Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.
To Greece we give our shining blades.
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence.
Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!
Ohne die Freiheit, was warest du, Hellas? / Ohne dich, Hellas, was ware die Welt?=--Without freedom, what wert thou, Greece? Without thee, Greece, what were the world?
Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.
Such is the aspect of this shore; / 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more! / So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, / We start, for soul is wanting there.
Gr?cia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes / Intulit agresti Latio=--Greece, conquered herself, in turn conquered her uncivilised conqueror, and imported her arts into rusticated Latium.
"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them that shall be saved unto the nations, to Africa, to Lydia, to Italy, to Greece, and to the people that have not heard my name, neither have seen my glory. And they shall bring your brethren."
The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung. Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all except their sun is set.
Three poets in three distant ages born, / Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. / The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd; / The next, in majesty; in both, the last. / The force of Nature could no further go; / To make a third, she join'd the former two.
Does Homer interest us now, because he wrote of what passed beyond his native Greece, and two centuries before he was born; or because he wrote what passed in God's world, which is the same after thirty centuries?
"The ram which thou sawest is the king of the Medes and Persians, and the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king of this monarchy.
Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered, from the time of the seven sages of Greece to that of Poor Richard, have prevented a single foolish action.
Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother."
The seven wise men of Greece, so famous for their wisdom all the world over, acquired all that fame each of them by a single sentence consisting of two or three words.
Wherever literature consoles sorrow or assuages pain; wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep,--there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of Athens.
There is no contradiction. There never really can be between the core terms of monistic philosophies. The One in India has got to be the same as the One in Greece. If it's not, you've got two. The only disagreements among the monists concern the attributes of the One, not the One itself. Since the One is the source of all things and includes all things in it, it cannot be defined in terms of those things, since no matter what thing you use to define it, the thing will always describe something less than the One itself. The One can only be described allegorically, through the use of analogy, of figures of imagination and speech.
The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of those of Greece and Rome--not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world, were alike despicable.
Philologists, who chase / A panting syllable through time and space, / Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark / To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.
When thus the heart is in a vein Of tender thought, the simplest strain Can touch it with peculiar power.
Nothing in the dealings of Heaven with Earth is so wonderful to me as the way in which the evil angels are allowed to spot, pervert, and bring to nothing, or to worse, the powers of the greatest men: so that Greece must be ruined, for all that Plato can say; Geneva, for all that Calvin can say; England, for all that Sir Thomas More and Bacon can say; and only Gounod's "Faust" to be the visible outcome to Europe of the school of Weimar.
Such is the aspect of this shore; 'T is Greece, but living Greece no more! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start, for soul is wanting there.
Man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn; and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie enfolded already in the first man.
When Music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung.
Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go; To make a third, she join'd the former two.
This people is not peculiar only by their antiquity, but also remarkable by their duration, which has been unbroken from their origin till now. For while the nations of Greece and Italy, of Lacedæmon, Athens and Rome, and others who came after, have long been extinct, these still remain, and in spite of the endeavours of many powerful princes who have a hundred times striven to destroy them, as their historians testify, and as we can easily understand by the natural order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved, and extending from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration all our histories.
Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and space, Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn; and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.
Juvenile vitium regere non posse impetum=--It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence. _Sen._ [Greek: Kadmeia nike]--A Cadm?an victory, _i.e._, one in which the conquerors suffer as much as the conquered. [Greek: Kai touto toi t' andreion, he promethia]--And forethought too is a manly virtue. _Euripides._ [Greek: Kairon gnothi]--Know your opportunity. _Pittachus, one of the seven sages of Greece._ [Greek: Kakon anankaion]--A necessary evil. [Greek: Kakou korakos kakon oon]--From a bad crow a bad egg.
So stands the statue that enchants the world, So bending tries to veil the matchless boast, The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.
Wie die Blumen die Erd', und die Sterne den Himmel / Zieren, so zieret Athen Hellas und Hellas die Welt=--As the flowers adorn the earth and the stars the sky, so Athens adorns Greece, and Greece the world.
As Stephen Sly and old John Naps of Greece, And Peter Turph and Henry Pimpernell, And twenty more such names and men as these Which never were, nor no man ever saw.
Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! Immortal, though no more! though fallen, great!
The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dreamed that Greece might still be free.
That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.
