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 pause to inquire how far the plays of Menander were intended for reading rather than acting; we only notice the prominence of the former purpose as a point of similarity between the drama of cosmopolitan Athens and that of Indian world-literature. The play had, in fact, come to address itself to a cultured class who could take as much pleasure in turning over its pages with critical acumen as in witnessing its action on the stage. There are certain other respects in which the drama of Menander recalls the Indian, and indeed the Chinese, theatre. The introduction of philosophic speculation could be easily illustrated by parallels from Indian and Chinese plays. The following fragment of Menander will serve as an example of its introduction:—

How far the comedy of Menander resembled the Indian drama in its picturesque descriptions of natural scenery, we have not now the means of discovering; but another fragment given by Meineke would at least suggest that the ephemeral span of individual existence beside the comparatively eternal life of Nature was forcing itself on the Greek mind with something of that deep pathos which only the poets of modern Europe have profoundly expressed. The fragment runs thus:—

This man I call the happiest of men

Who, having seen without a touch of pain