only a rule of external decency by which society can divide them. Nor
should we be right in inferring from the prevalence of any one vice or
corruption that a state or individual was demoralized in their whole
character. Not only has the corruption of the best been sometimes thought
to be the worst, but it may be remarked that this very excess of evil has
been the stimulus to good (compare Plato, Laws, where he says that in the
most corrupt cities individuals are to be found beyond all praise). (2) It
may be observed that evils which admit of degrees can seldom be rightly
estimated, because under the same name actions of the most different
degrees of culpability may be included. No charge is more easily set going
than the imputation of secret wickedness (which cannot be either proved or
disproved and often cannot be defined) when directed against a person of
whom the world, or a section of it, is predisposed to think evil. And it
is quite possible that the malignity of Greek scandal, aroused by some
personal jealousy or party enmity, may have converted the innocent
friendship of a great man for a noble youth into a connexion of another
kind. Such accusations were brought against several of the leading men of
Hellas, e.g. Cimon, Alcibiades, Critias, Demosthenes, Epaminondas: several
of the Roman emperors were assailed by similar weapons which have been used
even in our own day against statesmen of the highest character. (3) While
we know that in this matter there is a great gulf fixed between Greek and
Christian Ethics, yet, if we would do justice to the Greeks, we must also
acknowledge that there was a greater outspokenness among them than among
ourselves about the things which nature hides, and that the more frequent
mention of such topics is not to be taken as the measure of the prevalence
of offences, or as a proof of the general corruption of society. It is
likely that every religion in the world has used words or practised rites
in one age, which have become distasteful or repugnant to another. We
cannot, though for different reasons, trust the representations either of
Comedy or Satire; and still less of Christian Apologists. (4) We observe