MUSIC AND BEAUTY. By the God of Arcadia, so sweet are the notes On the soft midnight air, that my soul is on fire. Oh, where can I fly? The young Cupids around me Merivale. SPRING. Now Winter's storms, which chilled the sky, Smiling advance the rosy hours, Strewing around their purple flowers; In meads which quaff the morning dews; The race of warblers pour their throats; The white swan pours his piercing song; And Philomela mourns the woods among. Does, then, the green earth teem with gladness? Has nature dropt her robe of sadness? Do the swains pipe; the flocks rejoice; The mountains echo Bacchus' voice; 1 Peace, Chloris, peace, or singing die! That together you and I To heaven may go; For all we know Of what the blessed do above, Is that they sing, and that they love.-Waller. The mariners their sails unloose; J. S. Buckminster.1 DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSUS. FLOURISHED ABOUT 30 B. C. DIONYSIUS the historian-called Halicarnassus from a city of that name, which was the place of his birth, though of its date we have no certain knowledge-went to Rome about 30 B. C., the second year of the reign of Augustus. Here he resided to the end of his life, spending his time in the study of the Latin language and literature, and in col'lecting materials for his great work on Roman history, called Archæologia. This consisted of twenty books, and contained the history of Rome from the earliest or mythical times down to the year of the first Punic war, when Polybius takes the subject up. Only the first nine books are complete; of the tenth and eleventh we have the greater part, but of the others nothing more than fragments. From what we have, we see that he has treated the early history of Rome with great minuteness, discussing most carefully everything relating to her constitution and her religion, as well as to the history, laws, and private life of the Romans; and though he shows at times too much credulity, and does not always distinguish with sufficient clearness between fable and history, his work is an inexhaustible treasure of valuable materials. Some of the rhetorical and critical works of Dionysius have come down to us, and show that he was not only a rhetorician of the first order, but also a most excellent critic in the highest and best sense of the term; for these remains, though fragmentary, abound in fine remarks and criticisms upon the classical writers of Greece. The titles of these works are: 1. Texin Pпtoginn, The Art of Rhetoric, in eleven chapters. 2. TER GUDGENS ovoμatav, On the Arrangement of Words; in this he treats of the power of true oratory, and on the combination of words according to the different species and styles of oratory. 3. Tov Пaλawv Χαρακτηρες, Characters of the Ancients. 4. Περὶ τῶν Αττικων ῥητοςων υπομ For some account of this elegant scholar-the lamented pastor of Brattle Street Church, Boston-see my Compendium of American Literature, p. 282. mario, Memoirs of the Attic Orators, in three parts, of which we have only the first, and a fragment of the second.' CHARACTER OF NUMA. By these laws Numa formed the city to frugality and temperance; justice in contracts he introduced by inventing a regulation which was unknown to all who instituted the most celebrated commonwealths. For, observing that contracts made in public, and before witnesses, are, from a regard to the persons present, generally performed, and that few are guilty of any violation of them; but that those which are transacted without witnesses, being many more in number than the former, rest on no other security than the faith of the contractors, he thought it incumbent on him to make this faith the chief object of his care, and to render it worthy of divine worship. For he found that Justitia, Themis, Nemesis, and those the Greeks call Erinnyes, with others of that kind, had been sufficiently honored by the ancients in being erected into divinities and consecrated; but that Faith, than which there is no greater nor more sacred virtue among men, was not yet worshipped, either by states in their public capacity, or by private persons. Having considered these things, he, first of all men, erected a temple to public Faith, and instituted sacrifices to be performed to her, at the public expense, in the same manner as to the rest of the Gods. By this means the public faith of the city, which was preserved inviolate to all men, could not fail in time to communicate the same fidelity to the behavior of private men. And, indeed, so sacred and inviolable a thing was faith in their estimation, that the greatest oath a man could take was, by his own faith; and more depended upon than any other testimony. And if there happened any contest between two persons concerning the performance of a contract entered into without witnesses, the faith of either of the parties was sufficient to decide the controversy, and not suffer it to proceed any further. And the magistrates and courts of justice founded their decrees, in most causes, on the oaths of the parties attesting by their