HEREDITARY DESCENT IN ANCIENT GREECE. 21 



natural law ! [Applause.] We shall find history in 

 the ancient day faithful to the latest voice of science 

 as uttered even by Spencer in the modern day; that 

 is, to monogamy. 



No doubt political oppression hastened the deteri- 

 oration of the Greek race ; for, after Athens became 

 a Roman town, she did not attract great men. Of 

 course she continued to be a teacher. She taught 

 her own conqueror ; and we have abundant evidence 

 that the power of her glorious race continued for a 

 while. But there was lacking in it the purity which 

 belonged to the great era. The noblest age of Rome 

 came -out of monogamy. The old Etrurians believed 

 in the family. The stalwart men who founded the 

 city of the Seven Hills obtained their stalwartness, 

 as every man has since, by obedience to natural law. 

 We find that when Athenian greatness declined, mar- 

 riage was being given up, absolutely indescribable 

 vices were permeating the luxurious society of the 

 wealthier age of Athens, and with looseness of life 

 came in the various forms of intellectual effeminacy. 

 Rottenness is the mother of littleness. The pygmy 

 is always born of disloyalty to natural law. [Ap- 

 plause.] Athenian society became such that men 

 who were not possessed of high endowments could 

 succeed in it ; and thus the natural selection ceased, 

 and the brilliancy of Greece in history declined. 



15. Although we have but two centuries of Greek 

 experience, that little arc exhibits the possible results 

 of obedience to the natural laws of hereditary de- 

 scent, and shows of .what the human race is capable. 



