In Athens, where Books and Wits were ever busier then in any other part of Greece', I finde but only two sorts of writings which the Magistrate car'd to take notice of; those either blasphemous and atheisticall, or libellous. Thus the Books of Protagoras were by the Iudges of Areopagus commanded to be burnt, and himselfe banish't the territory for a Discourse begun with his confessing not to know whether there were Gods, or whether not? And against defaming, it was decreed that none should be traduc'd by name, as was the manner of Vetus Comadia', whereby we may guesse how they censur'd 1 In Athens, where Books and Wits were ever busier then in any other part of Greece-] He might remember the testimony of Velleius Paterculus to the pre-eminent distinction of Athens: "Una urbs Attica pluribus annis eloquentia, quam universa "Grecia, uberiusque floruit; adeo ut corpora gentis illius sepa "rata sint in alias civitates, ingenia vero solis Atheniensium "muris clausa existimes."-Hist. Rom. lib. I. in fine. Athens might not unaptly be described as the punctum saliens in vitello orbis.—Pindar is remarked by the same Historian to have been the only Greek writer of eminence who was not a native of Attica. Of all the Grecian Republics, Athens was the most popular in its forms and in its administration. Such was Florence among the free States of Italy, and the liberal Arts and the Muses adorned that City as their favourite residence, in preference to Venice under an austere and jealous Aristocracy. 2 The Books of Protagoras were by the Judges of Areopagus commanded to be burnt, and himselfe banisht the territory for a Discourse begun with his confessing not to know, whether there were Gods, or whether not? And against defaming it was decreed that Libelling: And this course was quick enough, as Cicero writes, to quell both the desperate wits of other Atheists, and the open way of defaming, as the event shew'd. Of other sects and opinions though tending to voluptuousnesse, and the denying of divine Providence they tooke no heede. Therefore we do not read that either Epicurus, or that libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynick none should be traduc'd by name, as was the manner of Vetus Comœdia, &c.] The first part of this passage is a translation from Cicero: "Protagoras-cùm in principio libri sic posuisset, "de Divis neque ut sint, neque ut non sint, habeo dicere, Athe"niensium jussu urbe atque agro est exterminatus, librique ejus " in concione combusti." &c. De Nat. Deorum: 1. 1. s. 23. "The Judges of Areopagus;" i. e. of Mars's Hill. Here is one among numberless instances of MILTON's scrupulous attention to propriety of phrase: "the Judges of the Areopagus," would have been as solecistical as "the Judges of the Westmin"ster Hall." Yet he defended an errour similar to this in the writers of Smectymnuus; for which he was smartly attacked in a Tract intitled, "A modest Confutation of a slanderous and scur"rilous Libell," &c. which was written in reply to one of his vindications of these anti-prelatical Ministers; where his Opponent says, 66 As you have censured the Remonstrants Poesie, so "in like manner you have justified a slip in the Smectymnuans "Philology; I mean, so weakly, not so malitiously, they mis"took a Bench for a Judge; or rather the place for the men: "Areopagi for Areopagita; and you make it good:" &c. p. 11. 4to. 1642. By Vetus Comadia, I conclude him to allude to these lines in Horace : "Successit vetus his Comœdia, non sine multa Epist. ad Pisones: v. 281. impudence utter'd3, was ever question'd by the Laws. Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old Comedians were supprest, though the acting of them were forbid; and that Plato commended the reading of Aristophanes, the loosest of › That libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynick impudence utter'd.] The "Cyrenaic rout," as he somewhere styles them, were the followers of Aristippus, who placed the supreme good in sensual pleasure.- Cynic impudence is from Diogenes Laertius: “ ἄλλως μὲν εὔτονος πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν, αιδήμων δὲ ὡς · πρὸς τὴν ΚΥΝΙΚΗΝ 'ΑΝΑΙΣΧΥΝΤΙΑΝ.” p. 164. fol. 1664. 