CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Donald Stetson CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 071 561 082 Cornell University Library The original of tinis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924071561082 B&ition be Xuic THE LITERATURE OF ALL NATIONS AND ALL AGES tA^'^uAH^/V^^itt*^^ Gll.BE,=iT PmqTO JNO. RUSSELL YOUNG LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS THE Literature of All Nations ■f - AND ALL AGES HISTORY, CHARACTER, AND INCIDENT EDITED BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE JOHN PORTER LAMBERTON OLIVER H. G. LEIGH JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG INTRODUCTION BY JUSTIN McCarthy Member of Parliament, 1879-18139 ' ' Authlrr of "HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES." "DEAR LADY DISDAIN," AND OTHER NOVELS •••••••a*.. One Uundred Dctni-teinu Plates from Paintings by tbe morld's Best Jirtists COMPLETE IN TEN VOLUMES VOLUME VII CHICAGO NEW YORK MELBOURNE E. R. DuMONT 1 901 Copyright, 1899, By ART LIBRARY PUBLISHING CO. Copyright, 1900, By E. R. DU MONT PAGE GREEK LITERATURE— PBRIOD VII 9 Thb New Tbstambnt 13 The Sermon on the Mount 15 The Parable of the Prodigal Son 16 Jesus Consoles His Disciples 17 St. Paul at Athens 19 Love {Charity) 20 The Vision of Heaven 21 Thb Sayings OF Jesus 22 The Teaching OE THE TwEi,vB Apostj^es 23 FtAvrus JosEPHUs 25 Herod the Great in his Last Illness 27 The Death of Herod Agrippa 29 The Burning of the Temple at Jerusalem 31 Mbi,Bagek 36 Heliodora's Garland 36 Lament for Heliodore 36 Hue and Cry after Cupid 37 Clearista . : 37 Meleager on Himself 38 Greek Anthology . 38 TimareU Puts away Childish Things 39 Lais'' Mirror 39 For the Tomb of Myrtis 39 Epitaph on Antibia 40 Epitaph on Theonod and her Child 40 True Wisdom ■ 40 The Partnership 40 The Lesson of the Tops 41 The Fleas Outwitted 41 2 TABLB OF CONTENTS. PAOB GREEK LITERATURE— Period VII. (ConTinuSd). The Wine-Cup 4> The Picture of Aphrodite 4» The Miser and the Mouse 42 Grammar and Medicine 4* Plutarch 43 Appius Claudius, the Blind 44 Cato's Warning Against Greek Learning 4^ LuciAN 48 Apollo and Hepheestus 49 Pluto and Hermes {Mercury) 50 Charon's Boat 51 Epictetus 53 The Voyage of Life 54 Contentment 55 Sunshine . 55 The Tyrant 55 Marcus Aureuus 56 The Vanity of Man's Life 58 GREEK LITERATURE— PERIOD VIII 62 The Greek Romances 65 The Sacrifice at Delphi 66 Daphnis and Chloe 71 LiBANius 75 Eulogy on the Emperor fulian 76 Greek Fathers op the Church 79 Clement of Alexandria 82 Hytnn to the Saviour Christ 83 Basil the Great 84 Pagan Literature 84 The Monastic Life 85 Gregory Nazianzen 87 Farewell to the Church at Constantinople 87 Evening Hymn gq John Chrysostom 00 The Repentance of Antioch gi Ephraem Syrus 92 Children in Paradise 9, Stephen the Sabaite 03 TABIvB OP CONTENTS. 3 PAOE HEBREW LITERATURE— PBRIOD III 95 Sayings from the Talmud 98 Sayings About Wives 99 Fourteen Hard Things 99 Returning the Jewels 100 Hillel and Shantai 101 LATIN LITERATURE— Pbriod V 103 AUSONIUS 106 The Lesson of Roses 106 Cl^UDIAN 108 The Old Man of Verona 108 Proserpine Captured by Pluto 109 BoETius 113 Dame Philosophy Enters 114 Philosophy as a Physician 116 Pruqentius 119 The Hymn of Dawn 120 Latin Fathers of the Church 121 Augustine of Hippo 121 Stage-Plays . 123 His Conversion 125 ARABIAN LITERATURE— PERIOD IV 127 The Arabian Nights' Entertainment 127 The Enchanted Horse 129 ITALIAN LITERATURE— PERIOD V 145 Giovanni Battista Guarini 147 The Lover's Stratagem 149 ViNCENZo FndCAjA 153 The Deliverance of Vienna 154 To Italy 158 Francesco Mafpei 158 The Mother's Lament for her Lost Son 159 METastasio 160 The Emperof's Bride x6i Cari,o GOtDONi 167 The Beneficent Sear 170 Giuseppe Parini 175 A Noble Lord's Morning 176 4 TABI-3oo a.d. ;HE Greek language, perfected by Plato and Demosthenes as the fittest vehicle for noble thought, was diffused through the ancient world by roving merchants and by the conquests of Alexander. But the native genius, which had pro- duced unsurpassable works of the imagination in each successive form of poetry and prose, fell exhausted when civic freedom was extinguished. Great as were the benefits conferred on other nations by Greek culture, it nowhere aroused a new national genius to literary expression except in Rome. Its most potent influence was to prepare the way for the rapid extension and general adoption of Christianity. When Greek, somewhat modified from its Attic purity, had become the universal literary language, the new Divine reve- lation was given in that medium. To this end the labors of the learned grammarians of Alexandria under the patronage of the Ptolemies had contributed, especially by the transla- tion of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, called the Septua- gint. This version became a standard to the Jews themselves, even before