Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1872-06-22
For the JoUKNAL.l
Short Studies.-.In the Classics.
/. Ell RIFIDES.

thousand Years have, in at least few
important particulars advanced the
race but little. In astronomy, navl-
CATION, mechanism, the arts of war and
many other fields of attainment, i'm
mense advances have evidently been
made but can this be Justly asserted
in regard to sculpture, poetry and or
atory Can We boast Of those more
elevated in their several departments
than a Hes!od, a Demosthcnes, a Ho-
mer, and others whose names are ia
miliar to all students Of antiquity?
Are not the works of those who adorn-
ed Athens and reared the Parthcnon
vet the models for the purest taste of
mankind ? While we know that from
& general standpoint the modern civil
ization is infinitely exalted above that
of the ancients, we must be Just and
say that Greece, occupying as it does
but q speck on the map Of the world,
presents an array of names eminent
in the aspects mentioned, unsurpassed
in any age,
We propose Just now to select one of
these for consideration, distinguished
as a poet, though by no means the
most brilliant in the constellation Of
her gifted sons .:
EURlpIDEs, born B. c., $50, at Sala-
mis-, was the son of Mncsarchus and
Clito. His early life Was given chief
~ to gymnastics, in which he greatly
excelled, being crowned victor in the
Elusinian and Thescan games in his
seventeenth year. But even so early,
philosophy and literature seem to have
attracted him, for we find him quitting
the gymnasium for the sage counsels of
Prodicus and the companionship of
Pericles Under the former he ac-
CURED that oratorta skill for which
his dramas were afterward so celebra-
ted. From Anaxagoras he received
the philosophical tenets that stand out
in his productions. In his twenty
sixth year he entered upon his career
as dramatist, in which. as formerly
in physical, so now in intellectual con
tests, he often outstripped his compel
itors, bearing in triumph the crown of
evergreen, emblem Of the Immortality
that should afterward wreath his name.
While there is much in the poems of
Euripides to admire, indeed that calls
for unstinted praise yet, regarded as
a Tragic Poet, he has been severely
and Justly criticized Take his object,
study his pieces as entire productions,
and YOU find much that calls for cen
sure while you praise, He possessed
great ingenuity; he was trained in
almost every literary pursuit He
failed. however, to subject his trained
and brilliant intellect to those restric-
lions SO necessary would Il writer stand
mistaken by hostile criticism. His
object seems to be to delight, Disregard
full of the means by which this is done.
Hence he constantly varies in power.
Now YOU find exquisite beauty, to be
followed presently by meagrencss of
style, Now he imprcsses by the bril-
liancy and power of his ideas, erelong
to weary you with their triteness. At
times he rolls on majesticallv yet sim
ply, soon to conceal barrenness of
thought by studied expression, strut
ting forward with assumed pomp.
Unlike the silnpleyet powerful Homer,
who is always true to nature, he some
times places low speeches and unworthy
complaints in the mouths of heroes
In fact, as a tragic poet he to large
extent lacks essential dignity. His
chief power was in the depletion of the
passions, such az love and grief Here
he stands forth master. Hence the
popularity of his works.
When, however We remember the
earl age in which he lived, his fire.
quent beauty, his brilliancy of thought
at times, and the opposition that had
to be encountered il giving his peculiar
cast to the drama, we must claim for
him high rank Few Grecian poets
have excelled him. Where can YOU
find more frequent or greater defects
than in our modern priest of nature,
Shakespeare, and yet the literary
world would excommunicate the man
whoever he might be. that would de-
cry his works. Thunderbolts more
terrific thau those hurled from the
Vatican OF to-day, would burst on him.
The press of every nation would groan
with resentment. And why? Be-