Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/140

 122 SOPHOCLES. days, rather avaricious ^ He possessed, however, those agreeable qualities which are very often found along with habits of vicious indulgence; he was exceedingly good natured, always contented 2, and an excellent boon companion^. His faults were due rather to his age and country than to any innate depravity. His Tragedies are full of the strongest recommendations of religion and morality ; and we know no ancient poet who has so justly and forcibly described the infallibility and immortality of God, as opposed to man's weakness, ignorance, and liability to error ^: or who has set the beauty of piety and righteousness, and the danger and folly of impiety and pride, in a stronger and clearer light than he has^. To characterize the man and his works in one word, calmness is the prominent feature in the life and writings of Sophocles. In his politics, an easy indifference to men and measures ; in his private life, contentment and good nature ; in his Tragedies, a total absence of that wild enthusiasm which breaks down the barriers of common sense, are the manifestations of this rest of mind : his spirit was Like a breath of air, Such as is sometimes seen, and hardly seen. To brush the still breast of a crystal lake^. He lived, as it were, in the strong hold of his own unruffled mind, and unmoved, heard the pattering storm without^. His very 1 'Epyu^s. irpCiTov 5' 6' ri irpaTTei So0o/cX^t7S avrjpeTO. ^pvyatos. €vdai/jLov€i' irdax^'- 5^ OavjxacrTbv. "EpfXTJs. To ri; UpvyoLOS. eK roO 1,o<poK^ovs yiyveraL ^iixojvlbris. 'Ep/A-^s. Si/ttwj'/5T7s ; ttcDs; llpvyoLLOS. "On, yipwv wV Koi (rairpbs, Kipdovs e/cart kB.v eirl pnrbs ttX^oi. Pax, 695 sqq. 2 Aristoph. Ran. 82. 3 See the amusing anecdote from Ion, Athen. xiii. p, 603 E, 4 We allude to Antig. 604, which is generally misunderstood. The connexion of ideas in the passage is as follows : " What mortal transgression or sin is Jupiter liable to, Jupiter the sleepless and everlasting god? But mortal men know nothing of the future till it comes upon them." We should certainly read virep^aaia in the nomi- native case. Tts virep^acria /care'xet reav dvvaeu, <p€v, ri To{'Tov X^PP-^ f^^^^o^ ^^ Xa/?ois,
 * AXXd diKaios ewv, fxr) rd diKaia irddr} ;