list of Roman satirists, properly speaking. The satirical spirit animates the piquant epigrams of his friend Martial, but their purpose is not moral or didactic. They sting the individual, and render him an object of scorn and disgust, but they do not hold up vice itself to ridicule and detestation. Martial (43-104 a.d.) was born in Spain. He early emi- grated to Rome, where he became a favorite of Titus and Domitian, and in the reign of the latter he was appointed to the office of court-poet. During thirty-five years, he lived at Rome the life of a flatterer and a dependant, and then he returned to his native town, where his death was hastened by his distaste for provincial life. Measured by the corrupt standard of morals, which disgraced the age in which he lived. Martial was probably not worse than most of his contempo- raries ; for the fearful profligacy, which his powerful pen describes in such hideous terms, had spread through Rome its loathsome infection. Had he lived in better times, his talents might have been devoted to a purer object ; as it was, no language is strong enough to denounce the impurities of his page, and his moral taste must have been thoroughly depraved not to have EOilAN LITERATUKE. 163 turned with disgust from the contemplation of such subjects. But not all his poems are of this character. Amidst some obscurity of style and want of finish, many are redolent of Greek sweetness and elegance. Here and there are pleasing descrip- tions of the beauties of nature, and many are kind-hearted and full of varied wit, poetical imagination and graceful expression. To the original characteristics of the Greek epigram. Martial, more than any other poet, added that which constitutes an epigram in the modern sense of the term, pointedness either in jest or earnest, and the bitterness of personal satire. 4. Dramatic Literature. — Dramatic literature never flourished in Rome, and still less under the empire. During this period there were not wanting some imitators of Greece in this noble branch of poetry, but their productions were rather literary than dramatic ; they were poems composed in a dramatic form, intended to be read, not acted. They contain noble philo- sophical sentiments, lively descriptions, and passages full of ten- derness and pathos, but they are deficient in dramatic effect, and positively oft'end against those laws of good taste which regu- lated the Athenian stage. In the Augustan age, a few writers attained some excellence in tragedy, at least in the opinion of ancient critics. Under the tyrant Nero, dramatic literature reappeared, specimens of which are extant in the ten tragedies attributed to Seneca. But the genius of the author never grasps, in their wholeness, the characters which he attempts to copy ; they are distorted images of tlie Greek originals, and the shadowy grandeur of the godlike heroes of ^Eschylus stands forth in corporeal vastness, and appears childish and unnatural, like the giants of a story-book. The Greeks believed in the gods and heroes whose agency and exploits constituted the machinery of tragedy, but the Romans did not, and we cannot sympathize with them, because we see that they are insincere. An awful belief in destiny, and the hopeless yet patient struggle of a great and good man against this all-ruling power, are the mainspring of Greek tragedy. This belief the Romans did not transfer into their imitations, but they supplied its place with the stern fatalism of the Stoics. The principle of destiny entertained by the Greek poets is a mythological, even a religious one. It is the irresistible will of God. God is at the commencem.ent of the chain of causes and effects, by which the event is brought about which God has ordained ; his inspired prophets have power to foretell, and mortals cannot 164 ROM AX LITEKAtUKE. resist or avoid. It is rather predestination than destiny. The fatalism of the Stoics, on the other hand, is the doctrine of practical necessity. It ignores the almighty power of the Supreme Being, and although it does not deny his existence, it strips him of his attributes as the moral governor of the universe. These doctrines, expressed equally in the writings of Seneca the philosopher, and in the tragedies attributed to him, lead to the probability, amounting almost to certainty, that he was their author. But whatever be the case in regard to their author- ship, it is certain that, notwithstanding their false rhetorical taste and the absence of all ideal and creative genius, they have found many admirers and imitators in modern times. The Prench school of tragic poets took them for their model ; Corneille evidently considered them the ideal of tragedy, and Ilacine servilely imitated them. 5. Epic Poetry. — At the head of the epic poets who flourished during the Silver Age, stands Lucan (39-G6 a.d.) He was born at Cordova, in Spain, and probably came to Home when very youngs where his literary reputation was soon established. But Nero, who could not bear the idea of a rival, forbade him to recite his poems, then the common mode of publication, neither would he allow him to plead as an advocate. Smarting under this provocation, he joined in a conspiracy against the emperor's life. The plot failed, but Lucan was pardoned on condition of pointing out his confederates, and in the vain hope of saving himself from the monster's vengeance, he actually impeached his mother. This noble woman was incapable of treason. Tacitus says, " the scourge, tlie flames, the rage of the executioners who tortured her the more savagely, lest they should be scorned by a woman, were powerless to extort a false confession." Lucan never received the reward which he pur- chased by treachery. When the warrant for his death was issued, he caused his veins to be cut asunder, and expired in the twenty-seventh year of his age. The only one of his works which survives is the " Pharsalia," an epic poem on the subject of the civil war between Ccesar and Pompey. It bears evident marks of having been left unfinished ; it has great faults and at the same time great beauties. The sentiments contained in this poem breathe a love of freedom and an attachment to the old Homan republicanism. Its subject is a noble one, full of historic interest, and it is treated with spirit, brilliancv and animation. The characters of Caesar and Pom- pey are master-pieces ; but while some passages are scarcely EOMAX LITERATURE. 165 inferior to any written by tlie best Latin poets, others have neither the dignity of prose, nor the melody of poetry. Descrip- tion forms the principal feature in the poetry of Lacan ; in facf, it constitutes one of the characteristic features of lloman Uterature in its decline, because poetry had become more than ever an art, and the epoch one of erudition. Sihus Italicus (fl. 54 a.d.) was the favorite and intimate of two emperors, IS^ero and Yitellius. He left a poem, the " Punica," which contains the history in heroic verse of the second Punic war. The ^neid of Yiroil was his model, and the narrative of Livy furnished his materials. It is considered the dullest and most tedious poem in the Latin language, though its versification is harmonious, and will often, in point of smooth- ness, bear comparison with that of Yirgil. Valerius Flaccus flourished in the reign of Vespasian. He is author of the " Argonautica," an imitation and in some parts a translation of the Greek poem of Apollonius Rhodius on the same subject. He evidently did not live to complete his original design. In the Argonautica, there are no glaring faults or blemishes, but there is also no genius, no inspiration. He has some talents as a descriptive poet ; his versification is harmonious and his style graceful. P. Statins (61-95 a.d.) was the author of the Silvias, Thebaid and Achilleid. The " Silvias" are the rude materials of thought springing up spontaneously in all their wild luxuriance, from the rich, natural soil of the imagination of the poet. The subject of the " Thebaid" is the ancient Greek legend respecting the war of the Seven against Thebes, and the "Achilleid" was intended to embrace all the exploits of Achilles, but only two books were completed. The poems of Statins contain many poetical incidents, which might stand by themselves as perfect fugitive pieces. In these we see his natural and . unaffected elegance, his harmonious ear, and the truthfulness of his perceptions. But, as an epic poet, he has neither grasp of mind nor vigor of conception ; his imaginary heroes do not inspire and warm his imagination ; and his genius was unable to rise to the highest departments of art. 6. History. — For the reasons already stated, Rome for a long period could boast of no historian ; the perilous nature of the times, and the personal obligations under which learned men frequently were to the emperors, rendered contemporary history a means of adulation and servihty. To this class of his torians belongs Paterculus (fl. 30 a.d.), who wrote a history of 1G6 KOMAN LITERATURE. Rome, wliicli is partial, prejudiced and adulatory. He was a man of livelv talents, and his taste was formed after the model of Sallust, of whom he was an imitator. His stvle is often over- strained and unnatural. Under the genial and fostering influence of the Emperor Trajan, the fine arts, especially architecture, flourished, and literature revived. The same taste and execution, which are visible in the bas-reliefs on the column of Ti'ajan, adorn the litera- ture of his age as illustrated by its two great lights, Tacitus and the younger Pliny. There is not the rich, graceful manner which invests with such a charm the writers of the golden age, but the absence of these qualities is amply compensated by dig- nity, gravity and honesty. Truthfulness beams throughout the writings of these two great contemporaries, and incorruptible virtue is as visible in the pages of Tacitus, as benevolence and tenderness are in the letters of Pliny. They mutually influenced each other's characters and principles ; their tastes and pursuits were similar ; they loved each other dearly, corresponded regu- larly, corrected each other's works, and accepted patiently and gratefully each other's criticism. Tacitus (60-135 a.d.) was of equestrian rank, and served in several important ofiices of the empire. His works now extant are a life of his father-in-law, Agricola, a tract on the manners and nations of the Germans, a small portion of a voluminous work entitled " Histories," about two-thirds of another historical work, entitled " Annals," and a dialogue on the decline of elo- quence. The life of Agricola, though a panegyric rather than a bio- graphy, is a beautiful specimen of the vigor and force of expression with which this greatest painter of antiquity could throw off" any portrait which he attempted. Even if the likeness be some- what flattered, the qualities which the writer possessed, his insight into character, his pathetic power, and his affectionate heart, render this short piece one of the most attractive biogra- phies extant. The treatise on the " Geography, Manners and jS'atlons of Germany,'' though containing geographical descrip- tions often va2:ue and inaccurate, and accounts evidentlv founded on mere tales of travellers, bears the impress of truth in the salient points and characteristic features of the national man- ners and institutions of Teutonic nations. The " Histories," his earliest historical work, of which only four books and a portion of the fifth are extant, extended from the year 69 to 96 a.d., and it was his intention to have added the reigns of Nero and Trajan. In this work he proposed to investigate the political state of the commonwealth, the feeling cf its armies, the sentiments of its ROMAN LITERATUEE. IGl provinces, the elements of its strength and weakness, and the causes and reasons for each historical phenomenon. The principal fault which diminishes the value of his history as a record of events, is his too great readiness to accept evidence unhesitatingly, and to record popular rumors without taking sufficient pains to examine into their truth. His incorrect account of the history, constitution and manners of the Jewish people, is one among the few instances of this fault, scattered over a vast lield of faithful history. The '' Annals " consist of sixteen books ; they com- mence with the death of Augustus, and conclude with that of Nero (14-68 a.d.). The object of Tacitus was to describe the influence which the establishment of tyranny on the ruins of liberty exercised for good or for evil in bringing out the charac- ter of the individual. In the extinction of freedom there still exist ed in Rome bright examples of heroism and courage, and instances not less prominent of corruption and degradation. In the annals of Tacitus these individuals stand out in bold relief, either singly or in groups upon the stage, while the emperor forms the principal figure, and the moral sense of the reader is awakened to admire instances of patient suffering and determined bravery, or to witness abject slavery and remorseless despotism. Full of sagacious observation and descriptive power, Tacitus engages the most serious attention of the reader by the gravity of his condensed and comprehensive style, as he does by the wisdom and dignity of his reflections. Living amidst the influ- ences of a corrupt age, he was uncontaminated ; by his virtue and integrity, and his chastened political liberality, he commands our admiration as a man, while his love of truth is reflected in his character as a historian. In his style the form is always subordinate to the matter ; his sentences are suggestive of far more than they express, and his brevity is enlivened by copious- ness, variety and poetry ; his language is highly figurative ; his descriptions of scenery and incidents are eminently pic- turesque, his characters dramatic, and the expression of his own sentiments almost lyrical, Suetonius was born about 69 a.d. His principal extant works are the " Lives of the Twelve Caesars," " iS^otices of illus- trious Grammarians and Rhetoricians," and the Lives of the Poets Terence, Horace, Persius, Lucan and Juvenal. The use which he makes of historical documents proves that he was a man of diligent research, and as a biographer, industrious and careful. He indulges neither in ornament of style nor in roman- tic exaggeration. The pictures which he draws of some of the Caesars are indeed terrible, but they are fully supported by the 1G8 KOMAX LITERATURE. contemporary authority of Juvenal and Tacitus, As a histo- rian, Suetonius had not that comprehensive and philosophical mind which would qualify him for taking an enlarged view of his subject ; he has no definite plan or method, and wanders at will from one subject to another just as the idea seizes him. Curtius is considered by some writers as belonging to the sil- ver age, and by others to a later period. His biography of Alexander the Great is deeply interesting. It is a romance rather than a history. lie never loses an opportunity, by the coloring which he gives to historical facts, of elevating the Macedonian conqueror to a superhuman standard. His florid and ornamented style is suitable to the imaginary orations which are introduced in the narrative, and which constitute the most striking portions of the work. Valerius Maximus flourished during the reign of Tiberius. His work is a collection of anecdotes entitled " Memorable Say- ings and Deeds," the object of which was to illustrate by examples the beauty of virtue and the deformity of vice. The style is prolix and declamatory, and characterized by awkward affectation and involved obscurity. 