Thus ended this noble library; and thus began, if it did not begin sooner, the age of barbarity and ignorance.

CHAPTER III.

DIGRESSION TO A SHORT HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF ATHENS, FROM THE TIME OF HER PERSIAN TRIUMPHS, TO THAT OF HER BECOMING SUBJECT TO THE TURKS. SKETCH, DURING THIS LONG INTERVAL, OF HER POLITICAL AND LITERARY STATE; OF HER PHILOSOPHERS; OF

HER GYMNASIA; OF HER GOOD AND BAD FORTUNE, &c. &c. MAN

NERS OF THE PRESENT INHABITANTS. OLIVES AND HONEY.

HAVING mentioned Athens, I hope that celebrated city will justify a digression, and the more so, as that digression will terminate in events which belong to the very age of which we are now writing. But it is expedient to deduce matters from a much earlier period.

When the Athenians had delivered themselves from the tyranny of Pisistratus, and after this had defeated the vast efforts of the Persians, and that against two successive invaders, Darius and Xerxes, they may be considered as at the summit of their national glory. For more than half a century afterwards they maintained, without control, the sovereignty of Greece."

As their taste was naturally good, arts of every kind soon rose among them, and flourished. Valour had given them reputation; reputation gave them an ascendant; and that ascendant produced a security, which left their minds at ease, and gave them leisure to cultivate every thing liberal or elegant."

It was then that Pericles adorned the city with temples, theatres, and other beautiful and public buildings. Phidias, the great sculptor, was employed as his architect, who, when he had erected edifices, adorned them himself, and added statues and basso-relievos, the admiration of every beholder.P It was then that Polygnotus and Myro painted; that Sophocles and Euripides wrote; and, not long after, that they saw the divine Socrates.

For these historical facts, consult the ancient and modern authors of Grecian history.

It was in a similar period of triumph, after a formidable adversary had been crushed, that the Romans began to cultivate a more refined and polished literature. · Post Punica bella quietus, quærere cœpit, Quid Sophocles, et Thespis, et Eschylus utile ferrent. Hor. Ep. ii. 1. ii. 162.

See the note from a Greek manuscript in the Treatise on Music, Painting, &c. p. 25, where the progress of arts and sciences, from their dawn to their meridian, is elegantly and philosophically exhibited.

P See Plutarch's Life of Pericles, p. 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, in the quarto Greek edition of Bryan, vol. i. and Stuart's Antiquities of Athens.

Human affairs are by nature prone to change; and states, as well as individuals, are born to decay. Jealousy and ambition insensibly fomented wars, and success in these wars, as in others, was often various. The military strength of the Athenians was first impaired by the Lacedæmonians; after that, it was again humiliated, under Epaminondas, by the Thebans; and last of all it was wholly crushed by the Macedonian, Philip.

But though their political sovereignty was lost, yet, happily for mankind, their love of literature and arts did not sink along with it.

Just at the close of their golden days of empire flourished Xenophon and Plato, the disciples of Socrates; and from Plato descended that race of philosophers called the Old Academy.

Aristotle, who was Plato's disciple, may be said, not to have invented a new philosophy, but rather to have tempered the sublime and rapturous mysteries of his master with method, order, and a stricter mode of reasoning."

Zeno, who was himself also educated in the principles of Platonism, only differed from Plato in the comparative estimate of things, allowing nothing to be intrinsically good but virtue, nothing intrinsically bad but vice, and considering all other things to be in themselves indifferent.

t

He, too, and Aristotle, accurately cultivated logic, but in different ways; for Aristotle chiefly dwelt upon the simple syllogism; Zeno upon that which is derived out of it, the compound or hypothetic. Both, too, as well as other philosophers, cultivated rhetoric along with logic; holding a knowledge in both to be requisite for those who think of addressing mankind with all the efficacy of persuasion. Zeno elegantly illustrated the force of these two powers by a simile taken from the hand: the close power of logic he compared to the fist, or hand compressed; the diffuse power of rhetoric to the palm, or hand open."

I shall mention but two sects more, the New Academy, and the Epicurean.

a See, as before, the several histories of illius similem eloquentiam esse dicebat. Greece. Cicer. Orator. s. 113.

See Cic. de Fin. 1. v. and Academ. 1. i. s. 5. p. 21. edit. Davisii.

s See Hermes, p. 240.

See Cicer. de Fin. 1. iii. s. 7, 8. 16. The beginning of the Enchiridion of Epictetus, Τῶν ὄντων τὰ μὲν ἐφ' ἡμῖν, κ. τ. λ. Diogen. Laert. in vita Zenon. 1. vii. s. 102.

