retiring into Eretria without a struggle, and in the utmost precipitation.

Megacles and his friends seem to have considered this secession of Pisistratus as decisive, or else the time did not allow them to follow it by any active measures for preventing his return: eleven years however passed, and still he remained an exile from Athens; old as he was his ambition does not seem to have cooled, nor was he idle in the interim ; he had an interview with his sons in Eretria, and concerted measures with them for his restoration; he formed alliances with several of the Grecian cities, particularly Thebes and Argos, and obtained a seasonable supply of money, with which he enlisted and took into his pay a considerable army of mercenaries, and began hostilities in the Athenian state by seizing upon Marathon. This successful measure drew out many of his secret partisans from Athens to join him in this place, where the promising aspect of his affairs and the popularity of his character, had induced great numbers to resort to his standard : thus reinforced he put his army in motion, and directed his march towards the city. The ruling party at Athens hastily collected troops to oppose his approach, and put them under the command of Leogaras, who no sooner took the field against Pisistratus, than he suffered himself and army to be surprised by that experienced general; and fled in disorder over the country; the politic conquerer stopped the pursuit, and despatched his sons after the fugitives to assure them of pardon and protection, if they would go back to their homes and resume their occupations in peace like good citizens: Pisistratus was far advanced in age, and having carried this decisive action by stratagem, took every prudent precaution for establishing his advantage, by seizing the sons of the leading partisans in opposition to his

government, and detaining them in close custody as hostages for the peaceable behaviour of their parents. He conducted himself on the occasion with so much temper and judgement, the splendor of his talents and the elegance of his manners reflected so much lustre on his court and country, that his usurpation was either no longer remembered, or remembered without aversion and regret; in short his genius for government was such that no man questioned his right: even Solon, with all his zeal for liberty, pronounced of Pisistratus, that Athens would not have contained a more virtuous citizen, had his ambition been directed to a more justifiable pursuit; he was mild and merciful in the extreme, winning in address, an eloquent orator, a just judge, and a munificent sovereign; in a word, he had either the merit of possessing, or the art of dissembling, every good quality, and every brilliant accomplishment.

Having now brought down this brief recapitulation of the Athenian history to the last period of the reign of Pisistratus, we are arrived at the point of time, in which that remarkable æra commences, which I call The Literary Age of Greece: it was now that Pisistratus conceived the enlarged and liberal idea of instituting the first public library in Greece, and of laying it open to the inspection and resort of the learned and curious throughout the kingdoms and provinces of that part of the world-Libros Athenis disciplinarum liberalium publice ad legendum præbendos primus posuisse dicitur Pisistratus tyrannus. Aul. Gell. cap. xvii. lib. vi.-Through a long, though interrupted reign of three and thirty years, he had approved himself a great encourager of literature, and a very diligent collector of the works of learned men: the compiler of the scattered rhapsodies of Homer, and the familiar friend of the great

epic poet Orpheus of Croton, author of the Argonautics, he was himself accomplished in the learning of the age he lived in; and, whilst his court became a place of resort for contemporary genius, he pushed his researches after the remains of the ancient poets and philosophers, through every spot

where the liberal sciences had been known to flourish; collecting books in Ionia, Sicily, and throughout all the provinces of Greece with much cost and diligence; and having at length completed his purpose, and endowed a library with the treasures of the time, he laid it open to all readers for the edification of mankind- Who of those times surpassed him in learning,' says Cicero, or what orator was more eloquent or accomplished than Pisistratus, who first disposed the works of Homer in that order of compilation we have them at this very time?' De Orat. iii. 137.

6

The institution of this library forms a signal epoch in the annals of literature, for from this period Attica took the lead of all the provinces of Greece in arts and sciences, and Athens henceforward became the school of philosophers, the theatre of poets, and the capital of taste and elegance, acknowledged to a proverb throughout the world. From this period to the death of Menander, the comic poet, an illustrious scene presents itself to our observation. Greece, with unbounded fertility of genius, sent a flood of compositions into light, of which, although few entire specimens have decended to posterity, yet these, with some fragments, and what may be further collected on the subject, from the records of the scholiasts and grammarians, afford abundant matter for literary disquisition.

It is painful in the extreme to reflect upon the ravages of time, and to call to mind the host of au

thors of this illuminated age, who have perished by the irruptions of the barbarous nations. When we meditate on the magnificence of the ancient buildings of Greece and Rome, the mind is struck with awe and veneration: but those impressions are of a very melancholy cast, when we consider that it is from their present ruins we are now measuring their past splendor; in like manner from a few relicks of ancient genius, we take a mournful estimate of those prodigious collections, which, till the fatal conflagrations at Alexandria, remained entire, and were, without comparison, the most valuable treasure upon earth.

Pisistratus, as we have observed, established the first public library in Greece; Xerxes plundered Athens of this collection, much augmented by the literary munificence of Hipparchus and the succeeding archons. Xerxes was not, like the barbarians of the lower ages, insensible to the treasure he had possessed himself of; on the contrary, he regarded these volumes as the most solid fruits of his expedition, and imported them into Persia as splendid trophies of his triumph on his return. Seleucus, sirnamed Nicanor, afterwards restored this library to Athens, with a princely magnanimity. The kings of Pergamus also became great collectors, and the Pergamæan library grew into much reputation and resort. But of all the libraries of antiquity that collected at Alexandria by the Ptolemies of Egypt was much the most respectable. Athenæus says (p. 3.) that Ptolemy Philadelphus purchased the Pergamæan library, and in particular the books collected by Nileus, principally consisting of the Greek dramatists, which, with what he got at Athens and Rhodes, furnished the great library at Alexandria with forty thousand volumes. This library was, unhappily, set on fire, when Julius Cæsar found it ne

cessary to burn his ships in the docks at Alexandria; so Plutarch states the case; but Aulus Gellius says, they were set on fire accidentally by the auxiliary troops-non sponte, neque operá consulta, sed a militibus forte auxiliariis incensa sunt.-This misfortune was in a great measure repaired by the library which Marc Antony presented to Cleopatra, and by subsequent additions was increased to such an amount, that when it was at last irretrievably destroyed by the Caliph Omar, it consisted of seven hundred thousand volumes.

This amazing repository of ancient science was buried in ashes by the well-known quibbling edict of that barbarous fanatic- If,' said the caliph, 'these volumes contain doctrines conformable to the Koran, then is the Koran alone sufficient without these volumes; but, if what they teach be repugnant to God's book, then it is fitting they were destroyed.'-Thus, with false reason for their judge, and false religion for their executioner, perished an innumerable company of poets, philosophers, and historians, with almost every thing elegant in art and edifying in science, which the most illuminated people on earth had in the luxuriancy of their genius produced. In vain did the philosopher John of Alexandria intercede to save them; universal condemnation to the flames, was the sentence ignorance denounced against these literary martyrs. The flow of wit, the flights of fancy, and the labours of learning, alike contributed to feed the fires of those baths, in which the savage conquerors recreated themselves after the siege. Need we enquire when art and science were extinct, if darkness overspread the nations? It is a period too melancholy to reflect upon, and too vacant to record. History passes over it, as over the chart of an ocean without a shore, with this cutting recol