The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-04-08

mer, there would have been no Milton.
The modern wits, who are now or have
been out on the divine mission of max
ing the world laugh at the right time,
can be traced back to Aristophanes, the
Athenian, and many of the jocosit1es
that are now taken as new had their
suggestions twenty-three hundred years
ago in the fifty-four comedies Of that
master of merriment. Grecian mytho-
logy has been the richest mine from
which orators and essayists have drawn
their illustrations and painters the
themes for their canvas, and although
now all exhausted mine, Grecian myth
ology has done a work that nothing
else could have accomplished; Boreas,
representing the north wind; Sisyphus,
rolling the stone up the hill, only to
have the same thing to do over again;
Tantalus, with fruits above him that
he could not reach; Achilles, with his
arrows; Icarus, with his waxen wings,
flying too near the sun; the Centaurs,
half man and half beast; Orpheus, with
his Tyre; Atlas, with the world on his
back, all these and more have helped
literature, from the graduates speech
on commencement day to Rufus
Choate's eulogium on Daniel Webster
at Dartmouth. Tragedy and comedy
were born in the festivals of Dionyslus
at Athens. The lyric and elegiac and
epic poetry Of Greece five hundred
years before Christ has its echoes in
the Tennysons, Eongfellows and Bry-
ants of eighteen and nineteen hun
dred years after Christ. There is not an
effective pulpit or editorial chair or
professors room or cultured parlor or
| intelligent farmhouse today in America
or Europe that could not appropriately
employ Paurs ejaculation and say, II
am debtor to the Greeks" ~.
The fact is this, Paul had got much Of
his oratorical power Of expression from
the Greeks. That he had studied their
literature was evident, when standing
in the presence of an audience of Greek
scholars on Mars Hill, which overlooks
Athens, he dared to quote from one of
their own Greek poets, either Cleanthus
or Aratus, declaring, Gas certain also
of your own poets have said, for we
are also his offspring.'" And he made
accurate quotation, Cleanthus, one OF
the poets, having written:
For we thine offspring are. All
things that creep
Are but the echo of the voice divine
And Aratus, one of their own poets
had written:
Doth care perplex? Is lowering dan.
ger nigh?
We are his offspring, and to Jove VIZ
fly"
It was rather a risky thing for Pau
to attempt to quote extemporaneously
from poem in a language foreign tt
his, and before Greek scholars, bu
Paul did it without stammering, ant
then acknowledged before the most dis
tinguished audience on the planet hi
Indebtedness to the Greeks, crying GU
in his grafton, GAS one of your owl
+ poets has said" '.=
Furthermore, all the world is obi
gated to Hellas more than it can eve
pay for it's heroics in the cause of lib
erty and right. United Europe toda,
had not better think that the Greek
will not fight. There may be falling
back and vacillations and temporar,
defeat, but if Greece is right all Eu
rope cannot put her down. The othe
nations, before they open the portfolio
of their men-of-war against that small
kingdom had better read of the battl
of Marathon, where ten thousand Ath
enians, led on by Miltiades, triumphe
over one hundred thousand of thei
enemies. At that time in Greek counci
Of war five generals were for beginnin
the battle and five were against il
Callimachus presided at the council c
war and had the deciding vote, an
Miltiades addressed him. saying:
1T now rests with you, Callimachu.
!. : either to enslave Athens, or by insurin
' her freedom, to win yourself an immol
of Marathon, where ten thousand Athe
mans, led on by Miltiades, triumphe
| uduS0I DIS Lu0y arc az ILLS moment,
Z they bow the knee to these Medes the
are to be given up to Hippias, and 70
,, know what they will then have to sui
fer; but if Athens comes victorious OF
of this contest, she has it in her powe
to become the first city of Greece. You
vote is to decide whether we are t
join battle or not. If we do not brin
on battle presently, some factious il
. trigue will disunite the Athenians an
the city will be betrayed to the Mede
l. but if we fight before there is anythin
rotten in the state of Athens, belie1
that, provided the gods will give IA
: field and no favor, we are able to g
. the best of it in the engagement"
+ That won the vote OF Callimachu
o and soon the battle opened, and in fu
q run the men of Miltiades fell upon tt
e Persian hosts, shouting, "On! Sons
= Greece! Strike for the freedom of yo1
q country! Strike for the freedom
your children and your wives, for tt
: shrines of your fathers gods, and +
/ the seDulchres of yOur sires! All. q