[ ^3 ] 



fubjed, that he wrote three tragedies on it, two of which are 

 now unfortunately loft. In his play of the Supplicants, we find 

 him again, treading the almofl;' impervious paths of antiquity. 

 I adduce this performance with particular fatisfaQion, not only 

 as it favours the pofition which I have juft laid down, but as an 

 additional argument for our. reliance on the candid teftimony of 

 i^ifchylus. Danaus, an Egyptian,, is -faid to have eftabJiflied a 

 colony in Greece, and tranfmitted) the kingdom of Argos to his 

 pofterity. Agreeable as this account might have b,een to antient 

 tradition, it certainly was by no means fo to the felf love and 

 national prejudices of the Greeks ; juft the reverfe. .However, 

 we find that no confideration of that nature prevented .^'Efchylus 

 from giving this event to his countrymen juft as it was. He has 

 accordingly thrown this migration into a dramatic form ; and 

 the arrival of Danaus, and the fupplications of his daughters, 

 form the fubjedt of the play. The poet in this, as in other 

 inftances, has adhered then exadly to tradition; his general inte- 

 grity cannot be impeached, and indeed his ftrid and delicate 

 obfervation of manners*, and the confonance of his teftimony to 

 that of the beft hiftorians, where it has been found neceflary to 

 compare them, are particularly, .acknowledged by the moft refpedt- 

 ablc authors. 



The time of the celebrated migrations from Greece is well 

 afcertained, and Thucydides exprefsly fays that the Grecians did 



• As in the Perfians, wKere in the account given to AtofTa of" the flight of the 

 Perfians, their worfliip of the earth and fky is particularly noticed. See Dr. 

 Potter's incomparable tranflation. 



-not 



