ing the
skilful use of these with the simplicity and pathos of the Greek
originals, that the highest perfection of this noble art is to be
attained.

In the first place, the Greeks had no idea whatever of a system of
divine superintendence, or moral retribution, in this world. On the
contrary their ideas were just the reverse. FATE, superior to the
decrees of Jove himself, was the supreme power which they discerned in
all the changes of time; and it was the crushing of a human soul beneath
its chariot-wheels that they principally delighted to portray. The
omnipotence of Fate, in their opinion, was more shown in the destruction
than the rewards of the good. Success in life they were willing enough
to ascribe to the able conduct of the persons concerned; they only
began, like the French, to speak about destiny when they were
unfortunate. Their ignorance of the fundamental principles of religion,
familiar to every peasant in Europe, shines forth in every page of
Sophocles and Euripides. The noblest tragedy of AEschylus, the
_Prometheus Vinctus_, is intended to portray the highest divine
benevolence overpowered by supreme power, and eternally suffering under
eternal injustice. The frequent overthrow of virtue by wickedness, of
innocence by fraud, of gentleness by violence, in this world, seems to
have produced an indelible impression on their minds. They not only had
no confidence in the divine justice, or the ultimate triumph of virtue
over vice, but they had the reverse. They had a mournful conviction that
innocence in this vale of tears was everlastingly doomed to suffering;
that vice would eternally prove triumphant; and that it was in inward
strength and resolution that the only refuge for oppressed virtue was to
be found. Their greatest philosophers thought the same. Their tragedies
were dramatised Stoicism. Grandeur of character, force of mind, the
indomitable will, might be portrayed to perfection under such a belief;
but the mild graces, the confidence in God, the resignation to his will,
breathed into the human heart by the Gospel, were unknown. What a volume
of thoughts and sentiments, of virtues and graces, were wanting in a
world to which faith, hope, and charity were unknown! A dramatic Raphael
was impossible in antiquity; it was the spirit of the Redeemer which
inspired his _Holy Families_. Their morality, accordingly, is of a
sterner cast than any thing with which we are acquainted in modern
times. They wer