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273 ON THE ATTIC DIONYSIA. 1 HE Attic festivals which were signalized by dramatic exhibitions have naturally been objects of peculiar interest to the learned, nor ought it to be believed that the attention bestowed on them has been misplaced. Not only would our knowledge of antiquity be imperfect without a clear and correct notion of the outward conditions and occasions that determined the production of those masterpieces of dramatic art which are among the most precious treasures bequeathed to us by the genius of Greece, but the study of these great works themselves would often by the same defect be deprived of important aids, in its endeavours to apprehend their pecu- liar character and relations. It is not however on this ground alone that any one who duly prizes the value of ancient lite- rature ought to rest the utility of such researches. It is not a prudent, but a feeble and timid spirit that dissuades us from indulging our curiosity in literary or scientific inquiries, before we have accurately calculated the importance of the result we expect to obtain from them. However diminutive may be the object that attracts us in any new direction across the boundless field of antiquity, we may safely abandon ourselves to the impulse which urges us to investigate it. Even if we should not find any use to which it is immediately applicable, we shall assuredly be rewarded for our labour, not merely by the invigorating effect of the exercise, but by the air we shall breathe, the new views that will open on us, and the flowers that we shall gather in our way. This remark has been beautifully illustrated by Profes- sor Boeckh in an essay on the Attic Dionysia, published in 1819 among the Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, to which it was read in the year 1817. In this paper the author has taken an entirely new view of a ques- tion which had been long agitated by philologists, and which appeared to have been at length completely decided, as to the