906 ADDRESS ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 



could applaud Terence's line, * Homo sum, humani nihil a me 

 alienum puto ;' but it did not strike them till the time of Seneca 

 that these noble words were incompatible with the existence of 

 gladiatorial shows, nor till the time of Honorius did they legally 

 abolish those abominations. Mutinies and rebellions are not alto- 

 gether free from unpleasant incidents even in our days ; but the 

 execution of 6000 captives from a Servile War, in the way that 

 Crassus executed his prisoners after the final defeat of Spartacus, 

 viz. by the slow torture of crucifixion, is, owing to the advance of 

 civilisation, no longer a possibility. If the road from Capua to 

 Rome witnessed this colossal atrocity, there are still preserved for 

 us in its near neighbourhood the remains of Herculaneum and 

 Pompeii to show us what foul broad-daylight exuberance could be 

 allowed by the public conscience of the time of Titus and Agricola 

 to that other form which sits ' hard by hate.' The man who in 

 those days contributed his factor to the formation of a better 

 public opinion, did so at much greater risk than any of us can 

 incur now by the like line of action. Much of what was most 

 cruel, much of what was most foul in the daily life of the time, 

 had, M. Gaston Boissier notwithstanding, the sanction of their 

 state religion and the indorsement of their statesmen and em- 

 perors to support it. There was no public press in other lands to 

 appeal to from the falsified verdicts of a sophisticated or a terror- 

 ised community. Though then as now, 



* Mankind were one in spirit,' 



freedom of intercommunication was non-existent ; no one could 

 have added to the words just quoted from Lowell their com- 

 plemental words, 



• And an instinct bears along, 

 Round the earth's electric circle the swift flash of right or wrong.' 



The solidarity of nations had not, perhaps could not have been 

 dreamt of — the physical pre-requisites for that, as for many another 

 non-physical good, being wanting. 



Under all these disadvantages men were still found who were 

 capable of aspiration, of hope for, and of love of better things ; and 

 by constant striving after their own ideal, they helped in securing 

 for us the very really improved material, mental, and moral posi- 

 tions which we enjoy. What they did before, we have to do for 

 those who will come after us. 



