Excerpt from Hellenica a Collection of Essays on Greek Poetry, Philosophy, History, and Religion In many respects modern civilisation contrasts favour ably with ancient; it is, for instance, a trite thing to point out the care taken in modern times Of the criminal and the idiot. On the other hand, it is possible that this gain has not been without some accompanying loss. While we are anxious to hide or relieve the degradation to which human nature can sink, we tend to become less careful Of the elevation to which it can rise; we put feeling in the place Of thought, and throw away half our birthright. But if a single generation were able to keep before it an ideal Of culture which should blend all the elements Of human knowledge into an immortal feature of perfection, if a whole country could unite in one effort to appropriate in any real manner the best that has been thought and written on the great interests Of life, we should indeed make a great stride forward, but we should also find that the brightest hope Of the future is not far removed from the truest interpretation Of the past. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.