392 Mr TYTLER'S Introduction to an Enquiry 



nations ; and what was the period of the total extinction of the 

 Greek language and literature in Italy ? 



The Grecian language appears to have reached its highest 

 perfection in that long and bright period, of almost six centu- 

 ries, which extended from the days of HOMER till the death of 

 ALEXANDER the Great. HESIOD, the great lyrists TYRT^EUS, 

 SAPPHO, ANACREON, and PINDAR, the dramatic giants 

 EURIPIDES, and SOPHOCLES, the historians HERODO- 

 TUS and THUCYDIDES, the orators LYSIAS, ISOCRATES and DE- 

 MOSTHENES, the fathers of philosophy PLATO and ARISTOTLE, 

 and the historian, soldier, philosopher, and accomplished man of 

 letters XENOPHON, all these high and gifted spirits, whose 

 names and works have survived the calamities of more than two 

 thousand years, were born, and wrote and died in this brilliant 

 division of time. 



This, says HARLES, was the aera of the youth and manhood 

 of the Greek language. " It was the aera of its .poetry, which at 

 first nourished in solitary excellence ; the aera of its eloquence, 

 which was created and encouraged by the constitution of the 

 Athenian Government, by the manners of that remarkable peo- 

 ple, their forms of judicial administration, the distribution of 

 public honours, and the liberty of thought and discussion which 

 was permitted in Athens. It was an aera full of talent in al- 

 most every branch of human knowledge, and fertile in minds 

 of the most splendid genius, in poets, orators, philosophers and 

 historians, and these all, or chiefly, belonging to that wonderful 

 little republic of Athens *.' 



The decay of Grecian literature is to be dated from the de- 

 struction of Grecian liberty. In the three succeeding centuries 

 which intervened between the death of ALEXANDER and the 



* HAELES, Literature Grsecae Notitia brevior, p. 25. 



a 8 



