HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE HANDBOOK y^ / or UNIVERSAL LITERATURE ^ FROM THE BEST AND LATEST'^AUTHORITIES BT ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA " Partout le vaste champ de la Htt6rature ressemble i une Immense arene, ou peu de vainqueure ^levent leurs trophies sur les armes bris^es dune grande masse de Taincus ; ce n'est que lorsque 1a d^Iaite est deveuue memorable, que Thistoire peut s'en occuper." NEW AND REVISED EDITION BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1)C Kit)crfi(ilie J3rccc; CnmbriUg;e Copyright, 1884, By ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA. CopyriRht, 1902, Bt HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. All rights reserved. PREFATORY NOTE TO SECOND REVISED EDITION. The continued usefulness of this Handbook has led the pub- lishers to undertake a new edition. Sufficient additions have been made to the sections dealing with modern European Literature to bring the work to the year 1902. The pages dealing with modern Russian literature have been revised; and the final portions of the book, treating of the EngUsh and American literature of the past forty years, have been re- written. PREFATORY NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION. Since the first publication of this work in 1860, many new names have appeared in modern literature. Japan, hitherto al- most unknown to Europeans, has taken her place among the na- tions with a literature of her own, and the researches and dis- coveries of scholars in various parts of the world have thrown much light on the Uteratures of antiquity. To keep pace with this advance, a new edition of the work has been called for. Prefixed is a very brief summary of an important and exhaust- ive History of the Alphabet recently published. PREFACE. This work was begun many years ago, as a literary exercise, to meet the personal requirements of the writer, which were such as most persons experience on leaving school and " completing their education," as the phrase is. The world of literature lies before them, but where to begin, what course of study to pursue, 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 traveler suddenly set down in an imknown country, without guide-book or map. The most nat- ural course under such circumstances would be to begin at the beginning, and take a rapid survey of the entire field of litera- ture, arriving at its details through this general view. But as this could be accomplished only by subjecting each individual to a severe and protracted course of systematic study, the idea was conceived of obviating this necessity to some extent by embody- ing the results of such a course in the form of the following work, which, after being long laid aside, is now at length com- pleted. In conformity with this design, standard books have been con- densed, with no alterations except such as were required to give unity to the whole work ; and in some instances a few additions have been made. Where standard works have not been found, the sketches have been made from the best sources of informa- tion, and submitted to the criticism of able scholars. The 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 his- torical picture must be viewed as a whole, before they can as- sume their true place and proportions. A. C. L. B. . CONTENTS. PIOI LIST OF AUTHORITIES i« INTRODUCTION. Thb Alphabet. 1. The Origin of Letters. — 2. The Phoenician Alphabet and Inscriptions. — 3. The Greek Alphabet. Its Three Epochs. —4. The Mediaeval Scripts. The Irish. The Anglo-Saxon. The Roman. The Grothic. The Runic 1 Classotcation o» Lamqdaoes 3 CHINESE UTERATURE. 1. Cliinese Literature. — 2. Tlie Language. — 3. The Writing. —4. The Five Classics and Four Books. — 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy. Lao-tse. Confucius. Meng-ts<5 or Mencius. — 6. Buddliism. — 7. Social Constitution of China. — 8. In- vention of Printing. — 9. Science, History, and Geography. Encyclopiedias. — 10. Poetry. — 11. Dramatic Literature and Fiction. — 12. Education in China . . 7 JAPANESE LITERATURE. 1. The Language. — 2. The Religion. — 3. The Literature. Influence of Women. — 4. History. —5. The Drama and Poetry. — C. Geography. Newspapers. Novels. Medical Science. — 7. Position of Woman. — 8. Foreign Interpreters of Japan . IS SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 1. The Language. — 2. The Social Constitution of India. Brahmanism. — 3. Charac- teristics of the Literature and its Divisions. — 4. The Vedas and other Sacred Books. — 5. Sanskrit Poetry ; Epic ; the Ramayaua and Mahabiiarata. Lyric Po- etry. Didactic Poetry ; the Hitopadesa. Dramatic Poetry. — (>. Hi.story and Sci- ence. — 7. Philosophy. —8. Buddhism. — 9. Moral Philosophy. The Code of Manu. — 10. Modem Literatures of India. — 11. Education. The Brahmo Somaj . . 30 BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE. 1. The Accadians and Babylonians. — 2. The Cuneiform Letters. —3. Babylonian and Assyrian Remains 35 PHOENICIAN LITERATURE. The Language. — The Remains 37 SYRIAC UTERATURE. The Language. — Influence of the Literature in the Eighth and Ninth Century . 38 PERSIAN LITERATURE. 1. The Persian Language and its Divisions. — 2. Zendic Literature : the Zendavesta. — 3. Pehlvi and Parsee Literatures. — 4. The Ancient Religiou of Persia; Zoro- Yiii CONTENTS. Mter. — 5. Modern Literature. — 6. The Siifia. — 7. Persian Poetry. —8. Persian Poets; Ferdusi ; Essedi of Tiis ; Togray, etc. — 9. History and Philosophy. — 10. Education in Persia 39 HEBREW LITERATURE. 1. Hebrew Literature ; its Diyisious. — 2. The Language ; its Alphabet ; its Struc- ture ; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases. — 3. The Old Testament. — 4. Hebrew Education. — 6. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature. — 6. Hebrew Poetry. — 7. Lyric Poetry ; Songs ; the Psalms ; the Prophets. — 8. Pastoral Poetry and Di- dactic Poetry ; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. — 9. Epic and Dramatic Poetry ; the Book of Job. — 10. Hebrew History ; the Pentateuch and other Historical Books. — 11. Hebrew Philosophy. — 12. Restoration of the Sacred Books. — 13. Manu- scripts and Translations. — 14. Rabbinical Literature. — 15. The New Revision of the Bible, and the New Biblical Manuscript '49 EGYPTIAN UTERATURE. 1. The Language. — 2. The Writing. — 3. The Literature. — 4. The Monuments. — 5. The Discovery of Champollion. — 6. Literary Remains ; Historical ; Religious ; Epistolary ; Fictitious ; Scientific ; Epic ; Satirical and Judicial. — 7. The Alexan- drian Period. — 8. The Literary Condition of Modem Egypt ..... 60 GREEK LITERATURE. Intboduction. — 1. Greek Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language. — 3. The Religion 67 Period Fiest. — 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 He- siod ; the Works and Days ; the Theogony. — 5. Elegy and Epigram ; Tyrtaus ; Archilochus ; Simonides. — 6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable, and Parody ; ^sop. — 7. Greek Music and Lyric Poetry ; Terpander. — 8. ^olic Lyric Poets ; Alcaeus ; Sap- pho ; 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 72 Period Second. — 1. Literary Predominance of Athens. — 2. Greek Drama. — 3. Trag- edy. — 4 The Tragic Poets ; .^schylus ; Sophocles ; Euripides. — 5. Comedy ; Aris- tophanes; Menander. — 6. Oratory, Rhetoric, and History ; Pericles ; the Sophists; Lysias ; Isocrates ; Demosthenes; Thucydides; Xenophon. — 7. Socrates and the Socratic Schools ; Plato ; Aristotle 99 Period Third. — 1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature. — 2. The Alexandrian Poets ; Philetas ; Callimachus ; Theocritus ; Bion ; Moschus. — 3. The Prose Writ- ers of Alexandria ; Zenodotus ; Aristophanes ; Aristarchus ; Eratosthenes ; Euclid ; Archimedes. —4. Philosophy of Alexandria; Neo-Platonism. — 5. Anti-Neo-Pla- tonic Tendencies ; Epictetus ; Lucian ; Longinus. — 6. Greek Literature in Rome ; Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; Flavius Josephus ; Polybius ; Diodorus ; Strabo ; Plu- tarch. — 7. Continued Decline of Greek Literature. — 8. Last Echoes of the Old Literature ; Hypatia ; Nonnus ; MusiPiis ; Byzantine Literature. — 9. The New Tes- tament and the Greek Fathers. Modem Literature ; the Brothers Santsos and Al- exander Rangab^. Bacchylidea 107 ROMAN LITERATURE. IiPraoDncnoN. — 1. Roman Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language ; Ethno- graphical Elements of the Latin Language ; the Umbrian ; Oscan ; Etruscan ; the Old Roman Tongue ; Satumian Verse ; Peculiarities of the Latin Language. — 3. The Roman Religion 121 Period First. — 1 Early Literature of the Romans ; the Fescennine Songs ; the Fab- ulae Atellana. — 2. Early Latin Poets ; Livius Andronicus, Navius, and Ennius. — 8. Roman Comedy. — 4. Comic Poets ; Plautus, Terence, and Statius. — 5. Roman Tragedy. — C. Tragic Poets j Pacuviua and Attiua. — 7. Satire ; Lucilius. — 8. His- CONTENTS. IX tory and Oratory ; Fabius Pictor ; Cenciua Alimentus ; Csto ; Varro ; M. Antoniua ; Crassus ; Horteusius. — 9. Koiuaii Jurisprudence. — 10. Grammarians . . . 127 Period Second. — 1. Development of the Roman Literature. — 2. Mimes, Mimogra- phera, Pantomime ; Laberius and P. Lyrus. — 3. Epic Poetry ; Virgil ; the .£neld. — 4. Didactic Poetry ; the Bucolics ; the Georgics ; Lucretius. — 5. Lyric Poetry ; Catullus ; Horace. — 6. Elegy ; Tibullus ; Propertius ; Ovid. — 7. Oratory and Phi- losophy ; Cicero. — 8. History ; J. Cicsar ; Sallust ; Livy. — 9. Other Prose Writers 141 Period Th:bd. — 1. Decline of Roman Literature. — 2. Fable; Phaedrus. — 3. Satire and Epigram ; Persius, Juvenal, Martial. — 4. Dramatic Literature ; the Tragedies of Seneca. — 5. Epic Poetry ; Lucau ; Silius Italicus ; Valerius Flaccus ; P. Statius. — 6. History ; Paterculus ; Tacitus ; Suetonius ; Q. Curtius ; Valerius Maximus. — 7. Rhetoric and Eloquence; Quintilian ; Pliny the Younger. — 8. Philosophy and Science ; Seneca ; Pliny the Elder ; Celsus ; P. Mela ; Columella ; Frontinus. — 9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to Theodoric ; Claudian ; Eutropius ; A. Marcelli- nus ; S. Sulpicius ; Gellius ; Macrobius ; L. Apuleiufl ; Boethius : the Latin Fathers. — 10. Roman Jurisprudence 156 ARABIAN LITERATURE. 1. European Literature in the Dark Ages. — 2. The Arabian Language. — 3. Arabian Mythology and the Koran.— 4. Historical Development of Arabian Literature. — 5. Grammar and Rhetoric. — 6. Poetry. —7. The Arabian Tales. — 8. History and Science. — 9. Education 176 ITALIAN UTERATURE. Introduction. — 1. Italian Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Dialects. — 3. The Italian Language 193 Period First. — 1. Latin Influence. — 2. Early Italian Poetry and Prose. — 3. Dante. — 4. Petrarch. — 5. Boccaccio and other Prose Writers. — C. First Decline of Ital- ian Literature 196 Period Second. — 1. The Close of the Fifteenth Century ; Lorenzo de' Medici. — 2. The Origin of the Drama and Romantic Epic ; Poliziano, Pulci, Boiardo. — 3. Ro- mantic Epic Poetry ; Ariosto. — 4. Heroic Epic Poetry ; Tasso. — 5. L>Tic Poetry ; Bembo, Molza, Tarsia, V. Colomia. — 6. Dramatic Poetry ; Trissino, Rucellai ; the Writers of Comedy. —7. Pastoral Drama and Didactic Poetrj- ; Beccari, Sannaz- zaro, Tasso, Guarini, Rucellai, Alamauui. —8. Satirical Poetry, Novels, and Tales; Bemi, Grazzini, Firenzuola, Bandello, and others.- 9. History ; Machiavelli, Guic- ciardini, Nardi, and others. — 10. Grammar and Rhetoric; the Academy della Crusca, Della Casa, Speroni, and others. —11. Science, Philosophy, and Politics; the Academy del Cimento, Galileo, Torricelli, Borelli, Patrizi, Telesio, Campanella, Bruno, Castiglione, Machiavelli, and otliers. — 12. Decline of the Literature in the Seventeenth Century. — 13. Epic and L3Tic Poetry; Maruii, Filicaja. — 14. Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama, and Satire ; Tassoni, Bracciolini, Anderini, and others. — 15. History and Epistolary Writings ; Davila, Bentivoglio, Sarpi, Redi . . 206 Period Third.- 1. Historical Development of the Third Period.- 2. The Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio. — 3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and others. —4. Tragedy; Matfei, Alfleri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and others. —5. Lyric, Epic, and Didactic Poetry; Parini, Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Leopardi, Grossi, Lorenzi, and others. —6. Heroic-Comic Poetry, Satire, and Fable; Fortiguerri, Passeroni, G. Gozzi, Parini, Giusti, and others. — 7. Romances ; Verri, Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Cantii, Guerrazzi, and others. — 8. History ; Muratori, Vico, Giannone, Botta, Col- letta, Tiraboschi, and otliers.— 9. .ilsthetics. Criticism, Philology, and Philosophy ; Baretti, Parini, Giordani, Gioja, Romagnosi, Gallupi, Rosmini, Oioberti. — Since 1860 227 FRENCH LITERATURE. Introduction. — 1. French Literature and its Divisions. —2. The Language . . 242 pKBioo First. — 1. The Troubadours. — 2. The Trouveres. — 3. French Literature in K CONTENTS. the Fifteenth Century. — 4. The Mysteries and Moralities : Charles of Orleans, Villon, Ville-Hardouin, Joinville, Froissart, Philippe de Coinniiues .... 241 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 : Comeille. — 5. Philosophy : Des- cartes, Pascal ; Port Royal. — 6. The Rise of the Golden Age of French Literature : Louis XIV. — 7. Tragedy : P^cine. — 8. Comedy : MoU6re. — 9. Fables, Satires, Mock-Heroic, and other Poetry : La Fontaine, Boileau. — 10. Eloquence of the Pul- pit and of the Bar : Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Massillon, Fltjcliier, Le Maitre, D'Aguea- seau, and others. — 11. Moral Philosophy: Rochefoucault, La Bruyere, Nicole. — 12. History and Memoirs : M*5zeray, Fleury, Rollin, Brantome, the Duke of Sully. Cardinal de Retz. — 13. Romance and Letter Writing : Fenelon, Madame de S6- vign^ 2E1 pEKioD Third. — I. The Dawn of Skepticism : Bayle, J. B. Rousseau, Fontenelle, La- motte. — 2. Progress of Skepticism : Montesquieu, Voltaire. — 3. French Literature during the Revolution : D'Holbach, D'Alembert, Diderot, J. J. Rousseau, Buffon, Beaumarchais, St. Pierre, and others. — 4. 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. History : Thierry, , Sismondi, Thiers, Mignet, Martin, Michelet, and others. Poetry and the Drama ; Rise of the Romantic School : Beranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and others ; Lea Pamassiens. Fiction : Hugo, Gautier, Dumas, M^rimee, Balzac, Sand, Saudeau, and others. Criticism : Sainte-Beuve, Taine, and others. Miscellaneous . 275 SPANISH LITERATURE. Introdbction. — 1. Spanish Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language . . 295 Period First. — 1. Early National Literature ; the Poem of the Cid ; Berceo, Alfonsu 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. — G. Proven9al Literature in Spain. — 7. The Influence of Italian Literature in Spain. — 8. The Cancioneros and Prose Writing. — 9. The Inquisition . . . 299 Period Second. — 1. The Effect of Intolerance on Letters. — 2. Influence of Italy on Bpanish Literature ; Boscan, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego de Mendoza. — 3. His- tory ; Cortez, Gomara, Oviedo, Las Casas. — 4. The Drama, Rueda, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca. — 5. Romances and Tales ; Cervantes, and other Writers of Fiction. — 6. Historical Narrative Poems ; Ercilla. — 7. Lyric Poetry ; the Argen- Bolas ; Luis de Leon, Quevedo, Herrera, Gongora, and others. — 8. Satirical and other Poetry. — 9. History and other Prose Writing; Zurita, Mariana, Sandoval, and others 311 Period Third. — 1. French Influence on the Literature of Spain. — 2. The Dawn of Spanish Literature in the Eighteenth Century ; Feyjoo, Isla, Moratin the elder, Yriarte, Melendez, Gonzalez, Quintana, Moratin the younger. — 3. Spanish Litera- ture in the Nineteenth Century 331 PORTUGUESE LITERATURE. \. The Portuguese Language. — 2. Early Literature of Portugal. — 3. Poets of the Fifteenth Century ; Macias. Ribeyro. — 4. Introduction of the Italian Style ; Saa de Miranda, Montemayor, Ferreira. — 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 Jos^, Manuel do Nasciinento, Manuel de Bocage . 331 FINNISH LITERATURE. L The Finnish Language and Literature : Poetry ; the Kalevala ; Lonnrot ; Korrhoinen. — 2. The Hungarian Language and Literature : tlie Age of Stephen I. ; Influence of the House of Anjou ; of the Reformation ; of the House of Austria ; Kossuth ; Josika ; Eutvos ; Kuthy ; Szigligeti ; Petcili 346 CONTENTS. Xi SLAVIC LITERATURES. rbe Slavic Race and Languages ; the Eastern and Western Stems ; the Alphabets ; the Old or Church Slavic Language ; St. Cyril's Bible ; the Pravda Russkaya ; the Annals of Nestor 353 Russian Litebaturs. 1. The Language. — 2. Literature in the Reign of Peter the Great ; of Alexander ; of Nicholas ; Dauilof, Louionosof, Kheraskof, Derzhavin, Karaiuzin. — 3. History, Poetry, the Novel : Dinitrief, Zliukoffbki, Krylof, Pushkin, LennontofF, Koltsoff, Gogol, Gontcliarov, Grigorovitch, Turgenietf, Chtchedine, Pissemski, Nekrassoff, Dostoievski, Tolstoi, Tcheklov 363 The Servian Language and LiTEnAxPRE 359 IhB IJOHEMIAN LaNQUAGB AND LrrEBATTIBB. John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Comenius, and others . . 3C0 The Polish Language and LrrEEATURE. Rey, Bielski, Copernicus, Czartoryski, Niemcewicz, Mickiewicz, and others . . 3C3 Roumanian Literature. Carmen Sylva . 367 DUTCH UTERATURB. I. The Language. — 2. Dutch Literature to the Sixteenth Century : Maerlant ; Melia Stoke ; De Weert ; the Chambers of Rhetoric ; the Flemish Chroniclers ; the Rise of tlie Dutch Republic. —3. The Latin Writers: Erasmus; Grotius ; Arminius; Lipsius ; the Scaligers, and others ; Salmasius ; Spinoza ; Boerhaave ; Johannes Secundus. — 4. Dutch Writers of the Sixteenth Century : Anna Byns ; Cooruhert ; Marnix de St. Aldegonde ; Bor, Visscher, and Spieghel. — 5. Writers of the Sev- enteenth Century : Hooft ; Vondel ; Cats ; Antonides ; Brandt, and others ; Decline jj Dutch Literature. — C. The Eighteenth Century : Poot ; Langendijk ; Hoogvliet ; De Marre ; Feitama ; Uuydecoper ; the Van Harens ; Smits ; Ten Kate ; Van Win- ter; Van Merken; De Lauuoy; Van Alphen ; Bellamy; Nieuwland, Styl, and others. — 7. Tlie Nineteenth Century : Keith; Helmers ; Bilderdyk ; Van derPalm; Loosjes; Loots, Tollens, Van Kumpen, De s'Gravenweert, Van Hoevell, and others 368 SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. ^ Introduction. The Ancient Scandinavians ; their Influence on the English Race. — 2. The Mythology. — 3. The Scandinavian Languages. — 4. Icel.indic, or Old Norse Literature : the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Scalds, the Sagas, the " Heira- skringla." The Folks-Sagas and B.iUads of tlie Middle Ages. —5. Danish Litera- ture : Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric ; Arreboe, Kingo, Tycho Brahe, Holberg, Evalu, Baggesen, Oehlenschliiger, Grundtvig, Blioher, Ingemann, Heiberg, Gyllen- bourg, Winther, Hertz, Miiller, Hans Andersen, Ploug, Goldsohniidt, Hastrup, and others; Malte Bruu, Rnsk, Rafn, Alagiiusen, tlie brotliers Oersted. — G. Swedish Literature : Messenius, Stjemhjehn, Lucidor, and otliers. The Gallic period : Da- lin, Nordenflycht, Crutz and Gyllenborg, Oustavus III., K(>llgren, Leopold, Oxen- Btjerna. The New Era : Bellman, Hallnian, Kexel, Wallenberg, Lidner, Thorild, Lengren, Franzen, Wallin. The Phosphori.sts : Atterboni, Hamniarskold, and Palinblid. The Gothic School : Geijer, Tegni'r, Stainieli Almquist, Vitalis, Runeberg, and others. The Romance Writers : Cederborg, Bremer, Carlen, Knor- riug. Science: Swedenborg, Linnieus, Scheele. Recent Scandinavian Literature 382 GERMAN LITERATURE. iNTRonrcnoN. — 1. German Literature and its Divisions. —2. The Mythology. — 3. Tlie Language *^ Period Fibst.— 1. E.irly Literature ; Translation of the Bible by Ulphilas ; the Hilde- brand Lied. — 2. The Age of Charlemagne ; his Successors ; the Ludwig'a Lied ; Roswitha; tho Lombard Cycle. —3. The Su.ihian Ace : the Crusades ; tlie Minne- singers ; the Romances of Chivalry ; the Heldeubuch ; the Nibelungen Lied. — Sil CONTENTS. 4. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ; the Mastersingers ; Satires and Fa- bles ; Mysteries and Dramatic Representations ; the Mystics ; the Universities ; the Invention of Printing 409 Period Second. — From 1517 to 1700. —1. The Lutheran Period : Luther, Melanch- thon. — 2. Manuel, Zwingle, Fischart, Franck, Arnd, Boehm. — 3. Poetry, Satire, and Demonology ; Paracelsus and Agrippa ; the Thirty Tears' War. — 4. The Sev- enteenth Century : Opitz, Leibnitz, Puffendorf, Kepler, WoU, Thomasius, Gerhard ; Silesian Schools ; Hoffmannswaldau, Lohenstein 41g Period Third. — 1. The Swiss and Saxon Schools : Gottsched, Bodmer, Rabener, Gellert, Kastner, and others. — 2. Klopstock, Lessiiig, Wieland, and Herder. — 3. Goethe and Schiller. — 4. The Gottingen School : Voss, Stolberg, Claudius, Bur- ger, and others. — 5. The Romantic School : the Schlegels, NovaUs ; Tieck, Kiir- ner, Amdt, Uhland, Heine, and others. — 6. The Drama: Goethe and ScWller; the Power Men; Milliner, Werner, Howald, and GriUparzer. — 7. Philosophy: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Hartmann. Science : Liebig, Du Bois-Raymond, Virchow, Helmholst, Hseckel. — 8. Miscellaneous Writings . 424 ENGUSH LITERATURE. tNTRODncTiON. — \. English Literature. Its Divisions. — 2. The Language . .448 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. Bede ; Alcuin ; Erigena. — 3. Anglo-Saxon Literature. Poetry ; Prose ; Versions of Scripture ; the Saxon Chronicle ; Alfred 460 Period Second. — The Norman Age and the Fourteentli and Fifteenth Centuries. — 1. Literature in the Latin Tongue. — 2. Literature in Norman-French. Poetry; Romances of Chivalry. — 3. Saxon-English. Metrical Remains. — 4. Literature j'n the Fourteenth Century. — Prose Writers: Occam, Duus Scotus, Wickliffe, Maude- ville, Chaucer. Poetry; Langland, Gower, Chaucer. — 5. Literature in the Fif- teenth Century. Ballads. — 6. Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries in Scotlarul. Wyntoun, Barbour, and others 463 ^RiOD Third. — 1. Age of the Reformation (1509-1558). Classical, Theological, and Miscellaneous Literature : Sir Thomas More and others. Poetry : Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville ; the Drama. — 2. The Age of Spenser, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Mil- ton (1558-1660). Scholastic and Ecclesiastical Literature. Translations of the Bible : Hooker, Andrews, Donne, Hall, Taylor, Baxter ; other Prose Writers : Ful- ler, Cudworth, Bacon, Hobbes. Raleigh, Milton, Sidney, Selden, Burton, Bro>wne, 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, Denliam, Waller, Milton. — 3. The Age of the Restoration and Rev- olution (lCCO-1702). Prose: Leighton, Tillotson, Barrow, Bunyan, Locke, and oth- ers. The Drama : Dryden, Otway. Comedy : Didactic Poetry : Roscommon, Mar- veil, Butler, Pryor, Dryden. — 4. The Eighteenth Century. The First Generation (1702-1727): Pope, Swift, and others; the Periodical Essayists: Addison, Steele. The Second Generation (1727-1760) : Theology : Warburton, Butler, Watts, Dod- dridge. Philosophy : Hume. Miscellaneous Prose : Johnson ; the Novelists : Rich- ardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. The Drama ; Non-dramatic Poetry : Young, Blair, Akenside, Thomson, Gray, and Collins. The Third Generation (1760-1800) ; the Historians : Hume, Robertson, 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: Pvcid. Theological and Religious Writers: Camp- bell, Paley, Watson, Newton, Hannah More, and Wilberforce. Poetry : Comedies of Goldsuiith and Sheridan : Minor Poets ; Later Poems ; Seattle's Minstrel ; Cow- per and Burns. 5. The Nineteenth Century. The Poets : Campbell, Southey, Scott, Byron ; Coleridge and Word.sworth ; Wilson, Shelley, Keats ; Crabbe, Moore, and others ; Tennyson, Browning, Procter, and others. Fiction : the Waverley CONTENTS. xiii and other Novels ; Dickens, Thackeray, and others. History : Arnold, Thirlwall, G.ote, Macaulay, Alisou, Carlyle, Freeman, Buckle. Criticism: Hallam, De Quincey, Macaulay, Carlyle, Wil.son, Lamb, and others. Theology : Foster, Hall, Chalmers. Philosophy : Stewart, Brown, Mackintosh, Bentliam, Alison, and others. Political Economy : Mill, Whewell, Whately, De Morgan, Hamilton. Periodical Writings : the KUinburgh, Quarterly, and Westminster Reviews, and Blackwood's Maeazine, Jeffrey, Hazlitt. — Since 18G0. Criticism, History, Sci- ence : Arnold, Swinburne, Pater, Saintsbury, Dowden, Courthope, Dobson, Gosse, Lang, Hamerton, Leslie Stephen, Morley, Froude, Lecky, Green, Darwin, Spen- cer, Tyndall, Huxley. Poetry : Matthew Arnold, Clough, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Swinburne, "Owen Meredith," Sir Edwin Arnold, Henley, George Meredith, KipUng, Stephen Phillips, and others. Fiction : " George Eliot," Mrs. Humphry Ward, Trollope, George Macdonald, Black, Besant, Blackmore, Barrie, Kipling, Meredith, Stevenson, Henry James, Thomas Hardy . , . 472 AMERICAN LITERATURE. Fhe Colonial Pebiod. — 1. The Seventeenth Century. George Sandys ; The Bay Psalm Book ; Anne Bradstreet, John Eliot, and Cotton Mather. — 2. From 1700 to 1770. Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Cadwallader Golden . . . 510 PrasT American Period, fro.m 1771 to 1820. —1. Statesmen and Political Writers: Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton ; Tlie Federalist ; Jay, Madison, Marshall, Fisher Ames, and others. — 2. The Poets : Freneau, Trumbull, Hopkinson, Barlow, Clif- ton, and Dwight. — 3. Writers in other Departments: Bellamy, Hopkins, D wight, and Bishop White. Rush, McClurg, Lindley Murray, Charles Brockden Brown. Ramsay, Graydon. Count Rumford, Wirt, Ledyard, Pinkney, and Pike . . 512 Second American Period, since 1820. —1. History, Biography, and Travels : Ban- croft, Prescott, Motley, Irving, John Fiske, Parkman, Kane, Bayard Taylor, and others. — 2. Oratory : Webster, Lincoln, and others. — 3. Fiction : Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Stoddard, Cable, Howells, F. Marion Crawford, Frank R. Stockton, Aldrich, Joel Chandler Harris, Bret Harte, Sarah Ome Jewett, and others. — 4. Poetry: Bryant, Poe, Walt Whitman, Long- fellow, Whittier, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, Aldrich, Richard Watson Gilder, Edmund Clarence Stedman, R. H. Stoddard, Edith M. Thomas, and others. — 5. The Transcendental Movement in New England : Ripley, Parker, Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Emerson. — G. Essays and Criticism : Irving, Donald G. Mitchell, Holmes, Warner, Curtis, Whipple, Richard Grant White, Lowell, Howells, W. C. Brownell, Thoreau, Burroughs, and others. — 7. Newspapers and Periodicals: The Inter- national Quarterly, Science, TTie Scientific American, The Popular Science Monthly, The North .\merican Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Scribner's, The Century, The Forum, The Review of Reviews, Harper's Weekly, The Nation 618 INDEX goj LIST OF AUTHORITIES. The following works are the sources from which this book is wholly or chiefly derived : — Taylor's History of the Alphabet ; Dwigbt's Philologj'; Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry; Lowth's Hebrew Poetry; Asiatic Researches; the works of Gesenius, Dc ^Vette, Ewald, Colebrooke, Sir William Jones, Wilson, Ward ; Schlegel's Hindu Language and Literature ; Max Midler's History of Sanskrit Literature ; and What India has taught us; Malcolm's History of Persia; Richardson on the Language of Eastern Nations; Adelung's Mithridates; Chodzko's Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia; Costello's Rose Garden of Persia; Re- musat's Mcmoire sur I'P^criture Cliinoise; Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese; Williams's Middle Kingdom; The Mikado's Empire; Rein's Travels in Japan; Duhalde's Description de la Chine; ChampoUion's Letters; Wilkinson's Extracts from Hieroglyphieal Subjects; the works of Bunsen, Miiller, and Lane ; Midler's History of the Litera- ture of Ancient Greece, continued by Donaldson ; Browne's History of Roman Classical Literature ; Fiske's Manual of Classical Litera- ture ; Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe ; Goodrich's Uni- versal History; Sanford's Rise and Progress of Literature; Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature ; Schlegel's Histoiy of Drauiatic Art; Tiraboschi's History of Italian Literature; Maffei, Corniani, and Ugoni on the same subject ; Chambers's Handbooks of Italian and German Literature; Vilmar's History of German Literature; Foster's Handbook of French Literature ; Nisard's Ilistoire de la Litterature Fran9aise ; Demogeot's Ilistoire de la Litterature Francjaise ; Tick- nor's History of Spanish Literature ; Talvi's (Mrs. Robinson^ Liter- ature of the Slavic Nations; Mallet's Northern Antiquities ; Keyson's Religion of the Northmen ; Pigott's Northern IMythology; William and Mary Hewitt's Literature and Romance of Northern Europe ; De s'Gravenweert's Sur la Litterature Neerlandaise ; Siegenbeck's Histoire Germany; lish English Literature ; Stedman's Victorian Poets; Triibner's Guide to American Literature ; Duyckinck's Cyclop.-Bdia of American Liter- ature; Griswold's Poets and Prose Writers of America; Tuckerman's Sketcli of American Literature ; Frothiugliain's Transcendental Move- ment in New England. French, English, and American Encyclop;e- dias, Biographies, Dictionaries, and numerous other works of refer- ence have also been extensively consulted. INTRODUCTION. THE ALPHABET. 1. The Origin of Letters. —2. The PhoBnician Alphabet and Inscriptions. — 3. Tb8 Greek Alpliabet. Its Tliree Epochs. — 4. Tlie Mediaval Scripts. The Irish. The Anglo- Baxon. The Roman. The Gothic. The Runic. 1. The Origin of Letters. — Alphabetic writing is an art easy to acquire, but its invention has tasked the genius of the three most gifted nations of the ancient world. All primitive people have begun to record events and transmit messages by means of rufle pictures of objects, intended to represent things or thoughts, which afterwards became the symbols of sounds. For instance, the letter M is traced down from the convention- alized picture of an owl in the ancient language of Egypt, Mulak. This was used first to denote tlie bird itself ; then it stood for the name of the bird ; then gradually became a syllabic sign to express the sound " mu," the first syllable of the name, and ul- timately to denote " M," the initial sound of tliat syllable. In like manner A can be shown to be originally the picture of an eagle, Z> of a hand, F of the horned asp, R of the mouth, and so on. Five systems of picture-writing have been independently in- vented, — the Egyptian, the Cuneiform, the Chinese, the Mexican, and the Hittite. The tradition of the ancient world, which as- signed to the Phoenicians the glory of the invention of letters, declared that it was from Egypt that they originally derived the art of ^vriting, which they afterwards carried into Greece, and the latest investigations have confirmed this tradition. 2. The Phcenician Alphabet. — Of the Phoinician al])habet the Samaritan is the only living representative, tlie Sacred Script of the few families who still worship on Mount Gerizim. With this exception, it is only known to us by inscriptions, of which several hundred have been discovered. They form two well-marked varieties, the Moabite and the Sidonian. The most important monument of the first is the celebrated Moabite stone, discovered in 1868 on the site of the ancient capital of the land of Moab, portions of which are preserved in the Louvre. It gives an account of the revolt of the King of Moab against 1 2 INTRODUCTION. Jehoram, King of Israel, 890 b. c. The most important inscrip- tion of the Sidonian type is that on the magnihcent sarcophagus of a king of Sidon, now one of the glories of the Louvre. A monument of the eariy Hebrew alphabet, another offshoot of the Phoenician, was discovered in 1880 in an inscription ia the ancient tminel which conveys water to the pool of Siloam. 3. The Greek Alphabet. — The names, number, order, and forms of the primitive Greek alphabet attest its Semitic origin. Of the many inscriptions which remain, the earliest has been discovered, not in Greece, but upon the colossal portrait statues carved by Rameses the Great, in front of the stupendous cave temple at Abou-Simbel, at the time when the Hebrews were still in Egyptian bondage. In the seventh century B. c, certain Greek mercenaries in the service of an Egyptian king inscribed a rec- ord of their visit in five precious lines of writing, which the dry Nubian atmosphere has preserved ahnost in their pristine sharp- ness. The legend, according to which Cadmus the Tyrian sailed for Greece in search of Europa, the damsel who personified the West, designates the island of Thera as the earliest site of PhcE- nician colonization in the ^gean, and from inscriptions found there this may be regarded as the first spot of European soil on which words were written, and they exhibit better than any others the progressive form of the Cadmean alphabet. The oldest inscriptions found on Hellenic soil bearing a definite date are those cut on the pedestals of the statues which lined the sa- cred way leading to the temple of Apollo, near Miletus. Sev« eral of those, now in the British Museum, range in date over the sixth century B. c. They belong, not to the primitive alphabet, but to the Ionian, one of the local varieties which mark the sec- ond stage, which may be called the epoch of transition, which be- gan in the seventh and lasted to the close of the fifth century B. C. It is not till the middle of the fifth century that we have any dated monuments belonging to the Western types. Among these are the names of the allied states of Hellas, inscribed on the coils of the three-headed bronze serpent which supported the gold tripod dedicated to the Delphian Apollo, 476 B. c. This famous monument was transported to Byzantium by Constantino the Great, and still stands in the Hippodrome at Constantinople. Of equal interest is the bronze Etruscan helmet in the British Museum, dedicated to the Olympian Zeus, in commemoration of the great victory ofP Cumge, which destroyed the naval suprem. acy of the Etruscans, 474 B. c, and is celebrated in an ode by Pindar. The third epoch witnessed the emergence of the classical al phabets of European culture, the Ionian and the Italic. INTRODUCTION. 3 The Ionian has been tlie source of the Eastern scripts, Ro- maic, Coptic, Slavic, and others. The ItaUc became tlie parent of the modern alphabets of Western Europe. 4. The Medleval Scripts. — A variety of national scripts arose in the establishment of the Teutonic kingdoms upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. But the most magnificent of all mediaeval scripts was the Irish, which exercised a profound in- fluence on the later alphabets of Europe. From a combination of the Roman and Irish arose the Anglo-Saxon script, the precur- sor of that which was developed in the ninth century by Alcuin of York, the friend and preceptor of Charlemagne. This was the parent of the Roman alphabet, in which our books are now printed. Among other deteriorations, there crept in, in the four^ teenth century, the Gothic or black letter character, and these bar^ barous forms are still essentially retained by the Teutonic nations though discarded by the English and Latin races ; but from its superior excellences the Roman alphabet is constantly extend- ing its range and bids fair to become the sole alphabet of the future. In all the lands that were settled and overrun by the Scandinavians, there are found nmltitudes of inscriptions in the ancient alphabet of the Norsemen, which is called the Runic. The latest modern researches seem to prove that this was de- rived from the Greek, and probably dates back as far as the sixth century B. c. The Goths were early in occupation of the regions south of the Baltic and east of the Vistula, and in direct commercial intercourse with the Greek traders, from whom they doubtless obtained a knowledge of the Greek alphabet, as the Greeks themselves had gained it from the Phoenicians. CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES. Modern philologists have made different classifications of the various languages of the world, one of which divides them into three great classes : the Monosyllabic, the Agglutinated, and the Inflected. — The first, or Monosyllabic class, contains those languages which consist only of separate, unvarietl monosyllables. The words have no organization that adapts them for mutual affilia- tion, and there is in them, accordingly, an utter 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, tiave the same general grade of character. The second class consists of those languages which are formed 4 INTRODUCTION. 