their dispersion through the world, and on its model the apostles and evangelists of the new dispensation framed their message to both Jews and Gentiles. Turning now to secular literature, we note that during three centuries before Christ there was a general dearth except at the court of the Ptolemies. Those writers who gave literary fame to Alexandria have already been treated. * Elsewhere *See Volume VI., pp. 33-60. lO WTBRATURE OP ALI, NATIONS. there were a few historians, the most noted of whom was Polybius (204-122 B.C.). This Greek, taken captive to Rome after the overthrow of Perseus, King of Macedonia, had the good fortune to win the favor of Scipio Africanus the Younger. Thoroughly convinced of the imperial destiny of Rome, he endeavored to prove to his countrymen that it was their inter- est to submit to her yoke, but was unable to avert the sack of Corinth, 146 b.c. The inscription on his statue declared, ' ' Hellas would have been saved had she followed the advice of Polybius." In his "Universal History" he narrated the stately progress of Rome from the Second Punic War to the destruction of Carthage. But though the theme was grand, and the author painstaking and impartial, Polybius lacked the genius to make his story interesting. Somewhat similar to Polybius in fortune was the Jewish captive. Flavins Josephus, who endeavored in various writings to commend his kinsmen and their institutions to the respect and favor of the Romans. He lived in the first century after Christ and holds a unique place as an interpreter of Jewish institutions and history. His reputation, both as patriot and author, has fluctuated in successive ages since the triumph of Christianity. Meleager, though born in Palestine in the century before Christ, appears to have been of Greek descent. He was a Cynic philosopher, but is best known as the first compiler oi that remarkable monument of Greek genius, the "Anthology," a collection of epigrams. He gathered these small poems from forty-six authors of different periods from Simonides down to his own time. He added also one hundred and thirty- one of his own, not inferior in artistic merit. Meleager called his collection "The Garland," but Philip of Thessalonica, in the second century after Christ, gave to his similar work the title "Anthology," or "collection of flowers." Agathias, in the reign of Justinian, was the next anthologist, and called his work a "Cycle of Epigrams." Then Constantine Cepha- las in the tenth century selected from the labors of his prede- cessors the bouquet which has become known as the Palatine Anthology, from the fact that the manuscript containing it was discovered by Salmasius in the library of the Elector GRBBK WTBRATURS. II Palatine at Heidelberg in 1606. The manuscript was removed with the rest of the Palatine library to the Vatican in 1623, but was restored to Heidelberg in 1815. Meantime, in the fourteenth century, Maximus Planudes, a monk of Constanti- nople, had rearranged the Anthology of Cephalas, dividing it into seven books, according to the subjects. These were : i. Displays of skill in epigrammatic writing. 2. Satirical and jocular. 3. Sepulchral. 4. Inscriptions on works of art. 5. Epigrams on the statues of charioteers. 6. Dedicatory. 7. Amatory. This work, being the first Anthology printed, attracted attention throughout Europe in the revival of learn- ing, and led to many imitations of the Greek epigrams. Plutarch, who lived in the first century after Christ, has won immortal renown by his " Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans." Bom in Boeotia, he went to Rome and gave lectures on philosophy, but did not trouble himself to learn Latin while there. Later in life, when settled at his native Chaeronea, he took up the study of Roman literature, and produced that matchless series of portraits which has en- livened and instructed many generations, and stimulated ardent youth to imitation of ancient prowess and virtue. Sixty other writings, classed as ' ' Ethical Works, ' ' are attrib- uted to Plutarch. They are practical treatises on the conduct of life, and show his good sense rather than any attempt at philosophical speculation. I/Ucian, born at Samosata, in Syria, belonged to the second century. He traveled through Greece, Italy and Gaul, and returning to Syria when he was about forty years of age, devoted the rest of his life to the composition of his famous satirical works. They were chiefly dialogues, sometimes serious, sometimes full of mockery, and sometimes merely pictures of contemporary manners. The " Dialogues of the Gods" are dramatic narratives of incidents of the pagan mythology, so told as to expose their absurdity. The "Dia- logues of the Dead" contain moral reflections and satire on the vanity of human pursuits. These have been imitated by modern writers. "The Auction of