Litchfield enquirer., 1873-09-04

1elis the story of their meeting
 I had the happiness or misfortune q know not which to call it, the feelings are so mixed) to see my dear friend and favorite, Harriet Levin, the other day, in Bromley. She was sitting with Charlotte and another lady in the carriage, which was waiting at the door of the Bell" stood ] there, and conversed with her for about ten min l utes, but something T know not what it is-kept me during the whole of the time in such state 1 Of ndescubable tremor and uneasiness, that l could hardly utter a rational sentence. She I looked lovely beyond expression. Her features still retain the same life and soul which once did so magnetize me; never have seen it, andI ney- | CT shall see it, on any other face. '
 He made another appeal to his father who finally yielded on condition that the marriage should be postponed two years longer. Although her family were justly angry with the elder Grote, Miss Levin engaged herself to his son and at the end of their period of probation, they were married. In the meantime Grote had formed the acquaintance of James Mill Gather of the more distinguished John Stuart MilD, and through him of Ben than and Ricardo and others of the found CTS of the Radical school of thinkers who have had, and still have, such large though indirect influence on the history of reform in England. . .-..-
 At the beginning of this century to be a Radical in old England subjected man to even worse persecution than it did to be Democrat in New England. But Catholic Emancipation, followed as it was by the popular uprising in France of 1880, and the passage of the reform bill, brought some of the men who were not only Wings but Radicals into Parliament
 Grote was sent by the city of London in 1882 and for about ten years he contin- ued to represent that city. Himself a Republican and an earnest reformer, he had little faith in the compromising ad- ministration of Lord Grey, ,Brougham, and the Wings. He strenuously advocated the ballot and nearly all the reforms an- other generation of radicals have final brought about in Great Britain, but his radicalism was too advanced for his time; and finding that the reaction towards con- servatism that set in after the passage of the original Reform bill left him little chance of usefulness in Parliament Grote retired at the general election of 1841. He then directed his attention towards the great work of his life-the history of Greece and of Greek philosophy. The cares of business and the need of much preliminary work kept back his first two volumes till 1846. But having withdrawn from the bank he was able to devote his entire time to the history, and his twelfth and last volume was published in 1856. The rest of his life was devoted to Plato and Aristotle; his sketch of the writings and philosophy of the former was compile ted, while only fragments remain upon Aristotle. .F
 Our limits will not allow any extended reference to what both the radical West minister and the conservative Quarterly consider the history of.Greece. Throwing aside the superstitious reverence with which scholars have been apt to treat ev, erything that has come down to us from ancient times, Grote shows most conclu. sively that much that had been previous ly regarded as historical, or at least semi historical, must be thrown aside as fabu- lous. Following the lead of the great German scholars he tested and rejected the traditions of Greece much as Niebuhr tested and rejected the traditions of Rome. Coming down to historical times Grote shows us not only how much he loved Greece but how much he loved liberty. He defends republican Athens, and ex- poses the terrible harshness and littleness of oligarchic Sparta with convincing power that does the democratic heart good. Coming to Macedon and the ssman of iron" he shows us the energy, selfish ness and brutality of the Napoleon of ancient history in all its intensity. Just as unlimited power and success Austrian ized the old adherent of Robespierre, power and success, equally unlimited, made 6 thorough "barbarian" out of Alexander the Great. s .f shsl q ''~ 1a f-sf "
 The Greece that, in world full of fighters, trained the first armies and navies; that, in world full of despotism, tried the first successful experiments in democratic government; that created works of literature and art whose purity and beauty have been the wonder and despair of more than sixty succeeding gen. erations of writers and artists, ,--is brought nearer to us by the genius of Grote than by any amount of college study of detach. ed fragments of Grecian literature. Mere appreciation of literary excellence may indeed come from study of the classics
 but, to understand Greece as a whole, to understand how the Athenian of free Ath- ems felt and acted, the intense antagon. ism between the liberal Atheniap and the | oligarchic Spartan idea, and the final failure of Athens through her narrow con- ception of the idea of liberty, and through the impossibility, without some system oi representation, of any republics attain ing the proportions of great nation, one must study the great work of George Grote. He has not only worthily deline. ated the history of the country where lib. erty, civilization and art were born, he has rendered signal service to the cause of liberty and progress in, his own and all succeeding generations. lsa4aa
 | Uneventful and inglorious as the per
 sonal history of George Grote no doubt seems to most, we cannot but consider il most uncommon in it's noble steadiness and unselfshness. He was thorough radical without being demagogue. He fought all his life, not for place, power, nor wealth. but for ideas. If anything