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 organ- isms. Prepositions 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 placed in juxtapo- sition retain their personal identity unimpaired. The agglutinative languages are known also as the Turanian, from Turan, a name of Central Asia, and the principal varieties of this family are the Tartar, Finnish, Lappish, Hungarian, and Caucasian. They are classed together almost exclusively on the ground of correspondence in their grammatical structure, but they are bound together by ties of far less 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 Vienna, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to Afghanistan and the south- ern coast of Asia Minor. The inflected languages form the third great division. They have all a complete interior organization, complicated with many mutual relations and adaptations, and are thorouglily systematic in all their parts. Between this class and the monosyllabic there is all the difference that there is between organic and inorganic forms of matter ; and between them and the agglutinative lan- guages there is the same diflference that exists in nature be- tween mineral accretions and vegetable growths. The bounda- ries of this class of languages are the boundaries of cultivated humanity, and in their history lies embosomed that of the civil- ized portions of the world. Two great races speaking inflected languages, the Semitic and the Indo-European, have shared between them the peopling of the historic portions of the earth ; and on this account these two languages have sometimes been called political or state lan- guages, La contrast with the appellation of the Turanian as no- madic. The term Semitic is applied to that family of languages which are native in Southwestern Asia, and which are supposed to have been spoken by the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah. They are the Hebrew, Aramaeic, Arabic, the ancient Egyptian or Coptic, the Chaldaic, and Phcsnician. Of these the only living language of note is the Arabic, which has supplanted all the others, and wonderfully diffused its elements among the con- stituents of many of the Asiatic tongues. In Europe the Arabic has left a deep impress on the Spanish language, and ia still represented in the Maltese, which is one of its dialects. INTRODUCTION. 5 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 higher litera- ture, may be called the philosophical languages. The Semitic nations also differ from the Indo-European in their national characteristics ; while they have lived with remarkable uniform- ity on the vast open plains, or wandered over the wide and dreary deserts of their native region, the Indo-Europeans have spread themselves over both hemispheres, and carried civihza- tion 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 hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt ; the Phoenicians, foremost in their day in commerce and the arts, introduced from Egypt alphabetic let- ters, of which all the world has since made use. The Jewish portion of the race, long in communication with Egypt, Phoeni- cia, Babylonia, and Persia, could not faU to impart to these na- tions some knowledge of their religion and literature, and it cannot be doubted that many new ideas and quickening influ- ences 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 com- prises two leading families, the Indian and Iranian, and the Graeco-Italic or Pelasgic, which comprises the Greek family and its various dialects, and the Italic family, the chief-subdivisions 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 (Sanskrit, 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 contemptible. In the country called Aryavarta, lying between the Himalaya and the Vindhya Mountains, the high table-land of Central Asia, more than two thousand years before Christ, our Hindu ances- tors 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 6 INTRODUCTION. inglorious ease, or wasted their powers in the regions of dreamy mysticism. The other migration, at first northern, and then western, inchides tlie great families of nations in Northwestern Asia and in Europe. Forced by circumstances into a more ob- jective life, and under the stimulus of more favorable influences, these nations have been brought into a marvelous state of in- dividual 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 re- markable for its vitality, and has the power of continually re- generating 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 harmony with the ever progressive spirit of man. In its varied scientific 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 soui'ce. HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. CHINESE LITERATURE. 1. Chinese Literature. — 2. The Language. — 3. The Writing. — 4. The five Classics and four Books. — 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy. Lao-tse. Confucius. Meng-tstS or Mencius. — 6. Buddliism. — 7. Social Constitution of China. — 8. Invention of Printing. — 9. Science, History, and Geography. Kncyclopaedias. — 10. Poetry. — 11. Dramatic Literature and Fiction. — 12. Education in China. 1. Chinese Literature. — The Chinese literature is one of the most voluminous of all literatures, and among the most im- portant of those of Asia. Originating in a vast empire, it is dif- fused among a population numbering nearly half the inhahitants of the globe. It is expressed by an original language differing 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. 2. The Language. — The date of the origin of this language is lost in antiquity, but there is no doubt that it is the most an- cient now s])oken, and probably the oldest written language used by man. It has undergone few alterations during successive ages, and this fact has served to deepen the lines of demarkation between the Chinese and other branches of the race and has re- sulted in a marked national life. It belongs to the monosyllabic family ; 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. Its pronunciation varies in different provinces, but that of Nanking, the ancient capital of the Empire, is the most pure. Many dialects are spoken in the different ])rovinces, but the Chinese proper is the literary tongue of the nation, the language of the court and of polite society, and it is vernacular in that portion of China called the Middle Kingdom. 3. The Writing. — 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, generaiiy s])eaking, does not ex- press the sounds of the words, but it represents the ideas or the objects indicated by them. Its alphabetical characters are there* 8 ' HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. fore ideographic, and not pnonetic. They were originally rude representations of the thing signified ; but they have undergone various changes from ])icture-writing to the present more sym- bolical and more complete system. As the alphabetic signs represent objects or ideas, it vrould follow that there must be in vrriting 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. The number of characters in the Chinese dictionary is 40,000, of Avhich, however, only 10,000 are required for the gen- eral 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. 4. The Classics. — The first five canonical books are "The Book of Transformations," " The Book of History," " The Book of Rites," " The Spring and Autumn Annals," and " The Book of Odes." " The Book of Transformations " consists of sixty-four short essays on important themes, symbolically and enigmatically ex- pressed, based on linear figures and diagrams. These cabala are held in high esteem by the learned, and the hundreds of fortune-tellers in the streets of Chinese towns practice their art on the basis of these mysteries. " The Book of History " was compiled by Confucius, 551-470 B. C, from the earliest records of the Empire, and in the estima- tion of the Chinese it contains the seeds of all that is valuable in their political system, their history, and their religious rites, and is the ba.sis of their tactics, music, and astronomy. It con- sists mainly of conversations between kings and their ministers, in which are traced the same patriarchal principles of govern- ment that guide the rulers of the present day. " The Book of Rites " is still the rule by which the Chinese regulate all the relations of life. No every-day ceremony is too insignificant to escape notice, and no social or domestic duty is beyond its scope. No work of the classics has left such an im- pression on the manners and customs of the people. Its rules are still minutely observed, and the ofiice of the Board of Rites, one of the six governing boards of Peking, is to see that its pre- cepts are carried out throughout the Empire. According to this system, all the relations of man to the family, society, the state, tu morals, and to religion, are reduced to ceremonial, but thia CHINESE LITERATURE. 9 includes not only the external conduct, but it involves those right princi])les from whirli all true politeness and etiquette spring. Tj*e " Book of Odes " consists of national airs, chants, and sacrificial odes of great antic^uity, some of them remarkable for their sublimity. It is difficult to estimate the power they have exerted over all subsequent generations of Chinese scholars. They are valuable for their religious character and for their illustration of early Chinese customs and feelings ; but they are crude in measure, and wanting in that harmony which comes from study and cultivation. The " Spring and Autumn Annals " consist of bald statements of historical facts. Of the Four Books, the first three — the "Great Learning," the "Just Medium." and the "Confucian Analects " — are by the pupils and followers of Confucius. The last of the four books consists entirely of the wTitings of Mencius (371-288 b. c). In originality and breadth of view he is superior to Confucius, and must be regarded as one of the greatest men Asiatic nations have produced. The Five Classics and Four Books would scarcely be considered more than curiosities in literature were it not for the incompar- able influence, free from any debasing character, which they have exerted over so many millions of minds. 5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy. — Three periods may be distinguished in the history of the religious and philosoi)hical 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 to the primitive customs and moral doctrines. It appears that this religion at length degenerated into that mingled idolatry and indifference which still characterizes the people of China. In the sixth 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 ])roduced 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 s])iritual and material world, which nmst be worshiped through the purification of the soul, by retirement, abnegation, contemplation, and metempsychosis. This school gave rise to a sect of mystics similar to those of India. Later writers have debased the system of Lao-tse, and cast aside his profound speculations for superstitious rituals and the multiplication of gods and goddesses. Confucius was tlie founder of the second school, which has exerted a far more extensive and beneficial influence on the «)olitical and social institutions of China. Confucius is a Latin 10 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. name, corresponding to the original Kung-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 im- pressed 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 minister, he traveled 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 essen- tially 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 be- came supreme. He died 479 B. c, at the age of seventy-two, eleven years before the birth of Socrates. He left a grandson, through whom the succession has been transmitted to the pres- ent day, and liis descendants constitute a distinct class in Chinese society. At the close of the fourth century B. c, another philosopher appeared by the name of Meng-tse, or Mencius (eminent and venerable teacher), whose method of instruction bore a strong similarity to that of Socrates. His books rank among the clas- sics, and breathe a spirit of freedom and independence ; they are full of irony on petty sovereigns and on their vices ; they es- taljlish moral goodness above social position, and the will of the people above the arbitrary power of their rulers. He was much .revered, and considered bolder and more eloquent than Con- fucius. 6. The third period of the intellectual development of the Chinese dates from the introduction of Buddhism into the coun- try, under the name of the religion of Fo, 70 A. d. The em- peror himself professes this religion, and its followers have the largest number of temples. The great bulk of Buddhist litera- ture is of Indian origin. Buddhism, however, has lost in Cluna much of its originality, and for the mass it has sunk into a low and debasing 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 coun^ try- 7. Social Coxstitutiox of China. — The social constitution of China rests on the ancient traditions preserved in the canon- ical and classic books. The Chinese empire is founded on the patriarchal system, in which all authority over the family be- longs 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 children, they are all equal before him, and according to CHINESE LITERATI' HE. 11 their capacity are admitted to the public offices. Hence no dis- tinction of castes, no privileged classes, no nobility of birth ; but a general equality under an absolute chief. The public admin- istration 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 different 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 government, 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 eloquence. The courage of some of the mem- bers of this board has been indeed sublime, giving to their words wonderful power. The Court of History and Literature superintends public edu- cation, 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. 8. Invention of Printing. — At the close of the sixth cen- tury B. c. it was ordained that various texts in circulation should be engraved on wood to be printed and published. At first comparatively little use seems to have been made of the inven- tion, which only reached its full development in the eleventh century, when movable types were first invented by a Chinese blacksmith, who printed books with them nearly five hundred years before Gutenberg appeared. In the third 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 consider him the founder of the empire. Sixty years after this barbarous decree had been carried into execution, one of his successors, who desired as far as possible to repair the injury, caused these books to be re-written from a copy which had es- caped destruction. 9. Science, History, and Geography. — 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 indifferent merit. In math- ematics they begin only now to make some progress, since the mathematical works of Europe have been introduced into their 12 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. country. Astroloj^ still takes the place of astronomy, and the almanacs prepared at the observatory of Peking are made chiefly by foreigners. Books on natural philosophy abound, some of which are written by the emperors themselves. Medicme is imperfectly understood. They possess several valuable works on Chinese jurisprudence, on agriculture, economy, mechanics, trades, many cyclopaedias and compendia, and several dictiona- ries, composed with extraordinary skill and patience. To this department may be referred all educational books. the most of them written in rhyme, and according to a system of intellectual gradation. The historical and geographical works of China are the most valuable and interesting department of its literature. Each dynasty has its official chronicle, and the celebrated collection of twenty-one histories forms an almost unbroken record of the annals from the thii'd century B. c. to the middle of the seven- teenth century, and contains a vast amount of information to European readers. The edition of this huge work, in sixty-six folio volumes, is to be found in the British Museum. This and many similar works of a general and of a local character unite in rendering this department rich and important for those who are interested in the history of Asiatic civilization. " The Gen- eral Geography of the Chinese Empire " is a collection of the statistics of the country, with maps and tables, in two hundred and sixty volumes. The '• Statutes of the Reigning Dynasty," from the year 1818, form more than one thousand volumes. Chinese topographical works are characterized by a minuteness of detail rarely equaled. Historical and literary encyclopaedias form a very notable fea- ture in all Chinese libraries. These works show great research, clearness, and precision, and are largely drawn upon by Euro- pean scholars. Early in the last century one of the emperors appointed a commission to reprint in one great collection all the works they might think worthy of preservation. The result was a compilation of 6,109 volumes, arranged under thirty-two heads, embracing works on every subject contained in the national literature. This work is unique of its kind, and the largest in the world. 10. Poetry. — The first development of literary talent in China, as elsewhere, is found in poetry, and in the earliest days songs and ballads were brought as offerings from the various principalities to the heads of government. At the time of Con- fucius there existed a collection of three thousand songs, from which he selected those contained in the " Book of Odes." There is not much sublimity or depth of thought in these odes, but they abound in touches of nature, and are exceedingly vor CHINESE LITERATURE. 13 teresting and curious, as showing how little change time has effected in the manners and customs of this singular })eople. Siniihi,;- in character are tlu' jjoenis of the Tshian-teng-shi, an- other collection of lyrics published at the expense of the emi)eror, in several thousand volumes. Among modern poets may be mentioned the Emperor Khian-lung, who died at the close of the last century. After the time of Confucius the change in Chinese poetry became very marked, and, instead of the peaceful tone of his day, it reflected the unsettled condition of social and political affairs. The sim})le, monotheistic faitli was exchanged for a sui)erscitious belief in a host of gods and goddesses, a contempt for life, and an uncertainty of all beyond it. The period be- tween G20 and 907 a. d., was one of great prosperity, and is looked upon as the golden age. 11. Dramatic Litkkature and Fiction. — Chinese litera- ture affords no instance of real dramatic poetry or sustained effort of the imagination. The " Hundred Plays of the Yuen Dynasty " is the most celebrated collection, and many have been translated into f]uropean languages. One of them, "• The Orphan of China," served as the groundwork of Voltaire's tragedy of that nr.me. The drama, however, constitutes a large depart- ment in Chinese literature, though there are, properly speaking, no theatres in China. A platform in the open air is the ordi- nary stage, the decorations are hangings of cotton su])ported by a few poles of bamboo, and the action is frequently of the coars- est kind. When an actor comes on the stage, he says, '* 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 their dramas are full of bustle and abound in incident. They 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 ihe best of these amount to five hundred jjieces. 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, t\diich, however, are founded on reason and not on imagination, as are the Hindu and Persian tales. Their subjects are not submarine abvsses, eno'ianted |)alaces, giants and genii, but man as he is in liis actual life, as he lives with his fellow-men, with 14 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. all his virtues and vices, sufferincjs and joys. 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 subject. 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 ar& considered classic. Such are the " Four Great Marvels' Books," and the " Stories of the Pirates on the Coast of Kiangnan." 12. 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 profes- sion. Public schools are everywhere established ; in the cities there are colleges, in which pupils are taught the Chinese litera- ture ; and in Peking there is an imperial college for the educa- tion of the mandarins. The offices of the empire are only at- tained by scholarship. There are_four literary degrees, which give title to different positions in the country. The government fosters the higher branches of education and patronizes the publi- cation of hterary works, which are distributed among the libra- ries, colleges, and functionaries. The press is restricted only from publisliing licentious and revolutionary books. The future literature of China in many branches will be greatly modified by the introduction of foreign knowledge and influences. JAPANESE LITERATURE. 1. The Lanpriiaere. — 2. The Rplicion. — 3. The Literature. Influence of Women. — 4. History. —5. The Drama and Poetry. —t!. Geography. Newspapers. Novels. Medi- cal Science. — 7. Position of Woman. — 8. Foreign Interpreters of Japan. 1. The Language. — The Japanese is considered as be- longing to the isolated languages, as philologists have thus far failed to classify it. It is agglutinative in its syntax, each word consisting of an unchangeable root and one or several suf- fixes. Before the art of writing was known, poems, odes to the gods, and other fragments which still exist had been com- posed in this tongue, and it is probable that a much larger liter- ature existed. During the first centuries of writing in Japan, the spoken and \vi-itten language was identical, but with the study of the Chinese literature and the composition of native works almost exclusively in that language, there grew up differ- ences between the colloquial and literaiy idiom, and the infusion of Cliinese words steadily increased. In writing, the Chinese characters occupy the most important place. But all those words which express the wants, feelings, and concerns of every- day life, all that is deepest in the human heart, are for the most part native. If we would trace the fountains of the musical and beautiful language of Japan, we must seek them in the hearts and hear them flow from the lips of the mothers of the Island Empire. Among the anomalies with which Japan has surprised and delighted the world may be claimed that of woman's achievements in the domain of letters. It was woman's services, not man's, tliat made the Japanese a literary language, and un- der her influence the mobile forms of speech crystallized into perennial beauty. The written lanofuaefe has heretofore consisted mainly of char- actors borrowed from the Chinese, each character representing an idea of its own, so that in order to read and write the student must make himself acquainted with several thousand characters, and years are required to gain proficiency in tliese elementary arts. There also exists in japan a syllabary alphabet of forty- seven characters, used at present as an auxiliary to the Chinese. Within a very recent period, since the accjuisition of knowledge has become a necessity in Japan, a society has been formed by 16 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. the most prominent men of the empire, for the purpose of assim- ilating the spoken and written language, taking the fortj-seven native characters as the basis. 2. Religion. — The two great religions of Japan are Shinto- ism and Buddhism. The chief characteristic of the Shinto re- ligion is the worsliip of ancestors, the deification of emperors, heroes, and scholars, and the adoration of the personified forces of nature. It lays down no precepts, teaches no morals or doc- trines, and prescribes no ritual. The number of Shinto deities is enormous. In its higher form the chief object of the Shinto faith is to enjoy this life ; in its lower forms it consists in a blind obedience to govermuental and priestly dictates. On the recent accession of the Mikado to his former supreme power, an attempt was made to restore this ancient faith, but it failed, and Japan continues as it has been for ten centuries in the Buddhist faith. The religion of Buddha was introduced into Japan 581 A. D., and has exerted a most potent influence in formmg the Japanese character. The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism are the followers of Shinran, 1262 A. d., who have wielded a vast influence in the religious development of the people both for good and evil. In this creed prayer, purity, and earnestness of life are insisted upon. The Scriptures of other sects are written in Sanskrit and Chinese which only the learned are able to read, those of the Shin sect are in the vernacular Japanese idiom. After the death of Shinran, Rennio, who died in 1500 A. D., produced sacred writings now daily read by the disciples of this denomination. Though greatly persecuted, the Shin sect have continually in- creased in numbers, wealth, and power, and now lead all in in- telligence and influence. Of late they have organized their theological schools on the model of foreign countries that their young men may be trained to resist the Shinto and Christian faiths. 3. The Literature. Influence of Women. — Previous to the fourteenth century learning in Japan was confined to the court circle. The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries are the dark ages when military domination put a stop to all learning except with a few priests. With the seventeenth cen- tury begins the modem period of general culture. The people are all fond of reading, and it is very common to see cir(;ulating libraries carried from house to house on the backs of men. As early as the tenth century, while the learned affected a pedantic style so interlarded with Chinese as to be unintelligible, JAPANESE LITERATURE. 17 the cultivation of the native tonj^ie was left to the ladies of the court, a task which they nobly discharged. It is a remarkable fact, without parallel in the history of letters, that a very large proportion of the best writings of the best ages was the work of women, and their achievement in the domain of letters is one of the anomalies with which Japan has sur])rised and delighted the world. It was their genius that made the Japanese a literary language. The names and works of these authoresses are quoted at the present day. 4. History. — The earliest extant Japanese record is a work entitled " Kojiki," or hook of ancient traditions. It treats of the creation, the gods and goddesses of the mythological j)eriod, and gives the history of the Mikados from the accession of Jim- mu, year 1 (6G0 B. c), to 1288 of the Japanese year. It was supposed to date from the first half of the eighth century, and another work " Nihonghi," a little later, also treats of the mytho- logical period. It abounds in traces of Chinese influence, and in a measure supersedes the "• Kojiki." These are the oldest books in the language. They are the chief exponents of the Shinto faith, and form the bases of many commentaries and subsequent works. The " History of Great Japan," composed in the latter part of the seventeenth century, by the Lord of Mito (died 1700), is the standard history of the present day. The external history of Japan, in twenty-two volumes, by Rai Sanyo (died 1832), com- ])osed in classical Cliinese, is most widely read by men of educa- tion. The Japanese are intensely proud of their history and take great care in making and jjreserving records. Memorial stones are among the most striking sights on the highways and in the towns, villages, and temple yards, in honor of some noted scholar, ruler, or benefactor. Few people are more thoroughly informed as to their own history. Every city, town, and village has its annals. Family records are faithfully copied from gener- ation to generation. Almost every province has its encycloj)a?dic liistory, and every high-road its itineraries and guide-books, in which famous ])hices and events are noted. In the large cities professional story-tellers and readers gain a lucrative livelihood by narrating both legendary and classical history, and tlie theatre is often the most faithful mirror of actual history. There are hundreds of child's histories in Ja])an. Many of the standard works are ])rofusely illustrated, art' n.odt'ls of style and eloquence, and parents delight to instruct their children in the nationid laws and traditions. 6. The Draiwa. — The theatre is a favorite amusement, es 18 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. pecially among the lower classes ; the pieces represented are of a popular character and written in colloquial language, and gen- erally founded on national history and tradition, or on the lives and adventures of the heroes and gods ; and the scene is always laid in Japan. The play begins in the morning and lasts all day, spectators bringing their food with them. No classical dramatic author is known. Poetry has always been a favorite study with the Japanese. The most ancient poetical fragment, called a " Collection of Myriad Leaves," dates from the eighth century. The collec- tion of " One Hundred Persons " is much later, and contains many poems written by the emperors themselves. The Japan- ese possess no great epic or didactic poems, although some of their lyrics are happy examples of quaint modes of thought and expression. It is difficult to translate them into a foreign tongue. 6. Geography. Newspapers ahd Novels. — The largest section of Japanese literature is that treating of the local geograr phy of the country itself. These works are minute in detail and of great length, describing events and monuments of historic in- terest. Before the recent revolution but one newspaper existed in Japan, but at present the list numbers several hundred. Free- dom of the press is unknown, and fines and imprisonment for violation of the stringent laws are very frequent. Novels constitute a large section of Japanese literature. Fairy tales and story books abound. Many of them are translated into English ; " The Loyal Renins " and other works have recently been published in New York. Medical science was borrowed from China, but upon this, as upon other matters, the Japanese improved. Acupuncture, or the introduction of needles into the living tissues for remedial purposes, was invented by the Japanese, as was the moxa, or the burning of the flesh for the same purpose. 7. Position of Woman. — Women in Japan are treated with far more respect and consideration than elsewhere in the East- According to Japanese history the women of the early centuries were possessed of more intellectual and physical vigor, filling the offices of state and religion, and reaching a high plane of social dignity and honor. Of the one hundred and twenty-three Jap- anese sovereigns, nine have been women. The great heroine of Japanese history and tradition was the Empress Jingu, re« nowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, and martial valor, who, about 200 a. d., invaded and conquered Corea. The female children of the lower classes receive tuition in prif JAPANESE LITERATURE. 19 vate schools so generally established during the last two centu- ries throughout the country, and those of the higher classes at the hands of ])rivate tutors or governesses ; and in every house- hold may be found a great number of books exclusively on the duties of women. 8. FoKEiGN Interpretkrs of Japax. — Apart from the literature of the Japanese themselves, it is to be noted that the savor of Japanese life has permeated the work of foreigners, so that such accoi^iplished writers as Lafcadio Hearn and Pierre Loti figure less as spectators of Japanese life than as actual participants. Through them Japan finds a wider utterance than the literature of her own tongue can afford. This is a natural intermediate phase in the experience of a nation which is fast becoming Europeanized ; and there are now signs of an awakening instinct for national expression in the terms of the cosmopolite. SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 1. The Language. —2. The Social Constitution of India. Brahtnanism. — 3. Charac- teristics ol tlie Literature and its Divisions. — 4. The Vedas and other Sacred Books. — 5. Sanskrit Poetry ; Epic ; Tlie Ramayana and Mahabliarata. Lyric Poetry. Didactic Poetry: the Ilitopadesa. Dramatic Poetry. — 6. History and Science. — 7. Philosopliy. 8. Buddliism. — 9. Moral Pliilosophy. Tlie Code of Manu. — 10. Modern Literatures of India. — 11. Education. The Brahmo Somaj. 1. The Language. — Sanskrit is the literary language of the Hindus, and for two thousand years has served as the means of learned mtercourse and composition. The name denotes culti- vated or perfected, in distinction to the Prakrit or uncultivated, which sprang from it and was contemporary with it. The study of Sanskrit by European scholars dates less than a century back, and it is important as the vehicle of an immense literature which lays open the outward and inner life of a re- markable people from a remote epoch nearly to the present day, and as being the most ancient and original of the Indo-Euro- pean languages, throwing light upon them all. The Aryan or Indo-European race had its ancient home in Central Asia. Col- onies migrated to the west and founded the Persian, Greek, and Roman civilization, and settled in Spain and England. Other branches found their way through the passes of the Himalayas and spread themselves over India. Wherever they went they asserted their superiority over the earlier people whom they found in possession of the soil, and the history of civilization is everywhere the history of the Aryan race. The forefathers of the Greek and Roman, of the Englishman and the Hindu, dwelt together in India, spoke the same language, and worshiped the same gods. The languages of Europe and India are merely different forms of the original Aryan speech. This is especially true of the words of common family life. Father, mother, brother, sister, and widow, are substantially the same in most of the Aryan languages, whether spoken on the banks of the Ganges, the Tiber, or the Thames. The word dauglUer, which occurs in nearly all of them, is derived from the Sanskrit word signifying to draw milk, and preserves the memory of the time when the daughter was the little milkmaid in the primitive Aryan household. It is probable that as late as the third or fourth century b. c. it was still s2)oken. New dialects were engrafted upon it which SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 21 at lenj^h superseded it, though it has continued to be revered aa the sacred and literary languag^e of the country. Among the modern tongues of India, the lllndui and the Hindustani may be mentioned ; the former, the hmguage of tlie pure Hindu pop- uUition, is written in Sanskrit cliaracters ; the latter is the lan- guage of the Mohammedan Hindus, in which Arabic letters are used. Many of the other dialects spoken and written in North- ern India are derived from the Sanskrit. Of the more imi^or- tant among them there are English grammars and dictionaries, 2. Social Constitution 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 distinc- tion . of classes into which the 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 princes ; 3d. The husbandmen ; 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. THE RELIGION. In the period of the Vedas the religion of the Hindus was founded on the simple worshi]) of Nature. But the Pantheism of this age was gradually superseded by the worship of the one Brahm, from which, according to this belief, the soul emanated, and to which it seeks to return. Brahm is an impersonality, the sum of all nature, the germ of ail that is. Existence has no purpose, the world is wholly evil, and all good persons should desire to be taken out of it and to return to Brahm. Tliis end is to be attained only by transmigration of the soul through all previous stages of life, migrating into the body of a higher or lower being according to the sins or merits of its former exist- ence, either to finish or begin anew its ])urification. This re- ligion of the Hindus led to the growth of a philosophy the pre- cm-sor of that of Greece, whose aims were loftier and whose methods more ingenious. From Brahm, the impei-sonal soid of the universe, emanated the pei-sonal and active Brahma, who with Siva and Vishnu con- stitute the Trinmrti or god under tlu-ee forms. Siva is the second of the Hindu deities, and represents tha 22 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. primitive animating and destroying forces of nature. His sym- bols relate to these powers, and are worshiped more especially by the Sivaites — a numerous sect of this religion. The wor- shipers of Vishnu, 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 poetrj', and are particulai'ly developed in the great monuments of Sanskrit literature. The myths connected with Vishnu refer especially to his incarnations or corporeal appari- tions 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 Vishnu, 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 symbols, A U M, three letters in Sanskrit having but one sound, forming the mys- tical 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 nu- merous 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 reacliing that divine rest, immersion and absorption in Brahm. To this end are directed the sacrifices, the prayers, the ablutions, the pilgrimages, and the penances, which occupy so large a place in the Hindu worship. 