Its noble sense of order and systematic arrangement had rendered the
Athenian state immortal--The ten strategists in Athens! Foolish! Too big
a sacrifice on the altar of jealousy.


122

The recreations of the Spartans consisted of feasting, hunting, and
making war · their every-day life was too hard. On the whole, however,
their state is merely a caricature of the polls, a corruption of Hellas.
The breeding of the complete Spartan--but what was there great about him
that his breeding should have required such a brutal state!


123

The political defeat of Greece is the greatest failure of culture; for
it has given rise to the atrocious theory that culture cannot be pursued
unless one is at the same time armed to the teeth. The rise of
Christianity was the second greatest failure: brute force on the one
hand, and a dull intellect on the other, won a complete victory over the
aristocratic genius among the nations. To be a Philhellenist now means
to be a foe of brute force and stupid intellects. Sparta was the ruin of
Athens in so far as she compelled Athens to turn her entire attention
to politics and to act as a federal combination.


124