his work.* A scrap of his verses,† which Virgil probably imitated, seems to correspond with this character, though, perhaps, the suavity of the original will be little recognised in translation: "The mountain-summits sleep, glens, cliffs, and caves, Are silent-all the black earth's reptile brood- Its monsters rest, whilst rapt in bower and spray Each bird is hush'd that stretch'd its pinions to the day.” Our regret for the loss of so much Greek lyric poetry may be fairly extended to productions of a much humbler character than those of Alcman and Archilochus. An ample preservation of their popular songs would have thrown incalculably amusing lights on their national manners. The multifarious character of their songs marks how much this gay people delighted in verse and vocal melody. Besides their war-songs, their love-songs, their songs for the bath and for convivial parties, they had strains allotted to almost every description of labour. The bakers, the reapers, the wool-combers, the weavers, the rowers at the oar, the drawers of water, the shepherds, the ploughmen, and the vine-dressers, had all their peculiar songs; so that their streets, and fields, and gardens, and harbours, must have constantly resounded with the notes of cheerful harmony. The hired servants sang a particular song as they went to their work. An ingenious antiquary has even found materials for a treatise on the strains of their beggars.¶ With speculations on this last species of poetry, however, it would, of course, not be very inspiring to the imagination to indulge ourselves; I shall, therefore, only attend to compositions where the peculiar beauty of Greek genius is visible, and in the remainder of my lecture, shall treat of their principal poets antecedent to the Attic Drama. (To be continued.) In an epigram describing the great lyric poets, preserved in Grotius's, and several other anthologies. ALCMAN. ‘Ευδουσιν δ' ορεων κορυφαί τε και φαραγγες Πρωνες τε και χαράδραι· Φυλα τε ερπετα θ' οσσα τρέφει μελαίνα γαία Θηρες ορησκωοι τε και γενος μελισσων· Και κνωδάλ' εν βενθεσσι Πορφυρας αλος εύδουσιν δ' οιωνών Φυλα τανυπτερυγων. In Virgil's celebrated description of night in the fourth Æneid, "Nox erat et placidum carpebant," &c. The hilarity of the ancient Greeks is marked in their very form of salutation. When they greeted a neighbour, they bade him rejoice; a Roman bade him be safe, or strong. Athenæus, xiv. p. 619. Ilgen's Poeseos mendicorum Græcorum specimina, &c. GREECE. THE diurnal press of Germany has lately presented the public with such an account of the progress and present state of the Grecian insurrection, as, when known, must, if correct, produce a very material alteration in the sentiments with which the existing struggle in Turkey has hitherto been regarded in this country. Our Continental neighbours, especially some of the most enlightened classes amongst the Germans, have been from the first all enthusiasm upon the subject of the emancipation of the Greeks, and bitterly reproach the English with the apathy which it is asserted they display, with their want of zeal for liberty, and of veneration for the name of Greece. These crimes, like most of those with which the British nation is so freely charged, are ascribed to its commercial spirit; and England is supposed to be induced to favour the Turks, by a prophetic jealousy of the future navy of independent Greece. Deep, indeed, would be our regret, could we apprehend that there was any foundation for such charges; and although the motive to which they are attributed is so truly laughable, that it appears almost absurd to say any thing in its refutation, the subject itself is too serious not to require notice. We, therefore, beg leave to offer to the accusers of our country a few words, in extenuation of this alleged lukewarmness of sympathy for the Greeks. We will not pause to dwell upon the results, or the nature of the recent Italian attempts at revolution, which have certainly not been encouraging to those who imagine, that a nation sunk in the lowest degradation of slavery, can at once throw off the brutifying effects of such a state, as the serpent his skin, and emerge bright, youthful, regenerated, capable of appreciating and rationally enjoying full and entire liberty-but proceed at once to European Turkey. The British public may have been misled by want of information, but from what has hitherto been known, there has been no reason to consider the point at issue any thing more than whether the Greeks should be slaves to the Turks, or to the Russians. Now, we do not mean to deny that it might be very desirable for the Greeks to effect a change of masters, by which they would be subjected to a nation professing the same religion with themselves, instead of a tribe of Mahometan Tartars;-who, after receiving from the oppressed Christian, by way of tax or tribute, the stipulated price of a license for each individual to wear-not hair-powder, but his own head upon his own shoulders for the year next ensuing, are, it is said, occasionally seized with conscientious scruples touching such compounding of infidelity; and when this occurs, in order to rectify their