3. Characteristics of the Literature and its Divis- ions. — A greater part of the Sanskrit literature, which counts its works by thousands, still remains in manuscript. It was nearly all composed in metre, even works of law, morality, and science. Every department of knowledge and every branch of inquiry is represented, with the single exception of history, and this forms the most striking general characteristic of the litera- ture, and one which robs it of a great share of worth and inter- est. Its place is in the intellectual rather than in the political history of the world. The literary monuments of the Sanskrit language correspond to the great eras in the history of India. The first period reaches back to that remote age, when those tribes of the Aryan race speaking Sanskrit emigrated to the northwestern portion of the Indian Peninsula, and established themselves there, an agri- cultural and pastoral people. That was the age in which wero SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 23 composed the prayers, hymns, and precepts afterwards col- lecteil in the form of tlie Veilas, the sacred books of the coun- try. In the second period, the people, incited by the desire of conquest, penetrated into the fertile valleys lying between the IncUis and the Ganges ; and the struggle with the aboriginal in- liabitants, which followed their invasion, gave birth to epic po- etry, 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 litei-ature. It contains collections of the ancient traditions, expositions of the Vedas, works on gram- mar, lexicography, and science ; and its conclusion forms the golden age of Sanskrit literature, when, the country being ruled by liberal princes, poetry, and especially the drama, reached its highest degree of perfection. The chronology of these periods varies according to the sys- tems of different orientalists. It is, However, admitted that the Vedas are the first literary })roductions of India, and that their origin cannot be later than the fifteenth century B. c. The pe- riod of the Vedas embraces the other sacred books, or commen- taries founded upon them, though written several centurias after- wards. The second period, to which belong the two great epic poems, the '* Ramayana " and the " Mahabharata," according to the best authorities ends with the sixth or seventh century B. c. The third period embraces all the poetical and scientific works written from that time to the third or fourth century B. c, when the language, having been ])rogressively refined, became fixed in the writings of Kalidasa, Jayadeva, and other poets. A fourth period, including the tenth century A. D., may be added, distin- guished by its erudition, grannnatical, rhetorical, and scientific tUstpiisitions, which, however, is not considered as belonging to the classical age. From the Hindu languages, originating in the Sanskrit, new literatures have sprung ; but they are essen- tially founded on the ancient literature, which far surpasses them in extent and importance, and is the great model of them all. Indeed, its influence 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 Sanskrit literature, known to Europe only re- cently, through the researches of the English and German ori- entalists, has now become the auxiliary and fomidation of all philological studies. 4. The Vedas and other Sacred Books. — The Vedas (knowledge or science', are the Bible of the Hindus, the most ancient book of the Aryan family, and cont:iin the revelation of 24 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Bralim which was preserved by tradition and collected by Vyasa, a name which means compiler. The word Veda, how- ever, should be taken as a collective name for the sacred litera- ture of the Vedic age which forms the background of the whole Indian world. Many works belonging to that age are lost, though a large number stUl exists. The most important of the V^edas are three in number. First, The " Rig-Veda," wliich is the great literary memorial of the settlement of the Aryans in the Punjaub, and of their religious hpnns and songs. Second, The " Yajur-Veda." Third, The '" Sama-Veda." Each Veda is divided into two parts : the first contains prayers and invocations, 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 Vedas of an ancient date, which are considered as sacred books, and relate to medi- cine, music, astronomy, astrology, gi'ammar, pliilosophy, juris- prudence, and, indeed, to the whole circle of Hindu science. They represent a period of unknowTi antiquity, when the Ar- yans were divided into tribes of which the chieftain was the father and priest, and when women held a high position. Some of the most beautiful hynms of this age were composed by la- dies and queens. The morals of Avyan, a woman of an early age, are stUl taught in the Hindu schools as the golden rule of Ufe. India to-day acknowledges no higher authority in matters of religion, ceremonial, customs, and law than the Vedas, and the spirit of Vedantism, which is breathed by every Hindu from his earhest youth, pervades the prayers of the idolater, the specula- tions of the philosopher, and the proverbs of the beggar. The " Puranas " (ancient writings) hold an eminent rank in the religion and literature of the Hindus. Though of a more recent date than the Vedas, 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 Pui-anas, which altogether contain 400,000 stanzas. The " Upapuranas," also eighteen in number, are commentaries on the Puranas. Fi- nally, to the sacred books, and next to the Vedas both in antiq- uity and authority, belong the " Manavadharmasastra," or the ordinances of Manu, spoken of hereafter. 5. Saxskrit Poetry. — This poetry, springing from tha lively and powerful imagination of the Hindus, is inspired by SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 25 their relij^ons doctrines, and embodied in the most harmonious language. Exalted by their peculiar belief in pantheism and metempsychosis, they consider the universe and themselves aa directly emanating from Brahni, and they strive to lose their own individuality in its inhnite essence. Yet, as impure beings, they feel their incajjacity to obtain the highest moral perfection, except through a continual atonement, to which all nature is con- demned. Hence Hindu poetry exi)resses a ])rofound melancholy, which pervades the character as well as the literature of that people. Tliis 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 i)oetry nearly every form it has assumed in the Western world, and in each and all they have excelled. Sanskrit 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 sylla- bles is the source of all other metres, and the sloka or double distich is the stanza most frequently used. Though this poetry- presents too often extravagance of ideas, incumbrance of epi- sodes, and monstrosity of images, as a general rule it is endowed with simplicity of style, pure coloring, subUme ideas, rare fig- ures, 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 Sanskrit poetry is its extensive use in treating of those subjects apparently the most difficult to reduce to a metri- cal form — not only the Vedas and Mann'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 modu- lated and bears so great a resemblance to the language of poetry as scarcely to be distinguished from it. The history of San- skrit poetry is, in reality, the liistory of Sanskrit literature. The subjects of the epic jioems of the Hindus are derived chieHy 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 warring against the spirit of evil destroys the possibility of struggle, ami impairs the character of epic poetry ; but the Hindu i)oets, by submitting their gods both to fate and to the condition of men, diminish their power and give them the character of e])ic heroes. The Hindu mythology, however, is the great obstacle which must ever prevent this poetry from becoming })opular in the Western world. The gi'eat personifications of the Deity have not been softened down, as in the mythology of the Greeks, to 26 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. the perfection of human symmetry, but are here exhibited in their original gigantic forms. Majesty is often exjjressed by enormous stature ; power, by muhitudinous hands ; 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, are so much at variance with our own, that no labor or skill could render its associations familiar. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the most important and sublime creations of Hindu literature, and the most colos- sal epic jjoems to be found in the literature of the world. They surpass in magnitude the Iliad and Odyssey, the Jerusalem De- livered and the Lusiad, as the pyramids of Egypt tower above the temjDles of Greece. The Kaniayana {Rama and yana expedition) describes the exploits of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, and the son of Dasaratlia, king of Oude. Havana, tlie 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 tlie gods implored Vishnu to become incarnate in order tliat Havana might be conquered. The origin and the development of this Avatar, the departing of Rama for the battlefield, the divine signs of his mission, his love and marriage with Sita, the daughter of the king Janaka, the persecution of his step-mother, by which the hero is sent into exile, his penance in the desei't, the abduction of his bride by Havana, the gigantic battles that ensue, the rescue of Sita, and the triumph of Rama constitute the principal plot of this won- derful 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 ])enitent, who through mistake was killed by Dasaratha ; the former splendid for its rich imagery, the latter incomparable for its elegiac character, and for its expression of the passionate sorrow of parental affection. The Ramayana was written by Valmiki, a poet belonging to an unknown period. It consists of seven cantos, and contains twenty-five tbousand verses. Tlie original, with its translation into Italian, was published in Paris by the government of Sar- dinia about the middle of this century. The Mahabharata (the great Bharata) has nearly the same antiquity as the Ramayana. It describes the greatest Avatar of Vishnu, the incarnation of the god in Krishna, and it pre- sents a vast picture of the Hindu religion. It relates to the leg- SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 27 endary history of the Bharata dynasty, esjjecially to the wars be- tween the Pandus 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 wondei-ful adventures, with a powerful ai-my to oppose the Kurus, and being aided by Krishna, the incarnated Vishnu, defeat their enemies and be- come 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 thou- sand young girls who had become prisoners of a giant, his heroic deeds in the war of the Pandus, and finally his juscent 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 religious systems of the ancient Hindus, which are here revealed with ma- jestic and sublime eloquence. Five of its most esteemed epi- sodes are called the Five Precious Stones. First among these may be mentioned the " Bhagavad-Gita," or the Divine Song, contaming the revelation of Krislma, in the form of a dialogue between the god and his pupil Arjuna. Schlegel calls this epi- sode the most beautiful, and ])erhaps the most truly philosophical, poem that the whole range of literature has produced. The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen cantos, and it con- tains two hundred thousand verses. It is attributed to Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, but it appears that it was the result of a period of literature rather than the work of a single poet. Its different incidents and episodes were ])robably separate poems, which from the earliest age were sung by the peoi)le, and later, by degrees, collected in one complete work. Of the Ma- habharata we possess only a few episodes translated into Eng- lish, such as the Bhagavad-Gita, by Wilkins. At a later period other epic j)oems were \\Titten, either as abridg-ments of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or founded on episodes contained in them. These, however, belong to a lower order of com])osition. and cannot be compared with the great works of Valmiki and Vyasa. In the development of lyric poetry the Hindu bards, partic- ularly those of the third ])eriod, have been eminently successful ; their power is great in the sublime and the pathetic, and mani- fests 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 desorij^tions of nature. Such are the " Meghaduta " and the " Ritusanhara " of Kali- dasa, tlie " JNIadhava and Radha " of Jayadeva, and especially the " Gita-Govinda " of the same ])oet. or the adventures of Krislma as a shepherd, a poem in which the soft languors of love 28 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. are depicted in enchanting colors, and which is adorned with all the magnificence of language and sentiment. Hindu poetry has a particular tendency to the didactic style and to embody religious and historical knowledge ; every sub- ject is treated in the form of verse, such as inscriptions, deeds, md dictionaries. Splendid examples of didactic poetry may be found in the episodes of the epic poems, and more particularly in the collections of fables and apologises in wliich the Sanskrit literature abounds. Among these the Hitopadesa is the most celebrated, in which Vishnu-saima instructs the sons of a king committed to his care. Perhajis there is no book, excej^t 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 confined to India, while the other, under the title of " Calila and Dimna," has become famous over all western Asia and in all the countries of Europe, and has served as the model of the fables of aU languages. To this de- partment belong also the "Adventures of the Ten Princes," by Dandin, which, in an artistic point of view, is far superior to any other didactic writings of Hindu literature. The drama is the most interesting branch of Hindu literature. No other ancient people, except the Greeks, has brought forth anything so admirable in this department. It had its most flourishing period probably in the third or fourth century B. C. Its origin is attributed to Brahm, and its subjects are selected from the mythology. Whether the drama represents the leg- ends of the gods, or the simple circumstances of ordinary life ; whether it describes allegorical or historical subjects, it bears always the same character of its origin and of its tendency. Sim- plicity 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 music are intermingled iai their representations. Only the principal characters, the gods, the Brahmins, and the kings, speak Sanskrit ; women and the less important characters speak Prakrit, more or less refined according to their rank. Whatever may offend propriety, what- ever may produce an unwholesome excitement, is excluded ; for the hilarity of the audience, there is an occasional introduction on the stage of a parasite or a buffoon. The representation is usually opened by an apologue and always concluded with a prayer. Kalidasa, the Hindu Shakespeare, has been called by liis 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 cove SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 29 lain episodes selected from the epic poems, and are founded on the principles of Bralununisin. The '* ISIessenger Cloud " of this author, a monologue rather than a drama, is unsurpassed in beauty of sentiment by auy European poet. '' Sakuntala," or the Fatal Ring, is considered one of the best dramas of Kalidasa. It has been translated into English I)y Sir W. Jones. lihavabluiti, a Brahmin by birth, was called by his contem- poraries the Sweet S])eaking. He was the author of many dramas of distinguished merit, wliich rank next to those of Kar lidasa. 6. Hlstory an^d Science. — History, considered as the de- velopment of mankind in relation to its ideal, is unknown to Sanskrit literatuie. Indeed, the only historical work thus far discovered is the " Histoi-y of Caslmiere," a series of poetical compositions, written by different authors at different periods, the last of which brings down the annals to the sixteenth cen- tury A. D., when Cashmere became a province of the JNIogul cm])ire. In the scientific department, the works on Sanskrit gi-ammar and lexicography are models of logical and analytical research. There are also valuable works on jurisprudence, on rhetoric, poetry, music, and other arts. The Hindu system of decimal no- tation made its way through the Arabs to modern nations, our usual figures being, in their origin, letters of the Sanskrit alpha- bet. Their medical and surgical knowledge is deserving of study. 7. Philosophy. — The object of Hindu philosophy consists in obtaining emancipation from metempsychosis, through the ab- sorption of the sold into Brahm, or the universal being. Ac- cording to the different principles which philosophers adopt in attaining this supreme object, their doctrines are divided into the four following systems : 1st, Sensualism ; 2d, Idealism ; 3d, Mysticism ; 4th, Eclecticism. Sensualism is represented in the school of Kapila, according to whose doctrine the purification of the soul must be effected 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 ])hiloso- phy of nature leads some of its followers to seek their purifica- tion in the sensual ])leasures 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 Bonsequences of the system of Ka])ila. Idealism is the foundation of three pliilosophical schools : the 30 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Dialectic, the Atomic, and the Vedanta. 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 considered as distinct from Brahm and also from the body. Man can ap proacli Brahm, can unite himself to the universal soul, but car. never lose his own uidi\nduality. The Atomic doctrine explains the origin of the world through the combination of eternal, simple atoms. It belongs to Ideal- ism, for the predominance which it gives to ideas over sensation, and for the individuality and consciousness which it recognizes in man. The Vedanta is the true ideal pantheistic philosophy of India. It considers Brahm 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 quahty or quantity of Brahm, having no actual reaUty, and he who turns away from aU that is unreal and changeable and contemplates Brahm unceasingly, becomes one with it, and attains liberation. Mysticism comprehends all doctrines which deny authority to reason, and admit no other principles of knowledge or rule of Ufe than supernatural or direct revelation. To tliis 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 corpo- real penance, suspension of breath, and immobility of position. The followers of this school pass their lives in solitude, absorbed 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 supernatural illumination and power. The Bhagavad-Gita, al- ready spoken of, is the best exposition of this doctrine. The Eclectic school comprises all theories which deny the authority of the Vedas, and admit rational principles borroAved both from sensualism and idealism. Among these doctrines Buddhism is the principal. 8. Buddhism. — 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 into the Hindu religion a more simple creed, and a milder and more humane code of morality. The date of the origin of this re- form is uncertain. It is proba])ly not earlier than the sixth cen- tury B. 0. Buddhism, essentially a proselyting religion, spread over Central Asia and tlirough the island of Ceylon. Its fol- SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 81 lowers in India being persecuted and expelled from the country, penetrated into Thibet, and pushing forward into the wilderness of the Kalnuicks 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 beyond the limits of Asia, its followers number over four hun- dred millions. As a j)hilosophical school, Buddhism partakes both of sen- sualism and idealism ; it admits sensual j)erception as the source of knowledge, but it grants to nature only an apparent exist- ence. On tliis universal illusion, Buddhism founded a gigantic system of cosmogony, establishing an infinity of degrees in the scale of existences from tliat of pure being without form or qual- ity to the lowest emanations. According to Buddha, the object of philosophy, as well as of religion, is the deliverance of the soul from metempsychosis, and therefore from all pain and il- lusion. He teaches that to break the endless rotation of trans- migration the sold must be prevented from being born again, by purifying it even from the desire of existence. He denied the authority of the Vedas, and abolished or ignored the divis- ion of the people into castes, admitting whoever desired it to the priesthood. Notwithstanding the doctrine of metempsycho- sis, and the beHef that life is only an endless round of birth and death, sin and sutt'ering, the most sacred Buddliistic books teach a pure and elevated morality, and that the highest happiness is only to be reached through self-abnegation, universal benevo- lence, humility, patience, courage, self-knowledge, and contem- plation. Much has been added to the original doctrines of Buddha in the way of mythology, sacrifices, penances, mysti- cism, and hierarchy. 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 m Pali. Among these are many legends, and chronicles, and books on theology and jurisprudence. The literary men of Buddhism are generally the priests, who receive different names in different countries. A complete collection of the sacred books of Buddhism forms a theological body of one hundred and eight volumes. 9. Moral Philosophy, — The moral philosophy of India is contained in the Sacred Book of Manavadharmasastra, or Code >f Manu. This embraces a poetical account of Brahma and other gods, of the origin of the world and man, and of the 32 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. duties arising from the relation of man towards Brahma and towards his fellow-men. Whether regarded for its great antiq- uity and classic beauty, or for its importance as being con- sidered of divine revelation by the Hindu people, this Cede must ever claim the attention of those who devote themselves to the study of the Sanskrit literature. Though inferior to the Vedas in antiquity, it is held to be equally sacred ; and being more closely connected with 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 one hundred thousand verses, and that they were after- wards abridged for the use of mankind to four thousand. 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 laws of Manu man is enjoined to exert a full 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 in- jure no one, even in wish. Woman is taught that she cannot aspire to freedom, a girl is to depend on her father, a wife on her husband, and a widow on her son. The law forbids her to marry a seconA time. The Code of Manu is divided into twelve books or chapters, in which are treated separately the subjects of creation, educa- tion, marriage, domestic economy, the art of living, penal and civil laws, of punishments and atonements, of transmigration, and of the final blessed state. These ordinances or institutes contain much to be admired and much to be condemned. Thev form a system of despotism and priestcraft, both limited by law, but artfuUy conspiring to give mutual support, though with mut- ual checks. A spirit of sublime elevation and amiable benevo- lence pervades the whole work, sufficient to prove the author to have adored not the visible sun, but the incomparably p^reater 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. 10. Modern Literaturks of India. — The literature of the modern tongues of the Hindus consists chiefly of imitations and translations from the Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and from Euro- pean languages. There is, however, an original epic poem, writ- ten in Hindui by Tshand, under the title of the " Adventures of SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 33 Prithivi Raja," which is second only to the great Sanskrit poems. This work, which relates to the twelfth century A. D., descrihes the struggle of the Hindus against their Mohammedan con- querors. The poem of " Ramayana," hy Tulsi-Das, and that of the " Ocean of Love," are extremely popular in India. The modern dialects contain many religious and national songs ol' ex(pusite heauty and deUcacy.. Among the poets of India, who have written in these dialects, Sauday, Mir-Mohammed Taqui, Wall, and Azad are the principal. The Hindi, wliich dates from the eleventh century A. c, is one of the languages of Aryan stock still spoken in Northern India. One of its principal dialects is the Hindustani, which is employed in the literature of the northern country. Its two divisions are the Hindi and Urdu, which represent the popular side of the national culture, and are almost exclusively used at the present day ; the first chiefly by writers not belonging to the Brahminical order, while those of the Urdu dialect follow Per- sian models. The writings in each, though numerous, and not without pretension, have little interest for the European reader. 11. Education in India. — For the education of the Brah- mins and of the higher classes, there was founded, in 1792, a Sanskrit College at Benares, the Hindu ca})ital. The course of instruction embraces Persian, English, and Hindu law, and gen- eral literature. In 1854 universities were established at Cal- cutta, Madras, and Bombay. Of late public instruction has be- come a department of the government, and schools and colleges for higher instruction have been established in various parts of the country, and books and newspapers in English and in the vernacular are everpvhere increasing. As far back as 1824 the American and English missionaries were the pioneers of female education. The recent report of the Indian Commission of Edu- cation deals particularly with tliis question, and attributes the v.ide difference betAveen the extent of male and female acquire- ments to no inferiority in the mental capacities of women ; on the contrary, they find their intellectual activity very keen, and often outlasting the mental energies of men. According to the traditions of pre-historic times, women occu])ied a high place in the early civilization of India, and their ca])acity to govern is shown by the fact, that at the present day one of the best ad- ministered States has been ruled by native ladies during two generations, and that the most ably managed of the great landed properties are entirely in the hands of women. The chief causes which retard their education are to be found in the social cus- toms of the country, the seclusion in which women live, the ap- propriation of the educational fund to the schools for boys, and the need of trained teachers. 34 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the first Asiatic writer in the languages of the West who has made a literary- fame in Europe is a young Hindu girl, Torn Dutt (1856-1877), whose writings in prose and verse in English, as well as in French, have called forth admiration and astonishment from the critics, and a sincere lament for her early death. 12. The Bramo-Somaj. — In 1830, under this name (Wor- shiping Assembly), Rammohun Roy founded a religious soci- ety in India, of which, after him, Keshub Chunder Sen (died 1884) was the most eminent member. Their aim is to es- tablish a new religion for India and the world, founded on a belief in one God, which shall be freed from all the errors and corruptions of the past. They propose many important reforms, such as the abolition of caste, the remodeling of mar- riage customs, the emancipation and education of women, the abolition of infanticide and the worship of ancestors, and a gen- eral moral regeneration. Their chief aid to spiritual growth may be summed up in four words, self-culture, meditation, per- sonal purity, and universal beneficence. Their influence has been already felt in the legislative affairs of India. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATUEE. I. The Accadians and Babylonians. — 2. The Cuneiform Letters. — 3. Babylonian and Assyrian Kemains. 1. Accadians akd Babylonians. — Geographically, as well as historically ami ethnographically, the district lying between the Tigris and Euphrates forms but one country, though the rival kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia became, each in turn, superior to the other. The primitive inhabitants of tliis dis- trict were called Accadians, or Chaldeans, but httle or noth- ing was known of them until within the last fifteen or twenty years. Their language was agglutinative, and they were the inventors of the cuneiform system of writing. The Babylonians conquered this people, borrowed their signs, and incorporated their literature. Soon after their conquest by the Babylonians, they estabhshed priestly caste in the state and assumed the wor- ship, laws, and manners of their conquerors. They were de- voted to the science of the stars, and determined the equinoctial and solstitial points, divided the ecliptic into twelve parts and the day into hours. The signs, names, and figures of the Zodiac, and the invention of the dial are some of the improvements in astronomy attributed to this people. With the dechne of Baby- lon their influence declined, and they were afterwards known to the Greeks and Romans only as astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers. 2. The Cuneiform Letters. — These characters, borrowed by the Semitic conquerors of the Accadians, the Babylonians, and Assyi-ians, were originally hieroglyphics, each denoting an object or an idea, but they were gradually corrupted into the forms we see on Assyrian monuments. They underwent many changes, and the various periods are distinguished as Archaic, hieratic, Assyrian, and later Babylonian. 3. Babylonian and Assyrian Remains. — The origin and history of this civilization have only been made known to us by the very recent decii)herment of native monuments. Before these discoveries the principal source of information was found in the writings of Berosus, a priest of Babylon, who lived about 300 B. c, and who translated the records of astronomy into Greek. Though his works have perished, we have quotations from them in Eusebius and other writers, which have been sti-ik- 36 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. ingly verified by the inscriptions. The chief work on astron- omy; compiled for Sargon, one of the earliest Babylonian mon- arclis, is inscribed on seventy tablets, a copy of which is in the British Museum. The Babylonians understood the movements of the heavenly bodies, and Calisthenes, who accompanied Alex- ander on his eastern expedition, brought with him on his return the observations of 1903 years. The main purpose of all Babylonian astronomical observation, however, was astrological, to cast horoscopes, or to predict the weather. Babylon retained for a long time its ancient splendor after the conquest by Cyrus and the final fall of -the empire, and in the first period of the Macedonian sway. But soon after that time its fame was ex- tinguished, and its monuments, arts, and sciences perished. Assyria was a land of soldiers and possessed little native lit- erature. The more peaceful pursuits had their home in Baby- lonia, where the universities of Erech and Borsippa were re- nowned down to classical times. The larger part of this literature was stamped in clay tablets and baked, and these were numbered and arranged in order. Papyrus was also used, but none of this fragile material has been preserved. In the reign of Sardanapalus (660-647 B. c.) Assyrian art and literature reached their highest point. In the ruins of his palace have been found three chambers the floors of which were covered a foot deep with tablets of all sizes, from an inch to nine inches long, bearing inscriptions many of them so minute as to be read only by the aid of a magnifying glass. Though broken they have been partiaUy restored and are among the most precious cuneiform inscriptions. They have only been deciphered M-ithin the present century, and thousands of inscriptions are yet buried among the ruins of Assyria. The most interesting of these re- mains yet discovered are the hymns to the gods, some of which strikingly resemble the Hebrew Psalms. Of older date is the collection of formulas which consists of omens and hymns and tablets relating to astronomy. Later than the hymns are the mythological poems, two of which are preserved intact. They are " The Deluge " and " The Descent of Istar into Hades." They form part of a very remarkable epic which centred round the adventures of a solar hero, and into which older and inde- pendent lays were woven as episodes. Copies are preserved in the British Museum. The literature on the subject of these re- mains is very extensive and rapidly increasing. PHCENICIAN LITERATURE. The Language. — The Remains. The Phoenician language bore a strong affinity to the Hebrew, through which alone the inscriptions on coins and monuments can be interpreted, and these constitute the entire literary re- mains, though the Phoenicians had doubtless their archives and written laws. The inscriptions engraved on stone or metal are found chiefly in places once colonies, remote from Phoenicia itself. The Phoenician alphabet forms the basis of the Semitic and Indo-European graphic systems, and was itself doubtless based on the Egyptian hieratic writing. Sanchuniathon is the name given as that of the author of a history of Phoenicia which was translated into Greek and published by Philo, a grammarian of the second century A. D. A considerable fragment of this work is preserved in Eusebius, but after much learned contro- versy it is now believed that it was the work of Philo himself. SYRIAC LITERATURE. The Language. — Influence of the Literature in the Eighth and Ninth Century. The Language. — The Aramaic language, early spoken in Syria and Mesopotamia, is a branch of the Semitic, and of thia tongue the Chaldaic and Syriac were dialects. Chaldaic is sup- posed to be the language of Babylonia at the time of the captiv- ity, and the earliest remains are a part of the Books of Daniel and Ezra, and the paraphrases or free translations of the Old Testament. The Hebrews having learned this language during the Babylonian exile, it continued in use for some time after their return, though the Hebrew remained the written and sacred tongue. Gradually, however, it lost this prerogative, and in the second century A. D. the Chaldaic was the only spoken language of Palestine. It is still used by the Nestorians and Maronites in their religious services and in their literary works. The spoken language of Syria has undergone many changes corre- sponding to the political changes of the country. The most prominent Syriac author is St. Ephraem, or Ephraem Syrus (350 A. D.),with whom begins the best period of Syriac literature, which continued until the ninth century. A great part of this literature has been lost, and what remains is only par- tially accessible. Its principal work was in the eighth and ninth centuries in introducing classical learning to the knowledge of the Arabs. In the seventh century, Jacob of Edessa gave the clas- sical and sacred dialect its final form, and from this time the series of native grammarians and lexicographers continued un- broken to the time of its decline. The study of Syriac was introduced into Europe in the fifteenth century. Valuable col- lections of MSS., in this language, are to be found in the British Museum, and grammars and dictionaries have been published in Germany and in New York. PERSIAN LITERATURE. I. The Persian Language and its Divisions — 5. Zendic Literature : The Zendavesta. — . 3. I'elilvi and Parsee Literatures. — 4. Tlie Ancient Religion of Persia ; Zoroaster. — 5. Modern Literature. — G. The Sufis. — 7. Persian Poetry. — 8. Persian Poets ; Ferdusi ; Kssedi of Tub ; Togray, etc. — 9. riistory and Philosophy. — 10. Education in Persia. 1. The Persian Language and its Divisions. — The Persian language and its varieties, as far as they are known, be- long 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 Media, Bactria, and in the northern part of Persia. This language partakes of the character both of the Sanskrit and of the Clialdaic. It is written from right to left, and it possesses, in its grammatical construction and its radical words, many elements in common with the Sanskrit and the German lan- guages. Second. The period of the Pehlvi, or language of heroes, anciently spoken in the western ])art 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 period of the Parsee or the dialect of the south- western part of the country. It reached its perfection under the dynasty of the Sassanides, 229-636 A. D. It has great anal- ogy with the Zend, Pehlvi, and Sanskrit, and is endowed with peculiar grace and sweetness. Fourth. The })erio(l of the modern Persian. After the con- quest of Persia, and the introduction of the Mohammedan faith in the seventh centniy A. D., the ancient Parsee language became greatly modified by the Arabic. It adopted its alphabet, add- ing to it, however, four letters and three points, and borrowed from it not only words but whole })hrases, 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 eourt and of literature. 