Zeno quidem ille, a quo disciplina Stoicorum est, manu demonstrare solebat, quid inter has artes [dialecticam scil. et eloquentiam] interesset. Nam, cum compresserat digitos, pugnumque fecerat, dialecticam aiebat ejusmodi esse: cum autem diduxerat, et manum dilataverat, palmæ

Both Peripatetics and Stoics wrote tracts of rhetoric as well as logic. The Rhetoric of Aristotle is perhaps one of the most valuable remains of antiquity, and deservedly worth studying, be it for speculation or practice.

As for the rhetoric of the Stoics, there is extant, among the Latin rhetoricians, published in a thin quarto, by Plantin, at Paris, an. 1599, a tract by Sulpitius Victor, called Institutiones Oratoriæ, wherein he has this expression at the beginning: Zenonis præcepta maxime persecutus. See p. 187; also p. 288, 193, of the said treatise.

The New Academy, so called from the Old Academy, (the name given to the school of Plato,) was founded by Arcesilas, and ably maintained by Carneades. From a mistaken imitation of the great parent of philosophy, Socrates, (particularly as he appears in the Dialogues of Plato,) because Socrates doubted some things, therefore Arcesilas and Carneades doubted all.*

Epicurus drew from another source; Democritus had taught him atoms and a void: by the fortuitous concourse of atoms, he fancied he could form a world; while by a feigned veneration he complimented away his gods, and totally denied their providential care, lest the trouble of it should impair their uninterrupted state of bliss. Virtue he recommended, though not for the sake of virtue, but pleasure; pleasure, according to him, being our chief and sovereign good. It must be confessed, however, that, though his principles were erroneous, and even bad, never was a man more temperate and humane; never was a man more beloved by his friends, or more cordially attached to them in affectionate esteem."

We have already mentioned the alliance between philosophy and rhetoric. This cannot be thought wonderful, if rhetoric be the art by which men are persuaded, and if men cannot be persuaded without a knowledge of human nature: for what, but philosophy, can procure us this knowledge?

It was for this reason the ablest Greek philosophers not only taught, (as we hinted before,) but wrote also treatises upon rhetoric. They had a further inducement, and that was the intrinsic beauty of their language, as it was then spoken among the learned and polite. They would have been ashamed to have delivered philosophy, as it has been too often delivered since, in compositions as clumsy as the common dialect of the mere vulgar.

The same love of elegance which made them attend to their style, made them attend even to the places where their philosophy was taught.

Plato delivered his lectures in a place shaded with groves, on the banks of the river Ilissus; and which, as it once belonged to a person called Academus, was called, after his name, the Academy. Aristotle chose another spot of a similar character, where there were trees and shade; a spot called the Lycæum." Zeno taught in a portico or colonnade, distinguished from other buildings of that sort (of which the Athenians had many) by the name of the Variegated Portico, the walls being decorated with various paintings of Polygnotus and Myro, two capital * Vid. Cic. Academ. 1. i. s. 13. p. 48. tending to establish his amiable character, edit. Dav. Itaque Arcesilas negabat esse however erroneous and blameable his docquicquam, &c. trines.

See Diogen. Laert. 1. x. s. 9, &c. where an ample detail is given of Epicurus, his friends, his last will, and his death; all

2 Vid. Diog. Laert. lib. iii. s. 7. Potter's Arch. Græc. vol. i. p. 40.

a See Potter's Arch. Græc. vol. i. p. 40.

masters of that transcendent period. Epicurus addressed his hearers in those well-known gardens, called, after his own name, the Gardens of Epicurus.

Some of these places gave names to the doctrines which were taught there. Plato's philosophy took its name of Academic from the Academy; that of Zeno was called the Stoic, from a Greek word, signifying a portico.d

The system indeed of Aristotle was not denominated from the place, but was called Peripatetic, from the manner in which he taught; from his walking about at the time when he disserted." The term, Epicurean philosophy, needs no explanation.

Open air, shade, water, and pleasant walks, seem above all things to favour that exercise, the best suited to contemplation, I mean gentle walking without inducing fatigue. The many agreeable walks in and about Oxford, may teach my own countrymen the truth of this assertion, and best explain how Horace lived, while a student at Athens, employed, (as he tells us,)

Inter silvas academi quærere verum.

These places of public institution were called among the Greeks by the name of Gymnasia, in which, whatever that word might have originally meant, were taught all those exercises, and all those arts, which tended to cultivate not only the body but the mind. As man was a being consisting of both, the Greeks could not consider that education as complete, in which both were not regarded, and both properly formed. Hence their Gymnasia, with reference to this double end, were adorned

b Of these two artists, it appears that Myro was paid, and that Polygnotus painted gratis, for which generosity he had the testimony of public honours. Plin. N. Hist. 1. xxxv. cap. 9. s. 35.

