84 THE SPLENDOUE OP GEEECE 



accommodating more than twenty thousand citizens 

 on its tiers of stone benches. It was the first theatre, 

 with the first dramas, comedies, and tragedies. All 

 these words are Greek, and remind us of what we owe 

 to Greece. And these were not only the first comedies 

 and tragedies, but they were such as no later age has 

 surpassed, if it has equalled them. The tragedies of 

 iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comedies 

 of Aristophanes and Menander, absorbed the Greek 

 democracy. There also orators like Demosthenes 

 delivered the greatest political speeches known in 

 literature. 



So Athens gave Europe, more than 2,000 years 

 ago, superb lessons in politics and art. It was not 

 less great in philosophy, mental and moral. The 

 whole world knows the names of Socrates, Plato, 

 Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus. It was equally supreme 

 in the cultivation of the body, and produced magnifi- 

 cent types of young men and women. Gymnastics 

 and athletics are Greek words, just as logic, ethics, 

 politics, poetry, drama, etc., are. In a word, Athens 

 gave Europe a magnificent lead in every section of 

 culture. " Truth, beauty, and goodness " was the 

 ideal of its thinkers. 



Now let us notice the shades of the picture. Mr. 

 Wells has given us a dark account of Athens which 

 is, frankly, unintelligible, and we must not run to 

 the opposite extreme. There was slavery. A blot, 

 certainly ; but we can hardly expect a young civiliza- 

 tion to put an end at once to one of the oldest of 

 institutions. Slavery was beginning to trouble the 

 Athenian moralists ; and we may add that the slaves 

 of Athens were not ill treated, and were mainly 

 engaged in domestic work. There was the political 