The United States, or the American Republic, has a mission, and is chosen of God for the realization of a great idea. It has been chosen not only to continue the work assigned to Greece and Rome, but to accomplish a greater work than was assigned to either. In art, it will prove false to its mission if it do not rival Greece; and in science and philosophy, if it do not surpass it. In the State, in law, in jurisprudence, it must continue and surpass Rome. Its idea is liberty, indeed, but liberty with law, and law with liberty. Yet its mission is not so much the realization of liberty as the realization of the true idea of the State, which secures at once the authority of the public and the freedom of the individual — the sovereignty of the people without social despotism, and individual freedom without anarchy. In other words, its mission is to bring out in its life the dialectic union of authority and liberty, of the natural rights of man and those of society. [“Introduction”, The American Republic, 1865.]
The history of nations, in the sense in which I use the word, is often best studied in works not professedly historical.
To the glory that was Greece And the grandeur that was Rome.
"Pardieu, it was the most simple thing in the world. I was speaking of your father's past history. I said the origin of his fortune remained obscure. The person to whom I addressed my scruples asked me where your father had acquired his property? I answered, 'In Greece.'--'Then,' said he, 'write to Yanina.'"
I then thought that my father would be unjust if he ascribed my neglect to vice or faultiness on my part, but I am now convinced that he was justified in conceiving that I should not be altogether free from blame. A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. If this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved, Caesar would have spared his country, America would have been discovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.
Clerval had never sympathized in my tastes for natural science; and his literary pursuits differed wholly from those which had occupied me. He came to the university with the design of making himself complete master of the oriental languages, and thus he should open a field for the plan of life he had marked out for himself. Resolved to pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes toward the East, as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise. The Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit languages engaged his attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies. Idleness had ever been irksome to me, and now that I wished to fly from reflection, and hated my former studies, I felt great relief in being the fellow-pupil with my friend, and found not only instruction but consolation in the works of the orientalists. I did not, like him, attempt a critical knowledge of their dialects, for I did not contemplate making any other use of them than temporary amusement. I read merely to understand their meaning, and they well repaid my labours. Their melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses,--in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart. How different from the manly and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome!
He said, and prompt to gratify his friend, Forth ran Patroclus through the camp of Greece.
66:19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them that shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia them that draw the bow: into Italy, and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles:
But the eternal father throned on high With fear fill'd Ajax; panic-fixt he stood, His seven-fold shield behind his shoulder cast, And hemm'd by numbers, with an eye askant, Watchful retreated. As a beast of prey Retiring, turns and looks, so he his face Turn'd oft, retiring slow, and step by step. As when the watch-dogs and assembled swains Have driven a tawny lion from the stalls, Then, interdicting him his wish'd repast, Watch all the night, he, famish'd, yet again Comes furious on, but speeds not, kept aloof By frequent spears from daring hands, but more By flash of torches, which, though fierce, he dreads, Till, at the dawn, sullen he stalks away; So from before the Trojans Ajax stalk'd Sullen, and with reluctance slow retired. His brave heart trembling for the fleet of Greece. As when (the boys o'erpower'd) a sluggish ass, On whose tough sides they have spent many a staff, Enters the harvest, and the spiry ears Crops persevering; with their rods the boys Still ply him hard, but all their puny might Scarce drives him forth when he hath browsed his fill, So, there, the Trojans and their foreign aids With glittering lances keen huge Ajax urged, His broad shield's centre smiting. He, by turns, With desperate force the Trojan phalanx dense Facing, repulsed them, and by turns he fled, But still forbad all inroad on the fleet. Trojans and Greeks between, alone, he stood A bulwark. Spears from daring hands dismiss'd Some, piercing his broad shield, there planted stood, While others, in the midway falling, spent Their disappointed rage deep in the ground.
Two mighty sons of Saturn adverse parts Took in that contest, purposing alike To many a valiant Chief sorrow and pain. Jove, for the honor of Achilles, gave Success to Hector and the host of Troy, Not for complete destruction of the Greeks At Ilium, but that glory might redound To Thetis thence, and to her dauntless son. On the other side, the King of Ocean risen Secretly from the hoary Deep, the host Of Greece encouraged, whom he grieved to see Vanquish'd by Trojans, and with anger fierce Against the Thunderer burn'd on their behalf. Alike from one great origin divine Sprang they, but Jove was elder, and surpass'd In various knowledge; therefore when he roused Their courage, Neptune traversed still the ranks Clandestine, and in human form disguised. Thus, these Immortal Two, straining the cord Indissoluble of all-wasting war, Alternate measured with it either host, And loosed the joints of many a warrior bold. Then, loud exhorting (though himself with age Half grey) the Achaians, into battle sprang Idomeneus, and scatter'd, first, the foe, Slaying Othryoneus, who, by the lure Of martial glory drawn, had left of late Cabesus. He Priam's fair daughter woo'd Cassandra, but no nuptial gift vouchsafed To offer, save a sounding promise proud To chase, himself, however resolute The Grecian host, and to deliver Troy. To him assenting, Priam, ancient King, Assured to him his wish, and in the faith Of that assurance confident, he fought. But brave Idomeneus his splendid lance Well-aim'd dismissing, struck the haughty Chief. Pacing elate the field; his brazen mail Endured not; through his bowels pierced, with clang Of all his arms he fell, and thus with joy Immense exulting, spake Idomeneus.
