74 HISTORY OF GRELCE. with the living action of iambic dialogue, thus constituting tha last ascending movement in the poetical genius of the race. Reserving this for a future time, and for the history of Athens, to which it more particularly belongs, I now propose to speak only of the poetical movement of the two earlier centuries, wherein Athens had little or no part. So scanty are the rem- nants, unfortunately, of these earlier poets, that we can offer little except criticisms borrowed at second-hand, and a few gen- eral considerations on their workings and tendency. 1 Archilochus and Kallinus both appear to fall about the middle of the seventh century B.C., and it is with them that the innova- tions in Grecian poetry commence. Before them, we are told there existed nothing but the epos, or daktylic hexameter poetry, of which much has been said in my former volume, being legendary stories or adventures narrated, together with ad- dresses or hymns to the gods. We must recollect, too, that this was not only the whole poetry, but the whole literature of the age : prose composition was altogether unknown, and writing, if beginning to be employed as an aid to a few superior men, was at any rate generally unused, and found no reading public. The voice was the only communicant, and the ear the only recipient, of all those ideas and feelings which productive minds in the community found themselves impelled to pour out ; both voice and ear being accustomed to a musical recitation, or chant, appa- rently something between song and speech, with simple rhyihm and a still simpler occasional accompaniment from the primitive four-stringed harp. Such habits and requirements of the voice and ear were, at that time, inseparably associated with the suc- cess and popularity of the poet, and contributed doubtless to restrict the range of subjects with which he could deal. 1 For the whole subject of this chapter, the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth chapters of 0. Miiller's History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, wherein the lyric poets arc handled with greater length than con gists with the limits of this work, will be found highly valuable, chapters abounding in erudition and ingenuity, but not always within the limits of the evidence. The learned work of Ulrici (Geschichteder Griccluschen Poesie Lyiik> Is still more open to the same remark.
