University of Virginia Library

Sir William Jones in his treatise on oriental poetry, affixed to his life of Nadir Shah, mentions this poet and his wonderful work. It is entitled “Shah Nameh,” it is a series of epic poems, a poetical record of the annals of Persia, and is said to contain sixty thousand couplets. Mahmud Garni, sultan of Zablestan imposed this task upon Ferdusi, and after he had underwent the toil of thirty years to complete his work, the miserly emperor excited his indignation by his scant and pitiful reward....In disdain the injured bard retired from his court, and sought the protection of the generous caliph of Bagdat. The merits of this poem of Ferdusi are said to be very great. In testimony I subjoin the words of Sir William Jones who has read it, and from whose decision few would wish to appeal....“ As to the great epic poem of Ferdusi, which was composed in the tenth century, it would require a very long treatise, to explain all its beauties with a minute exactness. The whole collection of that poet's works is called “Shahnama,” and contains the history of Persia, from the earliest times to the invasion of the Arabs, in a series of very noble poems; the longest and most regular of which is an heroic poem, of one great and interesting action, namely, the delivery of Persia by Cyrus, from the oppressions of Afraslax, king of the Transoxan Tartary, who being assisted by the emperors of India and China, together with all the dæmons, giants and enchanters of Asia, had carried his conquests very far, and become exceedingly formidable to the Persians. This poem is longer than the Iliad; the characters in it are various and striking; the figures bold and animated, and the diction every where sonorous, yet noble; polished, yet full of fire. A great profusion of learning has been thrown away by some critics, in comparing Homer with the heroic poets who have succeeded him; but it requires very little judgment to see, that no succeeding poet, whatever, can with propriety be compared with Homer. That great father of the Grecian poetry and literature, had a genius too fruitful and comprehensive to let any of the striking parts of Nature escape his observation; and the poets who have followed him have done little more, than transcribe his images and give a new dress to his thoughts. Whatever elegance and refinement therefore, may have been introduced into the works of the moderns, the spirit and invention of Homer have ever continued without a rival: For which reason I am far from pretending to assert that the poet of Persia, is equal to that of Greece, but there is certainly a very great resemblance between the works of those extraordinary men. Both drew their images from Nature herself, without catching them only by reflection, and painting in the manner of the modern poets, the likeness of a likeness; and both possessed in an eminent degree, that rich and creative invention which is the very soul of poetry.”

It is well known in the literary world, that the discoveries of Newton, excepting those which belong to pure mathematics, were derived from those outlines drawn by the bold hand of Bacon. Newton has exhibited a perfect and accurate system, but he had the example and directions of Bacon. “It would nevertheless (says Dr. Gerard) be a question of very difficult solution, which of the two possessed the greatest genius; Newton's inquiries concerning bodies the most subtle or the most remote, seem to demand an acuteness and compass of invention, which we might pronounce adequate to all the investigations of Bacon, though his discoveries in mathematics, perfectly original, were not extant to give a sanction to the judgment.”

Demosthenes.

Cicero.

The Earl of Chatham last appeared in the House of Lords, the 2d of April, 1778. He was then ill and debilitated. He spoke in favour of a motion of the Duke of Richmond, for an address to his majesty, to dismiss his ministers and make peace with America. At the close of his long speech he was overcome and was seized with a convulsive fit...of the effect of which he died on the 4th of April.

See Dryden's admirable tale of Cymon and Iphigenia.

The Greeks considered a grove as the sacred retreat of meditation, and early superstition supposed that a deity dwelt amid the shades of solitude.

I had formed the design of shewing the connection of Genius with the social principles, and of tracing the rise, the cultivation and progress of Genius in different countries, particularly in Egypt, Greece, Rome, England and America; but not wishing to extend my poem beyond its present length, I have confined myself to this hasty and superficial sketch. History has recorded five ages in which human Genius has arrived at perfection not equalled in other times. The first was the age of Philip and Alexander....The second was that of Ptolemy Philadelphus.....The third was that of Agustus....The fourth was that of Julius II, and Leo X....The fifth was that of Louis XIV.

Greece, once the favoured region of literature and science: Rome once the haughty mistress of the world, have long been sunk under the weight of luxury and corruption, and have long afforded exhibitions of national decay, which hastily succeeds the meridian of splendour. A feeble and effeminate race now own those hills and plains, once occupied by the most powerful people of the earth. Philosophy has now forsaken their academic shades. Tibur and Ilyssus no longer hear the strains of a Maro, a Flaccus, a Pindar, or a Menander. The head of gold has fallen a prey to time. His cankering tooth has devoured the arms and the trunk; and the iron dust has been blown before the winds of the north.

How dignified is the task of the historian. He bids the laws, the transactions, the revolutions of a people, which are no more, live forever. He bids the hero and the sage, the orator and the poet, though dead, yet speak, and animates by their example. He discovers to nations and to individuals, the rocks of destruction, and points out the paths of safety and success.

What a gloomy subject of contemplation is the fall of empires! What a sublime, but melancholy pleasure must it be to the traveller to visit the tombs of nations....to sit beneath the mouldering columns of an ancient city....to look back upon the long waste of time....to call to view those characters who once trod upon that ground which is now covered with ruins....to dart forward a searching eye into futurity, and see that thus will terminate all human glory! “After leaving Florence,” says Gibbon, in his memoirs of his life and writings, “I compared the solitude of Pisa with the industry of Lucca and Leghorn, and continued my journey through Sienna to Rome, where I arrived in the beginning of October. My temper is not very susceptible of enthusiasm; and the enthusiasm which I do not feel, I have ever scorned to affect. But at the distance of twenty-five years, I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the eternal city. After a sleepless night, I trod with a lofty step, the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Cæsar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a minute investigation. It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the capitol, while the bare footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.”

See Robertson's account of the feudal system in his first volume of his history of Charles V.....and see Gibson's decline and fall of the Roman empire.

See the elegant and entertaining history of Lorenzo De Medicis, by Roscoe:

That work, which no one can read without delight, presents to our view the dawn of literature after the long Gothic night. It disperses the clouds from a period the most important and interesting. It unfolds, in its hero Lorenzo, a magnificence which was princely, and a patronage of learning which we cannot estimate too much. To him the whole literary world is indebted. He collected around him, and cherished, and rewarded the geniuses of the day, and by their exertions snatched from the cells of the monks, and from the ruins of monasteries, where they had long lain mouldering, the precious works of antiquity. It is remarkable that the design of writing the history of Florence under the house of Medicis was formed by Gibbon; but that design he relinquished to trace the decline and fall of the Roman empire.

To Gallileo the sciences are principally indebted for their illumination and progress. He was the natural son of a Florentine nobleman. The system of Copernicus which so well explains all the phenomena by the motion of the earth round the sun, deserved to have him as a defender. About the end of the 16th century, an accidental discovery was made, of the effects of a concave and a convex glass, adjusted at the ends of a tube; but Gallileo did not hear of this until 1609, when he immediately perceived the advantages that might result from such an instrument, if brought to perfection. He meditated, he made repeated trials, and soon constructed a telescope which shewed objects three times larger than they were in nature. By still improving his discovery, he at last procured one that magnified three and thirty times. In a word he discovered the mountains of the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, the spots and rotation of the Sun. But enlightening mankind was exposing himself to dreadful misfortunes. The persecutions which he met with in Italy, were as cruel as they are memorable.....He was sentenced to imprisonment, and constrained solemnly to renounce his discoveries as absurdities and heresies.....He died blind, in 1642, at the age of seventy-eight. Abbe Millot.