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the Grecian drama in attacking, under the veil of satire, existing institutions, politicians, philosophers, poets, and even private citizens by name, some idea may be formed from the following extract from "The Knights" of Aristoph'anes, in which a chorus of singers, coming upon the stage, thus commences an attack upon Cleon, a corrupt political demagogue who had gained such consideration by flattering the lower orders and railing at the higher, that he stood in the situa tion of head of a party.

THE POLITICAL DEMAGOGUE.

Scene: the public market-place of Athens.
Chorus.

Close around him, and confound him, the confounder of us all;
Pelt him, pummel him, and maul him; rummage, ransack, overhaul him;
Overbear him and outbawl him; bear him down, and bring him under.
Bellow like a burst of thunder, Robber'! harpy! sink of plunder'!
Rogue and villain'! rogue and cheat'! rogue and villain, I repeat'!
Oftener than I can repeat it, has the rogue and villain cheated.
Close around him, left and right, spit upon him, spurn and smite :
Spit upon him as you see; spurn and spit at him like me.
But beware, or he'll evade you, for he knows the private track
Where Eu'crates was seen escaping with his mill-dust on his back.
Cleon.

Worthy veterans of the jury, you that, either right or wrong,
With my threepenny provision I've maintained and cherished long,
Come to my aid! I'm here waylaid-assassinated and betrayed.

Chorus.

Rightly served'! we serve you rightly, for your hungry love of pelf;
For your gross and greedy rapine, gormandizing by yourself;
You that, ere the figs are gathered, pilfer with a privy twitch
Fat delinquents and defaulters, pulpy, luscious, plump, and rich;
Pinching, fingering, and pulling-tempering, selecting, culling,
With a nice survey discerning which are green and which are turning,
Which are ripe for accusation, forfeiture, and confiscation.

Him, besides, the wealthy man, retired upon an easy rent,

Hating and avoiding party, noble-minded, indolent,

Fearful of official snares, intrigues, and intricate affairs;

Him you mark; you fix and hook him, while he's gaping unawares;

At a fling, at once you bring him hither from the Chersonese,

Down you cast him, roast and baste him, and devour him at your ease.

Cleon.

Yes'! assault', insult', abuse' me! this is the return I find

For the noble testimony, the memorial I designed:

Meaning to propose proposals for a monument of stone,

On the which your late achievements should be carved and neatly done.

Chorus.

Out, away' with him! the slave'! the pompous, empty, fawning knave'!

Does he think with idle speeches to delude and cheat us all,
As he does the doting elders that attend his daily call' ?
Pelt him here, and bang him there; and here, and there, and every where.

Cleon.

Save me, neighbors'! Oh the monsters! Oh my side, my back, my breast'! Chorus.

What! you're forced to call for help'? you brutal, overpowering pest'! [Cleon is pelted off the stage, pursued by the Chorus. Aristophanes: translated by MR. FRERE.

LESSON X.-THE OLYMPIAN GAMES.

[The Olympian Games, which were celebrated at Olympia, in Greece, every fifth year, consisted of horse and foot races, leaping, throwing, wrestling, and boxing, and other athletic exercises. The following description of a chariot-race is from one of the tragedies of Sophocles, translated by Bulwer. Orestes had gained five victories on the first day, and on the second he starts with nine competitors in the chariot-race: an Achæan, a Spartan, two Libyans, an Ætolian, a Magnesian, an Enian, an Athenian, and a Baotian. The great art of the charioteer consisted in turning as close as possible to the goals, but without running against them or against the other chariots.]

THE CHARIOT-RACE, WITH THE DEATH OF ORESTES.
1. THEY took their stand where the appointed judges
Had cast their lots and ranged the rival cars.
Rang out the brazen trump! Away they bound!
Cheer the hot steeds and shake the slackened reins;
As with a body, the large space is filled
With the huge clangor of the rattling cars;
High whirl aloft the dust-clouds; blent together
Each presses each, and the lash rings, and loud
Snort the wild steeds, and from their fiery breath,
Along their manes, and down the circling wheels,
Scatter the flaking foam.

2.

Ores'tes still,

Aye,' as he swept around the perilous pillar
Last in the course, wheeled in the rushing axle,
The left rein curbed-that on the outer hand
Flung loose.

So on erect the chariots rolled!
Sudden the Eenian's fierce and headlong steeds
Broke from the bit, and, as the seventh time now
The course was circled, on the Libyan car

Dashed their wild fronts: then order changed to ruin :
Car dashed on car: the wide Crissæan plain

Was, sea-like, strewn with wrecks: the Athenian saw,
Slackened his speed, and, wheeling round the marge,
Unscathed and skillful, in the midmost space,
Left the wild tumult of that tossing storm.

3. Behind, Orestes, hitherto the last,

Had kept back his coursers for the close;
Now one sole rival left-on, on he flew,
And the sharp sound of the impelling scourge
Rang in the keen ears of the flying steeds.

