The following Table of Contents has been added for the convenience of the reader.
GREEK EPITAPHS AND INSCRIPTIONS.
NEW-ENGLAND.
'MENS CONSCIA RECTI.'
PORTUGUESE JOE.
THE POLYGON PAPERS.
STANZAS.
THE QUOD CORRESPONDENCE.
IMPROMPTU.
CÀ ET LÀ.
NO'TH-EAST BY EAST.
THALES OF PARIS.
LINES TO A CANARY BIRD.
MEADOW-FARM: A TALE OF ASSOCIATION.
SONG.
LITERARY NOTICES.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
LITERARY RECORD.
THE KNICKERBOCKER.
Vol. XXII. AUGUST, 1843. No. 2.
GREEK EPITAPHS AND INSCRIPTIONS.
Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori.—Horace.
Greece was the land of poetry. Endowed with a language, ofall others adapted to every variation of feeling, from the deepestpathos or boldest heroism, to the lightest mirth, and gifted with themost exquisite sensibility to all the charms of poetry, it is not surprisingthat her inhabitants carried it to a height beyond any thingthat the world has seen, before or since. It was intermingled withtheir daily life, it formed a portion of their very being, and constitutedthe chief source of their highest enjoyment. All Athensrushed daily to the theatre, to exult or weep as the genius of thepoet directed them; and the people who could fine their greatesttragedian for harrowing their feelings beyond endurance, must havebeen differently formed from those of the present day. The well-knownsaying of old Fletcher of Saltoun, is not now true; but wecan readily believe it, with such a race, when songs, like the gloriousode of Callistratus,
Εν μυρτω κλαδι το ξιφος φορησω. κ. τ. λ.
were daily sung, while the lyre and myrtle-branch passed fromhand to hand.
With the Greeks, poetry seemed to enter into the character ofevery man. It was cultivated by the annual contests between itshighest professors; and the honor which awaited the victor was aninducement to exertion of the noblest kind. It was the surest roadto the favor and patronage of the great. Not the cold and chillingassistance which the Medici held out to the genius of their land, andwhich seemed to calculate the least expense with which the creditof a protector of learning could be bought, but the ready and regalmunificence of a man who regards the gifts of genius as the highestwith which a mortal can be favored. He who could enchant sucha people need take no care for the future. Kings disputed for the[98]honor of his presence, and states were overjoyed to support him.Let not the example of Homer be brought to controvert this. Helived lon