d on the race of Oedipus; are all portrayed with
inimitable force and pathos. Simplicity of expression, depth of feeling,
resolution of mind, are its great characteristics, as they are of all
the works of Sophocles. It has been revived with signal success in
recent times. If a translation could be made, which should render into
English the force and beauty of the original language, the mingled
energy and delicacy of Sophocles's conception, we should, indeed, have a
perfect idea of the magic of the Greek drama. Such a translation is not
beyond the bounds of possibility; the English language is capable of it,
and could, in the hands of a master, render back a faithful image of the
brevity and power of the Greek. But that master must be a Sophocles, or
a Shakspeare; and ages will probably elapse before the world produce
either the one or the other.

The _Prometheus Vinctus_ of AEschylus is not properly a drama; at least,
it has so little of the peculiar interest belonging to that species of
poetry, that it can hardly be called such. Nevertheless, it is perhaps
the most sublime composition that ever came from the thoughts of
uninspired man. It is meant to portray the heroic devotion, the
undaunted courage of Prometheus--the friend of man, the assuager of his
sufferings, the aider of his enterprises--who was chained to a rock,
exposed to the burning heats of summer, the shivering frosts of winter,
by Jupiter, for having stolen fire--the parent of art, the spring of
enterprise, the source of improvement--from heaven, to give it to the
human race. From the expressions he uses on the ultimate results of that
inestimable gift, one would almost suppose he had a prophetic
anticipation of the marvels of Steam. The opening scene, where
Prometheus is chained to a rock in Scythia, by Vulcan, in presence of
"Force and Strength," the agents of Jupiter's commands; and the closing
one, where he remains firm and unshaken amidst the wrath of the
elements, the upheaving of the ocean, and the lightnings of heaven
hurled at his devoted head, are of unrivalled sublimity. They literally
realize the idea of the poet--

"Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."

The _Prometheus Vinctus_ is the _Inferno_ of Dante dramatised; but it is
fraught with a nobler moral. It does not portray the sufferings of sin
for past guilt; it exhibits the heroism of virtue under present
injustice. It paints the triumph of devoted benevolence,