the Philosophers" is an attack upon the heads of the various schools, who are put up for sale by the god Hermes. " Timon" is, perhaps, Lucian's 12 UTERATURB OP AI,I, NATIONS. masterpiece, and has aflForded a noted character to the stage. His writings altogether have a more modern air than those of any other classic author, and suggest comparison with those of Swift and Voltaire. Greek philosophy flourished at Rome under the Empire. When luxury and sensual indulgence were enervating the mass of the Roman nobility, there was still a chosen remnant who sought solace in the Stoic creed, which recalled their ancestral virtues. The lame freedman Epictetus, born in Phrygia, was an eminent teacher of this doctrine, and though he left no writings, his scholar Arrian preserved the substance of his discourses in the "Enchiridion," or Manual, More famous, as more exalted, is the imperial philosopher, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who recorded in his "Meditations" his thoughts and feelings upon moral and religious topics. No work of antiquity presents a nobler view of philosophical paganism. Thb tempi,e op thbseus. NEW TESTAMENT. In this work we shall not discuss the speculations or conclusions of recent criticism as to the dates, authorship or authority of the Pour Gospels. They will be accepted as part of the divinely-inspired Word of God ; as consisting, therefore, like the other inspired Scriptures, of a Letter and an underlying and informing Spirit. Divinely inspired also, and conveying a spiritual message, is the Book of the Apoca- lypse, or Revelation, which terminates the compilation which we call the Bible. Between these come the Acts of the Apostles, and the several Epistles, treatises and manifestoes, which are enlightened or illuminated writings, imparting moral and religious instruction of the purest and most ele- vated sort. They carry the weight which must attach to teachers commissioned by our Lord, who had either person- ally known Him in the flesh, or had been granted com- munion with Him after the Resurrection. Between the promulgation of the last book of the Old Testament (or Covenant) and the first of the New, an interval of some four and a half centuries elapsed. The language of the former compilation was originally Hebrew ; of the latter, Greek, which was at that time more generally spoken than any other language of civilization. The Bible has been at various times translated into English, from the fragment ascribed to Caedmon in the seventh century, to the so-called Authorized Version dedicated to King James in 1611. The New Testament was first given in English by Wyclif, about 1380. Recently a revised (and more accurate) version of the entire Scriptures was prepared by a number of Biblical scholars, and selections from it are here employed. 13 14 LITERATURE OF AI that you may not be thrown into the vessel, bound neck and heels, like a sheep: thus likewise in life, if, instead of a mussel or shell, such a thing as a wife or child be granted you, there is no objection ; but if the captain calls, run to the ship, leave all these things, regard none of them. And if GREEK UTERATURE. 55 you are old, never go far from the ship, lest, when you are called, you should be unable to come in time. Contentment. As it is better to lie straitened for room upon a little couch in health than to toss upon a wide bed in sickness, so it is better to contract yourself within the compass of a small fortune and be happy, than to have a great one and be wretched. Sunshine. As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations to be prevailed on to rise, but immediately shines forth, and is received with universal salutation, so neither do you wait for applause, and shouts, and praises, in order to do good, but be a voluntary benefactor, and you will be beloved like the sun. The Tyrant. When a person is possessed of some either real or imagi- nary superiority, unless he has been well instructed he will be puflfed up with it. A tyrant, for instance, says, "lam supreme over all." But what can you do for me? Can you exempt my desires from disappointment? How should you? For do you never incur your own aversions ? Are your own pursuits infallible ? Whence should you come by that privi- lege? Pray, on shipboard, do you trust to yourself, or the pilot? In a chariot, to whom but to the driver? And to whom in all other arts ? Just the same. In what, then, does your power consist ? " All men pay regard to me.' ' So do I to my desk. I wash it, and wipe it, and drive a nail for the service of my oil-flask, "What, then! are these things to be valued beyond mef^ No : but they are of some use to me, and therefore I pay regard to them. Do not I pay regard to an ass ? Do I not wash his feet ? Do I not clean him? Do not you know that every one pays regard to himself, and to you, just