general statements, whereas they really have only a special reference to existing circumstances, or are at least susceptible of important modifications." The same may be said of a verse of Euripides that Julius Cæsar was fond of quoting;—
"If ever to do ill be good, 'tis for a crown;
For that 'tis lawful to push right aside:
In other things let virtue be the guide."
But the Roman perverted to his own ends a sentiment well suited to the character—a false and violent one—of the speaker, Eteocles.[1]
Some injury has been done to Euripides by the abundance of fragments from his plays that are preserved. Undoubtedly many of these "wear an equivocal complexion,"—as, for example—
"What must be done by mortals may be done;"
or—
"Nor shameful aught unless one deem it so;"
but we know not the speakers of the words, nor the circumstances under which they were spoken.
What are the proofs of an often-repeated assertion that Euripides was a sensual poet? On the score of indecency the comic poets are rather damaging witnesses—to themselves. Have the Germans, have we ourselves, no poets infinitely more culpable in this respect than Euripides? A very third-rate contributor to the English drama of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would the Greek poet have been, had he written nothing worse than we find
- ↑ Phœnician Women, v. 673.
