No. 5.
BENKA.TH TltK 8U11FACK.
383
Thrice did the Persian pros his slavish
yoke upon Athens' sons ; but as many times
was it hurled back, either at the pass of
Thermopylro or on the plain of Marathon.
It has been said that the political institu
tions of Greece were borrowed from the
tyrants of the east. It car. not be. Hark I
listen to the dignified embassadors from
foreign courts, to the challenge for war as
received in the agora. Listen if you
will, to the debates "f Pericles and then
observe the intelligent vote of every pat
riotic citizen. Here is a principle, a
mighty achievement that Athens did not
borrow from the Chaldean astrologer, nor
learn from the Egyptian Ptolemy. It was
here that man first burst the bonds of tyr
anny, and made the power of persuasion to
eclipse the power of a despot's will. Here
he proved to the world that disputes could
be settled without bloodshed, and that
such a virtue existed as constitutional
moral ty.
The democracy of Athens chained the
tyranny of the cast, and gave to Europe
her brilliant career of political liberty.
It wrought the gifts of man to a higher
pitch, and raised a greater number of hu
man beings to a Higher level than any
other form of government that has existed
before or since. Under its stimulating
influence the personal genius of mankind
awoke, and that great truth so dear to the
heart of every American, arose from the
walls of Athens, that in the rights of the
state all men are born free and equal.
Rome may receive the honor as the
source of modern legislation. But what
was Rome until she had grafted into her
institutions some of the principles of
Athenian democracy? Rebellions and
revolutions mark the pages of her histo
ry until she became the student of Greece.
From that time Rome was imperial Rome.
The student became the tutor, and Rome
mastered the world. If this be the truth,
the effects of Athenian legislation have
come down to us neither modified nor
tarnished, but teeming with great proofs
of its utility, and its blessings.
It was the Greek that first proved to the
world that man could govern himself. It
was his government that stamped upon the
principles of Roman legislation the very
sentiment that the American Conotitu
tion contains to-day. Everywhere the
great inllut'nce that Greece has had upon
modern civilization is discernible. Art,
Literature, Philosophy and Politics, all as
elements of modern civilization, have had
their origin and high degree of perfec
tion in the little state of Greece. And yet
witli this truth before us we find men,
even in this enlightened age, who ridicule
the student for dipping deeply into her
history, the acknowledged secret of our
present prosperity. Butstnkc, if you will,
from the face of modern civilization the
effects of Greek institutions and what
have you left but the rude customs of the
feudal ages. Away, then, with him who
would hurl upon us, the degeneracy of the
tenth century. Away with that educator
who would ignore the beauty of her silvery
tongue. Ruin to that statesman who is
too selfish to learn from the precepts that
lie beneath the surface!
Greece has perished ; but the glimmer
ing light of her civilization, like the sun
beyond the mountain crest, throws back
its golden rays to illuminate the gloomy
way of modern civilization.
The classic traveller weeps for the lost
verses of Pindar and Homer, that aroused
the Grecian hosts to battle for their liber
ties. He may weep for the lost philo
sophical discourses of Socrates and the
oratory of Demosthenes, for they are
gone never to be recovered. The classic
sighs at Mvcciuc when he discovers that
the Lion Gateway and a few vestages of
crumbling masonry are all that remain of
"Agamemnon, King of Men." He
mourns on the banks of the Alphcus
when he finds but little trace of the tem
ple of Olympian Jove and the structures
of Phidias. But why mourn for these?
they arc gone.
0 Athens! thou wcrt great. Thy glit
tering splendor was thy destruction. The
echoes of thy silvery tongue sang thy fu
neral dirge! 0. E. S.
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