as he does to an ass ? For who pays regard to you as a man ? Show that. Who would wish to be like you ? Who would desire to imitate you, as he would Socrates? "But I can take off 56 WTBRATURB Of At,!, NATIONS. your head." You say right. I had forgot that one has to pay regard to you as to a fever, or the colic, and that there should be an altar erected to you, as there is to the goddess Fever at Rome. What is it, then, that disturbs and strikes terror into the multitude ? The tyrant and his guards ? By no means. What is by nature free cannot be disturbed or restrained by anything but itself. But its own principles disturb it. Thus, when the tyrant says to any one, "I will chain your leg," he who values his leg cries out for pity, while he who sets the whole value on his will and choice says, "If you imagine it for your interest, chain it." "What! do not you care?" No: I do not care. "I will show you that I am master." Ycmf How should you ? Zeus has set me free. What ! do you think he would suffer his own son to be enslaved? You are master of my carcass. Take it. MARCUS AURELIUS. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus stands almost alone in the history of the world as a philosopher and philanthropist clothed in royal purple. He was born A. d. 121, adopted by Antoninus Pius in 138, became consul in 140, and succeeded his adoptive father as em- peror in 161. Although Lucius Verus, his brother by adoption, was debarred from the succession on account of his irregular habits, Marcus magnanimously shared the throne with him, thus furnishing for the first time the spectacle of two Roman emperors acting together. Although Marcus Aurelius was the most pacific of men, his reign was not free from war, due to the aggressions of the restless barbarian tribes north of the Danube. For eight years the emperor was absent frOm his capital, and underwent all the fatigue and hardships of military life with unflinching fortitude. Scarcely had he overcome his barba- rian foes, when he was called to Asia Minor by a usurping GREEK UTERATURB. 57 general. Before the emperor's arrival, however, the traitor •was slain. Here again Marcus Aurelius showed his magna- nimity in his clemency towards all implicated in that con- spiracy. On his return journey he visited Athens and proved the inherent liberality of his thought by founding a profes- sorship for each of the four principal philosophical sects. The death of M. Aurelius, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and the twentieth of his reign, marks the period of Rome's transition from the Silver to the Iron age. Although the early studies of M. Aurelius were chiefly confined to rhetoric, he soon showed a decided predilection for the philosophy of the Stoics, and read extensively in morals, metaphysics, mathematics, music and poetry. Never was a ruler more exemplary in his conduct, more just and generous in his thoughts, or more universally esteemed and beloved by his subjects. It seems a strange anomaly that he should have been a persecutor of the Christians. John Stuart Mill pronounces it one of the most tragical facts in all his- tory ; inasmuch as the emperor's writings do not perceptibly differ from the ethical teachings of Christ. In his reign Justin Martyr and Polycarp paid the penalty of their rejection of the national worship ; but their death and the persecutions which followed did not stay the progress of Christianity. The work by which Marcus Aurelius is known to his posterity is the "Meditations," an abstract of the principles and maxims of the Stoic philosophy, written in the author's leisure moments, to console and uphold" him in the hour of trial. It has been called the mirror of a soul overflowing with love for humanity. The suggestions in the "Meditations" are undoubtedly the principles by which the author's whole life was guided. In the first book he names his various teachers, and tells what he has learned from each of them. He thanks the gods that he had a good father, mother, and other kind relatives, and that he never caused them uneasiness. He also gives thanks for a wife loving, kind, and true ; but history, unfortunately, proves that Faustina was the very reverse, and critics are at a loss whether to attribute his statements to gallantry or blindness. 