nity, and
remain to this day. And no one can deny that the same is true of Greek
civilization. Through a kind of historic preparation the heathen world
was made ready for Christ, as a soil is prepared to receive the seed,
and some precious fruits of knowledge, of truth, and of righteousness,
even, were largely matured, which have been reaped, and appropriated,
and vitalized by the heaven-descended life of Christianity.

The chief points of excellence in the civilization of the Greeks are
strikingly obvious, and may be readily presented. High perfection of the
intellect and the imagination displaying itself in the various forms of
art, poetry, literature, and philosophy. A wonderful freedom and
activity of body and of mind, developed in trade, and colonization, in
military achievement, and in subtile dialectics. A striking love of the
beautiful, revealing itself in their sculpture and architecture, in the
free music of prosaic numbers, and the graceful movement and measure of
their poetry. A quickness of perception, a dignity of demeanor, a
refinement of taste, a delicacy of moral sense, and a high degree of
reverence for the divine in nature and humanity. And, in general, a ripe
and all-pervading culture, which has made Athens a synonym for all that
is greatest and best in the genius of man; so that literature, in its
most flourishing periods has rekindled its torch at her altars, and art
has looked back to the age of Pericles for her purest models.[853] All
these enter into the very idea of Greek civilization. We can not resist
the conviction that, by a Divine Providence, it was made subservient to
the purpose of Redemption; it prepared the way for, and contributed to,
the spread of the Gospel.

[Footnote 853: In Lord Brougham's celebrated letter to the father of the
historian Macaulay in regard to the education of the latter, we read:
"If he would be a great orator, he must go at once to the fountain-head,
and be familiar with every one of the great orations of Demosthenes....
I know from experience that nothing is half so successful in these times
(bad though they be) as what has been formed on the Greek models. I use
poor illustrations in giving my own experience, but I do assure you that
both in courts and Parliament, and even to mobs, I have never made so
much play (to use a very modern phrase) as when I was almost translating
from the Greek. I composed the peroration of my speech for the Queen, in
the Lords, aft