in ornaments, are alluded to in Homer; but it is probable that they were the productions of foreign ingenuity. In painting, the heroic Greeks do not seem to have made any progress. Their music was simple, touching, and suited to the feelings and imaginations of a peculiarly excitable people. Their knowledge of the art of healing was rude and imperfect, confined to the domestic use of herbs and charms.

51. Their Navigation was very different from that to which Englishmen are accustomed. Their ships were large open boats, manned with rowers, and, though furnished with sails, they made a very imperfect use of them. Their voyages were almost confined to the Egean sea; though, on some rare occasions, they ventured from the coasts, or were driven from them by the winds. Their knowledge of the earth was very limited; and their notions of the heavens were confined to a knowledge of a few of the principal constellations. Their commerce was not extensive, and was chiefly carried on by the Phoenicians.

52. Their grand art was War. The descriptions of Homer make the modern reader familiar with their weapons, their defensive armour, and their manner of using chariots on the field of battle. Strangers to the modern science and skill displayed in the combination of masses, their battles were more dependent on the courage of the chiefs than on the arrangement of their force; and more was owing to their strength and bravery, than to their discipline.

53. The general manners of the ancient Greeks display, on the whole, a pleasing and dignified picture of human life. Simplicity of feeling, reverence for age, and delicacy towards the female sex, were combined with elevation of sentiment, derived from their belief of the interest taken in them by the gods. Their virtues and defects belonged to a state of society raised above the barbarism of savages, but containing only the outlines and rudiments of the high civilisation afterwards attained. Allowing for the differences arising from their climate, their religion, and their connexion with nations more advanced, the heroic Greeks bear no slight resemblance to the people of western Europe at a similar stage in their progress. The chiefs and clans of

the Scottish highlands, before the union of the two kingdoms, may be taken as an illustration: the same hospitality, darkened by vehement passions; the same reliance on the higher qualities of the few, rewarded by protection to the many; the same haughtiness and vindictiveness; and the same mixture of boisterous festivity with tenderness of domestic feeling, and depth of gloomy sorrow. While many points of resemblance existed, there were some respects in which the Greeks were inferior,-in generosity, in cheerfulness, and, we may add, in the relative position of the female sex.

54. The review of the Heroic Age does not inspire us with a high idea of the happiness of individuals, or of families. The scenes of blood and rapine were so familiar, and the passions were so strongly excited and so little controlled, that we can scarcely contemplate their condition without a tinge of melancholy. With a feeling of weakness, and haunted by the fears of a superstition which was as enslaving as it was imaginative, they were rendered miserable by the want of those principles which control men's feelings, and of those religious hopes which are the only balm of grief, and the only support in death.-It is by making such comparisons, justly, fairly, and with the knowledge of the facts which traditions have preserved, that we are led to appreciate our own advantages-living in more peaceful times, under the shelter of better institutions, and, above all, enjoying the light and consolations of that religion which, in the early ages, had but faintly been revealed.

CHAPTER IV.

THE DORIAN CONQUESTS.

Invasions by the descendants of Hercules-Revolutions in the different statesMonarchy and democracy-Colonies established in Ægina and Crete, by the Dorians.

55. IT has been stated that, on the return of the Greeks from Troy, their country was in a state of great distraction. Orestes, son of Agamemnon, was forced to flee from the power of the usurper of his father's throne to Athens. After seven years of exile, he returned to Argos, killed

Ægisthus and his mother Clytemnestra, and recovered his inheritance and his kingdom, over which he reigned with great power and glory. The pressure of the Boeotians on the Thessalians caused a reaction, and the Boeotians were expelled. Some years after, a general revolution took place all over Greece. The descendants of Hercules settled in Doris. From thence, after some unsuccessful attempts to penetrate into Peloponnesus, driven by a pestilence, and encouraged by an oracle, they were conducted by Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, with Oxylus, an Eolian chief, across the gulf, and spread over nearly the whole peninsula, with the exception of Arcadia and Achaia. The entire population of the country was changed. The Dorians and Æolians were established in the peninsula. The old inhabitants were subdued, or driven away. One effect of this conquest was to abolish the ancient names, and to substitute for them the distinction of Dorians and Ionians. The Dorians retained their ancient dialect and manners in the country they had conquered. The Ionians remained in Attica, or spread, in colonies, along the western coast of Asia Minor, and in the islands of the Ægean sea. The Dorians in Peloponnesus had not only expelled the former inhabitants, but, with them, all traces of the civilisation which had been slowly growing up among them. On the death of Aristodemus, his followers, and the followers of the other chiefs, were involved in perpetual warfare respecting the bounds of their respective territories.

