scious dignity. Her person was adorned with native elegance, her look with modesty, every gesture with decency, and her garments were altogether of the purest white. The other was comely, but bloated, as from too high living. Affecting softness and delicacy, every look, every action, was studied and constrained; while art contributed all its powers to give those charms to her complexion and shape which nature had denied her. Her look was bold, the blush of modesty she was a stranger to, and her dress was contrived, not to conceal, but to display those beanties she supposed herself possessed of. She would look round to see if any observed her; and not only so, but she would frequently stand still to admire her own shadow. Drawing near to the place where the hero sat musing, eager and anxious for the advantage of first accosting him, she hastily ran forward; while the person who accompanied her moved on with her usual pace, equal and majestic. Joining him, she said, "I know, my Hercules! you have long been deliberating on the course of life you should pursue; engage with me in friendship, and I will lead you through those paths which are smooth and flowery, where every delight shall court your en joyment, and pain and sorrow shall not once appear. Absolved from all the fatigue of business and the hardships of war, your employment shall be to share in the social pleasures of the table, or repose on beds of down; no sense shall remain without its gratification; beauty shall delight the eye and melody the ear, and perfumes shall breathe their odors around you. Nor shall your care be once wanted for the procuring of these things: neither be afraid lest time should exhaust your stock of joys, and reduce you to the necessity of purchasing new, either by the labor of body or mind it is to the toil of others that you alone shall owe them! Scruple not, therefore, to seize whatever seemeth most desirable; for this privilege I bestow on all who are my votaries."

Hercules having heard so flattering an invitation, demanded. her name. "My friends," said she, "call me Happiness; but they who do not love me endeavor to make me odious, and therefore brand me with the name of Sensuality."

By this time the other person being arrived, thus addressed him in her turn :—

"I also, O Hercules! am come to offer you my friendship, for I am no stranger to your high descent; neither was I wanting to remark the goodness of your disposition in all the exercises of your childhood; from whence I gather hopes, if you choose to follow where I lead the way, it will not be long ere

you have an opportunity of performing many actions glorious to yourself and honorable to me. But I mean not to allure

you with specious promises of pleasure, I will plainly set before you things as they really are, and show you in what manner the gods think proper to dispose of them. Know, therefore, young man! these wise governors of the universe have decreed, that nothing great, nothing excellent, shall be obtained without care and labor. They give no real good, no true happiness, on other terms. If, therefore, you would secure the favor of these gods, adore them. If you would conciliate to yourself the affection of your friends, be of use to them. If to be honored and respected of the republic be your aim, show your fellowcitizens how effectually you can serve them. But if it is your ambition that all Greece shall esteem you, let all Greece share the benefits arising from your labors. If you wish for the fruits of the earth, cultivate it. If for the increase of your flocks or your herds, let your flocks and your herds have your attendance and your care. And if your design is to advance yourself by arms, if you wish for the power of defending your friends, and subduing your enemies, learn the art of war under those who are well acquainted with it; and, when learnt, employ it to the best advantage. And if to have a body ready and well able to perform what you wish from it, be your desire, subject yours to your reason, and let exercise and hard labor give to it strength and agility."

At these words, as Prodicus informs us, the other interrupted her: "You see," said she, "my Hercules, the long, the laborious road she means to lead you; but I can conduct you to happiness by a path more short and easy."

"Miserable wretch !" replied Virtue, "what happiness canst thou boast of? Thou, who wilt not take the least pains to procure it! Doth not satiety always anticipate desire? Wilt thou wait till hunger invites thee to eat, or stay till thou art thirsty before thou drinkest? Or, rather, to give some relish to thy repast, must not art be called in to supply the want of appetite? while thy wines, though costly, can yield no delight, but the ice in summer is sought for to cool and make them grateful to thy palate! Beds of down, or the softest couch, can procure no sleep for thee, whom idleness inclines to seek for repose; not labor and fatigue, which alone prepare for it. Nor dost thou leave it to nature to direct thee in thy pleasures, but all is art and shameless impurity. The night is polluted with riot and crimes, while the day is given up to sloth and inactivity: and, though immortal, thou art become an outcast

from the gods, and the contempt and scorn of all good men. Thou boastest of happiness; but what happiness canst thou boast of? Where was it that the sweetest of all sounds, the music of just self-praise, ever reached thine ear? Or when couldst thou view, with complacency and satisfaction, one worthy deed of thy own performing? Is there any who will trust thy word, or depend upon thy promise; or, if sound in judgment, be of thy society? For, among thy followers, which of them, in youth, are not altogether effeminate and infirm of body? Which of them, in age, not stupid and debilitated in every faculty of the mind? While wasting their prime in thoughtless indulgence, they prepare for themselves all that pain and remorse so sure to attend the close of such a life! Ashamed of the past, afflicted with the present, they weary themselves in bewailing that folly which lavished on youth all the joys of life, and left nothing to old age but pain and imbecility!

