Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-25
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Athens, capital of Greece and the present capital of strenuous diplo- macy, the uncertainty of whose fu- ture course is now engaging the nations, is described in the follow ing statement issued to the press to- day by the National Geographic So- ciety:
 a cycle of Cathy'. one writer phrases it. and, indeed. in respect to the great ness of it's past the capital of the HelleneS is Queen among all or earth's cities. In this marvellous city, civilization was born and more per feet and complete in the course of a few generations. It is the foundation upon which rests the modern culture of the West; for classic Athens Is still the teacher of the world and the final arbiter in things of taste.
 '-'Out of Plato, says Emerson. come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought. It Is, at least, certain, that all of the germs of philosophic thought are to be found in the teachings of the Greek philosophers who sought their follow ings in Athens, down to the time of Aristotle. In poetry, Greek genius created the forms and left models for all ages. In sculpture and in archi- lecture Grecian achievements still stand unsurpassed; and the ruins up- on the Acropolis suggest structural beauties never since attained, while innumerable sculptured masterpieces of the Greek fill alcoves in all the more important museums in the world. Such was the wealth of sculptured treasures in classis Athens that one ancient wag declared that it was easier to find god in the city of Pal las than man.
 '1To Athenian Socrates, rather than to any other savant before or after him, belongs the honor of having call ed into being that inductive, optim- istic science, which today forms the warp of our civilization. With the homely, -witted and argumenta- tive began that habit of thought which hopes, in time, to discover the ap- l swer to all things in the things them- selves. So, too, the dramas of the
 Greeks are still the models of taste
 after more than twenty three centu-
 ries, and Sophocles. greatest of trag-
 Heschyius RoI Euripides. g and 9 e Aristo phanes, all part of the genius of Athens, contributed to that limited I world. In truth, the age of Pericles overshadows the French and Italian Renaissance, the era of Elizabeth, and 1 the golden age of the Moors in Spain Athens today is a shrine for the preservation of the memories of the I | to the ancient Greeks. Most of the treasures of the ancient city have been footed and destroyed by strang-
 CTS. but enough is left to aid the vis- itor in crystalizing picture of the
 city over whose destinies the Goddess l of Wisdom and Artifice presided Persian, Spartan, Macedonian, Ro. man, Venetian and Turk have plund. cred and ravaged here. Priceless ar works and costly marbles have beer carried away to beautify other coun- | tries or have been wantonly destroy. ed, yet, so rich was the classic com. I monwealth that the remains of it: marble beauty and fragments of it! embellishments still thiclxly strew tn, l whole plateau of the Acropolis an( much of the area upon it's sides ana base.
 1 New Athens has grown up arount | the remains of the mother-city. A | the end of the Greek war for inde pendeuce, it was little more than decayed Turkish village, a few crook ed byways and poorly built houses. is now a city of straight, regularl,
 lkid-out streets, of graceful boule' wards, airy squares, with many splen did private and public buildings. Tn museums of Athens are of first i'm portance to students of classic ari and Athens, before the war, was fas becoming again an international sea
 of learning. It has developed a Ger
 tain trade importance in recent years
 A great part of the Balkan impor
 passes through Athens, and, in Peir
 eous, its port, are situated mum
 Der of large mills and factories. Tn
 population of modern Athens is abou