Category: History - Ancient
Sanscrit Language, 31.—Sanscrit Alphabet, 32.—Sanscrit Researches, 33.—The Veda, 34.—The Upavedas, 35.—The Purânas, 35.—Social Life of the Vedic People, 37.—Code of Manu, 38.—Epic Poetry, 40.—The Râmâyana, 40.—The Mahâbhârata, 43.—Lyric and Didactic Poetry, 46.—Kalidâsa, 46.—J...
Sanscrit Language, 31.—Sanscrit Alphabet, 32.—Sanscrit Researches, 33.—The Veda, 34.—The Upavedas, 35.—The Purânas, 35.—Social Life of the Vedic People, 37.—Code of Manu, 38.—Ep...
2. CHAPTER II.—PERSIAN LITERATURE.3. CHAPTER III.—CHINESE LITERATURE.Chinese Language, 67.—Chinese Writing, 68.—Antiquity of Chinese Literature, 69.—Confucius, 70.—The Chinese Classics, 73.—The Four Shoo, 77.—The Confucian Analects, 77.—Mencius,...
4. CHAPTER IV.—HEBREW LITERATURE.The Semitic Languages and their Distribution, 84.—The Ancient Hebrew, 85.—Hebrew Alphabet, 86.—Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, 88.—Parallelism, 89.—Dawn of Hebrew Literature, 90.—The B...
5. CHAPTER V.—CHALDEAN, ASSYRIAN, ARABIC, AND PHŒNICIAN LITERATURES.6. CHAPTER VI.—EGYPTIAN LITERATURE.Egyptian Language, 118.—The Rosetta Stone, 119.—Hieroglyphic Writing, 120, 121.—Archaic Age of Egyptian Literature, 122.—Classical Age, 123.—Memoirs of Saneha, 124.—Tale of Snak...
7. CHAPTER I.—BIRTH OF GRECIAN LITERATURE.8. CHAPTER II.—AGE OF EPIC POETRY.9. CHAPTER III.—LYRIC POETRY.Rise and Varieties of Lyric Poetry, 157.—Callinus, 159.—Tyrtæus, 160.—Archilochus, 161.—Æolic and Doric Schools, 163.—Alcæus, 164.—The Lesbian Poetesses, 164.—Sappho, 165.—Sapph...
10. CHAPTER IV.—RISE OF GREEK PROSE.11. CHAPTER V.—GOLDEN AGE OF GRECIAN LITERATURE.The Attic Period, 184.—Pindar, 185.—Antimachus, 192.—Dramatic Poetry, 192.—Æschylus, 194.—“Prometheus Chained,” 196.—Sophocles, 200.—“King Œdipus,” 202.—Euripides, 207.—“Medea,”...
12. CHAPTER VI.—THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD.Decline of Letters, 262.—The New Comedy, 263.—Menander, 264.—Philemon, 265.—Pastoral Poetry, 266.—Theocritus, 266.—Bion and Moschus, 269.—The Museum, 272.—The Alexandrian Librar...
13. CHAPTER VII.—LATER GREEK LITERATURE.Decay of Greek Genius, 280.—Writers of the First Century B.C., 281.—Writers of the First Three Christian Centuries, 284.—Plutarch, 285.—Lucian, 288.—Pausanias, 292.—Origen, 293....
14. CHAPTER I.—LATIN AND ITS OLDEST MONUMENTS.15. CHAPTER II.—DAWN OF ROMAN LITERATURE.Indebtedness of Rome to Greek Authors, 307.—The Roman Drama, 308.—Livius Andronicus, 309.—Cneius Nævius, 310.—Ennius, 311.—Plautus, 312.—“The Captives,” 313.—Terence, 315.—“The...
16. CHAPTER III.—GOLDEN AGE OF ROMAN LITERATURE.Periods of the Golden Age, 329.—Cicero, 330.—Varro, 337.—Julius Cæsar, 339.—Sallust, 343.—Cornelius Nepos, 347.—Poets of the Ciceronian Period, 348.—Lucretius, 348.—Catullus, 35...
17. CHAPTER IV.—AGE OF DECLINE.Silver Age of Roman Letters, 388.—Velleius Paterculus, 389.—Valerius Maximus, 389.—Celsus, 390.—Phædrus, 390.—Persius, 392.—Seneca, 394.—Lucan, 397.—Pliny the Elder, 401.—Martia...
18. CHAPTER I.=Characteristics.=—Oldest of all the Indo-European tongues, and most closely resembling the common parent that is lost, is SANSCRIT—the language spoken by those fair-skinned Ary...
19. CHAPTER II.=Avesta.=—Sprung from the same ancient Aryan tongue as the Sanscrit of India, and distinguished by the same richness of inflection, is Avesta, the earliest language of Persia, s...
20. CHAPTER III.=Chinese Language.=—From the Persian Gâthâs and Vedic hymns, let us now turn to the prose writings of the Chinese philosophers, plain, grave, and moral in their tone. The langua...
21. CHAPTER IV.They are triliteral, i. e. three consonants enter into the composition of every root. Consonants only are represented by letters; vowels, indicated by points and lines, play a s...
22. CHAPTER V.=Cuneiform Letters.=—North of the Persian Gulf, and drained by the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, lay Chalde’a, or Babylonia, the “Land of Shi’nar” (_country of the two rivers_)....
23. CHAPTER VI.=The Egyptian Language.=—There yet remains one field of Oriental literature for us to visit, and it is specially interesting on account of the valuable treasures it long conceal...
24. CHAPTER I.=Early Settlement of Greece.=—While Chaldea and Assyria were rising to greatness, while Phœnicia was winning for herself maritime supremacy, and wonders in art and science were...
25. CHAPTER II.=Homer.=—The oldest literary productions of Greece extant are the poems of Homer, the most ancient monuments of Aryan poetry west of the Persian Gulf. About 1000 B.C., among the...
26. CHAPTER III.=Rise of Lyric Poetry.=—For more than two hundred years after Homer and Hesiod, no one worthy of the name of poet appeared in Greece. Greek genius seemed to have exhausted itsel...
27. CHAPTER IV.=Earliest Prose Writings.=—For several centuries, the literature of Greece was confined to poetry. In Hellas, as elsewhere, verse for a time at first so charmingly and completel...
28. CHAPTER V.=The Attic Period.=—In their wars with the Persians (492-479 B.C.), the Hellenic people fully demonstrated their military superiority, vindicating their manhood on the fields of...
29. CHAPTER VI.=Decline of Letters.=—The triumph of the Doric states over Athens in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) gave the first blow to the intellectual power of Greece. Literary decay...
30. CHAPTER VII.=Extinction of Greek Genius.=—The long period which now engages our attention is marked by a further decline, and the ultimate extinction of letters. Roman despotism was inimica...
31. CHAPTER I.=Italy Peopled.=—While watching the rise, meridian splendors, and glowing sunset of Grecian letters, we have left unnoticed the dawn of literary taste in Italy, the sister of He...
32. CHAPTER II.As Italy received her first lessons in reading and writing from the Greeks, in law-making from Solon, in art from Phidias and Praxiteles, so in polite literature she drew her in...
33. CHAPTER III.=Divisions and Ornaments.=—The Golden Age, which now engages our attention, is naturally divided into two distinct periods, bearing the names of Cicero, the greatest of Roman wr...
34. CHAPTER IV.=Silver Age of Roman Letters.=—With the death of Augustus and the accession of his step-son Tiberius, despotism in its worst form was established at Rome, and, as in Greece, a d...