"As for me, my dwelling is alone with the gods and good men; and, without me, nothing great, nothing excellent, can be performed, whether on earth or in the heavens; so that my praise, my esteem, is with all who know me! I make the labor of the artist pleasant, and bring to the father of his family security and joy; while the slave, as his lord, is alike my care. In peace I direct to the most useful councils, in war approve myself a faithful ally; and I only can tie the bond of indissoluble friendship. Nor do my votaries even fail to find pleasure in their repasts, though small cost is wanted to furnish out their table; for hunger, not art, prepares it for them; while their sleep, which follows the labor of the day, is far more sweet than whatever expense can procure for idleness: yet, sweet as it is, they quit it unreluctant when called by their duty, whether to the gods or men. The young enjoy the applause of the aged, the aged are reverenced and respected by the young. Equally delighted with reflecting on the past, or contemplating the present, their attachment to me renders them favored of the gods, dear to their friends, and honored by their country. And when the fatal hour is arrived, they sink not, like others, into an inglorious oblivion, but, immortalized by fame, flourish forever in the grateful remembrance of admiring posterity! Thus, O Hercules! thou great descendant of a glorious race of heroes! thus mayst thou attain that supreme felicity wherewith I have been empowered to reward all those who willingly yield themselves up to my direction."

"See here, my Aristippus," continued Socrates; "see here

the advice which, Prodicus tells us, Virtue gave the young hero. He clothes it, as you may suppose, in more exalted language than I have attempted; but it will be your wisdom you endeavor to profit from what he hath said, and consider at present what may befall you hereafter."

if

This great Athenian comic poet was born about 444 B. C. Of his private history we know nothing, except that he indulged himself in convivial entertainments, and would at times spend whole nights in drinking and witty conversation. His society and conversation were so fascinating, however, that many of his distinguished contemporaries were often found in his company, and even Plato gives him a distinguished place in his banquet. His first comedy was exhibited about 425, and his last 388 B. C., and he died at the advanced age of seventy years, having been the author of fifty four plays, of which eleven are extant.

The comedies of Aristophanes are of the highest historical interest, as they contain an admirable series of caricatures on the leading men of the day, and a contemporary commentary on the evils existing at Athens. The first evil of his own time against which he inveighs, is the Peloponnesian war, which he regards as the work of Pericles. Another object of his satire was the system of education introduced by the sophists, who made persuasion and not truth the object of man in his intercourse with his fellows; and for effect he extended these true objects of satire to the virtuous and gifted Socrates, whom in the "Clouds" he held up to the derision of the Athenian people. Another feature of the times which came in for its share of his ridicule was the litigious spirit of the Athenians, the consequent importance of the "dicasts," or jurymen, and the disgraceful abuse of their power, all of which enormities, with many others of his day, were made by Aristophanes the objects of continual attack,

The following are the names of the eleven comedies of Aristophanes, that are extant, and probably in the chronological order in which they were exhibited: "Acharnians," 425; "Knights," 424; "Clouds," 422 ; "Wasps," 422; "Peace," 421; "Birds," 414; "Sysistrata," 411; "Thesmophoriazusæ," 411; "Frogs," 405; "Ecclesiazusæ," 392; and "Plutus," 388 B. C. In the "Acharnians," Aristophanes paints the sad evils of the Peloponnesian war. In the "Knights," personifying the Athenian people as Demus (as Americans would be represented by Brother Jonathan), he represents the vices and follies of his countrymen. In the "Clouds," feeling a contempt for the sophists, he seizes upon Socrates, most unjustly, as their representative, and holds him up to ridicule. In the "Wasps" he satirizes the well-known litigiousness of the Athenian people. The "Thesmophoriazusæ" is a bitter attack upon the vices prevalent among the female sex. Its name is taken from the Thesmophoria, or feast of Ceres and Bacchus, at which women alone were present. The comedy called "Peace" is in praise and recommendation of that first of private and public blessings. The "Birds" exposes the ambitious schemes of Alcibiades, and parodies and ridicules some of the plays of Euripides. In the "Plutus" he vindicates the conduct of Providence in the ordinary distribution of wealth, and at the same time shows the tendency of riches to corrupt the morals of those who possess them.

The comedies of Aristophanes are universally regarded as the standard of Attic writing in its greatest purity.' His genius was vast, ver

Men smile when they hear the anecdote of one of the most venerable fathers of the church, who never went to bed without Aristophanes under his pillow. But the noble tone of morals, the elevated taste, the sound political wisdom, the boldness and acuteness of the satire, the grand object, which is seen throughout, of correcting the follies of the day, and improving the condition of his country-all these are features in Aristophanes, which, however disguised, as they intentionally are, by coarseness and buffoonery, entitle him to the highest respect from every reader of antiquity. He condescended, indeed, to play the part of jester to the Athenian tyrant. But. his jests were the vehicles for telling to them the soundest truths. They were never without a far higher aim than to raise a momentary laugh. He was no farce writer, but a deep philosophical politician; grieved and ashamed at the condition of his country, and through the stage, the favorite amusement of Athenians, aiding to carry on the one great common work, which Plato proposed in his dialogues, and in which all the better and nobler spirits of the time seem to have concurred as by a confederacy-the reformation of an atrocious democracy. There is as much system in the comedies of Aristophanes as in the dialogues of Plato. Every part of a vitiated public mind is exposed in its turn. Its demagogues in the Knights, its courts of justice in the Wasps, its foreign policy in the Acharnians, its tyranny over the allies in the Birds, the state of female society in the Sysistrate and the Ecclesiazusæ, and its corrupt poetical taste in the Frogs. No one play is

* Chrysostom.