ATHENS. 



39 



Athens. The old comedy was cultivated by; Eupolis, Cra- 

 tinus, and Aristophanes. It employed itself in the 

 most bitter, and often indecent satire, upon distin- 

 guished persons in the commonwealth, who were in- 

 troduced by name upon the stage, and held up to 

 public derision. The writings of Aristophanes alone 

 have come down to us, and display a very powerful, 

 but coarse vein of humour. After him, Alexis and 

 Antiphanes introduced the middle comedy. The 

 object of this was still satire, but the improved taste 

 of the age, and the preponderating influence of the 

 Macedonian government, no longer allowed the wri- 

 ters to indulge in personal attacks ; it was therefore 

 directed against manners in general. All the writers 

 of this school, of whom Mr Cumberland has enu- 

 merated thirty-two, have perished, leaving only a few 

 fragments, which make us regret the more what we 

 have lost- The middle was followed by the new 

 comedy, more cultivated, polished, and regular, than 

 either of its predecessors, and nearly approaching, it 

 would appear, to what we call sentimental comedy. 

 It seems to have been chiefly occupied by love-plots, 

 tender sentiments, and more delicate satire. Upwards 

 of 200 names have been transmitted to us, of those 

 who shone in this line of composition ; but their 

 names only, not their works, if we except a few scat- 

 tered fragments, chiefly handed down by fathers of 

 the church, and which therefore have a serious, and 

 even gloomy colouring, probably very different from 

 the general strain of these dramas. Menander, Phi- 

 lemon, and Diphilus, are the most celebrated of these 

 writers. 



The drama of Athens, however, is not more cele- 

 brated than its schools of philosophy. As every ci- 

 tizen might acquire an influence in the management 

 of public affairs, provided he possessed the requisite 

 qualifications, it became a desirable object to attain 

 those talents, and above all that eloquence, which 

 might enable him to sway the decisions of a popular 

 assembly. A class of teachers then arose, by whom 

 this was publicly professed ; but the greater number 

 of these, deserting their legitimate office, taught only 

 the art of making subtle distinctions, and defending 

 right and wrong indiscriminately. These went by the 

 name of Sophists, which originally signified merely wise 

 men, but which, from their misconduct, has long be- 

 oome odious. The abuses of this sect were exposed, 

 and their fame eclipsed, by Socrates, the most cele- 

 brated of all heathen philosophers, for pure morality 

 and practical wisdom. His instructions were entirely 

 oral, and seem to have consisted chiefly in the appli- 

 cation of sound sense and virtuous principle to the 

 varied scenes of public and private life, of which he 

 was a constant spectator. Openly attacking the per- 

 nicious doctrines of the sophist, and secretly despising 

 the superstitions of the multitude, he excited hostility 

 in both ; and at length his unworthy fate became as 

 much the shame, as his life had been the glory, of 

 Athens. When death, however, had silenced envy, 

 bis fame broke forth in full lustre ; and a crowd of 

 votaries arose, who trod, or affected to tread, in his 

 footsteps. Each, however, modifying and explain- 

 ing the Socratic doctrines as suited his own peculiar 

 views, many branches, widely differing from each 

 other, sprung from the seme root. Xenophon, the 



Athens. 



l'hiloso 

 phy. 



most judicious and most amiable of hi disciples, 

 seems to have transmitted his doctrine the most pure v 

 and uncorrupted. Plato, on the contrary, sought to 

 elevate and adorn it by an admixture both with his 

 own lofty, and often visionary ideas, and with the 

 tenets of other schools. Hence he may be consider- 

 ed rather as having founded a system of his own, 

 than as having faithfully transmitted to us that of 

 his master. Amid a variety of subordinate sects, we 

 may then distinguish the two opposite, at the head 

 of which were Diogenes the cynic, and Aristippus 

 the philosopher of pleasure. The former placed 

 wisdom entirely in the absence of all refinement, and 

 often even of common decency, and in a life marked 

 only by austerity and privation. The other, con- 

 ceiving man made only for enjoyment, sought it 

 wherever it was to be found ; and hence became a 

 welcome guest in courts, and in all gay and opulent 

 societies. These two were succeeded by the still 

 more celebrated sects of Zeno and Epicurus, of 

 which the former placed the supreme good in virtue, 

 the other in pleasure alone, and which long continued 

 to divide the ancient world. The leading doctrines 

 of each are well known, and shall be fully explained 

 in their proper place. 



We may obsers-e, that each of these moral systems 

 was, in general, accompanied by a physical system, 

 professing to account for all the grand phenomena 

 of the universe. This last, however, being founded 

 commonly on very imperfect and inaccurate observa- 

 tion, was of little comparative value. It would seem, 

 on the whole, that no branch, either of physical 

 or mathematical science, was much indebted to 

 Athens. Living nature was there too varied and in- 

 teresting, to leave much room for attention to its dead 

 and inanimate portions. 



Where political events were so Taried "and im- History, 

 portant, the art of recording them was not likely 

 to be neglected. Although Athens cannot boast 

 of having produced the father of history, yet the 

 most eminent of his successors sprung up in her 

 bosom. Thucydides has left us a history of cotem- 

 pornry events, free from all those partialities to which 

 such a narrative might be supposed liable. His per- 

 formance is a model of sound judgment, attic pre- 

 cision, and grave and severe eloquence. His suc- 

 cessor Xenophon was, still more than he, versant in 

 real life and in public affairs. His style, less nervous, 

 is more simple, sweet, and flowing. In his Anabasis, 

 and in his Grecian history (a continuation of that of 

 Thucydides,) his fidelity is equally unimpeached; 

 but in the Cyropedia, his refined moral taste has led 

 him to wander into the regions of fiction, in order to> 

 delineate a more perfect model than real life could 

 afford. With him expired the historic muse of 

 Athens. 



Amid these higher pursuits, Athens was not less The fine 

 busily nor less successfully occupied in cultivating those arts 

 arts, which relate to the beauty of external form. Paint- 

 ing and sculpture originated indeed, not there, but in the 

 fertile and earlier civilized regions of Ionia, and the 

 islands of the .fligcan Sea. It was in Athens, however, 

 and under the auspices of Pericles, that these arts at- 

 tained their highest perfection. The fame of Phi* 

 diw and Praxiteles as sculptors, of Zeuxis and Par-- 



