the early Greeks. The military triumph, the fu- | for things which he does not understand, is to us neral procession, the nuptial ceremony, and the often highly amusing. As an instance of this sort convivial banquet, were alike incomplete, without we may refer to his singular explanation of the the accompanying bard and the melting tones of cause of the overflowing of the Nile. the lyre. Pherecydes, who wrote about the middle of the sixth century before the christian era, is usually considered as the first prose writer, though, as might be expected, there are several other names that contest this honor with his. He was followed by a class of prose writers down to the period of the Persian wars, but nearly all of whose works have been lost. From the accounts we have received of them, they seem hardly able to claim the rank of historical compositions, as they were devoted mostly to mythological subjects. The true historical era did not arise until a comparatively late day. In fact, Herodotus is the first who can lay claim to the title of historian, and he did not write until after the Persian invasion. He has been strikingly called the father of history, and his work abounds in all those beauties and defects that might naturally be looked for from the circumstances under which it was produced. He tells his story in a simple and unaffected narrative, that must ever possess a powerful charm from its very simplicity. His passion for the strange and marvellous never permits him to pause and examine the authority, upon which any of the wonderful events that he relates are founded. Like the Moor, he is fond of enlightening his readers with particular Herodotus was succeeded in the great field of When, however, men began to record their history by Thucydides. To point out all the disthoughts, not so much for the gratification of the tinguishing qualities of this eminent writer would public taste as to convey instruction and informa- require more time and space than we now have to tion, they naturally sought to express themselves in spare. We must content ourselves with only a the language of their ordinary intercourse. It is few general remarks. The period over which his thus, that, in the history of every people of bril-narrative extends is, perhaps, the most important liant genius, prose composition will be of later one in the history of Greece-that of the Peloponorigin than poetry. nesian war. The style in which his thoughts are embodied is such as might be expected from the stern character of his mind. Close, compact, and often obscure, the language seems to labor under the weight of the thought which it bears. We never find a superfluous word, nor a trivial remark. His mind seems to be absorbed in his great design, and with the full consciousness of his power, it is without affectation he declares that he gives his production to the world as an everlasting possession † He not only narrated the events of the great contest of which he was an eye witness and a participator, with a conciseness and an accuracy truly astonishing, but he scanned with the eye of a statesman and a philosopher all the parts of the great drama that was passing before him, pointed out its origin, marked its latent springs of action, and traced out its remote consequences. The history of the Peloponnesian war is a great mine, from which the statesman may continue to draw, in all ages, lessons fraught with deep political wisdom. As one instance out of a multitude of the profound and searching character of his mind when turned to the investigation of any important question, we may refer to his valuable digression on the origin, progress, and terrible effects of faction in the Grecian states. There is, of course, always one fact to be kept constantly in view when examining the character and value of the general remarks of this writer upon points of political philosophy. To him Greece was the whole world-with all the forms and systems existing there, he was intimately acAnd it is enough for him that such stories are com- quainted, and it was the principles upon which these monly reported and generally believed. He does were founded, that he had made the study of his not, however, directly pledge his own authority for life. We must not look then for all that generalsuch statements, but gives them to us as he finds ity of application in his remarks, that is found in them. There are some points, indeed, upon which the productions of the writers of the present day on his authority is probably the best we have. When the science of government. The civilized world he speaks of the situations of towns and rivers, is now in a condition far different from any that and describes the general features of a country, has ever before existed, and the historian of the and the manners and customs of its inhabitants, we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of his statements without positive evidence to the contrary for in almost all such cases he speaks from direct and personal observation, having himself visited and inspected them. His general remarks upon abstract principles are of but little value, and the manner in which he sometimes attempts to account accounts of "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads present day stands upon a lofty eminence, from which he can survey at once the workings of all systems of government. Thus guided by the additional light and experience of two and twenty * Lib. II, c. 23-28. centuries, it were strange indeed if he could not exerted upon every department of nature. And point out more successfully the general tendency from speculations of the same sort, some of his folof given principles, and deduce more certainly their lowers assumed air, and others fire, as the great remote consequences, than one whose political ho- original principle. rizon was bounded, to all practical purposes, by the transactions of a single nation. The next and last of the historians, to whom we shall direct our attention, is Xenophon. His character was altogether of a different stamp from that of the great author of whom we have just been speaking. It is unnecessary to dwell at any length Thales was succeeded by a line of disciples, following, with some variations, the path of their master, but whose names it is unnecessary to mention until we arrive at that of Anaxagoras, the preceptor of Pericles and the immediate master of Socrates. The doctrines taught by the early philosophers upon the character of his historical writings. They of this school, as, indeed, of all of them, are, acare beautiful and valuable narratives, but contain cording to our modern notions, rather vague and none of that deep and profound political wisdom indefinite. It seems, however, that the train of that so highly distinguish the great work of Thu- their speculations led them to the admission of cydides. His principal charm consists in that overruling intelligences. sweet and graceful style, in that beautiful simplicity and purity, that procured for him the name of the Attic bee. rest. Thales, indeed, said that the whole universe was full of Gods, and his whole system may be considered as rather pantheistical. Anaxagoras differed in many important points from the doctrines that had been held by the school to which he belonged. In this slight sketch of the progress of Greek literature, we have thought it necessary to follow only the main current and omit any notice of the We might, perhaps, have touched very prop- His mind was of a higher order and his specuerly upon another class of composition entirely lations belonged to a more refined and elevated distinct from either of those we have referred to, class. He taught that there was a supreme intelbut it would have drawn out these remarks to too ligence who ruled the universe with absolute sway. great a length. We mean the Attic comedy and The name of his great disciple and successor, Socsatirical drama. Nearly all, however, of the works rates, marks an era in the history of Philosophy, belonging to this class, and it was a very extensive but we cannot here enter into any lengthened inone, have been lost, except those of Aristophanes. vestigation of the peculiar views of that wonderful The rise and progress of the Greek philosophy man is also another vast and important field, tempting us by its great interest to enter upon its borders, but forbidding, by its extent, anything more than a cursory notice. Philosophy, in the general and indefinite sense of the term, may be said to have had an existence amongst the Greeks from the earliest dawn of their poetic legends. Its rise, however, is usually placed in the sixth century before the christian era, as it then first began to be cultivated by a separate class of men. How much of their philosophy, or whether any of it was borrowed from other nations, is doubtful. It is probable, indeed, that they may have obtained some of their earlier theories from the Egyptians and Phoenicians, but it certainly could not seem surprising that a people of so active and imaginative a temperament, surrounded by so many bold and striking natural objects, should begin of themselves to speculate upon the origin and cause of all things. "From whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams that watered all the schools." He seems not to have laid so much stress upon the refined speculations as upon the moral and practical parts of the system, and, according to Cicero, he was the first to call philosophy from the heavens and introduce her among the habitations of men. He exhibited in the purity of his life, and in the calm and peaceful serenity of his death, the fruits of the principles which he taught. Plato was his immediate disciple and successor, as Aristotle was Plato's. They continued to unfold and explain the principles of their great master in the public groves of the Academy, as well as in elaborate and highly finished treatises, the most of which remain to the present day. The former delighted more to revel in the pure and lofty regions of imagination, and sometimes lost himself in the mazes of his own refined and subtile specuThe oldest school of Greek Philosophy was the lations. The latter, with far more judgment and Ionic, founded by Thales of Miletus. He at- far more success, devoted his gigantic powers to tempted to go back to a primeval state and from the elucidation and unfolding of subjects of much thence deduce