1. Rhetoric and Eloquence. — Under the empire, schools of rhetoric were multiplied, as harmless as tyranny could desire. In these the Iloman youth learned the means by which the absence of natural endowments could be compensated. The students composed their speeches according to the rules of rhetoric ; they were then corrected, committed to memory and recited, partly with a view to practice, partly in order to amuse an admirino; audience. Kor were these declamations confined to mere students. Public recitations had, since the days of Juve- nal, been one of the crviug nuisances of the times. Seneca, the father of the philosopher of the same name, a famous rhetorician himself, left two works containing a series of exercises in oratory, which show the hollow and artificial system of those schools. He was born in Cordova, in Spain (61 a.d.), and as a professional rhetorician amassed a considerable fortune. Quintilian (40-118 a.d.) was the most distinguished teacher of rhetoric of this age. He attempted to restore a purer and more classical taste, and although to a certain extent he was successful, the effect which he produced was only temporary. YoT the instruction of liis elder son he wrote his great work, " Institutes of Oratory," a complete system of instruction in the art of oratory ; and in it he shows himself far superior to Cicero as a teacher, though he was inferior to hun as an orator. ROMAX LITERATUKE. 169 His work is divided into twelve books, in whicli he traces the progress of the orator from the very cradle until he arrives at perfection. In this monument of his taste and genius he fully and completely exhausted the subject, and left a text-book of the science and art of nations, as well as a masterly sketch of the eloquence of antiquity. The disposition of Quintihan was as afiTectionate and tender as his genius was brilliant and his taste pure ; few passages through- out the whole range of Latin literature can be compared to that in which he mourns the loss of his wife and children. It is the touching eloquence of one who could not write otherwise than gracefully. Among the pupils of Quintilian, Pliny the younger took the highest place in the literature of his age. He was born in Como, 61 A.D., and adopted and educated by his maternal uncle, the elder Pliny. He attained great celebrity as a pleader, and stood high in favor with the emperor. His works consist of a panegyric on Trajan, and a collection of letters in ten books. The panegyric is a piece of courtly flattery in accordance with the cringing and fawning manners of the times. The letters are very valuable, not only for the insight which they give into his own character, but also into the manners and modes of thought of his illustrious contemporaries, as well as the politics of the day. For liveliness, descriptive power, elegance and simplicity of style, they are scarcely inferior to those of Cicero, whom he evidently took for his model. These letters show how accurate and judicious was the mind of Pliny, how prudent his adminis- tration in the high offices which he tilled under the reign of Tra- jan, and how refined his taste for the beautiful. The tenth book, which consists of the letters to Trajan, together with the empe- ror's rescripts, will be read with the greatest interest. The fol- lowing passages from his dispatch respecting the Christians, written while he was procurator of the province of Bithynia, and the emperor's answer, are worthy of being transcribed, both because reference is so often made to them, and because they throw light upon the marvellous and rapid propagation of the Gospel, the manners of the early Christians, the treat- ment to which their constancy exposed them, and the severe jealousy with which they were regarded : " It is my constant practice, sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I entertain doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation, or to instruct my ignorance ? I have never been present at the trials of Christians, and, therefore, I do not know in what way, or to what extent it is usual to question or to 8 170 EOMAN LITERATUllE. punish them. I have also felt no small difficulty in deciding whether age should make any difference, or whether those of the tenderest and those of mature years should be treated alike ; whether pardon should be accorded to repentance, or whether, where a man has once been a Christian, recantation should profit him ; whether, if the name of Christian does not imply crimi- nality, still the crimes peculiarly belonging to the name should be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those against whom informations have been laid before me, I have pursued the follow- ing line of conduct : I have put to them, personally, the question whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I interrogated them a second and third time, and threatened them with punish- ment. If they still persevered, I ordered their commitment ; for I had no doubt whatever, that whatever they confessed, at any rate, dogged and inflexible obstinacy deserved to be punished. There were others who displayed similar madness ; but, as they were Roman citizens, I ordered them to be sent back to the city. Soon, persecution itself, as is generally the case, caused the crime to spread, and it appeared in new forms. An anonymous information was laid against a large number of persons, but they deny that they are, or ever have been. Christians. As they invoked the gods, repeating the form after me, and offered prayer with incense and wine, to your image, which I had ordered to be brought together with those of the deities, and besides, cursed Christ, while those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be compelled to do any one of these things, I thought it right to set them at liberty. Others, when accused by an infor- mer, confessed that they were Christians, and soon after denied the fact. They said they had been, but had ceased to be, some three, some more, not a few even twenty years previously. All these worshipped your image and those of the gods, and cursed Christ. But they affirmed that the sum-total of their fault, or their error, was that they were accustomed to assemble on a fixed day, before dawn, and sing an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God ; that they bound themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, robl^ery and adultery ; never to break a promise, or to deny a deposit, when it was demanded back. When these ceremonies were con- cluded, it was their custom to depart, and again assemble toge- ther to take food harmlessly and in common. That after my proclamation, in which, in obedience to your command, I had forbidden associations, they had desisted from this practice. For these reasons, I the more thought it necessary to investigate the real truth, by putting to the torture two maidens who were ROMAN LITEKATURE. 171 called deaconesses ; but I discovered notliing, but a perverse and excessive superstition. I have, therefore, deferred taking cog- nizance of the matter until I had consulted you ; for it seemed to me a case requiring advice, especially on account of the num- ber of those in peril. For many of every age, sex and rank are, and will continue to be called in question. The Infection, in fact, has spread not only through the cities, but also through the vil- lages and open country ; but it seems that its progress can be arrested. At any rate, it is clear that the temples, which were almost deserted, l3egin to be frequented ; and solemn sacrifices, which had been long intermitted, are again performed, and vic- tims are being sold everywhere, for which, up to this time, a purchaser could rarely be found. It is, therefore, easy to con- ceive that crowds might be reclaimed, if an opportunity for repentance were given." Trajan to Pliny : "In sifting the cases of those who have been indicted on the charge of Christianity, you have adopted, my dear Secundus, the right course of proceeding ; for no certain rule can be laid down, which will meet all cases. They must not be sought after, but if they are mformed against, and convicted, they must be punished ; with this proviso, however, that if any deny that he is a Christian, and proves the point by offering prayers to our deities, notwithstanding the suspicions under which he has labored, he shall be pardoned on his repentance. On no account should any anonymous charges be attended to, for it would be the worst possible precedent, and is inconsistent with the habits of our time." 8. Philosophy and Science. — Philosophy, and particularly moral philosophy, became a necessary study at this time, when the popular religion had lost its influence. In the general ruin of public and private morals, virtuous men found in this science a guide in the dangers by which they were continually threatened, and a consolation in all their sorrows. The Stoic amont'- the other schools met with most favor from this class of men, for it offered better security against the evils of life, and taught men how to take shelter from baseness and profligacy under the influ- ence of virtue and courage. The doctrines of the Stoics suited the rigid sternness of the Koman character. They embodied that spirit of self-devotion and self-denial with which the Roman patriot, in the old times of simple republican virtue, threw him- self into his pubhc duties, and they enabled him to meet death with a courageous spirit in this degenerate age, in which many of the best and noblest willingly died by their own hands, at tho 172 ROMAN LITERATURE. imperial mandate, iu order to save their name from infamy, and their inheritance from confiscation. Seneca (12-69 a.d.), a native of Cordova, in Spain, was the greatest philosopher of this age. He early displayed great talent as a pleader, but in the reign of Claudius, he was banished to Corsica, where he solaced his exile with the study of the Stoic philosophy ; and though its severe precepts exercised no moral influence on his conduct, he not only professed himself a Stoic, but imagined that he was one. A few years after, he was recalled by Agrippina, to become tutor to her son J^ero. He was too unscrupulous a man of the world to attempt the correc- tion of the vicious propensities of his pupil, or to instill into him high principles. After the accession of Nero, he endeavored to arrest his depraved career, but it was too late. Seneca had, by usury and legacy-hunting, amassed one of those large fortunes, of which so many instances are met with in Roman history ; feel- ing the dangers of wealth, he offered his property to Nero, who refused it, but resolved to rid himself of his former tutor, and easily found a pretext for his destruction. In adversity the cha- racter of Seneca shone with brighter lustre. Though he had lived ill, he could die well. He met the messengers of death without trembling. His noble wife, Paulina, determined to die with him. The veins of both were opened at the same time, but the little blood which remained in his emaciated frame refused to flow. He suffered excruciating agony. A warm bath was tried, but in vain ; and a draught of poison was equally ineffectual. At last he was suffocated by the vapor of a stove. Seneca lived in a perilous atmosphere. He had not firmness to act up to the high moral standard which he proposed to him- self. He was avaricious, but avarice was the great sin of his times. The education of one, who was a brute rather than a man, was a task to which no one would have been equal; he therefore retained the influence which he had not the uprightness to com- mand, by miserable and sinful expedients. He had great abili- ties, and some of the noble qualities of the old Eomans ; and had he lived in the days of the republic, he would have been a great man. Seneca was the author of twelve ethical treatises, the best of which are entitled, " On Providence," " On Consolation," and '' On the Perseverance of wise men." He cared little for abstract speculation, and delighted to inculcate precepts ratlier than to investigate principles. He was always a favorite with Christian writers, and some of his sentiments are truly Christian. There is even a tradition that he was acquainted with St. Paul. He may PvO:\rAX LITERATUEE. 