An essay on the study of literature Author:Edward Gibbon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: of their General. The mufe denies her affiftance in the defcription of their evolutions : Ihe is afraid to penetrate the clouds of powder and fmoke, that conceal... more » from her fight alike the coward and the brave, the private centinel and the commander in chief. XII. The ancient republics of Greece In govern- ' ' ment. were ignorant of the firft principles of good policy. The people met in tumultuous aflemblies rather to .determine than to deliberate. Their factions were impetuous and' lafting ; their infurrecliorts freo1uent and terrible-; their moft peaceful hours full of diftruft, envy and dbnfufion : The citizens were indeed unhappy; but their " See Thucydides, book iii. alfo Biodorus Siculus, from the xuh book to the xxth, almoft ihroughout. Alfo the Preface of the Abbe Teraflbn to the 3d vol. of his tranflation of Diodorus Siculus—Alfo Hume's Political Eflays. writers, writers, whofe imaginations were warmed by fuch dreadful objects, defcribed them naturally as they were felt. A peace- able adminiftration of the laws; thofe fa- lutary inftitutions, which, projected in the cabinet of a Sovereign or his council, dif- fnfe happinefs over a whole nation, excite only the Poet's admiration, the coldeft of all the paffions. XIII. The ancient mythology, which j .. attributed life and intelligence to all nature, gion. extended its influence to the pen of the Poet. Infpired by the mufe, he fung the attributes, the adventures and misfortunes of his fabulous deities. That Infinite Be- ing, whieh religion and philofophy have made known to us, is above fuch dcfcrip- - tion : the fublimeft flights become puerile on fuch a fubje5t. The almighty Fiat of Mofes ftrikes us with admiration; but See the pieces of Huet and Defprcaux, in the 3d vol. of the works of the la...« less