domain of Greek philosophy and politics, and we must add that Greek courtesans are of interest in our story not because of surprising exhibitions of amorousness or intellectual powers, or both combined, but because ultimately the time came when even Pericles did not dare in the face of public opinion to appear as attorney for his lady love, fold her in his arms and weep before the judge that she might be acquitted-as he once did in a celebrated case. Nor do men today as a rule find a literary audience waiting to hear "all" about their secret loves. About the last notable man who tried that was J. J. Rousseau, who with scandalous frankness tells "all" he knows; but this is not to say more than that taste changes, and that behind the screen the world still has its influential kept-women who rule or ruin by caprice, even as in the golden age of Pericles. In the rise of social institutions there are many things that with all our brags our Codes cannot reach. Forced back into secrecy the Laistype of today is no less with us because she is unsung by poets or carved in marble by men of renown. Police laws have to an extent been able to club men into outward compliance with conventional lies of society; and with smug conceit we go on our way making our social brags. This, to be sure, presupposes that men cease to be men; also that women nowadays love always wisely.

Even Aristotle himself confesses that Greek
ideals were powerless to convert the mass of
men to goodness and beauty of character.

Greeks believed in a species of immortality, "but," says Wm. Turner, logician and historian (Cath. Encyc. Vol. XII, p. 162), "the Greek conception of the future was necessarily vulgarized by the caprices of the immortal gods." It is a fact that Greek gods and goddesses quarreled, loved, hated, blasphemed, drank deeply, lied, stole, and ran off with each others' wives or husbands.

On the other side, let us quote a speech by Plato (Republic IV, 443) in which noble social sentiments are set forth: "The just man will so regulate his character as to

be on good terms with himself and to set those three principles (reason, passion and desire) in tune together, as if they were verily three chords of a harmony, higher, lower and a middle, and whatever may lie between these; and after he has bound all these together, and reduced the many elements of his nature to unity as a temperate and duly harmonized man, he will then at length proceed to do whatever he has to do."

Once again, do not be led astray. All this noble idealism was never intended for the Common Man, but instead was limited to intellectual aesthetes. Note also the sheer intellectualism of such remarks as these, by Aristotle (Politics, 1337): "The mechanical arts render the body or soul or intellect of free persons unfit for the exercise and practice of virtue." The teachings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, represent the highest reaches of Hellenic thought; but all their grand theories, however, did not avert the fall of Greece before the less imaginative and unliterary Romans. The Greek spirit of intense individualism persistently broke out in discords that in the end proved the downfall of the nation.

On the whole, Greek ideals about life, destiny, love, hate, religion, war, education, while interesting as specimens of analytical fencing, were unable, even as Aristotle himself confessed (Ethics) to convert the mass of men to goodness and beauty of character.

When we consider broadly what we have said about Plato and the others, and reflect on the changes that have swept this earth since the death of these philosophers, we see that an immense but very difficult readjustment of human alignments, in a social and economical way, has taken place century after century. It is true that the transformations have not always been continuous, but on the whole they have been persistent.

It is not, then, a question, as the Greek philosophers thought, whether or not the selected individual is wise, or open-minded or shrewd, or whether he works at a fire, or drudges in the fields, or walks with kings. The evolution of history on its social side will show wholly another

tendency. By reducing through the law of averages the proportion of ignorance, raising the level of the mass of humanity, and thus making our race as a whole more intelligent, more prudent, more discriminating-we do indeed march on. To a large extent, nations are today ruled by recruits from the very class of men for whom Ancient philosophers saw no hope.

In short, the social question today has little to do with classification of society on the level of brains, as Plato imagined, or of soldiers, as Lycurgus strove, or to keep laborers in the furrow, as Aristotle taught, but has very much to do with developing something entirely different; that is to say, the widespread evolution of disciplined social conscience, and we know that that is necessarily based on personal conscience.

Nor should we infer that a philosopher is more worthy than is the digger of drains-which was the essence of the Ancient belief. Each man who does good work contributes a mite to make this Earth a better place in which to live-and thereby helps along the larger hope for the cause of the masses.

CHAPTER XIII

BENEFICENT INFLUENCE OF GREEK INTELLECTUALS

Though the Common Man had no part and
was not consulted, yet agitations of Greek
intellectuals at least helped side of the

masses.

It is conceded by important modern educators (for example, Paul Monroe, Columbia) that the Greeks offered to our race the first opportunity for individual development (Monroe, Hist. Education, p. 28). Naturally, argument presupposes conditions affecting the word "first." Assuming that the customary praise touching Greek intellectuals, is based on "first opportunity" for education in the sense of Greek delight in disputation, offering thus germinal seed of subsequent educational movement, Monroe proceeds to dwell on what he terms the "free" man, emphasizing also the enigmatic word "personality," then proceeds to sum up that the Greeks perfected their personality in the domain of art, particularly sculpture. Without quarreling with what the word "personality" means, is it not true that the diffusion of Greek cultural benefices had severe limitations, so far as the masses are concerned? Let us see how this works out-just how widely different Greek culture really was.

Customary writings on Greek intellectual life boldly imply that the idealisms of the philosophical schools had a very large immediate "influence" but it is questionable whether this laudation is in truth founded on historical actuality, or is merely a phase of scholastic hero-worship. Greek incense-burning is much like the terms of a lifeinsurance policy: to-wit, the exceptions under which the risk will "not" be paid are far greater than the insurable interest appears, on first reading of the terms; and on the whole if a man first checks off the conditions under which he has no protection whatsoever, it is a

question whether he would buy the policy at all. To emphasize exclusively the intellectuality of the academic groves and runways is to close our eyes to the unspeakable wretchedness, miseries and inhumanities suffered by the Common Man in Greece; yet by this time-honored system of historical cutting and shuffling, it is made to appear that Greece was a land of exceptional prosperity, happiness and general intelligence-a view in which the present writer does not share, even though conceding obvious signs of democratic progress, as noted in this chapter.

The Greek social system frankly excluded nine-tenths of the population from sharing those much admired flowers of knowledge, flatteringly mentioned in conventional studies of Greek culture. The Greeks were in some respects a wise people, but not necessarily wise beyond their generation. There was a surprising efflorescence in art, more particularly in sculpture, in the 300's and 400's B. C., but we do not ascribe this to the scholarly life led by Greek geniuses of the Painted Porch, the Academy or the Lyceum. If the influence of picturesque landscapes produces art (as Greek commentators usually set up), then why not look to Switzerland for unparalleled achievements in this regard? In spite of her magnificent mountains, gorgeous sunsets and the idyllic life of her people, the Swiss are noted principally for that significant art product-the cuckoo clock.

Furthermore, if we are to credit what historians tell us was the fate of the Greek state, we see that in the Greek experiment rich as it was the mere attainment of physical and mental poise must have been incapable of solving the task assigned; or if you please, insuring to Greece the continuance of the "happy life." And what is this "happy life" that the Greeks have so much to tell of Happiness is a state of mind, and varies with experience in life; for since no knowledge is final the intellectual comfort of today may become the irritation of tomorrow. With a strong digestion and a mind not prone to inquire too closely, an obvious type of brute-happiness is possible, from the cradle to the grave. Greece, regardless of her intensive inquiries into "how" to think clearly