173 uncousciously have imbibed some of the principles of Christianity. The Gospel had already made great and rapid strides over the civilized world, and thoughtful minds may have been enlightened by some of the rays of divine truth dispersed by the moral atmosphere, just as we are benefited by the light of the sun, even when its disk is obscured by clouds. His epistles, of which there are 124, are moral essays, and are the most delightful of his works. They are evidently written for the public eye ; they are rich in varied thought, and their reflections flow naturally, and without effort. They contain a free and unconstrained picture of his mind, and we see in them how he despised verbal subtle- ties, the external badges of a sect or creed, and insisted that the great end of science is to learn how to live and how to die. The style of Seneca is too elaborate to please. It is affected, often florid and bombastic ; there is too much sparkle and ghtter, too little repose and simplicity. Pliny the elder (a.d. 23-t9) was born probably at Como, the family residence. He was educated at Rome, where he practised at the bar, and filled different civil offices. He perished a mar- tyr to the cause of science, in the eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the reign of Titus, the first of which there is any record in history The circumstances of his death are described by his nephew, Pliny the younger, in two letters to Tacitus. He was at Misenum, in command of the fleet, when observing the first indications of the eruption, and wishing to investigate it more closely, he fitted out a light galley, and sailed towards the villa of a friend at Stabia3. He found his friend in great alarm, but Pliny remained tranquil and retired to rest. Meanwhile, broad flames burst forth from the volcano, the blaze was reflect- ed from the sky, and the brightness was enhanced by the dark- ness of the night. Repeated shocks of an earthquake made the houses rock to and fro, while in the air the fall of half burnt pumice-stones menaced danger. He was awakened, and he and his friend, with their attendants, tied cushions over their heads to protect them from the falling stones, and walked out to see if they might venture on the water. It was now day, but the darkness was denser than the darkest night, the sea was a waste of stormy waters, and when at last the flames and the sulphu- reous smell could no longer be endured, Phny fell dead, suf- focated by the dense vapor. The natural history of Pliny is an unequalled monument of studious diligence and persevering industry. It consists of thirty- seven books, and contains 20,000 facts (as he believed them to be) connected with nature and art, the result not of original 174 TwOMAX LITERATURE. research, but as he honestly confessed, culled from the labors of other men. Owmg to- the extent of his reading, his love of the marvellous, and his want of judgment in comparing and selecting, he does not present us with a correct view of the science of his own age. He reproduces errors evidently obsolete and inconsistent with facts and theories which had afterwards replaced them. With him, mythological traditions appeared to have almost the same authority as modern discoveries; the earth teems with monsters, not exceptions to the regular order of nature, but specimens of her ingenuity. His peculiar pantheistic belief prepared him to consider nothing incredible, and his temper inclined him to admit all that was credible as true. He tells us of men whose feet were turned backwards, of others whose feet were so large as to shade them when they lay in the sun ; others without mouths, who fed on the fragrance of fruits and flowers. Among the lower animals, he enumerates horned horses furnished with wings ; the mantichora, W'ith the face of a man, three rows of teeth, a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail ; the basilisk, whose very glance is f\ital ; and an insect which cannot live except in the midst of the flames. But notwithstanding his credulity and his want of judgment, this elaborate work contains many valuable truths and much enter- taining information. The prevailing character of his philosophi- cal belief, though tinctured with the stoicism of the day, is queru- lous and melancholy. Believing that nature is an all powerful principle, and the universe instinct with deity, he saw more of evil than of good in the divine dispensation, and the result was a gloomy and discontented pantheism. Celsus prol3ably lived in the reign of Tiberius. He was the author of many works, on various subjects, of which one, in eight books, on medicine, is now extant. The independence of his views, the practical, as w^ell as the scientific nature of his instructions, and above all, his knowledge of surgery, and his clear exposition of surgical operations, have given his work great authority; the highest testimony is borne to its merits by the fact of its being used as a text-book, even in the present advanced state of medical science. The taste of the age in which he lived turned his attention also to polite literature, and to that may be ascribed the Augustan purity of his style. Pomponius Mela lived in the reign of Claudius. He is consi- dered as the representative of the Roman geographers. Though his book, " The Place of the World," is but an epitome of former ROMAN LITERATURE. 1^5 treatises, it is interesting for the simplicity of its style and the purity of its language. Columella flourished in the reigns of Claudius and Xero. He is author of an agricultural work, *'De Re rustica," in which he gives, in smooth and fluent, though somewhat too diffuse a style, the fullest and completest information on practical agriculture among the Romans in the first century of the Christian era. Frontiuus (fl. 78 a.d.) left two valuable works, one on military tactics, the other a descriptive architectural treatise on those wonderful monuments of Roman art, the aqueducts. Besides these there are extant fragments of other works on surveying, and on the laws and customs relating to landed property, which assign Frontiuus an important place in the estimation of the students of Roman history. 9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to Theodoric (138-526 A.D.). — From the death of Augustus, Roman Hterature had gra- dually declined, and though it shone forth for a time with classic radiance in the writings of Persius, Juvenal, QuintiUan, Tacitus, and the Plinics, with the death of freedom, the extinction of patriotism, and the decay of the national spirit, nothing could avert its fall. Poetry had become declamation ; history had de- generated either into fulsome panegyric or the fleshless skeletons of epitomes ; and at length the Romans seemed to disdain the use of their native tongue, and wrote again in Greek, as they had in the infancy of the national literature. The emperor Hadrian resided long at Athens, and became imbued with a taste and admiration for Greek ; and thus the literature of Rome became Hellenized. From this epoch the term classical can no longer be applied to it, for it no longer retained its purity. To Greek influence succeeded the still more corrupting one of foreign nations. With the death of Xerva, the uninterrupted succession of emperors of Roman or Italian birth ceased. Trajan himself was a Spaniard, and after him not only foreigners of every Eu- ropean race, but even Orientals and Africans were invested with the imperial purple, and the empire also over which they ruled was one unwieldy mass of heterogeneous materials. The literary influence of the capital was not felt in the interior portions of the Roman dominions. Schools were established in the very heart of nations just emerging from barbarism ; and though the blessings of civilization and intellectual culture were thus distri- buted far and wide, still literary taste, as it flowed through the minds of foreigners, became corrupted, and the language of the 176 EOMAX LITERATURE. imperial city, exj^osed to the infecting contact of barbarous LdiomS; lost its purity. The Latin authors of this age were numerous, but few had taste to appreciate and imitate the literature of the Augustan age. They may be classified according to their departments of poetry, history, grammar, and oratory, philosophy and science. The brightest star of the poetry of this period was Claudian (365-404 A.D.), in whom the graceful imagination of classical antiquity seems to have revived. He enjoyed the patronage of Stilicho, the guardian and minister of Houorius, and in the praise and honor of him and of his pupil, he wrote " The Kape of Pro- serpine," the "War of the Giants," and several other poems. His descriptions indicate a rich and powerful imagination, but neglect- ing substance for form, his style is often declamatory and affected. Amonsr the earliest authors of Christian hvmns were Hilarius and Prudentins. Those of the former were expressly designed to be sung, and are said to have been set to music by the author himself. Prudentius (fl. 348 a.d.) wrote many hymns and poems in defence of the Christian faith, more distinguished for their pious and devotional character than for their lyric sublimity or purity of language. To this age belong also the hymns of Dama- sus and of Ambrose. Among the historians are Flavius Eutropius, who lived in the 4th century, and by the direction of the emperor Yalens com- posed an "Epitome of Roman History," which was a favorite book in the middle ages. Ammianus Marcellinus, his contem- porary, wrote a Roman history in continuation of Tacitus and Suetonius; though his style is affected and often rough and inaccurate, his work is interesting for its digressions and obser- vations. Severus Sulpicius wrote the history of the Hebrews, and of the four centuries of the church. His " Sacred History," for its language and style, is one of the best works of that age. In the department of oratory may be mentioned Cornelius Eronton, who flourished under Domitian and Nerva, and was endowed with a rich imagination and a mind stored with vast erudition in Greek and Latin literature, Symmachus, distin- guished for his opposition to Christianity, and Cassiodorus, min- ister and secretary of the Emperor Theodoric. In the decline of Roman, as of Greek literature, grammarians took the place of poets and of historians ; they commented on and interpreted the ancient classics, and transmitted to us valuable information concerning the Augustan writers. Among the most important works of this kind are the " Attic Nights " of Gellius, who was born in Rome, and lived under Hadrian KOMAX LITERATUEE. 1^7 and the Antonines. In his work are preserved many vahialjle passages of the classics which would otherwise have been lost. Macrobius, who flourished in the middle of the fifth century, was the author of different works in which the doctrines of the i^eo- Platonic school are expounded. His style, however, is very defective. A striking characteristic of the writings, both in Greek and Latin, of the last ages of the empire, is the prevalence of prin- ciples and opinions imported from the East. The Neo-Platonic school, imbued with oriental mysticism, had diffused the belief in spirits and magic, and the philosophy of this age was a mix- ture of ancient wisdom with new superstitions belonging to the ages of transition between the decadence of the ancient faith and the development of a new religion. The best representative of the philosophy of this age is Apuleius, born in Africa in the reign of Hadrian. After having received his education in Car- thage and Athens, he came to Rome, where he acquired great reputation as a literary man, and as the possessor of extraordi- nary supernatural powers. To his extensive philosophical knowledge and immense erudition, he united great polish of manner and remarkable beauty of person. He wrote much on philosophy ; but his most important work is a romance known as " Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass," containing his philo- sophical and mystic doctrines. In this book, the object of which is to encourage the lielief in mysticism, the writer describes the transformation of a young man into an ass, who is allowed to take his primitive human form only through a knowledge of the mysteries of Isis. The story is well told, and the romance is full of interest and sprighthness ; but its style is incorrect, florid and bombastic. Boethius (470-524), the last of the Roman philosophers, was the descendant of an illustrious family. He made Greek philosophy the principal object of his meditations. He was raised to the highest honors and offices in the emphe by Theo- doric, but finally, through the artifices of enemies who envied his reputation, he lost the favor of his patron, was imprisoned, and at length beheaded. Of his numerous works, founded on the peripatetic philosophy, that which has gained him the greatest celebrity is entitled " On the Consolations of Philoso- phy," composed while he was in prison. It is in the form of a dialogue, in which philosophy appears to console him with the idea of Divine Providence. The poetical part of the book is written with elegance and grace, and his prose, though not pure, is fluent and full of tranquil dignitv. The work of Boe- 8* 178 ROMAN LITERATURE. thius, v.'liicli is known in all modern languages, was translated into Ano-lo-Saxon bv Kino- Alfred, 900 a.d. The fathers of the church followed more particularly the phi- losophy of Plato, which was united and adapted to Christianity. St. Augustine is the most illustrious among the Christian Pla- tonists. The most eloquent orators and writers of this period were found among the advocates of Christianity ; and among the most celebrated of these Latin Fathers of the Christian church, we may mention the following names. TertuUian (160-2S5 a.d.), in his apology for the Christians, gives much information on the manners and conduct of the early Christians ; his style is concise and figurative, but harsh, unpolished and obscure. St. Cyprian (200-258), beheaded at Carthage for preaching the Gospel contrary to the orders of the government, wrote an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, which affords a valuable illustration of the ecclesiastical history of the time. Arnobius (fl. 300) refuted the objections of the heathen against Christianity with spirit and learning, in his " Disputes with the Gentiles," a work rich in materials for the understanding of Greek and Roman mytho- log}^ Lactantius (d. 325), on account of his fine and eloquent language, is frequently called the Christian Cicero ; his " Divine Institutes " are particularly celebrated. St. Ambrose (340-397) obtained great honor by his conduct as Bishop of Milan, and his ^vritings bear the stamp of his high Christian character. St. Augustine (360-430) was one of the most renowned of all the Latin fathers. Though others may have been more learned or masters of a purer style, none more powerfully touched and warmed the heart towards religion. His " City of God " is one of the great monuments of human genius. St. Jerome (330-420) wrote many epistles full of energy and affection, as well as of religious zeal. He made a Latin version of the Old Testament, which w^as the foundation of the Yulgate, and which gave a new impulse to the study of the Holy Scriptures. Leo the Great (11. 440) is the first pope whose WTitings have been preserved. They consist of sermons and letters. His style is finished and rhetorical. 10. Roman Jl'risprudexce. — In the period which followed, from the death of Augustus to the time of the Antonincs, Roman civilians and legal writers continued to be numerous, and as a professional body they seem to have enjoyed high consideration until the close of the reign of Alexander Seve- rus, 335 A.D. After that time they were held in much less ROMAN LITERATURE. 