2. Zendic Literature. — To the first period belong the att 40 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. cient sacred books of Persia, collected under the name of Zend- avesta (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 Pelilvi ; it contains traditions relating to the primitive condition and colonization of Persia, moral precepts, theological dogmas, prayers, and astronomical observations. The collection orig- inally consisted 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 tenth century B. c, and to have been a slave of Ethiopic origin ; his apologues have 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 Arar bic origin.' It has been translated into the European languages, and is still read in the Persian schools. Among the Zendic books preserved in Arabic translations may also be mentioned the " Giavidan Kird," or the Eternal Reason, the work of Hu- shang, an ancient priest of Persia, a book full of beautiful and sublime maxims. 3. Pehlvi and Parsee Literatures. — The second period of Persian literature includes all the books written in Pehlvic, 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 empire was transferred to the southern states under the Sassanides, the Pehlvi gave way to the Parsee, which became the prevailing language of Persia in the third period of its literature. The sacred books were trans- lated into this tongue, in which many records, annals, and trea- tises 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- gols and Arabs. This language, however, has 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 Ancient Religion 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 Hom, symbolized in the star Sirius, and himself the symbol of the first eternal word, and of the tree of knowledge PERSIAN LITERATURE. 41 In the numberless astronomical and mystic personifications under which Horn 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), tlie conser- vators 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 Bralunins of India, but they were chosen from among the peo- ple. They claimed to foretell future events. They worshiped tire and tlie stars, and believed in two princij)les 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 religion, which had then fallen from its primitive purity. Availing him- self of the doctrines of the Chaldeans and of the Hebrews, Zo- roaster, 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 foimded a new religion on the ancient worsliip. According to this religion the two great princiiples of the world were repre- sented by Ormuzd and Aliriman, both born from eternity, and both contending for the dominion of the world. Ormuzd, the principle of good, is represented by hght, and Ahriman, the princii)le of evil, by darkness. Light, then, being the body or symbol of Ormuzd, is worshiped in the sun and stars, in fire, and wherever it is found. Men are either the servants of Or- muzd, through virtue and wisdom, or the slaves of Aliriman, through folly and vice. Zoroaster explained the history of th<» 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 philos- ophy, and through the sctools of the Gnostics and Neo-Platon- ists, its influence extended over Europe. After the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedans, the Fire-worshi])ers were driven to the deserts of Herman, or took refuge in India, where, under the name of Pai'sees or Guebers, they still keep alive tlie sacred €re, and preserve the code of Zoroaster. 5. MoDERX Literature. — Some traces of the modern lit- erature of Persia appeared shortly after the conquest of the fountry by the Arabians in the seventh century A. D. ; but the 42 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. true era dates from the ninth or tenth century. It may be di- vided into the departments of Poetry, History, and Piiilosophy. 6. 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 spirit- uality and to be absorbed in holy contemplation, to the exclusion of all worldly recollections or interests. 7. 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 senti- ments, and in descriptions animated with the most lively color- ing. In poetical composition there is much art exercised by the Persian poets, and the arrangement of their language is a work of great care. One favorite measure which frequently ends a "^oem 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. Vhe poet generally introduces his name in the last couplet. The id)l resembles the gazel, except that it is longer. Poetry enters 4s a universal element into all compositions ; physics, mathemat- i.'s, 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 whicli is often powdered with gold or silver dust, tii3 margins illuminated, and the whole perfumed with some costly essence. The magnificent volume containing the poem of Yussuf and Zuleika in the public library at Oxford affords a proof of the honors accorded to poetical composition. One of the finest specimens of caiigraphy and illumination is the exordium to the life of Shah Jehan, for which the writer, besides the stipulated remuneration, had his mouth stuffed with pearls. There are three principal love stories in Persia which, from the earliest times, have been the themes of every ])oet. Scarcely one of the great masters of Persian literature but has adopted PERSIAN LITERATURE. 43 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 Yus- 8uf and Zuleika," and the " Misfortunes of Mejnoun and Leila." So powerfid is the charm attached to these stories, that it ap pears to have been considered almost the imperative duty of all the poets to compose a new version of the old, familiar, and be^ loved traditions. Even down to a modern date, the Persians have not deserted their favorites, and these celebrated themes of verse reapjjcar, 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 excellence in Shireen ; Mejnoun is a represen- tation of unfortunate love carried to madness ; the third ro- mance contains the ideal of perfection in Yussuf (Joseph) and the most passionate and imprudent love in Zuleika (the wife of Potii)har), and exhibits in strong relief the power of love and beauty, the mastery of mind, the weakness of overwhelming passion, and the victorious spirit of holiness. 8. Persian Poets. — The first of Persian poets, the Homer of his country, is Abul Kasim Mansur, called Ferdusi or '* Par- adise," from the exquisite beauty of his compositions. He flour- ished in the reign of the Shah Mahmud (940-1020 A. v.). Mahmud commissioned him to write in his faultless verse a his- tory of the monarchs of Persia, promising that for every thou- sand couplets he should receive a thousand pieces of gold. For thirty years lie studied and labored on liis epic poem, " the Shah Namah," or Book of Kings, and wlien it was completed he sent a copy of it, ex(iuisitely written, to the sultan, who received it coklly, and treated the work of the aged ])oet with contempt. Disappointed at the ingratitude of the Siiah, Ferdusi wrote some satirical lines, which soon reached the ear of Mahmud, who, ])iquc(l and otfended at the freedom t)f the poet, ordered sixty thousand small pieces of money to be sent to him, ins^^cad of the gold which he had promised. Ferdusi was in ♦^'.o public bath when the money was given to him, and his rage and amazement exceeded all bounds when 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, whicli he caused to be transmitted to the far vorite vizier who had instigated the sultan against him. It was carefully sealed up, with directions that it should be read to Mahmud on some occasion when his mind was perturbed with 44 • HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. affairs of state, and his temper ruffled, as it was a poem likely to afford liim 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 liis hues had fully answered their intended purpose. Malunud 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 Mahmud. Meantime, Ferdusi's poem of Yussuf, and his magnificent verses on several subjects, had received the fame they deserved. Shah Mahmud's late remorse awoke. Thinking by a tardy act of lib- erality to repair his former meanness, he dispatched to the author of the Shah Namah the sixty thousand pieces he had promised, a robe of state, and many apologies and expressions of friendship and admiration, requesting his return, and professing great sor- row 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 eighty. The Shah Namah contains the history of the kings of Persia down to the death of the last of the Sassanide race, who was deprived of his kingdom by the invasion of the Arabs during the caliphat of Omar, 636 A. D. The language of Ferdusi may be considered as the purest specimen of the ancient Parsee : Arabic words are seldom introduced. There are many episodes in the Shah Namah of great beauty, and the power and elegance of its verse are unrivaled. P^s«edi 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 ls])ahan 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 eleventh 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 Khayyam, who was one of the most distinguished of the poets of Persia, lived ttnvard tlie close of the eleventh century. He was remarkable for the freedom of his religious opinions, PERSIAN LITERATURE. 45 and the boldness with which he denounced hypocrisy and intol- erance. He particularly directed his satire against the mystic poets. Nizami, the first of the romantic poets, flourished in the latter part of the twelfth century A. D. His principal works are called the " Five Treasures," of which the " Loves of Khosru and 8hi- reen " 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. He is better known in Europe than any other Eastern author, except Hafiz, and has been more frequently translated. Jami calls him the nightingale of the groves of Shiraz, of which city he was a native. He spent a part of his long life in travel and in the acquisition of knowl- edge, and the remainder in retirement and devotion. His works are termed the salt-mine of poets, being revered as unrivaled models of the first genius in the world. His philosophy enabled him to support all the ills of life with patience and fortitude, and one of his remarks, arising from the destitute condition in which he once found himself, deserves ])reservation : " I never com])lained of my condition 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 familiar everywhere in the East. His two greatest works are the " Bostan " and " Gulistan " (Bostan, the rose garden, and Gulistan, 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 life in devotion and contemplation. He died at the advanced age of 114. It would seem that jjoetry 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 en- thusiastic 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 style. Sir "William Jones says, " There is a dej)th and solemnity in his works unequaled by any poet of this class ; even Hafiz must be considered inferior to him." Among the poets of Persia the name of Hafiz (d. 1380). the prince of Persian lyric poets, is most familiar to the EugUsh 46 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. reader. He was born at Shiraz. Leading a life of poverty, of which he was proud, for he considered poverty the companion of genius, 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 beauty of thought, feeling, and expression. The grace, ease, and fancy of his num- bers are inimitable, and there is a magic in his lays which few even of his professed enemies have been able to resist. To the young, the gay, and the enthusiastic his 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 Kliorassan, 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 fel- low-poets, the meditations and ecstasies of mysticism to the pleas- ures of a court. His writings are very voluminous ; he com- posed nearly forty volumes, all of great Isngth, of which twenty- two are preserved at Oxford. The greater part of them treat of Mohammedan theology, and e.re 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 sub- ject, 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, l>ut none can exceed him in sweetness and pathos. His version of the sad tale of Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East, is confessedly superior to that of Nizami. The lyrical compositions of Sheik Feizi (d. 1575) are highly valued. In his mystic poems he approaches to the 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 wa/" offered to him in marriage by the unsuspecting parent. After a struggle between inclination and honor, the latter prevailed. PERSIAN LITERATURE. 47 and he confessed the fraud. The Brahmin, struck with horror, attempted to ])ut an end to his own existence, fearing that he had betrayed his oath and brought danger and disgrace 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 lirahinin consented to live, on condition that Feizi shoukl take an oatli never to translate the Vedas 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 con^ tains the chronicles of the Hindu prmces, and abounds in ro^ mantic episodes. The most celebrated recent Persian poet is Blab Phelair (17!i9-1825). He left many astronomical, moral, political, and literary works. He is called the Persian Voltaire. Among the collections of novels and fables, the " Lights of Canope " may be mentioned, imitated from the Hitopadesa. Persian literature is also enriched by translations of the standard works in Sanskrit, among wliich are the epic poems of Valmiki and Vyasa. 9. History and Philosophy. — Among the most celebrated of the Persian historians is Mirkhond, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. His great woi-k on universal history contains an account of the origin of the world, the life of the patriarchs, prophets, and philosophers of Persia, and affords valuable materials, especially 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 style, are in great favor among the Persians. Ferischta, who flourished in the beginning of the seventeenth century, is the author of a valuable history of India. Mirgholah, a historian of the eighteenth century, gives a con- temporary history of Hindustan and of his own country, under the title of '* A Glance at Recent Affairs," and in another work he treats of the causes which, at some future time, will j)rol)ably 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 ])hilosophy 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 Na- sir," published in the thirteenth century A. D., a valuable trea- tise on morals, economy, and politics. 48 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 10. Education in Persia. — There are established, in every town and city, schools in wliich the poorer children can be in- structed in the rudiments of the Persian and Arabic languages. The pupil, after he has learned the alphabet, reads the Koran in Arabic ; next, fables in Persian ; and lastly is taught to write a beautiful hand, wliich 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 ])oets. 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, })hilosophy, 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. Of late many celebrated European works have been translated and published in Persia. HEBREW LITERATURE. 1. Hebrew Literature ; its Divisions. — 2. The Lanpiape ; its Alphabet ; its Struc- ture ; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases. — 3. The Old Testament. — 4. Hebrew Edu- cation. — 5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature. — G. Hebrew Poetry. — 7. Lyric Poetry ; Songs ; the Psalms ; tlie Propliets. — «. Pastoral Poetry and Didactic Poetry ; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. — 9. Epic and Dramatic Poetry ; the liook of Job. — 10. He- brew History ; the Pentateuch and other Historical Books. — 11. Hebrew Philosophy. — 12. Restoration of the Sacred Books. — 13. Manuscripts and Translations. — U. Rabbin- ical Literature. — 15. The New Revision of the Bible, and the New Biblical Manuscript. 1. Hebrew Literature. — In the Hebrew literature we find expressed the national character of that ancient people who, for a period of four thousand years, through captivity, disper- sion, and persecution of every kind, present the wonderful spec- tacle of a race preserving its nationality, its peculiarities of wor- ship, of doctrine, and of literature. Its history reaches back to an early period of the world, its code of laws has been studied and imitated by the legislators of all ages and countries, and its literary monuments surpass in originality, poetic strength, and religious importance those of any other nation before the Chris- tian era. The literature of the Hebrews may be divided into the four following periods : — The first, extending from remote antiquity to the time of Da- vid, 1010 B. c, includes aU the records of patriarchal civiliza- tion transmitted by tradition previous to the age of Moses, and contained in the Pentateuch or five books attributed to him after he had delivered the people from the bondage of Egj'pt. Tlie second period extends from the time of David to the death of Solomon, 1010-940 B. c, and to this are referred some of the Psalms, Joshua, the Judges, and the Chronicles. The third ])eriod extends from tlie death of Solomon to the return from the Babylonian captivity, 940-532 B. C, and to this age belong the writings of most of the Prophets, The Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the books of Samuel, of Kings, and of Ruth. The fourth period extends from their return from the Baby- lonian Captivity to the present time, and to this belong some of the Prophets, the Chronicles, P^zra, Nehemiah, Esther, the final completion of the Psalms, the Septuagint translation of the Bible, the writings of Josephus, of Pliilo of Alexandria, and tlie rabbinical literature. 4 60 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 2. The Language. — The Hebrew language is of Semitic erigin ; its alphabet consists of twenty-two letters. The number of accents is nearly forty, some of wliich distinguish the sen- tences 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 aU 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. If it 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 im- posing features. In the formation, development, and decay of this language, the foUowing periods may be distinguished : — First. From Abraham to Moses, when the old stock was changed by the infusion of the Egyptian and Arabic. Abraham, residing in Chaldea, spoke the Chaldaic language, then travel- ing 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 Phoenicians, 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 Phoenician. 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 for- eign ideas and idioms. Fourth. From Ezra to the end of the reign of the Macca^ bees, when it was gradually lost in the Aramaean or Chaldaio tongue, and became a dead language. The Jews of the Middle Ages, incited by the learning of the HEBREW LITERATURE. 61 Arabs in Spain, among whom they received the protection de- nied them by Cliristian nations, endeavored to restore their lan- guage to something of its original ])urity, 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 borrowed 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 William Jones, we can find more eloquence, more historical and moral truth, more poetry, — in a word, more beauties than we could gather from all other books together, of whatever country or lan- guage. 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. 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 in- spired the best productions of human genius. 4. Hebrew Education. — Religion, morals, legislation, his- tory, poetry, and music were the special objects to which the at- tention of the Levites and Prophets was particidarly directed. The general education of the people, however, was rather simj)le and domestic. They were trained in husbandry, and in military and gynmastic exercises, and they applied their minds jdmost exclusively to religious and moral doctrines and to divine wor- ship ; they learned to read and write their own language cor- rectly, but they seldom learned foreign languages or read foreign books, and they carefully prevented strangers from obtaining a knowledge of their own. 5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature. — Mono- theism was the fundamental idea of the Hebrew literature, as well as of the Hebrew religion, legislation, morals, politics, and philosophy. The idea of the unity of God constitutes the most striking characteristic of Hebrew poetry, and chiefly distin- guishes it from that of all mythological nations. Other ancient literatures have created their divinities, endowed them with hu- man passions, and painted their achievements in the glowing colors of uoetiT. The Hebrew poetry, on the contrary, makes 52 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. no attempt to portray the Deity by the instruments of sensuoui representation, but simple, 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 sublime language of any age or nation. His seat is the heavens, the earth is his footstool, the heavenly hosts his ser- vants ; 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 glo- ries with a dignity and authority becoming them, as the vicege- rents of God upon earth. 6. Hebrew Poetry. — The character of the people and their 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 divine 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 others in that energy of feeling, impetuous and irresistible, which penetrates, warms, and moves 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. They select their images from the habitual ideas of the people, and personify inanimate objects — the mountains tremble and exult, deep cries unto deep. An- other 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-foui choruses, composed of four thousand Levites, whose duty it was to sing in the public solemnities. It is generally believed that the Hebrew lyric poetry was not ruled by any measure, eithef HEBREW LITERATURE. 63 of syllables or of time. Its predominant form was a succession of thoughts and a rhythmic movement, less of syllables and words than of ideas and images systematically arranged. The Psalms, especially, are essentially sjnnmetrical, according to the Hebrew ritual, their verses being sung alternately by Levites and 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 illustrious 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 im- pulsive, 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, unequaled for their aspiration, their living imagery, their grand ideas, and majesty of style. When at length the Hebrews, forgetful of their high duties and calling, trampled on their institutions and laws, prophets were raised up to recall the wandering people to their allegiance. Isaiah, whether he foretells the future destiny of the nation, or the coming of the Messiah, in his majestic eloquence, sweetness, and simplicity, gives us the most perfect model of lyric poetry. He prophesied during the reigns of Azariah and Hezekiah, 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 fate 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 imagery, but whatever may be the imperfections of his style, they are lost in the passion and vehemence of his poems. Dantel, after having struggled against the corruptions of Babylon, boldly foretells the decay of that empire with terrible power. His conceptions and images are truly sublime ; 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, who sings the development 54 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. of the obscure prophesies of his master. His writings abound in dreams and visions, and convey rather the idea of the terrible than of the sublime. These four, from the length of their writings, are called the Greater Prophets, to distinguish them from the twelve Minor Prophets : Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaxiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, all of whom, though endowed with different charac. teristics and genius, show in their writings more or less of that fire and vigor which can oidy be found in writers who were moved and warmed by the very spirit of God. 8. Pastoral Poetry axd Didactic Poetry. — The Song of Solomon and the history of Ruth are the best specimens of the Hebrew idyl, and breathe all the simplicity of pastoral life. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes contain treatises on moral philosophy, or rather, are didactic poems. The Proverb, which is a maxim of wisdom, greatly used by the ancients be- fore 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 unde- fined 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 wdll have its complete solution. Solomon", the author of these works, adds splendor to the sublimity of his doctrines by the dignity of his style. 9. 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, representing human suffering, 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 wonder- ful book. However this may be, it is certain that this monu- ment of wisdom stands alone, and that it can be compared to no other production for the sublimity 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 mis- fortune. Here we learn that the evil and good of this life are by no means the measure of morality, and here we witness tha final triumph of iustice. HEBREW LITERATURE. 66 10. Hebrew History. — IMoses, the most ancient of all his- torians, was also the first leatler 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, Moses was inspired to write the history of the human race, and especially of the chosen people, in order to bequeath to coming centuries a memorial of revealed truths and of the divine works of eternal AVisdom. Thus in the first chapters of Genesis, with- out aiming to write the complete annals of tlie first period of the world, he sunnned up the general history of man, and described, more especially, the genealogy of the patriarchs and of the gen- erations previous to the time of the dispersion. The subject of the book of Exodus is the delivery of the peo- ple from the Egyptian bondage, and it 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 follo\ving book of Numbers, the record of patriarchal Ufe gives place to the teachings of JMoses 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. Deuteronomy records the laws of Moses, and concludes with his sublime hymn of thanksgiving. The historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chron- icles, Ezra, etc., contain the history of the Hebrew nation for nearly a thousand years, and relate the prosperity and the dis- asters of the chosen people. Here are recorded the deeds of Joshua, of Samson, of Samuel, of David, and of Solomon, the building of the Temple, the division of the tribes into two king- doms, the prodigies of Elijah 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 Elzra, 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, which is supported above all suspicion of alteration or addition by tlie 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 simjjlicity and naturalness of the narrations, and by the sincerity of tlie writers. These histories display neither vanity nor adulation, nor do they attempt to conceal from the reader whatever miglit be considered as faults in their authors or their heroes. While 56 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. they select facts with a nice judgment, and present the most luminous picture of events and of their causes, they abstain from reasoning or speculation in regard to them. 11. Hebrew Philosophy. — Although the Hebrews, in their different 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 pliilosophy. 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 tne Greek philosophy, and tte tenets of the sects of the 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. d., and Numenius, born in Syria, in the second century A. c, adopted the Greek philosophy, and by its doctrines amplified and ex> panded the tenets of Judaism. 12. Restoration of the Sacred Books. — One of the most important eras in Hebrew literature is the period of the restorar tion of the Mosaic institutions, after the retui"n from the Cap- tivity. According to tradition, 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 Nehemiah soon after placed this, or a new collection, in the Temple. The design of these reformers to give the people a religious canon in their ancient tongue induces the belief that they engaged in the work with the strictest fidelity 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. 13. Mantjscrtpts 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 eleventh and twelfth centuries. The printed editions of the Bible in Hebrew are numerous. The earHest 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 UEBREW LITERATURE. 67 was made about 283 b. c. It may, probably, be attributed to the Alexandrian Jews, who, ha\'ing lost the knowledge of the He- brew, caused the translation to be made by some of their learned countrymen for the use of the Synagogues of Egypt. It was probably accomphshed under the authority of the Sanliedrim, composed of seventy elders, and therefore called the Septuagint version, and from it the quotations in the New Testament are chiefly taken. It was regarded as canonical by 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 Apocry])ha. The Vulgate or Latin translation, which has official authority in the Catholic Church, was made gradually from the eighth to the sixteenth 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 English version of the Bible now in use in England and America was made by order of James I. It was accomplished by forty-seven distinguished scholars, divided into six classes, to each of which a part of the work was assigned. This translation occupied three years, and was printed in 1611. 14. Rabbinicai, Literature. — Rabbinical literature in- cludes all the writings of the rabbins, or teachers of the Jews in the later period of Hebrew letters, who have interj^reted and developed 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 ex- tended. They have frequently borrowed from the Arabic, Greek, and Latin, and from those modern tongues spoken where they severally resided. The Talmud, from the Hebrew word signifying he has learned, is a collection of traditions illustrative of the laws and usages of the Jews. The Talnuul consists of two parts, the Misiina and the Gemara. The Mishna, or second law, is a col- lection of rabbinical rules anil jM-ecepts made in the second cen- tury. The Gemara (comjjlefion or doctrine) was composed in the third century. It is a collection of commentaries and exjjla- nations of the Mishna, and both together formed the Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian rabbins composed new commentaries on the Mishna, and this formed the Babylonian Talmud. Both Tal- muds were first committed to. writing about oOO a. d. At the period of the Christian Era, the civil constitution, language, and mode of thinking among the Jews had undergone a com])lete revolution, and were entirely diiierent fi'om what they had been 68 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. in the early period of the commonwealth. The Mosaic books contained rules no longer adapted to the situation of the nation, and many difficult questions arose to which their law afforded no satisfactory solution. The rabbins undertook to supply tliis defect, partly by commentaries on the Mosaic precepts, and partly by the composition of new rules. The Talmud requires that wherever twelve adults reside to- gether in one place, they shall erect a synagogue and serve the God of their fathers by a multitude of prayers and formalities, 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 rejects the Talmud and holds 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 per- petual 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 gives a mystical signification to letters. The latter comprehends doctrines, and is divided into the theoretical and practical. The first aims to explain the Scriptures according to the 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 j-abbinical literature, which was also cultivated in France, Italy, Portugal, and Germany. In the sixteenth century the study of Hebrew and rabbinical literature became common among Christian schol- ars, and in the following centuries it became more interesting and important from the introduction of comparative philology in tlie department of languages. Rabbinical literature stiU has its students and interpreters. In Padua, Berlin, and Metz there are seminaries for the education of rabbins, which supply with able doctors the synagogues of Italy, Germany, and France. There is also a rabbinical school in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Po- lish rabbins and Talmudists, however, are the most celebrated. 15. The New Revision of the Bible. — The convocation HEBREW LITERATURE. 59 of the English House of Bishops, which met at Canterbury in 1870, recommended a revised version of the Scriptures, and appointed a committee for the work of sixty-seven members from various ecclesiastical bodies of England, to wliich an American committee of thirty-five was added, and by their joint labors the revised edition of the New Testament was issued in 1881. The revised Old Testament is expected to ap- pear during 1884. The advantages claimed for these new ver- sions are : a more accurate rendering of tlie text, a correction of the errors of former translations, the removal of misleading archaisms and obsolete terms, better punctuation, arrangement in sections as well as chapters and verses, the metrical arrange- ment of poetry, and an increased number of marginal read- ings. In 1875, Bryennios, a metropolitan of the Greek Church, dis- covered in the library of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Constanti- nople a manuscript belonging to the second century A. c, which contains, among other valuable and interesting documents, one on the " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," many points of which bear on the usages of the church, such as the mode of baptism, the celebration of the Eucharist, and the orders of the ministry. It was at first considered authentic and highly important, but more deliberate study tends to discredit its authority. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 1. The Language. — 2. The Writing. —3. The Literature. —4. The Monuments.— B. The Discovery of ChampoUion. — 6. Literary Remains ; Historical ; Religious ; Episto lary ; Fictitious ; Scientific ; Epic ; Satirical and Judicial. — 7. The Alexandrian Period. — 8. The Literary Condition of Modern Egypt. 1. The Language. — From the earliest times the language of Egypt was divided into three dialects': the Mempliitic, sj^oken in Memphis and Lower Egypt ; the Theban, or Sahidic, spoken in Upper Egypt ; and the Bashmuric, a provincial variety be- longing to the oases of the Lybian Desert. The Coptic tongue, which arose from a union of ancient Egyp- tian with the vulgar vernacular, later became mingled with Greek and Arabic words, and was written in the Greek alpha- bet. It was used in Egypt until the tenth century A. D., when it gave way to the Arabic ; but the Christians still preserve it in their worship and in their translation of the Bible. By reject- ing its foreign elements Egyptologists have been enabled to study this language in its purity, and to establish its grammar and construction. It is the exclusive character of the Christian Egyp- tian literature, and marks the last development and final decay of the Egyptian language. 2. The Writing. — Four distinct graphic systems were in use in ancient Egypt : the hieroglypliic, the hieratic, the demotic, and Coptic. The first expresses words partly by representa- tion of the object and partly by signs indicating sounds, and was used chiefly for inscriptions. The hieratic characters pre- sented a flowing and abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic, and were used more particularly in the papyri. The great body of Egyptian literature has reached us through this character, the reading of which can only be determined by resolving it into its prototype, hieroglyphics. The demotic writing indicates the rise of the vulgar tongue, which took place about the beginning of tlie seventh century B. c. It was used to transcribe hierogly})hic and hieratic in-, scriptions and papyri into the common idiom until the second century A. D., when the Coptic generally superseded it. 3. The Literature. — The literary hi.story of ancient Egj'pt presents a remarkable exception to that of any other country. Wliile the language underwent various modifications, and the Written characters changed, the literature remained the same in EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 61 all its principal features. This literature consists solely of in- scriptions painted oi- enf^rraved on monuments, or of written manuscripts on ])ai)yrus buried in the tombs or beneath the ruins of temples. It is so deficient in style, and so unsystematic in its construction, that it has taxed the labors of the ablest critics for the last fifty years to construct a wliole from its disjointed mate- rials, and these are so imperfect that many periods of Egyptian history are complete literary blanks. In the great period of the Rameses, novels or works of amusement predominated ; under the Ptolemies, historical records, and in the Coptic or Christian stage, homolies and church rituals j)revailed ; but through every epoch the same general type appears. Notwithstanding these deficiencies, however, Egypt offers a most attractive field for the archaeologist, and new discoveries are constantly adding to our knowledge of this interesting country. 