in succession the gradual progress more use to his fellow men than metaphysical aband development of the later order of nature. He stractions. supposed that water or some liquid element was The next school that we shall notice is the Elethe origin of everything in the physical world, be-atic, so called from the place at which its doctrines ing led, no doubt, to this conclusion by observing were first taught. It was founded some time after the wide-spread influence which this substance the Ionic by the philosopher Xenophanes. The doctrines of this school are nearly as vague and obscure as those of the one we have just been noticing. He began in his speculations where Thales ended--with the admission of the existence of a Supreme Being, and his system, so far as we can judge from a scanty outline, is not very different It was about sixty or seventy years after the from pure Deism. At all events he seems to have Trojan war, that the Dorians moving from the possessed more elevated views of the character North in great numbers, broke into Peloponnesus, and attributes of the Deity than any philosopher of subdued a large portion of the country and permahis age. Aristotle describes, with singular force nently established themselves in several parts. The and simplicity, the leading tenet of this system in principal State which they founded was that of one short sentence, tis ror 'oor 'oopavon amoxiyas ra | Sparta, in Laconia, which continued ever after to a cival phoi Tov Beov, he gazed upon the whole heaven stand at the head of the Dorian confederacy. Of and said that the one being was the Deity. He the history of this important race after their estabwas followed by Parmenides and the elder Zeno, lishment in Peloponnesus for a considerable period, who held the same opinions concerning the Divine but very little is known, nor would it, if known, Being, and the immutability of all things. In some be of any importance in our present design, until of their speculations upon the nature and changes the rise of the Spartan power. And this was, until of matter, they seem to have bordered pretty nearly very lately, universally attributed to the legislation upon some points of Berkeley's theory. of the great lawgiver, Lycurgus. rier of Thessaly, and overran nearly all the northern part of Greece. The Boeotians and Eolians were expelled in great numbers, and the agitation which these events produced, probably gave rise to the Dorian migration. The third and last school we shall mention is His claims to this honor, however, have been the Italic, founded about the same time with the warmly contested by some late writers, who even Eleatic, or perhaps a few years sooner, by Pythago so far as to question the existence of any such goras. The leading feature in the doctrines of person. And their views, though extreme, are this philosopher is very generally known--that of perhaps much nearer the truth than the common the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. story that had been so long in vogue. There is It is very nearly allied in many points to the Hin- probably not sufficient grounds for questioning the doo system of emanation and absorption. He was existence of such a lawgiver, but undoubtedly many devoted to mathematical pursuits, and had some of the laws and regulations that are said to have curious notions about the properties of abstract been originated by him, had existed in Sparta long numbers, by some mystical combination of which before.* the universe was formed. Though we presume he never pointed out very accurately the precise manner in which this singular process took place. This meagre, and we fear not very satisfactory, sketch of the early schools of Greek philosophy, must close this part of the subject. There were, indeed, other schools of great celebrity, as the Stoic, the Academic, and the Peripatetic, but they belong to the history of a later period than the one we are treating of. In the rapid glance we have thus cast at the rise and progress of poetic and historical literature, and of the early schools of philosophy amongst the ancient Greeks, we have endeavored to present a correct outline of each branch of the subject with out attempting to observe any chronological order. We will now, however. return to the point at which we dropped the political history, and finish what remains to be said upon that part of the subject as briefly as possible. The agency which he really had in moulding those peculiar institutions that distinguished Sparta from the rest of Greece and the rest of the world, for so many centuries, is very uncertain. One point, however, seems well established-that his name marks a new era in the history of his country, from which it dates the rise of its prosperity and power. But with all their boasted excellence, we confess that we have no partiality either for the Spartan government, or the Spartan character. The one seems to have been as intermeddling and tyrannical, as the other was selfish and dishonorable. Their form of government, as of all the Greek States at first, was a monarchy; but the powers of the monarchs were absorbed in the preponderance of the nobles, and their magistrates, the ephors. We