]
I
It may, in particular, seem surprising that the Greeks, who were so
fertile in their speculations on human life, did not hit upon an
idea which seems so simple and obvious to us as the idea of
Progress. But if we try to realise their experience and the general
character of their thought we shall cease to wonder. Their recorded
history did not go back far, and so far as it did go there had been
no impressive series of new discoveries suggesting either an
indefinite increase of knowledge or a growing mastery of the forces
of nature. In the period in which their most brilliant minds were
busied with the problems of the universe men might improve the
building of ships, or invent new geometrical demonstrations, but
their science did little or nothing to transform the conditions of
life or to open any vista into the future. They were in the presence
of no facts strong enough to counteract that profound veneration of
antiquity which seems natural to mankind, and the Athenians of the
age of Pericles or of Plato, though they were thoroughly, obviously
"modern" compared with the Homeric Greeks, were never self-
consciously "modern" as we are.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31