BOOK III.

HISTORY OF GREECE.

FROM THE EARLIEST LEGENDS TO THE DIVISION OF ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE.

CONTRAST BETWEEN ASIA AND EUROPE.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MYTHICAL AGE OF GREECE.

Some time let gorgeous Tragedy

In scepter'd pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine.-MILTON.

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CONTRAST OF ASIATIC

DESPOTISM AND GRECIAN LIBERTY-SURVEY OF THE WESTERN WORLD-GREECE AND ROME THEIR PART IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY-EARLIEST POPULATION OF GREECE AND ITALY-THE PELASGIAN RACE-DESCRIPTION OF GREECE -THE HELLENIC RACE AND ITS FOUR DIVISIONS-EARLIEST TRADITIONS-STORIES OF EGYPTIAN AND PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS-THE ALPHABET-HOW HISTORY DEALS WITH THE MYTHICAL LEGENDS THEIR CHARACTER AND CONSTRUCTION-LEGENDS OF THE GODS-JOVE AND THE OLYMPIC DEITIES-APOLLO AND THE ORACLE AT DELPHI -LEGENDS OF THE HEROES-HERCULES-THESEUS-MINOS-THE ARGONAUTS-STORY OF THEBES-THE TROJAN WAR-THE HOMERIC POEMS.

As we trace the history of the great Empires of the East, we feel the painful sense of something wanting to the happiness, nay, to the very social life, of humanity. That something is the spirit of individual freedom, creating its own proper sphere of action in a free state. Just as a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things that he hath, so the true life of our race could not be satisfied by the material wealth and civilization which flourished on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates, much less by the splendour of their empires. The very regions themselves are a type of their inhabitants. The torrid climate and the vast masses of land seem to require a fresher air and greater freedom of intercourse, to rouse the people to vigorous life. These boundless tracts lie ever open to the march of a conquering despot, for whose enrichment the fertile soil yields her produce to the labour of a subject population.

The spell of despotism, which so early mastered Asia, could only be broken by some hardier power, or dispelled by the infusion of a healthier moral tone. Both means were tried, and both were permitted to fail. The Hebrew commonwealth, which might have taught these nations the true liberty of a pure religion, fell into their slavery by forsaking its own privileges. The hardier and freer races, which poured down from the table-land of Iran, had already succumbed to despotic power, and soon paid dear for their conquest by sinking into the state of the conquered nations.