any of language which distinguish this great poet, and his peculiar claims to the distinction he has acquired; a few remarks will be sufficient to indicate the opinion we have ourselves adopted. To estimate his claims we need not go back to the period in which he lived, and compare his style of poetic composition with the then rude state of society. His genius would irradiate -country, however advanced in refinement, and however exalted in intellectual improvement. Virgil, Dante, Tasso, Shakspeare, Milton and Byron, have respectively thrown a brilliant light over the ages in which they lived, and have gained a never-dying reputation, and a never-fading crown, more splendid than that which adorns the victor's brow, yet they have not surpassed him in the various requisites of a poet, notwithstanding all the advantages of education and of refined and polished society. Homer was nature's poet, endowed with a mind capable of grasping every subject he examined, and a bold and fertile imagination, which he exercised in describing scenes and events in the most glowing and animated style; his language, like that of Shakspeare, is suited to his subjects no less accurately than the actions and sentiments of his heroes are to their characters. Hence it is, that we enter into all the feelings of the different actors, in the interesting scenes he paints so vividly, and the actions he describes, and feel ourselves irresistibly moved to lament the unhappy fall of the ill-starred house of Priam. The place that contains the ashes of Homer, is equally uncertain with that which gave him birth. Altars and temples were, however, erected in honor of him in various cities, and divine honors were paid him. Among the most distinguished monuments to his memory was a temple erected by Ptolomy Philopater, in which a statute was placed, surrounded by the representation of the seven cities that contended for the honor of his birth. The period in which Hesiod flourished is uncertain; the most generally received opinion, however, is that of Herodotus, namely, that he was contemporary with Homer. Of his poems two only have reached us entire; one entitled the "Works and Days," the other the "Theogony, or the birth of the Gods," together with a fragment of the "Shield of Hercules." The poem entitled "Works and Days" is divided into three parts, mythological, moral and didactic. In the first he relates to the fable of Pando ra, and gives a description of the several ages of the world, which he divides into five, namely, the age of gold, the age of silver, the age of brass, the age of demigods and heroes, which we call the heroic age, and the age of iron. The second part contains many moral reflections addressed to his brother Perseus, with whom he had had a dispute about the paternal inheritance; the third part appears to be principally intended for husbandmen, being a kind of treatise on agriculture, containing many useful precepts and instructions, suited to the then state of agriculture, intermixed with moral reflections arising from the contemplation of the works of nature.* Hesiod gave The useful lesson how to till the earth, And marked the seasons, when to sow the grain And when to reap From this work Virgil is supposed to have received the first idea of the Georgics. In his "Theogony" he treats of the genealogy of the gods, and the creation of the world, and advances opinions which modern philosophers, in the present advanced state of science, would consider absurd and ridiculous. He believed that "first of all existed Chaos; next in order the broadbosomed Earth, and then appeared Love, the most beautiful of immortals. From Chaos sprung Erebus and dusky Night, and from Night and Erebus sprung Ether and smiling Day. But first the Earth produced the starry Heavens, commensurate with itself, and the barren sea; then combined with heaven she bore the tremendous Titans. Then were born to heaven and earth, thunder, lightning and the flaming bolt, besides eruption, hurricane and earthquake." However absurd this theory may appear, it is at least as rational and plausible as the theories of many modern philosophers, particularly as that of De Maillet, who was of opinion that man began his career as a fish, or that of Kepler, who considered the earth to be possessed of living faculties and a circulating vital fluid; that all the particles of it are alive and possess instinct and volition; that the organs through which the large animal breathes are the mountains, and that mineral veins are abcesses, and metals the product of rottenness and disease. The fame of Hesiod among *Cours de Litterature par La Harpe, tome 1, p. 195, his countrymen was not founded solely upon his claims to the character of a philosopher; his poetical talents, which were held in high estimation, conferred upon him greater distinction. His poetry, if it does not possess the energy and sublimity of Homer, is pronounced by competent judges to be remarkable for ease and elegance of diction. He is said to have divided the public applause with Homer, and even to have borne off the prize of poetry in a contest at the funeral obsequies of Amphidamas. This story is denied by La Harpe, who, being extremely jealous of the reputation of Homer, attributes its invention to his enemies, who were envious of his fame.