Greece are dead. The oracles are dumb. The muses have vanished: ""Tis Greece ;-but living Greece no more." There may be some allowance due to classical scholars, to poets, and to the friends of human liberty, when they pour forth their mournful strains over the desolations of Greece. But there is a more healthy mode of regarding those desolations. We may look at Greece with larger views: we may judge of her calamities as well as of her glory, in the light of higher principles. The principles we mean, are those of Divine Providence. 701. Whatever mysteries there may be to us in the Providence which rules over all things, we should remember that our powers of comprehension are limited; that we cannot see very far; that spaces of time which appear to us so long as to overwhelm our thought, are but " as yesterday" to the Eternal Ruler; and that until we see the end," we can judge but feebly of the events by which that end shall have been accomplished. 702. Let us reflect on the history of Greece, as forming one part, it may be a very small and insignificant part, of the government of God in this world. Taking such a view of the events which we have been surveying, what do we behold? Here is a country singularly formed. It is visited by wanderers. They settle in its valleys, by its streams, along its gulfs. They fight. One party drives another to seek a distant home. Around their many centres they form independent states. These states differ from each other, according to the character of individuals, the circumstances of their association, and the legends of their traditions. By their fears and jealousies these states are trained to courage and the arts of war. The situation of some of them prompts the undertakings of piracy and of trade. From among them settlements are planted in distant places of the east and of the west. The colonies enrich, and enlighten, the parent states. By means of their colonies and of their connexions with the subjects of the Persian monarchy, they provoke the vengeance and ambition of the great king of Asia. They drive the eastern armament from their coasts. Feeling their strength, and fired by the memory of their own deeds, they become a splendid as well as a powerful people. Their language is cultivated to the highest perfection. Their arts displayed the profoundest science, and the most exquisite taste. They carry speculative philosophy as far as seems possible to the human intellect. They become feeble through disunion, and through venality and luxury. They are gradually bowed under the authority of the Macedonian kings;—they become first the allies, then the subjects, of the Roman empire. Following the vicissitudes of that empire, they fall beneath the oppression of the Turks. After a long course of degradation and suffering, they regain their independence, and take their place, very subordinate, among the nations of modern Europe. 703. The unseen hand of Providence may be traced in all this. 704. It was from the power of God, exhibited in the laws of nature which are His laws, that Greece received her form. He laid the foundations of her mountains, and guided the courses of her streams.-Her climate, her shores, her soil, her mines, her fruits, were produced by HIM; SO that whatever was the degree in which the history of the Greeks was influenced by these outward causes, it is to be ascribed to the work of God. 705. It was from the same power that the Greeks received their own physical characteristics of mind or body. Another kind of men, in the same outward condition, would have worked out a widely different history. 706. The connexions of the men of one part of Greece with the men of another part of Greece, and of the men of Greece at large with those of other countries, were ordered by the arrangements of the same wise and Almighty Providence. 707. The success of the Greeks in their undertakings, though not miraculous, like those of the Hebrews in some parts of their history, was secured to them by the guidance of the providence of God. This will peculiarly strike us when we reflect on the effect produced, not only by the skill and courage of the Greeks themselves, but by the mistakes of their enemies, and especially by circumstances which could be no more foreseen by one party than avoided by the other. 708. The same kind of observation applies to the failures of the Greeks. Their defeats by one another-the circumstances that laid them open to the designs of Philip -the possession of the Thracian mines, which gave the Macedonian the command of armies and of orators—the rare character and vast exploits of Alexander—the situation in which Greece, as well as other countries, was placed by the death of the conqueror—the rising power of Rome-the causes which wrought the ruin of the eastern empire, and placed Greece in the hands of the Turks-all these were events which appear confined and unconnected; but, viewed in the light of Providence, it is not difficult to see their relation to one another, and to the events in which they ended. 709. The results which have flowed from the existence and the actions of the Greeks, on some of which we have been dwelling, were most manifestly brought about by the wisdom of God, for the accomplishment of His purposes. If, among these purposes, we reckon the enlargement of our minds, and of the minds of all by whom their interesting career is seriously studied, we shall see a reason, beyond the gratification of a natural curiosity, why we should pursue this object calmly, conscientiously, steadily, and with a humble yet firm determination, to consecrate our minds, enriched with knowledge, and adorned with every Christian virtue, to the service of our Creator! Thus may the reading of the History of Greece help us to perform our own part in the history of our country and of the world; and, at the same time, we may be preparing for a place in that “ which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is GOD." city THE END. INDEX. Academy, the, 130. Accaroli, duke of Naples, 411. Achæans, settlement of, 30; driven from Achaia described, 18; democracy estab- lished, 81; conquered by the Thebans, Acharnæ ravaged by the Spartans, 145. Ada, princess, 279, et seq. Admetus, court of, 128. Adrian, his regard for Greece, 397. Ægina, island of, 21; colony established in, 57; hostility with Athens, submis- Æginetans, the, 133; urge the Spartans Ægisthus an usurper, 39; his death, 55. Emilius Paulus, 367, et seq. Æolians, settlement of, 30; migration of, Æropus usurps the throne of Persia; his Æschines, 247, 251; defence of Athens, Ætolia described, 11. Ætolians, aggressions of, 349, et seq. Agesilaus, exploits of, 201, et seq.; Alaric, leader of the Goths, 403. Alexander, son of Amyntas II., death of, Alexander, brother of the Lyncestians, plot of, against the life of Alexander Alinda, the city of, 279, et seq. 67. Amphictyonic Council, the, 235; its pro- Amphictyonic League, the, 73; its object, | Argolis described, 17; invasion of, 349. 74; triumph at Crissa, 78. Amphictyons, the, 103. Amphipolis, siege of, 160; capture of, 242. Amphissians, the conduct and proceed- Amyntas, king of Macedon, 213. Amyntas, brother to Philip, 266; death banishment from Anaxagoras, 135; Andros, siege of, 112; Athenian colony Antalcidas, the peace of, 210, et seq. Antigonus, king of Macedon, proceedings Antiochus of Syria, proceedings of, 359, Antiphilus, victory of, in Thessaly, 337. Apollonius, philosopher, 396. Aratus, proceedings of, and death, 345, et seq. Arbela, battle of, 303, et seq. Arcesilaus, character of, etc., 616, et seq. Archelaus, commander of the navy of Archias, an Italian Greek player, 337. Areopagites, the, 177. Argæus, the pretender, his defeat, 241. Argonautic expedition, 36. Argos, independent commonwealth Ariadne, daughter of Minos, 34. Aristippus, 197; founder of the Cyrenian Aristogeiton, conspiracy; arrested and Aristomenes heads the Messenian revolt, Aristotle, account of, 620, et seq. Asia, Lesser, conquest of, 92; early suc- |