ness. The man who is proud of what is really creditable to him is the Pharisee, the man whom Christ himself could not forbear to strike. My objection to Mr. Lowes Dickinson and the reassertors of the pagan ideal is, then, this. I accuse them of ignoring definite human discoveries in the moral world, discoveries as definite, though not as material, as the discovery of the circulation of the blood. We cannot go back to an ideal of reason and sanity; for mankind has discovered that reason does not lead to sanity. We cannot go back to an ideal of pride and enjoyment; for mankind has discovered that pride does not lead to enjoyment. I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of independent thinking. Progress is obviously the antithesis of independent thinking; for under independent or individualistic thinking, every man starts at the beginning, and goes, in all probability, just as far as his father before him. But if there really be anything of the nature of progress, it must mean, above all things, the careful study and assumption of the whole of the past. I accuse Mr. Lowes Dickinson and his school of reaction in the only real sense. If he likes, let him ignore these great historic mysteries-the mystery of charity, the mystery of chivalry, the mystery of faith. If he likes, let him ignore the plough or the printing-press. But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end-where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity. XXI 1 FROM OLD PICTURES IN FLORENCE 1 BY ROBERT BROWNING 'If you knew their work, you would deal your dole.' May I take upon me to instruct you? When Greek art ran, and reached the goal, Thus much had the world to boast in fructu: Which the actual generations garble, Was re-uttered, and soul (which limbs betoken) So, you saw yourself as you wished you were, And grew content in your poor degree With your little power, by those statues' godhead, You would fain be kinglier, say, than I am? Has yet the advantage in arms' and knees' use. You live-there's the Racers' frieze to follow. 1 Stanzas 11-20. So, testing your weakness by their strength, You learned-to submit is a mortal's duty. The collective, I mean: the race of man Growth came when, looking your last on them all, To-day's brief passion limits their range; It seethes with the morrow for us, and more. They are perfect-how else? they shall never change. We are faulty-why not? we have time in store. The Artificer's hand is not arrested With us; we are rough-hewn, nowise polished. They stand for our copy, and, once invested With all they can teach, we shall see them abolished. 'Tis a lifelong toil till our lump be leaven The better! What's come to perfection perishes. Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven. Works done least rapidly art most cherishes. Thyself shalt afford the example, Giotto! Thy one work, not to decrease or diminish, Is it true that we are now, and shall be hereafter, Our first step out of the gulf or in it? On which I conclude that the early painters To cries of 'Greek art, and what more wish you?' Replied: "To become now self-acquainters, And paint man man, whatever the issue! Make new hopes shine through the flesh they fray, New fears aggrandize the rags and tatters; To bring the invisible full into play! Let the visible go to the dogs-what matters?' Give these, I exhort you, their guerdon and glory Beats the last of the old; 'tis no idle quiddit. Which if on earth you intend to acknowledge, Why, honor them now! (ends my allocution) Nor confer your degree when the folk leave college. BIBLIOGRAPHY [The list is meant to be suggestive rather than full. Moreover it does not include books from which selections have been taken for the present volume, unless these books contain other important matter of a similar kind; accordingly the Bibliography is supplemented by the Table of Contents. On the whole it has seemed better to divide the titles into classes than to give all in one alphabetical series; but it should be understood that the divisions are not everywhere mutually exclusive. The slightly varying use of parentheses corresponds in general to a varying emphasis, sometimes upon part of a book, sometimes upon the whole.] I. THE GREEK RACE AND ITS GENIUS ARNOLD, MATTHEW. Hebraism and Hellenism. (In Culture and Anarchy [etc.]. New York, 1883.) DICKINSON, G. LowEs. The Greek View of Life. London, 1896. HEGEL, G. W. F. Lectures on the History of Philosophy, tr. E. S. Haldane. (Vol. 1, pp. 149-155.) London, 1892. MOORE, CLIFFORD H. The Religious Thought of the Greeks from Homer to the Triumph of Christianity. Cambridge, Mass., 1916. MURRAY, GILBERT. Greece and the Progress of Man. (In The Rise of the Greek Epic, Lecture 1, pp. 21-49. Second edition. Oxford, 1911.) RUSKIN, JOHN. Works, ed. Cook and Wedderburn. (See Vol. 39, Index s. v. 'Greece,' 'Greeks.') London and New York, 1903-1912. STAUFFER, ALBRECHT. Zwölf Gestalten der Glanzzeit Athens. Munich and Leipzig, 1896. STOBART, J. C. The Glory that was Greece, a Survey of Hellenic Culture and Civilization. London and Philadelphia, 1911. SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON. The Greek Poets. First Series. (Chapter 12, The Genius of Greek Art, pp. 412-438.) London, 1877. The Greek Poets. Second Series. 399.) London, 1876. (Chapter 12, Conclusion, pp. 373. London, 1915. THOMSON, J. A. K. The Greek Tradition. |