crates having taken the cup, kept silence for some time, and then drank off the draught with an amazing tranquillity of aspect.

Such was the end of this great philosopher, in the seventieth year of his age, B. C. 400.

It was not till some time after his death, that the people began to perceive and lament their mistake. Athens was in universal dismay and consternation. All exercises were suspended, and his accusers called to account for his death.

After some time, the inhabitants of the city put on mourning for him, as if a public calamity had befallen them; and all agreed to censure his accusers and judges, some of whom were put to death, and others banished. Nor were the Athenians satisfied with these transient expressions of regret. They decreed the highest honors to his memory. They erected a statue of brass, executed by Lysippus, in the most frequented place of resort. They enrolled his name among their subordinate divinities, and dedicated a temple to his memory.]

[Fine Arts. From the defeat of the Persian power, to the death of Alexander, a period of 180 years, the genius of Greece was displayed in the brightest splendor. The name of the painter and of the sculptor was celebrated in festivals; their works were exhibited at the public games; and they were reputed to confer, by every specimen of their art, distinguished honor upon their country. The monuments of their talents reflected lusture upon their character, and gave it the highest respectability; as it was their noble province to express. the likeness of heroes, and to embody the perfections of the gods. To be publicly distinguished with higher honors than his competitors, was the great object of the artist, and his unremitting and ardent efforts to excel them, gave to his works, that grace, beauty and spirit, that exquisite expression of passions, and that appropriate dignity of character which mark their finest performances.

The arts brought to recollection by the most lively images, the great events and characters of history. Every public edifice in Athens was filled with the statues of warriors, magistrates, legislators, philosophers, and orators. In one place stood Miltiades, frowning destruction on Persia; in another, the placid Socrates, the thoughtful Solon, and the empassioned Demosthenes. Every street presented an Athenian with some striking example of valor, wisdom, or

patriotism. Wherever he turned his eyes he saw some monument raised to perpetuate the renown of his ancestors; and the precious tribute of the arts, so liberally paid to all persons of genius, courage and virtue, gave the keenest excitement to the display of every species of excellence.]

After this period, however, many great men appeared in Greece; but no general bond of union could be formed. Intervals of peace were short; and their few virtuous characters only shown like passing meteors, for a moment. If Alcibiades was famous for his talents, he was no less infamous for his vices; and the few splendid actions, he performed, were utterly insufficient to counteract the general effects of caprice, crooked policy, and a total want of virtue.

Athens had scarcely recovered a measure of liberty, by the exertions of Thrasybulus,* and begun to respire, after a shock so paralizing, and calamities so dreadful, when war again broke out. This is commonly called the Boeotian war. Instead of rising, as did the former, from the Peloponnesus, it now pointed its avenging flames toward that haughty combination of powers, and menaced them with a fate, similar to that of Athens. It is remarkable, that as the sun of ancient Greece was still lingering on the western horizon, as if loath to set, she at times displayed an effulgence of genius, which few nations could boast, when enjoying their meridian of glory. In the days of glory, which Sparta and Athens had seen, it was little expected, that Boeotia would ever be the terror of Greece-would not only excite their jealousies, but alarm their fears, and would render necessary their utmost exertions, not to say in defence of their honor, but of their national existence.

Historians, without a dissenting voice, allow Epaminondas to have been great in the various characters of statesman, hero, patriot and commander. The Thebans and their Confederates were led by this most accomplished general into the Peloponnesus. Lacedemon was their mark. They ravaged the country of Laconia, even to the gates of Sparta. That proud and powerful people had not seen such a day` for five hundred years. The skill and valor of Agesilaus saved them.

After the Peloponnesian war, the government of Athens was usurped by 30 men, "the dependents and creatures of Sparta," who, on account of their tyranny, are generally called the Thirty Tyrants. From these, Athens was delivered by Thrasybulus.—Ed.

The course of human affairs resembles a revolving wheel, some parts of which are perpetually rising, some falling; some are up, and some down. It is incredible, that Lacedemon should be compelled to apply to Athens for aid, whom she had so lately conquered; but this she did, and that with success. The war progressed with vigor; was protracted; had various turns, and was at length terminated in a general battle at Mantinæa. This battle is allowed to have been the most equally matched, the ablest conducted, and the most bravely fought, of any one ever fought in Greece. [While Epaminondas was fighting in the midst of the battle, with astonishing ardor, a Spartan gave him a mortal wound with a javelin across his breast. He was carried into the camp; and the surgeons, after the battle, examining the wound, declared, that he would expire, as soon as the head of the dart was drawn out of it. All present were in the utmost affliction, while the only concern he expressed, was about his arms and the fate of the battle. When they showed him his shield, and assured him, that the Thebans had gained the victory, turning towards his friends with a calm and serene air," All then is well," said he; and soon after expired. The death of this "wonder-working man," however, roused the drooping spirits of the Spartan allies; and at last, rendered the victory doubtful. It was claimed on both sides.]