66 4 That Plato commended the reading of Aristophanes, &c.] This might be taken from Petit, de Vita & Scriptis Aristophanis; who says, "Quod autem magis mirandum, Plato, tantus Socratis "propugnator, Dionysio regi Syracusano, statum reip. Athe“niensis, & linguam ex optimo autore perdiscere cupienti, Aristophanes Comadias misit, ut ex iis linguam et ingenium Athe"niensium simul cognosceret: quibus ille, licet Siculus, tantum profecit, ut Olympiadis 103 anno primo (qui illi ultimus vitæ fuit) Tragoediam docuerit Athenis; qua & victor evasit. Quin " & Antiochenus ille Johannes, ab oris ubertate Chrysostomus "cognominatus, Constantinopoleos patriarcha, fertur bonam partem "suæ facundiæ, tum vehementiæ in corripiendis vitiis, maxime "muliercularum, ex Aristophanis pæne quotidiana lectione "hausisse; cum ut Alexander olim Homeri poëma, sic sanctus "hic vir Aristophanis Comoedias pulvillo subdere solitus fuerit." MILTON seems to guard us against considering this anecdote of "holy Chrysostom's" fondness for the Plays of Aristophanes to rest on any solid foundation; and Menage expresses doubts still stronger. While vindicating himself for having been a reader of Rabelais, he remarks, in the Avis au Lecteur, prefixed to the second part of his Observations sur la Langue Françoise, that, "Clément Alexandrin cite à toute heure Aristophane. "S. Jan Chrysostome le lisoit continuellement, & le mettoit la "nuit sous son chevet, si on en croit Alde Manuce dans la Dédi them all, to his royall scholler Dionysius, is com→ monly known, and may be excus'd, if holy Chrysostome, as is reported, nightly studied so much the same Author and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into the stile of a rousing Sermon. That other leading City of Greece, Lacedæmon, considering that Lycurgus their Law-giver was so addicted to elegant Learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scattered workes of Homer, and sent the Poet Thales from Creet to prepare and mollifie the Spartan surlinesse with his smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among "cace des Oeuvres de ce Comique: car je ne say point d'auteur plus ancien qui ait fait mention de cette amitié de S. Jan Chry"sostome pour les Comédies d'Aristophane." Paris, 1676. We may indeed well suspect this often-repeated story to be but a paraphrase of what Diogenes Laertius relates of Plato using the Mimes of Sophron for a pillow (In Vit. Plat. Segm. 18.) with a fresh application to this Father of the Church. To be sure it is whimsical, that such Plays should become the favourite volume of a Saint. But in 1498, the date of the Aldine Edition of the Greek Comedian, such a circumstance would be regarded as no slight recommendation of the Authour, and was, we may readily conceive, the inducement to its introduction into a dedicatory Epistle of the Editio princeps of Aristophanes. 5 Lycurgus-was so addicted to elegant Learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scatter'd workes of Homer, and sent the Poet Thales from Creet to prepare and mollifie the Spartan surlinesse with his smooth songs and odes, &c.] This anecdote, so far as it regards Lycurgus and the Poems of Homer, is to be found in Ælian; Var. Hist. l. 13. c. 14. But since that Authour is silent as to this mission of the Cretan Poet to Sparta, them law and civility; it is to be wonder'd how muselesse and unbookish they were, minding we may conclude it to be clear, that it was Plutarch's Life of the Lacedæmonian Law-giver, that MILTON had now in his recollection ; the Biographer having related both these facts. Ένα δὲ των νομιζομένων ἐκει σοφων και πολιτικων, χάριτι και φιλία πείσας, απέστειλεν εἰς τὴν Σπάρτην, Θαλήτα, ποιητὴν μὲν δοκοῦντα λυρικῶν μελῶν, καὶ πρόςχημα τὴν τέχνην ταύτην πεποιημένον, ἔργῳ δὲ, α περ οἱ κράτιστοι των νομοθετῶν διαπραττόμενον. λόγοι γὰρ ἦσαν αἱ ᾠδαὶ πρὸς εὐπείθειαν καὶ ὁμόνοιαν ανακλητικοὶ διὰ μελῶν ἅμα καὶ ῥυθμῶν, πολὺ τὸ κόσμιον ἐχόντων και καταστατικον· ὧν ἀκροώμενοι κατεπραΰνοντο λεληθότως τὰ ἤθη, καὶ συνωκειοῦντο τῳ ζηλῳ των καλων ἐκ της επιχωριαζούσης τότε πρὸς ἀλλήλους κακοθυμίας· ὥστε τρόπον τινὰ τῳ Λυκουργῳ προδοποιειν τὴν παίδευσιν αυτων εκείνον. ἀπὸ δὲ της Κρήτης ὁ Λυκουργος ἐπί Ασίαν ἔπλευσεν, βουλόμενος (ὡς λέγεται) ταις Κρητικαῖς διαίταις, ευτελέσιν ουσαις καὶ αὐστηραις, τὰς Ιωννικὰς πολυτε λείας και τρυφὰς, (ως περ ἰατρὸς σώμασιν ὑγιεινοῖς ὕπουλα και νοσώδη) παραβαλών, ἀποθεωρῆσαι τὴν διαφορὰν των βίων καὶ των πολιτειων. εκεῖ δὲ καὶ τοις Ομήρου ποιήμασιν εντυχων πρῶτον, ὡς ἔοικε, παρὰ τοῖς ἐκγόνοις τοῖς Κλεοφύλου διατηρουμένοις, καὶ κατιδὼν ἐν αὐτοῖς τῆς προς ἡδονὴν καὶ ἀκρασίαν διατριβῆς τὸ πολιτικόν και παιδευτικὸν ουκ ἐλάτ τονος ἄξιον σπουδῆς αναμεμιγμένον, ἐγράψατο προθύμως, καὶ συνήγαγεν ὡς δεῦρο κομιών. ἦν γὰρ τις ἤδη δόξα των επών ἀμαυρὰ παρὰ τοῖς Ελλησιν· ἐκέκτηντο δὲ οὐ πολλοὶ μέρη τινὰ σποράδην τῆς ποιήσεως ὡς ἔτυχε διαφερομενής· γνωριμὴν δὲ αὐτὴν και μάλιστα πρῶτος ἐποιήσε Λυκούργος. Op. Omn. I. 41. Rualdi Edit. fol. 1624. I have extracted this passage because some have confounded "the Poet Thales" with the Milesian Sage of the same name. Among others, the learned Hofmann, who in his Lexicon Universale states, that Solon sent the Lyric Poet of Crete to soften and refine the Spartans, whom (he says) the discipline of Lycurgus had rendered too rugged in their manners: see the article THALES. Plutarch, it is true, represents that a conference took place between the Athenian conditor Legum and the Sage before |