PT. m. Progress and Civilisation. 147 



Hindustan the same inherent superiority of race 

 was exhibited. 



We recognise the same character of superiority in 

 their Literature. While all Eastern writings are cha- 

 racterised by a certain mystic and obscure mode of 

 expression, the pages of Xenophon and Thucydides 

 are the perfection of style, and speak to us the lan- 

 guage of truth. It is marvellous, indeed, to throw a 

 retrospective glance upon the whole body of Grecian 

 literature, and to recall the fact that in an age so 

 remote it constitutes one of the noblest in the 

 World. It attained at once the utmost perfection 

 of style. In the words of Johnson, ' the Poems of 

 Homer were only known to pass the common limits 

 of human intelligence, when it was found that age 

 after age and nation after nation could do little 

 more than copy his incidents, new name his charac- 

 ters, and paraphrase his sentiments.' It contrasts 

 in this particular with all the nations of the Asiatic 

 Continent. They never appear to have possessed 

 any body of works worthy to be termed a Litera- 

 ture. 



It is not, however, in Poetry alone that Greek 

 writers have attained the highest excellence. Poetry 

 may be supposed to be the first and natural expres- 

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