chaunting recitation; for Terpander is said to have first set them, as well as the laws of Lycurgus,(1739) to a regular tune; whereas these ancient religious hymns had such tunes from the beginning; while the mode to which they were set can hardly have been any other than the Doric. The attempt to vary the rhythm probably began by breaking the dactylic hexameters into shorter portions, in order to produce new combinations of less uniform verses, and thus gave rise to the antistrophic form of metre.(1740) A different origin must, however, as is natural, be assigned to the anapæstic military songs; nor can we suppose that pæans and hyporchemes ever followed the laws of hexameters; the pæonian variety must have been earlier than Alcman, who made use of Cretic hexameters. Generally indeed Alcman, however early his age, made use of a great variety of metres; the reason of which probably is, that before his time Terpander had mixed the Greek and Asiatic music; besides which, Alcman had doubtless, from his Lydian origin, an inclination to the eastern style of music; for in this a large portion of his songs, in which the logaœdic metre prevailed, were evidently composed:(1741) he was also acquainted with Phrygian melodies.(1742) But the diversity of his metres was only to express the variety of his muse, which sometimes adored the gods in solemn choruses (in which, when he danced himself, he implored the sweetly-singing virgins to be the supports of his age(1743)), now wrote bridal-hymns and drinking-songs; a sufficient refutation of the notion that life at Sparta was one unvaried scene of gloominess and melancholy; in which town these songs continued nevertheless to be popular until the time of Epaminondas.(1744) 12. If the essence of art consists in investing an idea of the mind with a sensible and bodily form, and this in a corresponding and satisfactory manner, we must certainly ascribe great skill in art to the Dorians, for (as we have before remarked) they delighted more in imitation than in creation or action. This remark applies to the Greeks in general, and particularly to the Dorians, as distinguished from later times; hence the attention of that race to the beauty of form; “Give us what is good and what is beautiful” was the Spartan prayer.(1745) Whoever had enjoyed the benefits of the public education, participated in all that was beautiful in the city,(1746) their whole existence was influenced by a sense of beauty, which was expressed in the most ancient production of the people—in their religion.