is often deceived by the misrepresentations of others; yet, without his single-hearted simplicity, his disposition to listen to every remarkable account, and his admiration for the wonders of the Eastern world, Herodotus would never have imparted to us many valuable accounts. Modern travelers, naturalists, and geographers have often had occasion to admire the truth, and correctness of the information contained in his simple and marvelous narratives. But no dissertation on this writer can convey any idea of the impression made by reading his work; his language closely approximates to oral narration; it is like hearing a person speak who has seen and lived through a variety of remarkable things, and whose greatest delight consists in recalling these images of the past. Though a Dorian by birth, he adopted the Ionic dialect, with its uncontracted terminations, its accumulated vowels, and its soft forms. These various elements conspire to render the work of Herodotus a production as perfect in its kind as any human work can be. PERIOD SECOND. THE EPOCH OF THE ATHENIAN LITERATURE (484-322 B.C.). 1. LITERARY PREDOMINANCE OF ATHENS.--Among the Greeks a national literature was early formed. Every literary work in the Greek language, in whatever dialect it might be composed, was enjoyed by the whole nation, and the fame of remarkable writers soon spread throughout Greece. Certain cities were considered almost as theatres, where the poets and sages could bring their powers and acquirements into public notice. Among these, Sparta stood highest down to the time of the Persian war. But when Athens, raised by her political power and the mental qualities of her citizens, acquired the rank of the capital of Greece, literature assumed a different form, and there is no more important epoch in the history of the Greek intellect than the time when she obtained this pre-eminence over her sister states. The character of the Athenians peculiarly fitted them to take this lead; they were Ionians, and the boundless resources and mobility of the Ionian spirit are shown by their astonishing productions in Asia Minor and in the islands, in the two centuries previous to the Persian war; in their iambic and elegiac poetry, and in the germs of philosophic inquiry and historical composition. The literature of those who remained in Attica seemed poor and meagre when compared with that luxuriant outburst; nor did it appear, till a later period, that the progress of the Athenian intellect was the more sound and lasting. The Ionians of Asia Minor, becoming at length enfeebled and corrupted by the luxuries of the East, passed easily under the power of the Persians, while the inhabitants of Attica, encompassed and oppressed by the manly tribes of Greece, and forced to keep the sword constantly in their hands, exerted all their talents and thus developed all their extraordinary powers.