error, although they do not judge it requisite to return the money, they have recourse to hanging, impaling, and such other persuasive methods of conversion, as may leave the letter of the compact inviolate. We believe the orthodox Catholic argument by fire has never been adopted in that unenlightened country. But, though we allow that this transfer would have been a material improvement of the condition of the transferred, we cannot see that there was much in the business calculated to excite enthusiasm But either for liberty, or for the memory of the ancient Greeks. A general European crusade might, indeed, have been thought analogous to the circumstance of the actual oppression and wholesale murder of our fellow Christians by the Turks, and it would, perhaps, have been the most reasonable crusade that ever was undertaken. with respect to this country, when the enormous preponderance of Russia in Europe, (to say nothing of the Czar's late increase of power, as well as of influence in Asia, and of the consequent possible danger to the British empire in India) is considered, it is really expecting from England a degree of disinterestedness more usually found in romance than in ordinary life, to require that she should be very zealous in promoting and effecting such transfer. But if we may credit the statement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, this view of the condition and prospects of the modern inhabitants of Athens and Sparta was wholly founded in error. The question actually is, whether Greece shall or shall not once more exist as a free state, whether the Greeks do or do not possess resolution and resources sufficient to accomplish their own emancipation, the expulsion of their oppressors, and the establishment of their country's independence, if not absolutely unassisted, at least with no more aid than they may reasonably hope to derive from private and voluntary contributions and auxiliaries. The Grecian navy, we are here told, consists of one hundred and fifty vessels, mounting from fifteen to thirty-five guns, and of six hundred and fifty smaller craft. These vessels are almost entirely private property, and belong chiefly to wealthy merchants, established in the three small islands of Hydria, Spezia, and Psara. This navy has no admiral; it is commanded, as it is formed, in common; the authority exercised by the different proprietors and their deputies, being proportionate to the amount of their respective contributions. Does not this description recal to the reader's mind, the composition of the Grecian fleet that gained the battle of Salamis, and the ten-day-about generals, who led the Athenian troops to Marathon? Be that as it may, this navy, so collected and so conducted, has repeatedly defeated its antagonists, and is now, divided into four fleets, occupied in blockading the ports to which the discomfited Turkish ships have retired. This account is, it must be confessed, rather startling, from its extreme opposition to all our preconceived ideas; yet it may receive some confirmation, making due allowance for friendly exaggeration, from the information which has of late years been communicated by several intelligent travellers respecting the Grecian islands, whose condition has always been very different from that of the main land. In fact, it appears that the Turks have no insular propensities, and have therefore given themselves little concern about the Archipelago, beyond imposing and receiving tribute. The consequence of this fortunate indifference has been the superiority, in every respect, of the Greeks of the islands over their brethren of the continent. Not that it is meant to be insinuated, that even they bear any apparent traces of their relationship to their renowned predecessors, but they have long enjoyed a commercial prosperity, and an individual security and comfort, very beneficial to the human character, and wholly unknown to the slave under the immediate eye of a master. The land forces of the Greeks, we learn from the same authority, are also divided into four corps d'armée of from twenty to forty thousand men each, stationed in, and at present almost undisputably occupying the Peloponnesus, Etolía, and Thessaly, and, in conjunction with Ali Pasha, Epirus. The province of Thessaly is represented as being, from its geographical position, a point of the highest importance; and since it has been cleared from the Turks, the influence of the leaders who hold it, amongst whom we observe a modern Odysseus, has induced the neighbouring province of Macedonia to declare in favour of freedom. But a piece of intelligence which, if correct, is still more important than the numbers under arms, is, that the present insurrection had been long premeditated and organized, although the moment of its breaking out seems to have been determined, and probably was precipitated, by the attack made upon Ali Pasha by the Porte. We are told of a regular association previously instituted for the purpose of liberating Greece, called the Hetæria, though the date. of its establishment is not mentioned, which directs and governs the proceedings of the leading men, or Kapitanys. To explain