The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-04-29

Of freedom and the growing intellectual civilization of the
savish herds in this attempt to absorb free and progressive
against the future and which the fate Of the whole world
involved Herodons saw elements OF glory and forms OF
that he ascend higher than the actual period of
relates the eonqpes Of Peiathe fall of the Abysn,an
fearful expedition Of Cambyses against Egypt The histo
ran of his own countys foes. he points out their numerous
conqueng march and all at once he shows the minds
eye THOSE armies Of millions of men, with their ever ve,o
IN the anes ohe formidable power broken ss nsan ant
sam as hsa OF Wa h ann o for
the patnots heart What splendid subject Tor inc ls,o t
only the Triumph Of Greece but also the salvation the nS5er
elements Of ancient society Mtiades At Marathon ne
devotng their erosm to the safety Of their country were
actually battling for the triumph of and the 9IP
Inc with then-and Civilization with its goody fTuet
te sciences and arts perish with Greec Ie s @ht
p%on hase Seen peap que
ws had The r9RRGn s,d Of
character of her mane Of soldiers s9na nave nJ Ga[c s
ad rfs sl s e cnae %
cal rather than warkethify and mercenary Carthage
a msn of nd i've millions Of soldiers Would have
Macedonia radically changed is constitutions and prevent
composed it of savage tribes the civilization of
which the Roman armies began at later period, would
have been wrapped for indefinite time in the darkness of
the destnes of Asia The defeat OF Persia therefore, was
beyond rational doubt event highly favorable to humanity
And who he, in the midst of the waving multitude,
whose word rolls them like the winds the
deep! Who but HerodOus at the Olympic games, reading
before assembled Greece the record Of her imperhabe
nown-the freedomfght Of Marathon, and the funereal
gories of the Thermopye. The souls Of men stirred
with his vocerong hearts leap forth in patriotic enegy-a
burst OF enthusiasm wells up from the crowd and Thucy
ddes the son OF Oorus Of royal strain weeps silent tears
and amidst the musings OF future fame promises Greece an
other recorder OF less glorious deeds o..,....,a
How many scenes, how many teachings compressed
within these histories of Heodotus Their perusa tells us
with human character and that he who writes will not
consent to omit whatever essential or even entertaining
thing in the web of that Of localities
and Of the phenomena of nauredepctgres OF morals nle
are allotted their appropriate place 1t incredible how
many facts have been collected in this history, when does
Indeed this Chief Of conc d every the
praise which seager has ayed q @ me e ssl
hsoriansthe archivs of Grecan and barbara orgnsan
author whom should can AND as ao,
should never proane by their touch However TINS may
before Herodotus and he the first to strip it Of the
rhythmic forms Of pesty chronicles, and invest it in the
fuse in the narration of human events the human mind
with dscement its method and its power He was the
time. and in all but perfect degree Greece learned
through him. the details of facts merely but the
masershp OF history The authority OF the beautiful we be-
eve be eternal but power ten fold when excites
peop the first captures Of enthusiasm such as that which
to be at the father OF history and the model OF It's
The career of recian intellect fully open; the great
of that gifted land. with rapid strides, crowd its
OF Homer to undeo with the
phases society. The worship of the beautiful is still kept
though greatly modified in Its forms. The manly pey OF
sophocls. his passionate morality and pathetic eIoquence
the perfect harmony OF his conceptions, and the glowing
though rude the Deep though fierce sketchngs of the early
fathers OF Grecan tragedy Sophoces spnngS up with the
tragic compositions which antiquity has nothing of equal
beauty oppose sence those who all ages have waed
denied the praise being the best OF socetye
searching anayser Of the achymy Of human passions
OF the most efficient OF human iobes and
But we have reached the first turbulent movements of the
Athena democracy betrayed into excuses, goaded to
Madness by the nsdous and selfish designs OF arocatc
factions The intellectual creations of Greece lose their cha
racter of purity and sateiness spirit the
genius OF Thucydde Eupldes and Arophanes the pre-
ao v al e
lays down its laws for the first time. The ingenuity OF the
the hoe pn Of W
not unequal hand. And what change We have just
mans and devotng herself for the safety OF the world We
find her In the horrors OF intestine wareaous OF her
rending them to pieces her maddenng mood We
bathing her best bloodimping herself with the
fire and Steel the procrpves he'll and the
cup, hasten her Slow but fatal suicide after twenty
eight years of shameful defeats and still more shameful
torres concentrating her own destruction the destruction
The gifted historian OF that mpous war, Thucydides,
fleets its horrors and with baefu energy. You feel
every line that he participant in its disasters that like
old Dante banshed by the factions Florence he has lived
been scated by the ghtnngs Of its wrath His thoughts
grave, medtatve and austere-hs genius tempered the
fire OF evil passions, and the flames OF civil Even his
dialect speaks OF the sadness OF his soul and vgo of his mind
He has chosen the most conguous and of all the
can dialect that delights IN the contraction OF
vowels and the abdgement of words while gives them
the @ precision which steny defines the Inca
thing divides him from Herodotus whose
ate soul adopted the Ionic dalec-tha music Of words 50
harmonious TO the ear SO appealing to the heart and which
The great peculiarly OF Thucydides philosophical crt
csm Not confined to the relation OF events he ascends to
in all their complications, and himself into
the depths OF the heart to drag from Its lurking recesse the
to Herodotus an ingenious narrator somewhat creduou
taeman who weaves many charm, but exhibits little phi
criticism appear for the first the pages OF Thucydde
The historian understands his mission fully and as the torch
the workings of momentous revolution, and enter
explored pathway of the mind If the heroism OF adoescen
the arstocracy oeak forth Pndars lofty dythy
ramb if new born freedom filings halo the Of
Pometheus if the first of historical writing I'M
pershaby written in the museum Of Herodotus Ii the
bidding of Sophoces, assume an immortal form deem not
hence that limits assigned the versatile genius of Greece
Tie scene changes The sordd bacchanaa of the
muse OF Arslophenes keep pace with the u anarchy of
sophistc eloquence speak in the dramatic compositions of
Eunpides while Fhucyddes with eyes serny fixed the
factions and popular tumG To the first OF this trinity of
great belong the gift Of invention the keenness OF wit
the witherings OF sarcasm, allied prolific and almost
lcenous Imagination to the second apdity of dramatic
action, the patho of dramatic eoquence, the
ring the feelings of the heart bewllderng the mind
luxqhance OF descriptions and imagere which defy APP
proach to the third the calm serenity OF look, the stately
concon OF STYLE the faculty OF condensation the SPLEEN
did coodlnance of intellectual fabric, perfect in its plan
1t Is complete In It's details Such the second harvest of
the intellect OF Greece as nch and fruitful the yield
which it gave to the earlier explorers of the fields of lore On
future occasion we descend with this stream of
earning-thls Nile of the intellect whose heads
though lost forever the depths of antiquity have poured
perennial blessings on mankind We will follow with YOU
its ftul gushes and winding intrcaces-ye will watch its
branchngs and its progress till find it, after monen
tay dsappearance- The eomminglng waters of Aph6us
and Arethusa, fit emblem OF the twotod mind of Greece
bursting upon the shores of Italy and in one sweeping flood
of genius, feizng the intellectual soil of Western Europe
DINNER TO Mr.. BUcHANAN-During Mr.. Blu.
chanans recent visit TO Pennsylvania he was ten
dered the honor of public dinner, by many OF the
citizens of Lancaster, without distinction of party