[62] Lucretius is a philosophic poet. He aimed to explain Nature; and his poem has much of wisdom, beauty, sublimity, and imagination to commend it. Virgil imitated whole passages from Lucretius. (Rome, 1st cent. b. c.)
[63] Ovid is gross but fertile, and his "Metamorphoses" and "Epistles" have been great favorites. (Rome, 1st cent. b. c.)
[64] The "Antigone" and "Œdipus at Colonus" of Sophocles are of exquisite tenderness and beauty. In pathos Shakspeare only is his equal. (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.)
[65] Euripides is the third of the great triumvirate of Greek dramatists. His works were very much admired by Milton and Fox. Read his "Alcestis," "Iphigenia," "Medea," and the "Bacchanals." (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.)
[66] Aristophanes is the greatest of Greek comedy writers. His plays are great favorites with scholars, as a rule. Read the "Clouds," "Birds," "Knights," and "Plutus." (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.)
[67] Pindar's triumphal odes stand in the front rank of the world's lyric poetry. (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.)
[68] Hesiod's "Theogony" contains the religious faith of Greece. He lived in or near the time of Homer.
[69] Heine is the most remarkable German poet of this century. He has written many gems of rare beauty, and many sketches of life unmatched for racy freshness and graphic power.
[70] Schiller is the second name in German literature; indeed, as a lover of men and as a poet of exquisite fancy, he far excels Goethe. He was a great philosopher, historian, and critic. Read his "Song of the Bell," and his drama of "Wallenstein," translated by Coleridge. (Germany, 18th cent.)