The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-06-09

in the main, identical. Each strovc
for political and military supremacy.
Each made conquests and levied trl-
butte. The patriotism Of tho Spartan
has never been surpassed, while the
Athenian's love for his mother city
suffers not in comparison. Sparta
died at Thermopylae Athens won at
Marathon and Salamis; three battles
fought to save Grecian civilization.
AS rival Sta~es working out their sew
eral problems, they have histories
that are remarkably parallel. They
:reathed the same air, lived III the
shadows Of the same mountains, look
ed up i'll awe to the sams: sublime
Olympus, and bowed at the shIiHes of
he same oraclcs. And yc> if there
had never been such city as Sparta
the worlO would be none tho worse;
but if re glorious legacy of Athens
were to be lost, we should have t.,
begin anew the development Oh our
civilization. A nation has a spiritual
and intellectual life as we'll as a ply
sical existence. Sparta saw the ma
terial side alone, and lived it eXclu-
sively; Athens saw and lived both, al
ways and consistently giving the pref
erence to that whence ideals are born
and whence the best fruitage comes.
Rome, basing her permanence upon
her belief in her foreordained destiny,
rose to the proud eminence Of mistress
Of the world. Her instrument was the
sword; her ideal, the valor of her le-
gions. The rights of man were ignor-
ed, the principles of justice were trod-
den under foot, the blessings of liber-
ty were hers alone by fiat of Jove
and decree of fate. She thought her
self. secure. And yet, at the moment
of greatest confidence, her founda-
tions were already sinking and the
vast structure was leaning to it's fall.
When the crash came, the wreck was
SO complete, the ruin so terrible, and
the chaos so profound, that a thou
sand years rolled by before men en-
erged from the desolation, recovered
as best they could what remained
of the fragments, a. set up anew the
ideals Of the race.
But Rome had fulfilled her mission.
There was much of evil that had been
destroyed; there was much of good
that had survived. Upon her system
of Jurisprudence modern nations have
built their codes and their constitu-
tions. 1t is one of the most remark
able facts in history, that upon the
foundations laid by three ancient ma
tions the superstructure of modern
civilization has been built. In the
words of a gifted writer: GAS God
chose the Greeks to teach the world
q knowledge of beauty, and that they
might do so more effectively, endowed
them with a marvellously developed
artistic sense, and as be chose the
Romans to teach the world a knowl-
edge of administration, and to that
end endowed them with a genius 1or
organization; so He chose the He
brews to teach the world knowledge
of Himself, and of mans right rela-
tions to Him, and for that purpose
bestowed upon the race a genius for
religion"
Hebrews, Greeks, Romans-the
three instruments; the three ideals
Law, Beauty, Love!
The invention of printing, the re-
vival Of learning, the protestant Re-
form4 ion, and tn, discovery OF
America are four events that have no
parallel in the history of the world.
After the long darkness Of the Middle
Ages, they come to tell US of the ap-
proach of a brighter day. They come
To break the chains that have bound
men in the slavery of ignorance and
superstition and to give new life to
their dying hopes.
The arctic traveller tells US that the
Esquimaux, after passing through the
long night Of his dreary winter, when
first he sees in the Southern sky the
faint glim1ner of light that heralds the
coming day, climbs to the top of some
ice-hill and there watches with glad
heart for the first sight of the rising
sun. So the philosopher, after pass
ing through the long night that had
benumbed Europe with the chill Of in
tellectual death, began to climb once
more the hill of knowledge that ne