dia, the Switzerland of Greece, always enjoyed exem tion from Dorian sway. Sparta was the great representati of the Dorian family, as Athens was of the Ionian. T Eolians occupied Thessaly and Boe-o'ti-a, with Theb (Theebs) for their representative city. Certain colonies st kept the Æolian name after Dorian and Ionian had usurp the whole of Greece proper.

The truth is, there is no unity in the history of Gree until you reach the time when the common menace of Pe sian invasion and conquest taught the different Grecia states the necessity of peace and harmony among themselve Before this, and always, one blood, one language, one reli ion, and a national character at bottom the same, had tend to draw the Greeks together. But these ties were nev practically strong enough to resist the divisive force of loc jealousies and selfish personal ambitions. The sad fact that the ancient Greeks, brilliant and fascinating people they were, spent ages of time in fighting and destroying o another. The petty size of the states made patriotism many instances a very intense passion. But, on the oth hand, it is also to be acknowledged that Greek history fu nishes examples as illustrious as ever existed of self-seekin adventurous, and mercenary traitorhood.

Sparta was not a city of savages, for the Spartans cultivat poetry and music of a certain severe type. But for any thi that the Spartans did beyond this, in the way of attentio to the arts of civilized life, we might call them savage They made a pride of despising not only luxury, but refin ment. Century after century, Sparta was little else than permanent military camp. It had no art, no architectur no letters, no homes. Infants not deemed sound and stro were put to death. At the age of seven the boys were tak from their parents to be brought up in public by the stat Spartan women grew to be men in spirit rather than wome These manners produced a stern sort of virtue that we ca

not but admire. But except for some examples, like the example of Leonidas, and, besides these, for a few immortal laconisms of speech, what is the world richer for ages upon ages of Spartan history?

Much more variously attractive and admirable we find the genius and achievement of Athens, well called "the eye of Greece." These two states, the Athenian and the Spartan, the one or the other, in general led in Grecian affairs.

Thebes, however, took her turn at headship in Greece, if not quite alone at any time, at least in honorable alliance and partnership with Athens. Theban renown is illustrated with the resplendent names of Pinʼdar in poetry, and of Epaminon'das and Pelop'idas in patriotism and war.

Corinth was, by the felicity of her situation, the leading commercial city of Greece. The proverbial timidity of the spirit of trade perhaps it was that prevented Corinth from ever disputing with Sparta or with Athens the honor of leadership in general Hellenic affairs. But Corinth was a splendid capital of wealth and culture; it is necessary also to add, a full and festering center of moral corruption.

Eph'esus, in Asia Minor, was as much a Grecian city as was Athens, in Attica. So was Mi-le'tus. Hellas contained them all, with many more cities that we cannot stay even to mention.

It was in Asia Minor that the first hostile collision took place between Persia and Hellas. Persia subjected the Greek cities there to her empire, and some of these revolted. The Persian invasion of Greece followed, magnificently repulsed, first by the Athenians under Milti'ades, at Marathon, and afterward, on renewal, stayed for a moment again by the immortal resistance of Leon'idas, with his Spartan three hundred, at Thermop'ylæ, to be finally turned back in irretrievable disaster to the invaders, at Sal'amis. When, at last, the Persians were decisively driven from their purpose of subjugating Greece, Athens entered upon the period of

her culmination under Per'icles in splendor and power. The age of Pericles is a proverb of prosperity and glory.

But dissensions and wars succeeded. Sparta envied Athens her supremacy, though she did not emulate the generous arts and achievements by which that supremacy was won. Mutual rivalry and strife prepared divided Greece to fall, despite the patriot eloquence and statesmanship of Demos'thenes, an easy prey to Macedonian Philip and Alexander.

Greece, however, had always her way of subduing her conquerors. That subtle, penetrating, and subsidizing element in Greek character, which we have already noted, enabled Greece with her ideas and her spirit to vanquish unawares the very nations that overcame her with their arms. In a true and deep sense, ancient Greece never was conquered. It was Greece in Alexander that rolled back for ages from Europe the threatening inundation of Asia. And Greece triumphed even over Rome, after Rome had annexed Greece to her empire. Greece triumphs yet in a dominion still maintained of genius and taste over the realms of letters and of arts.

Such, imperfectly described, was the people over the expanse of whose literature we are here to skim lightly and swiftly, taking dips as we go, like swallows flying above the surface of a lake, broad, pellucid, and deep.

IV.

THEIR WRITINGS.

Of all that the Greeks did in the world, nothing remains to us, recognizably in the form given it by their cunning brain and hand, save perhaps a few coins, a few noble architectural ruins, a few inimitable, though mutilated, antique pieces of sculpture, and, last and chief, some masterpieces of literary composition. Good literature is, perhaps, on the whole, the most enduring of all the products of human activity. Dead, we call the languages of Greece and Rome, and it is the fashion now to ridicule the idea of devoting so much time in our schools and colleges to the study of dead Greek and Latin. The "new education," so called, lauds the study of science above the study of the ancient classics-the study of nature, that is to say, above the study of man. But is not man at least a part of nature? And is not language the noblest outward attribute of man? Science includes, for instance, what used to be called natural history. The devotees of this branch of scientific inquiry think it a not unworthy employment of time to spend years, or perhaps a life, in observing and discussing the habits of some single species of the lower animals. It might very well happen that an ichthyologist would reckon it a good account to render of himself if, as the result of investigations covering years of his life, he is able to present to the world at last an approximately exhaustive enumeration, description, classification, of the various fossil and extinct species of fishes that may be found, in faint traces of their prehistoric existence, among the stratified rocks of the planet.

We are far from wishing to disparage the value of such scientific explorations. By all means let us learn the most we can, of whatever there is to be known. But surely man himself also is one, and a not insignificant one, among ani