entred in one man; the last scene of
the _Phaedo_ has been enacted, and Socrates has died.

The history of Greece is written, and the character of the historian is
decided. Mr. Grote has achieved a noble work--a work which, unless the
glory of classical literature is a dream, will well repay, in usefulness
and in renown, the devotion of a scholars life. His book will be called
great while Grecian story retains its interest. Even making allowance
for the wonderful labors of the Germans and the extraordinary addition
which their learned toils have made to our knowledge of the subject, we
should say that the work before us has almost disentombed many portions
of Greek life. We cannot sufficiently extol the wonderful knowledge of
all the feelings, habits, associations, and institutions of an extinct
people which every page exhibits, and the familiar mastery with which a
mind steeped in Grecian lore analyzes, combines, criticizes, and unfolds
the mass of heterogeneous and often conjectural materials on which it
has to work. Not only have we been enabled to read Greek history with
new eyes and a new understanding, but light has been poured upon its
literature; and, to apply to Mr. Grote the compliment he pays to others,
"the poets, historians, orators, and philosophers of Greece have been
all rendered both more intelligible and more instructive to the student,
and the general picture of the Grecian world may now be conceived with a
degree of fidelity which, considering our imperfect materials, it is
curious to contemplate." Two volumes more at least must be yet to come,
but Mr. Grote's pedestal is sure; and nothing can diminish the
satisfaction he must now feel at his decided and proclaimed success but
the consciousness that the moment is approaching when he must part with
the companion of many a sweet though toilsome hour, and experience the
mingled feelings which Gibbon has so well portrayed in writing "the last
page of the last chapter" of the history of Greece.

It is pity that such high intrinsic merits should be marred, both as
regards the pleasure and the instruction of the reader, by a fatal
deficiency of style. It is pity, but it is true. Mr. Grote seems to have
lived in the works of the Greek writers till he has almost forgotten the
forms and cadence of his mother tongue. It is not only that he so
frequently has resort to an uncouth Greek compound when he might easily
express the same idea in two or three English wo