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INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
3

The horrors that had previously defiled the family of the Pelopidæ are also dwelt on; as leading, in the inevitable career of destiny and retribution, to the fate of Agamemnon himself. And from his fate a fresh series of awful deeds and sufferings arises. His son, Orestes, avenges his murder on the murderess Clytemnestra; but becomes, by the very act, a Matricide. The Eumenides, the gloomy Powers of the Nether World, the Avengers of Blood, pursue Orestes. He suffers and wanders long in phrensied agony. At length he seeks refuge at the shrine of Pallas. The Infernal Powers denounce him: the Celestial descend to his defence. After a fearful judicial struggle he is absolved of blood-guiltiness, and the long succession of recurring crime and vengeance is concluded.

I trust that I shall not be blamed for having associated with the translated extracts from the Greek Tragedians on different parts of this subject, an imitation of some very beautiful lines in the Second Part of Göthe's Faust.

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