148 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



voted to the realization of practical objects, ' 

 with slight tendencies to the ideal aspect of j 

 things, and absorbed in the exciting game of 

 politics and war, the Romans- had little taste j 

 either for abstract speculation or for the lofti- j 

 est flights of poetical fancy. Hence no new | 

 system of philosophy was produced in their 

 literature ; their best poets were essentially 

 imitative ; and of all branches of study, those 

 connected with popular eloquence were held in 

 the greatest esteem. 



With the death of Augustus commenced the 

 decline of Roman literature. Among the 

 poets of this period are Phaedrus, an ingenious 

 fabulist, the satirists, Juvenal and Persius, 

 whose works are more important for their 

 illustrations of the manners of the age than 

 for their poetical merit, and Lucan, who de- 

 scribes the wars of Caesar and Pompey in an 

 insipid historical epic. In prose, we have the 

 somber but condensed and_ powerful histories 

 of Tacitus, and the quaint and artificial trea- j 

 tises on ethics and philosophy by Seneca. Sub- 

 sequent to the reign of Trajan, we meet with 

 no writers who have any claim upon our atten- 

 tion, and the literature of Rome, after a brief 

 interval of splendor, during the golden age 

 between Cicero and Augustus, passes into 

 unimportance and obscurity. 



SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 



Until the close of the last century, the Sans- 

 krit literature was almost wholly unknown to 

 the learned of Europe. The Roman Catholic 

 missionaries in India had, to a certain extent, 

 engaged in the study of the language at an 

 earlier period, but it is only since the year 

 1 790 that it has attracted the attention of 

 eminent scholars. Among those who have 

 given an impulse to the study of Sanskrit, and 

 who have themselves pursued it with distin- 

 guished success, are Sir William Jones, Wil- 

 kins Forster, Colebrooke, Wilson, Haughton, 

 Rosen, Che"zy, Burnouf, A. W. Schlegel, 

 Oldenberg, Max Miiller, and Bopp. We are 

 indebted to their labors for a knowledge of 

 this rich and curiofls literature, which, on 

 many accounts, may be considered as one of 

 the most remarkable products in the history of 

 intellectual culture. 



The Sanskrit language is a branch of the 

 Indo-Germanic family of languages, and is 

 supposed to bear the greatest resemblance to 

 the primitive type. In its construction, it is 

 in the highest degree ingenious and elaborate, 

 and the variety and beauty of its forms are 

 well adapted to illustrate the laws of the for- 

 mation of language. It is the sacred language 

 of the Brahmans, and contains the Yedas, the 

 oldest records of their religion. The last cen- 



tury before the Christian era was the period of 

 its richest blossoming, although it extends 

 back to a far more remote antiquity. It ap- 

 pears in its most ancient form in the Vedas, 

 which date from the thirteenth century before 

 Christ, and in that state exhibits many strik- 

 ing analogies with the Zend, the ancient 

 language of Persia. These writings are the 

 foundation of Sanskrit literature, and diffuse 

 their influence through the whole course of its 

 development. 



The Vedas are divided into four classes, the 

 first being in poetry, the second in prose, 

 the third consisting of lyrical prayers, and 

 the fourth of devotional pieces, intended to be 

 used in sacrifices and other religious offices. 

 Each Veda is composed of two parts, the 

 prayers and the commandments. The Sanskrit 

 possesses a variety of other works in sacred lit- 

 erature, which contain not only a copious ex- 

 position of religious doctrines, but numerous 

 discussions of philosophical and scientific sub- 

 jects, and an extensive collection of poetical 

 legends. 



The two oldest and most interesting epic 

 poems are The Ramayana, describing the sev- 

 enth great incarnation of Vishnu, and The 

 Mahabharata, devoted to the wars of two rival 

 lines descended from the ancient Indian mon- 

 arch, Bharata. An episode from this work 

 called Bhagavat Gita has been translated by 

 Wilkins, Herder, Schlegel, and others, and has 

 excited no small interest as an illustration of 

 the early oriental philosophy. 



A new character was given to Sanskrit poe- 

 try about one hundred years before the Chris- 

 tian era, by the introduction of themes con- 

 nected with courts and princes. It lost the 

 popular and national tendency which appears 

 in the two great epics, alluded to above, and 

 assumed a more artificial form. With a man- 

 ifest improvement in the mere externals of 

 style, the new poetry shows a degeneracy in 

 point of thought, and an entire absence of 

 original invention. In the principal works of 

 this class we find labored descriptions of nat- 

 ural objects, and many curious artifices of 

 composition, but they are destitute both of 

 brilliancy of imagination and depth of reflec- 

 tion. The most fertile author of the new 

 school is undoubtedly Kalidasa, who attempted 

 almost every species of poetical composition, 

 and whose epic, lyric, and dramatic produc- 

 tions must be allowed to possess considerable 

 merit. His best descriptive poem, entitled 

 Meghaduta, is a model of simplicity and ele- 

 gance. It exhibits a highly ideal character, 

 tracing out the spiritual significance of visible 

 phenomena, and striving to penetrate into the 

 hidden life of the universe. The drama called 



