The Interdependence of Literature | Page 9

Asia. Their oldest traditions and poems have
many points of resemblance to the most ancient remains of the Asiatic
nations. Some writers say that "this amounts to nothing more than a
few scattered hints or mutilated recollections, and may all be referred to
the common origin of mankind, and the necessary influence of that
district of the world in which mental improvement of our species was
first considered as an object of general concern." But this proves at
least that there was an older civilization and literature than the Greeks,
and that that civilization had its root in the East. According to their own
testimony the Greeks derived their alphabet from the Phoenicians, and
the first principles of architecture, mathematical science, detached ideas
of philosophy, as well as many of the useful arts of life, they learned
from the Egyptians, or from the earliest inhabitants of Asia.
The essential characteristic of the Greeks as a nation was the
development of their own idea, their departure from whatever original
tradition they may have had, and their far-reaching influence on all
subsequent literature throughout the world. They differed in this from
all other nations; for to quote again:
"the literature of India,with its great antiquity, its language, which is
full of expression, sweetness of tone, and regularity of structure, and
which rivals the most perfect of those western tongues to which it bears
such a resemblance, with all its richness of imagery and its treasures of
thought, has hitherto been void of any influence on the development of
general literature. China contributed still less, Persia and Arabia were
alike isolated until they were brought in contact with the European
mind through the Crusaders, and the Moorish Empire in Spain."
This independence and originality of Greek literature is due in some
measure to the freedom of their institutions from caste; but another and
more powerful cause was that, unlike the Oriental nations, the Greeks
for a long time kept no correct record of their transactions in war or
peace. This absence of authentic history made their literature become

what it is. By the purely imaginary character of its poetry, and the
freedom it enjoyed from the trammels of particular truths, it acquired a
quality which led Aristotle to consider poetry as more philosophical
than history.
The Homeric poems are in a great measure the fountainhead from
which the refinement of the Ancients was derived. The history of the
Iliad and the Odyssey represent a state of society warlike it is true, but
governed by intellectual, literary and artistic power. Philosophy was
early cultivated by the Greeks, who first among all nations
distinguished it from religion and mythology.
Socrates is the founder of the philosophy that is still recognized in the
civilized world. He left no writings behind him; but by means of
lectures, that included question and answer, his system, known as the
dialectics, has come down to us.
Aesop, who lived 572 B.C., was the author of some fables which have
been translated into nearly every language in the world, and have
served as a model for all subsequent writings of the same kind. In 322
B.C., the centre of learning owing to the conquests of Alexander the
Great, was moved to Egypt in the city that bears his name. Here the
first three Ptolemies founded a magnificent library where the literary
men of the age were supported by endowments. The second Ptolemy
had the native annals of Egypt and Judea translated into Greek, and he
procured from the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem the first part of the Sacred
Scriptures, which was later completed and published in Greek for the
use of the Jews at Alexandria. This translation was known as the
Septuagint, or version of the Seventy; and is said to have exercised a
more lasting influence on the civilized world than any book that has
ever appeared in a new language. We are indebted to the Ptolemies for
preserving to our times all the best specimens of Greek literature that
have come down to us.
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE GREEK FATHERS.
The interdependence of Greek literature includes some reference to the
Greek fathers and their writings.
Many of the books of the Old Testament, regarded as canonical by the
Catholic Church; but known as the Apochrypha among non-Catholics,
were written in Greek. A number of them are historical, and of great
value as illustrating the spirit and thought of the age to which they refer.

The other class of writers includes the work of Christian authors. Greek
and Latin writings wholly different from Pagan literature, began to
appear soon after the first century, and their purifying and ennobling
influence was more and more felt as time passed. The primitive
Christians held these writings of the Greek and Latin fathers in great
esteem,