text:  We know what the pathetically sublime literature was which the drama gave to Athens; how poets of profound and capacious spirits who had looked into themselves--and so enlightened had observed human life--were able by taking for their subjects the strongly portrayed characters and the stern situations of the old Greek fable to unite in their lofty and impressive scenes the truth of nature and the tender interests which endear our familiar homes to the grandeur of heroic recollections to the awe of religion and to the pomp the magnificence and the beauty of a gorgeous yet intellectual art