With regard to the great merits of Æschylus both as a poet and as the creator of the tragic stage, there is but one testimony among the writers of antiquity. He not only introduced, as we have elsewhere stated, a second, and afterwards a third actor--without which there was no scope for the proper representation of an action--but he made the greatest improvements in the whole machinery and decorations of the stage, gave dignity to the actors by a minute attention to their masks, dresses, and buskins,[f8] besides attending specially to the graceful culture of the dance, according to the testimony of Athenæus above quoted. As a dramatist he is distinguished by peculiar loftiness of conception and grandeur of phraseology. His style is sometimes harsh and abrupt, but it is always manly and vigorous; his metaphors are bold and striking, with something at times almost oriental in their cast; and, though not free from the offence of mixing incongruous metaphors--the natural sin of an imagination at once fearless and fertile--I do not think he can be fairly charged with turgidity and bombast; for, as Aristophanes remarks, in the FROGS, there is a superhuman grandeur about his characters which demands a more than common elevation of phrase.[f9] As to the obscurity with which he has been charged, {32} the comparative clearness of those plays which have been most frequently transcribed is a plain indication that this fault proceeds more from the carelessness of stupid copyists, than from confusion of thought or inadequate power of expression in the writer. In some cases, as in the prophecy of Calchas in the opening scene of the AGAMEMNON, the obscurity is studied and most appropriate. Poetry, like painting, will have its shade. But the great excellence of Æschylus, as a poet, is the bracing tone of thorough manhood, noble morality, and profound piety which pervades his works. Among those who are celebrated by Virgil as walking with Orpheus and Musæus in blissful Elysium-- "Quique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti,"