58 WTERATURE OF Ail, NATIONS. The Vanity of Man's Life. Art thou in love with men's praises, get thee into the very soul of them, and see ! — see what judges they be, even in those matters which concern themselves. Wouldst thou have their praises after death, bethink thee, that they who shall come hereafter, and with whom thou wouldst survive by thy great name, will be but as these, whom here thou hast found so hard to live with. For of a truth, his soul who is aflutter upon renown after death, presents not this aright to itself, that of all whose memory he would have each one will like- wise very quickly depart, and thereafter, again, he also who shall receive that from him, until memory herself be put out, as she journeys on by means of such as are themselves on the wing but for a while, and are extinguished in their turn. — Making so much of those thou wilt never see ! It is as if thou wouldst have had those who were before thee discourse fair things concerning thee. To him, indeed, whose wit hath been whetted by true doc- trine, that well-worn sentence of Homer sufl&ceth, to guard him against regret and fear — Like the race of leaves The race of man is : — The wind in autumn strews The earth with old leaves : then the spring the woods with new endows — Leaves ! little leaves ! — thy children, thy flatterers, thine ene- mies ! Leaves in the wind, those who would devote thee to darkness, who scorn or miscall thee here, even as they also whose great fame shall outlast them. For all these, and the like of them, are born indeed in the spring season, and soon a wind hath scattered them, and thereafter the wood peopleth itself again with another generation of leaves. And what is common to all of them is but the littleness of their lives : and yet wouldst thou love and hate, as if these things should continue forever. In a little while thine eyes also will be closed, and he on whom thou perchance hast leaned thy- self be himself a burden upon another. GREBK UTBRATURE. 59 Bethink thee often of the swiftness with which the things that are, or are even now coming to be, are swept past thee : that the very substance of them is but the perpetual motion of water ; that there is almost nothing which continueth : and that bottomless depth of time, so close at thy side. It is folly to be lifted up, or sorrowful, or anxious, by reason of things like these ! Think of infinite matter, and thy portion — ^how tiny a particle of it ! of infinite time, and thine own brief point there ; of destiny, and the jot thou art in it ; and yield thyself readily to the wheel of Clotho, to spin thee into what web she will. As one casting a ball from his hand, the nature of things hath had its aim with every man, not as to the, ending only, but the first beginning of his course, and passage thither. And hath the ball any profit of its rising, or loss as it de- scendeth again, or in its fall ? or the bubble, as it groweth or breaketh on the air ? or the flame of the lamp, from the be- ginning to the ending of its brief history ? All but at this present that future is, in which nature, who disposeth all things in order, will transform whatsoever thou now seest, fashioning from its substance somewhat else, and therefrom somewhat else in its turn, lest the world should grow old. We are such stuff" as dreams are made of — disturb- ing dreams. Awake, then ! and see thy dream as it is, in comparison with what erewhile it seemed to thee. And for me, especially, it were well to mind those many mutations of empire in tin^e past ; therein peeping also upon the future, which must needs be of like species with what hath been, continuing ever within the rhythm and number of things which really are ; so that in forty years one may note of man and his ways little less than in a thousand. Ah ! from this higher place, let us look down upon the shipwrecks and the calm ! Consider, for example, how the world went under the Emperor Vespasian. They are married and given in marriage, they breed children; love hath its way with them ; they heap up riches for others or for themselves : they are murmuring at things as then they are ; they are seeking for great place; crafty, flattering, suspicious, waiting upon the death of others — festivals, business, war, sickness, dissolu- 6o I,ITERATXJR5 OP AI,I, NATIONS. tion : and now their whole life is no longer anywhere at all. Pass on to the reign of Trajan : all things continue the same : and that life also is no longer anywhere at all. Ah ! but look again, and consider one after another, as it were the sepulchral inscriptions of all peoples and times, according to one pattern — ^What multitudes, after their utmost striving — a little after- wards ! — were dissolved again into their dust. Think again of life as it was far off in the old time ; as it must be when we shall be gone ; as it is now among the bar- barians. How many have never heard your names and mine, or will soon forget them ! How s6on may those who shout my name to-day begin to revile it, because glory, and the memory of men, and all things beside, are but vanity — a sand- heap under the senseless wind, the barking of dogs, the quar- reling of children, weeping incontinently upon their laughter. This hasteth to be ; that other to have been : of that which is now coming into existence, even now somewhat hath been extinguished. And wilt thou make thy treasure of any one of those