We learn from history, that the pictures which adorned this portico were four; two on the back part of it, (open to the colonnade) and a picture at each end, upon the right and left.

We learn also the subjects: on one of the sides, a picture of the Athenian and Lacedæmonian armies at Enoe (an Argive city) facing each other and ready to engage on the back ground, or middle part of the portico, the battle between the Athenians under Theseus, and the Amazons: next to that, on the same middle, the Grecian chiefs, after the taking of Troy, deliberating upon the violence offered by Ajax to Cassandra, Ajax himself being present, together with Cassandra and other captive Trojan women: lastly, on the other side of the portico opposite to the first, the triumphant victory at Marathon, the Barbarians pushed into the morass, or demolished, while they endeavoured to escape

to their ships; Miltiades and the Greek leaders being to be known by their portraits.

As the portico was large, and the pictures were only four, these we may suppose must have been large likewise, for it is probable they occupied the whole space. Vid. Pausan. Attic. lib. i. c. 15. p. 36. edit. Lips. 1696.

From the painting of this portico to the time of Honorius, when it was defaced, stripped, and its pictures destroyed, (Synes. Epist. 135.) was an interval of about eight hundred years.

It may merit inquiry among the curious, upon what sort of surface, and with what sort of colours, pictures were painted, that could endure so long.

See the note, next after the following. « Στοὰ, Στωικοί.

e Qui erant cum Aristotele, Peripatetici dicti sunt, quia disputabant inambulantes in Lyceo; illi autem, qui Platonis instituto in academia, quod est alterum gymnasium, cœtus erant et sermones habere soliti, e loci vocabulo nomen habuerunt. Cic. Academ. 1. i. c. 4. p. 21. edit. Davis.

with two statues, those of Mercury and of Hercules; the corporeal accomplishments being patronised (as they supposed) by the god of strength, the mental accomplishments by the god of ingenuity.f

It is to be feared, that many places, now called academies, scarce deserve the name upon this extensive plan, if the professors teach no more than how to dance, fence, and ride upon horses.

It was for the cultivation of every liberal accomplishment that Athens was celebrated (as we have said) during many centuries, long after her political influence was lost and at an end.

When Alexander the Great died, many tyrants, like many hydras, immediately sprung up. Athens then, though she still maintained the form of her ancient government, was perpetually checked and humiliated by their insolence. Antipater destroyed her orators, and she was sacked by Demetrius. At length she became subject to the all-powerful Romans, and found the cruel Sylla her severest enemy.

His face (which perhaps indicated his manners) was of a purple red, intermixed with white. This circumstance could not escape the witty Athenians: they described him in a verse, and ridiculously said,

Sylla's face is a mulberry, sprinkled with meal.h The devastations and carnage which he caused soon after, gave them too much reason to repent their sarcasm. The civil war between Cæsar and Pompey soon followed, and their natural love of liberty made them side with Pompey. Here again they were unfortunate, for Cæsar conquered. Cæsar did not treat them like Sylla. With that clemency, which made so amiable a part of his character, he dismissed them by a fine allusion to their illustrious ancestors, saying, that he spared the living for the sake of the dead.i

But

Another storm followed soon after this, the wars of Brutus and Cassius with Augustus and Antony. Their partiality for liberty did not here forsake them: they took part in the contest with the two patriot Romans, and erected their statues near their own ancient deliverers, Harmodius and Aristogiton, who had slain Hipparchus. But they were still unhappy, for their enemies triumphed.

f Vid. Athen. Deipnos. 1. xiii. p. 561. edit. Lugduni, 1657, fol. Sometimes the two gods were made into one statue. Such compound statues were called épμépakλal. See Cic. ad Atticum, 1. i. epist. 10.

See the writers (ancient and modern) of Grecian history.

The original verse is a Trochaïc : Συκάμινον ἐσθ ̓ ὁ Σύλλασ, ἀλφίτῳ πεπασμένον.

Plutarch. in vit. Syllæ, vol. iii. p. 44.

edit. Bryan, quarto.

For his devastations of the groves in the Academy and Lyceum, his demolition of their fine buildings, and, above all, his cruel massacre of the inhabitants, when he took the city, see pages 61, 63, 64, 65, of the same work, in the same edition.

i Vid. Meursium de Fortuna Athenarum, in Gronov. Thesaur. Antiquitat. Græcar. vol. v. p. 1745, 1746.