most wicked and wanton
perversion of that genius, he made it the successful instrument of the
most base and barbarous purposes. Against all that was great and wise
and virtuous he with the most malevolent industry turned the shafts of
his poignant wit, his brilliant imagination, and his solid knowledge.
Corrupting the comic muse from her legitimate duty he seduced her from
the pursuit of her fair game, vice and folly, and made her fasten like a
bloodhound upon those who were most eminent for moral and intellectual
excellence. His caricaturing of Sophocles and Euripides, and turning
their valuable writings into ridicule for the amusement of the mob, may
be forgiven--but the death of Socrates will never cease to draw upon
Aristophanes the execration of every man who has the slightest
pretensions to virtue or honesty.

It is here to be observed that the comedy of Greece is to be ranked
under three distinct heads. The plays composed of ribaldry, defamatory
licentiousness, indecency and loose jokes, which prevailed on the stage
while the supreme power remained in the hands of the multitude,
constitute the first of these; and it goes by the name of the old
comedy. In those pieces no person whatever was spared. Though they were
so modelled and represented as to deserve the name of regular comedy
they were obscene, scurrilous, and defamatory. In them the most
abominable falsehoods were fearlessly charged upon men and women of all
conditions and characters; not under fictitious names, nor by innuendo,
but directly and with the real name of the party, while the execrable
calumniator, protected by the licentious multitude, boldly defied both
the power of the law and the avenging arm of the abused individual.
Among that licentious people, nobody, not even the chief magistrate nor
the very judges themselves, by whose permission the comedians were
permitted to play, received any quarter, but were exposed to public
scorn by any merciless wretch of a libeller who chose to sacrifice them.
Nor were the bad effects of these calumnies confined to public
scorn--they often went to the pecuniary ruin of families; sometimes, as
in the case of Socrates, afterwards to the death of their object. At
length the miscreants proceeded to open impiety, and held up the gods,
no less than men to derision.

These abuses continued to contaminate the people and disgrace the
country with daily augmented profligacy till a change took place in the
government