148 Progress and Civilisation. FT. m. 



sion to which the efforts of a young nation whose 

 imagination is fresh are directed. But it is not in 

 poetry alone that the Greeks excelled. The works 

 of Plato and Aristotle breathe the profoundest philo- 

 sophy, and are inspired by deep thought. The 

 Orations of Demosthenes continue to rank as the 

 most finished specimens of eloquence that the World 

 has ever witnessed. In all these departments of 

 literature the Greeks appear to have attained at 

 once perfection. From what source they imbibed 

 their thoughts, or in what school they acquired their 

 inimitable grace and beauty of language, must re- 

 main a mystery to us. Of this we may be quite 

 certain that it was from no Asiatic fountain. The 

 same sudden and immediate attainment of the highest 

 standard of excellence is noticed in Sculpture. If, 

 according to Johnson, succeeding poets have never 

 been able to surpass Homer, the sculptors who have 

 followed his footsteps for 3,000 years have never 

 been able to equal Phidias. Nothing can be more 

 marked than the distinction between the Greek type, 

 and the character of any Eastern nation we have ever 

 known. No progress of civilisation, no cultivation 

 of the taste or of the understanding, has ever enabled 

 succeeding nations to surpass these exquisite models. 



