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men to check the advances, and revenge the aggreffions, of Philip of Macedon, who was both a crafty and powerful enemy, his orations equally proved their degenerate manners, and his own fublime genius. And what must have been the commanding power of his delivery, to which even Æfchynes, his great and able rival, according to his own candid acknowledgment, could not do juftice! The energy of his manner, the modulation of his voice, and the dignity of his action, correfponded with the force and the compafs of his reafoning, and combined to form the orator, to whom is defervedly affigned the foremoft place in the records. of eloquence.

To the Greeks we owe the improvement, if not the invention of grammar, logic, criticifm, metaphyfics, mufic, geometry, medicine, and aftronomy; and many of the terms peculiar to each of thefe arts and sciences, which are adopted in modern languages, clearly point out the country from which they are derived. The refined invention of architects embellished their cities with thofe regular, well-proportioned, and elegant buildings, which difplayed the various forms of the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian orders. Athens was filled with temples; theatres, porticos, and veftibules, of matchlefs fymmetry and grandeur; and the pencils of Zeuxis, Parrhafius, and Polygnotus; and the chifels of Alcamenes, Phideas, and Polycletus, decorated them with the most beautiful pictures, bufts, and ftatues. Thefe artifts ani

mated

mated the Parian marble, and gave fpirit and paffion to the glowing canvafs. The pagan religion was peculiarly favourable to their exertions, and the facrifices, affemblies, and proceffions, were equally well adapted to painting and fculpture, The continual view of the human figure in the baths, and at the public games, familiarifed them to the contemplation of forms the moft elegant, and attitudes the moft graceful. They copied the faireft appearances of nature, and by combining the scattered beauties of various perfons in one fubject, gave no very inadequate reprefentation of that ideal excellence, which filled their refined imaginations. Theirs likewife was that exquifite judgment, the companion of genius, which instantly felecting from art or nature whatever was excellent, gave to their works an irrefiftible charm. Such indeed was the general prevalence of tafte, that even the common people of Athens, by constantly furveying the fineft fpecimens of painting and fculpture, and hearing the moft finished compofitions recited in the theatres, and public affemblies, became qualified to appreciate, with correctnefs, the various productions of their country

men.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER VII.

The Subject continued.

THE preceding digreffion can require no apology, as the Philofophy, the Literature, and the Arts of the Greeks in their meridian glory are the fubjects of it. We return to the account of their hiftory by noticing the particulars of the Peloponnefian war. Its immediate caufe was the part which the Athenians took in the quarrel between the people of Corcyra and the Corinthians, who had founded the colony there. The Corinthians complained of this interference, not only as a breach of the treaty then fubfifting between Athens and Sparta, but as the infringement of a general rule, that no foreign power ought to interfere between a colony and its mother country. The Spartans were apprehenfive that the Athenians, who had made encroachments not only upon the Corinthians but the Megareans, would extend their fovereignty over all Peloponnefus.

Deputies from Athens to the public affembly at Sparta, endeavoured to palliate, but could not justify, the conduct of their countrymen. Pericles, who at that time ruled Athens with fupreme fway, imputed infidious defigns to Sparta, and exhorted the Athenians to maintain their preeminence over the ftates of Grecce, a preeminence

which they merited for having ftood foremoft in the ranks of danger, when Greece was threatened with the yoke of Perfia. He drew a flattering picture of their fuperior refources, contrafted the riches of Athens with the poverty of Sparta, defcribed their great maritime power, and flattered them with complete fuccefs in the event of a war. The Spartans loft no time in commencing hoftilities, and making an irruption into Attica; and the Athenian fleets retaliated by ravaging the fhores of Peloponnefus. In the fecond year of the war, Athens was afflicted by a peftilential fever, which defied the fkill of physicians, and the application of remedies*. So depreffed was the public mind by the numbers that fell victims to this calamity, that overtures of pcace were made; but as the Athenians became humble, their enemies rofe in their demands, and the negociation failed. Alcibiades, then confpicuous upon the theatre of public life, perfuaded the Athenians to affift the ftates of Sicily against the tyrannical power of Syracufe. To accomplish this object, the moft fplendid and powerful fleet that ever left the harbour of Athens failed to the coaft of Syracuse. Becoming unpopular for want of fuccefs, Alcibiades was condemned to death, and not venturing to confront his accufers, he deferted to the Spartans. By his advice they fent a reinforcement to the Syracufans, and the ftorm of their

The Poets have fhewn their approbation of the affecting defcription of the plague of Athens, by adopting many of its circumstances into fimilar defcriptions. Lucretius, Book vi. ver. 1136, &c. Virgil Georg. iii. ver. 478, and Æneid iii. ver. 137.

united vengeance fell heavy upon the Athenians; not a single ship returned home, and very few of their foldiers or failors efcaped flavery or death. For a detail of thefe events, we are indebted to Thucydides, who holding the rank of a General at the beginning of the war, was himself an eye-witnefs of many of the tranfactions he has related. To his nervous descriptions he has added specimens of the abilities of the diftinguished orators, and particularly of Pericles. The oration he pronounced in praife of thofe foldiers, who had fallen in the battles of their country, and were on that account honoured with a public funeral, is a model of eloquence, and for noble and appropriate fentiments conveyed with energy peculiar to the Greek language, it is fcarcely, if at all, to be equalled.

Pericles appears to have been a perfon of pre-eminent abilities as a General, a Statefman, and an Orator. He was never defeated in battle, and yet he never obtained a brilliant victory. It was his anxious endeavour to avoid the unneceffary facrifice of the lives of his foldiers, and fcarcely any general ever obtained fo many trophies with fo little bloodshed. The irrefiftible force of thunder, and the vivid flashes of lightning, were the figurative allufions ufed by his contemporaries to convey ideas expreffive of his cloquence. His talents raifed him to the adminiftration of public affairs, and he ruled a capricious people for fifteen years. The engine of his popularity was corruption; with the public money, originally

VOL. I.

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