ards for their measures and attitudes, from which they were not to deviate. P. 658. A reflection on the usual wrong determinations of the persons appointed to judge of their musical and poetical entertainments at Athens, who (though they took an oath to decide impartially) were biassed, either through fear or from the affectation of popularity, by the opinion of the crowd; whereas they ought to have considered themselves as masters and directors of the publick taste. From this weakness arose the corruption of their theatrical entertainments. In Italy and in Sicily the victory was adjudged by the whole audience to that poet, who had the greatest number of hands held up for him. P. 659. The manners, exhibited in a drama to the people, ought always to be better than their own. P. 661. The morality inculcated by the poets, even in Sparta and in Crete, where all innovations were by law forbidden, was defective enough. What sentiments NOTES. P. 658. It is here said, that puppet-shews and jugglers' tricks are best accommodated to the taste of young children; as comedy is to that of bigger boys, tragedy to that of the young men, and of the women of the better sort, and of the bulk of the people in general, and the rhapsodi to that of the older and wiser sort. Ib. Κινυρα τε.] The verses of Tyrtæus, here alluded to, are these: Ουδ' ει Τιθωνοιο φυην χαριέστερος είη, Πλουτοιη τε Μιδεω και Κινυραο πλεον. See also Phædrum, p. 269. 661. Tylaiveiv.] An allusion to an ancient song. See Gorgias, p. 451. they ought to inspire. Plato's great principles are explained, namely, that happiness is inseparable from virtue and misery from wickedness, and that the latter is rather an error of the judgment than of the will. P. 663. If these opinions were actually false, (as they are immutably founded on truth) yet a wise lawgiver would think himself obliged to inculcate them, as true, by every method possible. It is easy to persuade men, even of the most absurd fiction; how much more of an undoubted truth? P. 664. The institution of the three chorusses, which are to repeat in verse (accompanied with musick and with dances) these great principles of society, and to fix them in the belief of the publick: the first chorus is composed of boys under eighteen, and sacred to the Muses; the second, from that age to thirty, and sacred to Apollo; the third, to Bacchus, consisting of all from thirty to sixty years of age. P. 666. The use of wine is forbidden to boys; it is 1 V. Alcibiad. 2. p. 144. Aristotle looked upon this as the distinguishing part of his master Plato's doctrine, as we see from a fragment of his elegy to Eudemus, preserved in Olympiodorus's commentary on the Gorgias. See also de Legib. L. 5. p. 733 and 742. NOTES. P. 663. To Tov Zidwviov.] This fable of Cadmus and the dragon's teeth was firmly believed at. Thebes: the principal families were supposed to be descended from the five persons who survived the fight and bore on their bodies (as it was reported) the mark of a lance, as a proof of their origin. They were called Σπαρτοι, και Γηγενεις. (See Eurip. Hercules Furens, v. 794. and Barnes ad locum.) allowed, but very moderately, to men under thirty; after that age, with less restraint: the good effects of it in old age are mentioned. P. 667. The principles and qualifications which are required in such as are fit to judge of poetry, and of the other imitative arts. P. 669. Instrumental musick by itself (which serves not to accompany the voice) is condemned, as uncertain and indefinite in its expression. The three arts of poetry, of musick, and of the dance (or action), were not made to be separated. P. 671. The regulation of entertainments, with the manner of presiding at them is enforced; without which the drinking of wine ought not to be permitted at all, or in a very small degree. NOTES. P. 665. IεpwvaσкηкотES.] The singers in these chorusses were subjected to a course of abstinence and of physick, for a considerable time before they put their voices to the trial. (Vid. Antiphont. Orat. de cæde Choreutæ.) 669. An expression of Orpheus: Aaxei wpav тEPÝIOS. 672. Οταν αποκτεινη τις αυτο, or, ακταινωση ἑαυτο—a false reading; perhaps, όταν ανακινη τις, οι ανακινη τι αυτο. DE LEGIBUS. BOOK III. HEADS OF THE THIRD DIALOGUE. P. 676. The immense antiquity of the earth, and the innumerable changes it has undergone in the course Mankind are generally believed to have been often destroyed (a very small remnant excepted) by inundation and by pestilence. of ages. The supposition of a handful of men, probably shepherds, who were feeding their cattle on the mountains, and were there preserved with their families from NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Ρ. 677. Ο, τι μεν γαρ μυριακις.] Perhaps we should read ουτι μεν γαρ. I imagine he means to say, as follows; "For (taking the great antiquity of the earth for granted) without supposing some such destruction as this, how can we account for all the useful arts among mankind, invented as it were but yesterday, or at farthest, not above two thousand years old? It is impossible that men in those times should have been utterly ignorant of all which had passed so many thousand ages, unless all records, and monuments, and remains of their improvements and discoveries, had perished." 66 Quo tot facta virûm toties cecidere? nec usquam a general deluge, which had overwhelmed all the cities and inhabitants of the country below. P. 677. The destruction of arts and sciences, with their slow and gradual revival among this infant society, is nobly described. P. 680. The beginnings of government: the paternal way first in use, which he calls the justest of all monarchies. Assemblies of different families agree to descend from the mountain tops, and to settle in the hill-country (ev Tαis vπwрerais) below them; and as each of them has a head or a prince of its own, and customs in which it has been brought up, it will be NOTES. Ρ. 677. Χιλια δ' αφ' οὗ γεγονεν, η δις.] From Ol. 108. 1. the year of Plato's death, to the age of Marsyas (a contemporary of Midas) is usually computed about thirteen hundred years, to that of Amphion, eleven hundred, to that of Dædalus and Orpheus, not quite one thousand, and to that of Palamedes, who lived about the siege of Troy, nine hundred and sixty. Ib. Τα δε περι Μουσικην.] Perhaps we should add, Αυλη τικήν. Ib. χθες τε και πρωην.] See Gorgias, p. 471. Ib. Ὁ λόγω μεν Ησιοδος.] I know not what lines in Hesiod are here alluded to, unless it be these: Ούτος μεν παναριστος, ὃς αυτος παντα νοησει, Φρασσάμενος τα κ' επειτα και ες τελος εσσετ' αμείνω. Oper. et Dies. v. 293. nor do I clearly see, whether this is said seriously, or by way of irony on Epimenides and on the art of divination. 680. Τοις ξενικοις ποιημασι.] Homer was but little known or read in Crete, even in Plato's time. The Cretans, as they closely adhered to their ancient customs, did so likewise to the compositions of their own countrymen. |