FOOTNOTES:
[1] A thousand words have thus been traced through the sister languages of Aryan birth—a number certainly adequate to the wants of primitive man, when we remember that of more than 120,000 words which constitute our present vocabulary but 3,000 are in common use. The Old Testament was translated with the help of only 5,642 English words. While Shakespeare’s genius required 21,000 words for its expression, Milton’s epic employs less than half that number.
[2] In common with the Celts, the North American Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, and other ancient nations, cherished a tradition that they had supplanted an original population—the children of the soil—of low intellectual powers, feeders on roots, hole-dwellers, serpent-eaters.
[3] Some regard the Hindoo epics as belonging to a much later period. It is probable that the present versions are essential modifications of the original forms.
[4] The language of the Gypsies, descendants of those Hindoos who fled from the persecutions of Tamerlane, is a corrupted Vedic dialect.
[5] “He is the only master of the world; he fills heaven and earth. He gives life and strength: all the other gods seek for his blessing; death and immortality are but his shadow.
The mountains covered with frost, the ocean with its waves, the vast regions of heaven, proclaim his power.
By him the heaven and earth, space and the firmament, have been solidly founded: he spread abroad the light in the atmosphere.
Heaven and earth tremble for fear before him. He is God above all gods!”
Rig-Veda.
[6] The mystical name formed of the three elements A U M, representing the three forms of the deity.
[7] Nirvâna—“a condition of total cessation of changes; of perfect rest; of the absence of desire, and illusion, and sorrow; of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching Nirvâna, man is constantly being re-born; when he reaches Nirvâna, he is born no more.”—Olcott’s “Buddhist Catechism,” p. 32.
[8] We find one phase of this in the worship of ancestral tablets. These are of wood, a foot high, and bear the name of the departed ancestor, the hour of his birth, and that of his decease. They are worshipped twice a month with tapers and burning incense. Death is believed to liberate three spirits from the tenement of clay; while one of these occupies the grave, and another seeks the invisible world, the third is supposed to take up its habitation in the tablet erected by filial reverence. The accompanying engraving shows one of these ancestral tablets with its inscription in Chinese. (Read Du Bose’s “The Dragon, Image, and Demon.”)
[9] The two Chinese philosophers remind us of the two Greeks, not only by the moral tone of their teachings, but by their relative positions as master and follower. Nor were their respective eras widely apart; compare their dates—
The master, Confucius, 551-478 B.C.
The disciple, Mencius, 370-288 B.C.
The master, Socrates, 470-399 B.C.
The pupil, Plato, 429-348 B.C.
[10] Some hold that the Pentateuch was compiled by Moses from extant writings of an earlier period; others believe it to have been reduced to its present form at a much later date; while many theologians ascribe it all to Moses, except the part that relates to his death and a few interpolated sentences. Its authenticity as part of God’s Word has been disputed from time to time, and particularly in these later days; but neither Jews nor Christians doubt its inspiration, though they admit that in parts its meaning may have been misconceived. We have here to do with it, as with other parts of the Bible, simply as a literary work. (See Rawlinson’s “Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament.”)
[11] For example, the Book of Jasher, which appears to have been a collection of songs in praise of the just and upright—the subject of endless discussions.
[12] The grammatical literature of the Assyrians is equalled only by that of the Hindoos and the Greeks.
[13] The Greeks, erroneously believing these characters to have been used by the priests alone, called them hieroglyphics (sacred carvings).
[14] That is, dead king Menkaurâ; the deceased was identified with Osiris, god of the dead.
[15] M. Prisse first published this papyrus in France; hence its name.
[16] Papyrus published by Ebers.
[17] What is known as the Book of the Dead, or Funeral Ritual, is not a homogeneous whole which has descended to us as such from antiquity, but a collection of all the funeral texts found in various tombs. The dead man was believed to encounter various dangers in the lower world, and hence it was of great importance that he should be thoroughly instructed in advance. He had to know the magical names of all parts of “the land of the dead,” of thousands of malignant and benignant demons he would there meet. He must also be acquainted with the names of the forty-two associate judges of Osiris who considered his claim to admission into future joys, as well as with the proper confession to make to each. The texts are partly descriptions of funeral ceremonies and of various localities in the Lower Heaven, partly hymns and magical formulæ for exorcising demons, and partly long speeches the dead man must pronounce, with directions for making and inscribing amulets. Of these texts, some were written on papyrus and placed in the tomb with the mummy, others were inscribed on amulets and sarcophagi. In no one tomb have all been found.
[18] Nothing is known of ancient Egyptian metres: but it is evident that the poetry was characterized by parallelism analogous to that of Hebrew verse.
[19] Unknown locality.
[20] Unknown locality.
“Septem urbes certant de stirpe insignis Homeri,—
Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenæ.”
For all places mentioned in the history of Grecian literature, see Map, p. 132.
[22] In this category we do not mean to include our own Shakespeare; Homer’s pedestal is no loftier than his.
[23] A city south-east of Troy, situated at the base of Mount Pla’cos, and hence called Hypoplacian (under Placos).
[24] The ægis was Jupiter’s shield, which inspired fear, and caused darkness, clouds, and storms.
[25] His mother, Priam’s wife, king of Troy.
