of the opposition, engaged in this most merciless and unjust tirade
against the party of the philosophers. None of their charges, however,
can be said to have had any basis in fact, and all may easily be
accounted for when the envy and hatred of the ignorant toward the
beautiful and accomplished and independent woman is taken into
consideration. In the Athens of the fifth century before our era, when
people were just beginning to break away from the narrow conservatism
of centuries, a woman who enjoyed an unheard-of degree of liberty, and
because of her talents was regarded with admiration by the greatest men
of the city, might well be the target for the grossest abuse. A vicious
woman would be the last to undertake, as did Aspasia, the study of
philosophy, which, with Socrates, was the study of virtue.

The party of the philosophers suffered for their opinions, Phidias was
accused of theft, and died in prison; Anaxagoras, to escape the charges
against him, went into voluntary exile; and Aspasia was brought to trial
on a charge of impiety, which merely meant that she, as others of her
circle, set at naught the polytheism of the multitude, and recognized
but one creative mind in the government of the universe, an accusation
under which Socrates later suffered martyrdom. She was brought before
the judges, and Pericles pleaded her cause. Plutarch says that he
pleaded with tears; and as the people could not resist the emotion of
their great leader, she was acquitted.

Perides's last days were passed in the gloom of the outbreak of the
Peloponnesian War, of the plague that depopulated the city, and of the
discontent of his beloved people. No brilliant sun ever had a more
gloomy setting. Yet in his last moments his thoughts were of the two
beloved objects that had absorbed his tenderest affections. "Athens has
intrusted her greatness and Aspasia her happiness to me," Pericles said,
when dying; and there could be no stronger testimony to the purity of
Aspasia's character, to the influence of her life on his, to the role
she had played in that Golden Age of Athens.

Athens and Aspasia--these were linked in the thoughts of the dying
statesman; and as he made the one great, so he made the other immortal.
Had his life not been blessed with union with hers, had his temperament
not been sweetened by her companionship, had his policy not been moulded
partly by her counsel and her wisdom, had his taste not been made so
subtle and