IN TROD UCTOR Y 249 



considered as an essential factor of modern culture. The 

 Gothic cathedral is more a part of our western nature 

 nay, is in itself a greater artistic ideal than the Greek 

 Parthenon ; for depth of intellect, St. Thomas Aquinas 

 may be fairly spoken of in the same breath as Plato, 

 and nothing in Greek literature exceeds in tender- 

 ness and beauty the mediaeval devotional books, or in 

 vigour and inspiring ring the Latin hymns of the 

 Church. Those who do not understand and appreciate 

 these things are to be pitied, even as those who have 

 never walked the streets of Athens with Socrates, nor 

 listened to the parables of the Bodisat " long ago when 

 Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares." 



There should be no misunderstanding, however, as to 

 what we mean by the mediaeval factor in modern cul- 

 ture. The wise do not mimic the outward life of the 

 Greeks. It is childish to strive for the reintroduction of 

 mediaeval forms into modern life. We cannot profitably 

 bring back into this age of ours the religious guilds, the 

 passion-plays, the great religious festivals ; it is mere 

 trifling to play nowadays at monks and priests. There 

 are other calls to action, other opportunities of self- 

 renunciation, other ideals for which to battle, the beauty 

 of which is none the less real, if it be too often dis- 

 regarded. The task of the mediaeval student is not to 



o 



reinstitute, but to justify ; to prove to the Present that 

 the Past did not for a thousand years toil in vain. The 

 most enthusiastic Hellenist by no means strives to recon- 

 struct nineteenth-century life on a Greek model ; he is 

 content if Hellenic thought permeates our intellectual 

 habit, if Hellenic art is part of our plastic conception ; 



