nds, and stop their
fury."

That Sophocles was a man of transcendant powers of mind, no one has ever
doubted, Aeschylus himself condescended to visit him at his own house:
Aristotle made his works the ground work of his Art of Poetry: The
eulogists of Plato compared the advancements made by that great man in
philosophy, to those made by Sophocles in tragedy: Cicero gives him the
epithet of "the divine"--Virgil decidedly preferred him to all writers
of tragedy; and to this day, his works make a part of the course
appointed for students in the Greek language in all the great colleges
and seminaries of Europe. The great rival of Sophocles was Euripides,
who, in their public contentions for the prize, divided with him the
applause of the populace. At that time the theatre was held to be an
object of the highest magnitude and importance, and made an essential
and magnificent part of their pagan worship. The Athenians, therefore,
were delighted by the contentions of these two prodigious men: but, as
it generally happens in cases of rivalship between public favourites,
the people divided into two parties, one of which maintained the
superiority of Sophocles, while the other insisted on the preeminence
of Euripides. The truth is, that though rivals, and perhaps equals in
talent, they could not afford a just subject of comparison. _Magis pares
quam similes_--they were rather equal, than like to each other. In
dignity and sublimity Sophocles takes the lead, as Euripides does in
tenderness, feeling, and pathetic expression.

For the sake of human nature it is to be lamented that popular applause
produced envy, and jealousy between them, and notwithstanding their
divine talents, they sunk into the littleness that degrades the lowest
of the poets (irritabile genus) and regarded each other with abhorrence.
It is said, in vindication of the character of these great men, that
they were abused into a mutual dislike merely by the calumnious
misrepresentations of pretended friends. Finding, however, that their
animosities provoked general ridicule and contempt, and that their
quarrels had become the common theme with which the witlings and
poetasters of Greece amused the people,[2] they judiciously resolved
to treat each other with the respect and confidence that became such
exalted characters, and became friends again. It should seem that
Euripides was the first to make an advance towards reconciliation; as
appears from a letter of his