394 Mr TYTLER'S Introduction to an Enquiry 



and PAUSANIAS ; the multifarious and amusing compilations of 

 PLUTARCH * , in philosophy, the amiable and original meditations 

 of the Emperor ANTONINUS f, are, of themselves, sufficient to 

 vindicate this age from any imputations as to deficiency in en- 

 terprise, or imbecility in thought and reasoning. Nor ought the 

 moral historian to forget, that the same era was illuminated by 

 the brilliant satyric wit of LUCIAN , and instructed by the cri- 

 ticism of LONGINUS || . Some few historians also, yet of inferior 

 note, (^ELIAN, Dio CASSIUS, and HERODIAN), put forth their 

 feeble efforts ; but, with the single exception of the philosophic 

 soldier ARRIAN , nothing was produced in history in any de- 

 gree worthy of the better days of Greece. If, however, even in 

 the most favourable instances, we turn from the works them- 

 selves to the language in which they are written, the change is at 

 once apparent and mortifying. The " undented well of Attic 

 purity," the clear, strong, various, yet simple language of Greece, 

 in its better days, had become insensibly but deeply polluted. 

 The Roman conquests, the mixture of strangers, the incursions 

 of the barbarians, the controversies between the Christians and 

 the supporters of the ancient philosophy, were the chief causes 

 which contributed to produce this deterioration ; and if, at the 

 conclusion of the second period, and in the days of AUGUSTUS, 

 the approach of age was distinctly visible upon the fabric of this 

 once noble language, in the days of CONSTANTINE these symp- 

 toms were not only confirmed, but increasing in strength, and 

 hastening to their consummation. " Flos Atticae elegantiae atque 

 eloquentiae (says HARLES) magis magisque deflorescere ccepit, et 

 sensim periit ^[." 

 Uu _ . _ 



* PLDTAUCH died A.D. 120. } ANTONINUS, A. D. 161. 



\ LUCIAN, uncertain, probably in 170. || LONGINUS. slain A. D. 275. 



ARRIAN lived under HAKUIAN, ^f HARLES, p. 303. 

 A. D. 147. 