things? It were as if one set his love upon the swallow, as it passeth out of sight through the air I Bethink thee often, in all contentions public and private, of those whom men have remembered by reason of their anger and vehement spirit — those famous rages, and the occasions of them — the great fortunes and misfortunes of men's strife of old. What are they all now, and the dust of their battles? Dust and ashes indeed ; a fable, a myth, or not so much as that. Yes ! keep those before thine eyes who took this or that, the like of which happeneth to thee so hardly ; were so querulous, so agitated. And where again are they? Wouldst thou have it not otherwise with thee ? Consider how quickly all things vanish away — their bodily structure into the general substance of things ; the very mem- bry of them into that great gulf and abysm of past thoughts. Ah ! 'tis on a tiny space of earth thou art creeping through life — a pigmy soul carrying a dead body to its grave. Consider all this with thyself, and let nothing seem great to thee. Let death put thee upon the consideration both of thy body and thy soul — what an atom of all matter hath been distributed to thee; what a little particle of the tiniversal GRBEK WTBRATURB. 6l mind. Turn thy body about, and consider what thing it is, and that which old age, and lust, and the languor of disease can make of it. Or come to its substantial and casual quali- ties, its very type : contemplate that in itself, apart from the accidents of matter, and then measure also the span of time for which the nature of things, at the longest, will maintain that special type. Nay ! in the very elements and first con- stituents of things corruption hath its part — so much dust, humor, stench, and scraps of bone ! Consider that thy marbles are but the earth's callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; this silken robe but a worm's bedding, and thy purple an unclean fish. Ah ! and thy life's breath is not otherwise ; as it passeth out of matters like these, into the like of them again. For the one soul in things, taking matter like wax into its hands, moulds and remoulds — ^how hastily,! — beast and plant and the babe, in turn : and that which dieth hath not slipped out of the order of nature, but, remaining therein, hath also its changes there, disparting into those elements of which nature herself, and thou too, art compacted. She changes without murmuring. The oaken chest falls to pieces with no more complaining than when the carpenter fitted it together. If one told thee certainly that on the morrow thou shouldst die, or at the farthest on the day after, it would be no great matter to thee to die on the day after to-morrow, rather than to-morrow. Strive to think it a thing no greater that thou wilt die — not to-morrow, but a year, or two years, or ten years from to-day. I find that all things are now as they were in the days of our buried ancestors — all things sordid in their elementsj trite by long usage, and yet ephemeral. How ridiculous, then, how like a countryman in town, is he, who wonders at aught ! Doth the sameness, the repetition of the public shows, weary thee ? Even so doth that likeness of events make the spec- tacle of the world a vapid one. And so must it be with thee to the end. For the wheel of the world hath ever the same motion, upward and downward, from generation to generation. When, when, shall time give place to eternity? GREEK LITERATURE. PERIOD VIII. 300-1450 A.D. THE BYZANTINE PERIOD. ONSTANTINE, the first Christian emperor, removed the capital of the world-empire from Rome to Byzantium, henceforth to be called Constantinople. Though the court, with all its splendor and power, was thus transferred to a city where Greek was the vernacular, the change did not retard, it rather hastened, the decline of literature. The old Pagan mythology had been so closely interwoven with all Greek culture, and the mutual hostility of the two religions which had for over two centuries been struggling for mastery was so intense, that Christianity could triumph only by trampling on the noblest works of the Greek genius. Plato, in his "Republic," had condemned even Homer for immorality in his stories of the gods ; still more must Chris- tian teachers, so long as those gods were accepted as popular objects of worship, oppose the literature which gave them glory. The first preachers of the Gospel were chiefly rude and unlettered men, and appealed to the toiling multitude rather than to the learned. When Christianity, in spite of the opposition of the wise and noble, became dominant, these unlearned men were raised to places of honor, and used their influence to banish the venerable poets and sages from the schools and the minds of men. Meantime rude soldiers and politicians, utterly careless of religion, but ambitious of 62 GREEK UTERATURR. 