179 estimation, as the science fell into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who practised it as a sordid and pernicious trade. With the reign of Constantine, the credit of the pro- fession revived, and the youth of the empire were stimulated to pursue the study of the law by the hope of being ultimately rewarded bv honorable and lucrative offices, the mag-istrates being almost wholly taken from the class of lawyers. Two jurists of this reign, Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, are par- ticularly distinguished as authors of codes which are known by their names, and which were recognized as standard authorities in courts of justice. The " Code of Theodosius" was a collec- tion of laws reduced by that emperor, and promulgated in both empires 438 a.d. It retained its authority in the western empire until its final overthrow, 4T6 a.d., and even after this, though modified by the institutions of the conquerors. In the eastern empire, it was only superseded by the code of Justinian. Tiiis emperor undertook the task of reducing to order and system the great confusion and perplexity in which the whole subject of Roman jurisprudence was involved. For this purpose he em- ployed the most eminent lawyers, with the celebrated Triboniau at their head, to whom he entrusted the work of forming and publishing a complete collection of the preceding laws and edicts, and who devoted several years of unwearied labor and research to this object. They first collected and reduced the imperial constitutions from the time of Hadrian downwards, which was promulgated as the " Justinian Code." Their next labor was to reduce the writings of the jurisconsults of the pre- ceding ages, especially those who had lived under the empire, and whose works are said to have amounted to two thousand volumes. This work was published 533 a.d., under the title of " Pandects," or " Digest," the former title referring to their completeness as comprehending the whole of Roman jurispru- dence, and the latter to their methodical arrangement. At the same time, a work prepared by Tribonian w^as pablished by the order of the emperor, on the elements or first principles of Roman law, entitled " Institutes," and another collection con- sisting of constitutions and edicts, under the title of " Novels," chiefly written in Greek, but known to the moderns by a Latin translation. Tliese four works, the Code, the Pandects, the Institutes and the Novels, constituted what is now called the Body cf Roman Law. The system of jurisprudence established by Justinian remained in force in the eastern empire until the taking of Constantinople, 1453 A.D. After the fall of the western empire, these laws liad 180 EOMAN LITERATURE. little sway until the twelfth century, when Irnerius, a German lawyer who had studied at Constantinople, opened a school at Bologna, and thus revived and propagated in the West a know- ledge of Roman civil law. Students flocked to this school from all parts, and by them Roman jurisprudence, as embodied in the system of Justinian, was transmitted to most of the coun- tries of Europe. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the process of the debasement of the Roman tongue went on with great rapidity. The influence of the provincials began what the irruptions of the northern tribes consummated. In many scattered parts of the empire it is probable that separate Latin dialects arose, and the change upon the whole structure of the tongue was pro- digious, when the Goths poured into Italy, established them- selves in the capital, and began to speak and ^mte in a language previously foreign to them. With the close of the reign of Theodoric the curtain falls upon ancient literature. AEABIAiSr LITER ATUEE. 1. European Literature in the Dark Ages.— 2. The Arabian Language.— 3. Ara- bian Mythology and the Koran. — i. Historical Development of Arabian Lite- rature.— 5. Grammar and Rhetoric— 6. Poetry.— 7. The Arabian Tales.— 8. History and Science. 1. European Literature in the Dark Ages. — About four hundred and fifty years, from the middle of the 6th century after Christ to the commencement of the 11th, maybe marked out as the period intervening between ancient and modern Hterature, — a period known in history as the Dark Ages. At the first of these epochs classical genius was already extinct, and the purity of the classical tongues was yielding rapidly to the corruptions of the provinces and of the new dialects. At the second epoch, many causes conspired to work great changes in the fabric of societv, and in the manifestations of human intellect. The ao-es that lie between, though not unconnected with those that follow, have some features peculiar to themselves. Throughout their course, the treasures of Greek and Latin literature, exposed to the danger of perishing and impaired by much actual loss, ex- erted no influence on the minds of those who still used the tongues to which they belong. Greek letters, as we have seen, decayed with the Byzantine power, and the vital principle in both became extinct long before the sword of the Turkish conqueror inflicted the final blow. The fate of Latin literature w^as not less deplor- able. When province after province of the Koman dominions was overrun by the northern hordes, when the imperial schools were suppressed and the monuments of ancient genius destroyed, an enfeebled people and a debased language could not withstand such adverse circumstances. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Latin composition degenerated into the rudeness of the monkish style. The care bestowed by Charlemagne upon education in the 9 th century produced some purifying effect upon the writings of the cloister ; the 10th was distinguished by an increased zeal in the task of transcribing the classical authors, and in the 11th the Latin works of the Xormans display some masculine force and freedom. Latin was the repository of such knowledge as ISl 182 AEAllIAX LITEKATUKE. the times could boast ; it was used in the service of the church, and ill the chronicles that supplied the place of history, but it was not the vehicle of any great production stamped with true genius and impressing the minds of jDOsterity. Stiil, genius was not altogether extinguished in every part of Europe. The north, which sent out its daring tribes to change the aspect of civil life, furnished a fresh source of mental inspiration, which was destined, with the recovered influence of the classic spirit and other pro- lific causes, to give birth to some of the best portions of modern literature. At the memorable epoch of the overthrow of the Roman do- minion in the West (476 a.'d.), the seats of the Teutonic race extended from the banks of the E-hine and the Danube to the rock-bound coasts of Norway. The victorious invaders, who occupied the southern provinces of Europe, speedily lost their own forms of speech, which were broken down, together with those of the vanquished, into a jargon unfit for composition. But in Germany and Scandinavia, where the old language retained its purity, song continued to flourish. There, from the most dis- tant eras described by Tacitus and other Latin writers, the favorite attendants of kings and chiefs w^re those celebrated bards w^ho preserved in their traditionary strains the memory of great events, the praises of the gods, the glory of warriors and the laws and customs of their countrymen. Intrusted, like the Grecian heroic minstrelsy, to oral recitation, it w'as not until the propitious reign of Charlemagne that these verses were collected. But, through the bigotry of his successor or the ravages of time, not a fragment of this collection remains. We are enabled, however, to form an idea of the general tone and tenor of this early Teutonic poetry from other interesting remains. The " Xibelungen-Lied," [Lay of the Nihelungeii) and "Heldenbuch" {Book of Heroes) may be regarded as the Homeric poems of Germany. After an ex- amination of their monuments, the ability of the ancient bards, the honor in which they were held, and the enthusiasm which they produced, will not be surprising. Equally distinguished were the Scalds of Scandinavia. Ever in the train of princes and gallant adventurers, they chanted their rhymeless verse for the encouragement and solace of heroes. Their oldest songs, or sagas, are mostly of a historical import. In th^ Icelandic Edda, however, the richest monument of this species of composition, the theological element of their poetry is shadowed out in the most picturesque and fanciful legends. Such was the intellectual state of Europe down to the age of Charlemagne. While ui the once famous seats of arts and arms ARABIAN LITERATURE. 183 scarcely a ray of native genius or courage Avas visible, the light of human intellect still burned in lands whose barbarism had fur- nished matter for the sarcasm of classical writers. Charlemagne encouraged learning, established schools and filled his court with men of letters ; while in England, the illus- trious Alfred, himself a scholar and an author, improved and en- riched the Anglo-Saxon dialect, and exerted the most beneficial influence on his contemporaries. The confusion and debasement of language in the south of Europe has already been alluded to. But the force and activity of mind, that formed an essential characteristic of the conquering race, were destined ultimately to evolve regularity and harmony out of the concussion of discordant elements. The Latin and Teutonic tongues were blended together, and hence proceeded all the chief dialects of modern Europe. Over the south, from Por- tugal to Italy, the Latin element prevailed ; but even where the Teutonic was the chief ingredient, as in the English and German, there has also been a large infusion of the Latin. To these two languages, and to the Proven9al, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, called, from their Roman origin, the Romance or Romanic languages, all that is prominent and precious in modern letters belongs. But it is not until the 11th century that their progress becomes identified with the history of literature. Up to this period there had been little repose, freedom, or peace- ful enjoyment of property. The independence and industry of the middle classes were almost unknown, and the chieftain, the vassal, and the slave, were the characters which stood out in the highest relief. Throughout the whole of the 11th century, the social chaos seemed resolving itself into some approach to order and tranquillity. The gradual abolition of personal servitude, hardly accomplished in three successive centuries, now began. A third estate arose. The rights of cities, and the corporation- spirit, the result of the necessity that drove men to combine for mutual defence, led to intercourse among them and to consequent improvement in language. Chivalry, also, served to mitigate the oppressions of the nobles, and to soften and refine their manners. From the date of the first crusade (1093 a.d.) down to the close of the 12th century, was the golden age of chivalry. The prin- cipal thrones of Europe were occupied by her foremost knights. The East formed a point of union for the ardent and adventurous of different countries, whose courteous rivalry stimulated the growth of generous sentiments and the passion for brave deeds. The genius of Europe was roused by the passage of thousands of her sons through Greece into Asia and Egypt, amidst the 184 ARABIAN LITERATURE. ancient seats of art, science and refinement. The minds of men received a fresh and powerful impulse. They were led to compare, to reflect, to aspire and to imitate. It Avas during the 11th century that the brilliancy of the Arabian literatiii'e reached its culminating point, and through the intercourse of the Troubadours with the Moors of the peninsula, and of the Crusa- ders with the Arabs in the East, began to influence the progress of letters in Europe. The sudden rise of the Arabian empire, and the rapid development of its literature, were the great phe- nomena of the period of which we are speaking. 2. The Arabian Language. — The Arabian lansruage belono-s to the Semitic family; it has two principal dialects — the northern, which has, for centuries, been the general tongue of the empire, and is best represented in literature, and the southern, a branch of wliich is supposed to be the mother of the Ethioj^ian language. The former, in degenerated dialects, is still spoken in Arabia, in parts of western Asia and throughout northern Africa, and forms an important part of tlie Turkish, Persian and other oriental languages. The Arabic is characterized by its guttural sounds, by the richness and pliability of its vowels, by its dignity, volume of sound, and vigor of accentuation and pronunciation. Like all Semitic languages, it is written from right to left ; the characters are of Syrian origin, and were introduced into Arabia before the time of jMohammed. They are of two kinds, the Cu/ic, which were first used, and the JVeskhi, which superseded thein, and which continue in use at the present day. The Arabic alphabet was, with a few modifications, early adopted by the Persians and Turks. 3. Arabian Mythology and the Koran. — Before the time of Mohammed, the Arabians were gross idolaters. They had some traditionary idea of the unity and perfections of the Deity, but their creed embraced an immense number of sub- ordinate divinities, represented by images of men and women, beasts and birds. The essential basis of their religion was Sabeism, or star-worship. The number and beauty of the hea- venly luminaries, and the silent regularity of their motions, could not fail deeply to impress the minds of this imaginative people, living in the open air, under the clear and serene sky, and wan- dering among the deserts, oases, and picturesque mountains of Arabia. They had seven celebrated temples dedicated to the seven planets. Some tribes exclusively reverenced the moon ; others the dog-star. Some had received the religion of ARABIAN LITEEATURE. 