* During the period which intervened from the age of Homer and Hesiod, to that of Thespis, when dramatic poetry was introdu ced, poetical compositions were almost exclusively confined to the ode, or lyric poetry, so called from its being intended to be sung, accompanied by the music of the lyre. "In the ode," observes Dr. Blair, "poetry retains its first and most ancient form; that form under which the original bards poured forth their enthusiastic strains, praised their gods and their heroes, and celebrated their victories." The most celebrated poets of the abovementioned period, are Archilocus, Tyrtaus, Alcæus and Sappho. Archilochus was a poet of Paros, who flourished about 716 years before the Christian era. He wrote many elegies, odes, satires and epigrams, and was the inventor of that species of verse called Iambic. He is mentioned by Herodotus† as having written some Iambic verses on the murder of Candaules, king of Lydia, who had imprudently exposed his wife to the view of Gyges, one of his ministers. Although his poetical compositions are said to have been of so licentious a character, as to cause his banishment from Lacedemon, yet they are pronounced by Quintillian to have been remarkable for their ingenuity, their elegance of style, and energy of language. He wrote so severe a satire on Lycambus, who refused him, his daughter. in marriage, that the unhappy man hung himself in despair. This circumstance is mentioned by Horace, in his epistle to Mæcenas, in the first book. Parios ego primus iambos Ostendi Latio; numeros animosque secutus * Cours de Litterature, tome 1, p. 195. + Clio. ch. 12. Horace again speaks of him in his "Art of Poetry:" Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo: De Art. Poet. 79. Archilochus, with fierce resentment warm'd, Francis. Tyriaus was a poet of Attica, and flourished about 680 years before Christ, of whose compositions nothing remain but the fragments of a few elegies. The most remarkable circumstance in the life of this poet, is, his appointment of general in the Lacedemonian army. In the second Messenian war, the Lacedemonians being hard pressed by the Messenians under their heroic commander Aristomines, consulted the oracle, who directed them to apply to the Athenians for a general. They did so, and the Athenians sent them the poet Tyrtaus, who had borne arms, it is true, but had never attained any distinction as a soldier, nor commanded as a general-he was sent more in derision, than with any expectation that he would retrieve the fallen fortunes of Sparta. He repaired, however, to the Spartan camp, where he found the troops dispirited by repeated defeats and disasters, and ready to fly before the victorious Aristomines. Tyrtæus possessed neither skill nor experience as a commander, but he and so raised the drooping spirits, and roused the dormant courage of the Spartans, that they defeated the Messenians, and recovered their wonted energies. Such was the power of poetry and music, and such the influence of the sacred character of the bard. Tyrtaus was afterwards made a citizen of Lacedemon, and treated with great consideration and attention. Alcaus was a lyric poet of Mitylene, in the island of Lesbos, and lived about 600 years before Christ. Of all his works, but a few fragments remain. Quintillian, on whose judgment we have already had occasion to rely, praises him for the boldness of his satire, and the moral tendency of some of his writings, but acknowledges that he is sometimes too licentious—a fault which seems to attach to almost all the ancient poets, and from which even the polished and courtly Horace, who lived in a more refined age, was not exempt. He was contemporary with Sappho, and one of her ardent admirers. "Alcæus strung his sounding lyre, Chaunting the loud and lofty air." She, however, continued insensible, and rejected his address. Alcaus, although celebrated as a poet, was not, like some of his brother bards, distinguished as a warrior; he is said to have fled from the field of battle, leaving his armor, which nis enemies afterwards hung up in the temple of Minerva, as a monument of his disgrace. Sappho was born in the island of Lesbos, and was not only celebrated for her beauty and her poetical talents, but for an amorous and voluptuous disposition, which is clearly shown in the following fragment of a poem she addressed to her mother, who had probably endeavored to restrain her prevailing inclinations: Cease, dear mother, cease to chide, I can no more the golden shuttle guide, While Venus thus through every glowing vein, She composed nine books of odes and lyric verses, besides epigrams and elegies, which were extant in the time of Horace, who takes frequent occasion to speak of the poetess, who was called, on account of the splendor of her poetical genius, the tenth muse; thus in the 13th ode of the second book: |