GREECE. (LITERATURE.) 



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reaction, in which the spirit of ridicule gave rise to 

 the iambus (satire). In every thing there was a more 

 powerful impulse towards meditation, investigation, 

 and labour for the attainment of a desired condition. 

 The golden age, the gift of the gods, was felt to have 

 departed. Whatever man discovered in future was 

 to be the fruit of his own efforts. This feeling showed 

 that the age of manhood had arrived. Philosophy 

 had become necessary, and attained continually a 

 greater developement. It first spoke in maxims and 

 gnomes, in fables and in dogmatic precepts. Lyric 

 poetry next gave utterance to the feelings excited by 

 the pleasures of earth. Of those who gained a re- 

 putation in this way, as well as by the improvement 

 of music and the invention of various forms of lyric 

 poetry, history presents us the names of Archilochus 

 of Paros, inventor of the iambus ; Tyrtaeus of Miletus, 

 author of war songs ; Callimachus of Ephesus, inven- 

 tor of the elegiac measure ; Alcman, the Lydian ; 

 Arion of Methymna, who perfected the dithyrambus ; 

 Terpander of Antissa, inventor of the barbitos (a kind 

 of lyre); the tender Sappho of Mitylene ; her coun- 

 tryman Alcaeus ; Erinna, the contemporary of both ; 

 Mimnermus of Colophon, the flute player ; Stesichorus 

 of Himera ; Ibycus of Rhegium ; Anacreon and Si- 

 monidesof Ceos ; Hipponax of Ephesus ; Timocreon 

 of Rhodes ; Lasus of Hermione ; CorinnaofTanagra, 

 the friend and instructress of Pindar. As gnomic 

 %vriters (see Gnomic), Theognis, Phocylides, Pytha- 

 goras, deserve to be named ; as a fabulist, jEsop. In 

 the order of time, several belong to the following 

 period, but are properly placed Here, on account of 

 their connexion. If we consider the philosophy of 

 this age, we find it to have generally had a practical 

 character. The philosophy of life must precede the 

 philosophy of science. Philosophy must give lessons 

 of wisdom, before it can furnish scientific systems. 

 1 n this light must we consider the seven wise men of 

 Ureece, as they are called (Periander, instead of whom 

 others place Epimenides of Crete or Myon, Pittacus, 

 Thales, Solon, Bias, Chilo and Cleobulus) ; six of 

 whom acquired their names, not by diving into hid- 

 den lore, but by mature experience and the practical 

 wisdom resulting from it, by their prudence and re- 

 flection, their skill in affairs of state, in business and 

 the arts. Their sayings are practical rules, originat- 

 ing in the commerce of life, and frequently only the 

 expression of present feelings. But as knowledge is 

 the foundation of science, further investigations re- 

 sulted in theoretical philosophy. Thales was the 

 founder of the Ionic philosophy. Here we stand on 

 tlie most important point of the history of the literary 

 development of Greece, where poetry ceases to con- 

 tain every thing worthy of knowledge, to be the only 

 source of instruction. Hitherto she had discharged 

 the office of history, philosophy, and religion. What- 

 ever was to be transmitted to posterity, whatever 

 practical wisdom and knowledge was to be imparted, 

 whatever religious feelings were to be inspired, re- 

 course was had to her measured strains, which, from 

 their rhythmical character, left a deeper and stronger 

 impression on the memory. Henceforth it was to 

 be otherwise. Civil life was to have an important 

 influence on language. The public transactions, 

 in which the citizen took a part, compelled him 

 to make the language of common life more suita- 

 ble for public delivery. This and alphabetical writ- 

 ing, that had now become common in Greece, with 

 the introduction of the Egyptian papyrus, prepared 

 tiie way for the formation of prose. All this liad an 

 essential influence on the condition of science. From 

 epic poetry proceeded, by degrees, history. From the 

 practical wisdom conveyed in verse proceeded an 

 investigating philosophy. Our former singleness oi 

 view is thus lost. We must now necessarily turn 



our attention to different sides, and, in the rest of our 

 *ketch, follow out eacli branch separately. Every 

 thing tended to excite the spirit of inquiry, and a 

 scientific activity was every where awakened. We 

 may therefore call the fourth period, that now ensued, 

 the scientific period. It reaches to the end of Greek 

 literature, but is divided into several epochs, accord- 

 ng to the different spirit which predominated, and 

 the superiority which a particular branch acquired at 

 different times. The first epoch extends from Solon 

 to Alexander (594336 B. C.) In philosophy, a 

 physico-speculative spirit was manifested , for philo- 

 sophy originated immediately from religion, and all 

 religion rests on the conception of the Divinity , which 

 was not then distinguished from nature. Now, since 

 the conception of religion contained nothing but 

 poetical ideas of the origin of the principal pheno- 

 mena of nature, that is, of the divinities, the most 

 ancient philosophy was, of necessity, natural philo- 

 sophy, in which the human mind sought to analyze 

 more thoroughly the phenomena previously observed, 

 to explain them more satisfactorily, and to compre- 

 hend them in one whole. From the want of sufficient 

 experimental acquaintance with nature, it was to be 

 expected that the imagination would frequently in- 

 terfere in the work of the understanding and reason. 

 From this cause, these philosophical inquiries are 

 intenvoven with poetical images. This was the form 

 of the Ionic philosophy, whose author was Thales ; 

 the Italian, whose founder was Pythagoras, and the 

 older and later Eleatic. To the Ionic school, which 

 sought after a material origin to the world, belonged 

 Pherecydes, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, 

 Diogenes of Apollonia, Anaxarchus, and Archelaus 

 of Miletus. The principal disciples of the Pythago- 

 rean philosophy, which referred the organization of 

 the world to number and measure, were Alcmseon, 

 Timaeus of Locris, Ocellus Lucanus, Epicharmus, 

 Theages, Archytas, Philolaus, and Eudoxus. To the 

 older Eleatic school, which held the idea of a pure 

 existence, belonged Xenophanes,Parmenides: to the 

 later, Zeno, Melissus, and Diagoras. With this is 

 connected the atomic school of Leucippus and Demo- 

 critus, and the dualist, Empedocles. On the other 

 hand, Heraclitus stands alone in his theory of the 

 eternal flow of things. Till near the ninetieth Olym- 

 piad, the philosophers and their scholars were dis- 

 persed through all the Greek cities. About this time, 

 Athens became their principal place of residence, 

 which contributed not a little to breathe another 

 spirit into philosophy, the Sophists becoming the 

 teachers. Gorgias of Leontium in Sicily, who joined 

 the Eleatics, Protagoras of Abdera, Hippias of Elis, 

 Prodicus of Cos, Trasimacus, and Tisias are the most 

 celebrated whose names have reached us. Their 

 name designates them as men of science ; and they 

 were, in fact, the encyclopaedists of their times, who 

 collected the ideas and sentiments of the former ages, 

 and enriched them with their own. They were par- 

 ticularly distinguished in rhetoric and politics, two 

 sciences so highly important in democratic forms of 

 government ; but, not contented with this, they also 

 professed the natural sciences, mathematics, the 

 theory of the fine arts, and philosophy. In the last, 

 it does not seem to have been their object to arrive 

 at truth, but only to make a plausible argument ; and 

 for this end were formed sophistics and eristics, or 

 the art of reasoning, whicli was afterwards called 

 dialectics ; in which their object was to prove 

 every tiling they wished. For this they invented 

 those fallacies, still called, from them, sophistries, 

 and sought to lead their opponents astray by various 

 means. That this must needs be detrimental to true 

 philosophy is evident. So much the more fortunate 

 was it that, in this very age Socrates appeared who 

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