[ 18] 



wisdom." Science alone may prevent a re- 

 petition of the story of Egypt, of Babylonia, 

 of Greece, and of Rome. The suggestion 

 seems brazen effrontery when we have not 

 even given the world the equivalent of the 

 Pax Romana ! Ah ! what a picture of self- 

 satisfied happiness in Plutarch ! One envies 

 that placid life in the midst of the only great 

 peace the world has known, spanning a pe- 

 riod of more than two hundred years. And 

 he could say, "No tumults, no civil sedi- 

 tion, no tyrannies, no pestilences nor calam- 

 ities depopulating Greece, no epidemic dis- 

 ease needing powerful and choice drugs and 

 medicines"; though as a Delphic priest 

 there is a pathetic lament that the Pythian 

 priestess has now only commonplace ques- 

 tions to deal with. 1 Surely those cultivated 

 men of his circle must have felt that their 

 house could never be removed. Has Science 



1 " Why the Pythian Priestess, M etc. (Plutarch's Morals, vol. 

 in, p. ioo, Goodwin's edition). 



