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SOPHOCLES indip : Colon: Lin : I 101. Considera denique sacra ipsa, et ipsa mysteria, invenies exitus tristes, fata, et funera, et luctus, atque planctus miserorum deorum. Isis perditum filium cum Cynocephalo suo et calvis sacerdotibus luget, plangit, inquirit: et Isiaci miseri caedunt pectora, et dolorem infelicissimae matris imitantur : mox, inVento parvulo, gaudet Isis, exultant Sacerdotes, Cynocephalus inventor gloriatur: nec desinunt annis omnibus vel perdere quod inveniunt, vel invenire quod perdunt. Nonne ridiculum est, vel lugere quod colas, Vel colere quod lugeas 3 Haec tamen sacra AEgyptia. Ceres facibus accensis, et serpente circumdata, errore Subreptam et coris ruptam liberam anxia et sollicita vestigat. Haec sunt Eleusinia. ΜINUCIUS FELIX OctaviUS. And mooned Ashtaroth, Heaven S queen and mollier both, Now sits not giri With taper's holy shine. Nor is Osiris seen In Μemphian move or green et Nor can he he at rest Within his sacred cheSt. ΜILTON. orning os ChrisUs Nativity.
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cod to tho mind at the period when imagination is most ardently
the almost constant subject of the highest aris, as been at alltimes a favourite study, and stili proves a fascinating theme. Long since the forins and devices of painting have perished, which wo know Was formerly devoted to Such representations. This is, in some respecis, the most persect of ali the imitativo inventions, because, by mingling colour With expression, it canmost accurately copy nature. It can give not only the tear, but the pathos Whicli diuis every feature; not only the smile, but tho light whicli it casis over every portion of the Counte- nance. Zeuxis is suid by Quintilian, in the tentii chapter of histast book on Oratory, to have been generalty called the LaWgivor: because ali felt it to be necessary to adopt his likenessesor impersonations of heroes and the superior divinities. Parrhasius boasted that he was born to patrii the go is them Selves, and declared, that is Hercules did not savour him With sitiings, he kept appotniments With him in his dream s. The Anadyomene, or Venus rising out of the sea, is related to have beenso exquisite, that in it Apelles leti ali his other Works at an
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immeasurabie distance: it Was purchased by Augustus of thepeople of Cos, the native iste of the artist, and was placed in the templo os Iulius Caesar at Rome. But Whatever may be the perfection of pa inting, and the triumph of iis ancient master-pieces, iis productions are necessarily hail. Even the fresco but stightlysurvives the move te picture, in many instances mouiders besere it; and the worm has osten desaced the panet while thocativas has been spared. The youthful enthusiasin is sussicisntly kindlod by the notices of those transcendent con Summate WorkS, by the applause of contemporary nations, a S Weli as by the aWardos crities and the suffrage of historians in their favour,-thoughthe specimens themselves cannot be adduced to justify this ful-ness and unanimity of praesse. But there is a sister art of more rigid durability. It solocis for iis materiai the granite and porphyry and the least oxydising simple or composite metals. Statuary may include sculpture and casting: in both tho Greelis excelled. But the pale marbie of Hymettus and Pantelicus,-or the blia veined, as is that tinge wero just traced on it tomatch tho human shin, found in the mines of Paros, ere thesubstances preferreii. The proiadest elevation ever attained by this croativo si ill was in iis bodying out of imaginary Superhuman eXistences. TheSe remain, after thousands of years, thearchetypes, rather than the fulsilmenis, of the most poeticconceptions. It may be doubted Whether tho bard owes notinore to these modeis than these modeis to the bard. They are fabrications Whicli the orisinal Aout must claim. They inspire the sentiment, not merely elicit it. They enaci the laWs, instea dos obmins them. They Dad the march, nor look bellind themon the retinue. The Bel videre Apollo, the Medicean Venus,
the Farnese Hercules, continue to excite a species of idolatry.
That Sun in human limbs arrayed,V-that Cytheraea of hastest beauty,-that Alcides With a presenco os power Whiclidis latiis the club, that monument of Glycon's genius WhoSename is on it, and to whicli proba ly Horaco refers in the sirstopistio of his sirst book, Where he says that no one Ahould forego the precautions os health,
Quia desperes invicti membra Glyconis
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colossi Which won the homage of the worid. Ranges of themost beautiful statues Wero set against the deop blue of tho Attic sky, or the eXternat atmosphere of that region Was too
minii has received ali the sentiment, and then are felt to be most Worthy of it,-that perfeci eloquence Whicli sinote tyranis tothe heari, and bursi open the gales of liberty for mankind,-Was greatly aided and enriched by the supposed presince and witness and sympathy of the deities. The orator made frequentuse of them; turning to their effigies in temple and in grove, he urged his appeH,- implored their grace and threatened
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the only ones; but invocations of the most solemn and eventorriso kinds abound in their Writings, giving their apostrophes an ii resistibio force and sWay. The Epic horrowed largely om theso ideat beings. The machines, to take the phrase of Bossuet, ure celeStiat interVentions. Horace, in a Well-known couplet, denounces this agency in any crisis which does notstrictly domand it. It is West for his consistency that he has allowed that Homer somelimes nods. The truth is, that thodivine appearunces are the riale, anil not the reserve, of the ancient epopee. The reader eXpecis them. The associations of those times, alone could redeem them froni a certain clumsinessos contrivance. Often they might complain that the historio Poet,-us Leicester in the reliearsal of Duff, ad not selliodhow they Were to get osLV The exit is as Ungrucesul, as the en-trance Was construined. Ail We, hoWever, inculcate is, that theses les Were inter overi With the whole of the ancient literature, and must have theresere been most influential on the nationalmind. Tragedy in Greece partook of a public institution. Iis writers agreed to uphold the religion of the country. Whether their poticy Was soland or not, they not only brought tho divinities on the stage, but made them take an easy part in the dialogiae. They are the actors, the dramatis PerSonae, themSelVes. Apollo is oris of the interlocutors in the Orestes of Euripedes. Μinerva appears and spealis in the Aias Alastigophorus os Sophocles. 