“ To the thoughtful observer human life must necessarily appear at first sight sad, and Euripides is the master of pathos. No poet ever drew more tears. With ready imaginative sympathy he has felt deeply the vicissitudes of the human lot, approached it under all its varying conditions. His touch lays bare the beatings of the human heart, and strikes the chord of every passion and affection. ”

“ Leaving Euripides as a man and a thinker, we may pass for a moment to his art, which we perceive to be but the flower of his philosophy. His discursive and contemplative spirit, enamored of reality, did not even attempt to soar to the Titanic world of Æschylus. ”

“ And life has other aspects for him too. His attentive eye has caught the color, the variety of the outward moving panorama of men and things; has turned aside to dwell with loving appreciation on the beauty of external nature, and the picturesqueness of both has passed into his verse. ”