To whom, majestic thus the spouse of Jove. Neptune! deliberate thyself, and choose Whether to save Æneas, or to leave The hero victim of Achilles' ire. For Pallas and myself ofttimes have sworn In full assembly of the Gods, to aid Troy never, never to avert the day Of her distress, not even when the flames Kindled by the heroic sons of Greece, Shall climb with fury to her topmost towers.
And now the host of Troy to flight inclined Before the Grecians, and the Chiefs of Greece Each slew a warrior. Agamemnon first Gigantic Odius from his chariot hurl'd. Chief of the Halizonians. He to flight Turn'd foremost, when the monarch in his spine Between the shoulder-bones his spear infixt, And urged it through his breast. Sounding he fell, And loud his batter'd armor rang around.
"Come, Louise," said Mademoiselle Danglars to her friend. They passed into the next drawing-room, where tea was prepared. Just as they were beginning, in the English fashion, to leave the spoons in their cups, the door again opened and Danglars entered, visibly agitated. Monte Cristo observed it particularly, and by a look asked the banker for an explanation. "I have just received my courier from Greece," said Danglars.
"Do so then, for of all themes which you could choose that will be the most agreeable to her taste." Albert turned towards Haidee. "At what age did you leave Greece, signora?" asked he.
So spake the Dream, and vanishing, him left In false hopes occupied and musings vain. Full sure he thought, ignorant of the plan By Jove design'd, that day the last of Troy. Fond thought! For toils and agonies to Greeks And Trojans both, in many a bloody field To be endured, the Thunderer yet ordain'd. Starting he woke, and seeming still to hear The warning voice divine, with hasty leap Sprang from his bed, and sat. His fleecy vest New-woven he put on, and mantle wide; His sandals fair to his unsullied feet He braced, and slung his argent-studded sword. Then, incorruptible for evermore The sceptre of his sires he took, with which He issued forth into the camp of Greece.
Philip of Macedon, not the father of Alexander the Great, but he who was conquered by Titus Quintius, had not much territory compared to the greatness of the Romans and of Greece who attacked him, yet being a warlike man who knew how to attract the people and secure the nobles, he sustained the war against his enemies for many years, and if in the end he lost the dominion of some cities, nevertheless he retained the kingdom.
Phemius! for many a sorrow-soothing strain Thou know'st beside, such as exploits record Of Gods and men, the poet's frequent theme; Give them of those a song, and let themselves Their wine drink noiseless; but this mournful strain Break off, unfriendly to my bosom's peace, And which of all hearts nearest touches mine, With such regret my dearest Lord I mourn, Rememb'ring still an husband praised from side To side, and in the very heart of Greece.
Now stand ye forth who shall this prize dispute. He said, and at his word instant arose Swift Ajax Oïliades; upsprang The shrewd Ulysses next, and after him Brave Nestor's son Antilochus, with whom None vied in speed of all the youths of Greece. They stood prepared. Achilles show'd the goal. At once all started. Oïliades Led swift the course, and closely at his heels Ulysses ran. Near as some cinctured maid Industrious holds the distaff to her breast, While to and fro with practised finger neat She tends the flax drawing it to a thread, So near Ulysses follow'd him, and press'd His footsteps, ere the dust fill'd them again, Pouring his breath into his neck behind, And never slackening pace. His ardent thirst Of victory with universal shouts All seconded, and, eager, bade him on. And now the contest shortening to a close, Ulysses his request silent and brief To azure-eyed Minerva thus preferr'd.
He ended. They astonish'd at his tone (For vehement he spake) sat silent all. Long silent sat the afflicted sons of Greece, When thus the mighty Diomede began.