speak of the Spartan nobles as referring to the whole body of the Spartan people proper, not including any portion of the subject Laconians and It will be remembered that in speaking of the Helots. For it was in fact only a body of nobility, different situations in which the four leading tribes and that the most exclusive and oppressive the of the Greek nation were originally located, the world ever saw--not excepting even the Venetian Dorians were mentioned as residing in the north- Senate. The great bulk of the people, who inhabern part of Greece. The movement that led to ited the country and tilled the soil, answer very their change of residence took its rise in the ex- nearly in their political character to the Russian treme western part of the country; from which serfs. And the proportion which this class bore the Thessalians, issuing in great numbers, cross ed the mountains that now form the western bar- * Thirl., vol. i, c. viii, p. 125. VoL. XIV-18 to its rulers may be inferred from the fact, that in their military enterprises, frequently as many as seven helots attended each Spartan soldier, thus constituting an army something like those of the middle ages. tion of the human mind, and deprive it of every feeling and affection that renders our nature amiable and lovely. bility to the government, but fostered such feelings as these. We own, that to us the wildest outbreak of the stormy democracy of Athens is far less revolting than this calm of despotism--despotism not of one, but of a hundred-despotism not of an individual, but of a class. The child was torn from its parents at a tender age and consigned to a stern and cruel master to There was one peculiarity in the Spartan mon- be trained up for the State--his whole life was archy that deserves to be noticed, at least, for its spent in the drudgery and hardship of military desposingularity. They had throughout their whole tism, and all the virtue he was required or expected national existence two separate and distinct royal to possess, was the lowest form of brute courage. families, each furnishing a monarch--so that there He displayed indeed upon the battle-field an obsti were always two kings on the throne. It would nacy and a fortitude that excites our astonishment, be natural to expect that confusion would arise sometimes our admiration, but when he fell cov from such a system, and the result shows that they ered with wounds for his country's glory, that unoften experienced its evils and inconvenient effects. feeling country suffered no tear to be shed for his It has been observed, that the form of govern- fate--his mother, his wife, and his children were ment originally established in the several Greek taught to mourn, only when he had not madly and States was, in almost every instance, a monarchy--| rashly sought a bloody grave. Let such as can, confined to one royal line, but requiring an elec-admire laws and institutions that gave indeed a station from the members of the ruling class, to fill the throne when left vacant. The fate of these monarchies was also pretty generally the same, at least in a large number of the States. The foundations of the throne were gradually undermined, and its power usurped, by a small and wealthy class of land owners, who formed for a while a self-constituted ruling body. This oligarchical form usually lasted, until blinded by passion and power, its tyranny became too odious to be endured, and the commonalty rose and hurled from their seats the hated aristocracy. Then succeeded a stormy democracy, swayed and guided by a class of designing demagogues, whose interest it was always to keep the people in a tumult, that their own insidious arts might not be discerned. Such a state of affairs as this afforded a favorable opportunity for some master hand to seize the helm and guide the vessel of State--still impelled onward by the blasts of popular commotion, but controlled and directed in all its movements by one commanding genius. And when he, who thus gained the ascendancy, united to his great abilities virtue and patriotism, the condition of the commonwealth was perhaps really happier and more prosperous than at any other time. Such, in some degree, was Pisistratus, and such, above all others, was Pericles--a name inseparably connected with the brightest age of Athenian genius. Such revolutions as these never occurred in the unchanging State of Sparta, and such names as these never brightened the dull and monotonous annals of her relentless tyranny. Such was Sparta at the beginning, and such she continued throughout the long period of her political existence. We search in vain through the annals of this long period for any of those bright names that are endeared to us by all the associations of Grecian art and Grecian genius. We find indeed an occasional instance of noble and exalted heroism-and heaven forbid that we should fail to render a just tribute to the memory of Leonidas. But his glory belongs to himself and not to his country-her courage was generally as selfish as it was wonderful. She managed to be a day too late for Marathon, and fought at Salamis only by compulsion. The rise of Athens was much later than that of Sparta. Situated