We have also to recognize another most powerful influence of which they
were the vehicles--closely related to the other. The Greeks first
articulately conceived and deliberately pursued the ideal of Freedom. It
was, I say, closely related to the other, for they meant by it not
merely freedom from physical or political constraint but also inward
freedom from prejudice and passion, and they held that knowledge and
freedom rendered one another possible. We may amend our formula and
re-state their contribution as the idea and fact of civilization
regarded as a process in and to Freedom under the control of Knowledge
or Reason, each inspiring, guiding, and fertilizing the other. Theory
and practice thus co-operate and help one another forward; each in its
advance liberates the other for a further effort. The several faculties
of the human spirit work harmoniously together in mutual respect and
reciprocal alliance. Hence arises another distinctive feature of the
Greek ideal, namely, that of wholeness or all-round completeness; there
is in it no one-sided insistence on this or that element in human
nature, no tendency to ascetic mutilation, no fear or jealousy of what
is merely human, tainted by its animal origin or its secular
associations.
But we must not exaggerate. This ideal was imperfectly defined, still
more imperfectly executed or realized. It would be absurd to suppose
that it was held by all Greeks; it was indeed advocated by and for a
minority only. Those who now find in it the impulse and guide of Greek
history might be hard put to it if they were obliged to produce evidence
of their faith, and they would be forced to confess that there was much
to be said against their interpretation. There is to be acknowledged
first the apparent want of internal unity in the Greek world, split up
as it was into small and mutually hostile civic groups; and secondly,
the loose coherence of each of these groups within itself (for each, we
might almost say normally, was torn by intestine faction). It is a
commonplace also that Greek civilization rested upon slavery, so that
barbarism was not expelled but remained as a domestic and ever-present
evil. Freedom and enlightenment was not in thought or practice designed
for all men, but only for Greeks, and among them only in reality for a
privileged minority. The notion of a civilized world or even a civilized
Greece was, if present at all, present only in feeling or imagination,
not in clear vision or distinct thought, still less as an ideal of
practical politics. On the other hand the ideal so narrowly conceived
was not _in principle_ confined to a 'chosen people', or to one strain
of blood. It supplied a programme extensible to all who could show their
title to be regarded as members of the common race of humanity. As the
special features of Greek civilization faded, the lineaments of this
common humanity emerged more clearly into view, and the Greek, when he
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