160 GREEK LANGUAGE 



"Operam et oleum perdidi," says the Roman; "Da 1st Hopfen und 

 Malz verloren," says the German. Many Greek proverbs, especially 

 those in Aristophanes, take their point from Attic life or history; 

 others, as those drawn from the sea, epitomize national sentiment. 



Such are l-n-l Svolv ayKvpaiv 6p/Aeiv, OVK eirl rfjs airnjs (dyKvpas) op/my, Bevrf- 

 pos TrXovs, and the less common ebro /CWTTT^S CTTI /8r)/xa, aA.as aytov Ka#ewSs, 

 Trpos KotpvKov yv/j,vde<T&cu, dXteus TrAi/yets vow oura, 'ATTIKOS is Xt/Aeva, KepSovs 

 ?K(m Kay ejTi piTT-os TrAcoi. The pithy sententiae of the Spartan mark his 

 sturdy and homely character; the wit of the keen Sicilian is barbed 



(e/c Travros vA.ov xXwos yeVotr' dv KOL 0ds). 



So the principles that are a guide to life are set down in the homely 

 language of peasant and merchant. Nor are there indications lacking 

 that in Greece too there were those "whose whole wisdom lies in 

 a collection of proverbs." Innumerable are the proverbs taken from 

 the close intimacy of men with animals and their observation of the 

 life of birds. 



Versification 



The rhythms in which the poet's thought gains an utterance 

 embody the national genius. Nowhere is this the case with greater 

 certainty than in Greece. The versatility of the Greek mind is 

 expressed in the countless rhythms of their manifold lyric; their 

 subtle sense of the connection between form and content finds 

 opportunity for expression in a wealth of rhythms incomparably 

 superior to that possessed by any other civilized people. If \ve 

 regard only the dactylic hexameter as the national meter, the 

 spontaneity, grace, and mobility of the Hellenes is mirrored in the 

 movement of the verse; while the Saturnian, as has often been 

 pointed out, reflects the stately and dignified Roman. 



National Style 



If style is regulated by the movement of thought itself it may 

 not be hazardous to speak of a national style voicing national 

 endowment in poetry or prose or in both. Thus the national style of 

 the Romans is prose, which is suited to the gravity of the national 

 manners and character, to the logical character of the national mind. 

 With all the majesty of Virgil and the vehemence of Juvenal, the 

 Roman character is not essentially poetic. As the Latins came 

 under the influence of the Greeks they lost something of their stiff- 

 ness, sharpness, and homely hard sense. But in that department of 

 the poet's art which is most individual, in lyric, the Roman failed, 

 with all his dependence on his Greek models, to acquire the power of 

 the wing. The Romans had a distinct genius for prose, as have the 

 French, the creators of modern prose style. (Boccaccio and Cervantes, 



