Page:The Golden verses of Pythagoras (IA cu31924026681076).pdf/122

 *tious; as in Madrid it had been chivalrous and gallant. Everywhere the theatre had to accommodate itself to the taste of the people. The first regular tragedy which Pierre Corneille composed in France was derived from a Spanish ballad. Madrid at that time gave the tone to Europe. It needed much of the time and all the prosperity of Louis XIV. to throw off the unseasonable ascendancy that this

the Gallic Parnassus, the sacred mountain of the Occidental isles; and that when the antique cult began to decline in Gaul, it was in Albion, reckoned among the holy isles by even the Indians, that the druids went to study. Voyez Les Commentaires de César, iv., 20; L'Introduction de l'histoire de Danemark, par Mallet; L'Histoire des Celtes, par Pelloutier; et enfin les Recherches asiatiques (Asiat. Research.), t. vi., p. 490 et 502.
 * [Footnote: without religion, the Caledonians possessed in the heart of their mountains,

In order to seize the occasion of applying eumolpique lines to a greater number of subjects, I am going to quote a sort of exposition of Ossian, the only one I believe, which is found in his poems; because Macpherson, for more originality, neglected nearly always to announce the subject of his songs. I will not give the text, because the English translation whence I obtained it does not give it. It concerns the battle of Lora. After a kind of exordium addressed to the son of the stranger, dweller of the silent cavern, Ossian said to him:

Le chant plait-il à ton oreille? Ecoute le récit du combat de Lora. Il est bien ancien, ce combat! Le tumulte Des armes, et les cris furieux des guerriers, Sont couverts par un long silence; Ils sont éteints depuis longtemps: Ainsi sur des rochers retentissants, la foudre Roule, gronde, éclate et n'est plus; Le soleil reparaît, et la cime brillante Des coteaux verdoyants, sourit à ses rayons.

Son of the secret cell! dost thou delight in songs? Hear the battle of Lora. The sound of its steel is long since past. So thunder on the darkened hill roars, and is no more. The sun returns with his silent beams, The glittering rocks, and green heads of the mountains smile.

This example serves to prove that eumolpique lines might easily adapt themselves to the dithyramb.]