The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-08-27
THE OLD GREEKS.
Tho Great Services Rendered by Hclla
to the World.

The Great Services Rendered by Hellas
to the World.
At banquet OF the association oil
Greek studies in Paris the veteran
Ernest Renan spoke as follows ac-
cording to a correspondent OF the Lon
don Daily News:
You have been pleased to cast q
sunbeam on my last days. This Is
probably the last occasion on which I
shall preside at your fetes to encour-
age Greek classical studies What q
fine program there is in history! call
a.miracle a thing that has only hap
pened once and that is ancient
Greece.
Yes 500 years before Christ there
came out in humanity type Of civil
zation SO perfect SO complete that
everything which had gone before was
thrown into the shade. 1t was really
the birth OF reason and OF liberty
The citizen. the free man made his
appearance. Morality founded upon
reason asserted itself In its eternal
truthfulness without admixture OF SUI
pernatural fictions. The truth upon
the gods and nature was we'll nigh dis
covered. Man delivered from the
wild fears OF his childhood was be-
ginning to face his destiny calmly.
''Science-that is to say the true
philosophy founded. The me-
chanical system OF the world was at
times surmised. They failed to perse-
we're In this line but the principal
was discovered. Copernicus, Calico
Newton. merely drew out the conse-
quence of IAN order OF ideas which
displaced the earth from its central
position and brought to view the in
iinity of the universe. "
And in art! Heavens! what fecund-
ity. what a world OF gods sand god
desses, what celestial revolution!
Greece invented beauty as it had in
vented reason. The East had made
statues before just as certain East
had learned to do without the contin-
ual interference OF the gods But
Greece alone discovered the stability
of natures laws. Greece alone dis
covered the secret of beauty. truth.
law and ideal. Henceforth people
can do no more than follow its teach
ing. 1t was what Rome did. what
the renaissance did, and what the
authors of future "reminiscences will
ever do. after the first outburst of bar
barism. The decisive hour in the
history OF mankind is that which you
are studying. Greece never had a
melancholy return to the past or
sad. that is to say. selfish. thought
Greece always looks forward. feeling
that the world needs her, and that
she realizes in her time the highest
conscience of humanity. What char
acterizes the Greek is his faith in
glory his confidence in the future.
"Glory is another invention OF
Greece. The life of the individual is
short but the memory he leaves after
him is eternal To sacrifice ones
self for ones reputation is wise
policy. The Greek thus creates a
value which nothing equals, and of
which he is the only dispensator. The
man whom Greece has not spoken of
perishes in oblivion. The man she
remembers is gloriied and lives so
that failing Immortality which the
gods 1T appears kept at privilege for
themselves man could strive for
moro than tho petty glory
Of life time. A selection was made
from among the swarming crowds OF
Life had an object There
was a reward for the man who had
sought after the beautiful and the
rue. 1t was to be esteemed OF the
Greeks"