226 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
our Religion and Morals to Judea, our Law and Civil Order to 
Rome, and our Science and Art to Greece. Our immediate concern 
is with the Greek. 
Although in a general survey of our modern life it may suffice, 
for.a broad outline, to speak of Greek influence as supreme in 
Science and Art, it by no means follows that it is limited to the 
mental activities specifically denoted by these terms. By means of 
a remarkable literature, studied with almost passionate ardour by 
the ablest men of every age, the Greek mind has contributed to a 
high degree of mental activity; has furnished a rich variety of 
ideas on many subjects; and has, to a considerable degree, imparted 
its own characteristics of clearness, precision, and severe truth, to 
natures inferior in these respects to itself. The higher formative 
powers of Latin literature are primarily due to antecedent Greek 
culture. No sufficiently strong force has arisen, either within the 
British or German mind, to neutralize the directive and formative 
power of the Greek; nor is there a probability of such a con- 
tingency arising, inasmuch as the development of the Greek mind 
was intensely accordant with nature, and, therefore, permanent ia 
its influence. 
It is a bold and perilous thing to attempt to point out, with any 
appropriateness of detail, the derivation of our Science and Art 
from Greece; for as we read in Faust, ‘Die Kunst ist lang,’’ and 
we all know how manifold and profound is Science. That however, 
notwithstanding the enormous intellectual toil and consequent 
achievements during the present generation in both Science and 
Art, we do owe their present position primarily to the Greek, is a 
proposition which I believe can be thoroughly substantiated. But 
leaving so wide a theme, I shall apply myself to the more modest 
endeavour to present a few statements which may serve to illustrate 
some of the obligations we are under to the energy and prevision 
of the Greek mind; and in pursuit of this aim it will perhaps 
conduce to clearness if we confine our references almost exclusively 
to the contributions made by the great thinkers, prior to and 
inclusive of Aristotle, towards a solution of some of the great 
problems of life. 
The need of something being said on the actual relation of Greek 
Thought to our own intellectual life is apparent, if we only consider 
for a moment the extremely conflicting statements made by different 
men. On the one side, we are favoured with eulogies so glowing 