4. The Monuments. — The monuments of Egypt are relig- ious, as the temples, sejjulchral, as the necropoles, or triumphal, as the obelisks. The temples were the principal structures of the Egyptian cities, and their splendid ruins, covered with in- scriptions, are among the most interesting remains of antiquity. Life after death, the leading idea of the religion of Egypt, was expressed in the construction of the tombs, so numerous in the vicinity of all the large cities. These necropoles, excavated in the rocks or hillsides, or built within the pyramids, consist of rows of chambers with halls supported by colunms, which, with the walls, are often covered with ])aintings, historical or monu- mental, representing scenes from domestic or civil life. The great pyramids were probably built for the sepulchres of kings and their famUies, and the smaller ones for persons of inferior rank. The most magnificent of the triumphal monuments are the obelisks, gigantic monoliths of red or white granite, some of which are more than two hundred feet high, covered with in- scriptions, and bearing the image of the triumphant king, painted or engraved. The splendid obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, at Paris, celebrates the glories of Rameses II. The obelisk now in New York is one of a pair erected at Heliopolis, before the Temple of the Sun, about IGOO H. c. In the reign of Augustus both were removed to Alexandria, and were known in modern times as Cleopatra's Needles. One was presented by the Khedive to the city of London in 1877, and the other to the city of New York the same year. The shaft on the latter bears two inscri})tions, one celebrating Thoth- mes III., and the other Rameses II. One of the most characteristic monuments of Egypt is the statue of the Sphinx, so often found in the temples and necropo- 6'J HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. les. It is a recumbent figure, having a human head and breast a.nd the body of a Uon. Whatever idea the Egyptians may have attached to tliis symbol, it represents most truly the character of that people and the struggle of mind to free itself from the in- stincts of brutal nature. 5. The Discovery of Champollton. — During the expedi- tion into Egypt, in 1799, in throwing up some earthworks near Rosetta, a town on the 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 Stone, was sent to France and submitted to the orientalists for interpretation. The inscription was found to be a decree of the Egyjjtian priests in honor of. Ptolemy Epiphanes (196 B. c), which was ordered to be engraved on stone in sacred (hieroglypliic), common (de- motic), and in Greek characters. Thi'ough this interpretation, Champollion (1790-1832), after much study, discovered and established the alphabetic system of Egyptian writing, and ap- plying his discovery more extensively, he was able to decipher the names of the kings of Egypt from the Roman emperors back, through the Ptolemies, to the Pharaohs of the elder dy- nasties. This discovery was the key to the interpretation of all the ancient monuments of Egypt ; by it the history of the coun- try was thrown open for a period of twenty-six centuries, the annals of the neighboring nations were rendered more intelligi- ble, the religion, arts, sciences, life, and manners of the ancient Egyptians were revealed to the modern world, and the obelisks, the innumerable papyi"i, and the walls of the temples and tombs were transformed into inexhaustible mines of historical and sci- entific knowledge. 6. Literary Remains ; Historical ; Religious ; Episto- lary ; Fictitious ; Scientific ; Epic ; Satirical and Judi- cial. — The Egyptian priests from the earliest times must have ])reserved the annals of their country, though obscured by myths and symbols. These annals, however, were destroyed by Cam- byses (500 B. c), who, during his invasion of the country, burned the temples where they were preserved, although they were soon rewritten, according to the testimony of Herodotus, who visited Egypt 450 b. c. In the third century B. c, Mane- tho, a priest and librarian of Heliopolis, wrote the succession of kings, and though the original work was lost, important frag- ments of it liave been preserved by other writers. There seem to have beei four periods in this history of ancient Egypt, marked by great changes in the social and political constitution of the country. In the first epoch, under the rule of the gods, demigods, and heroes, according to Manetho, It was probably EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. G3 eolonized and ruled by the priests, in the name of the gods. The second period extends from Menes, the supposed founder of the monarchy, to tlie invasion of the Shepherd Kings, ahout 2000 n. c. In the thii-d })eriod, under tliis title, the Fhcenicians probably ruled Kgypt for three centuries, and it was one of these kings or Pharaohs of whom Joseph was the prime minister. In the fourth ])eriod, from 1180 to '6i)0 B. c, the invaders were ex- pelled and native rule restored, until the country was again con- quered, first by the Persians, about 500 b. c, and again by the Greeks under Alexander, 350 K. c. From that time to the pres- ent no native ruler has sat on the throne of that countiy. After the conquest by Alexander the Great, who left it to the sway of the Ptolemies, it was successively conquered by the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes, and the Turks. Since 1841 it has been governed by a viceroy under nominal allegiance to the Sul- tan of Tm'key. In 1865 the title of khedive was substituted for tliat of viceroy. Early Egyptian chronology is in a great measure merely con- jectural, and new information from the monuments only adds to the obscurity. The historical papyri are records of the kings or accounts of contemporary events. These, as well as the inscrip- tions on the monuments, generally in the fonn of panegjTic, are inflated records of the successes of the heroes they celebrate, or explanations of the historical scenes painted or sculptured on the monmuents. The early religion of Egypt Avas founded on a personification of the laws of Nature, centred in a mysterious unity. Egyp- tian nature, however, su])plied but few great objects of worship as symbols of divine power, the desert, a natural enemy, the fer- tilizing river, and the sun, the all-pervading presence, worshiped as the source of life, the lord of time, and author of eternity. Three great realms composed the P^gyptian cosmos ; the heav- ens, where the sun, moon, and stars paced their daily round, the abode of the invisible king, typified by the sun and wor- shiped as Amnion Ra. the earth and the under-world, the abode of the dead. Here, too, reigned the universal lord under the name of Osiris, whose material manifestation, the sun, as he passed beneath the earth, lightened u]t the under-world, where the dead were judged, the just recompensed, and tlie guilty punished. Innumerable minor divinities, which originally personified attributes of the one Supreme Deity, were re])resented 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 ; hut by confounding symbols with realities tills worship soon degenerated into gross materialism and idol- atry. 64 HANDBOOK OF UNH^RSAL LITERATURE. The most important religious work in this literature is the " Book of the Dead," a funeral ritual. The earliest known copy is in hieratic writing of the oldest ty])e, and was found in the tomb of a queen, who lived probably about 3000 B. c. The latest copy is of the second century A. c, and is written in pure Coptic. This work, consisting of one hundred and sixty-six chapters, is a collection of prayers of a magical character, an account of the adventores of the soul after death, and directions for reaching the Hall of Osiris. It is a marvel of confusion and poverty of thought. A complete translation may be found in '• Egypt's Place in Universal History," by Bunsen (second edi- tion), and specimens in almost every museum of Europe. There are other theological remains, such as the Metamorphoses of the gods and the Lament of Isis, but their meaning is disguised in allegory. The hymns and addresses to the sun abound in pure and lofty sentiment. The epistolary writings are the best known and understood branch of Egyptian literature. From the Ramesid era, the most literary of all, we have about eighty letters on various subjects, interesting as illustrations of manners and specimens of style. The most important of these is the " Anastasi Papyri " in the British Museum, written about the time of the Exodus. Two valuable and tolerably complete relics represent the ficti- tious writing of Egyptian literature ; they are " The Tale of Two Brothers," now in the British Museum, and "The Romance of Setna," recently discovered in the tomb of a Coptic monk. The former was evidently intended for the amusement of a royal prince. One of its most striking features is the low moral tone of the women introduced. " The Romance of Setna " turns upon the danger of acquiring possession of the sacred books. The opening and date of the story are missing. Fresh information is being constantly acquired as to the knowledge of science possessed by the ancient Egyptians. Ge- ometry originated with them, or from remote ages they were ac- quainted with the principles of this science, as well as with those of hydrostatics and mechanics, as is proved by the immense structures which remain the wonder of the modern world. They cultivated astronomy from the earliest times, and they have transmitted to us their observations on the movements of the sun, the stars, the earth, and other planets. The obelisks served them as sun dials, and the pyramids as astronomical observato- ries. They had great skill in medicine and much knowledge of anatomy. The most remarkable medical jjapyri are to be found in the Berlin Museum. The epics and biographical sketches are narratives of personal adventure in war or travel, and are distinguished by some ett'ort EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 65 at grace of style. The e])ic of Pentaur, or the achievements of Raineses II., lias been called the Egyptian lUad. It is several centuries older tluiu the Greek Iliad, and deserves admiration for its rapid narrative and epic unity. The history of Mohan (by some thought to be Moses) has been called the Egyptian Odyssey, in contrast to the preceding. Mohan was a high official, and this narrative describes his trav- els in Syria and Palestine. This papyrus is in the British Mu- seum, and both epics have been translated. The satirical writings and beast fables of the Egjqitians cari- cature the foibles of all classes, not sparing the sacred person of the king, and are often illustrated with satirical pictures. Be- sides these strictly literary remains, a large number of judicial documents, petitions, decrees, and treaties has been recovered. 7. The Alexandrian Pekiod. — Egypt, in its flourishing period, having, contributed to the civilization of Greece, became, in its turn, the i)uj)il of that country. In the century following the age of Alexander the Great, under the rule of the Ptolemies, the philosophy and literature of Athens were transferred to Alexandria. Ptolemy PhUadelphus, in the third century B. c, completed the celebrated Alexandrian Library, formed for the most part of Greek books, and ])resided over by Greek librari- ans. The school of Alexandria had its poets, its grammarians, and philosophers ; but its poetry lacked the fire of genius, and its grammatical ])roductions were more remarkable for sophistry and subtlety, than for soundness and depth of research. In the philosophy of Alexandria, the Eastern and Western systems com- bined, and this school had many distinguished disciples. In the first century of the Christian era, Eg}^)t passed from the Greek kings to the Roman emperors, and the Alexandrian school continued to be adorned l)y the first men of the age. This splendor, more Grecian than Egyptian, was extinguished in the seventh century by the Saracens, who concjuered the country, and, it is believed, burned the great Alexandrian Library. After the wars of the immediate successors of Mohannned, the Ara- bian princes ])rotected literature, Alexandria recovered its schools, and other institutions of learning were established ; but in the conquest of the country by the Turks, in the thirteenth century, all literary light was extinguished. 8. Literary Condition of Modern P^gypt. — For more than nine hundred years Cairo has possessed a university of high rank, which greatly increased in ini])ortanco on the accession of Mehemet Ali, in 1805, who estaMislu'd nuuiy otlier schools, pri- mary, scientific, mediciU, and military, though they were suffered to languish under his two successoi-s. In 18G3, when Ismail Pacha mounted the throne as Khedive (tributary king), he gave 5 66 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. powerful aid to the university and to public instruction every- where. The number of students a.t the University of Cairo ad- vanced to eleven thousand. The wife of the Khedive, the Prin- cess Cachma-Afet, founded in 1873, and maintained from her privy purse, a school for the thorough instruction of girls, which led to the establishment of a similar institution by the Ministry of Public Instruction. This princess is the first in the history of Islam who, from the interior of the harem, has exerted her influ- ence to educate and enlighten her sex. When the Khedive was driven into exile in 1879, the number of schools, nearly all the result of his energetic rule, was 4,817 and of pupils 170,000. Since the European intervention and domination the number of both has sensibly diminished, and a serious retrograde movement has taken place. The higher literature of Egypt at the present time is written in pure Arabic. The popular writing in magazines, periodicals, etc., is in Arabic mixed with Syriac and Egyptian dialects. Newspaper literature has gi'eatly increased during the past eight yeaxs. GREEK LITERATURE. iNTRODncnON. — 1. Greek Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Language. — 3. The Religion. , i,. j Period 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 Hesiod ; the Works and Days ; the Theogony. — 5. Elegy and Epigram ; Tyrtaeus ; Archilochus ; Si- raonides. — 6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable, and Parody ; Jisop. —7. Greek Music and Lyric Poetry; Terpander. — 8. jEolic Lyric Poets; Alcieus; Sappho; Anacreon. — 9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poete ; Alcman ; Stesichorus ; Pindar. — 10. Tlie Orphic Doctrines and Poems. — 11. Pre-Socratic Philosophy ; Ionian, Eleatic, Pythagorean Schools. — 12. His- tory ; Herodotus. Period Seco.vd. —1. Literary Predominance of Athens. — 2. Greek Drama. —3. Trag- edy. — 4. The Tragic Poets ; /Eschylus ; Sopliocles ; Euripides. —5. Comedy ; Aristophanes ; Menander. — G. Oratory, Rhetoric, and History ; Pericles ; the Sopliists ; Lysias ; Iso- crates; Demosthenes; Thucydides; Xenophon. — 7. Socrates and the Socratic Schools ; Plato ; Aristotle. Period Third. — 1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature. —2. The Alexandrian Poets ; Philetas; Callimachus ; Theocritus; IMon ; JIoscluis. — 3. Tlie Prose Writers of Alexan- dria; Zenodotus; Aristophane.s ; Aristarchus; Eratosthenes; Euclid; Archimedes.— 4. Philosophy of Alexandria; Neo-Platonism. — 5. Anti-Neo-Platonic Tendencies; Epic- tetus ; Lucian ; Longinus. — C. Greek Literature in Rome ; Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; Flavins Josephus ; Polybius : Diodorus ; Strabo ; Plutarch.— 7. Continued Decline of Greek Literature. — 8. Last Echoes of the Old Literature; Hypatia; Nonnus ; Musitus ; Byzantine Literature. — 9. The New Testament and the Greek Fathers. Modern Litera- ture ; the Brothers Santsos and Alexander Rangab^. Bacchylides. INTRODUCTION. 1. Greek Literature and it.s Divisiox.s. — The literary histories thus far sketched, with the excei)tion 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 bod- ies of literature cut ofE from all connection with the course of general refinement, and bearing no relation to the develo])ment of mental power in the most civilized portions of the globe. Thus, the literature of India, with its great antiquity, its lan- guage, which, in fullness 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 affluence of imagery and its treasures of thought, has hitherto been desti- 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 tlie medium of the Crusatlers and of the Moorish empire in Spain. 68 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. We come now to speak of the literature of the Greeks ; a lit- erature 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 hvely imagination, surrounded by all the circumstances that could aid in perfecting the physical and intellectual powers, the Greeks early acquired that essentially literary and artistic character which became the source of the greatest productions of litera- ture 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, difi^usive, and aesthetic. The manifestation of their genius, from the fii'st dawn of their intel- lectual culture, was of an original and peculiar character, and their plastic minds gave a new shape and value to whatever materials they drew from foreign sources. The ideas of the Egyjitians and Orientals, which they adopted into their mythol- ogy, 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 fine 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 incongruous, 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 foun- dation of the Roman and of all modern literatures, and its mas- ter-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 eai-liest poetry of Greece, the ante-Homeric and the Homeric eras, the origin of Greek elegy, epigram, iambic, and lyric poetry, and the first develop- ment of Greek philosophy. The second, or Athenian period, the golden age of Greek literature, extends from the age of Herodotus (484 B. c.) to the death of Alexander the Great (323 B. c), and comprehends the development of the Greek drama in the works of ^schylus, So])hocles, and Euripides, and of political oratory, history, and philosophy, in the works of Demosthenes, Thucydides, Xeno- phon, Plato, and Aristotle. The third, or the period of the decline of Greek literature, extending from the death of Alexander the Great (323 B. c.} GREEK LITERATURE. 69 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 decline and extinction. 2. The Language. — Of all known languages 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 coml)inations and phrases, and extremely musical, not only in its jjoetry, but in its prose. The Greek language must have attained gi-eat excel- lence at a very early period, for it existed in its essential ])erfec- tion in the time of Homer. It was, also, early divided into dia- lects, as spoken by the various Hellenic tribes that inhabited different parts of the country. The princijjal of these found in written composition are the iEolic, Doric, Ionic, and Attic, of whi(di the iEolic, the most ancient, was spoken north of the Isthmus, in the iEolic colonies of Asia Minor, and in the north- ern 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 Io- nian 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 Attica, and prevailed in the flourishing period of Greek literature. After the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, the Greek language, which had been gi-adually declining, became entirely extinct, and a dialect, which had long before sprung up among the com- mon 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 impidse given to im- provement in Greece. Great jjrogress 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 the ancient orthography. Many newspapers, periodicals, orig- inal works, and translations are ])ublished every year in Greece. The name Romaic, which has been apjdied to modern Greek, is now almost superseded by that of Neo-Hellenic. 3. The Religion. — In the development of the Greek relig- ion 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 70 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. as exhibiting their power chiefly in the changes of the seasons, and in the operations and phenomena of outward nature. Im- agination 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, wliich had their 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 earliest 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 one deity, as the highest of all, the head of the entire system, Zeus, the god of heaven and light ; with him, and dwelling in the pure expanse of ether, is associated the goddess of the earth, who, in different temples, was worshiped under different names, as Hera, Demeter, and Dione. 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 ap- pears 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 Cora, the child, now lost and now recovered by her mother, Demeter, the goddess both of re- viving and of decaying nature. The element of water, Poseidon, was also introduced into this assemblage of the personified powers of nature, and peculiarly connected with the goddess of the earth ; fire, Hephaestus, was represented as a powerful prin- ciple dei'ived 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 tins 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 import tant influence on the spirit of the Greek nation, and in sculpture and poetiy gave rise to bold flights of imagination, and to pow- erful emotions, both of joy and sorrow. I GREEK LITERATURE. 71 Tliese notions concerning the gods must have undergone many changes before they assumed the form under which they ajjpear in the poems of llomer and Hesiod. The Greek religion, as manifested through tliem, reached tlie second period of its de- veh)pment, belonging to that time when the most distinguished and prominent i)art 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, wliose summit seems to touch the heavens, there rules the assembly or family of the 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 large 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 are a nund^er of gods with various degrees of khidred, who have each their proper place and allotted duty on Olympus. The attention of this divine council is chiefly turned to the fortunes of nations and cities, and especially to the adventures and entei^ prises of the heroes, Avho being themselves, for the most part, sprung from the blood of the gods, form the connecting link between them and the ordinary liord of mankind. At this stage the ancient religion of nature had disapi)eared, and the gods who dwelt on Oiympus scarcely manifested any connection with natural phenomena. Zeus exercises his power as a ruler and a king ; Hera, Athena, and Apollo no longer symbolize 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 affairs 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 Romans, wno ado])ted them at a later period, or identified them with deities of their own. Zeits waa tailed by them Jupiter; llera, Jwno; Athena, INIinorva ; Ares, Mars; Artemis, Diana; Hermes, Mercury; Cora, Proserpine; Hepha'stus, Vulcan; Foseidon, Neptune; AphrodUe, Venus; Dionysus, Bacchus. 72 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. PERIOD FIRST. From Remote Antiquity to Herodotus (484 b. c). 1. Ante-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 enthu= siasm 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 sear sons and their phenomena, and that they were sung by the peas- ants at their corn and wine harvests, and had their origin in times of ancient rural simplicity. Songs of this kind had often a plain- tive and melancholy character. Such was the song " Linus " men- tioned 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 wero 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, Lmus sprang from a divine origin, grew up ^vith the shepherds among the Iambs, and was torn in pieces by wild dogs, whence arose the festival of the lambs, at which many dogs were slain. 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 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, w^io, 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 Paeans 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 gi-atitude and thanksgiving for victory and safety. To this class belonged the vernal Paeans, which were 7,ung 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, eung by professional singers standing near the bed upon which GREEK LfTERATf/RE. 73 Ihe body was laid, and accompanied by the cries and groans of women. The Hymenaeos was the joyful hridul song of the wed- ding festivals, in which there were ordinarily two choruses, one of boys bearing burning torches and singing the hymenaeos 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 place 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 liis 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, Musaeus 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 tills metre gave to the epic poetry repose, majesty, a 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. Poems 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 Hfe, but the power of his transcendent genius is deeply impressed, upon his works. He was called by the Greeks themselves, the poet ; and the Iliad and the Odyssey were with 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 jjart of the world a Greek settled, ho carried with him a love "for the gi-eat poet, and long after the Greek peopla had lost their independence. 74 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. the niad and the Odyssey continued to maintain an undiminished hold u])on their affections. The peculiar excellence of these poems lies in their suhlimity 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 universahty 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 desci-iptions of external nature, in his ex- hibitions of human character and passion, no matter what the subject, he exhausts its capabilities. His pictures are true to the 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 hfe. 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 wliich the subsequent anger of Achilles brought upon the Greeks ; and how the loss of his dearest friend, Patroclus, suddenly changed his hostile attitude, and brought about the destruction of Troy and of Hector, its magnanimous defender. The Odyssey is composed on a more artificial and complicated plan than the Iliftd. The subject is the return of Ulysses from a land l^eyond the range of human knowledge 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 farthest from his home, in the central portion of the sea, where the nymph 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 as a beggar, where he is made to suffer the Iiarshest treatment from the suitors of his wife, in order that he may afterwards appear with the stronger right as a tei'rible 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 Iliad in the vigor of his youthful years, either composed the Odyssey in his old age, or communicated to some devoted disciple the j)lan of this poem. In the age immediately succeeding Homer, his great poems GREEK LITERATURE. 75 Irere doubtless recited as complete wholes, at the festivals of the princes ; but when the contests of the rhapsodists became more animated, and more weij^ht was laid on the art of the reciter than on the beauty of the poem he recited, and when other musical and poetical performanc'es claimed a i)lace. then they were permitted to repeat separate parts of ])oems, and the Iliad and Odyssey, as they had not yet been reduced to writing, ex- isted for a time only as scattered and unconnected fragments ; and we are still indebted to the regulator of the poetical contests (either Solon or Pisistratus) for having com])elled the rhapso- dists to follow one another according to the order of the poem, and for having thus restored these great works to their pristine integrity. The poets, who either recited the poems of Homer or imitated him in their compositions, were called Homerides. 3. Thk Cyclic Poets aisD the Homeric Hymns. — The poems of Homer, as they became the foundation of all Grecian literature, are likewise the central ])oint of the e])ic 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 continuation. After the time of Homer, a class of poets arose who, from their constant endeavor to connect their poems ■wnth those of tliis master, so that they might form a great cycle, were called the CycUc Poets. They were probably Homeric rhapsodists by profession, to whom the constant recitation of the ancient Homeric poems would naturally suggest the idea of con- tinuing them by essays of their own. The poems known as Homeric hymns formed an essential part of the epic style. They were hymns to tlie gods, bearing an epic character, and were called prcemia. or preludes, and served the rhapsodists either as introductory strains for their recitation, or as a transi- tion from the festivals of the gods to the competition of the singers of heroic poetry. 4. Poems of Hesiod. — Nothing certain can be affirmed respecting the date of Hesiod ; a Boeotian by birth, he is con- sidered by some ancient authorities as contemj)orary with Homer, while others suppose him to have flourished two or tlii-ee 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 inexliaustible fancy of Homer which lights up the sub- Hme images of a heroic age and moulds them into forms of surpassing beauty. The ])oetry of Hesiod a])]>ears struggling to emerge out of the narrow bounds of connnon life, which he strives to ennoble and to render more endurable. It is purely didactic, and its object is to disseminate knowledge, by which hfo may be imjiroved, or to diffuse certain religious notions as to tiie influence of a superior destiny. His poem entitled " Works 76 HANDBOOK OF UNU^RSAL LITERATURE. and Days " is so entirely occupied with the events of common 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 ])ortion 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 Utigation, 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 religious code, which, although without external sanction or priestly guardians and interpreters, must have produced the greatest influence on the religious con- dition of the Greeks. 5. Elegy axd Epigram. — Until the beginning of the sev- enth century b. c, 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 po- litical state of the country. The ordinary subjects of these poems must have been highly acceptable to the princes who derived their race fi"ona 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 su])ject, now came before the people as a man with thoughts and objects of his own, and gave free vent to the emotions of his soul in elegiac and iambic strains. The word elegeion means noth-> ing more than the combination of a hexameter and a pentam- eter, 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 subject 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 circum- stances of the time or j)lace tlie poet poured forth his heart in the unreserved expression of his fears and hopes. GREEK LITERATURE. 77 TyrUeus (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 cani])aign, it was- their custom after the evening meal, when the paean 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 liim to censure the follies of mankind. The rela- tion between these two metres is observable in Archilochus (fl. 688 B. c.) and Simonides (fl. 664 B. c). The elegies of Archilochus, 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 circumstances. With the Spartans, wine 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 ex- pressions of his political feelings. Simonides of Scios, the re- nowned lyric poet, the contemporary of Pindar and JEschylus, was one of the great masters of elegiac song. The epigram was originally an inscription on a tombstone, or a votive otfering in a temple, or on any other tiling which re- quired explanation. The unexpected turn of thought and point- edness of expression, wliich the moderns considej' the essence of this species of composition, were not required in the ancient Greek epigram, where nothing was wanted but that the entire thought should be conveyed within the limit of a few distichs, and thus, in the hands of the early poets, the ei)igram was re- markable for the conciseness and ex])ressiveness of its language and (lifl:'ered in this respect from the elegy, in which full expres- sion was given to the feeUngs of the poet. It was Simonides who first gave to the epigram all the perfec- tion of which it was capable, and he was fi'equently employed by the states which fought against the Persians to adorn with in- scriptions the tombs of their fallen warriors. The most cele- brated of these is the inimitable inscription on the Spartans who died at Thermopylae : " Foreigner, teU the Lacedaemonians that we are lying here in obedience to their laws." On the Rhodian lyric poet, Timocreon, an opjionent of Simonides in his art, he wrote the following in the form of an epitaph : " Having eaten much and drank nuich and said nmch evil of other men, here I \ie, Timocreon the Rhodian." 6. Iambic Poetkv. the Fablk axd Parody. — The kind »f poetry known by the ancients as Iambic was created among 78 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. the Athenians hy 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 temperate expression of lively emotion in the elegy. It was a light, trip- ping measure, sometimes loosely constructed, or purposely halt- ing 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. This raillery was so ancient and inveterate a custom, that it had given rise to a peculiar word, wliich originally denoted nothing but the jests and banter used at these festivals, namely, laTtibus. AU the wanton 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 reduced 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 Avith the Greek character. ^sop (fl. 572 B. c.) was very far from being regarded by the Greeks as one of their poets, and still less as a writer. They considered liim merely as an ingenious fabulist, to whom, at a later period, nearly aU 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 sarcas- tic fables, put him to death on a charge of robbing the temple. No metrical versions of these fables are known to have existed in early times. The word " parody " means an adoption of the form of some celebrated poem with such changes as to produce a totally dif- ferent effect, and generally to substitute mean and ridicidous 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 poetry. 7. Greek Music and Lyric 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 poets broke loose from GREEK LITERATURE. 79 the dominion of the epic style, and invented new forms for ex- pressing the emotions of a mind profoundly agitated by passing events ; with few innovations in the elegy, hut with greater bohl- ness 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 ajjjjropriate vocal and instrumental nnisic, 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 reci])rocal influence on poetry, so that as it became more cultivated, the choice of the musical meas- ure decided the tone of the whole })oem. The history of Greek music begins with Terpander the Les- bian (fl. 670 B. c), who was many times the victor in the musi- cal contests at the Pythian tem])le 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 imited 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 liigh degree of excellence, and adapted to ex- press any feeling to which the poet could give a more definite character and meaning, and thus they had solved the great prob- lem of their art. It was in Greece the constant endeavor of the great poets, thinkers, and statesmen who interested themselves 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 bound- less realms of harmony. The lyric ])oetry of the Greeks was of two kinds, and culti- vated by two different schools of poets. One, called the yEolic. flourished among the ^olians of Asia Minor, and particularly in the island of Lesbos ; the other, the Doric, which, although diffused over the whole of Greece, was at first principally culti- vated by the Dorians. These two schools differed 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 Co choral dances ; while the -^olic was recited by a single j)er- 8on, who accom])anied his recitation with a stringed instrmnent, generally the lyre. 8. iEoLic Lyric Poets. — Alcaeus (fl. 611 b. c), born in 80 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, being driven out of his native city for political reasons, wandered about the world, and, in the midst of troubles and perils, struck the lyre and gave utterance to the passionate emotions of his mind. His 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 his 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 (fl. 600 B. c.) the other leader of the ^oUc school of poetry, was the object of the admiration of all antiquity. She was contemporary with Alcaeus, and in her verses to liim we plainly discern the feeling of unimpeached honor proper to a fi'ee-born and well-educated maiden. Alcaeus testifies that the attractions and loveliness of Sappho did not derogate from her moral worth when he caUs her " violet-crowned, pure, sweetly smiling 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 do- mestic life. " That woman is the best," says Pericles, " of whom the least is said among men, whether for good or for evil." But the Cohans had in some degree preserved the ancient Greek manners, and their women enjoyed a distinct individual existence and moral eharacter. They doubtless participated in the gen- eral 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 inconsist- ent with Athenian manners, that we cannot wonder that women, who had in any degree overstepped the bounds prescribed 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, than a real event in the life of the poetess. The true conception of the erotic poetry of Sappho can only be drawn from the frag- GREEK LITERATURE. 