faith. These regulations, then invented by Numa, which persuaded to temperance and enforced justice, rendered the city of Rome more orderly than the best regulated family. Editions: Hudson, Greek and Latin, Oxford, two volumes folio; Reiske, Greek and Latin, 1774-77, six volumes 8vo. Translation: Edward Spelman, London, 1758, four volumes quarto. Thus Numa became the darling of his subjects, the example of his neighbors, and the theme of posterity. It was owing to him, that neither civil dissension broke the harmony of the city, nor foreign war interrupted the observance of these wise and admirable institutions. For their neighbors were so far from looking upon the peaceful tranquillity of the Romans as an opportunity of invading them, that if at any time they were at war with one another they chose the Romans for mediators, and were willing to put an end to their contests under the arbitration of Numa. I should, therefore, make no difficulty in placing this person among the first of those who are the most celebrated for their happiness. For he was of a royal family, had a majestic aspect, and cultivated that kind of literature which, instead of useless eloquence, formed his mind to piety, and every other virtue. When he was young he was thought worthy to be king of the Romans, who, upon the reputation of his virtue, invited him to that dignity, which he exercised, during his whole life, over an obedient people. He lived to be very old, without any infirmity or misfortune, and died the easiest of all deaths, being worn out with age; the genius, who had been allotted to him from his birth, having continued the same favor to him till he was no more. He lived above fourscore years, and reigned forty-three; leaving behind him, according to most historians, four sons and one daughter, whose posterity remain to this day; but, according to Cneius Gellius, only one daughter, who was the mother of Ancus Marcius, the third king of the Romans after him. His death was exceedingly lamented by the city, who made a most splendid funeral for him. He lies buried upon the Janiculum, on the other side of the Tiber. DIODORUS SICULUS. FLOURISHED ABOUT 30 B. c. DIODORUS SICULUS was a contemporary of Cæsar and Augustus, and was born in the town of Agyrium, in Sicily; whence his name, the Sicilian. He early determined to devote his life to the writing of a universal history, from the earliest times down to his own; and with this object in view, he travelled over the greater part of Europe and Asia to gain a more accurate knowledge of nations and countries, than he could obtain from previous historians and geographers. His work, which he called An Historical Library (B.ẞioðnun Isrogiun), Consisted of forty books, embracing the period from the earliest mythical ages down to Julius Cæsar's Gallic wars. Only fifteen books of this great work have come down to us. The first five, which contain the early history of the Eastern nations, the Ægyptians, the Æthiopians, and the Greeks, are extant entire; the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth books are lost; but from the eleventh to the twentieth inclusive, comprising the period from the second Persian war, B. C. 480, down to the year 302 B. C., it is preserved. The remaining portion of the work is lost, with the exception of a few fragments. The style of Diodorus Siculus is clear and lucid, though devoid of all elegance. He is a laborious and industrious writer, and what we have of him is of the highest importance on account of the great mass of materials which he has collected from a number of writers whose works have irretrievably perished, and which, but for him, would have been lost to the world.1 ALEXANDER'S NOBLE DEMEANOR TOWARDS THE FAMILY OF DARIUS. Darius with all his army being thus routed, fled, and, by changing from time to time one horse after another, the best he had, he made away with all speed, to escape out of the hands of Alexander, and to get to the governors of the upper provinces. In the mean time, one came to the mother of Darius, and told her that Alexander was returned from the pursuit of Darius, and had possessed himself of all the rich spoils of his tent. Upon which there was heard a great shriek and lamentation amongst the women, and, from the multitude of the captives condoling with the queen at the sad news, all places were filled with cries of anguish and horror. The king, understanding what sorrow there was among the women, sent Leonatus, one of his courtiers, to them, to put an end to their fears, and to let Sisygambis, the mother of Darius, know that her son was alive, and that Alexander would have respect to their former dignity; and that, to confirm the promise of his Editions: P. Wesseling, Greek and Latin, Amsterdam, 1746, two vols. folio; L. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1828-31, five volumes 8vo., "the most critical and valuable;" Heyne and Eyring, Greek and Latin, Bipont, 1793-1807, eleven volumes 8vo. Translations: G. Booth, London, 1814, two volumes. Henry Cogan, London, 1653, folio. |