THE REASON OF THE FALL OF GREECE. 227 



one for a select and privileged class. Nor were 

 the relations of the individual to the State really 

 satisfactory. In theory, no doubt, the State was 

 supreme ; but in practice the individual was con- 

 stantly recalcitrant, and generally succeeded in 

 doing pretty much as he pleased — at least to judge 

 by the complaints of Greek thinkers. There were 

 only very few Greek States which were not chronic- 

 ally in danger of subversion by the lawless ambi- 

 tion of their own citizens. And such practical con- 

 trol over the individual as the State did attain was 

 only gained by the almost complete sacrifice of the 

 institution which is the primary source of the indi- 

 vidual's altruism, viz., the family. The State crushed 

 the family life in Greece, in the supposed Interests 

 of the social life ; but It could not tame the exuber- 

 ance of the Individual. The Greeks discovered no 

 antidote to the excessive ambition and vanity of the 

 Individual Greek. Not only Athens, but every 

 Greek city was ruined by Its Alcibiades. And 

 indeed the political failure of the Greeks as a nation 

 ^as also due to an extension of the characteristic 

 ^hlch ruined the different Greek cities. The Inerad- 

 :able particularism and mutual jealousies of the 

 rreek cities, which rendered any lasting combln- 

 ition or joint action impossible, Is only one more 

 Instance of their Irrepressible vanity and self- 

 conceit. The individual Greek and the individual 

 iity alike preferred to let the common cause perish 

 bther than tolerate a policy In which they should 

 lave no opportunity of playing a leading part, 

 nd just as the minor actors in the melodrama of 

 rreek history were incapable of self-subordination, 

 io the leading States were equally incapable of self- 

 control, and consequently sacrificed a just and gen- 