[26] The following lines, with their long and short syllables distinguished and arranged as in the dactylic hexameter and pentameter, will give an idea of the cadence of the elegiac couplet:—
“Give mĕ sŏme | mŏre,” săys thĕ | mīsĕrlỹ | mān, thoŭgh ăs | rīch ăs ă | Crœsūs;
Nēvĕr e|noūgh ĭn hĭs | stōre, || īf hĕ căn | gēt ănỹ | mōre.
[27] The Leucadian promontory projects from the southern shore of the island of Leucadia, off the coast of Acarnania (see Map, p. 132). On the bluff stood a temple of Apollo, to whom, in very ancient times, human sacrifices were yearly offered, a victim being hurled from the rock into the sea below. The priests sometimes took the place of these unfortunates, but on such occasions carefully avoided danger by fastening to their persons flocks of live birds, the flapping of whose pinions during the descent broke their fall. This rite was gradually modified; and at one time we find the leap from the cliff used as an ordeal to test the guilt of suspected persons.
In Sappho’s day it was customary for those suffering the pangs of unrequited affection to take the Lover’s Leap from the precipice, after secretly uttering their vows in the sanctuary of the god. Some, intent on suicide, were dashed to pieces on the rocks below or perished in the waves; others took the precaution to buoy themselves up with feathers or bladders, trusting to a plunge in the cold sea or the bruises they might receive, to cure their passion. Queen Artemisia, of Halicarnassus, lost her life in taking the Lover’s Leap, after putting out the eyes of the youth who would not return her attachment; and one case is recorded in which a man four times resorted to this perilous remedy.—The modern Greek sailor still calls the promontory “the Lady’s Cape.”
[28] From which he has been called “the Dircean Swan.”
[29] The true site of the deme of Icaria, the birthplace of the drama, was discovered in eastern Attica in the spring of 1888, by Prof. A. C. Merriam, of Columbia College.
[30] The Sea of Azof.
[31] The sacrificial flame, from which omens were taken.
[32] The riddle proposed by the Sphinx: “What animal is that which goes on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?” The answer of Œdipus was, Man.
[33] Hippos means a horse in Greek; pheidon, economical.
[34] An epigram of later date thus accounted for their names:—
“The Muses to Herodotus one day came, nine of them, and dined;
And in return, their host to pay, left each a book behind.”
[35] Hence probably the origin of the proverb, “Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas”—“Plato is dear, but truth is dearer.”
[36] The difference between reasoning by Deduction and by Induction may be made clearer by the following examples:—
Deduction.—Dogs are quadrupeds.
Tray is a dog.
Therefore, Tray is a quadruped.
Induction.—Tray is a quadruped; Carlo is a quadruped; Fan is a quadruped;
Pet is a quadruped; etc.
Tray, Carlo, Fan, Pet, etc., are dogs.
Therefore, all dogs are quadrupeds.
[37] Second crop of grass.
[38] An allusion to the hostility of Æetes, Medea’s father, and his fire-breathing bulls, which Jason was required to tame before he could get possession of the Golden Fleece.
[39] An allusion to the fate of Empedocles himself; see p. 236.
[40] From Saturn, an ancient Italian god fabled to have instructed the people in agriculture. The metre was accommodated to the rapid beats of the foot in the country dances at harvest-time.
[41] From Fescennium, an Etruscan town.
[42] When the Roman audience heard this sentiment, they shook the theatre with their applause.
[43] A Roman knight, Laberius, who had lost caste by appearing on the stage, made a good hit at Cicero, for his political non-committalism. As he was going to his place in the theatre one day, Cicero, who was seated in the orchestra, called out to him, “Laberius, I would make room for you, if we were not so crowded here.”—“You crowded!” answered Laberius. “Why, how is that? you generally manage to sit on two stools.”
[44] Allusion is here made to Antony’s purchase of the goods of Pompey the Great, at auction, after the defeat of the latter in the civil war.
[45] The last word of the play, which invites the applause of the audience.
[46] Amphiara’us, whose wife betrayed him for a pearl necklace, and was afterward murdered by her son.
[47] A consecrated ground in ancient Rome, on which it was unlawful to build.
[48] An allusion to the change from the purple-bordered toga of the youth, to the toga virilis, or manly robe.
[49] Hadrian was for the most part a patron of literary men, and himself spoke and wrote with eloquence. Pope’s paraphrase has made familiar his verse addressed to his soul:—
“Ah! fleeting spirit! wandering fire,
That long hast warmed my tender breast,
Must thou no more this frame inspire,
No more a pleasing, cheerful guest?
Whither, ah! whither art thou flying?
To what dark undiscovered shore?
Thou seem’st all trembling, shivering, dying,
And wit and humor are no more.”
[50] The fifty daughters of Danaus, who stabbed their husbands on the marriage-night.
[51] The wicked minister of the emperor Tiberius, who encouraged his master in the most detestable vices. At length, having engaged in a conspiracy with the view of usurping the empire, he was executed by Tiberius. The fate of the bronze statues raised in his honor is related by the poet.
[52] The Etruscan goddess of fortune.
[53] Tacitus shared the unjust prejudice current among the Romans.
[54] This was the first of the ten persecutions of the Christians.
[55] For these “Gems,” as well as those under Greek literature, we have drawn to some extent on the collections of Ramage.