Character and Success 105 



only the boldest and wisest could so carry themselves 

 as to win success and honor; and from the struggle 

 he won both death and honor, and stands for ever 

 more among the greatest of mankind. 



Character is shown in peace no less than in war. 

 As the greatest fertility of invention, the greatest 

 perfection of armament, will not make soldiers out 

 of cowards, so no mental training and no bodily 

 vigor will make a nation great if it lacks the funda 

 mental principles of honesty and moral cleanliness. 

 After the death of Alexander the Great nearly all 

 of the then civilized world was divided among the 

 Greek monarchies ruled by his companions and their 

 successors. This Greek world was very brilliant and 

 very wealthy. It contained haughty military em 

 pires, and huge trading cities, under republican gov 

 ernment, which attained the highest pitch of com 

 mercial and industrial prosperity. Art flourished to 

 an extraordinary degree; science advanced as never 

 before. There were academies for men of letters; 

 there were many orators, many philosophers. Mer 

 chants and business men throve apace, and for a 

 long period the Greek soldiers kept the superiority 

 and renown they had won under the mighty con 

 queror of the East. But the heart of the people 

 was incurably false, incurably treacherous and de 

 based. Almost every statesman had his price, almost 

 every soldier was a mercenary who, for a sufficient 