81 menta of her odes, wliich, though numerous, are for the most part very short. Among them, we must diistinguish the Epitha- lamia or hymeneals, which were ])eculiarly adapted to the genius of the poetess from the excpiisite percejjtion she seems to have had of whatever was attractive in either sex. From the numer- ous 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 sensi- tive 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. Hearing 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 Eirinna, whose poem, " The Spindle," was higlily esteemed by the an- cients. The genius of Anacreon (fl. 540 B. c), though akin to that of Alcseus 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 sti'ict rule may also be perceived in liis versification. The different odes preserved under his name are the productions of poets of a nuich 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 song was soon drowTied by the louder tones of the choral poetry. The Scolia were a kind of lyric songs sung at social meals, when the sjjirit was raised by wine and conversation to a lyrical ])itch. The lyre or a sprig of myrtle was handed round the table and presented to any one who could anmse 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, wliich was afterwards so brill- iantly developed, existed at that remote period in a rude, un- finished state. After the improvements made by Terpander and others in musical art, choral i)oetry rai)idly progressed to- wards perfection. The poets during the period of progi-ess were Alcman and Stesichorus, while finished lyric ])oetry is re])re- sented by Ibycus, Simonides, his disciple Bacchylides and Pindar. These gi-eat poets were only the representatives of the fervor with wliich the religious festivals inspired all classes. Choral dances were performed by the whole people with gi-eat ardos 6 82 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. and enthusiasm ; every considerable town had its poet, who de« voted his whole life to the training and exhibition of choruses. Alcman (b. 660 b. c.) was a Lydian of Sardis, and an eman- cipated slave. His poems exliibit a gi*eat variety of metre, of dialect, and of poetic tone. He is regarded as having overcome the difficulties presented by the rough dialect of Sparta, and as having succeeded in investing it with a certain grace. He is one of tlie 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 B. c.) lived at a time when the predomi- nant tendency of the Greek mind was towards lyric poetry. His special business was the training and direction of the cho- ruses, 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 Quintilian says, he sustained the weight of epic poetry with the lyre. His language accorded with the tone of liis poetry, and he is not less remarkable in himself, than as the precursor of the perfect lyi'ic poetry of Pindar. Arion (625-585 b. c.) was chiefly known in Greece as the perfecter of the " Dithyramb," a song of Bacchanalian festivals, doubtless of gi'eat antiquity. Its character, like the worship 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 B. c.) was 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 (556-468 b. c.) has already been described as one of the gi-eat 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 sublimity he gained in pathos. Bacchylides (fl. 450 B. c), 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 l)y less moral elevation. Timocreon the Rhodian (fl. 471 B. c.) owes his chief celebrity GREEK LITERATURE. 83 among the ancients to the hate he hore to Themistocles in polit- ical life, and to Sinionides on the field of ])oetry. Pindar (522-485 b. c.) was the contemporary of ^schylus, but as the causes wliich determined liis jjoetical character are to be sought in an earlier age, and in the Doric and ^olic parts of Greece, he may properly be j)laced at the close of the early period, while ^Eschylus stands at the head of the new epoch of literature. Like Hesiod, Pindar was a native of Bceotia, and tliat there was still nmch 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 liim for the prize at the pu])lic 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 composi- tion. Pindar made the arts of poetry and nuisic the business of his life, and his fame soon spread throughout Greece and the neighl)oring 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 is his trium})hal 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 tliis 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 solenmity concluded with a merry and bois- terous revel. At this sacred and at the same time joyous fes- tival, the chorus appeared and recited the trium])hal hynm, 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 celebrat- ing the bodily ])rowess of the victor alone, but he usually atlds some moral virtue wliich he has shown, and which he recom- mends and extols. Sometimes this virtue is moderation, wisdom, or filial love, more often ])iety to the gods, and he ex])ounds to the victor his destiny, by showing him the dei)endence of his exploits on the higher order of things. Mythical narratives occu])y 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. 10. Orphic Doctrines a^x> Poems. — The interval between 84 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Homer and Pindar is an important period in the history of Greek civilization. In Homer we perceive that infancy of the mind which lives in seeing and imagining, and whose moral judgments are determined by impulses of feeling rather than by rules of conduct, while with Pindar the chief effort of liis genius is to discover the true standard of moral government. This great change of opinion must have been affected by the efforts of many sages and poets. All the Greek religious po- etry, treating of death and of the world beyond the grave, re- fers to the deities whose influence was supposed to be exercised in the dark regions at the centre of the earth, and who had lit- tle 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 be- hef in these deities. The mysteries of Demeter, especially those celebrated at Eleusis, inspired the most animating hopes with regard to the soul after death. These mysteries, however, had little influence 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 worshipers 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 teU when tliis association was formed in Greece, but we find in Hesiod something of the Orphic spirit, and the beginning of higher and more hopeful views 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 in Magna Graecia united themselves to the Orphic associations. The philosophy of Pythagoras, however, had no analogy with the spirit of the Orphic mysteries, in which the worship of Dionysus was the centre of all religious ideas, while the Pythagorean philosophers preferred the worship of Apollo and the Muses. In the Orphic theogony we find, for the first time, the idea of creation. An- other difference between the notions of the Orphic poets and those of the early Greeks was that the former did not limit GREEK LITERATURE. 86 Iheir vievrs to the present state of mankind, still less did tliey ac- quiesce in Hesiod's melancholy doctrine of successive ages, each one worse than the preceding ; but they looked for a cessation of strife, a state of iiappiness and beatitude at the end of all things. Their hoj)es of this result were founded on Dionysus, from the worship of whom all their peculiar religious 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 lib* erate human souls, who, according to an Orphic notion, are pun- ished by being confined in tlie 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, es])ecially 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 life, 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 spiritual views of human nature. 11. Pre-Socratic Philosophy. — Philosophy was early cul- tivated by the Greeks, who fu'st among all nations distinguished 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 religion, mythology, political and social institutions, and manners. Philosophy, on the other hand, begins by de- tacliHig 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 (639-548 b. c.) was the first in the series of the Ionic philosophers. He was one of the Seven Sages, who by tlujir practical wisdom nobly contributed to the flourish- ing condition of Greece. Thales, Solon, Bion (fl. 570 B. c), Cleobulus (fl. 542 B. c), Periander (fl. 598 B. c), Pittacus of Mytilene (579 B. c), and Chilon (fl. 542 B. c), were the seven philosophers called the seven sages by their countrymen. Thales is said to have foretold an eclipse of the sun, for which he doubtless employed astronomical formulae, which he had ob- tained from the Chahleans. His tendency was practical, and where his own knowledge was insufficient, he applied the dis- 86 HANDBOOK OF UNU^RSAL LITERATURE. coveries of other nations more advanced than liis own. He considered all nature 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 princij^le of things. Anaximander (fl. 547 B. c), and Anaxuuenes (fl. 548 b. c.) were the other two most distinguished representatives of the Ionic school. The former believed that chaotic matter was the principle of all things, the latter taught that it was air. The Eleatic school is represented by Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno. As the philosophers of the first school were called lo- nians 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 vsdth the idea of the godhead, and showed the necessity of considering it as an eternal and unchanging ex- istence, and represented the anthropomorphic conceptions of the Greeks concerning their gods as mere prejudices. In his works he retained the poetic form of composition, some fragments of which he liimself recited at public festivals, after the manner of the rhapsodists. Parmenides flourished 504 years B. c. His philosophy rested upon the idea of existence which excluded the idea of creation, and thus fell into pantheism. His poem on " Nature " 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 doctrines of his master by showing the absurdities involved in the ideas of variety and of creation, as opposed to one and uni- versal substance. Other philosophers belonging to lona or Elea may be referred to these schools, as Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, and Anaxagoras, whose doctrines, however, vary from those of the representatives of the philosophical systems above named. Heraclitus (fl. 505 b. c.) dealt rather in inti- mations of important truths than in popular exposition of them ; his cardinal doctrine seems to have been that everything is in perpetual motion, that nothing has any permanent existence, 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 fire, but some higher and more universal agent. Like nearly all the philosophers, he de- ?]>ised the popular religion. Empedocles (fl. 440 B. c.) wrote a doctrinal poem concerning nature, fragments of which have been preserved. He denied the possiliility of creation, and held the doctrine of an eternal and imperishable existence ; but he coDf GREEK LITERATURE. 87 > sidered this existence as having different natures, and admitted that tire, 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, connect- nig love aiid dissolving discord. Democritus (fl. 460 B. c.) em- bodied his extensive knowledge in a series of writings, of which only a few fragments have been preserved. Cicero compared him with Plato for rhythm and elegance of language. He de- rived the manifold phenomena of the world from the different form, disposition, and arrangement of the innumerable elements or atoms as they become united. He is the founder of the atomic, doctrine. Anaxagoras (fl. 456 B. c.) rejected all popular notions of religion, excluded the idea of creation and destruc- tion, and taught that atoms were unchangeable and miperish- able ; that spirit, the purest and subtlest of all things, gave to these atoms the inn>ulse by whicrh they took the forms of indi- vidual things and beings ; and that tliis 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 consid- ered so clear a proof of his atheism as his opinion that the sun, the bountiful god Helios, who shines both upon mortals and im- mortals, was a mass of red-hot iron. His doctrines tended powerfidly by their rapid diffusion to undermine the principles on which the worship of the ancient gods rested, and they there- fore prepared the way for the subsequent triumph of Chris- tianity. The Pythagorean or Italic School was founded by Pythagoras, who is said to have flourished between 540 and 500 B. c. Pythag- oras was probably an Ionian who emigrated to Italy, and there establisbed his school. His jjrincipal 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 establishment and direction of the Pythagorean asso- ciations. He encouraged the study of mathematics and music, and considered singing to the cithara as best iitted to produce that mental repose and harmony of soul which he regarded as the higliest object of education. 12. History. — It is remarkable that a people so cidtivated as the Greeks sbould have been so long without feeling 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 pel" sons, and owing to the dissensions between the rejniblics, their historical traditions could not but offend some while they flat- 88 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 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 fictitious character of its poetry, and its freedom from the shack- les of particular truths, it acquired that general probability which led Aristotle to consider poetry as more philosophical than his- tory. 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 jreece some centuries before the time of Cadmus of Miletus (fl. 522 b. c), but it had not been employed for the purpose of preserving any detailed his- torical record, and even when, towards the end of the age of the Seven Sages (550 b. c), some writers of historical narratives began 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 Logographers, from Logos, signifying any discourse 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 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 beyond those of his predecessors and contemporaries. It is stated that he recited his history at different festivals, which is quite credi- ble, 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 GREEK LITERATURE. 89 the nations of the world at that time known. 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 Ne- mesis. He constantly adverts in his narrative to the influence of this divine power, the Daemonion, as he calls it. He shows how the Deity visits the sins of the ancestors upon their 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 Nemesis 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 Provi- dence 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 different 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 whea 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 travelers, naturalists, and geographers have often had occasion to admire the truth, and correctness of the information contained in his simple and mar- velous narratives. But no dissertation on this writer can con- vey any idea of the impression made by reading his work ; his language closely approximates to oral narration ; it is like hear- ing a person speak who has seen and lived tlrrough a variety of remarkable things, and whose greatest delight consists in recall- ing these images of the past. Though a Dorian by birth, he- adopted the Ionic dialect, with its uncontraoted terminations^ its accumulated vowels, and its soft forms. These various ele- ments conspire to render the work of Herodotus a p^od^Ufiion as perfect in its kind as any human work can be. 90 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. PERIOD SECOND. The Epoch of the Athenian Literature (484-322 b. c). 1. Literary Predomlntance 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 considered almost as theatres, where the poets and sages could bring their powers and acquirements into public no- tice. 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 tlie capital of Greece, hterature assumed a different form, and there is no more important epoch in the history of the Greek intellect than the time when she obtained this pre- eminence over her sister states. The character of the Athe- nians peculiarly fitted them to take this lead ; they were lonians, and the boundless resources and mobility of the Ionian spirit are shown by their astonishing productions in Asia Minor and in the islands, in the two centuries previous to the Persian war ; in their iambic and elegiac poetry, and ip the germs of philosophic inquiry and historical composition. The literature of those who remained in Attica seemed poor and meagre when comjiared with that luxuriant outburst ; nor did it ajjpear, till a later pe- riod, 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 oppressed by the manly tribes of Greece, and forced to keep the sword constantly in their hands, exerted aU their talents and thus developed all their extraordi- nary powers. Solon, the great lawgiver, arose to combine moral strictness and order with 'freedom of action. After Solon came the do- minion of the Pisistratidae, which lasted from about 560 to 510 B. c. They 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 Iliad and Odyssey ; they also brought to Athens the most distinguished lyric poets of the time, Anacreon, Siraonides, 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. GREEK LITERATURE. 91 It is a remarkable fact that Athens produced her most excel- lent works in literature and art hi the midst of the greatest po- litical convulsions, and of her utmost ett'orts for conquest and self-preservation. The long dominion of the Pisistratids pro- duced nothing more important than the first rudiments of tlie tragic drama, for the origin of comedy at the country festivals of Bacchus falls in the time before Pisistratus. On the other liand, the thirty years between the exi)ulsion of Hippias, the last of the Pisistratids, and the battle of Salamis (510-480 b. c), was a period marked by great events both in i)olitics and literature. Athens contended with success against her warlike neighbors, su])i)()rted the lonians in their revolt against Persia, and warded oft" the first powerful attack of the Persians ujjon Greece. Dur- ing the same jjeriod, the ])athetic tragedies of Phrynichus and the lofty tragedies of ^schylus appeared on the stage, political eloquence was awakened in Themistocles, and everything seemed to give promise of future greatness. The political events which followed the Persian war gradu- ally gave to Athens the dominion over her allies, so that she became the sovereign of a large and flourishing empire, compre- hending the islands and coasts of the J^gean and a part of the Euxine sea. In this manner was gamed a wide basis for the lofty edifice of political glory, which was raised by her states- men. The completion of this splendid structure was due to Pericles (500-429 b. c). Through his influence Atliens be- came a dominant community, whose chief business it was to ad- minister the affairs of an extensive empire, flourishing in agri- culture, industry, and commerce. Pericles, however, did not make the acquisition of power the liighest object of his exer- tions ; his aim was to realize in Athens the idea which he had conceived 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 wliich originated under his administration. He induced the Atiienian people to expend on tiie decoration of Athens a larger part of its ample revenues than was ever applied to this i)urpose in any other state, either rei)ublican or monarchical. Of the surpassing skill with wliich 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 Roman princes. ])roduced works of equal ex- cellence. Indeed, it may be said that the creations of the age 92 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 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 civil- ization exempt from the elements of decay. The political posi- tion 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 offensive 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 abandon land war and the military exercises requisite for it,, which had hardened the old warriors at Marathon. As he made them a dominant people, whose time was chiefly devoted to the business of governing 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- ingly, a large revenue was distributed among them in the form of wages for attendance in the courts of justice and other public assemblies. These payments to citizens for their share in the public business were quite new in Greece, and many considered the sitting and listening in these assemblies as an idle life in comparison with the labor of the jilowman 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, lux- urious, and dissolute generation who passed their whole time in the market-place and courts of justice. The contests between these two parties are 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 fliis period exhibit not only a perfection of form but also an elevation 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 su(!h works of art. A step farther, and the love of genuine beauty gave place to a desire for evil pleas- ures, and the love of wisdom degenerated into an idle use of words. GREEK LITERATURE. 93 2. The Drama. — Tlie spirit of an age is more completely represented by its poetry than by its jjrose composition, and ac- cordingly we may best trace the character of the three different stages of civilization among the Greeks in the three grand divis- ions of their poetry. The e\nc belongs to their monarchical periotl, when the minds of the peojjle were impregnated and swayed by legends handed down from antiquity. Elegiac, iam- bic, and lyric poetry arose in the more stirring and agitated times which accompanied the develo])ment of republican gov- ernments, times in which each individual gave vent to his per- sonal aims and wishes, and all the depths of the human breast were unlocked by the inspirations of poetry. And now, when at the summit of Greek civilization, in the very prime of Athen- ian 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 com- petitors 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 a])pears to re- gard the events, which he relates from afar, as objects of calm contemplation and admiration, and is always conscious of the great interval between him and them, while the 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 comjjrehends and develops the events of human life with a force and depth which no other style of poetry can reach. If we carry ourselves in imagination back to a time when dramatic composition was unknown, we must acknowledge that its creation required great boldness of mind. Hitherto the bard had only sung of gods and heroes ; 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 nuich in human nature which impels it to dramatic representations, such as the universal love of imitating other persons, and the child-like liveliness with which a narrator, strongly impressed with his sul)ject, delivers a speech which 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, exce]it the Greeks, ever made this step. The dramatic poetry of the Hindus belongs to a time when there had been much intercourse between Greece and India; even in ancient Greece and Italy, dramatic poetry, and especially 94 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. tragedy, attained to perfection only in Athens, and here it waa exhibited only at a few festivals of a single god, Dionysus, while epic rhapsodies and lyric odes were recited on various occasions. All this is incomprehensible, if we 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 would have been 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 sup- posed to dwell in their temples and to participate in their fes- tivals, and it was not considered presumptuous or unbecoming to represent them as acting like human beings, as was frequently done by mimic representations. The worship 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 of nature in connection with the course of the seasons. The orig- inal participators in these festivals believed that they perceived the god to be really affected by the changes of nature, killed or dying, flying and rescued, or reanimated, victorious, and dom- inant. 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 enthu- siastic sympathy with the god and his fortunes, as with real events, always remained. The swarm of subordinate beings by whom Bacchus was surrounded — satyrs, nymjjhs, and a vari- ety 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 roclcs. The cus- tom, so prevalent at tlie festivals of Bacchus, of taking the dis- guise of satyrs, doubtless originated in the desire to approach more nearly to the presence of their divinity. The desire of escaping fi'om self into something new and strange; of living 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 bai"k, and in the complete costumo belonging to the character. The learned writers of antiquity agree in stating that tragedy, »s well as comedy, was originally a choral song. The action, the adventures of the gods, was presupposed or only symbolical!.^ GREEK LITERATURE. 95 indicated ; the chorus ex])ressed their feelings upon it. This choral song l)elonged to the class of the dithyraiiiby an enthusi- astic ode to Bacchus, capable of expressing every variety of feel- ing excited by the worshij) of that god. It was first sung by revelers at convivial meetings, afterwards it was regularly exe- cuted by a chorus. The subject of these tragic choruses some- times changed fnnn Bacchus to other heroes distinguished for their misfortunes and suffering. The reason why the dithy- ramb 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 al- ternations of joy and grief to which both Bacchus and the he- roes were subject. It is stated l)y Aristotle, that tragedy originated with the chief singers of the dithyramb. It is probable that they repre- sented Bacchus himself or liis messengers, that they came for- ward and narrated his i>erils 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, whence they easily fell into the parts of satyrs, who were his com})anions in sportive adventures, as well as in combats and misfortunes. The name of tratjedy, or goafs song, was derived from the resemblance of the singers, in their character of satyrs, to goats. Thus far tragedy had advanced among the Dorians, who, therefore, considered themselves the inventors of it. All its fur- ther development belongs to the Athenians. In the time of Pis- istratus, 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 a])pear in several chai-ac- ters. In the drama of Thespis we linil the satyi'ic drama con- founded with tragedy, and the persons of the chorus frequently representing satyrs. The dances of the chorus were still a principal i)art of the performance ; the ancient tragedians, in general, were teachers of dancing, as well as poets and musi- cians. In Phrynichus (fl. 512 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 u])on the stage, which, according to the manners of the ancients, could be acted only by men. In sev- eral instances it is remarkable that Phrynichus deviated from mythical subjects to those taken from conteni])orary history. 3. Tragedy. — The tragedy of antiquity was entirely differ 96 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. ent from that which, in progress of time, arose among other na/« tions ; a picture of human life, agitated by the passions, and cor- responding as accurately as possible to its original in all its features. 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 exliibitions, generally, were seen only 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 every-day existence, gave both to the tragic and comic muse unwonted energy and fire. The Bacchic festal costume, which the actors wore, consisted of long striped garments reaching to the gi'ound, 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 singing and dancing. The chorus, which always bore a subordinate part in the action of the tragedy, was in no respect distinguished from the stature and appearance of ordi- nary men, while the actor, who represented the god or hero, re- quired to be raised above the usual dimensions of mortals. A tragic actor was a strange, and, according to the taste of the ancients themselves at a later period, a very monstrous being. His person was lengthened out considerably beyond the propor- tions 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 gestic- ulation 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 aU sorts, prevalent at the Baccliic festivals, were an indispensa- ble accompaniment to tragedy. They not only concealed the individual features of well-known actors, and enabled the spec- tators entirely to forget the performer in his part, but gave to his whole aspect that ideal character which the tragedy of antiq- uity 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 characteristic was presented in its utmost strength, and the bright and hard coloring were calculated to make the impres- Bion of a being agitated by the emotions and passions of human nature in a desree 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 thd persons. GREEK LITERATURE. 97 The ancient theatres were stone huikUngs of enormous size, calculated to accommodate the whole free and adult population " of a {jreat city at the spectacles and festal games. These the- atres were not designed exclusively for dramatic poetry ; choral dances, })rocessions, revels, and all sorts of representations were held in them. We lind 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 it- self, may he traced to the chorus, whose station was the original centre 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 dithyramhic chorus danced in a circle, had given rise to a sort of raised platform in the centre of the orchestra, which served as a restmg-place for the chorus. The chorus sang alone when the actors had quitted the stage, or alternately with the persons of the tlrama, 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 sublime 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 prosceyiium, be- cause it was in front of the scene. Scene properly means tent or hut, such as originally marked the dwelling of the principal person. This hut at length gave place to a stately scene, en- riched with arcliitectural decorations, yet its purpose remained the same. We have seen how a single actor was added to the chorus by Thespis, who caused him to represent in succession all the per- sons 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. But the ancients laid more stress upon the precise number and uuitual relations of these actors tlian can here be explained. 4. The Tragic Poets. — ^schylus (525-477 b. c), like almost all the great masters of poetry in ancient Greece, was a poet 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 98 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. pathetic. He excels in representing the superhuman, in depict* ■va^ demigods and heroes, and in tracing the irresistible march of fate. The depth of jjoetical feeling in him is accompanied with intense and philosophical thought ; he does not merely rep- resent 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 natui'e and of man. He delights to j)ortray this gigantic strength, as in his Prome- theus chained and tortured, but invincible ; and these represen- tations have a moral subhmity far above mere poetic beauty. His tragedies were at once jjolitical, patriotic, and religious. Sophocles (495-406 b. c), as a poet, is universally allowed to have brought the drama to the highest degree of perfection of which it was susceptible. Indeed, the Greek mind may be said to have culminated in him ; his writings overflow with that indescribable charm which only flashes through those of other poets. His plots are worked up with more skill and care than those of either of his great rivals, ^schylus or Euripides, and he added the last improvement to the form of the drama by the introduction of a third actor, — a change which greatly enlarged the scope of the action. Of the many tragedies which he is said to have written, only seven are extant. Of these, the " Oedipus Tyrannus " is particularly remarkable for its skillful develop- ment, and for the manner in which the interest of the piece in- creases through each succeeding a'ct. Of all the poets of antiq- uity, 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 dis- tinguished 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. Eij^hteen of his traiJfedies are still extant. The contemporaries of the three great tragic poets, ^schylus, 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 peculiar force of genius by which these great tragedians were distinguished. If this had not been the case, their works would assuredly have GREEK LITERATURE. 99 attracted greater attention, and would have been read more fre- quently in later times. 5. CoMKDY. — Greek comedy was distinguished as the Old, the Middle, and the New. As tragedy arose from the winter feast of Bacchus, wliich fostered an enthusiastic sympathy with the apparent sorrows of the god of nature, comedy arose from the concluding feast of the vintage, at whicli an exulting joy over the inexhaustible riches of nature manifested itself in wan- tomiess of every kmd. In such a feast, the Comus, or 13accha= nalian procession, was a principal ingredient. Tliis was a tumidtuous mixture of the wUd 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 Cratinus, who lived in the age of Pericles. Cratinus and his younger contemporaries, Eupolis (431 B. c.) and Aristophanes (452-380 B. c), were the great poets of the old Attic comedy. Of their works, only eleven dramas of Aristo])hanes are extant. The cliief 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 justice of the picture. It is scarcely possible to imagine the unmeasured and unsparing license of attack assumed by these comedies upon the gods, the institutions, the politicians, philosophers, poets, private citizens, and women of Athens. With this universal liberty of subject there is combined a poignancy of derision and satire, a fecundity of imagination, and a richness of poetical ex- pression such as cannot be surpassed. Towards the end of the career of Aristophanes, however, this unrestricted license of the comedy began graduaUy to disappear. The Old comedy was succeeded by the Middle Attic comedy, in which the satire was no longer directed 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 transition 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. The poets of this comedy were very numerous. The last poets of the IMiddle comedy were contemporaries of the ^Titers 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 (342-293 100 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. B. c.) was one of the first of these poets, and he is also the most perfect of them. The Athens of his day differed from that of the time of Pericles, in the same way that 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 in poUtics to interest or to employ the mind, the Athenians found an ob- ject in the occurrences of social life and the charm of dissolute enjoyment. Dramatic poetry now, for the first time, centred in love, as it has 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 since elevated itself. Menander painted truly the degenerate world in which he lived, actu- ated by no mighty impulses, no noble aspirations. He was con- temporaiy with Epicurus, and their characters had much in common ; both were deficient in the insiiiration of high moral ideas. The comedy of Menander and his contemporaries completed what Euripides had begun on the tragic stage a hundred years before their time. They deprived their characters of that ideal grandeur which had been most conspicuous in thQ creations of iEschylus 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. 