[986]. Iliad β. 590. sqq. Payne Knight, Proleg. § 74.
[987]. De Rep. x. 4. t. ii. 318. Stallb.
[988]. De Rep. x. 7. t. ii. 336.
[989]. The plays of this poet, like those of Shakespeare, were, in succeeding ages, altered for the stage—Quint. Instit. Orat. x. 1. The orator, Lycurgus, procured a decree, ordering the tragedies of the three poets to be copied, and statues to be erected in their honour.—Plut. Vit. x. Orat.
[990]. In Greece heard early in the spring.—Sibthorp, in Walp. Mem. i. 75.
[991]. This writer, like most of his poetical contemporaries, used constantly to wear a tablet and stylus suspended to his dress.—Athen. xiii. 45. The use in fact of memorandum books was common.—Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 529.
[992]. Opp. t. i. p. 105. seq.—He is said to have received a thousand drachmas for each of his pupils.—Dem. cont. Lacrit. § 11.
CHAPTER XI.
SPIRIT OF THE GRECIAN RELIGION.
Whether the Greeks received their earliest system of philosophy from the East, as is commonly believed, or themselves invented it, as to me seems most probable, there can I think be little doubt that once engaged in philosophical speculations they exhibited in the pursuit a degree of boldness and originality, a patience of research, a power of combination rarely if ever equalled in succeeding times. For some ages, it is true, from the days of Thales down to those of Socrates (B. C. 600 to B. C. 450) physical investigations and researches chiefly occupied the philosophers of Greece. They conceived it to be within the power of man to discover the nature of the principal elements which compose the world, and the law’s that regulated its formation.[[993]] The origin likewise of the human race, of which nothing is yet known but that which has been revealed, naturally awakened their curiosity and led to many theories wild and fantastic in the extreme.