2Eschylus siled the proscentum With the Eumenides. Scarcely, indeed, Was there a connection, a re rence, Ofany kind but it Was impressed With this character: every Scene Was Sacred, every hour DStive, eVery object divine.-Νor Wasthis influonce weakened by any disclaimer of the wise and good. Occasionalty a comedy might take Some Deedom With the presu- med rulers of our eurth and race. Aristophanes did not alWays Spare them, but then he made up for this temerity by his lampoon on those Who were at ali dis used of popular error, and by at ways administering flattery to popular delusion. The religionisi forgave his impiety as a licensed jest, hecause that jest Was almed at those Who were potaring too strong a light into the recesses and retreats of ignorance. And We must not sorget
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that Philosophy Was equalty servile in iis professed adoption os
the general creed. Plato in his Io trestis ut longili on tho Postic furor. He there, by the molith of Socrates, avers that poets are inspired by the divine afflatus to the very loss of their own selLPOSSe8Sion, comparing them to the Corybantes; that they arethe interpreters of the gods ; and that their exact unanimity, in ali their theological allusiotas, establishes the identity of thesource front whicli they must have derived them. The conver-Sation Was to reprove the rhapsodisis of that period, but ho dossit by arguing the highest illa pse, maintaining that the poetswere the instruments of heaven, gifted With the fame poWersas the priesis of the oracles, and other prophets.V And every tyro knows that Mates in Latin signifies poet and prophet accord- ing to the connection, and frequently both at the fame time :and that vatos is formed froni φη , the lalter syllabies of προ- φηΤης, a prophet, by the change of the labials and D. HowStrong, then, Was the hold whicli this system obta insed onali the science, ari, and polite learning, and eVen piarest philo
to have culminated above any succeeding one; and of a peoplewho Would allo no alternative biit Barbarian, or Greekl Howtaste stole thetice iis embellistiment anil reasoning acquired iis confirmation i How it oratored into every constitution of societyand ossice of life l It was a universat element or principie dinfused as uir, subtile as light, binding as attraction lThe spectacle of Olympus 8Welis iapon US Very gorgeOUSty. Wo think that wo belloid sonte losty summit os crystals risinginto the agure and splendour os mid heaven. It is aeriai, with out an earthly base. There expandes the dome of the Colestiat lLiko as Ovid records of the palace of the suta, the WorkmanshipeXCeedS the SubStance, however costly, out of whicli it is formed.
The year is biit a spring, and the spring is no delay of harvest. The woos of Ormus and the dye of Tyre in vain Would emulate these tissues. Architecture bulliis itself up With gold and gem.
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and jurisdictions; at ollier times they keep high banquet and
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caves. Somo Subordinate poWers here receive a Wel come and
guished during their aristocratic sathers' lamented ii time: anda feW Who, though displaying a sinister bend of earthliness in
their shield, aro admirabie heroes of exploit and fame. Vulcan, that skilful armouror and sorger of thunderbolis, osten leaves his sinithy of Elna to talie his patens s rank and seat. Esculapius has abandoned practice, and tahes no less medicine abovethan ho did below. Hercules, Castor, and PolluX, though the writ of summons could not avail them but only a neW creation, disgrace not the aetherea domu to whicli they have been called. The conception of this Μythology,-though onen haltingin consistency and alWays deformed by absurdity,-is conses- sedly great and magnificent. The ideas of poWer, beatity, authority, are catagiit, detained, and represented. Impalpabieessences are arrested and clothed in appropriate fornis. Thereis the relies os varioty and force of contrast. Their immense
superiority is felt to the allegories of the highest poetry.chylus has attempted to personi0 strength and other abstractions ; but the harmony is Wanting Which filis up the dimensions, and the iaste Whicli supporis the probabilities, of the deisic fiction lBut tot us look a litile more closely at this hierarchy of the Pagan divinities, the Dii majores et minores. The poetic
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and scold ever braWled in terms so gross as Iuno allows herlongus p What semale bosom Was ever so retenti ess 8 Wollmay Virgil speak of saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram anden quire, Tantaene animis celestibus irae ΘΠ Her largo blus es, Whicli Homer compares to those of an oX, shoot sortii the successive sires of jealousy, crueity, and reVenge. She canthroaten liko any beldame: Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo. Iupiter Was like thse air, a chartered libertine, ' adopting the vehiclo os metamorphosis for every evit enit, eckless of his victinis, though his queen WaS Sure to PurSiae
them With the cruolty os an Alecto, and writing his history inone disgusting tale of brutat passion. Minerva induces Pandarus, diaring an armistice, to uim a sitast at the breast of Menelaus. The guill of Mars and Venus, and their detectionby Apollo, is but an article of amusing scandal to their peers. And when not morally vile, they are convicted of abjeciness undlevity. Hercules rescued them froni the Titans, a mortal deli- vered them ero he was tho demigod i Horace in his Durili odoof tho third book declares,
Μagnum illa terrorem intulerat Iovi Fidens juventus horrida brachiis.
Vulcan convulse the divine revellers into οις 3εςος γελως. Venus is Wounded by Diomed, and she retreais With a fore ha d, butendeavours to make the best os it in the presence of Iupiter: butwhen Μars is Wounded by the spear of the samo Warrior, he siesto heaven scared and gro ing, fili ing the firmament With his stirielis, complaining to the Μighty Father, Who solandly rates and ridiculos him for his patias. Then When assembled, they