63 power, were easily brouglit to profess the creed of the sove- reign. The gods of Olympus had already become objects of contempt to philosophers ; they were now rejected by the mass of the people. The literature, which had been permeated by their praises, entirely lost its attractiveness. Finally the Emperor Justinian prohibited the teaching of philosophy and closed the schools of Athens. The Greek language, spoken in Constantinople, had lost its Attic purity. The crowds which thronged the streets of the capital were of various races, and their barbarism infected the speech of the court. Oriental superstitions were mingled with the doctrines of Christ as well as with the discourses of the sophists. Heresies sprang up in the Christian Church, and much of its energy was spent in doctrinal controversy. The great library of Alexandria and the schools which had been established in connection with it were closed at the end of the fourth century by the edict of Theodosius. The Em- peror Julian received the infamous surname of the Apostate from his endeavor to restore Paganism and Greek philosophy to their former position of honor. The result was still more bitter antagonism between the old faith and the new. A similar renewal of strife occurred at Alexandria, and made Hypatia (in 415 a.d.) a martyr of philosophy. Much of the literature of the Byzantine period was theo- logical and controversial. This, however, does not belong to the domain of literature proper, any more than the Code of Laws which gives fame to the reign of Justinian. The chief occupation of the sophists in Constantinople was the cultiva- tion of rhetoric, and its highest achievements were fulsome eulogies of princes and generals. In Asia Minor there sprang up a new department of literature, which was probably due to Eastern influence. lamblichus, said to be a Syrian freedmah, had published about 120 A.D. a love story called "Babylonian. Adventures." After a considerable interval Heliodorus, who in his old age was a Christian bishop, related the loves of Theagenes and Chariclea in his "^thiopica," and Longus wrote the more celebrated "Daphnisand Chloe," called also "The Lesbian Tale," which has been the model of many modem romances. 64 WTBRAfURB OP AIX, NATIONS, The most voluminous department of the Byzantine period was that of historians of various grades, yet altogether rather plodding annalists and chroniclers than true historians de- serving to be separately distinguished. One may be named as being a lady of the imperial family, Anna Comnena (1083-1148). There were in Constantinople, as formerly in Alexandria, many grammarians, who, besides compiling grammars and dictionaries, wrote commentaries on the clas- sics, and thus preserved extracts or fragments from the noblest writings of antiquity. A few poems belong to this closing period of Greek liter- ature. Nonnus, said to be an Egyptian, wrote in the early part of the fifth century an epic on the conquest of India by Bacchus. It is a rehearsal of all the stories of this favorite deity in the old mythology. Much more interesting is the narrative poem of "Hero and Leander," which is attributed to Musaeus, a poet of the fourth or fifth century, but bearing a name associated with the very beginning of Greek liter- ature. This graceful pathetic poem has in the original but three hundred and forty lines. It has been expanded in the English translation by the two Elizabethan poets, Marlowe and Chapman. (See Volume IV., pp. 340-347.) GREEK ROMANCES. "if The exact origin of Greek romance is obscure. General consent ascribes it to the East, although there is a mingling of European ideas with Eastern imaginativeness, resulting in the romances as they are presented to us. The writers of this new development of Greek literature belonged to Asia Minor and its vicinity. Clearchus is credited to Cilicia, lamblichus and Heliodorus to Syria, and Achilles Tatius to Alexandria. Among the sophists and later Greek writers there was a pre- vailing tendency to ascribe their own compositions to famous writers of the remote past. Speeches were invented for Xeno- phon, orations for Demosthenes or Solon, and debates were invented as having been held between Alexander the Great and his generals. Stories of former periods, far removed from the actual life of the time, began to be embellished and to merge into the fantastic and impossible. Finally Greek intel- ligence found an outlet in fanciful love-scenes, intrigues, adventures and incidents. But the delineation of character and manners is an outgrowth of later times, and was never, except incidentally, attempted or attained by the Greek ro- mance writers. There is no necessity for the portrayal of human character till after the reader has begun to look with equanimity upon assaults of robbers, pirates and wild beksts, knowing well that