CHAPTER VIII.
Brief Survey of Arts, Letters, and Philosophy in Greece, prior to the Legislation of Solon.
I.

Before concluding this introductory portion of my work, it will be necessary to take a brief survey of the intellectual state of Greece prior to that wonderful era of Athenian greatness which commenced with the laws of Solon.

At this period the continental states of Greece had produced little in that literature which is now the heirloom of the world.

Whether under her monarchy, or the oligarchical constitution that succeeded it, the depressed and languid genius of Athens had given no earnest of the triumphs she was afterward destined to accomplish.

Her literature began, though it cannot be said to have ceased, with her democracy.