Minerva. Gryllus says of Ulyssus, " you are as persuasive as Minerva." Minerva is sometimes called Pallas, and sometimes Athenæ she was the tutelary genius of Athens. In that city, her temple, and the services performed in honour of her, were more splendid than any where else—the Athenians expressing by this homage, their character, more intellectual and spiritual than the rest of the heathen world. This Minerva, or Wisdom, was the daughter of Jove, the supreme god of the heathens, and sprung from her father's head. fable implies that God is the origin or beginning of Wisdom. God's wisdom is infinite—extends through time and eternity, and to all beings and events, and appoints and executes all his laws. Man's wisdom extends to all his duties. Human wisdom is like divine wisdom, but infinitely less in degree. It is sufficient to enable man to do right, to please God, and to make him happy. Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, has personified Wisdom— that is, spoken of this moral attribute of God as of an intelligent and living being. The power and virtue which the heathens imputed to Minerva, are far less exalted than the power and virtue of that Wisdom which the king of Israel described. Solomon makes Wisdom say, "I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Receive my instruction and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. Riches and honour are with me: yea, durable riches and righteousness. —Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.—He that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear: for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be of right things. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. : "When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the earth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth then I was by him, as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." CIRCE'S PALACE. The following description of Circe's palace, and of the transformations she wrought, is taken from the tenth book of the Odyssey. "The palace in a woody vale they found, High raised of stone; a shaded space around: 'What voice celestial, chanting to the loom The goddess rising, asks her guests to stay, Suspecting fraud, more prudently remained. Soon in the luscious feast themselves they lost, When Ulysses was absent, the princes and noblemen of the neighbouring countries went into his kingdom, lived in his palace, fed upon his flocks, and severally demanded the queen Penelope in marriage—these, in the Odyssey, are called the Suitors. Penelope, who loved her husband, refused them all, and lived with her son Telemachus in Ithaca, always in hopes of the return of Ulysses. After twenty years from his departure for Troy, he again entered the walls of his palace in the disguise of a beggar he was treated with kindness by the Queen and Telemachus, but with contempt and insolence by the Suitors; however he was soon recognized by an old domestic. In due time he declared himself, and with his son and their faithful adherents, killed the Suitors, and was restored to his ancient dignity. ARGUS. A very interesting account is given of the dog Argus, who recognised his master Ulysses, when he approached his palace, attended by Eumsus, an old servant. This sagacious dog has been celebrated for three thousand years, and his history is thus related in the Odyssey. "Thus, near the gates conferring as they drew, He, not unconscious of the voice, and treadf To him, his swiftness and his strength were vain ; And where on heaps the rich manure was spread, He knew his lord; he knew, and strove to meet ; his eyes, Stole unperceived; he turned his head, and dried Some care his age deserves: or was he prized But served a master of a nobler kind, Him no fell savage on the plain withstood, GREEK POETS. It is not the province of a teacher limited to a literature purely English to afford much knowledge of the writers of ancient Greece. But these writers have recorded the religion, the moral sentiments, the domestic manners, and the public amusements of the Greeks; and matters of fact in relation to this people, if not the elegance of their language and the utmost refinement of their thoughts, are offered to common readers in the form of translation. The connexion of the Greek literature with the English, is derived from this circumstance, that the greater part of our writers are classical scholars—have been instructed in the language and literature of Greece; and those who have not been thus instructed, have been informed in the spirit of the Greek literature by their intercourse with books and scholars, so that young persons who cultivate any knowledge of the literature of their own language, have need of some popular elementary information concerning the Greek. The translations of Homer and the Greek dramatists are the best means which merely English students have to inform themselves of the fables, the religion, the public amusements, and the domestic life of the Greeks. Theatrical amusements are not approved by many religious persons, but, dramatic literature—written plays include so much of the poetry of Greece and England, that it is difficult to exclude it from the liberal studies of any young person. The origin and progress of the Drama among the Greeks cannot be an unsuitable illustration of a collection of poetry, of which the professed object is to connect poetry with the history of nations, and the progress of society. ESCHYLUS. Eschylus was an Athenian of an honourable family, distinguished for the sublimity of his genius and the ardour of his martial spirit. In his youth he had read Homer with the warmest enthusiasm ; and finding his great master unrivalled in the Epic, he early conceived the design of creating a new province for himself, and forming the drama; so much we may be allowed to infer from the fable, that whilst he was yet a boy Bacchus appeared to him as he lay asleep in a vineyard, and commanded him |