The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological OrderBancroft, Charles
History
The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological Order
Bancroft, Charles
United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
4. Socrates appeared soon after. He was the apostle of thought. His
influence in leading men to use direct and effective modes of examination
and reasoning was incalculable, and has perhaps had more effect on the
world than the victorious career of Alexander or of the Romans. He was
followed by Plato, a disciple of his, who pushed out to further results
the same principles. He is called the prince of philosophers, and has
exerted a world-wide influence. He had not the simplicity and plain
directness of Socrates, though his mind was more polished, and he was
more learned. Some scholars, however, consider his masterpieces to
indicate as powerful a mind as the world has produced. He spent twelve
years in travel, and used all the means of education, and study then
to be found. His works are still the delight of the most accomplished
scholars.
5. Aristotle began his career in the last years of Plato. He was the
tutor of Alexander the Great. He followed a different line of study,
wrote on logic, or the art of reasoning, on the natural sciences, and
introduced method in the exercise of the mind and in study. Herodotus,
Xenophon, Thucydides, and many other great writers, artists and
sculptors, lived about the same period; and thus Grecians did for the
mind what the Romans did for law and government—laid down the fundamental
principles which formed the basis of real progress.
The free government of Athens encouraged oratory and the art of
persuasion. Demosthenes was the most celebrated orator among the Greeks,
and if his state had only been more powerful he would have conquered
Philip of Macedon. He was indeed one of the greatest orators of all
times. Cicero, among the Romans, was a writer and orator of almost equal
merit. They both lived just at the downfall of the liberties of their
states, and they spoke with more effect to the times after them than to
their contemporaries. If they did not succeed in preserving the liberties
of Greece and Rome, they made a great impression, the name of Liberty
was consecrated by their noble words, and those who destroyed it made
infamous by their burning invectives. When a more favorable time came for
restoring it, they lived again in influence, and triumphed by the memory
and record of their great patriotism and powerful eloquence.
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