The chief of these elements, and the one which included all the rest, was the Greek ideal of harmony. Athens was great as a State and as a school so long as she embodied that ideal, so long as she distributed power and honor in accordance with worth (ἀρετή) intellectual, moral, practical; in a word, so long as the State was governed by the best citizens (ἄριστοι), and the rest acknowledged their right to do so. Notwithstanding the contention of Grote and others, it is strictly true that Athens was great because, and so long as, she was aristocratic (in the ancient sense), and perished when she abandoned her fundamental ideal by becoming democratic. This assertion must not be construed as any slur upon democracy as such, or as denying that Athens in perishing paved the way for a higher ideal than her own. It simply states a fact, which may be easily generalized without losing its truth: An institution perishes when it abandons the principle on which it was founded and built up. Unless we bear this in mind, we shall utterly fail to understand the lesson of Athenian history. If it be maintained that some of Athens' noblest work was done under the democracy, the sufficient answer is, that it was nearly all done by men who retained the spirit of the old aristocracy, and bitterly opposed the democracy. We need name only Æschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes. PART II THE "NEW EDUCATION" (B.C. 480-338) CHAPTER I INDIVIDUALISM AND PHILOSOPHY Homer ought to be driven from the lists and whipt, and Archilochus likewise.--Heraclitus. Thou needs must have knowledge of all things, First of the steadfast core of the Truth that forceth conviction, Then of the notions of mortals, where true conviction abides not. --Parmenides. All things were undistinguished: then Intellect came and brought them into order.--Anaxagoras. Man is the measure of all things. In regard to the Gods, I am unable to know whether they are or are not.--Protagoras. STREPSIADES. Don't you see what a good thing it is to have learning? There isn't any Zeus, Phidippides! PHIDIPPIDES. Who is there then? STREPS. Vortex rules, having dethroned Zeus. PHID. Pshaw! what nonsense! STREPS. You may count it true, all the same. PHID. Who says so? STREPS. Socrates the Melian, and Chærephon, who knows the footprints of fleas.--Aristophanes, _Clouds_.