The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-01-25
G. L. S. @. DEBATE.
Resolved That has been beneficial to civilization, and
that it is necessity.
The Affirmative Argument by A. Ksar Ben.

decisive ballot of Callimachus-the
brave -lord-had been gained, and
the Athenians were committed to an
engagement with the Persians, there
was hazarded on the arbitrament of a
single battle not only the future of
Athens, and the destiny of Greece, but,
also, the Athenians carried with their
crude arms the whole future of civili-
ZatiOn.
Had the Persians been victorious
civilization would have been speedily
blOtted from the face of the earth,
and the whole Western race of
mankind would have been subject to
the will of an Oriental despotism which
maintained an intellectual quarantine,
and actually prescribed the limits with
in which it should be lawful for the
human intellect to undergo develop
ment. Now, anticipating the respond
ent's contention that this is mere
conclusion on my part, and not such a
direct statement of facts as the laws of
debate require in discussion such as
this, 1 will undertake to say that my
conclusions are compatible with all of
the known facts and, moreover, they
are susceptible of proof beyond rea-
sonable doubt.
In the first place the Persians were
barbarians pure and simple. They had
waged campaign of conquest en-
bracing all of the known Kingdoms and
petty principalities in the region round
about; they had subjugated the fierce
| fighting Medes, and overthrown the
Egyptian empire. Their appointed
mission at this time was to accomplish
the demolition of the Grecian republic,
and the enslavement of the Grecian
people. In contrast to this the Athenians
represented the best civilization in the
then known world-a fact fully reflect
ed in their subsequent contributions to
posterity.
Their four schools of philosophy,
for instance, have been the source from
which the ablest minds of intervening
generations have drawn their inspira-
tions; their oratory has never been sur
passed; their premier historian is
today recognized, and quoted, as the
"Father of all History" and while the
Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian and
Persian literature is regarded as q
mere curiosity, and a relic of antiquity
Grecian literature has been standard
thruout the ages, and today stands al
model.
Much of our life of today, with its
social, political, and intellectual insti
, tutions; its music, painting, oratory
sculpture and art; its thirst for knowl
edge; its love of liberty, and of liberty
giving institutions, can be traced bacl
, thru the ages to source with tn
Grecians, and especially the Athenians
, who had received the best that Egyp
> had to offer, cultivated it-passed i
. on to the Romans, who blended it witt
, the best their twelve centuries pro
! duced, and bequeathed it to the Ger
. mans, who, in turn, transmitted it t.
r us. Aside from their attainments tn
, Grecians were, because of their gee
graphical position, the natural an
! logical vanguard of Western civiliza
D tion and liberty. There was no powe
J. to the westward, and no civilized powe
f in all the region round about, tha
t was capable of contending with th
Persians for supremacy.
I Rome had not yet attained the pos
Q tion she was destined later to enjoy q
9 sMistress of the Civilized World.
It She was, in fact, in her immaturity as
Q republic, attacked from without by th
d Etruscans and the Volsc1ans, in add
It tion to which civil war, between ht
y plebian and patrician classes, wage
n within. Had the Persians been VII
10 torious at Marathon they would, in a
d human probability, have speedil
If brought the rest of Greece under sui
1e jugation; have used Greece as bas
1T for further operations, and so have Q.
le tended their dominion over the who