A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY H. G. WELLS
25.THE SPLENDOUR OF GREECE
The century and a half that followed the defeat of Persia was one of very great splendour for the Greek civilization. True that Greece was torn by a desperate struggle for ascendancy between Athens, Sparta and other states (the Peloponnesian War 431 to 404 B.C.) and that in 338 B.C. the Macedonians became virtually masters of Greece; nevertheless during this period the thought and the creative and artistic impulse of the Greeks rose to levels that made their achievement a lamp to mankind for all the rest of history.
The head and centre of this mental activity was Athens. For over
thirty years (466 to 428 B.C.) Athens was dominated by a man of great
vigour and liberality of mind, Pericles, who set himself to rebuild the
city from the ashes to which the Persians had reduced it. The beautiful
ruins that still glorify Athens to-day are chiefly the remains of this
great effort. And he did not simply rebuild a material Athens. He
rebuilt Athens intellectually. He gathered about him not only
architects and sculptors but poets, dramatists, philosophers and
teachers. Herodotus came to Athens to recite his history (438 B.C.).
Anaxagoras came with the beginnings of a scientific description of the
sun and stars. Æschylus, Sophocles and Euripides one after the other
carried the Greek drama to its highest levels or beauty and nobility.
The impetus Pericles gave to the intellectual life of Athens lived on
after his death, and in spite of the fact that the peace of Greece was
now broken by the Peloponnesian War and a long and wasteful struggle
for “ascendancy” was beginning. Indeed the darkling of the political
horizon seems for a time to have quickened rather than discouraged
men’s minds.
Already long before the time of Pericles the peculiar freedom of Greek
institutions had given great importance to skill in discussion.
Decision rested neither with king nor with priest but in the assemblies
of the people or of leading men. Eloquence and able argument became
very desirable accomplishments therefore, and a class of teachers
arose, the Sophists, who undertook to strengthen young men in these
arts. But one cannot reason without matter, and knowledge followed in
the wake of speech. The activities and rivalries of these Sophists led
very naturally to an acute examination of style, of methods of thought
and of the validity of arguments. When Pericles died a certain
Socrates was becoming prominent as an able and destructive critic of
bad argument—and much of the teaching of the Sophists was bad argument.
A group of brilliant young men gathered about Socrates. In the end
Socrates was executed for disturbing people’s minds (399 B.C.), he was
condemned after the dignified fashion of the Athens of those days to
drink in his own house and among his own friends a poisonous draught
made from hemlock, but the disturbance of people’s minds went on in
spite of his condemnation. His young men carried on his teaching.
PART OF THE FAMOUS FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON, ATHENS
PART OF THE FAMOUS FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON, ATHENS
A specimen of Grecian sculpture in its finest expression. Compare the
advance of art with that seen in the animals shown on p. 105
_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_
THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS
THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS
The marvellous group of Temples and monuments built under the
inspriration of Pericles
_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_
THE THEATRE AT EPIDAUROS, GREECE
THE THEATRE AT EPIDAUROS, GREECE
A wonderfully preserved specimen showing the vast auditorium
_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_
Chief among these young men was Plato (427 to 347 B.C.) who presently
began to teach philosophy in the grove of the Academy. His teaching
fell into two main divisions, an examination of the foundations and
methods of human thinking and an examination of political institutions.
He was the first man to write a Utopia, that is to say the plan of a
community different from and better than any existing community. This
shows an altogether unprecedented boldness in the human mind which had
hitherto accepted social traditions and usages with scarcely a
question. Plato said plainly to mankind: “Most of the social and
political ills from which you suffer are under your control, given only
the will and courage to change them. You can live in another and a
wiser fashion if you choose to think it out and work it out. You are
not awake to your own power.” That is a high adventurous teaching that
has still to soak in to the common intelligence of our race. One of
his earliest works was the Republic, a dream of a communist
aristocracy; his last unfinished work was the Laws, a scheme of
regulation for another such Utopian state.
THE CARYATIDES OF THE ERECHTHEUM
THE CARYATIDES OF THE ERECHTHEUM
The ancient sanctuary on the Acropolis at Athens
_Photo: Fred Boissonnas_
ATHENE OF THE PARTHENON
ATHENE OF THE PARTHENON
_Photo: Alinart_
The criticism of methods of thinking and methods of government was
carried on after Plato’s death by Aristotle, who had been his pupil and
who taught in the Lyceum. Aristotle came from the city of Stagira in
Macedonia, and his father was court physician to the Macedonian king.
For a time Aristotle was tutor to Alexander, the king’s son, who was
destined to achieve very great things of which we shall soon be
telling. Aristotle’s work upon methods of thinking carried the science
of Logic to a level at which it remained for fifteen hundred years or
more, until the mediæval schoolmen took up the ancient questions again.
He made no Utopias. Before man could really control his destiny as
Plato taught, Aristotle perceived that he needed far more knowledge and
far more accurate knowledge than he possessed. And so Aristotle began
that systematic collection of knowledge which nowadays we call Science.
He sent out explorers to collect _facts_. He was the father of
natural history. He was the founder of political science. His students
at the Lyceum examined and compared the constitutions of 158 different
states...
Here in the fourth century B.C. we find men who are practically “modern
thinkers.” The child-like, dream-like methods of primitive thought had
given way to a disciplined and critical attack upon the problems of
life. The weird and monstrous symbolism and imagery of the gods and
god monsters, and all the taboos and awes and restraints that have
hitherto encumbered thinking are here completely set aside. Free,
exact and systematic thinking has begun. The fresh and unencumbered
mind of these newcomers out of the northern forests has thrust itself
into the mysteries of the temple and let the daylight in.