New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-08-04


copies Of the people who were living and breath
| ,np on the benches in front. The poetry OF so
| c,e,v renroducrd the women OF society. II any
rcvotcd from this modernity. they simply car
r,.d tho same tendencies to faithful reproduc-
ton OF what they saw into another held' that
OF archaeology. Surely no one needs to ne toiu
| how We have reproduced all this activity IN our
own time even to tho mnutest detail Inc ohiy
| difference Is that we have magnined it n thou
| sandfold Il was with keen insight as to the
universal qualities Of his own age and It's I'M
mediate succAssor that Tcnnyson chose 10
make himself intimate with the works OF Theoc-
ritus For tho latter was the only poet IN the
closing Greek period whose genius conquered the
scientific tendencies of his time and made them
subserv,cnt to his purpose. No pcdant in the
Alexandrian Muse I'm was more o5servant IMAM
he. and yet there is no trace OF care in MS
verso any more than there IS in Tennysons In
Vulnerable illusions to natural phenomena Inc
climax OF all this scientific and scholastic ana
poetical activity was in the temper OF the people
in general Toward the elaborate histories ana
scientific trcatises-and that was an age OF DIE
books Just this ls in certain helds-thc gen
erality Of readers was as INDIFFERENT as now
Epic was supposed then to be no longer possible
i a notion which is frequent now. what the COM
mon run OF readers dotted on was short stories
and little poems. adapted. says Holm TOT
highly cultivated luxurious society. when docs
not ike to dwell too long on the same subJec' IL
really looks as II Holm had picked up a nine
teenth century magazine by mistake whlie ne
was looking for his CalliInachus and Herondas.
with such comparisons as these In mind' 'he
outlook for the future would he sad one. were
Il not that after all this AlcXandrian H''iehess
came Lucrctius and Virgil.
thaea 10 modern
life and the closing decades Of Greek indepcnd-
ence Holm is fully aware Of danger which he
incurs frons those who say that the Greek race
was Gecadent He meets these theorists boldly.
He insists that Greek mankind was never more
athletic never filter for military life. never bet
ter with hand and foot than IN the times OF
AlexaaGcr's successors. He maintains. TOO. 'ha'
in public life the Greek was as keen and capable
as ever What really happened was that the
world as a whole got beyond the Greeks grasp
His whole conception Of politics was embraced
In what the modern American phrase describes
AS local self-government OF wide empire h"
had no conception. The moment that somebody
came with an empire which left his little city
government to itself, nc rclapsed into political
wardshlp He was content 10 he ruled as long
as his superiors left him his traditional activi-
ties IF. then" asks Holm. the Greek cities
building public worship instruction and
subordinate legal administration, either sinCly
or in common. in what respect did they fall
short OF the freedom enjoyed by Swiss can
ton a State In the North American Union or OF
the German Emprc?" It stands to reason. also.
that people Who have so much 20 do for them
selves In this public way must have ut least
moderate degree OF morality. They would not
have the time to be utterly bad. The worst OF
them were the royal oilers Ike the Ptoemies,
and the iroacal designations which the Greeks
applied TO these personages show that. though
the people not Purtars, they had n sense
Of ethical fitness. To fasten upon a hinS the
title Of Benefactor Fatbelly was certainly no
addition to his divinity. On the other hand. the
| practice Of the Greeks in voting any and every
| foreign bencfactor n god Holm takes 10 be the
| most distinct Indication that the ancient world
| had outrun all Its original Ideas. A logical re-
| suit IF the Greek religion was destroying that
| religion, and have get 10 gee the nation that
can do without genuine reverence Individuals
| I'm large m sasure created n new religion. eA.m-
plifed in Cleanliness hymn TO Zeus. But this
new and pure theory could not be infused into
| the traditional worship OF the cities Nor could
| individual excellence make up tor public de-
fects in n system that was almost outgrown-
| The main reliance OF those who condemn the
Greeks individually is tho satire OF the comic
| poets. But Holm compares this ancient drama
with the English drama OF the Restoration. and
| declares that Greeks can no more be judged by
| the one than Englishmen can be by the other.
| II high flown moral sentiments are to he made
q test. the Greeks are rs good as the moderns'
! better. perhaps since they sometimes orig
| ,pal while we have stolen ours mostly from these
very Crooks. A notorious example OF this is Bis
| IT arck's resembling phrase. we Germans fear
| God and nothing else" This goes back TO that
| systematic and persistent assassin Philip Of
| Macedonia who said on one occasion that he
| himself feared none but the gods. Nor is this
rhetorical eXuberancc in moderrs the only foible
copied from these Asiatic Greeks. The latter
| stuck Z titles long after they had lost the Of
fees so that Asiarchs were as common in Syria
as colonies in Kentucky. or mayors in Switzer-
| land or judges in the Far West
| Firally Holm has something pertinent 10 say
| about that eternal Oriental problem which has
| never yet been solved. About all the learning
| AMI insight OF that day. Whether literary. re
| ligious philosophical. legal or POLITICAL was ct
| the command of Rome and Greece combined.
| Yet Asia shook them off in the end retaining
only here and there a distorted trace of their
| influence. There people in the passes Of the
great mountains who say they are descended
| from Alexander's soldiers. There innumer
| able miraculous legends OF Alexander himself
| There faint traces OF the PlatOnic dialogue
| In India There Arabian hero tales of Rom
| and that is about all. What Holm says in effect
| Is that the permanent conquest Of tho East by
force IS Impossible. In the end, the conqueror
Is swept away. The Romans had their difficult
ties about scientific frontier. just MS the Anglo
| Indians have theirs to-day OF course. this sci
entifc frontier WAS good just AS long as the
| Parthans kept quiet. If they chose to Sight
| then they could keep up perpetual war two
| thousand miles from Rome The lcsson which
| Holm draws from Roman and Greek experience
| Is that the only way to settle with the East Is