"While the army of Xerxes was recommencing their march from Thermopylæ, fome Arcadians were tempted by the fame of the great king's riches and liberality, to offer their fervices to him. Herodotus feems to relate their story, not more for the purposes of eulogy, than of admonition to his country. They were introduced, he fays, to the prefence of Xerxes, and being afked what was doing in Greece, they answered with great fimplicity, that it was the feafon of the Olympian games, and that confequently, the Greeks were amufing themselves with feeing athletic exercifes, and horferaces. Being again asked what was the reward of the conquerors in thofe games, they answered, an olive garland. Upon which, Tritantechmes, a prince of the blood-royal of Perfia, exclaimedO Mardonius, what a people have you brought us to fight againft, who contend among themfelvesnot for riches, but for virtue!" • Mitford's Greece, vol. i. p. 394. CHAPTER CHAPTER VI. The Hiftory of Greece continued. Philofophy, Literature, and Arts. THE fame spirit of competition which roused the Grecian cities to contend for victory and renown, excited them to a rivalry of talents. As foon as their apprehenfions of danger from the inroads of barbarians were removed, they began to cultivate the arts of elegance; and the defeat of the Perfian power, and the death of Alexander the Great, containing an intermediate space of 180 years, difplayed the genius of Greece fhining with its brightest fplendour. The name of the painter and the fculptor was celebrated in festivals; their works were exhibited at the public games, and they were reputed to confer, by every fpecimen of their art, diftinguished honour upon their country. monuments of their talents reflected luftre upon their character, and gave it the higheft refpectability; as it was their noble province to express the likeness of heroes, and to embody the perfections The of the gods. To be publicly distinguished with higher honours than his competitors, was the great object of the artift, and his unremitting and ardent efforts to excel them, gave to his works that grace, beauty, and spirit, that exquifite expreffion of paffions, and appropriate dignity of character, which mark the Venus de Medici, the Apollo Belvidere, and the Laocoon. And if the opinion of fome modern connoiffeurs be well founded, that these ftatues were the productions of later artifts, whaṭ muft we conclude the originals of fuch mafterly copies to have been? Certainly fuch as to raise our ideas to the highest pitch of attainable perfection. The arts called forth by the moft lively images the great events and characters of hiftory. The public edifices of Athens were adorned with the ftatues of warriors, magiftrates, legiflators, philofophers, and orators. In one place ftood Miltiades, frowning deftruction on Perfia; in another, the placid Socrates, the thoughtful Solon, or the empaffioned Demofthenes. Every ftreet prefented an Athenian with fome ftriking image of patriotism, For the causes of the fuperiority of the Greek artists, fee Winkelmann's L'Art d'Antiquité, an elegant and pleasing work, tom. ii. p. i, &c. A beautiful chapter on the Origin, Progrefs, and Decline of Arts in Greece, may be found in tom. i. p. 37. tom. ii. c. i. For a defcription of the Venus de Medici, fee Spence's Polymetis, p. 66. Winklemann, tom. ii. p. 75. the Apollo Belvidere, Spence, p. 83. Winklemanu, tom. iii. p. 195-the Laocoon, tom. i. p. 68. wisdom, wifdom, or valour. Wherever he turned his eyes, he faw fome monument raifed to perpetuate the renown of his ancestors; and the tribute of the arts, fo liberally paid to all perfons of genius, courage, and virtue, gave the keeneft excitement to the difplay of every species of excellence. Ancient fculpture is diftinguifhed by the high and the fine ftyles. The works of Phidias, Polycletus, and Myron were celebrated for the high ftyle, as their principal object was to combine beauty with fublimity. Their figures difcovered a certain hardnefs of execution, when compared with the flowing contour, and elegant forms of their fucceffors. A fpecimen of this high ftyle is the Pallas of the Villa Albani, and the Niobe and her daughters of the Villa de Medici. The fine ftyle is diftinguished by grace. It commenced with Praxiteles, and was brought to perfection by Lyfippus and Apelles, in the reign of Alexander the Great. Of this fpecies are the Zephyr, expreffive of tranquil joy, in the act of gently waving his wings: the Leucothoe of the Capitol, and the heads upon the medals of the ifle of Naxos. Other examples are, a Mufe larger than life, in the Barberini Palace, and another Mufe in the Pope's Gardens on the Quirinal Hills. Thus is difplayed to our view a prospect most delightful to every cultivated mind; for we behold Greece in her moft flourishing ftate, adorned by Winklemann, tom. ii. p. 219. literature, literature, arts, and fciences. The country was congenial with the difpofition of its inhabitants, and their eyes were familiarifed to rapid ftreams, craggy mountains, venerable forefts, and fertile vales. Romantic objects, prefented to them on all fides, waked the enthusiasm of the mind, and charmed the imagination. The Greeks, indeed, exhibited a moft extraordinary fcene; for at a period, when all furrounding nations were obfcured by intellectual darkness, and were barbarous and unpolished, they unfolded the powers of tranfcendent genius. Their active minds, neither enervated by the luxuries of refinement, nor diftracted by a multiplicity of objects, were exerted with ardour, and followed up many inventions with perfeverance and complete fuccefs. To other countries they were doubtlefs indebted for fome rudiments of art, fcience, and philofophy; but it was their peculiar glory to fhape them into elegance, and methodise them into fyftem. Egypt might present to them the figure of a fphynx, or the vast mass of a pyramid; but furely affiftance like this can little abate our admiration of artists, who, from fuch rude fpecimens of architecture and fculpture, could proceed to form the temple of Minerva and the Odeum; and fuch ftatues as a Jupiter, a Venus, and an Apollo. HOMER, the great Father of Epic fong, prefented in his incomparable works the moft ftriking pictures of ancient manners, the niceft difcriminations of character, and the moft beautiful prof pects |