Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1874-04-04
Sketches, From a College Port.
Folio.
ANCIENT LITERATURE.

eTbe glories of classic Greece ore
still admired, though they have long
since departed from her Shores
The remembrance of that land which
cherished the arts, will live in the
generous heart, and the inspirtions of
her genius will remain when the
prOudest material structures have de-
cayed. While the leaves of Autumn
for a hundred generations have passed
away, with the Pharaohs and Ptolcm-
les, the Caesars and Caliphs, the pyra-
mids Of Egypt have stood mistaken
above the foods Of the Nile. They
too must crumble at the touch of time,
and every vestage of ancient power
he swept away. But the structure of
Grccian literature shall remain, and,
while generous feelings inbabit the
scholars bosom, shall prompt him to
glorious emulation.
In the study of ancient literature,
we meet with an exuberance of fancy,
and in their poetry we find an aspira-
ton which is wholly their own. 1t is
to the modern scholar like unfolding
a new page Of nature Fancy then
threw her mantle over natures works,
and smiled at her own new creation.
With an Imagination and sensibilty
which had not yet been subjected TO
the dominion of reason, and with q
language which, though copious,
flexible, and expressive, employed met
aphor. action, and impassioned tones,
as necessary instruments of communi-
eating thought, the ancients spoke and
sung.
Every object of sense, to such a
people, was alive with action and
feeling. and it was but one simple. and
natural act of the Imagination to in,
state them into perez anent existe iss,Sy
hence their rural and sylvan dkieS,
which sported on every hill sid
fingered in every forest of AL Sht
Greece. Cytherea. with her graccs,
led the dance along the flowery fields.
Diana, on the mountain tops, while
nymph clad in their dewy garbs, sport
ed mid spacious gladcs Of grandeur
and repose. Adonis followed far in
the boisterous chase, and fawns AMI
drvards recllned in summer bowers,
to listen to the liquid piping of the
reed. The voices of heavenly spirits
rose from every murmuring forest,
whilst the mountain god walked in
majestic loneliness. An ethereal
was seen to animate every grove /;
beautiful beings were bid to preside
over every gushing stream. Fancy
gave a mystic origin even to her riv-
ers. her mountains, and her cities
Thebes was begirt by the magic muse
Of Amphion-Delos sailed along the
Egean sea, with its sacred freight, to
shun the eye of jealous deity the
trembling Olympus shook the gods in
council on their highest seat, whilst
the vivid lightning which flashed
from its summit was thought to have
been hammered out in the workshops
Of The Cyclops Such were the i'm
aginary decorations given to nature:
fancy threw her veil over every object,
giving birth to unnu'nbered traditions,
and. scattering everywhere Elysian
flowers; whilst this belief of supernat-
ural presence, reacting on the imagi-
nation. gave it richness approach.
ing to inspiration. Tie poetry of a
nation is but the expression of their
lofiiest feelings, and Of their most ele-
waited and refined conceptions.
Hence there is nothing with which it
is more intimately connected, than
with their religion. This is especially
true Of the ancients. Their divinities
were creatures of their own magma.
ton, and their influence was strongly
exerted in exciting and giving scope to
the inspirations Of the bard: Thus
the nature Of their theology goes far
to explain that of their literature,
The same fertility of imagination
which placed on every mountain some