OF LITERATURE. 



VJ1 



The monstrous is subdued into the vast; the 

 grotesque is softened into the graceful ; and a 

 fine spirit of humanity is diffused over the rude 

 proportions of the primeval figures. Such, like- 

 wise, has been the case with the Grecian mental 

 philosophy. Many of its dogmas, some of its 

 most remarkable forms, are evidently derived 

 from Egypt or the East ; but all that tends to 

 beautify the mean, to harmonize the incongruous, 

 or to enliven the dull; all that converts the 

 simple precepts of morality, or the crude mate- 

 rial of metaphysics, into an elegant department 

 of literature ; belongs to the Greeks themselves. 

 From the first dawn of intellectual culture among 

 them they were creators of something new, not 

 mechanical echoers of the old. Upon the earliest 

 manifestations of their genius there is no foreign 

 stamp : their literature displays at once a proper, 

 peculiar character. Its aspect is not Egyptian ; 

 for, though proficient in many branches of 

 science ; in medicine, astronomy, mechanics, 

 chemistry, mathematics ; Egypt had no literature. 

 Nor is it Oriental; for, with the exception of 

 those hints in religion and philosophy, to which 

 we hare already alluded, the East imparted none 

 of her mental treasures to the ancient Greeks. 

 Even the Phoenicians, the oriental people with 

 whom Greece had the closest and most constant 

 relations, were of no service in this respect. 

 They, too, were devoid of literature beyond the 

 mere rudiments of philosophic speculation ; too 

 deeply engrossed with their commercial adven- 

 tures to yield more than a passing thought to less 

 gainful pursuits. Yet it must not be forgotten 

 that to them the Greeks were indebted for those 

 means of perpetuating the fruits of intellectual 

 exertion, of which they made such glorious use. 

 Whatever uncertainty may hang about some parts 

 of the legend of Cadmus, there can be no doubt 

 that Greece received the inestimable gift of an 

 ALPHABET from the shores of Phoenicia. 



That the practice of writing, however, did not 

 at once become common among the Grecian 

 tribes, and that the materials of the art were 

 scarce and costly, was perhaps as fortunate for 

 their first efforts in composition, as it has been 

 for posterity that the art was applied in time to 

 snatch from the frail tenure of memory, and fix 

 in an enduring shape, the finest monuments of 

 their genius. The mere process of writing 

 might have impaired that free, flowing, and ex- 

 uberant character, which probably belonged to 

 their earliest productions, since it is so con- 

 spicuously manifested in the most ancient that 

 still remain. Conjecture guided by analogy, 

 our only light in examining those distant times, 

 appears to indicate that from these remains we 



may correctly infer the nature of preceding 

 attempts. The main-spring of intellectual exer- 

 tion among the Greeks was the same that has 

 acted upon all nations, who have not derived 

 their literature from imitation; that joyous 

 activity of mental power which breaks out 

 wherever circumstances allow it to find scope, 

 that desire to embody thought and feeling in a 

 cognizable shape, and to impress upon the minds 

 of others a copy of our own, of which original 

 genius is universally conscious. Poetry, a primi- 

 tive production in every region of the earth, 

 springing out of principles that are inherent in 

 the human soul, was a natural vehicle for 

 emotions too powerful to be buried in silence ; 

 and one that presented itself the more readily 

 while memory, which is so much assisted by the 

 mechanism of versification, formed the chief 

 means of perpetuating the results of mental 

 labour. It was natural, too, that religious emo- 

 tion, as one of the most vivid and universal feel- 

 ings of man, should be early embodied in the 

 poetry of a simple age. But those theories are 

 fallacious, which assume that direct addresses to 

 the Gods, or lyric hymns, as parts of a public 

 ritual, were the primary form of poetical compo- 

 sition among the Greeks. It must be remember- 

 ed that of their poetry, previous to Homer, we 

 have not even a fragment on which to reason. 

 Many names, indeed, of more ancient poets are 

 recorded, and works ascribed,4o some of the most 

 famous of them are extant at this day : but the 

 spuriousness of these is too manifest to admit of 

 controversy. From Homer alone, and from the 

 portraiture of elder bards, which certain passages 

 of the Homeric poems supply, we must learn the 

 properties of the earliest Grecian minstrelsy 

 This evidence makes it plain that religious in- 

 vocation was but an incidental portion of the 

 minstrel's lay, and that the homage due to the 

 deities was principally paid in a lively exhibi- 

 tion of their characters and adventures, a setting 

 forth of mythological traditions, and a display of 

 that faith which traced the interference of divine 

 agency in every turn of human affairs. In short 

 it is not more certain that poetry was the first 

 form of Grecian liierature, than that the very 

 rudiments of that poetry appeared in the guise 

 of HEROIC song. For this there was found a 

 rich profusion of appropriate and inspiring 

 themes ; and the chivalrous propensities of a 

 people, whose legends abounded in such topics, 

 ensured popularity for the strains in which they 

 were recorded. Nor was there any lack of other 

 circumstances favourable to the rise and growth 

 of heroic poetry. The pride of chiefs, the spirit 

 of clanship, the love of ancestral distinction, com- 