185 the Magi, or firc-Avorsliippers, while others had become converts to Judaism. Ishmael is one of the most venerated progenitors of the nation; and it is beUeved by them that Mecca, then an arid wilderness, was the spot where his life was providentially saved, and where Ilagar, his mother, was buried. The well pointed out by the angel, they believe to be the famous Zemzem, of which all pious Mohammedans drink to this day. To commemorate the miracu- lous preservation of Ishmael, God commanded Abraham to build a temple, and he erected and consecrated the Caaba, or sacred house, which is still venerated in Mecca ; and the black stone incased within its walls is the same on which Abraham stood. Mohammed (569-632 a.d.) did not pretend to introduce a new religion ; his professed object was merely to restore the primitive and only true faith, such as it had l^een in the days of the patriarchs ; the fundamental idea of which was the unity of God. He made the revelations of the Old and New Testaments the basis of his preaching. He maintained the authority of the books of Moses, admitted the divine mission of Jesus, and he enrolled himself in the catalogue of inspired teachers. This doc- trine was proclaimed in the memorable words, which for so many centuries constituted the war cry of the Saracens — There is no God hut God, and Mohammed is his apostle. Mohammed preached no dogmas substantially new, but he adorned, ampli- tied and adapted to the ideas, prejudices and inclinations of the orientals, doctrines which were as old as the race. He enjoined the ablutions suited to the manners and necessities of hot climates. He ordained five daily prayers, that man might learn habitually to elevate his thoughts above the outward world. He instituted the festival of the Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, and commanded that every man should bestow in alms the hundredth part of his possessions ; observances which, for the most part, already existed in the established customs of the country. The Koran (Reading), the sacred book of the Moham- medans, is, according to their belief, the revelation of God to their prophet Mohammed. It contains not only their religious belief, but their civil, military and political code. It is divided into 114 chapters, and 1666 verses. The Koran is written in rhythmical prose, and its materials are bor- rowed from the Jewish and Christian scriptures, the legends of the Talmud, and the traditions and fables of the Arabian a ad Persian mythologies. It is not written according to the rules of rhetoricians. Confusion of ideas, obscurity and contra- 18G ARABIAN LITERATURE. dictions destroy tlie unity and even the interest of this work. The chapters are preposterously distributed, not according to their date or connection, but accordinj^ to their length, beginning with the longest, and ending with the shortest ; and thus the work becomes often the more unintelligible by its singular arrangement. But notwithstanding this, there is scarcely a volume in the Arabic language which contains passages breathing more sub- lime poetry, or more enchanting eloquence ; and the Koran is so far important in the history of Arabian letters, that when the scattered leaves were collected by Abubeker, the successor of Mohammed (635 a.d.), and afterwards revised, in the 30th year of the Ilegira, they lixed at once the classic language of the Arabs, and became their standard in style as well as in religion. This work and its commentaries are held in the highest reve- rence by the Mohammedans. It is the principal book taught in their schools ; they never touch it without kissing it, and carry- ing it to the forehead, in token of their reverence ; oaths before the courts are taken upon it ; it is learned by heart, and repeated every forty days ; many believers copy it several times in their lives, and often possess one or more copies ornamented with gold and precious stones. The Koran treats of death, resurrection, the judgment, para- dise and the place of torment, in a style calculated powerfully to affect the imagination of the believer. The joys of paradise, promised to all who fall in the cause of religion, are those most captivating to an Arabian fancy. When Al Sirat, or the Bridge of Judgment, which is as slender as the thread of a famished spi- der, and as sharp as the edge of a sword, shall be passed by the behever, he will be welcomed into the gardens of delight by black-eyed Houris, beautiful nymphs, not made of common clay, but of pure essence and odors, free from all blemish, and subject to no decay of virtue or of beauty, and who await their destined lovers in rosy bowers, or in pavilions formed of a single hollow pearl. The soil of paradise is composed of musk and safiVon, sprinkled with pearls and hyacinths. The walls of its mansions are of gold and silver ; the fruits, which bend spontaneously to him who would gather them, are of a flavor and delicacy un- known to mortals. Numerous rivers How through this blissful abode; some of wine, others of milk, honey and water, the peb- bly beds of which are rubies and emeralds, and their banks of musk, camphor and saffron. In paradise the enjoyment of the believers, which is subject neither to satiety nor diminution, will be greater than the human understanding can compass. The meanest among thera will have eighty thousand servants, and ARABIAN LITERATURE. 187 seventy-two wives. Wine, tliougli forbidden on earth, will there be freely allowed, and will not hurt or inebriate. The ravishino: sono-s of the ang-els and of the Houris will render all the groves vocal with harmony, such as mortal ear never heard. At whatever age they may have died, at their resurrection all will be in the prime of manly and eternal vigor. It would be a journey of a thousand years for a true Mohammedan to travel through paradise, find behold all the wives, servants, gardens, robes, jewels, horses, camels and other things, which belong exclusively to him. The hell of Mohammed is as full of terror, as his heaven is of dehght. The wicked, who fall into the gulf of torture from the bridge of Al Sirat, will suffer alternately from cold and heat; when they are thirsty, boiling water will be given them to drink : and thcv will be shod with shoes of fire. The dark man- sions of the Christians, Jews, Sabeans, Magians and idolaters are sunk below each other with increasina: horrors, in the order of their names. The seventh or lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites of every religion. Into this dismal recep- tacle the unhappy sutterer will be dragged by seventy thousand halters, each pulled by seventy thousand angels, and exposed to the scourge of demons, whose pastime is cruelty and pain. It is a portion of the faith inculcated in the Koran, that both angels and demons exist, having pure and subtle bodies, created of fire, and free from human appetites and desires. The four principal angels are Gabriel, the angel of revelation ; Michael, the friend and protector of the Jews ; Azrael, the angel of death ; and Izrafel, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the last day. Every man has two guardian angels to attend him and record his actions, good and evU. The doctrine of the angels, demons and jins or genii, the Arabians probably derived from the Hebrews. The demons are fallen angels, the prince of whom is Ehlis ; he was at first one of the angels nearest to God's presence, and was called Azazd. He was cast out of heaven, according to the Koran, for refusing to pay homage to Adam at the time of the creation. The genii are intermediate creatures, neither wholly spiritual nor wholly earthly, some of wdiom are good and entitled to salvation, and others infidels and devoted to eternal torture. Among them are several ranks and degrees, as the Peris, or fanies, beautiful female spirits, who seek to do good upon the earth, and the Deev, or giants, who frequently make war upon the Peris, take them captive and shut them up in cages. The genii, both good and bad, have the power of making themselves invisible at pleasure. 188 ARABIAN LITERATURE. Besides tlie moiintaiu of Kaf, which is their chief place of resort, they dwell in ruined cities, uninhabited houses, at the bottom of wells, in woods, pools of water and among the rocks and sand- hills of the desert. Shooting stars are still believed by the people of the East to be arrows shot by the angels against the genii, who transgress these hmits and approach too near the forbidden regions of bliss. Many of the genii delight in mischief ; they surprise and mislead travellers, raise whirlwinds and dry up springs in the desert. The Ghoul lives on the flesh of men and women, whom he decoys to his haunts in wild and barren places, in order to kill and devour them, and when he cannot thus obtain food, he enters the graveyards and feeds upon the bodies of the dead. The fairy mythology of the Arabians was introduced into Europe in the 11th century by the Troubadours and writers of the romances of chivalry, and through them it became an im- portant element in the literature of Europe. It constituted the machinery o^ i\\Q FaUiaux oi iliQ Trouveres, and of the romantic epics of Boccaccio, Ariosto,Tasso,Spenser, Shakspeare and others. The three leadino- Mohammedan sects are the Sunnees, the Sheahs and the Wahabees. The Sunnees acknowledge the authority of the first Caliphs, from whom most of the traditions were derived. The Sheahs assert the divine right of Ali to succeed to the prophet ; consequently they consider the first Caliphs, and all their successors, as usurpers. The Wahabees are a sect of religious reformers, who took their name from Abd al Wahab (1700-1150), the Luther of the Mohammedans. They became a formidable power in Arabia, but they were finally overcome by Ibrahim Pacha in 1816. 4. Historical development of the Arabian Literature. — The literature of the Arabians has, properly speaking, but one period ; although from remote antiquity poetry was with them a favorite occupation, and long before the time of Mohammed the roving tribes of the desert had their annual conventions, where they defended their honor and celebrated their heroic deeds. As early as the 5th century a.d., at the fair of Ochadh, thirty days every year were employed not only in the exchange of merchandise, but in the nobler display of rival talents. A place was set apart for the competitions of the bards, whose liighest ambition was to conquer in this literary arena, and the victorious compositions were inscribed in golden letters upon Egyptian paper, and suspended upon the doors of the Caaba, the ancient national sanctuary of Mecca. Seven of the most famous of these ancient poets have been celebrated by oriental ARABIAN LITERATURE. 189 writers under the title of tlie Arabian Pleiades, and their songs, still preserved, are full of passion, manly pride, and intensity of iniao'ination and feelinir. These and similar effusions constituted the entire literature of Arabia, and were the only archives of the nation previous to the age of Mohammed. The peninsula of Arabia, hitherto restricted to its natural Ijoundaries, and peopled by wandering tribes, had occupied but a subordinate place in the history of the world. But the success of Mohammed and the preaching of the Koran were fol- lowed by the union of the tribes who, inspired by the feelings of national pride and religious fervor, in less than a century made the Arabian power, tongue and religion predominant over a third j^art of Asia, almost one-half of Africa, and a part of Spain, and, from the 9th to the 16th century, the lite- rature of the Arabians far surpassed that of any contemporary nation. After the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century a.d., when the western world sunk into barbarism, and the inhabitants, ever menaced by famine or the sword, found full occupation in struggling against civil wars, feudal tyranny and the invasion of barbarians ; when poetry was unknown, philosophy was proscribed as rebellion against religion, and barbarous dialects had usurped the place of that beautiful Latin language which had so long connected the nations of the West, and preserved to them so many treasures of thought and taste, the Arabians, who by their conquests and fanaticism had contributed more than any other nation to abolish the cultivation of science and literature, having at length established their empire, in turn devoted themselves to letters. Masters of the country of the magi and the Chaldeans, of Egypt, the first storehouse of human science, of Asia Minor, where poetry and the fine arts had their birth, and of Africa, the country of impetuous eloquence and subtle intellect — they seemed to unite in themselves the advan- tages of all the nations which they had thus subjugated. Innu- meral)le treasures had been the fruit of their conquests, and this hitherto rude and uncultivated nation now began to indulge in the most unbounded luxury. Possessed of all the dehghts that human industry, quickened by boundless riches, could pro- cure, with all that could flatter the senses and attach the heart to life, they now attempted to mingle with these the pleasures of the intellect, the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and all that is most excellent in human knowledge. In this new career, their conquests were not less rapid than they had been in the field ; nor was the empire which they founded less extended 190 ARABIAX LITEKATUKE. With a celerity equally surprising, it rose to a gigantic height, but it rested on a foundation no less insecure, and it was quite as transitory in its duration. The Hegira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, corresponds with the year 622 of our era, and the supposed burning of the Alexandrian library by Amrou, the general of the Caliph Omar, with the year 641. This is the period of the deepest barbarism among the Saracens, and this event, doubtful as it is, has left a melancholy proof of their contempt for letters. A century had scarcely elapsed from the period to which this Ijarbarian outrage is referred, when the family of tlie Abassides, who mounted tiie throne of the Caliphs in T50, introduced a passionate love of art, of science and of poetry. In the litera- ture of Greece, nearly eight centuries of progressive cultivation succeeding the Trojan war had prepared the way for the age of Pericles. In that of Rome, the age of Augustus was also in the eighth century after the foundation of the city. In French literature, the age of Louis XIY. was twelve centuries subse- quent to Clovis, and eight after the development of the first rudiments of the language. But, in the rapid progress of the Arabian empire, the age of Al Mamoun, the Augustus of Bag- dad, was not removed more than one hundred and fifty years from the foundation of the monarchy. All the literature of the Arabians bears the marks of this rapid development. Ali, the fourth Caliph from Mohammed, was the first who extended any protection to letters. His rival and successor, Moawyiah, the first of the Ommyiades (661-680), assembled at his court all who were most distinguished by scientific acquirements ; he surrounded himself with poets ; and as he had subjected to his dominion many of the Grecian islands and provinces, the sciences of Greece under him first began to obtain anv influence over the Arabians. After the extinction of the dynasty of the Ommyiades, that of the Abassides bestowed a still more powerful patronage on letters. The celebrated Haroun al Raschid (786-809) acquired a glorious reputation by the protection he afforded to letters. He never undertook a journey without carrying with him at least a hundred men of science in his train, and he never built a mosque without attaching to it a school. But the true protector and father of Arabic literature was Al Mamoun, the son of Haroun al Raschid (813-833), who ren- dered Bagdad the centre of literature. He invited to his court from every part of the world all the learned men with whose existence he was acquainted, and he retained them by rewards, ARABIAN LITERATURE. 