The New York herald., 1922-02-26

TRhD1IlON AND PROGRkSo. by
Gilbert Murray. Houghton Mifflin
Company.
|" HE very great value Of the lee
lures by Prof. Murray. who is
regius professor of Greek at
Oxford, gathered in this volume is
that they explain and restate in terms
OF the life of to-day much of the most
permanently important thought OF
the past. To the observer of to-day's
civilization and its tendencies there
is no more fruitful and enlightening
study than close examination of
the Greek world from the great days
of Per:cles to the disastrous end Of
the Peloponnesian wars. 1t may al
most be called a microcoSn OF the
possible: comprehending the highest
ideals of what man should. and
might, become. and also warning
against the worst mistakes he can
make. II may well be that If the
future is 10 bring real progress in q
better order OF things instead OF ruin
Gus disintegration. there is nothing
so needed as a return TO Greek clar-
fly Of thought, self reliance and Al
understanding in modern terms OF
the Athenian conception of Arete. an
almost untranslatable word (for the
Latin. virtue, falls far SHORTY which
Prof Murray renders in part as "the
demand made upon each Greek. and
especially each Athenian, TO be q bet
ter man than the ordinary" 1t also
includes. not merely justice. but "the
sense OF generosity and kindness"
and il implies an ideal of freedom, q
freedom under law and order.
Prof. Murray is singularly success
full in interpreting that great past,
in bringing its still living truths
home 10 the reader of our own day.
He wears his great scholarship nat
urally as well fitting garment with
no strangeness about it.
There is no academic aloofness
about Prof. Murray. He is not the
oriZing out of .he thin air Of mex
perience and lack of contact with
actualities. It is to be remembered
that he sat as the delegate of South
Africa in the second assembly of the
League of Nations last year and that
he has figured practically in British
affairs. He is a signal example OF
the scholar in politics."
These papers begin with "the re-
ligion of man of letters" which in
wolves carrying on the work of the
great spirits of the past. handing
down the trdditio-'to live and die
for the great unknown purpose which
the eternal spirit of man seems to be
working out upon the earth" They
range widely over the field of Greek
literature. history and thought. deal
ing in some detail with Stole philos-
ophy, with "poesis and mimesis." and
with literature as revelation" and
end with a consideration of "satan-
ism and the world order" which is a
warning that unless the new order
of reconstruction is genuinely pro-
gressive the forces that make for re.
volt, form of satanism, may de-
stroy it; that our civilization NAV
pass from history under the same
fatal sentence as the great empires
of the past; that the world which II
ruled hated it and risked all TO cou,-
pass its overthrow"
Prof. Murray always writes with a
rare charm of manner. which is at
its best I'm the purely literary criti-
cism of this book, particularly in his
consideration OF Euripides. But the
fundamental Importance of his clear
ly presented truths makes the SUBJ
ject matter Of this volume more mo-
table than It's manner. 1t is a con-
tribution to political discussion that
calls for careful study by all who
hope for a truly regenerated world.