The praise of departed, or of living heroes, may there fore be considered as having given rise to the first kind of poems or songs in use among mankind. These would be uttered either in a tone of exaltation and triumph, when celebrating victorious deeds and successful at chievements, or in the plaintive style of lamentation, when expressive of grief for the loss of heroes which were departed. Hence it may be said that the ode and the elegy are the oldest species of poetical composition. The present practice of the American Indians is a con firmation of this account of the matter. At all the pub lic assemblies of these savage nations, music, song, and dance, form the principal occupation. The chiefs of the tribe principally signalise themselves upon these occa sions. They express in songs their joy on their victo ries ; celebrate the great actions of their nation, and their heroes; or lament their public and private cala mities, the death of friends, or the loss of warriors ; ex cite each other to perform brave exploits in war, or to suffer death and torment with unshaken constancy.
These general remarks may suffice concerning the causes which have given birth to the fine arts ; and in particular to painting, poetry, and music. A more par ticular detail of the history of each of these arts, of their progression from rudeness to refinement, and of the cir cumstances which have served to improve, and those which tend to corrupt them, will be found under the re spective articles, as they occur in the order of thc alpha bet. All that is necessary to add here, is a few remarks on the causes by which the fine arts have particularly flourished at certain periods of history, while at others they have been precipitated to a premature A certain degree of national prosperity, of wealth, and internal tranquillity, seemS necessary to produce a flourishing condition of the fine arts. Such was the state of the Athenians in the golden sera of their repub lic ; victorious abroad, enriched and elated by the spoils of their enemies, their inventive genius had leisure to produce its happiest effusions ; and the splendid taste of their wealthy citizens offered the most flattering en couragement to eminent artists of every description. Under the tyranny of Pisist•atus, the Athenians made but a mean figure. But the signal of revolt front this oppression was the signal of returning heroism, and of the rise of every invention that can exalt and embellish life. It was soon after this, that, moved with compas sion at the distress of their Grecian brethren in Mile tus, a colony of Ionia, they attacked the Persian king in his own dominions, and burnt the city of Sardis. In less than ten years after this, they gained the signal victory of Marathon ; and under Themistocles, made head against the prodigious army with which Xerxes threatended utter ruin to Greece. Such prosperity pro
duced its natural effects : arts flourished with arms, and Athens became the chief nursury of the sciences, and of every polite and liberal. accomplishment. At this time Socrates flourished, and from his school proceeded Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, and Phxclo. Painting, poetry, mu sic, architecture, and eloquence, were all carried to a pitch of perfection which has never yet been surpassed, perhaps not even equalled, and from which they did not speedily decline.
In Rome the arts had a short, but brilliant reign, dur ing the government of Augustus, which put an end to the rancour of civil war, and restored peace and pros perity to the exhausted republic. During this auspici ous period arose a multitude of historians, poets, and philosophers, to whom the moderns are greatly indebt ed for their taste had talents. At the same time, the arts of painting, statuary, and architecture, were cultivated with the greatest assiduity ; and with such success, that Augustus made it his boast, that he had found the city of brick, and had left it of marble. Thus it appears, that republican freedom is not necessary to produce a flourishing state of the arts. The Roman government under Augustus was in effect despotic ; hut it was then the policy of the monarch to hide his power as much as possible ; and thus, tempered by a mild administra tion of the laws, and internal tranquillity, despotism made no obstruction to the progreas of arts and literature. Under the tyrannical and oppressive dominion of his de testable successors, the decline of the arts was more rapid than their advancement had been previous to the Augustine age.
The state of Tuscany, about three centuries ago, was similar to the state of Rome during the reign of Augus tus. The Tuscan territory having been divided into a number of small republics, the people, excited by the mutual hatred which generally exists between small na tions, in close neighbourhood, were goaded by revenge to ferocious contests for the slightest offence. At length these republics bring united under the great duke of Tuscany, enjoyed the sweets of peace and a mild govern ment. This agreeable revolution, which made the deep er an impression by a comparison with recentcalamities, roused the natim al spirit, and produced an ardent ap plication to arts and literature. Hence the illustrious xra of the government of the Medici, under whose mu nificei t patronage. the sciences and liberal arts arrived at a splendour in Italy whit h has been surpassed only by the age of Augustus, or the happiest period of Athenian greatness.