Education > Elements of universal history on a new and systematic plan

FOURTH CENTURY B. C.
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sprang from rude forms to perfection. From the Greeks we derive three
orders or styles, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian; from the Ro¬
mans, the Tuscan and the Composite; from the Goths, the Gothic, in which
most of our ancient cathedrals are constructed. The Tuscan order is the
simplest and least ornamented. The essential character of the Doric is
solidity; of the Ionic, delicacy and elegance; of the Corinthian, nobility
and grace. The Composite is, as its name indicates, a mixture of Ionic and
Corinthian. The temple of Ceres and Proserpine at Eleusis was built in
the Doric manner; that of Diana at Ephesus and of Apollo at Miletus, in
the Ionic; the temple of the Olympian Jupiter at Athens, in the Corinth¬
ian; the column of Trajan at Rome, in the Tuscan ; and the Pantheon, in
the Composite.
Sculpture.—The ancient sculptors made use of wood, stone, marble,
ivory, precious stones, as the agate, several metals, as gold, silver, copper,
brass, and different other plastic substances, such as clay, plaster, and wax.
The most celebrated statuaries were Phidias, Polycletus, Myro, Lysippus,
and Praxiteles. The Elgin marbles in the British Museum are supposed
to have been carved under the direction of Phidias, part being the work of
his own hand; the famous horses of Venice are said to be the production
of Lysippus.
Painting.—We have no specimens to show that this elegant art was
carried to so high a degree of perfection as sculpture. The Greeks made
use of only four colours, black, white, red, and yellow. Down to the age of
Nero, paintings were executed chiefly on wood: at this period canvass
began to be employed, but it seems clearly demonstrated that the ancients
were entirely unacquainted with oil painting. They wrought in distemper
and in fresco; the former, on wooden tablets, with colours mingled with
gum-water; the latter, on walls covered with fresh and undried plaster.
They practised also painting in various kinds of wax, in miniature, enamel,
and mosaic. The most celebrated artists of antiquity were Polygnotus,
Apollodorus, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Pamphilus, Timanthes, Apelles, Aristides,
Protogenes, and Pausias, almost all fellow-countrymen and contemporaries
of the sculptors named above.
Music—The object of music among the Greeks was to elevate the mind
rather than charm the ear; it excited to courage in battle, softened the
manners of the savage, and thus contributed to the progress of civilisation.
Music having therefore a political end, was cultivated with great care, and
formed in a certain measure part of their national education. In Sparta,
every innovation in the art was strictly forbidden, and a musician was
banished who had ventured to increase the number of the strings of the lyre.
Poetry.—Thespis, of Attic birth, is the reputed inventor of the dra¬
matic art, 595 B. C. Aischylus, who lived in the time of Xerxes, and
shared with his brother Cynsegirus the dangers of the Persian wars, dis¬
tinguished himself as an author in that department. The battle off Salamis,
at which he was present, forms the subject of one of his tragedies. Sophocles
surpassed him in purity and simplicity: of his numerous compositions only
seven remain. Euripides, the rival of Sophocles, carried, in the opinion of
the eminent critic Aristotle, the pathetic power of tragedy to its greatest
tfusarion of Megara, a contemporary of Thespis, is said to have been the
inventor of comedy; Aristophanes, unequalled for his wit and genius, both
too frequently defiled by the grossness of his time, introduced the living
manners on the stage. ' The political aims of his comedies can scarcely be
accurately appreciated by the moderns. Menander, the predecessor of the