The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield
Philosophy
The Legacy of Greece: Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield
Greece -- Civilization
At the present time a more drastic revolt is in progress among the
_plebs urbana_, which does in truth threaten with destruction 'what we
owe to Greece'. The industrial revolution has generated a new type of
barbarism, with no roots in the past. For the second time in the history
of Western Europe, continuity is in danger of being lost. A generation
is growing up, not uneducated, but educated in a system which has little
connexion with European culture in its historical development. The
Classics are not taught; the Bible is not taught; history is not taught
to any effect. What is even more serious, there are no social
traditions. The modern townsman is _déraciné_: he has forgotten the
habits and sentiments of the village from which his forefathers came. An
unnatural and unhealthy mode of life, cut off from the sweet and
humanizing influences of nature, has produced an unnatural and unhealthy
mentality, to which we shall find no parallels in the past. Its chief
characteristic is profound secularity or materialism. The typical town
artisan has no religion and no superstitions; he has no ideals beyond
the visible and tangible world of the senses. This of course opens an
impassable gulf between him and Greek religion, and a still wider gulf
between him and Christianity. The attempts which are occasionally made,
especially in this country, to dress up the Labour movement as a return
to the Palestinian Gospel, are little short of grotesque. The contrast
is well summed up by Belfort Bax, in a passage quoted by Professor
Gardner. 'According to Christianity, regeneration must come from within.
The ethics and religion of modern socialism on the contrary look for
regeneration from without, from material conditions and a higher social
life.' Here the gauntlet is thrown down to Christ and Plato alike.
Quite logically the new spirit is in revolt against what it calls
intellectualism, which means the application of the dry light of reason
to the problems of human life. It wishes to substitute for reason what
some of its philosophers call instinct, but which should rather be
called sentiment and emotion. There is no reconciliation between this
view of life and Hellenism. For science is the eldest and dearest child
of the Greek spirit. One of the great battles of the future will be
between science and its enemies. The misologists have numbers on their
side; but 'Nature', whom all the Greeks honoured and trusted, will be
justified in her children.
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