191 honors and distinctions of every kind. He exacted, as the most precious tribute from the conquered provinces, all the important books and literary relics that could be discovered. Hundreds of camels mi2:ht be seen enterino- Bao'dad, loaded with nothintc but manuscripts and papers, and those most proper for instruc- tion were translated into Arabic. Instructors, translators and commentators formed the court of Al Mamoun, which appeared to be rather a learned academy, than the seat of government in a warlike empu'e. The Caliph himself was much attached to the study of mathematics, which he pursued with brilHant success. He conceived the grand design of measuring the earth, which was accomplished by his mathematicians, at his own expense. Xot less generous than enlightened, Al jMamoun, when he par- doned one of his relatives who had revolted against him, ex- claimed, " If it were known what pleasure I experience in grant- ing pardon, all who have offended against me would come and confess their crimes." The progress of the Arabians in science was proportioned to the zeal of the sovereign. In every town of the empire schools, colleges and academies were established. Bagdad was the capital of letters as well as of the Caliphs, but Bassora and Cufa almost equalled that city in reputation, and in the number of celebrated poems and treatises that they produced. Balkh, Ispahan and Samarcand were equally the homes of science. Cairo contained a great number of colleges ; in the towns of Fez and Morocco the most magnificent buildings were appro- priated to the purposes of instruction, and in their rich libraries Avere preserved those precious volumes, which had been lost in other places. What Bagdad was to Asia, Cordova was to Europe, \a here, particularly in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Arabs were the pillars of literature. At this period, when learning found scarcely anywhere either rest or encouragement, the Arabians were employed in collecting and diffusing it in the three great divisions of the world. Students travelled from France and other European countries to the Arabian schools in Spain, par- ticularly to learn medicine and mathematics. Besides the academy at Cordova, there were established fourteen others in different parts of Spain, exclusive of the higher schools. The Arabians made the most rapid advancement in all the depart- ments of learning, especially in arithmetic, geometry and astrono- my. In the various cities of Spain, seventy libraries were opened for public instruction at the period when all the rest of Europe, without books, without learning, without cultivation^ 192 ARAEIAX LITERATURE. was plunged in the most disgraceful ignorance. The number of Arabic authors which Spain produced was so prodigious, that many Arabian bibliographers wrote learned treatises on the au- thors born in particular towns, or on those among the Spaniards who devoted themselves to a single branch of study, as philoso- phy, medicine, mathematics or poetry. Thus, throughout the vast extent of the Arabian empire, the progress of letters had fol- lowed that of arms, and for five centuries this literature pre- served all its brilliancy. 5. Grammar axd Rhetoric. — The perfection of the language was one of the first objects of the Arabian scholars, and from the rival schools of Cufa and Bassora, a number of distinguished men proceeded, who analyzed with the greatest subtlety all its rules and aided in perfecting it. As early as in the age of Ali, the fourth Caliph, Arabian literature boasted of a number of scientific grammarians. Prosody and the metric art were reduced to systems. Dictionaries of the language were com- posed, some of which are highly esteemed at the present day. Among these, may be mentioned the " Al Sehah," or Purity, and " El Kamus," or the Ocean, which is considered the best dic- tionary of the Arabian language. The study of rhetoric was united to that of grammar, and the most celebrated works of the Greeks on this art were translated and adapted to the Arabic. After the age of Mohammed and his immediate suc- cessors, popular eloquence was no longer cultivated. Eastern despotism having supplanted the liberty of the desert, the heads of the state or army regarded it beneath them to harangue the people or the soldiers ; they called upon them only for obedience. But though political eloquence was of short duration among the Arabians, on the other hand they were the inventors of that species of rhetoric most cultivated at the present day, that of the academy and the pulpit. Their philosophers in these learned assemblies displayed all the measured harmony of which their language was susceptible. Mohammed had ordained that his faith should be preached in the mosques ; many of the harangues of these sacred orators are still preserved in the Escurial, and the style of them is very similar to that of the Christian orators. 6. Poetry. — Poetry still more than eloquence was the favor- ite occupation of the Arabians from their origin as a nation. It is said that this people alone have produced more poets than all others united. Mohammed himself, as well as some of his ARABIAX LITERATURE. 193 first companions, cultivated this art, but it was under Haroun al Rascbid and bis successor, Al Mamoun, and more especially under tbe Ommyiades of Spain that Arabic poetry attained its highest splendor. But the ancient impetuosity of expression, the passionate feeling, and the spirit of individual independence no longer characterized the productions of this period, nor is there among the numerous constellations of Arabic poets any star of distinguished magnitude. With tbe exception of Mo- hammed and a few of the Saracen conquerors and sovereigns, there is scarcely an individual of this nation whose name is famiUar to the nations of Christendom. The Arabians possess many heroic poems composed for the purpose of celebrating the praises of distinguished men, and of animating the courage of their soldiers. They do not, however, boast of any epics ; their poetry is entirely lyric and didactic. They have been inexhaustible in their love poems, then' elegies, their moral verses — among which their fables may be reckoned — tbeir eulogistic, satirical, descriptive, and above all, their didactic poems, which have graced even the most abstruse science as grammar, rhetoric and arithmetic. But among all their poems, the catalogue alone of which, in the Escurial, consists of twenty- four volumes, there is not a single epic, comedy or tragedy. In those branches of poetry which they cultivated they dis- played surprising subtlety and great refinement of thought, but the fame of tbeir compositions rests, in some degree, on their bold metaphors, their extravagant allegories, and their excessive hyperboles. The Arabs despised tbe poetry of the Greeks, which appeared to them timid, cold and constrained, and among all the books which, with almost superstitious veneration, they borrowed from them, there is scarcely a single poem which they judged worthy of translation. The ol>ject of the Arabian poets was to make a brilliant use of tbe boldest and most gigantic images, and to astonish tbe reader by tbe abruptness of tbeir expressions. They burdened their compositions with riches, under tbe idea that nothing which was beautiful could be superfluous. They neglected natural sentiment, and the more they could multiply the ornaments of art, the more admirable in theb eyes did the work appear. Tbe nations who possessed a classical poetry, in imitating na- ture, had discovered the use of the epic and the drama, in which the poet endeavors to express the true language of the human heart. The people of tbe East, with the exception of the Hin- dus, never made this attempt — their poetry is entirely lyric; but under whatever name it may be known, it is always found to be 9 194 AEABIAlSr LITERATURE. the language of the passions. The poetry of tlie Arabians is rhymed Hke our own, and the rhyming is often carried still fur- ther in the construction of the verse, while the uniformity of sound is frequently echoed throughout the whole expression. The collection made by Aboul Teman (fl. 845 a.d.) containhig the Arabian poems of the age anterior to Mohammed, and that of Taoleti, which embraces the poems of the subsequent periods, are considered the richest and most complete anthologies of Ara- bian poetry. 1. The Arabian Tales. — If the Arabs have neither the epic nor the drama, they have been, on the other hand, the inventors of a style of composition which is related to the epic, and which supplies among them the place of the drama. We owe to them those tales, the conception of which is so brilliant and the imagin- ation so rich and varied : tales which have been the delight of our infancy, and which at a more advanced age we can never read without feeling their enchantment anew. Every one is acquainted with the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments;" but in our translation we possess but a very small part of the Arabian collection, Avhich is not confined merely to books, but forms the treasure of a numerous class of men and women, who, through- out the East, find a livelihood in reciting these tales to crowds, who delight to forget the present, in the pleasing dreams of imagination. In the coffee-houses of the Levant, one of these men will gather a silent crowd around him, and picture to his audience those brilliant and fantastic visions, which are the patrimony of eastern imaginations The public squares abound with men of this class, and their recitations supply the place of our dramatic representations. The physicians frequently recom- mend them to their patients in order to soothe pain, to calm agitation, or to produce sleep ; and these story-tellers, accus- tomed to sickness, modulate their voices, soften their tones, and gently suspend them as sleep steals over the sufferer. Tlie imagination of the Arabs in these tales is easily distin- guished from that of the chivalric nations. The supernatural world is the same in both, but the moral world is different. The Arabian tales, like the romances of chivalry, convey us to the fairy realms, but the human personages which they introduce are very dissimilar. They had their birth after the Arabians had devoted themselves to commerce, literature and the arts, and we recognize in them the style of a mercantile people, as we do that of a warlike nation in the romances of chivalry. Yalor and military achievements ARABIAX LITJEKATUKE. 195 here inspire terror but no entlmsiasm, and on this account the Arabian tales are often less noble and heroic than we usually expect in compositions of this nature. But on the other hand, the Arabians are our masters in the art of producing and sustaining this kind of fiction. They are the creators of that brilliant mTtholo2:v of fairies and o-enii which extends the bounds of the world, and carries us into the realms of marTels and prodigies. It is from them that European nations have derived that intoxi- cation of love, that tenderness and delicacy of sentiment, and that reverential awe of women, by turns slaves and divinities, which have operated so povrerfully on their chivalrous feelings. We trace their effects in all the literature of the south, "which owes to this cause its mental character. Manv of these tales had separately found their way into the poetic literature of Europe, long before the translation of the Arabian ^S^ights. Some arc to be met within the old fahliaux, in Boccaccio and in Ariosto, and these very tales which have charmed our infancy, passing from nation to nation through channels frequently unknown, arc now familiar to the memory and form the delidit of the imacin- ation of half the inhabitants of the globe. The author of the original Araljic work is unknown, as is also the period at which it was composed. It was first intro- duced into Europe from Syria, where it was obtained, in the lat- ter part of the Itth century, by Galland, a French traveller, who was sent to the East by the celebrated Colbert, to collect manu- scripts, and by him first translated and pubhshed. 8. History and Science. — As early as the 8th century a.d., history became an important department in Arabian literature. At later periods, historians who wrote on all subjects were nu- merous. Several authors wrote universal history from the begin- ning of the world to their own time ; every state, province, and city possessed its individual chronicle. Many, in imitation of Plutarch, wrote the hves of disting^uished men : and there was such a passion for every species of composition, and such a desire to leave no subject untouched, that there was a serious history written of celebrated horses, and another of camels that had risen to distinction. They possessed historical dictionaries, and made use of all those inventions which curtail labor, and dispense with the necessity of research. Every art and science had its history, and of these this nation possessed a more complete col- lection than any other, either ancient or modern. The style of the Arabian historians is simple and unadorned. Philosophy was passionately cultivated by the Arabians, and 196 ARABIAN LlTERxVTUEE. upon it was founded the fame of many ingenious and sagacious men, whose names are still revered in Europe. Among them, were Averrhoes of Cordova (d. 1198), the great commentator on tlie works of Aristotle, and Avicenna (d. 1037), a profound philo- sopher as well as a celebrated writer on medicine. Arabian philosophy penetrated rapidly into the West, and had greater influence on the schools of Europe than any branch of Arabic literature ; and yet it was the one in which the progress was, in fact, the least real. The Arabians, more ingenious than pro- found, attached themselves rather to the subtleties than to the connection of ideas ; their object was more to dazzle than to in- struct, and they exhausted their imaginations in search of mys- teries. Aristotle was worshipped by them, as a sort of divinity In their opinion all philosophy was to be found in his writings, and they explained every metaphysical question according to the scholastic standard. The interpretation of the Koran formed another important part of their speculative studies, and their literature abounds with exegetic works on their sacred book, as well as with com- mentaries on Mohammedan law. The learned Arabians did not confine themselves to the studies which they could only pro- secute in their closets ; they undertook, for the advancement of science, the most perilous journeys, and we owe to Aboul Feda (1273-1331) and other Arabian travellers the best works on geography written in the middle ages. The natural sciences were cultivated by them with great ardor, and many naturalists among them merit the gratitude of poste- rity. Botany and chemistry, of which they were in some sort the inventors, gave them a better acquaintance with nature than the Greeks or Romans ever possessed, and the latter science was applied by them to all the necessary arts of life. Above all, agri- culture was studied by them with a perfect knowledge of the climate, soil and growth of plants. From the 8th to the 11th century, they established medical schools in the principal cities of their dominions, and published valuable works on medical science. They introduced more simple principles into mathe- matics, and extended the use and application of that science. They added to arithmetic the decimal system, and the Arabic numerals, which, however, are of Hindu origin ; they simplified the trigonometry of the Greeks, and gave algebra more useful and general applications. Bagdad tind Cordova had celebrated schools of astronomy and observatories, and their astronomers made important discoveries ; a great number of scientific words are evidently Arabic, such as algebra, alcohol, zenith, nadir, etc., ARABIAN LITERATUEE. 