With Epaminondas, expired the martial spirit of his country; for, although the Thebans maintained the ascendency for some years, and were able, for a while, even to control the decisions of the Amphictyonic council, yet they gradually sunk to their former insignificance. This great general terminated his career in the 2d year of the 104th Olympiad, 363 years before Christ, and may be considered as one of the last expiring lights of the Grecian republics.

Eight years after the death of Epaminondas, Alexander the Great was born, generally acknowledged to be the first of heroes and of conquerors. Under his powerful sceptre, the Greeks, the Persians, and even the Indians, formed but one amazing field of conquest.

Empire first having taken her flight from Persia and from the Grecian republics, seemed for a while hovering on other shores and coasts, as in doubt where to settle.

More than 800 years before the Christian era, a colony from the ancient city of Tyre, whose history we have

already noticed, crossed the Mediterranean, and settled in Africa. Those enterprising adventurers, conducted by the celebrated Dido, founded the city and empire of Carthage. The Carthaginians, by degrees, extended themselves along the shores of Africa, and subdued the islands of the Mediterranean, great part of Sicily, and even many islands in the Atlantic ocean. They succeeded, and very far exceeded their mother country, in the empire of commerce, and were for many years masters of the sea. But the Carthaginians, like the Trojans, were destined, after flourishing a while, to enhance the triumph and exalt the fame of their conquerors. They were checked by the Greeks, and finally subdued by the Romans.

The Romans, about this time, flourished under a consular administration. Manlius Torquatus, Decius Mus, and others, were cotemporary with Alexander. But the Romans were yet unknown to fame; their wars not having extended beyond the small tribes and states of Italy; for it is remarkable, that, after Rome had been an independent state 360 years, her territories did not extend twenty miles from the city.

But a power was now rapidly rising, much nearer to Greece, which was to change the scene in Europe and Asia, and to influence the state of numerous nations, to ages unborn.

Northwestwardly of the head of the Archipelago, and separated from the sea by several small Grecian republics, lay the country of Macedon. Its exact size, as also its boundaries northwardly, were little known even to the ancients, and still less to modern geographers. The country was rough, mountainous, and, for the most part, wild and barren. As early as the Persian invasion, these parts were little known. They had been colonized 'and subdued by the Athenians, but had revolted in the course of the Peloponnesian war.

Amyntas, the grand-father of Alexander the Great, was the first prince of that dynasty, of any considerable note in history. He is represented by Quintus Curtius, as a man of great abilities, equally brave in the field, and wise in council. But, overwhelmed with difficulties both foreign and domestic, he was able only to plant those seeds of greatness, which were afterwards to flourish and influence the destiny of half the nations of the earth. During his reign, the Macedonians were too wild and barbarous to coalesce in

any settled plan of policy, civil or military. Of course they were kept in perpetual fear from the inroads of the Illyrian tribes, which skirted them on the north.

The Greeks, likewise, though wasting away by swift degrees, in the fires of civil war, were still warlike and powerful, under the administrations of Cimon, Pericles and Epaminondas. The life of Amyntas was strongly embittered by intrigues and conspiracies, in his own palace, carried on by his famous, or rather infamous queen Eurydice: a calamity, which, amid all their greatness, seemed to pursue that whole dynasty of Macedonian kings, until it exterminated the posterity of Philip, king of Macedon.

Amyntas had three sons, Alexander, Perdiccas and Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. After a troublesome reign, he was succeeded by his eldest son Alexander, who found full employment in repelling the invasion of his ferocious and warlike neighbors. In an unsuccessful war with the Illyrians, he was compelled to become tributary, and to give a royal hostage. He gave his younger brother Philip, who, during his residence with those rude but martial people, gained a knowledge of them, which was afterwards of eminent service to him; though he was then but a boy. On a similar occasion, being afterwards sent to Thebes, he there enjoyed the greatest advantages.

Epaminondas then flourished; and taking Philip under his immediate protection and care, he educated him together with his own son, in the Grecian literature, in which he made great proficiency. The school of adversity, gives lessons of wisdom, and imparts an energy to man, almost indispensable to greatness. For the most part, the pamper. ed and delicate children of easy fortrne are enervated in the germe and blossom of life, and are forever hushed on the downy lamp of prosperity, to inglorious repose.

It was not so with Philip. In those adverse fortunes, which could not break his spirit, he learnt patience, humility and wisdom. He found ample resources in his own mind, made strong by exertion, and rich by experi

ence.

[Most important events of the life of Philip.-After spending nine or ten years in Thebes, he was called to the throne of Macedon, by the death of his brother Perdiccas. Possessing great abilities, and equal ambition, he cast his eyes over the wide prospect; and allured by the most brilliant hopes of aggrandizing his family, invited by the degenerate