Nor then forgat brave Sthenelus his charge Received from Diomede, but his own steeds Detaining distant from the boisterous war, Stretch'd tight the reins, and hook'd them fast behind. The coursers of Æneas next he seized Ardent, and them into the host of Greece Driving remote, consign'd them to his care, Whom far above all others his compeers He loved, Deipylus, his bosom friend Congenial. Him he charged to drive them thence Into the fleet, then, mounting swift his own, Lash'd after Diomede; he, fierce in arms, Pursued the Cyprian Goddess, conscious whom, Not Pallas, not Enyo, waster dread Of cities close-beleaguer'd, none of all Who o'er the battle's bloody course preside, But one of softer kind and prone to fear. When, therefore, her at length, after long chase Through all the warring multitude he reach'd, With his protruded spear her gentle hand He wounded, piercing through her thin attire Ambrosial, by themselves the graces wrought, Her inside wrist, fast by the rosy palm. Blood follow'd, but immortal; ichor pure, Such as the blest inhabitants of heaven May bleed, nectareous; for the Gods eat not Man's food, nor slake as he with sable wine Their thirst, thence bloodless and from death exempt. She, shrieking, from her arms cast down her son, And Phoebus, in impenetrable clouds Him hiding, lest the spear of some brave Greek Should pierce his bosom, caught him swift away. Then shouted brave Tydides after her--
Then answer thus the Archer-God return'd. Courage this moment! such a helper Jove From Ida sends thee at thy side to war Continual, Phoebus of the golden sword, Whose guardian aid both thee and lofty Troy Hath succor'd many a time. Therefore arise! Instant bid drive thy numerous charioteers Their rapid steeds full on the Grecian fleet; I, marching at their head, will smooth, myself, The way before them, and will turn again To flight the heroes of the host of Greece.
Jove, great and glorious above all, who rulest, On Ida's summit seated, all below! Grant me arrived within Achilles' tent Kindness to meet and pity, and oh send Thy messenger or ere I go, the bird Thy favorite most, surpassing all in strength, At my right hand, which seeing, I shall tend With better hope toward the fleet of Greece.
Brainless and big, what means this boast of thine, Earth-cumberer Ajax? Would I were the son As sure, for ever, of almighty Jove And Juno, and such honor might receive Henceforth as Pallas and Apollo share, As comes this day with universal wo Fraught for the Grecians, among whom thyself Shalt also perish if thou dare abide My massy spear, which shall thy pamper'd flesh Disfigure, and amid the barks of Greece Falling, thou shalt the vultures with thy bulk Enormous satiate, and the dogs of Troy.
Friends, Grecian Heroes, ministers of Mars! Ye see me here entangled in the snares Of unpropitious Jove. He promised once, And with a nod confirm'd it, that with spoils Of Ilium laden, we should hence return; But now, devising ill, he sends me shamed, And with diminished numbers, home to Greece. So stands his sovereign pleasure, who hath laid The bulwarks of full many a city low, And more shall level, matchless in his might. That such a numerous host of Greeks as we, Warring with fewer than ourselves, should find No fruit of all our toil, (and none appears) Will make us vile with ages yet to come. For should we now strike truce, till Greece and Troy Might number each her own, and were the Greeks Distributed in bands, ten Greeks in each, Our banded decads should exceed so far Their units, that all Troy could not supply For every ten, a man, to fill us wine; So far the Achaians, in my thought, surpass The native Trojans. But in Troy are those Who baffle much my purpose; aids derived From other states, spear-arm'd auxiliars, firm In the defence of Ilium's lofty towers. Nine years have passed us over, nine long years; Our ships are rotted, and our tackle marr'd, And all our wives and little-ones at home Sit watching our return, while this attempt Hangs still in doubt, for which that home we left. Accept ye then my counsel. Fly we swift With all our fleet back to our native land, Hopeless of Troy, not yet to be subdued.
Ah my Ulysses! pardon me--frown not-- Thou, who at other times hast ever shewn Superior wisdom! all our griefs have flow'd From the Gods' will; they envied us the bliss Of undivided union sweet enjoy'd Through life, from early youth to latest age. No. Be not angry now; pardon the fault That I embraced thee not as soon as seen, For horror hath not ceased to overwhelm My soul, lest some false alien should, perchance, Beguile me, for our house draws num'rous such. Jove's daughter, Argive Helen, ne'er had given Free entertainment to a stranger's love, Had she foreknown that the heroic sons Of Greece would bring her to her home again. But heav'n incited her to that offence, Who never, else, had even in her thought Harbour'd the foul enormity, from which Originated even our distress. But now, since evident thou hast described Our bed, which never mortal yet beheld, Ourselves except and Actoris my own Attendant, giv'n me when I left my home By good Icarius, and who kept the door, Though hard to be convinced, at last I yield.
His supplication was at large to all The host of Greece, but most of all to two, The sons of Atreus, highest in command.