foundation of that civilisation which Greece attained with their aid, and afterwards diffused throughout the world.

The letters and religion of Greece were both derived from foreigners, though on being received they were stamped with the Grecian brand, and, as it were, separated and distinguished from the sources from which they were taken. The lively imagination of the Greeks soon added to the number of divinities imported, by personifying the sciences and the arts, and by typifying wisdom, beauty, and love. The oracles, festivals, and games were especially Grecian institutions, based on the religion that was borrowed, but as original ideas emanating therefrom. The games combined together a variety of objects-religious, festive, and political-but bearing in every aspect a character peculiarly Greek and national. The wandering minstrelsy of Greece was, if we may so call it, another institution peculiar to the country; or, if borrowed, it was derived possibly from countries very far to the east, such as Persia and India, where some traces of it may yet be met. with. Still more peculiar to Greece were the gardens or groves of the philosophers, in which an alley of trees or a shrub of flower-plants separated from each other distinct systems of thought and the most radical diversities of opinion. Great things were achieved in these quiet retreats, but not without great exertions of the brain. The free institutions of Greece were peculiarly adapted for the fullest expansion of the mind, and the prodigious efforts made towards that end were crowned with the greatest success. In no country, either of ancient or modern times, was the mind better developed than in Greece. Not only have the poems of Homer never been rivalled; we have no historians to place side by side with Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon; no philosophers (notwithstanding their antiquated notions and erroneous methods of reasoning) to take the precedence of Socrates, Plato, and Pythagoras; scarcely any dramatist besides Shakespere to rival Sophocles, Euripides, and Eschylus. Most of the arts, also, were cultivated by the Greeks with the greatest success.

The finest statues the world could boast of were those executed amongst them; it is said of the Venus of Praxiteles that the gazers believed that the marble moved and was about to speak, which induced many to apply their lips to those of the statue, taking it for a living form. Of painting, the Greek islands produced more and better artists than all the rest of the world taken together; and of architecture, the most approved styles to this day are those which have been borrowed from the Grecian school.

Nor was Greece very backward in general matters of practical usefulness. As a mercantile power she rose in importance from the destruction of Tyre; and understood her business so well that even the horrors of civil war were never allowed to interrupt her commercial activity, every species of merchandise being, by common consent, allowed to be conveyed with safety through states at feud with each other. The ambulatory commerce of Greece was particularly extensive, and almost incredible journeys were performed by merchants in carrying it on. The communications between the interior of Asia and the eastern parts of Europe had been open ever since the remotest periods of antiquity, and caravans from Greece penetrated almost to the borders of China with the produce of the West, coming back laden, in return, with all the riches of the countries they passed through. In connection with these operations we stumble over the first notions of bills of exchange in the ancient world. Isocrates mentions the instance of a trader who had come to Athens with some grain, having delivered a draft of this nature for money due to him in some place on the Euxine Sea, which was taken up without difficulty, the parties on both sides appreciating fully the advantage which exempted their money from exposure on a sea covered with corsairs and pirates.

What, however, pre-eminently distinguished the Greeks from all the nations that preceded them, were their political institutions, which were peculiarly their own. The first monarchical form of government may have been borrowed by them from, or adopted in imitation of, the institutions