6. Oratory, Rhetoric, and History. — We may distin- guish three epochs in the history of Attic prose from Pericles to Alexander 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 oo the emotions of the heart ; nor did he use any of those means em])l()yed by the orators of a later age to set in motion the un- ruly impulses of the nmltitude. His manner was tranquU, with GREEK LITERATURE. 101 hardly any change of feature ; his garments were undisturbed by any oratorical gesticidations, 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 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 tlie 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 who made knowledge their profession, and undertook to impart it to every one who was willing to place himself under their guidance ; they were reproached Avith being the first to sell knowledge for money, for they not only demanded pay 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 consider their doctrines philosophically, they amounted to a denial or renunciation of all true science. They were able to speak \vith equal plausibihty 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 com- position, however, a high value nmst 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 that the sole aim of the orator is to turn the minds of his hear- ers into such a train as may best suit his own interest ; that, consequently, rhetoric is the agent of persuasion, the art of aU arts, because the rhetorician is able to speak well and convinc- ingly on every subject, though he may have no accurate knowl- edge 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 degen- erated into empty bombast. Yet at this very tune prose litera- ture began a new career, which led to its fairest development. Lysias and Isocrates gave an entirely new form to oratory by the happy alterations which they in ilifferent ways introduced into the old prose style. Lysias (fl. 359 u. c), in the fiftieth 102 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. year of his age, began to follow the trade of writing speeches for such private individuals as could not trust their own skiU in ad- dressing a court ; for this object, a plain, unartificial style was best suited, because citizens who called in the aid of the speech- 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 })lain style. The narra- tive 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 rea- soning 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 B. c.) established a school for political ora- tory, which became the first and most flourishing in Greece. His orations were mostly destined for this school. Though nei- ther 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 B. c.) 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 ambition 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 practiced 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 au- thors. By these means he came forth as the acknowledged leader of the assembly, and, even by the confession of his dead- Ueat enemies, the first orator of Greece. His harangues to the GREEK LITERATURE. 103 people, and his speeches on public and private causes, which have been preserved, form a collection of sixty-one orations. The most important efforts of Demosthenes, however, were the series of public speeches referring to Philip of Macedon, and known as the twelve Philii)i)ics, a name which has become a general designation for spirited invectives, llie main charac- teristic of his eloquence consisted in the use of the common lan- guage of his age and country. He took great pains in the choice and arrangement of his words, .and aimed at the utmost concise- ness, making epithets, even common adjectives, do the work of a whole sentence, and thus, by his perfect delivery 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 profound ob- servations or remote and ingenious allusions, but a constant suc- cession of remarks, bearing immediately on the matter in hand, perfectly plain, and as readily admitted as easily understood. 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 Isaeus (420-348 b. c), an artificial and elaborate orator ; Lycurgus (393-328 b. c), a celebrated civil reformer of Athens ; Hypereides, contemporary of Lycurgus ; and, above all, -^s- chines (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, the Attic, founded by ^schines, and the Asiatic, established by Hegesias of Mag- nesia. The fonner proposed as models of oratory the great Athenian orators, the latter depended on artificial manners, and produced speeches distinguished rather by rhetorical orna- ments and a rapid flow of diction than by weight and force of style. In the historical department, Thucydides (471-391 B. o.) began an entirely new class of historical writing. "While He- rodotus aimed at giving a vivid ])i(ture of all tliat fell under the cognizance of the senses, and endeavored to re])resent a superior power ruling over the destinies of princes and ]>oople. the attention of Thucydides was directed to human action, as it is developed from the character and situation of the individ- ual. His history, from its unity of action, may be considered as a historical drama, the subject being the Athenian domination 104 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. over Greece, and the parties the belligerent republics. 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 Peri- cles 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 b. c.) 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 thou- sand Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus, the Persian king, among whom he himself played a prominent part. The minuteness of detail, the picturesque simplicity of the style, and the air of reality which pervades it, have made it a favorite with every age. 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 Xeno- phon we find the first approximation to the common dialect, which became afterwards the universal language of Greece. He wrote several other works, in which, however, no development 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 ajtd the Socbatic Schools. — Although Soc- rates (468-399 B. c.) left no writings behind him, yet the intel- lect of Greece was powerfully affected by the principles of his philosophy, and the greatest literary genius that ever appeared in Hellas owed most of his mental training to his early inter- course with him. It was by means of conversation, by a search- ing 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 process, and " dialectics " became a name for the art of reason- ing 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 philos- ophy according to scientific principles. No less than ten schools of philosophers claimed him as their head, though the majority of them imperfectly represented his doctrines. By his influence on Plato, and through him on Aristotle, he constituted himseli the founder of the philosophy which is still recognized in the civilized world. From the doctrine held by Socrates, that virtue waa depend? <•> GREEK LITERATURE. 105 ent on knowled|Te, Eucleides of Megara (fl. 398 b. c), the founder of the Megaric school, submitted moral pliilosophy to dialectical reasoning and logical refinements ; and from the Socratic principle of the union between virtue and happiness, Aristippus of Cyrene (fl. 396 b. c.) 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 Antisthenes (fl. 396 B. c.) constnicted 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 indejjendence of any restraints of hfe and society. Diogenes of Sinope (fl. 300 B. c.) was one of the most prominent followers of this school. He, like his master, Antisthenes, always appeared in the most beggarly clothing, with the staff and wallet of mendicancy ; and this ostentation of self-tlenial drew from Socrates the exclamation, that he saw the vanity of Antisthenes through the holes in his garments. Plato (429-348 b. c.) 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 unequaled in refine- ment of conception, or in vigor and gracefuhiess 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 intellect- ual freedom drank the fatal cup of hemlock. He afterwards traveled in Asia Minor, in Egypt, in Italy, and Sicily, and made himself acquainted with all contemporary philosophy. During the latter part of liis life he was engaged as a public lecturer on pliilosophy. His lectures were delivered in the gardens of the Academia, and they have left ])roof of their celebrity in the structure of language, which has derived from them a term now common to all ])laces of instruction. Of the importance of the Socratic and Pythagorean elements in Plato's pliiloso])hy there can be no doubt ; but he transmuted all he touched into his own forms of thoujjht and laniruace, 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 philosophy then current in Greece, and also to gratify his own dramatic genius, and his almost unrivaled power of kee])ing up an assumed character. The works of Plato have been divideil into three classes : first, the elementary dialogues, or those which contain the germs of all that follows, of logic as the in- strument of philosophy, and of ideas as its proper object ; sec 106 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. ond, progressive dialogues, which treat of the distinction between philosophical 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 pliilosophy 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 ex- istences, and all our ideas of this world are mere reminiscences of their true and eternal patterns. The belief of Plato in the immortality 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 " Republic " 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 spec- ulation. 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 stUl 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 b. c.) occupies a position among the lead- ers of human thought not inferior to that of his teacher, Plato. He was a native of Stagyra, 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 liter- ary education of Alexander, at that time thirteen years old. This charge continued about three years. He afterwards re turned to Athens, where he opened his school in a gymnasium { GREEK LITERATURE. 107 railed the Lyceum, delivering his lessons as he walked to and fro, and from tliese saunters his scholars were called Peripa- tetics, or saimterers. During this period he composed most of liis extant works. Alexander ])hicetl at his disposal a large sum for his collections in natural history, and eni])loyed 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 coin])k'tion of a general encyclopedia of philosophy. He was the author of the first scientific cultivation of each' science, and there was hardly any quality distinguisliing 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 mankind. 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 comprehen- sive genius did not embrace. His greatest claim to our admirar tion is as a logician. He perfected and brought into form those elements of the dialectic art which had been struck out by Soc- rates and Plato, and wrought them, by his additions, into so com- plete 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 Aris- totle has nothing to attract those who prefer the embellishments of a work to its subject-matter and the scientific results wliich it presents. PERIOD THIRD. The Epoch op the Decline op Greek Literatcbe, 322 b. c- 1453 A. D. 1. Origin of the Alexandriav Literature. — As the lit- erary ])redominance of Athens was due mainly to the politicjil importance of Attica, the downfall of Athenian independenca brought with it a deterioration, and ultimately an extinction of that intellectual centralization which for more than a century had fostered and develo])ed the liighest efforts of the genius and culture of the Greeks. While the living literature of Greece was thus dying away, the con([uests of Alexander ]irepared 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 sci' ence and religious belief. In Egypt, as in other regions, Alex- 108 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. ander gave directions for the foundation of a city to be called after his own name, which became the magnificent meti'opolis 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 aU the best works of the classical period. It was chiefly during the reigns of the first tliree Ptolemies that Alexandria was made the new home of Greek literature. Ptolemy Soter (306-285 B. c.) laid the foundations of the library, and instituted the mu- seum, or temple of the muses, where the literary men of the age were maintained by endowments. This encouragement of literal ture was continued by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 b. c). 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 do- main of Greek literature by employing the priest Manetho to translate the liieroglyphics of his own temple-arcluves into the language of the court, and by procuring from the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem the fii-st 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 B. c.) increased the library by depriving the Athenians of their authentic editions of the great dramatists. In the course of time the library founded at Pergamos 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 which have come down to us. Tliis encouragement of letters, however, called forth no great original genius ; but a few emi- nent men of science, many second-rate and artificial poets, and a host of grammarians and literary pedants. 2. The Axexajstdrian Poets. — Among the poets of the pe- riod, Philetas, Callimachus, Lycophron, Apollonius, and the writ- ers of idyls, Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus are the most emi- nent. The founder of a school of poetry at Alexandria, and the model for imitation with the Roman writers of elegiac poetry, was Philetas of Cos (fl. 260 b. c), whose extreme emaciation of person exposed 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. Cal- limachus (fl. 260 B. c.) was the ty])e of an Alexandrian man of letters, distinguished by skill rather than genius, the most fin- ished specimen of what might be effected by talent, learning, and ambition, backed by the patronage of a court. He was a living representative of the great library over which he presided ; he »vas not only a writer of all kinds of poetry, but a critic, gram* GREEK LITERATURE. 109 marian, historian, and geographer. Of his writings, a few poems only are extant. Next to Callimachus, as a representative of the learned poetry of Alexandria, stands the dramatist Lyco- phron (fl. 250 i$. 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. Apollonius, known as the Rhodian (fl. 240 B. c), was a native of Alexandria, and a pupil of Callimachus, through whose influ- ence he was driven from his native city, when he established himself in the island of Rhodes, where he was so honored and distinguished that he took the name of the Rhodian. On the death of Callimachus, he was appointed to succeed him as libra- rian 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 writ- ers have sometimes substituted the term Eclogues, that is, selec- tions, which is applicable to any short poem, whether complete and original, or appearing as an extract. The name of Idyls, however, was afterwards applicable to pastoral poems. The- ocritus (fl. 272 B. c.) gives his name to the most important of these extant bucolics. He had an original genius for poetry of the highest kind ; the absence of the usual affectation of the Alexandrian school, constant aj)peals to nature, a fine perception of character, and a keen sense of both the beautiful and the hidicrous, indicate the high order of liis literary talent, and ac- count for his universal and undiminished popularity. The two other bucolic poets of the Alexandrian school were Bion (fl. 275 B. c), born near Smyrna, and his pupil Moschus of Syracuse (fl. 273 B. c). It appears, from an elegy by Moschus, that Bion migrated from Asia Minor to Sicily, where he was poisoned. He wrote harmonious verses with a good deal of pathos and ten- derness, 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 ti'ue ])oet. 3. Prose Writers of Alexandria. — Many of the most eminent poets were also prose writers, and they exhibited their versatility by writing on almost every subject of literary interest. The progi'ess 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 mLxed 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 success- 110 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. ively 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, wliich was finally 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 " contains a general sketch of the mystic legends of the Greeks ; Eratosthe- nes (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 " Babylonian Annals." While the Greeks of Alexandria thus gained a knowledge of the religious books of the nations conquered 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 vmder 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. Tha beginning of that 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 wonderful 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 life which is known to us is a conversation between him and that king, who, having asked if there was no easier method of learning the science, is said to have been told by Euclid, that " there was no royal path to geometry." His most famous work is his " Elements of Pure Mathematics," at the present time a manual of instruction and the foundation of all geometrical treatises. Archimedes (287-212 B. c.) was a native of Syra- cuse, in Sicily, but he traveled 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. A})ollonius of Perga (221-204 b. c.) distinguished himself in the mathematical department by his work on " Conic Elements." GREEK LITERATURE. Ill Eratosthenes was not only prominent in the science of chro- nology, but was also the t'ounder of astronomical geography, and the author of many valuable works in various branches of philos- ophy. Hipparchus (fl. 150 B. c.) is considered the founder of the science of exact astronomy, from his great work, the '' Cata- logue of the Fixed Stars," his discovery 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 develo])nient, had now, in aU 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 rep- resented by 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- 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 b. c). ?>picurus (342-370 b. c.) founded the school to which he gave his name, by a similar combination of Democritean ])hilosophy with the doctrines of the Cyrenaics ; the Cynics were developed into Stoics by Zeno (341-260 B. c), who borrowed much from the Megaric school and from the Old Academy ; and. finally, the Middle and New Academy arose from a combination 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 Per- sians, Jews, and Hindus, imderwent essential modifications, and gave birth to a kind of electicism. which became later an im- portant element in the development of Christian history. The rationalism of the Platonic siliool and the supernaturalism of the Jewish Scriptures were chiefly mingled together, and from this amalgamation 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 })rinci])les of the Greco- Jewish ])hiloso])hy, it underwent new modifications, and the Neo-Platonic school, which sprang up in Alexandria three cen- turies B. c. was com])leted in the first and second centuries of the Christian era. The common characteristic of the Neo-Pla- tonists was a tendency to mysticism. Some of tliem believed that 112 HANDBOOK OF UNU^RSAL LITERATURE. they were the suhjects of divine inspiration and illumination; able to look into the future and to work miracles. PhUo-Judaeus (fl. 20 B. c), Numenius (fl. 150 A. D.), Ammonius Saccas (fl. 200 A. D.). Plotinus (fl. 260 A. D.), Porphyry (fl. 260 A. c), and sev- eral fathers of the Greek Church are among the principal dis- ciples of this school. 5. Anti-Neo-Platoxic Texdencies. — "While the Neo-Pla- tonism 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 sys- tem mainly and immediately to the teaching of Epictetus (fl. 60 A. d), who opposed the Oriental enthusiasm of the Neo-Platonists. He was originally a slave, and became a prominent teacher of philosophy in Rome, in the reign of Domitian. He left nothing in writing, and we are indebted for a knowledge of his doctrines to Arrian, who compiled his lectures or philosophical disserta- tions in eight books, of which only four are preserved, and the " Manual of Epictetus," a valuable compendium of the doctrines of the Stoics. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius not only lectured at Rome on the principles of Epictetus, but he left us his pri- vate meditations, composed in the midst of a camp, and exhibit- ing the serenity of a mind which had made itself independent o'f outward actions and warring passions within. Lucian (fl. 150 A. D.) may be compared to Voltaire, whom he equaled 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 were merely negative, ha prepared the way for Christianity by giving the death-blow to declining idolatry. Lucian, as a man of letters, is on many accounts interesting, and in reference to his own age and to the literature of Greece he is entitled to an important position both with regard to the religious and philosophical results of his works, and to the introduction of a purer Greek style, Avhich he taught and exemplified. Longinus (fl. 230 A. D.), bo.^h as an opponent of Neo-Platonism and as a sound and sensible critic, occupies a position similar to that of Lucian, in the declining 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 lit- erature 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 XIV., gave a tone to the literary judgments of Europe, this work was translated by Boileau, and received by the wits of GREEK LITERATURE. 113 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 i)ublishe(l 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 imitating the tragedies and comedies of Athens, and every ver- sifier felt compelled by fasliion to revive the metres of ancient Greece. This naturalization of Greek Uterature 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 subjugation of Greece. In Rome, Greek libraries were established by the Emperor Augustus and his successors ; and the knowledge of the Greek language was considered a necessary accompUslmient. 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 appreciation and patronage. The Greek poets, who were fostered and encouraged at Rome, were chiefly writers of epi- grams, and their poems are preserved in the collections called '* Anthologies." The growing demand for 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 pe- riod, we mention Dionysius of Halicarnassus (fl. 7 b. c). As a critic, he occupies the first rank among the ancients. Besides liis rhetorical treatises, he wrote a work on '* Roman Archaeol- ogy," the object of which was to show that the Romans were not, after all, barbarians, as was generally supposed, but a pure Greek race, whose institutions, religion, and manners were trace- able to an identity with those of the noblest Hellenes. What Dionysius endeavored to do for the gTatification of his own countrymen, by giving them a Greek version of Roman his- tory, an accomplished Jew, who Uved about a century later, at- tempted, from the opposite point of view, for his own fallen tace, in a work which was a direct imitation of that just de- scribed. Flavius Josephus (fl. 60 A. r>.) wrote the "Jewish Archaeology " in order to show the Roman con(|uerors of Jeru- salem that the Jews did not deserve the contemjit with which they were universally regarded. His " History of the Jewish Wars" is an able and valuable work. At ah earlier period, Polybius (204-122 B. c.) wrote to ex- plain to the Greeks how the power of the Romans had estab* 8 114 UAyDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. Wished itself in Greece. His great work was a universal history, but of tlie forty books of which it consisted only five have been preserved ; perhaps no historical work has ever been written 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 provi- dence uses the ability and energy of man as instruments in car- rying out what is predetermined, and specially the exemplifica- tion 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 tile' style has many blemishes, such as endless digressions, wearisome repetition of liis own principles and collo- quial vulgarisms. Diodorus, a native of Sicily, generally known as the Sicilian (Siculus), flourished in the time of the first two Caesars. In his great work, the " Historical Library," it was his object to wi'ite 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 (fl. 10 A. D.), which has made his name familiar to modern scholars, has come down to us very nearly complete. Its merits are 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 unaffected. Plutarch (40-120 A. D.) may be classed among the philoso- phers as well as among the historians. Though he has left many essays and works on different subjects, he is best known as a bi- ographer. His lives of celebrated Greeks and Romans have made liis name familiar to the readers of every country. The universal popularity of his biographies is due to the fact that they are dramatic pictures, in which each personage is repre- sented as acting according to his leading characteristics. Pausanias (fl. 184 A. d.), a professed describer of countries and of their antiquities and works of art, in his " Gazetteer of Hellas " has left the best repertory of information for the topog- raphy, 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 centuiy. The best known of his works is his " Great Construc- tion of Astronomy." He was the first to indicate the true shape I GREEK LITERATURE. 115 of Spain, Gaul, and Ireland ; as a writer, he deserves to be held in high estimation. Galen (H. 130 A. D.) was a writer on phi- losophy and medicine, with whom few could vie in productive- ness. It was his object to combine philosophy with medical science, and his works for fifteen centuries were received as oracular authorities throughout the civilized world. 7. CoNTixuED Decline of Greek Literature. — The adoption of the Christian religion by Constantine, and his estab- lishment of the seat of government in his new city of Constanti- nople, 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 religion of the state, and the profession of its tenets was the shortest road to influence and honor. The old literature, with its mythological allusions, became less and less fashionable, and the Greek poets, philosophers, and orators of the better periods gradually lost their attractions. Greek, the official language of Constantinople, was spoken there, with different degrees of corruption, by Syr- ians, Bulgarians, and Goths ; and thus, as Christianity under- mined the old classical literature, the political condition of the capital deteriorated the language itself. Other causes accel- erated the decadence of Greek learning : the great Ubrary at Alexandria, and the school which had been established in con- nection with it, were destroyed at the end of the fourth century by the edict of Theodosius, and the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens in the seventh century only completed the work of de- struction. Justinian closed the schools of Athens, and prohibited the teaching of philosophy ; the Arabs overthrew those estab- lished elsewhere, and there remained only the institutions of Con- stantinople. But long before the establishment of the Turks on the ruins of the Byzantine empire, Greek literature 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 su])erstitions which distorted Christianity and disturbed the old philoso})hy. The abortive attempt of the Emperor Jul- ian 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, however, was soon enabled not only to dictate its own rules of literary criticism, but to destroy the writino-s of its most formidable antasronists. The last ravs of heathen cultivation in Italy were extinguished in the gloomy dungeon of Boethius, and the period so justly designated as the Dark Ages began both in eastern and western P^urope. 8. Last Echoes of the Old Literature. — From the time 116 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. when Cliristianity placed itself in opposition to the old culture of heathen Greece and Rome, down to the period of the revival of classical literature \n the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the classical spirit was nearly extinct both in eastern and west- ern Europe. In Italy, the triumjjh of barbarism was more sud- den and complete. In the eastern empire there was a certain literary activity, and in the department of history, Byzantine literature was conspicuously prolific. The imperial family of the Comneni, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the Palaeologi, who reigned from the thir- teenth 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 Constantinople 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 themselves. 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, may be divided into three classes. In the first are placed the mathematical and geographical stud- ies, which had been brought to such perfection by Euclid, his successors, and after them by Ptolemy. In the second class we have the substitution of prose romances for the bucoUc 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 (fl. 415 A. D.), whose sex, youth, beauty, and cruel fate have made her a most interesting martyr of philoso- phy. She presided 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 archbishop. 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 liave been a poet in the time of Calli- machus, became a writer of prose romances in the final period of Greek literature. The first ascertained beginning of this style of light reading, which occupies so large a S])ace in the cata- logues of modern libraries, was in the time of the Emperor Tra- jan, when a Syrian or Babylonian freedman, named lamblichus, GREEK LITERATURE. 117 published a love story called the '" Babylonian Adventures." Aniouf,' las successors is Longus, of whose work, " The Lesbian Adventure," it is sufficient to say, that it was the model of the " Diana " of INIontemayor, the " Aminta " of Tasso, the " Pas- tor Fido " of Guarini, and the "Gentle Shepherd" of Allan lianisay. "While the sophists were amusinjir themselves by clothing erotic and bucolic subjects in rhetorical prose, an Egj'ptian boldly revived the epos which had been cultivated at Alexandria in the earliest days of the Museum. Nonnus probably flourished at the connnencement 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 ei)ic productions of the school of Nonnus is the story of " Hero and Leander," in 340 verses, which bears the name of Mus?BUS. 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 Musa;us 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 contem])oraries, because they give extracts or fragments of the lost writings of the best days of Greece. Next in value follow the lexicogra- phers, the grammarians, and commentators. The most volumi- nous department, however, of Byzantine literature, was that of the historians, annalists, chroniclers, biographers, and anti- quarians, v/hose works form a continuous series of Byzantine annals from the time of Constantine the Great to the taking of the ca))ital by the Turks. This literature was also enhvened by several poets, and enriched by some writers on natural history and medicine. 9. The New Testarient asv> 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, tlie Septuagint version of the Old Testament, before mentioned, and the Greek Apocrypha, may i)ro])erly be termed Hebrew-Grecian. Their spirit is wholly at variance with that of ])agan 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. ^lany of them contain authentic nar- ratives, and are valuable as illustrating the circumstances of the uge to which they refer. Tlie other class of writings alluded 118 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. to comprehends the works of the Christian authors. As the in> fluence of Christianity became more diffused 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 different in their spirit and character from all that is found in pagan literature. The collection of sacred writings contained in the New Testament and the works of the early fathers constitute a distinct and interesting feature in the literature of the age in wliich they appeared. The writ- ings of the New Testament, considered simply in their literary aspect, are distinguished by a simplicity, earnestness, natural- ness, and beauty that find no parallel in the literature of the world. But the consideration nmst 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 New Testament is historical, epistolary, and prophetic. The first five books, or the historical division, contain an account of the Ufe and death of our Saviour, and some account of the first movements of the Apostles. The epistolary division con- sists 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, differs 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 pliilosophers, par- ticularly among the Greeks. Their productions may be classed under the heads of biblical, controversial, doctrinal, historical, and homiletical. Among the most distinguished of the Greek fathers were Justin Martyr (fl. 89 A. D.), an eminent Christian philosopher and speculative thinker ; Clement of Alexandria ffl. 19() A. D.), who has left us a collection of works, which, for learning and literary talent, stand unrivaled among the writings GREEK LITERATURE. 119 of the early Christian fathers; Origen (184-253 A. d.), who, in his nunierons works, attempted to reconcile philosophy with Christianity; Eusehius (fl. 325 A. D.), whose ecclesiastical his- tory is ranked among the most valuable remains of Christian antiquity ; Athanasius, famous for liis controversy with Arius : Gregory Nazianzen (329-390 A. D.), distinguished for his rare union of elocpience and piety, a great orator and theologian ; Basil (329-379 a. d.) whose works, mostly of a purely theolog- ical character, exhibit occasionally decided proofs of his strong feeling for the beauties of nature ; and John Chrysostom (347- 407 A. u.), the founder of the art of preaching, whose extant homilies breathe a spirit of sincere earnestness and of true genius. To these may be added Neraesius {^. 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 Synesius (378^30 a. d.), who maintained the parallel im- portance of pagan and Christian literature, and who has always been held in high estimation for his epistles, hymns, and dramas. MODERN LITERATURE. At the time of the fall of Constantinople, ancient Greek was still the vehicle of literature, and as such it has been preserved to our day. After the political changes of the present century, however, it was felt by the best Greek writers that the old forms were no longer fitted to express modern ideas, and hence it has become transfused with those better adapted to the clear and rapid expression of modern literature, though at the same time the body and substance, as well a:s the grammar, of the language have been retained. From an early age, along with the literary language of Greece, there existed a conversational language, which varied in different locaUties, and out of this grew the Modern Greek or Neo-Hellenic. After the fall of Constantino])le, the Greeks were prominent in s])reading a knowledge of their language through Europe, and but few works of importance were produced. During the eight- eenth century a revival of enthusiasm for education and litera- ture took place, and a period of great literary activity has since followed. Perhaps no nation now jjroduces so nuich Hterature in proportion to its numbers, although the number of readers is small and there are great difficulties in publishing. In these cir- cumstances, the Ralli and other ilistinguishcd Greeks have nobly come forward and published books at their own expense, and great activity prevails in every departnient of letters. Since the establishment of Greek indei)endence, three \vriter3 120 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. have secured for themselves a permanent place in literature as men of true genius; the two brothers Panagiotis and Alexander Santsos, and Alexander Rangabe. The brothers Santsos threw all their energies into the war for independence and sang of its glories. Panagiotis (d. 1868) was always lyrical, and Alexan- der (d. 1863) always satirical. Both were highly ideal in their conceptions, and both had a rich command of musical language. The other gi'eat poet of regenerated Greece is Alexander Ran- gabe, whose works range through almost every department of literature, though it is on his poems that his claim to remem- brance will specially rest. They are distinguished by fine poetic feeling, rare command of exquisite and harmonious language, and singular beauty and purity of thought. His poetical works consist of hymns, odes, songs, narrative poems, ballads, trage- dies, comedies, and translations. There is no department in prose literature which is not well represented in modern Greek, and many women have particularly distinguished themselves. One of the most notable literary events of later years has been the discovery of the poems of Bacchylides, of whose writ- ings only fragments had previously been known. These lyrics will take an honored place in Greek anthology. ROMAN LITERATURE. IxTRODDcnoK. — 1. Roman Literature and its Divisions. — 2. The Lan^age- Ethno- fn'apliical Elements of the Latin Language ; the Umbrian ; Oscan ; Etruscan : tlie Old Roman Tongue ; Saturuian Verse ; Peculiarities of the Latin Language. — 3. The Roman Religion. Period First. — 1. Early Literature of the Romans ; the Fescennine Songs ; the Fabula Atellan;e. — 2. Early Latin Poets ; Livius Audrouicus, Ntevius, and Knnius. — 3. Roman Comedy. — 4. Comic Poets; Plautus, Terence, and Statins. — 5. Roman Tragedy. — G. Tragic Poets ; Pacuvius and Attius. — 7. Satire; Lucilius. — 8. History and Oratory ; Fabius Pictor : Cenciiis Alimentus ; Cato ; Varro ; M. Antonius ; Crassus ; Uortensius. — 9. Roman Jurisprudence. — 10. Grammarians. Period Second. — 1. Development of the Roman Literature. — 2. Mimes, Mimogra- phers, Pantomime ; Laberius and P. Lyrus. — 3. Epic Poetry ; Virgil ; The -liueid. — 4. Didactic Poetry ; the Bucolics ; the Georgics ; Lucretius — 5. Lyric Poetry ; Catullus ; Horace. — 6. Elegy; Tibullus ; Propertius; Ovid. — 7. Oratory and Philosophy ; Cicero. — 8. History; J. Cffisar; Sallust ; Livy. — 9. Other Prose Writers. Pkkiod Third. — 1. Decline of Roman Literature. — 2. Fable; Phaedrus. — 3. Satire and Epigram; Persius, Juvenal, Martial. — 4. Dramatic Literature; the Tragedies of Seneca. — 5. Epic Poetry ; Lucan ; Silius Italicus ; Valerius Flaccus ; P. Statins. ; — C. History ; Paterculus ; Tacitus ; Suetonius ; Q. Curtius ; Valerius Maximus. — 7. Rhetoric and Eloquence; Qnintilian : Pliny the Younger. — 8. Philosophy and Science; Seneca; Pliny the Elder ; Celsus ; P. Mela ; Columella ; Frontiiius. — 9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to Tlieodoric ; Claudian; Eutropiius ; A. Marcellinus ; S. Sulpicius : Gellius ; Macrobius ; L. Apuleius ; Uoethius ; the Latin Fathers. — 10. Roman Jurisprudence. INTRODUCTION. 