ily, and its inclination to extemporize some plausible explanation of the natural phenomena which awakened their attention, and, apparently, suggested the general course of invention and embellishment adopted by the poets, who were the historians, the theologians, and the only literary class of their period. Thus the early speculations and crude religious ideas assumed, in poetic hands, an exceedingly fanciful and marvelous garb; and their heroes, who succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of a new settlement, and in laying the foundation of their communities in a rude country filled with men and beasts almost equally wild and savage, were endowed by their grateful and admiring descendants with superhuman qualities, and wonder and reverence ascribed to them a descent from the gods.

2. A characteristic feature of Grecian heroic mythology is the number and mutual contests of these mythical heroes which indicate a leading characteristic of the nation-a disposition toward independence and decentralization. Every small community had its divine hero, and insisted on maintaining its government in its own hands. In the early times the immediate descendants of these local benefactors commonly obtained the sovereignty, more or less qualified, over their city and community. They all greatly respected the tie that bound them together in kinship as one race; but they never would permit it to deprive them of local independence. If they had a king he should be of their own tribe and choice; if they were ruled with harshness it should be only because they chose to submit to their own tyrant. They seldom permitted another community to manage their internal affairs. Various leagues were early formed among contiguous cities or states closely related by origin; but they dealt only in matters of common interest, and if one city or king was acknowledged as the head, it was only in a general sense for the sake of realizing some general plan.

3. This instinctive and resolute refusal to accept a centralized government was a new and important feature in the his

It was

tory of men in a civilized, or highly organized state. the direct opposite of that which characterized Asiatic and African civilization, and held the Greek race open to a spontaneous growth and a mental development which made them the benefactors of the human family. With less individuality and mental force, or a less favorable time and situation, it would have kept them forever barbarous; but time had matured them and the nations about them, and their restless spirit of inquiry and constant movement among themselves stood in the place of the foreign action and shock of races that proved so beneficial and necessary to the Asiatics. The Egyptian, Chinese and Hindoo peoples reached a certain point of well regulated order, apparently by an original impulse, and stopped; the Chaldean, Assyrian and Persian races kept in the stream of progress by a sort of mechanical or forcible stir and intermingling of races and civilizations; and the principle accomplished, in each case, all it was capable of. Time and progress then transferred the care of the best interests of mankind to intelligence as embodied in the Greek race. Without being conscious of such a high destiny, they fulfilled it with fidelity, and remained true to themselves and faithful to the impulses of their own minds until humanity required training of a different kind, and another race, receiving their mental culture, added to it administrative ability and carried the old world as high as it could possibly go on its ancient base.

4. It seems probable that about B. C. 2000, or in the time of Abraham, the progenitors of the Greeks reached that country from the highlands east of the Caspian Sea. Greece extends about 220 miles from north to south, and 160 from east to west, with a very irregular outline, and contains about 34,000 square miles, much of this being mountainous and barren. The separation of the different states by these mountain ranges much favored the disposition of the people to local independence, and formed a bold and hardy race. Access from three sides to the sea led to commerce and colonization, while

it brought them into frequent contact with the most civilized people of the east without endangering their independence, and the lofty mountains on the north were an effectual barrier to the irruption of the wild and wandering tribes of northern Asia and Europe. Early in the history of the Greeks colonies came from Egypt and Phenicia and introduced the arts of those countries, then the most civilized in the world. This was about the time that the Jewish nation was founded by Moses, and we can easily understand that the native intelligence of the Greeks and their teachable spirit, led them to profit greatly by this early light.

5. The most celebrated traditions of this people relate to an expedition by the collective young chivalry of Greece, called the "Argonautic," which indicates their enterprising spirit and early acquaintance with the sea, and also seems to have introduced the habit of planting colonies. Two wars against Thebes, in the central part of Greece, induced by the ambition and combinations of the kings of the various States, seem to have made much impression on the whole nation, while a combination of nearly all of its petty sovereigns, gathering an immense army, stated at 100,000 men, to punish an injury done to one of their number by the King of Troy, on the opposite coast of Asia, occupied ten years, and filled the whole country with confusion. This was soon followed by an event called the Return of the Heracleidæ, or descendants of Hercules a mythic hero of great celebrity-to their ancient dominion in the southern peninsula, called the Pelopenesus. It appears to have been attended by the migration of one tribe into the domains of another, which they forcibly dis possessed and produced the emigration of the conquered people into Asia, where they formed extensive colonies-independent-but preserving a love for their race, and forming an important element in Greek progress.

6. The commotions and miseries of this period and of subsequent times, which had their rise mainly in this, most of which were due to the restless ambition and personal quarrels

of their kings, came at length to disgust the spirited and progressive people with that form of government, and before the time that authentic history begins they had very generally set aside the kings and established a democracy; and where this was not the case, as in Sparta, the power of the kings became so limited that they were little more than leading magistrates in their respective cities. This was not often done by violent revolution, but generally in a quiet way, showing the steady and intelligent resolution of the people.

This rare nation knew how to adapt its governments to its needs. Not that everything went on without struggle or difficulty, nor that they did not share in the rude and sanguinary passions of their times. Their governments were often unsettled; there were frequent conflicts among aspirants for place and power in the state; they had a balance of power among the leading states to maintain; and the want of a strong central authority led to innumerable collisions and sometimes to desolating wars. But amidst all the confusion and imperfection of an early civilization they still maintained such an independence of any superior in each state that they could settle their internal affairs to suit themselves. They were yet uneducated men, in the enthusiastic young manhood of the world, but with spirit enough to be free.

7. That freedom had many defects. The true character of freedom was imperfectly apprehended in that age of the world. It was often violent; and much Grecian blood was shed by Greeks. It was frequently turbulent; and sometimes the strife of parties and factions did great injury to the welfare of the state. It was usually a restricted liberty in which all the inhabitants did not share, for the slave, the freedman, and the foreigner were admitted to no influence in the government, or in framing the laws; and there was always much oppression and injustice somewhere. It was not a well understood and well balanced liberty, as we comprehend it, but it left room for a large amount of free and spontaneous action. It made little account of the individual; that point was to be

learned and made duly prominent after the lapse of more than two thousand years. The Greek identified himself with his state. He would not have it large in order that each free citizen might have a personal influence in it. His public life was an education to him; and the very defects of his institutions fitted them more perfectly to meet the wants of that age than anything more complete could have done.

8. They developed rapidly under a system so free from restraint, coupled with a nature so ardent, and a thirst for knowledge so absorbing. Still it was at least two hundred years after they had re-arranged their primitive modes of gov ernment before they reached a degree of order and system that influenced them to record events as they passed, and observe the world outside of their state, and even then their most learned men wrote little. Men were absorbed in their private matters, or in the affairs of the state. They thought little of the future; they were devoting themselves diligently to the only means of education that existed in those days, intercourse and action. Their priesthood was quite different from what we found it in Chaldea and Egypt. They did not form a class, nor attempt to exercise an influence on government. They were appointed from the body of the citizens to offer sacrifices and conduct religious ceremonies. The high spirited and active minded Greeks were not fit subjects for the dominion of a priestly caste. Although Cecrops, an Egyptian, settled and civilized Athens, and introduced some of the social arrangements of his country, he did not plant the all-controlling priesthood. The Athenians, of all other Greeks, were the thoughtful, progressive intelligence of the nation. The poets compiled the genealogies and histories of the gods, the heroes, and the past records of the people. There was no other literature, there were no other sources of information but those from which the poets drew-tradition and inherited customs. Of these the poets explained the origin and reason, and no one thought of questioning their tales. They were supposed to be inspired; and their marvel