in force in other countries; but the changes subsequently introduced owed their origin to the spirit of the nation, and kept pace with it as it was gradually developed. The people, as distinguished from their rulers, appeared in everything from the earliest ages; the right of making peace or war belonged exclusively to them at all times, almost in all places: and in this mob-importance consisted the whole secret of their aggrandizement. The migrations and wars of the ruder tribes, under the guidance of the Heraclidæ, threatened at one time to deface this distinctive feature; but, fortunately, even those ruder tribes participated in the same general love for independence, and the final result of the disturbances was the stable foundation of republicanism everywhere, in the place of hereditary government. The chivalrous spirit of the nation had been aroused at an earlier age—namely, in that of the Argonautic expedition and the Trojan war. To it was now added the love of political freedom, and these two elements together formed the backbone of the national character. The feelings thus developed, originally encouraged by Homer, were cherished ever after by the ties of a common religion; by the habit of consulting the same oracle at Delphi; by the influence, such as it was, of the Amphictyonic Council; and by the public games. The hostile attempts of Persia to subjugate Greece early gave these feelings their full swing, just when such a swing to exercise them was absolutely needed. The greatness of Athens and Sparta was the natural consequence of the development this gave to their energy and strength. Unfortunately, a surfeit of success was followed by the dominance of party spirit of a local character in the place of real patriotism; and, when the national cause was sacrificed to isolated aggrandizement, the decline of the country became as precipitate as its elevation had been marvellous.

VOL. I.

L

CHAPTER IX.

ROME.

ROME is generally understood to have been named after Romulus, its founder; and Italy after Italus, a king of the Siculi. The main divisions of the country were-(1) Upper Italy, comprising the countries of Cisalpine Gaul, and Liguria; (2) Central Italy, consisting of Etruria, Latium, Campania, Umbria, Picenum, and Samnium; and (3) Lower Italy, or Magna Græcia, consisting of Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, and Calabria. The mountain-ranges in the country are two-namely, the Alps, which occupy Upper Italy, and separate it from the other contiguous kingdoms on the north; and the Apennines, which run down the central and lower divisions of the peninsula, and divide it into two almost equal parts. The whole length of the peninsula is well watered by a number of small rivers, of which the Po, the Adige, and the Tiber are the most important. The soil of the plains has always been famous for its fertility, and the productions are so various that they have obtained for the country the appellation of the garden of Europe; but the mountain-tracts, on the other hand, are almost altogether barren, or, at all events, admit of little cultivation only. The position of the country seemed to indicate it as the natural centre of trade; but that advantage was never sought for by the inhabitants, nor attained.

The first inhabitants of Italy were named Aborigines, being believed by some writers to have lived in the country from the beginning, and not to have derived their origin from any other nation; while other writers change the appellation into Aberrigines, which means that they were a wandering people, supposed to have rambled over from

other countries to Italy, where they lived by rapine. Among this tribe were reckoned the Umbri, the Siculi, and the Ausones, three of the most powerful races in the country; and from these were derived the Auranci, the Rutuli, and the Osci. The other ancient races were the Pelasgi, the Arcades, and the Tyrrhenians, all of Greek extraction, from whom were derived the Sabini, the ŒŒnotri, the Tarentini, the Calabri, and many others whom it is scarcely necessary to name. Of the origin of one ancient race, the Volsci, a very warlike people, no account is given; and of another, the Ligures, it is said that it cannot be definitely stated whether they were descended from the Greeks or the Gauls. The sacred writers conveniently get over all difficulties by asserting that Italy was first peopled by the descendants of Kittim, the fourth son of Javan, who, having spread themselves over Macedon, wandered thence to the coast of the Adriatic, and were tempted by the fruitfulness of Italy to cross over and settle in it. According to some of these authors, the first to cross over were the Etolians, after whom Italy was named; the Pelasgi, the Arcades, and other Greek races following after them, as they began to receive marvellous accounts of the richness of the country which invited them.

Of the history of Italy before the foundation of Rome, very little worth mention has been recorded. The Umbrians and Ligurians are both said to have had a great name at one time, but no details in regard to them are known till their wars with the Romans made them more famous. The same remark applies to the Etruscans (Etrurians), in regard to whom it is only known that they were for many ages masters of Umbria. Of the Latins, or the people of Latium, more circumstantial information is available, though a great part of it seems to be more or less fabulous. The names of three kings who reigned over them before the time of Eneas are given as Picus, Faunus, and Latinus, in the reign of the last of whom the Trojans are said to have arrived in Latium. At first Latinus