106 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. n 



ries, the Assyrian, the depositary of Chaldean civili- 

 zation, as the Macedonian and the Koman, at a later 

 date, were the depositaries of Greek culture, had 

 added irresistible force to the other agencies for the 

 wide distribution of Chaldsean literature, art, and 

 science. 



I confess that I find it difficult to imagine that 

 the Greek immigrants who stood in somewhat the 

 same relation to the Babylonians and the Egyptians 

 as the later Germanic barbarians to the Komans of 

 the Empire should not have been immensely influ- 

 enced by the new life with which they became ac- 

 quainted. But there is abundant direct evidence of 

 the magnitude of this influence in certain spheres. 

 I suppose it is not doubted that the Greek went to 

 school with the Oriental for his primary instruction 

 in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and that Semi- 

 tic theology supplied him with some of his mytho- 

 logical lore. Nor does there now seem to be any 

 question about the large indebtedness of Greek art 

 to that of Chaldsea and that of Egypt. 



But the manner of that indebtedness is very 

 instructive. The obligation is clear, but its limits 

 are no less definite. Nothing better exemplifies the 

 indomitable originality of the Greeks than the re- 

 lations of their art to that of the Orientals. Far 

 from being subdued into mere imitators by the tech- 

 nical excellence of their teachers, they lost no time 

 in bettering the instruction they received, using 

 their models as mere stepping stones on the way to 

 those unsurpassed and unsurpassable achievements 

 which are all their own. The shibboleth of Art is 



