PROGRESS OF MAN. 189 



on paper, and yet it can easily be shown to be 

 wholly fallacious. The Athenians flourished 

 before the invention of printing, and although a 

 knowledge of letters was much commoner, 

 and books were perhaps cheaper and more 

 accessible than in the middle ages, yet still 

 neither could have been so universally diffused 

 as at the present day. They had therefore no 

 other means of making themselves acquainted 

 with high-class literature than by the public 

 gatherings to which Galton alludes. In our own 

 times, we prefer to read a book which requires 

 serious attention quietly at home ; and to read 

 for amusement rather than for instruction 

 during the hurry and fatigue of travelling. If 

 railway book-stalls had been in fashion in the 

 time of the Athenians we have no reason to 

 assume that the works of Homer and ^Eschylus 

 would have borne a larger proportion to light 

 literature, than those of Milton and Shakespeare 

 (which are never wholly wanting) do at the 

 present day. Nor can we suppose that all who 

 took part in the Athenian literary assemblies 

 were capable of appreciating the intellectual 

 feast before them. Many, perhaps even the 

 majority, would attend them because it was the 



