of Rome.

Such was the poet from whom the mob of Athens snatched the laurel to
bestow it upon a mean and execrable scribbler, and to one hundred of
whose comedies the prize was denied, while only eight of them were
rewarded with it.

From the death of Menander which happened in his fifty-second year, not
a dramatic poet arose, nor a circumstance occurred relating to the art
in Greece, worthy of commemoration: here, therefore, history drops the
dramatic poetry of that country, till in a future page the merits of the
ancient and modern drama come to be viewed in comparison with each
other, and proceeds to commemorate some of the Grecian actors.

"Poetry," says a celebrated French writer, "has almost always been prior
to every other kind of learning, which is undoubtedly owing to its being
the produce of sentiment and fancy, two faculties of the mind always
employed before reason. Sensible minds are led by a kind of instinct to
sing their pleasures, their happiness, the gods whom they adore, the
heroes they admire, and the events they wish to have engraven on their
memories; accordingly poetry has been cultivated in all savage nations.
The warmth of the passions has been of great use in promoting this
delightful art." It is not to be wondered at, then, that the Athenians,
who, to use the words of the same writer, possessed a lively
imagination, great fertility of genius, a rich harmonious language, and
eminent abilities excited by the most ardent emulation, should be
extravagantly fond of poetry, and no less partial to those who displayed
a vigorous spirit of emulation in that art, and an ambition to excel in
any of the employments that served to illustrate or give it effect. For
these reasons they systematically honoured not only dramatic poets but
actors.

How much the important concerns of mankind are swayed and pre-influenced
by manners and habits is strongly illustrated in the discrepance which
maintained between the taste, the amusements, and opinions of the lively
Athenians, and those of the austere and exact people of Sparta, though
they were in fact one people. In their amusements, and partly in their
taste for literature, they differed essentially. The Athenians loved
poetry and music; while the Spartans, whose schemes were founded on
utility alone, rather rejected them as superfluous. Poets and musicians,
however, who confined themselves to sober and simple subjects, and to
grave and dignified expression, we