in a barren and rocky country, and apparently denied almost every physical advantage, she was left to rely alone on the restless energy and indomitable spirit of her gifted sons. Her early history is comparatively devoid of interest, if any thing connected with the magic name of Athens can be. About two hundred and fifty years after the period assigned to the legislation of Lycurgus, we find a code of laws prepared by Draco for the government of Attica. Of the substance of these laws, or the changes affected by him in the conIt is a curious problem, and one which we do stitution, not very much is known, except that the not here pretend to solve, by what means the in- penal part of his code was unusually severe. It stitutions attributed to Lycurgus maintained their was the first system of laws in Greece, that had ascendancy so long over the minds of the people. been committed to writing, and was aptly said to Congenial to their feelings, they surely never were. have been written in blood instead of ink. This Laws and institutions such as those that warred severity accorded not with the feelings of the peoagainst every feeling of the human heart, might stifle ple, and was probably one cause that led to their and suppress, but could never eradicate them, might speedy overthrow. Soon after this, the great lawalter, but could never change the whole constitu- giver Solon appears on the stage. Entrusted with full powers by his countrymen, he framed a code | time to draw them to a close, though we must leave of laws admirably adapted to the genius of the the chequered history of this wonderful people just people. He began by passing an act of relief to at its most interesting point. the persons of debtors who had been reduced into slavery by their creditors under the laws of Draco. He then divided the citizens into four classes, and apportioned the burden of supporting the State, according to the pecuniary ability of the different classes, and according to the participation which they had in the management of the government. He established also a legislative body, styled the council of four hundred, to deliberate on all public affairs, and remodeled the judiciary body known as the Areopagus. A system of measures that, tried even by the acknowledged principles of our own free government, will be found to afford many of the surest safeguards to the liberties of the people, and compared with the other systems of that age, will command our most profound admiration. About this time the name of Pisistratus begins to catch our attention. An individual destined to play a conspicuous part in the history of his country. Though much younger, he was the cotemporary of Solon, and connected with him also by ties of relationship. His genius was bold and aspiring, and his abilities great. His mind was of that commanding nature so well calculated to take the lead in a popular government like that of Athens. Solon saw the danger to the free constitution from the daring ambition of his kinsman, and attempted to avert it, but failed, perhaps fortunately. We cannot approve the means by which Pisistratus made himself master of the State, but it is highly probable that it was a fortunate event for the eity. It was a struggle between several violent factions for the mastery, and he certainly made a far better use of his power than either of the others would have done. He was twice expelled and as often reinstated himself by the unconquerable energy of his character. He lent the whole force of his genius to the improvement and development of all the arts, adorned the city with many imperishable monuments, and above all, he made the collection of all the Homeric poems we now have. We have now reached the dawn of a great era in the history of Greece, and in the history of the world-the era of the Persian invasion-the era from which Europe dates her intellectual superiority. We should like to enter upon the history of this stirring age-to watch the issue of the great contest that is about to take place between a small band of freemen and the "victim hordes" of Asia. We should like to follow the glorious and dazzling career upon which Athens is about to enter to sketch the character of some of those master-spirits that had laid upon them the destinies of nations, and were not found wanting in the hour of trial; but the length to which these desultory remarks have already extended, warns us that it is DEATH OF CARDINAL MAZARIN. BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. "Two months," the question'd healer said, That dark Italian face, Heart-struck was he, whom France obey'd, And with the clank of fetters made Rich music for his ear. Proud Ann of Austria lowest bent Withstood his stern control, Who rul'd in court, and bower, Before him pass'd his portion'd line, Mancini's haughty race, Jewels and coronets they wore, With cold and thankless grace; Had he his conscience griev'd? Beside him strode a spectral form, Still whispering in his ear, That none beside might hear; From earth and ocean wrung, "Two months! two months!" these frightful words Where sparkled every joy,- They silenc'd song and tale, That turn'd Belshazzar pale. Once in his velvet chair he dream'd, |