ection as applied to antithetical words
or phrases and to series of words or phrases parallel in
construction. (Introduction, p. 20.)

* * * * *

THE INFLUENCE OF ATHENS

From essay "On Mitford's History of Greece"

If we consider merely the subtlety of disquisition, the force of
imagination, the perfect energy and elegance of expression, which
characterize the great works of Athenian genius, we must pronounce
them intrinsically most valuable. But what shall we say when we
reflect that from hence have sprung, directly or indirectly, all the
noblest creations of the human intellect; that from hence were the
vast accomplishments and the brilliant fancy of Cicero, the withering
fire of Juvenal, the plastic imagination of Dante, the humour of
Cervantes, the comprehension of Bacon, the wit of Butler, the supreme
and universal excellence of Shakespeare?

All the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power, in
every country and in every age, have been the triumphs of Athens.
Wherever a few great minds have made a stand against violence and
fraud, in the cause of liberty and reason, there has been her spirit
in the midst of them; inspiring, encouraging, consoling;--by the
lonely lamp of Erasmus, by the restless bed of Pascal, in the tribune
of Mirabeau, in the cell of Galileo, on the scaffold of Sidney.

But who shall estimate her influence on private happiness? Who shall
say how many thousands have been made wiser, happier, and better, by
those pursuits in which she has taught mankind to engage; to how many
the studies which took their rise from her have been wealth in
poverty, liberty in bondage, health in sickness, society in solitude?

Her power is, indeed, manifested at the bar, in the senate, in the
field of battle, in the schools of philosophy. But these are not her
glory. Wherever literature consoles sorrow, or assuages pain; wherever
it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears, and
ache for the dark house and the long sleep,--there is exhibited, in
its noblest form, the immortal influence of Athens.

The dervish, in the Arabian tale, did not hesitate to abandon to his
comrade the camels with their loads of jewels and gold, while he
retained the casket of that mysterious juice which enabled him to
behold at one glance all the hidden riches of the universe. Surely it
is no exaggeration to say that no external advantage is to be compared
with