1. It is difficult for us to comprehend the embarrassments which a want of diffused information presented to the progress of the ancient days. With no books, or, at best, but very few, with little or no record of the past, or the distant present, but what confused, distorted and uncertain tradition and rumor could give, with almost no instruments of thought and education, it would seem natural that they should fall into a hopeless barbarism. That they raised themselves so far out of a condition so low and so helpless, that they created so many instruments for us, is a proof of the wonderful capacity for advancement that lies in humanity, and a prophecy of stupendous things yet in store for mankind. 2. One of the most important elements of their progress lay in their great men. It is indispensable that a man, to become great, or famous, by exercising a wide influence, should represent in a large, well defined and successful way, the general tendency and aspiration of his times. He must unite a[114] clear perception of these tendencies in his mind, with the power to give them adequate expression in his words or deeds. He must be so far ahead of his times as to be able to clearly work out what is lying unexpressed in the general mind, but not so far ahead that it cannot come into sympathy and co-operation with him; else he will not be recognized as great. Great men are a summary of their times, or of the people they dwell among; they gather its tendencies to a point and express the undefined desire of that period. Their value for later times is that they represent the spirit of their race at that time in a form to make a striking impression, and those who have the good fortune to represent the qualities of the best races, or of nations at the most important stage of their history, become the general exemplars of mankind; teaching in a forcible and striking way the lessons which have been wrought out in the experience of a whole people for ages.
3. The poets are the first of these great men of whom history gives us any account, except, perhaps, the heroes whose deeds they sung, which are more or less uncertain, because they clothed the common tradition of their times in an imaginative and fictitious dress. The poets Homer and Hesiod had great influence on early Greece. They summed up its theology and the history of its admired heroes, and gave expression to the early thought and literary turn of that people.
Their legislators came next. They gave expression to the genius of their people in institutions and laws. Lycurgus arranged the Spartan state into a military school. His laws remained in force more than five hundred years. Solon was the legislator of Athens and his laws were much admired for their wisdom and justice. The Greeks could think more wisely than they could act. Lycurgus organized the warlike spirit in Greece as well as Sparta. The small Grecian states, determined to keep Sparta and each one of the other states from destroying their individual liberties, were trained by the necessity of combating the vigorous military organization of Sparta to great ability in war.
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Under Pericles, a republican statesman of Athens, nearly a century later than Solon, the full glory of the Grecian genius shone forth. He encouraged his countrymen to give the support to art and literature that produced the famous master pieces which have made Greece illustrious and influential to this day.
4. Socrates appeared soon after. He was the apostle of thought. His influence in leading men to use direct and effective modes of examination and reasoning was incalculable, and has perhaps had more effect on the world than the victorious career of Alexander or of the Romans. He was followed by Plato, a disciple of his, who pushed out to further results the same principles. He is called the prince of philosophers, and has exerted a world-wide influence. He had not the simplicity and plain directness of Socrates, though his mind was more polished, and he was more learned. Some scholars, however, consider his masterpieces to indicate as powerful a mind as the world has produced. He spent twelve years in travel, and used all the means of education, and study then to be found. His works are still the delight of the most accomplished scholars.
5. Aristotle began his career in the last years of Plato. He was the tutor of Alexander the Great. He followed a different line of study, wrote on logic, or the art of reasoning, on the natural sciences, and introduced method in the exercise of the mind and in study. Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, and many other great writers, artists and sculptors, lived about the same period; and thus Grecians did for the mind what the Romans did for law and government—laid down the fundamental principles which formed the basis of real progress.
The free government of Athens encouraged oratory and the art of persuasion. Demosthenes was the most celebrated orator among the Greeks, and if his state had only been more powerful he would have conquered Philip of Macedon. He was indeed one of the greatest orators of all times. Cicero,[116] among the Romans, was a writer and orator of almost equal merit. They both lived just at the downfall of the liberties of their states, and they spoke with more effect to the times after them than to their contemporaries. If they did not succeed in preserving the liberties of Greece and Rome, they made a great impression, the name of Liberty was consecrated by their noble words, and those who destroyed it made infamous by their burning invectives. When a more favorable time came for restoring it, they lived again in influence, and triumphed by the memory and record of their great patriotism and powerful eloquence.
6. Great conquerors and warriors, in all times, have also been representative men, giving expression and gratification to the warlike spirit of their people, and producing great changes that have been favorable to the real advancement of mankind. The energies they stirred up, and the mingling of nations they produced generally promoted civilization. Alexander the Great displayed the wonderful genius and fertility in resources that was peculiarly Greek. His nation was almost consoled for the loss of their liberties by the conquests to which he led them. He opened to their study unknown regions, and gave their mental genius a broader play and a fuller occupation. They, to such an extent as change was possible with old civilizations, Hellenized the East and prepared the way for the reception of Christianity. Alexander, in three great battles, conquered the great Persian Empire with a small army. He never suffered defeat, and died at thirty-three years of age. Had he lived, he might have done what Hannibal could not do—have crushed the rising power of the Roman republic. It would have been a misfortune, for the Romans did incalculable service to humanity. Greek learning exerted its influence on the East for two hundred and fifty years before its final conquest by the Romans. Alexander did great service to mankind by his military success. Hannibal is an instance of a great man not as fully representative of his own people, perhaps, and whose misfortune it was to have to struggle[117] against a people whose united genius was greater, more inventive, and more patient than his own. The Roman Pompey represented the aristocratic element of his people, and though a great general, hardly deserved to succeed. Julius C?sar possessed the merciful character and intelligence of the Greek and the prodigious energy and resolution of the Roman. His conquest of Gaul and Britain introduced civilization into the lands that were, five hundred years later, to begin a new career for mankind. His thorough subjection of the Gauls preserved the ancient civilization from the inroads of the vigorous Germans until all was ready for the new order of things. More than any other great man, he may be said to have been representative of the best s............