1. Roman- Literature A>nD its Dmsioxs. — Inferior to Greece in the genius of its inhabitants, and, perhaps, in the in- trinsic greatness of the events of which it was the theatre, nii- (juestionably inferior in the fruits of intellectual activity. Italy holds the second place in the classic literature of anti((uity. Etruria could boast of arts, legislation, scientific knowledge, a fanciful mythology, and a fonn of dramatic spectacle, before the foundations of Rome were laid. But, like the ancient Eg}-i)tians, the Etrurians made no progress in composition. Verses of an irregular structure and rude in sense and harmony appear to have 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 nuich 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 disgrace of their political humiliation by the honor of communi- cating the first imiMilse towards intellectual refinement to the bosoms of their conquerors. AVben. in the process of time, Sic- ily, Macedonia, and Achaia had become Roman provinces, some acquaintance with the language of their new subjects proved to he a matter almost of necessity to tho victorious people ; but 122 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. the first impression made at Rome by the productions of the Grecian Muse, and the first efforts to create a similar literature, must be traced to the conquest of Tarentum (272 B. c). From that memorable period, the versatile talents wliich distinguished the Greeks in every stage of national decline began to exercise a powerful influence on the Roman mind, vv^hich was particularly felt in the departments of education and amusement. The in- struction 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, which long continued 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 predominance of Greek philosophy and eloquence. But this imitative 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 Virgil and Hor- ace 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 com- mand 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 peri- ods. The first embraces its rise and progress, oral and tradi- tional compositions, the rude elements of the drama, the intro- duction of Greek literature, and the construction and perfection of comedy. To this period the first five centuries of the repub- lic may be considered as introductory, for Rome had, properly speaking, no literature until the conclusion of the first Punic war (241 B. c), and t!ie first period, commencing at that time, ex- tends through 1 GO years — that is, to the first appearance of Cicero in public life, 74 B. c. The second period ends v/itli 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 tlie Golden Age of Latin poetry. ROMAN LITERA TURK. 123 The third and last period terminates with the death of The- odoric, 52G A. d. Notwithstanding tlie numerous excellences Ivhich distinguished the literature of this time, its decline had evidently conmienced, and, as the age of Augustus has heen dis- tinguished hy 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 are 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 Umbrians extended over the district bounded on one side by the Tiber, and on tlie 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 Sic- ily, and gave their name to the island. These tribes were not left in undisturbed possession of their rich inheritance. More than 1000 B. C. there arrived in the northern jjart 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 science of politics and social life. They enriched their newly acquired country with commerce, and filled it ^yith strongly fortified and populous cities, and their dominion rajndly spread over the whole peninsula. Entering the territory of the Umbrians, they drove them into the mountainous districts, or compelled them to live among them as a subject people, while they possessed themselves of the rich and fertile plains. The headquarters of the invaders was Etruria, and that portion of them who settled there were known as Etrurians. Marching southward, they vancpushed the Oscans and occu])ied the plains of Latium. They did not, however, remain long at ])eace in the districts which they had concpiered. The old inhabitants re- turned from the neighboring highlands to which they had been driven, and subjugated tlie northern part of Latium, and estab* 124 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. lishecl a fetleral 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 fed- eration, estabUshed itself on the Mount Palatine, and founded Rome, while a Sabine community occupied the neighboring heights of the Quirinal. Mutual jealousy of race kept them, iov some tune, separate from each other ; but at length the two communities became one people, called the Romans. These were, at an early jieriod, 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 Umbrian, the language of Latium may be considered as the re- sult of those two elements combined with the Oscan, and brought together by the mingling of those different tribes. These ele- ments, which entered into the formation of the Latin, may be classified under two heads : the one which has, the other which has not a resemblance 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 Graecia, partly after the Greeks exercised a direct influ- ence on Roman literature. Of the ancient languages of Italy, which concurred in the formation of the Latin, little is known. The Eugubine Tables are 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 en- graved in Etruscan or Umbrian characters, others in Latin let- ters. The remains which have come down to us of the Oscan language belong to a com])osite idiom made up of the Sabine and Oscan, and consist chiefly of an inscription engraved .on a brass plate, discovered in 1793 A. D. As the word Bansae 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 words found in the P^ugubine Tables and in P^truscan inscriptions, shows that the Etruscan language was composed of the Pelasgian and Umbrian, and from the examjjles given by etlmographers, it is evident that the Etruscan element was most influential in the formation of the Latin lan-^uajre. ROMAN LITERATURE. 125 The old Roman tongue, or ling^iia prisca, as it was composed •f these materials, and as it existed previous 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 in- fluences. So different was the old Roman from the classical Latin, that some of those ancient fragments were with difficulty intelligible 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 Arvales. These were a college of pi'iests, 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 litany was discovered in Rome in 1778 A. d. The monu- ment belongs to the reign of Heliogabalus, 218 A. c, but al- though the date is so recent, the permanence of religious formu- las renders it probable that the inscription contains the exact words sung by this priesthood in the earliest times. The '* Car- men Saliare," or the Salian hymn, the le^es regice, the Tiburtine inscription, the inscription on the sarcophagus of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, the great-grandfather of the conqueror of Han- nibal, the epitaph of Lucius Scipio, his son, and, above all, the 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 b. c. Most of these literary monuments were written in Saturnian verse, the oldest measure used by the Latin poets. It was prob- ably derived from the Etruscans, and until Ennius introduced the heroic hexameter, the strains of the Italian bards flowed in this metre. The structure of the Saturnian is very simple, and its rhythmical arrangement is found in the poetry of every age and . country. Macaulay adduces, as an example of this meas- ure, the following line from the well-knownii nursery song, — " The quedn was in her pdrlor, | edting bredd 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, tehose style was formed by Greek taste ; another not so wide is 126 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. interposed between the age of Ennius and that of Plautus and Terence, and lastly, Cicero and the Augustan poets mark an- other 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 their 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 grad- ually 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 worshiped heaven and earth, personified in Saturn and Ops, by whom Juno, Vesta, and Ceres were gen- erated, symbolizing marriage, family, and fertility ; soon after, other Etruscan divinities were introduced, such as Jupiter, Mi- nerva, and Janus ; and Sylvanus and Faunus, who delighted in the simple occupations of rural and pastoral life. From the Etrurians the Romans borrowed, also, the institution of the Ves- tals, whose duty was to watch and keep alive the sacred fire of Vesta ; the Lares and Penates, the domestic gods, which presided over the dwelling and family ; Terminus, the god of property and the rites connected with possession ; and the orders of Augurs and Aruspices, whose office was to consult the flight of birds or to inspect the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice, in order to ascertain future events. The family of the Roman gods continued to increase by adopting the divinities of the con- quered nations, and more particularly by the introduction of those of Greece. The general division of the gods was twofold, — the superior and inferior deities. The first class contained the Consentes and the Select! ; the second, the Indigetes and Semones. 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 Selecti were nearly equal to them m rank, and consisted of eight : Saturn, Pluto, Bacchus, Janus, ROMAN LITERATURE. 127 Sol, Genius, Rhea, and Luna. The Indigites were heroes who were ranked among the gods, and included particularly Hercules, Castor and Pollux, and Quirinus or Romulus. The Semones comprehended 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 em- ployed as a means of promoting the designs of the state. It was prosaic in its character, and in this respect differed essen- tially from the artistic and poetical religion of the Greeks. The Greeks conceived rehgion as a free and joyous worship of na- ture, a centre of individuality, beauty, and grace, as well as a source of poetry, art, and independence. With the Romans, on the contrary, religion conveyed a mysterious and hidden idea, which gave to this sentiment a gloomy and unattractive charac- ter, without either moral or artistic influence. PERIOD FIRST. From the Conclusion or the First Punio Wxb to the Age or Cicero (241-74 b. c.) 1. Early Literature of the Romans. — The Romans, like all other nations, had oral poetical compositions before they possessed any written literature. Cicero speaks of the banquet being 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 pre- served, 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 eflEusions 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 Ro- man 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 whioli 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 re- sult of the influence exerted by the Etruscans, who were their teachers in everything mental and spiritual. 128 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. The tendency of the Roman mind was essentially utilitarian. 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 feeUng. In other nations, poetry has been the first spontaneous pro- duction. With the Romans, the first written literary 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 mem- orable events anterior to the capture of Rome by the Gauls, per- ished in the conflagration of the city. The earliest attempt at versification made by the rude inhab- itants of Latium was satire in a somewhat dramatic form. The Fescennine songs were metrical, for the accompaniments of mu- sic and dancing necessarily restricted them to measure, and, like the dramatic exhibitions of the Greeks, they had their origin among the rural population, not like them in any religious cere- monial, but in the pastimes of the village festival. At first they were innocent and gay, but liberty at length degenerated into license, and gave birth to malicious and libelous attacks upon persons of irreproachable character. This infancy of song illus- trates 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 cultivated poets, was developed in the sharp, cut- ting wit, and the lively but piercing points of Roman satire. In the Fescennine songs the Etruscans probably furnished the 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 Italian 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 LITERATURE. 129 Roman citizen might take part in them without disgrace. They were known by the name of " Fabulae Atellanaj," from Attela, 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 smpire. Towards tlie close of the fourth century, the Etruscan histri- ones were introduced, whose entertainments consisted of grace- ful national dances, accompanied with the music of the flute, but without either songs or dramatic action. With these dances the Romans combined the old Fescennine songs, and the varied me- tres, which their verse permitted to the vocal parts, gave to this mixed entertainment the name of Satura (a hodge-podge or potpourri), from which, in after times, the word satire was de- rived. 2. Early Latin Poets. — At the conclusion of the first Punic war, when the influence of Greek intellect, wliich had al- ready 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 Andronicus (fl. 240 B. c), though born in Italy, and educated at Rome, is supposed to have been a native of the Greek colony of Tarentura. He was at first a slave, probably a captive taken in war, but was finally emancipated by his master, in whose family he occupied 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 hjTims. His principal works, however, were tragedies ; but, from the few fragments of his writings extant, it is unpossible to form an estimate of his ability as a poet. According to Livy, Andronicus was the first who substituted, for the rude extemporaneous effusions of the Fescen- nine verse, plays with a regular plot 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 lie himself represented the ac- tion of the song by his gestures and dancing. Naevius (fl. 235 b. c.) was the first poet who really deserves the name of Roman. He was not a servile imiUitor, 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-tlevotion. 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 9 130 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. stern old Roman. The comedies of Nsevius had undoubted pre« tensions to originaUty ; 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 Virgil 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 writings extant are not more numerous than those of Livius. Naevius, the last of the older school of writers, by introducing new principles of taste to his countrymen, altered their stand- ards ; and Greek literature having now driven out its predeces- sor, 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 pos- terity. Cicero always uses the appellation, " our own Ennius," when he quotes his poetry. Horace calls him " Father Ennius," a term which implies reverence and regard, and that he was the founder of Latin poetry. He was, like 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 sol- dier, with all the singleness of heart and simplicity of manners which marked the old times of Roman virtue. Ennius possessed great power over words, and wielded that power skillfully. He improved the language in its harmony and its grammatical forms, and increased its copiousness and power. What he did was im- proved upon, but was never undone ; and upon the foundations he laid, the taste of succeeding ages erected an elegant and beautifid (Superstructure. His great epic poem, the " Annals," gained him the attachment and admiration of liis 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 rehiain 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 does not deserve a high 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; ROMAN LITERATURE. 131 gance and licentious jesting, but upon this was ingrafted the new Greek comedy, and hence arose that phase of the drama, of wliich 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 perso?i(V, the principal characters being always a mo- rose or a gentle father, who is sometimes also the henpecked husband of a rich vdie, 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. This was rendered necessary by the immense 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 scar- let, poor men and slaves in dark and scanty dresses. The com- edy had always a musical accompaniment of flutes of different 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 the contraction of two sounds into one, and in this respect the conversational language 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 trammeled or confined by a rigid adhesion to Greek metrical laws. 4. Comic Poets. — Plautus (227-184 b. c.) was a contem- porary of Ennius ; he was a native of Umbria, and of humble origin. Education did not overcome his vulgarity, although it produced a great effect upon his language and style. He must have lived and associated with the ])eople whose manners he describes, hence his pictures are correct and truthful. The ilass from which his representations are taken consisted of 132 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 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 notwith- standing 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 has audience no time for dullness or weariness. Although Greek was the fountam from which he drew his stores, his wit, thought, and language were entirely Roman, and his style was Latin of the purest and most elegant kind — not, indeed, controlled by much deference to the laws of metrical harmony, but fuU of pith and sprightliness, bearing the stamp of colloquial vivacity, and suitable to the general briskness of his scenes. Yet in the tone of his dialogue we miss aU symptoms of deference 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, Menander 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 imperial. Dramatic writers of modern times, as Shakspeare, Dryden, and Moliere, have recognized the effec- tiveness of his plots, and have adopted or imitated them. About twenty of his plays are extant, among which the Captivi, the Epidicus, the CisteUaria, 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 quali- ties which characterized Attic sentiment, without corrupting the native purity of the Latin language. The elegance and grace- fulness of his style show that the conversation of the accom- plished 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 infe- rior to Plautus in life, bustle, and intrigue, and in the delinea- tion 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, Sta- tius may be mentioned, who flourished between Plautus and Terence. He was an emancipated slave, born in Milan. Cicero ^nd Varro have pronounced judgment upon his merits, the sub- ROMAN LITERATURE. 133 stance 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 fragments, however, of his works, which remain are not sufficient to test the opinion of tlie ancient critics. 5. Roman Tragedy. — Wlule 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 excejjtions, was never anything more than translation or imitation. In the century during which, together with com- edy, it flourished and decayed, it boasted of five distinguished writers, Livius, Nsevius, Ennius (already spoken of), Pacuvius, and Attius. In after ages, Rome did not produce one tragic poet, unless Varius be considered an exception. The tragedies attributed to Seneca were never acted, and were only composed for reading 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. They were em- balmed 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 be 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, S})ain, Greece, and Africa. These and their descendants replaced the ancient people, and while many of them by their tjilents and energy arrived at wealth and station, they could not possibly be Romans at heart, or consider the past glories of their ado])ted 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 j)atriotism 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 lib- erty. With the people of Athens, tragedy formed a part of the national religion. By it the people were taught to spnpathize 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 134 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. 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 ingrafting of foreign superstitions, which had no hold on the belief or love of the people. Nor 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 for- ward to extend the frontiers of their empire, to bring under their yoke nations which their forefathers had not known. If they regarded 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 trage- dies 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 hu- man 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 develop 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, Naevius, and Ennius ; in the second, Pacuvius and Attius ; in the third, Asi- nius PoUio 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 his 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 grand- ion of the poet Ennius. At Rome he distinguished himself as ROMAN LITERATURE. 135 a painter as well as a dramatic poet. His tragedies were not mere translations, but adaptations of Greek tragedies to the Roman staefe. Tlie frafrments which are extant are full of new and original thoughts, and the very roughness of his style and audacity of his expressions have somewhat of the solemn grand- eur and picturesque boldness which distinguish the father of Attic tragedy. Attius (11. 138 B. c), though born later than Pacu\nus, was almost his contemj)orary, 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 nmse was hushed. Massacre and rapine raged through the streets of Rome, itself a theatre where the most terrible scenes were daily enacted. 7. 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 litera- ture 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 Roman 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 patron- ized it, but did not make it their pursuit. Lucilius was a Ro- man 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, thougli stern and stoical ; a relentless enemy of vice and ])rofligacy, and a gallant and fearless defender of truth antl honesty. After the death of Lucilius satire languished, until half a century later, when it assumed a new garb in the descri])tive 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 accord- ance with the genius of the Romans than })oetry. As a nation, they had little or no imaginative })ower, no enthusiastic love of natural beauty, and no acute perception of the sympathy be- tween man and the external world. The favorite civil pursuit i36 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. of an enlightened Roman was statesmanship, and the subjects akin to it, histoiy, jurisprudence, and oratory, the natural lan- guage of which was prose, not poetry. And their practical states- manship gave an early encouragement to oratory, which is pecul- iarly the literature of active life. As matter was more valued than manner by this utilitarian people, it was long before it was thought necessary to embellish prose composition with the graces of rhetoric. The fact that Roman literature was imitative rather than inventive, gave a historical bias to the Roman intel- lect, and a tendency to study subjects from an historical point of view.- But even in history, they never attained that compre- hensive 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 his- tory 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 war, in which he was personally engaged. He was a prisoner of Hannibal, who delighted in the society of literary men, and treated liim with great kindness and consideration, and himself communi- cated to him the details of his passage across the Aljis. Like Fabius, he wrote his work in Greek, and prefixed to it a brief abstract of Roman history. Though the works of these anna- lists are valuable as furnishing materials for more philosophical minds, they are such as could have existed only 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 reflection:?, and meagre and insipid in style. The versatility of talent displayed by Cato the censor (224- 144 B. c.) entitles him to a place among orators, jurists, econ- omists, and historians. His life extends over a wide and impor- tant period of literary history, when everytliing was in a state of change, — 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 offices of state. His energies were not weakened by advancing age, and he was always ready as the advocate of virtue, the champion of the op- pressed, 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, un- polished, ungraceful, because to him i)olish was superficial, and, I ROMAN LITERATURE. 137 therefore, unreal. His statements, however, were clear, his il- lustrations striking ; the words willi which he enriched his na- tive tongue were full of meaning ; his wit was keen and lively, and his arguments went straight to the intellect, and carried con- viction 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 antl originality, hut only hrief fragments of it remain. In the " De Re 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 commonplace book of agriculture and domestic economy ; its object is utiUty, not science : it serves the purpose of a fanner's and gardener's man- ual, 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. Varro (116-28 b. c.) was an agriculturist, a grammarian, a critic, a theologian, a historian, a philosopher, a satirist. Of his miscellaneous works considerable portions are extant, sufficient to display his einidition 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 j)lant 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 hfe, and recommended itself to a warlike and utilitarian people by its utility and its antago- nistic spirit. Long before the art of the historian was sufficiently advanced to record a s])eech, the forum, the senate, the battle- field, and the threshold of the jurisconsult had been nurseries of Roman eloquence, or schools in which oratory attained a vigor- ous youth, and prepared for its subsequent maturity. While the legal and poUtical constitution of the Roman people gave direct encouragement to deliberative and judicial oratory, 138 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. respect for the illustrious dead furnished opportunities for pane- gyric. The song of the bard in lionor 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 political 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, like the Gracchi, stood forward as champions of popular rights. These stirring times produced many celebrated orators. The Gracchi themselves were both eloquent and pos- sessed of those qualities and endowments which would recom- mend their eloquence to their countrymen. Oratory began now to be studied more as an art, and the interval between the Gracchi and Cicero boasted oi many distinguished names ; the most illustrious among them are M. Antonius, Crassus, and Cic- ero's contemporary and most formidable rival, Hortensius. M. Antonius (fl. 119 B. c.) entered public life as a pleader, and thus laid the foundation of his brilliant 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- quently the scene of his eloquent triumphs. L. Licinius Crassus was four years younger than Antonius, and acquired great reputation for his knowledge of jurispru- dence, 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, who were then flourishing in the last days of expiring 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 liia last effort was in support of the aristo- cratic party. Q. Hortensius was bom 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 leader of the Roman bar, until the star of Cicero arose. Hi» ROMAN LITERATURE. 139 political connection with the faction of Sylla, and his unscru- pulous support of the profligate corruption which characterized that administration, both at home and abroad, enlisted his legal talents in defense of the infamous Verres ; but the eloquence of Cicero, together with the justice of the cause which he espoused, prevailed ; and from that time forward his superiority over Hortensius was established and complete. The style of Hor- tensius was Asiatic — more florid and ornate than polished and refined. 9. Roman Jurisprudence. — The framework of their jr.ris- prudence the Romans derived from Athens, but the complete structure was built up by their own hands. They were the au- thors 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 legal systems of the whole civilized world. The complicated principles of jurisprudence of the Roman constitution became, in Rome, a necessary part of a liberal edu- cation. When 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 "Man- ual " of Pomponius, and the " Institutes " of Gains, who flour- ished in the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. Both of these works were, for a long time, lost, though fragments were pre- served in the pandects of Justinian. In 181G, however, Niebuhr discovered a palimpsest MS., in which the epistles of St. Jerome were written over the erased " Institutes " of Gains. 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 Vico, in his " Sci- enza nuova," dispelled the clouds of error, and reduced it to a system ; and he was followed so successfully by Niebuhr, that modern students can have a more comprehensive and anticjua- rian knowledge of the subject than the writers of the Augustan age The earliest Roman laws were the " Leges Regiae," which were collected and codified by Sextus Papirius, and were hence called the Papirian code ; but these were rude and unconnected, — simply a collection of isolated enactments. The laws of the ** Twelve Tables " stand next in point of antiiiuity- They ex- hibited the first attempt at regiilar system, and enibodied not only legislative enactments, but legal principles. So popular 140 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. were they that when Cicero was a child every Roman boy com' mitted them to memory, as our children do their catechism, and the great orator laments that in the course of his lifetime this practice had become obsolete. The oral traditional expositions of these laws formed the gi'oundwork of the Roman civil law. To these were added, from time to time, the decrees of the people, the acts of the sen- ate, and praetorian edicts, and from these various elements the whole body of Roman law was composed. So early was the sub- ject diligently studied, that the age preceding the first two cen- turies of our era was rich in jurists whose powers are celebrated in history. The most eminent jurists who adorned this period were the Scaevolae, a family in whom the profession seems to have been hereditary. After them flourished ^lius Gallus (123-67 B. c), 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. Grammarians. — 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 aU of them possessed acquired learn- ing rather than original genius, they exercised a powerful influ- ence over the puljlic 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 Uterature of their own country. Livius Andronicus and Ennius may be placed at the head of this class, followed by Crates Mallotes, C. Octavius Lampadio, Laelius, Archelaus, and others, most of whom were emancipated slaves, either from Greece or from other foreign countries. PERIOD SECOND. From the Age of Cicero to the Death of Augustus (74 b. c.-14 A. D.) 1. Development of Tins Roman Literature. — Latin lit- erature, at first rude, and, for five centuries, unable to reach any high excellence, was, as we have seen, gradually developed by the examjjle and tendency of the Greek mind, which moulded Roman civilization anew. The earliest Latin poets, historians, and grammarians were Greeks. The metre which was brought to such perfection by the Latin poets was formed from the Greek, and the Latin lauiniajre more and more assimilated to the Hellenic tongue. ROMAN LITERATURE. 141 As civilization advanced, the rude literature of Rome was tonipared with the great monuments of Greek genius, their su- periority 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 incom})lete, unless they rei)aired 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 jiartic- ularly 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, rftajestic, 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 ])owerful, ex])ression remained weak and un- certain. 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 which had grown and matured in the centuries preceding were gath- ered by Augustus ; but the influences that contributed to the splendor of his age belong rather to the republic than the em- pire, and with the fall of the liberties of Rome, Roman literature declined. 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 the stage had not altogether lost its ])oi)ularity. jEsopus and Roscius, the former the great tragic actor, and the latter the favorite comedian, in the time of Cicero, enjoyed his friendship and that of other gi-eat men, and l)oth amassed large fortunes. But although the standard Roman i)lays were constantly rejire- sented, dramatic literature had become extinct. The entertain- ments, which had now taken the place of comedy and tragedy, were termed mimes. These were laughable imitations of man- ners and ])ersons, combining the features of comedy and farco, for comedy re])resents the characters of a class, farce those of individuals. Their essence was that of the modern })antomime, 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 ))rominent jjosition, and was writteh in verse, like that of tragedy and comedy. During the dictator- ship of CjBsar, a Roman knight named Laberius (107-45 B. c.) became famous for his mimes. The profession of an actor of 142 HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE. mimes was infamous, but Laberiiis was a writer, not an actor. On one occasion, Caesar offered him a large sum of money to enter the lists in 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, liber- tatem perdimus ! " His words were received with a round of applause, and all eyes were fixed on Caesar. The dictator re- stored him to the rank of which his act had deprived him, 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 luke- warmness 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, orig- inally a Syrian slave. Tradition has recorded a bon mot of his which is as witty as it is severe. Seeing an ill-tempered man named Mucins 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 differed 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 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 such 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 cheir subjects either 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 possessing little merit. But the Romans, essentially practical and positive in theii" character, felt little interest in the descrip> I ROyfAN LITERATURE. 143 tlons of manners' and events remote from their associations, and poetiy, restrained within the limits of their history, could not rise to that hei