He nears-he reaches-they are side by side;
Now one-now th' other-by-a length the victor.
The courses all are past-the wheels erect-
All safe-when, as the hurrying coursers round
The fatal pillar dashed, the wretched boy
Slackened the left rein. On the column's edge
Crashed the frail axle-headlong from the car,
Caught and all mesh'd within the reins, he fell;
And, masterless, the mad steeds raged along!
4. Loud from that mighty multitude arose

A shriek-a shout! But yesterday such deeds-
To-day such doom! Now whirled upon the earth;
Now his limbs dashed aloft, they dragged him-those
Wild horses-till, all gory, from the wheels
Released and no man, not his nearest friends,
Could in that mangled corpse have traced Orestes.
They laid the body on the funeral pyre,

And while we speak, the Phocian strangers bear,
In a small, brazen, melancholy urn,

That handful of cold ashes to which all

The grandeur of the beautiful hath shrunk.
Within they bore him-in his father's land
To find that heritage-a tomb.

1 AYE (pronounced a), always; ever. [Used in this sense only in poetry.]

LESSON XI.-THE LATTER DAYS OF GRECIAN HISTORY.

1. ABOUT fifty years after the battle of Plata'a the Grecians became involved in a series of domestic contests, called the "Peloponnesian Wars," which continued, with occasional intervals of peace, until Philip, king of Macedon, by the successful battle of Chærone'a, broke up the feeble Grecian confederacy, and soon after succeeded in inducing the conquered states to elect him commander-in-chief of all the Grecian forces. It was while Philip was plotting against the liberties of Greece that his intrigues called forth from the Athenian Demosthenes, the greatest of Grecian orators, those famous "Philippics" which have immortalized both the orator and the object of his invectives.

2. Alexander the Great, the son and successor of Philip, carried out the plans of his father by a successful invasion of the Persian dominions; but on his death, in the thirty-third year of his age (B.C. 324), the vast empire which he had so suddenly built up was as suddenly broken in pieces, and the Grecian states again became a prey to civil dissensions, which were terminated only by the subjugation of all Greece to the dominion of the Romans, in the year 146 before the Christian

era. This point is the proper termination of Grecian history; for, as rivers flow into the sea, so does the history of all the nations known to have existed previously in the regions round the Mediterranean, terminate in the history of Rome."

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3. With the loss of her liberties the glory of Greece passed away. Her population had been gradually diminishing since the period of the Persian wars; and from the epoch of the Roman conquest the spirit of the nation sunk into despondency, and the energies of the people gradually wasted, until, at the time of the Christian era, Greece existed only in the remembrance of the past. Then, many of her cities were desolate, or had sunk to insignificant villages, while Athens alone maintained her renown for philosophy and the arts, and became the instructor of her conquerors; large tracts of land, once devoted to tillage, were either barren, or had been converted into pastures for sheep and vast herds of cattle; while the rapacity of Roman governors had inflicted upon the sparse population impoverishment and ruin.

LESSON XII.-EARLY ROMAN HISTORY.

1. THE early history of Rome, as recorded by Livy and other early writers, from the period of the supposed founding of the city by Romulus, about the year 753 B.C., down to the banishment of the Tarquins and the abolition of royalty, 510 B.C.—and even perhaps a century or two later-is of very doubtful authenticity, and was probably compiled from legendary poems that had been transmitted from generation to generation, and often rehearsed, to the sound of music, at the banquets of the great.

2. The historian Macaulay has aimed to reconstruct some of these poetic legends, which he has given to the world under the title of "Lays of Ancient Rome," and which are supposed to have been recited by ancient minstrels who were in no wise above the passions and prejudices of their age and country. It is stated by all the Latin historians that, a few years after the expulsion of the Tarquins for their despotism and crimes, the neighboring Etruscans, to which nation they belonged, endeavored to restore the tyrants to power, and came against Rome with an overwhelming force. The Romans, repulsed at first, fled across a wooden bridge over the Tiber, when the Roman consul ordered the bridge to be destroyed, to prevent the enemy from entering the city. The

continuation of the legend is supposed to have been narrated by one of the Roman minstrels, as given in the following lesson, at a period one hundred years later than the events there recorded.

LESSON XIII.-THE STORY OF HORATIUS.

1. BUT the consul's brow was sad,

And the consul's speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe.
"Their van will be upon us

Before the bridge goes down;
And if they once may win the bridge,
What hope to save the town?"

2. Then out spoke brave Horatius,
The captain of the gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers

And the temples of his gods?

3. "Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.

Now, who will stand on either hand,

And keep the bridge with me?"

Two brave Romans, Spurius Lartius and Herminius, responded to the call of their comrade; and the three, with arms in hand, sprang forward to defend the passage, while others hastened to cut away the props that supported the bridge.

4. Meanwhile the Tuscan army,

Right glorious to behold,

Came flashing back the noonday light,
Rank behind rank, like surges bright

Of a broad sea of gold.

Four hundred trumpets sounded

A peal of warlike glee,

As that great host, with measured tread,
And spears advanced, and ensigns spread,
Rolled slowly toward the bridge's head,
Where stood the dauntless three.

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