197 and many of the inyentions, ^yhicll at the present day add to the comforts of life, are due to the Arabians. Pajicr, now so neces- sary to the progress of intellect, was brought by them from Asia. In China, from all antiquity, it had been manufactured from silk, but about the year 30 of the Hegira (649 a.d.) the manufacture of it was introduced at Samarcand, and when that city was conc[uered by the Arabians, they hrst employed cotton in the place of silk, and the invention spread with rapidity throughout their dominions. The Spaniards, in fabricating paper, substituted flax for cotton, which was more scarce and dear; but it was not till the end of the 13th century, that paper mills were established in the Christian states of Spain, from whence the invention passed, in the 14th century only, to Treviso and Padua. Tournaments were first instituted among the Ara- bians, from whom they were introduced into Italy and France. Gunpowder, the discovery of which is generally attributed to a German chemist, was known to the Arabians at least a century before any trace of it appeared in European history. The com- pass, also, the invention of which has been given alternately to the Italians and French in the 13th centurv, was known to the Arabians in the 11th. The number of Arabic inventions, of which we enjoy the benefit without suspecting it, is prodigious. Such, then, was the brilliant hght which literature and science displayed from the 9 th to the 14th century of our era in those vast countries which had submitted to the yoke of Islamism. In this immense extent of territory, twice or thrice as laro-e as Europe, nothing is now found but ignorance, slavery, terror and death. Few men are there capable of reading the works of their illustrious ancestors, and of the few who could comprehend them, none are able to procure them. The prodigious literary riches of the Arabians no longer exist in any of the countries where the Arabians or Mussulmans rule. It is not there that we must seek for the fame of their great men or for their writings. What has been preserved is in the hands of their enemies, in the con- vents of the monks, or in the royal libraries of Europe. ITALIAN LITEEATUEE. Introduction.— 1. Italian Literature and its Divisions.— 2. The Language. Period First.— 1. Early Poetry and Prose.— 2. ^ante ; the Divine Comedy.— 8. Pe- trarch.— i. Boccaccio and other prose writers ; Villani, Sacchetti.— 5. The first decline of Italian Literature ; the fifteenth Century, Period Second.— 1. The close of the fifteenth Century ; Lorenzo de' Medici— 2. The origin of the Drama and Ptomantic Epic ; Poliziano, Pulci, Boiardo. — 3. Romantic Epic Poetry; Ariosto.— 4. Heroic Epic Poetry; Tasso.— 5. Lyric Poetry; Bembo, Molza, Tarsia, V. Colonna..— 6. Dramatic Poetry; Trissino, Rucellai, the writers of Comedy. —7. Pastoral Drama and Didactic Poetry; Beccari, Sannazzaro, Tasso, Guarini, Rucellai, Alamanni.— S. Satirical Poetry, Novels and Tales ; Berni, Grazzini, Firenzu- ola, Bandello, and others.— 9. History ; Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Nardi, and others. — 10 Grammar and Rhetoiic ; the Acmdemy del la, C/'USca, Bella, Casa, Speroni, and others.— 11. Science, Philosophy and Politics; the Academy del Cimenio, Galileo, Torricelli, Borelli, Patrizi, Telesio, Campanella, Bruno, Castlglione, Machiavelli, and others. — 12. Decline of the Literature in the seventeenth Century. — 13. Epic and Lyric Poetry; Jlarini, Filicaja. — 14. Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama and Satire; Tassoni, Bracciolini, Andi-eini, and others. — 15. History and epistolary writings ; Davila, Benti- voglio, Sarpi, Redi. Period Tuird.— 1. Historical Development of the Third Period.— 2. The Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio. — 3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and others. — 4. Tragedy ; Maffei, Alfieri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and others.— 5. Lyric, Epic, and Didactic Poetry; Parini, Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Leopardi, Grossi, Lorenzi, and others. — G. Heroic- Comic Poetrj', Satire, and Fable; Fortiguerri, Passeroni, G. Gozzi, Parini, Giusti, and others. — 7. Romances ; Verri, Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Cantu, Guerrazzi, and others. — 8. History; Muratori, Vico, Giannone, Botta, Colletta, Tiraboschi, and others. — 9. Esthetics, Criticism, Philology, and Philosophy; Baretti, Parini, Giordani, Gioja, Romagnosi, Galluppi, Rosmini, GiobertL IXTRODUCTION. 1. Italian Literature and its Divisions. — Tlie fall of tlie Western Empire, the iiivasions of the nortlierii tribes, and the subsequent wars and calamities, did not entirely extinguish the fire of genius in Italy. As we liave seen, the Crusades had opened the East and revealed to Europe its literary and artistic treasures ; the Arabs had established a celebrated school of medicine in Salerno, and had made known the ancient classics ; a school of jurisprudence was opened in Bologna, where Roman law was expounded by eminent lecturers ; and the spirit of chivalry, while it softened and refined human character, awoke the desire of distinction in arms and poetry. The origin of the 193 ITALIAN LITERATURE. 199 Italian republics, giving scope to individual agency, marked another era in civilization ; wliile the appearance of the Italian language quickened the national mind and led to a new literature. The spirit of freedom, awakened as early as the 11th century, received new life in the 12th, when the Lombard cities, becoming independent, formed a powerful league against Frederick Barba- rossa. The instinct of self-defence thus developed increased the necessity of education. Mcanv\'hile, a kingdom was formed in Sicily, where, at the court of Frederick II., the new language re- ceived its first impulse to refinement, and poetry was first culti- vated. In the loth and 14th centuries, Italian literature acquired its national character and rose to its highest splendor, through the writings of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, whose infiuence has been more or less felt in succeeding centuries. Dante, above all, has been the ruling spirit of Italian literature, which has risen or declined, as the inspu'ations of this great genius have been more or less regarded. The Uterary history of Italy may be divided into three peri- ods, each of which presents two distinct phases, one of progress and one of decline. The first period, extending from 1100 to 14:75, embraces the origin of the literature, its development through the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the loth and llth centuries, and its first decline in the 15th, when it was Eupplauted by the absorbing study of the Greek and Latin classics. The second period, commencing 1475, embraces the age of Lorenzo de' Medici and Leo X., when literature began to revive ; the age of Ariosto, Tasso, Machiavelli and Galileo, when it reached its meridian splendor ; its subsequent decline, through the school of Marini ; and its last revival towards the close of the 17 th century. The third period, extending from the close of the 17th cen- tury to the present time, includes the development of Italian literature, its decline under French influence, and its subsequent national tendency, through the writings of Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Parini, Monti, Manzoni and Leopardi. 2. The Language. — The ancient popular dialects of Italy cominc^ in contact with the Latin, or rather with the lan \ ITALIAN LITER ATUKE. 225 tions and piquant satire, as tliey are wanting in decorum and morality. The story-tellers of tlie 16tli century are numerous. Some- times they appear as followers of Boccaccio ; sometimes they attempt to open new paths for themselves. The class of pro- ductions, of which tlie " Decameron" was the earliest example in the 14th century, is called by the Itahans " Novelle." In general, the interest of the tale depends rather on a number of incidents slighty touched, than on a few carefully delineated ; from the difiiculty of developing character in a few isolated scenes, the story-teller trusts for efl'ect to the combination of incident and style, and the delineation of character, which is the nobler part of fiction, is neglected. Italian novelists, too, have often regarded the incidents themselves but as a vehicle for fine ^vriting. An interesting view of these productions is, that they form a vast repository of incident, in which we recognize the origin of much that has since appeared in our own and other languages. Machiavelli was one of the first novelists of this age. His little tale, " Belfagor," is pleasantly told, and has been trans- lated into all languages. The celebrated " Giulietta," of Luigi da Porta, is the sole production of the author, but it has served to give him a high place among Italian novelists. This is Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet in another shape, though it is not probable that it was the immediate source from which the great dramatist collected the materials for his tragedv. The ''Hundred Tales" of Cinzio Giraldi (1504-1573) are distin- guished by great boldness of conception, and by a wild and tragic horror which commands the attention, while it is revolting to the feelings. He appears to have ransacked every age and country, and to have exhausted the catalogue of human crimes in procuring subjects for his novels. Grazzini, called Lasca (1503-1583), is perhaps the best of the Italian novelists after Boccaccio. His manner is light and graceful. His stories display much ingenuity, but are often improbable and cruel in their nature. The Fairy Tales of Strapparola (b. 1500) are the earliest specimens of the kind in the prose literature of Italy, and this work has been a perfect storehouse from which succeeding writers have derived a vast multitude of their tales. To this, also, we are indebted for the legend of " Fair Star," " Puss in Boots," " Fortunio," and others which adorn our nursery libraries. Firenzuola (1493-1547) occupies a high rank among the Italian novelists; his "Golden Ass," from Apuleius, and hia 224 ITALIAN LITERATUKE.. " Discourses of Animals " arc clistinguislied for their originality and purity of style. Bandello (1480-1562) is the novelist best known to foreigners, after Boccaccio. Shakspeare and other English dramatists have drawn largely from his voluminous writings. His talcs are founded upon history rather than fancy. 9. History. — Historical composition was cultivated with much success by the Italians of the 10th century; yet such was the altered state of things, that, except at Venice and Genoa, republics had been superseded by princes, and republican authority by the pomp of regal courts. Rome was a nest of intrigue, luxury and corruption ; Tuscany had become the prey of a powerful family ; Lombardy was but a battle-field for the rival powers of France and Germany, and the lot of the people was oppression and humihation. High independence of mind, one of the most valuable qualities in connection with historical research, was impossible under these circumstances, and yet, some of the Italian writers of this age exhibit genius, strength of character, and a conscientious sense of the sacred commission of the historian. Machiavclli (1469-1527) was born in Florence of a family which had enjoyed the first offices in the republic. At the age of thh'ty, he w^as made chancellor of the state, and from that, time he was constantly employed in public affairs, and par- ticularly in embassies. Among those to the smaller princes of Italv, the one of the longest duration was to Cnssar Bors-ia, whom he narrowly observed at the very important period when this illustrious villain was elevating himself by his crimes, and whose dial^olical policy he had thus an opportunity of studying. He had a considerable share in directing the counsels of the republic, and the influence to which he owed his elevation was that of the free party, which censured the power of the Medici, and at that time held them in exile. When the latter were recalled, Machiavclli was dei)rived of all his offices and banished. He then entered into a conspiracy against the usurpers, which was discovered, and he was put to the torture, but without wresting from him any confession which could impeach either himself or those who had confided in his honor. Leo X., on his elevation to the pontificate, restored him to liberty. At this time he wrote his '' History of Florence," in which he united eloquence of style with depth of reflection, and which is an elegant, animated and picturesque composition; but it is not the fruit of much research and industry. ITALIAN LITEKATUEE. 225 Before this history, Machiavelli wrote his discourses on the first decade of Livy, considered his best work, and " The Art of War," which is an iuvaUiable commentary on the history of the times. These works had the desired effect of inducing the Medici family to use the poUtical services of the author, and at the request of Leo X. he wrote his essay *^ On the Reform of the Florentine Government." Guicciardini (1483-1541), the friend of Machiavelli, is con- sidered the greatest historian of this age. He was born of an ancient and noble family of Florence ; at an early age he devoted himself to the study of the law, and obtained so high a reputa- tion for talent and prudence that the government confided to him several important diplomatic commissions. During his absence from his native city, the Florentines were compelled to receive the Medici. Guicciardini obtained the confidence of the new rulers, attached himself to the service of Leo X., and was raised to high offices and honors by him and the two succeeding popes. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, the republican party having obtained the ascendency, he was obliged to fly from the city. From this time he manifested an utter abhorrence of all popular institutions, and threw himself heart and soul into the interests of the Medici. He displayed his zeal at the expense of the lives and liberties of the most vh'tuous among his fellow-citi- zens. Having aided in the elevation of Cosmo, afterwards Grand Duke of Tuscany, and being requited with ingratitude and neglect, he retired in disgust from public life, and devoted him- self wholly to the completion of his history of Italy. This work, which is a monument of his genius and industry, commences with the coming of Charles VIII. to Italy, and concludes with the year 1534, embracing one of the most important periods of Itahan history. His powerfully-drawn pictures exhibit the men and the times so vividly, that they seem to pass before our eyes. His delineations of character, his masterly views of the course of events, the conduct of leaders and the changes of war, claim our highest admiration. His faults are occasional proUxity in de- scribing incidents of minor interest, and the too frequent introduc- tion and unnatural length of the speeches which he puts into the mouths of his characters. His language is pure and his style elegant, though sometimes too Latinized. Numberless historians, of more or less merit, stimulated by the renown of Machiavelli and Guicciardini, composed annals of the states to which they belonged, while others undertook to write the histories of foreign nations. Xardi (1496-1556), one of the most ardent and pure patriots of his age, takes the first place. 10* 226 ITALIAN LITERATURE. He wrote the liistory of the Florcnthie Revolution of 152t, a v,^ork which, though defective in style, is distinguished for its truthfulness. The histories of Florence by Adriani, Yarchi, and Segni (1499-1559), are considered the best works of their kind, for elegance of style and for interest of the narrative. Almost all the other cities of Italy had their historians, but the palm must be awarded to the Florentine writers, not only on account of their number, but for the elegance and purity of their style, for their impartiality and the sagacity of their research into matters of fact. Among the writers of the second class may be mentioned Davanzati (1519), the translator of Tacitus, who wrote, in the Florentine dialect, a history of the schism of Eng- land; Giambullari (1495-1564), who wrote a history of Europe; D'Anghiera (fl. 1536), who, after having examined the papers of Christopher Columbus, and the official reports transmitted from America to Spain, compiled an interesting work on " Ocean Navigation and the New World." His style is incorrect; but this is compensated for by the fidelity of his " narration. Several of the German States, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Hun- gary, and the East Indies, found Italian authors in this age to digest and arrange their chronicles, and give them historical form. To this period belong also the " Lives of the Most Celebrated Artists," written by Vasari (1512-1574), himself a distinguished artist, a work highly interesting for its subject and style, and the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (b. 1500), one of the most curious works which was ever written in any language. 10. Grammar axd Rhetoric. — The Italian language was used both in writing and conversation for three centuries be- fore its rules and principles were reduced to a scientific form. Rembo was the first scholar who establislied the grammar. Grammatical writings and researches were soon multiplied and extended. Salviati was one of the most prominent gram- marians of the 16th century, and Buonmattei and Cinonio of the 17th. But the progress in this study was due less 'to the grammarians, than to the Didionai-y ddla Crusca. Among the scholars who took part in the exercises of the Floren- tine Academy, founded by Cosmo de' Medici, there were some who, dissatisfied with the philosophical disputations which were the object of this institution, organized another association for the purpose of giving a new impulse to the study of the language. This academy, inaugurated in 1587, was called ddla Crusca, literally, of the Iran. The object of this new association being ITALIAX LITERATURE. 227 to sift all impurities from the language, a sieve, the emblem of the academy, was placed in the hall; the members at their meet- ings sat on flour-barrels, and the chair of the presiding officer stood on three mill-stones. The first work of the academy was to compile a universal dictionary of the Italian language, which was published in 1612. Though the Dictionary delta Crusca was conceived in an exclusive spirit, and admitted, as linguistic authorities, only writers of the 14th century, belonging to Tus- cany, it contributed greatly to the progress of the Italian tongue. Every university of Italy boasted in the 16th century of some celebrated rhetoricians, all of whom, however, were overshadowed by Yettori (1499-1585), distinguished for the editions of the Greek and Latin classics published under his superintendence, and for his commentaries on the rhetorical books of Aristotle. B. Cavalcanti (1503-1562) was also celebrated in this depart- ment, and his "Rhetoric" is the best work of the age on that subject. The" oratory of this period is very imperfect. Orations were written in the style of Boccaccio, which, however suitable for the narration of merry tales, is entirely unfit for oratorical compositions. Among those who most distinguished them- selves in this department are Delia Casa (1503-1556), whose harangues against the Emperor Charles V. are full of elo- quence ; Speroni (1500-1588), whose style is more perfect than that of any other writer of the 16th century ; and Lollio (d. 1568), whose orations are the most polished. At that time, in the forum of Venice, eloquent orators pleaded the causes of the citizens, and at the close of the preceding cen- tury, Savonarola (1452-1498), a preacher of Florence, thundered against the abuses of the Roman church, and suffered death in consequence. Among the models of letter-writing, Caro takes the first place. His familiar letters are written with that graceful elegance which becomes this kind of composition. The letters of Tasso are full of eloquence and philosophy, and are written in the most select Italian. 11. Science, Philosophy and Politics. — The sciences, during this period, went hand in hand with poetry and history. Libra- ries and other aids to learning were multiplied, and academies were organized with other objects than those of enjoyment of mere poetical triumphs or dramatic amusements. The Academy del Cimento was founded at Florence in 1657 by Leopold de' Medici, for promoting the study of the natural sciences, and similar 228 ITALIAN LITERATUKE. institutions were established in Rome, Bologna and ISTaples, and other cities of Italy, besides the Royal Academy of London (1G60), and the Academy of Sciences in Paris (1CG6). From the period of the first institution of universities, that of Bologna had maintained its preeminence. Padua, Ferrara, Pavia, Turin, Florence, Siena, Pisa, and Rome were also seats of learning. The men who directed the scientific studies of their country and of Europe were almost universally attached as professors to these institutions. Indeed, at this period, through the genius of Galileo and his school, European science first dawned in Italy. Galileo (1564-1641) was a native of Pisa, and professor of mathematics in the university of that city. Being obliged to leave it on ac- count of his scientific opinions, at that time at variance with universally received principles, he removed to the university of Padua, where for eighteen years he enjoyed the high considera- tion of his countrymen. He returned to Pisa, and at the age of seventy was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition, and required to renounce his doctrines relative to the Coperuican system, of which he was a zealous defender, and his hfe was spared only on condition of his abjuring his opinions. It is said that on rising from his knees, after making the abjuration of his belief that the earth moved round the sun, he stamped his foot on the floor and said : "It does move, though." To Galileo science is indebted for the discovery of the laws of weight, the scientific construction of the system of Copernicus, the pendulum, the im- provement of many scientific instruments, the invention of the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, proportional compasses, and, above all, the telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter, tlie phases of Yenus, the mountains of tlie moon, the spots and the rotation of the sun. Science, which had consisted for centuries only of scholastic subtleties and barren dialectics, he established on an experimental basis. In his works he unites delicacy and purity with vivacity of style. Among the scholars of Galileo, who most efficaciously contri- buted to the progress of science, may be mentioned Torricelli (1608-1647), the inventor of the barometer, an elegant and profound writer ; Borelli (1608-1679), the founder of animal mechanics, or the science of the movements of animals, distin- guished for his works on astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, and natural philosophy ; Cassini (1625-1712), a celebrated astrono- mer, to whom France is indebted for its meridian ; Cavalieri (1598-1648), distinguished for his works on geometry, which paved the way to the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus. In the scientific department of the earlier part of this period ITALIAN LITERATURE. 229 may also be mentioned Tartaglia (d. 165t) and Cardano (1501- 1576), celebrated for their researches on algebra and geometry; Tignola (1507-1573) and Palladio (1518-1580), whose works on architecture are still held in high estimation, as well as the work of Marchi (fl. 1550) on mihtary construction. Later, Redi (1626-1697) distinguished himself as a natural philosopher, a physician and elegant writer, both in prose and verse, and Mal- pighi (1628-1694) and Bellini (164:3-1704) were anatomists of high repute. Scamozzi (1550-1616) emulated the glory formerly won by Palladio in architecture, and Montecuccoii (1608-1681), a great general of the age, ably illustrated the art of strategy. The 16th century abounds in philosophers who, abandonding the doctrines of Plato, which had been in great favor in the 15th, adopted those of Aristotle. Some, however, dared to throw off the yoke of philosophical authority, and to walk in new paths of speculation. Patrizi (1529-1597) was one of the tirst who undertook to examine for himself the phenomena of nature, and to attack the authority of Aristotle. Telesio (1509-1588), a friend of Patrizi, joined him in the work of overthrowing the Peripatetic idols ; but neither of them dared to renounce entirely the authority of antiquity. The glory of having claimed absolute freedom in philosophical speculation belongs to Cardano, already mentioned, to Campanella (1568- 1639), who for the boldness of his opinions was put to the torture and spent thirty years in prison, and to Giordano Bruno (1550-1600), a subhme thinker and a bold champion of freedom, who was burned at the stake. Among the n^oral philosophers of this age may be mentioned Speroni, whose writings are distinguished by harmony, freedom and eloquence of style ; Tasso, whose dialogues unite loftiness of thought with elegance of style ; Castiglione (1468-1529), whose "Cortigiano" is in equal estimation as a manual of ele- gance of manners and as a model of pure Italian, and Delia Casa, whose '' Galateo " is a complete system of politeness, couched in elegant language, and a work to which Lord Chesterfield was much indebted. Political science had its greatest representative in Machiavclli, who wrote on it with that profound knowledge of the human heart which he had acquired in public life, and with the habit of unweaving, in all its intricacies, the pohtical perfidy which then prevailed in Italy. The " Prince " is the best known of his politi- cal works, and from the infamous principles which he has here developed, though probably with good intentions, his name is allied with everything false and perfidious in politics. The 230 ITALIAN I-ITEKATUEE. o])jcct of the treatise is to show how a new prince may estabhsh and consolidate his power, and how the Medici might not only confirm their authority in Florence, but extend it over the whole of the Peninsula. At the time that Machiavelli wrote, Italy had been for centuries a theatre where might was the only right. He was not a man given to illusive fancies, and through- out a long political career nothing had been permitted to escape his keen and penetrating eye. In all the affairs in which he had taken part he had seen that success was the only thing studied, and therefore to succeed in an enterprise, by whatever means, had become the fundamental idea of his political theory. His Prince reduced to a science the art, long before known and practised by kings and tyrants, of attaining absolute power by deception and cruelty, and of maintaining it afterwards by the dissimulation of leniency and virtue. It does not appear that any exception was at first taken to the doctrines which have since called forth such severe reprehension, and from the mo- ment of its appearance the Prince became a favorite at every court. But soon after the death of Machiavelli, a violent out- cry was raised against him, and although it was first heard with amazement, it soon became general. The Prince was laid under the ban of several successive popes, and the name of Machiavelli passed into a proverb of infamy. His bones lay undistinguished for nearly two centuries, when a monument was erected to his memory in the church of Santa Croce, through the influence of an English nobleman. 12. Decline of tj^e Literature ix the I^th Century. — The IGth century reaped the fruits that had been sown in the 15th, but it scattered no seeds for a harvest in the 17th, which was therefore doomed to general sterility. In the reigns of Charles V. and Philij) II. the chains of civil and re- ligious despotism were forged which subdued the intellect and arrested the genius of the people. The Spanish viceroys ruled with an iron hand over Milan, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. Poverty and superstition wasted and darkened the minds of the people, and indolence and love of pleasure introduced almost universal degeneracy. But the Spanish yoke, which weighed so heavily at both extremities of the Peninsula, did not extend to the republic of Yenice, or to the duchy of Tuscany ; and the heroic character of the princes of Savoy alone would have served to throw a lustre over this otherwise darkened period. In literature, too, there were a few who resisted the torrent of b»