ead. They can no longer satisfy the wants
of men. Those of the same faiths and sentiments meet in secret
brotherhood. The East must have been full of such secret sects, which
corresponded to the petty states of the earlier period."[126] There was
a very widespread opinion that the world was old and used up so that it
could produce no more, just as a woman beyond her prime could no longer
bear children.[127] "Whenever in any people, consciousness of its
decline becomes vivid, a strange tendency to self-destruction arises in
it. This is not to be explained scientifically, although it has been
often observed." The best commit suicide first, for they do not fear
death.[128] Romans of wealth and rank committed suicide in the first and
second century with astonishing levity; Christians, of the masses, went
to martyrdom in the same way. Pliny expresses the feeling that life had
little or no value.[129]

+107. The Greek temper in prosperity.+ The Greeks, until the fourth
century before Christ, were characterized by the joy of life. They lived
in close touch with nature, and the human body was to them not a clog or
a curse, but a model of beauty and a means of participating in the
activities of nature. Their mores were full of youthful exuberance.
Their life philosophy was egoistic and materialistic. They wanted to
enjoy all which their powers could win, yet their notion of _olbos_ was
so elevated that our modern languages have no word for it. It meant
opulence, with generous liberality of sentiment and public spirit. "I do
not call him who lives in prosperity, and has great possessions, a man
of _olbos_, but only a well-to-do treasure keeper."[130] Such were the
mores of the age of advance in wealth, population, military art,
knowledge, mental achievement, and fine arts,--all of which evidently
were correlative and coherent parts of an expanding prosperity and
group life.

+108. Greek pessimism.+ It is true that this light-hearted, gay, and
artistic temper was boyish. Behind it there always was a pessimistic
world philosophy. The gods envied men any happiness and success, and
would cast down any one who was successful. The joyous temper always was
that of the man who has made up his mind to enjoy himself and forget,
since to take thought and care would do no good. This philosophy
embittered all prosperity. The epic heroes suffered painful ends, and
when the tragedians took up the stories again they heaped up crime and
woe.[13