there is a loophole of escape a little way ahead. One of the earliest writers of the so-called Greek romances was Antonius Diogenes, whose work entitled, " The Wonders beyond Thule," was epitomized by Photius, patriarch of Con- stantinople, in the ninth century. Next in order comes lam- blichus, whose work, " Babylonica," in sixteen books, was written in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The exact place of Xenophon of Ephesus in the list is not well ascertained. He vu— 5 65 66 LITERATURE OP AXI, NATIONS. is the author of the story of Antheia and Habrocomas. Very similar is the tale of Apollonius of Ty^^^- By far the most important of the romances ascribed to this period, is the "^thiopica" of Heliodoras, bishop of Tricca in Thess&ly. The burden of the story is that ' ' the course of true love never did run smooth." The hero is Theagenes, a Thessalian of noble birth, and the heroine Chariclea is a priestess of Diana at Delphi, who fall in love at first sight, and in due time elope together. They pass into the hands of pirates and robber chiefs, whom Chariclea' s beauty always inspires with a desperate love. No sooner are they delivered from one danger than they fall into another. At last they are carried captive by a band of Ethiopians, and are about to be sacrificed, one to the sun and the other to the moon, when a mark on Chariclea' s arm reveals her as the princess of the country to which they have been carried, and all ends happily in her marriage to Theagenes. Heliodorus excels in descriptive power. His descriptions of the bull-fight, the wrestling match, the Delphic profession, and the haunts of the pirates,- are especially celebrated. Next to Heliodorus in point of time comes Achilles Tatius of Alexandria, the author of "I^eucippe and Cleitophon." But far more celebrated is the pastoral love story of Daphnis and Chloe by I/ongus, a charmingly told, yet artificial tale, the scene of which is laid near Mitylene in the island of Lesbos. It is evidently the source of the pastoral romance which spread from Italy over Western Europe. The Sacrifice at Delphi. In the "^tMopica" of Heliodorus, otherwise known as the ro- mance of "Theagenes and Chariclea" Calasiris, a priest, tells how the lovers first met at a sacrifice in honor of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), the son of Achilles. This sacrifice was oflfered at Delphi by an embassy of ^nianians every fourth year at the time of the Pythian games. Neoptolemus was said to have been slain by Orestes, the son of Aga- memnon at the altar of Apollo at Delphi. The leader of the embassy on this occasion claimed descent from Achilles. The young leader of the embassy entered with an air and aspect truly worthy of Achilles. His neck straight and erect, GREEK WTERATURE. 67 his hair thrown back off his forehead ; his nose and open nos- trils giving signs of an impetuous temper ; his eyes of a deep blue, inclining to black, imparting an animated but amiable look to his countenance, like the sea smoothing itself from a storm into a calm. After he had received and returned our salutations, he said it was time to proceed to the sacrifice, that there might be sufficient space for the ceremonies which were to be per- formed to the Manes of the hero, and for the procession which was to follow them. "lam ready," replied Charicles, and rising, said to me, "if you have not yet seen Chariclea, you will see her to-day ; for, as a priestess of Diana, she will be present at these rites and the procession.' ' But I had often seen the young woman before ; I had sac- rificed and conversed with her upon sacred subjects. How- ever, I said nothing of it ; and, waiting for what might happen, we went together to the temple. The Thessalians had pre- pared everything ready for the sacrifice. We approached the altar ; the youth began the sacred rites ; the priest having ut- tered a prayer, and from her shrine the Pythoness pronounced this oracle : Delphians, regard with'reverential care, Both him the goddess-born, and her the fair ; " Grace" [charis] is the sound which ushers in her name, The syllable wherewith it ends is " Fame." [klea.J They both my fane shall leave, and oceans past. In regions torrid shall arrive at last ; There shall the gods reward their pious vows, And snowy chaplets bind their dusky brows. When those who surrounded the shrine heard this oracle, they were perplexed, and doubted what it should signify. Each interpreted it differently, as his inclinations and under- standing led him : none, however, laid hold of its trucmeaning. Oracles indeed, and dreams are generally to be explained only by the event. And besides, the Delphians, struck with the preparations which were making for the procession, hastened to behold it, neglecting or deferring any farther scrutiny into the oracular response. 68 LITERATURE OF AI