( 490 ) [May, 



DETUn AMANTIOIII. 



It is useless to argue about the matter — the Athenians were a very 

 charming people, that's the truth on't. There was a grace, a fascination 

 in their very faults, which, as in those of a beauty, made them almost 

 as delightful, certainly almost as winning, as their qualities of less dis- 

 puted merit. But in these last, also, they were not to be approached by 

 any other people. Their patriotism had all the elevation of public vir- 

 tue, without in the least impairing the tenderness and beauty of private 

 affection. The state was to them a benevolent parent which fostered 

 and showered benefits upon them — not, as in Sparta, which demanded 

 sacrifices from them at every turn. The faults of the Athenians were 

 those of the heart's luxuriance — those of the Spartans, of the heart's 

 sterility. The Athenians considered the disgrace to lie in committing 

 n crime — the Spartans, in its discovery. Sparta inculcated and exacted 

 a continual war against all the kindlier and more spontaneous feelings of 

 our nature ; Athens encouraged their growth, and rewarded their per- 

 fection. 



After this, we need not wonder that Athens was the first to invent, or 

 at least to cultivate, the liberal arts. Poetry and painting ; sculpture 

 and music ; the refinement of the sweetest sounds ; the rendering the 

 human form more than human in its divine perfection ; the embodying 

 and embellishing the most remarkable moments of time, by all the 

 magic of the painter's art — these things the modern world owes to 

 Athens. Is it not an incalculable debt ? 



Poetry, painting, music — the Athenians possessed these : they were 

 not long before they united all their fascinations in the Tlieatre. It must 

 not, however, be supposed that their drama, like their tutelary goddess, 

 was born in full maturity of beauty and of power. No ; the theatre, at 

 first, served only for public games, for religious festivals — by degrees 

 for recitations in verse, first of fact, then of fiction ; till the genius 

 of jTischylus arose, and appropriated to compositions of the same nature 

 with his own the very name of theatre, for ever. 



Among other prizes which were yearly distributed on this favoured 

 spot, was one " To him who loved the best." He who, during the year, 

 had shewn the greatest devotion to his mistress, had made for her sake 

 the greatest sacrifices, or had performed the most notable exploits in 

 her cause, was crowned before the whole assembly, with a wreath of 

 roses and of flowering myrtle interwined, — those flowers having been 

 always deemed sacred to the Queen of Love; being, at once, the sweetest 

 and the most beautiful. But what rendered this prize still more eagerly 

 sought after was that the advocates, who both proposed and pleaded for 

 the various candidates, were those in whose behalf the deeds, which 

 were their qualifications, had been done. Each fair one pleaded for her 

 lover's pre-eminence in love ; rightly judging that she who had excited 

 the strongest and the best affection had good reason to be proud of the 

 actions to which it had led. It was, as it were, only a reflected vanity, 

 for the eulogy was all of her lover — it was only incidentally that the ex- 

 citing cause was alluded to. The fair advocate gave all the direct 

 praise to her client, leaving it to the judges and the audience to see 

 what degree of the merit was, in fact, due to herself.* 



* This pleading is preserved in the works of the learned and ingenious GuiUaume 

 VtttU ; to which I am indebted for the substance of the speeches of tlie three candi- 

 dates, which the reader will find hereafter. 



