to have adopted the same mixture of tragedy and comedy.(1696) 7. We have now dwelt at some length on the comic poetry of the Dorians, on account of the interesting nature of the subject, and the light which it throws on the general character of a people, among whom the strictest gravity was found closely united with the most unrestrained jocularity and mirth; for as every real jest requires for a foundation a firm, solid, and grave disposition of mind, so moral indifference, and a frivolous temperament, not only destroy the contrast between gravity and jest, but annihilate the spirit of both. Our inquiries on the early state of the tragic drama among the Dorians will be more concise. And we may first observe, that the great difference between tragedy and comedy did not exist originally but was only formed gradually in their development. Their only distinction at first was, that while comedy was more a sport and a merriment of the _country_ festivals, tragedy was from its commencement connected with the public rejoicings and ceremonies of Bacchus in _cities_, and was performed by the great cyclic or dithyrambic choruses. Thence it came that the former expressed the boisterous mirth and joviality of clowns and peasants; whereas the latter was formed upon the particular ideas and feelings suggested by the worship of Bacchus, and by the part which he bore in mythology. It principally turned on the sufferings of Bacchus (Διονύσου πάθη), a point alluded to in some verses in the Iliad, though there is no doubt that it had been attempted at a much earlier period.(1697) 8. We shall now show how this applies to the tragedy of the Dorians. According to the account of Herodotus(1698) there were at Sicyon, an ancient seat of the worship of Bacchus, tragic choruses which sung of Bacchus, and undoubtedly of his sufferings. These choruses however had even before the age of Cleisthenes (Olymp. 45.) been transferred to Adrastus, the hero of that city, but they were by that tyrant restored to their former subject. The date of their restoration is therefore known; the time of their extension to Adrastus, and consequently of their foundation, must have been much more remote; this shows the comparatively late date of the Attic tragedy, which began with Thespis. Now we are also informed that Epigenes, a very ancient tragedian of Sicyon, was the sixteenth before Thespis;(1699) thus it appears that the ancients were in possession of a stock of information, which has been lost to us, that enabled them to draw up a regular succession of all the intermediate tragic poets. To this if we add that some of the Peloponnesians, as we are told by Aristotle,(1700) disputed with the Athenians the invention of tragedy,(1701) we shall not be inclined to deny the claims of the former, on the mere ground that their song, being drowned by the louder notes of the Athenians, was thus early silenced.