the nature of these Kapitanys, and the constitution of the Grecian land forces, we must recur to the period of the Ottoman conquests. The mountainous districts of the country appear never to have been thought by the Turks worth the trouble of subduing; they were satisfied with securing the possession of the towns and plains. Naturally, all such Greeks as still valued their liberty withdrew to the mountains, where they arranged themselves in bands, under regular leaders, named Kapitanys: they have continued in that form ever since, subsisting chiefly by plunder; but we are assured that the Turks alone are exposed to their depredations, whilst they scrupulously abstain from robbing a Christian. The Pashas have found it most convenient to make terms with these Kapitanys; and in consideration of their nominal submission to the Porte, give them pay and provisions, committing to their superintendence districts designated by the term Armatolion. When the celebrated Ali first sought to make himself independent of the Porte, he courted the Capitanys, and induced many of them, with their bands, to enter his service. When he thought himself sufficiently strong, he began to assassinate the chiefs. The bands of his victims, and the surviving Kapitanys, were offended, and left him in anger. Accordingly, when the Porte last year sent an army to put down Ali, they very naturally lent a willing ear to the Ottoman general's invitation to join him against the common enemy, Ali. They did so join; and, in fact, formed the principal strength of the Grand Seignior's forces. But Turkish insolence and Mahometan intolerance did not permit this alliance to last. The Kapitanys were insulted, and one of their number was detained as a prisoner upon some old complaint. The other leaders, in high indignation, were about to rescue their comrade by force; but here the Heteria interposed, and restrained their violence, by an assurance that precipitate measures would ruin all their well founded hopes. The Kapitanys submitted to this representation, purchased the release of their friend by a pecuniary sacrifice, and then one and all left the Turkish camp, retiring with their troops to the mountains. Ali, who had been driven in great distress into Joannina, now found himself again able to cope with his enemies. He once more entered into negotiation with the Kapitanys. Common interest prevailed over former resentment; they accepted his overtures, he supplied them with money and arms, and the insurrection began. Ali remains at Joannina, and is at present a firm ally of the Greeks. His steady adherence to their cause is said to be insured by the influence of his favourite Grecian wife, Basilissa. Were this the only tie, did the durability of the alliance depend solely upon the conjugal affection-the constant attachment of such a personage as Ali, we should not expect much advantage from it; but the Greeks have a better hold upon their confederate. Whilst the Porte continues formidable, care for his own safety must secure his co-operation. All this sounds most encouragingly, and if we may believe the whole, or even one half-a half is the proportion of evil report pronounced in the School for Scandal" to be worthy of credit, and surely we are not to suppose that the exaggerations of kindness exceed those of malignity-if then, according to this canon of criticism, we are justified in believing half the foregoing statement, we may indulge hopes of the success of the Greeks, without incurring more ridicule than was heaped upon those who augured well of the efforts of the "universal Spanish nation;" for, if we cannot deny that the Greeks were in even a lower class of humanity than the Spaniards, it must be admitted, on the other hand, that the Grand Seignior is a somewhat different adversary from Bonaparte. And if there really does exist a rational hope of seeing Greece restored to the condition of an independent state, can there be found, within the limits of cultivated Europe, a bosom so cold, so dead to every generous, as well as to every classical recollection, that it does not glow with delight at the mere idea? With respect to England, she has already shown, in the cause of Spain, of what enthusiasm she is capable, in behalf of a people gallantly struggling against overwhelming force. And can she be indifferent towards Greece ?Greece, whose very name, in addition to all the sympathies called forth by Spain, awakes the tenderest sentiments of religion for martyred Christians, together with every ardent feeling of boyhood for the country of Leonidas, a Codrus, an Achilles, an Alexander, and of maturer years for the birth-place of Homer, Sophocles, Socrates, Xenophon, Demosthenes. Illustrious names come thronging rather upon the heart than upon the memory, from which it is painful to select, and whose numbers would overflow these pages. And yet, for what better should they be reserved? What can we hope to say that may arouse the soul which the bare enumeration of such names can leave unmoved? The thought would be sacrilege, and we will lay aside the pen with this single observation, most probably to resume it again, ere long, on the same subject. |