Note 520 — GRECIAN WRITERS.

As soon as the Amonians were settled, and incorporated with the natives, a long interval of darkness ensued. The very union produced a new language: at least the antient Amonian became by degrees so modified, and changed, that the terms of science, and worship, were no longer understood. Hence the titles of their Gods were misapplied: and the whole of their theology grew more and more corrupted; so that very few traces of the original were to be discovered. In short, almost every term was misconstrued, and abused. This[520] æra of darkness was of long duration: at last the Asiatic Greeks began to bestir themselves. They had a greater correspondence than the Helladians: and they were led to exert their talents from examples in Syria, Egypt, and other countries. The specimens, which they exhibited of their genius were amazing: and have been justly esteemed a standard for elegance and nature. The Athenians were greatly affected with these examples. They awoke, as it were, out of a long and deep sleep; and, as if they had been in the training of science for ages, their first efforts bordered upon perfection. In the space of a century, out of one little confined district, were produced a group of worthies, who at all times have been the wonder of the world: so that we may apply to the nation in general what was spoken of the school of a philosopher: cujus ex ludo, tanquam ex Equo Trojano, meri Principes exierunt. But this happy display of parts did not remedy the evil of which I have complained. They did not retrieve any lost annals, nor were any efforts made to dispel the cloud in which they were involved. There had been, as I have represented, a long interval; during which there must have happened great occurrences: but few of them had been transmitted to posterity; and those handed down by tradition, and mixed with inconsistency and fable. It is said that letters were brought into Greece very early, by [521]Cadmus. Let us for a while grant it; and inquire what was the progress. They had the use of them so far as to put an inscription on the pediment of a temple, or upon a pillar; or to scrawl a man's name upon a tile or an oyster-shell, when they wanted to banish or poison him. Such scanty knowledge, and so base materials, go but a little way towards science. What history was there of Corinth, or of Sparta? What annals were there of Argos, or Messena; of Elis, or the cities of Achaia? None: not even of [522]Athens. There are not the least grounds to surmise that any single record existed. The names of the Olympic victors from Corœbus, and of the priestesses of Argos, were the principal memorials to which they pretended: but how little knowledge could be obtained from hence! The laws of Draco, in the thirty-ninth Olympiad, were certainly the most antient writing to which we can securely appeal. When the Grecians began afterwards to bestir themselves, and to look back upon what had passed, they collected whatever accounts could be [523]obtained. They tried also to separate and arrange them, to the best of their abilities, and to make the various parts of their history correspond. They had still some good materials to proceed upon, had they thoroughly understood them; but herein was a great failure. Among the various traditions handed down, they did not consider which really related to their country, and which had been introduced from other[524] parts. Indeed they did not chuse to distinguish, but adopted all for their own; taking the merit of every antient transaction to themselves. No people had a greater love for science, nor displayed a more refined taste in composition. Their study was ever to please, and to raise admiration. Hence they always aimed at the marvellous, which they dressed up in a most winning manner: at the same time they betrayed a seeming veneration for antiquity. But their judgment was perverted, and this veneration attended with little regard for the truth. [525]They had a high opinion of themselves, and of their country in general: and, being persuaded that they sprang from the ground on which they stood, and that the Arcadians were older than the moon, they rested satisfied with this, and looked no farther. In short, they had no love for any thing genuine, no desire to be instructed. Their history could not be reformed but by an acknowledgment which their pride would not suffer them to make. They therefore devoted themselves to an idle mythology: and there was nothing so contradictory and absurd but was greedily admitted, if sanctified by tradition. Even when the truth glared in their very faces, they turned from the light, and would not be undeceived. Those who, like Euemerus and Ephorus, had the courage to dissent from their legends, were deemed atheists and apostates, and treated accordingly. Plutarch more than once insists that it is expedient to veil the truth, and to dress it up in [526]allegory. They went so far as to deem inquiry a [527]crime, and thus precluded the only means by which the truth could be obtained.