Attika;
save that the part once played by enslaved human brain and muscle will
finally be played by the enslaved forces of insentient nature. Society
will at last bear the test of providing for the complete development of
its individual members.

So, at least, we may hope; such is the probability which the progress of
events, when carefully questioned, sketches out for us. "Need we fear,"
asks Mr. Greg, "that the world would stagnate under such a change?
Need we guard ourselves against the misconstruction of being held to
recommend a life of complacent and inglorious inaction? We think not. We
would only substitute a nobler for a meaner strife,--a rational for an
excessive toil,--an enjoyment that springs from serenity, for one that
springs from excitement only..... To each time its own preacher, to each
excess its own counteraction. In an age of dissipation, languor, and
stagnation, we should join with Mr. Carlyle in preaching the 'Evangel
of Work,' and say with him, 'Blessed is the man who has found his
work,--let him ask no other blessedness.' In an age of strenuous,
frenzied,.... and often utterly irrational and objectless exertion,
we join Mr. Mill in preaching the milder and more needed 'Evangel of
Leisure.'"

Bearing all these things in mind, we may understand the remark of
the supremely cultivated Goethe, when asked who were his masters: Die
Griechen, die Griechen, und immer die Griechen. We may appreciate the
significance of Mr. Mill's argument in favour of the study of antiquity,
that it preserves the tradition of an era of individual completeness.
There is a disposition growing among us to remodel our methods of
education in conformity with the temporary requirements of the age
in which we live. In this endeavour there is much that is wise and
practical; but in so far as it tends to the neglect of antiquity, I
cannot think it well-timed. Our education should not only enhance the
value of what we possess; is should also supply the consciousness of
what we lack. And while, for generations to come, we pass toilfully
through an era of exorbitant industrialism, some fragment of our time
will not be misspent in keeping alive the tradition of a state of things
which was once briefly enjoyed by a little community, but which, in the
distant future, will, as it is hoped, become the permanent possession of
all mankind.

January, 1873.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Unseen World and Other Essays, by John Fi