56. This revolution and these internal wars were followed by others of a different nature, in the constitution of each separate state. The limited monarchies were gradually undermined by the principles of democracy, and finally abolished. Independent commonwealths were founded in the cities of Crete. These were followed by Argos, Corinth, Pisa, and Elis, by Sparta, Arcadia, and, last of all, by Athens. However these separate commonwealths might vary, there are two facts which must have had great influence on them all. They were all confined within comparatively small territories: and, in all of them, menial work was done by slaves, most of whom were probably such of the original inhabitants as had not the spirit or the ability to flee from their conquerors.

57. The conquest which we describe in few words was the work of much time. The ancient legends have transmitted many examples of bold resistance, and of hard fighting. But on these our space does not permit us to dwell. It is also easy to understand that it was not suddenly, but by slow degrees, that the progress of democratic principles changed the form of government in all these states. Besides the Dorians, other tribes, forced by the stream of invasion from the north, were mingled with these new settlers. This seems the proper place to mention that, soon after the settlement of the Dorians in the Peloponnesus, they sent out colonies to the islands Ægina and Crete. This fact, in reference to Crete, it is important to remember, because of the close connexion of the institutions of Crete with others which we shall have occasion to describe, in the mother country, and, first of all, in Lacedæmonia.

CHAPTER V.

RISE OF SPARTA.

Helotes-Spartan ascendency in Greece-Spartan monarchy-Lycurgus -Charilaus-Laws of Sparta-Institutions-Hostilities between the Spartans and Messenians-Battle of the Trencher-Aristomenes-Croesus-States included in the Spartan confederacy-Corinth-Sparta loses its importance-Becomes subject to the power of Rome.

58. It was after a hard struggle that the Dorian invaders of Peloponnesus obtained the mastery in Sparta. The resistance of the inhabitants of Helos, on the sea coast, was punished by the loss of personal liberty; and their name was long preserved in that of the Helotes, or Spartan slaves. Mingled with the Dorian conquerors were Cadmeans, driven by the Boeotian invaders from Thebes; and Minyans, descendants of the Argonauts. The ascendency which Sparta acquired over the other Dorian states, and, eventually, over all Greece, began by subjecting to her sway the adjoining territory of Messenia; but it was secured, mainly, by those institutions by which she was distinguished. After the death of Aristodemus--one of the Heraclides that headed the invasion of the Doriansthe throne of Sparta was divided between his two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, and the royal authority descended

in both these lines. Procles had a son, called Sous. Sous had a son, called Eurypon. Eurypon's son, Eunomous, who was killed by a knife, in attempting to prevent a quarrel, left his kingdom to his own eldest son, Polydectus. Soon after his father's death, Polydectus died without an heir, leaving his brother, Lycurgus, heir-apparent to the throne. This dignity Lycurgus declined to assume, as soon as he was informed that his brother's widow was likely to become a mother. Plutarch says, that the queen secretly offered to secure the throne for Lycurgus, if he would allow her to share it with him; assuring him that no child of his brother's should stand in their way. Lycurgus feigned a participation in her wicked scheme. He placed persons that he could trust near the queen, to bring the child to him as soon as it was born. He was seated with the magistrates when the new-born prince was carried to him. He placed the infant on the royal seat, and proclaimed him, Charilaus-the people's joy-king of Sparta.

59. The disappointed queen and her family spread a report that Lycurgus had designs on the life of Charilaus. To avoid giving any colour to this report, Lycurgus resolved to retire from Sparta till Charilaus should have an heir to his throne. In his voluntary exile, he travelled through Crete, Egypt, and, it was said, as far as India. In his travels he studied the manners of the people, examined their institutions, and took counsel with their wise men. At Crete, he is reported to have made himself familiar with the laws of Minos, and to have derived much knowledge from Thales, a lyric poet of that island, famed for his political sagacity. In Asia Minor, we are told, he discovered the poems of Homer among the Eolian and Ionian colonists, whose forefathers were celebrated in those poems. From all his observations and studies he devised a plan for the government of Sparta. On his return to

Greece, he repaired to the oracle at Delphi. There he offered the accustomed sacrifice. The Pythia addressed him-"Beloved of the gods, and rather a god than a man." He asked that he might enact good laws. The Pythia replied "Apollo hears thy request: he promises that the constitution thou shalt establish will be the best in world."

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