A QUARREL WITH THE ANCIENTS. 
55 
built of pure gold instead of marble, would it have caused 
the thousands of human beings that you were continually 
embroiling in war to entertain a more fraternal spirit toward 
each other ? True, we go to war now and then ourselves in 
this the nineteenth century; but it is not the chief business 
of our lives ; we do something else that is better. "We don’t 
build pyramids and coliseums, but we build railroads. The 
smallest steamboat that paddles its way up the Hudson is 
greater than the greatest monument of antiquity, and does 
more to promote the civilization and happiness of mankind; 
the wires of our electric telegraphs carry more power in them 
than all the armies you ever brought into battle. And, for 
the matter of magnificent temples, if we had the time and 
money to waste, we could erect, for the amusement of kings, 
and women, and children, toys a great deal bigger and quite 
as useless. Your literature, your poetry and arts, only show 
how much the gifts of God may be perverted to bad purposes. 
War, and murder, and rapine, lust and bestiality, are the 
chief subjects of inspiration in what has been handed down 
to us ; yet we are asked to bow down to you with a blind 
adoration ! You had your merits and your weaknesses, just 
as we have ; the greatest of you had as much littleness as 
the greatest of us now; you were just as weak, just as mor¬ 
tal, and a great deal more ignorant. Feasting, and fighting, 
and toy-making made you distinguished. We will profit by 
your follies, and endeavor to earn a name in ages to come by 
encompassing the earth with the blessings of freedom and 
civilization. 
It is very unkind, I admit, to talk to dead people in this 
way ; but the fact is, one must let off a little indignation now 
and then. Of late I have been traveling with a friend so 
overcharged with admiration for the antique, and so deeply 
imbued with classical literature, that it is quite a relief to be 
revenged by an explosion. I have patiently endured broiling 
in the burning sun that he might enjoy an old stone with an 
illegible inscription on it, and walked for miles in search of 
tombs under which were buried men whose names I had 
never heard before ; I have listened for hours to learned dis- 
