1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History.--To three ancient
nations the men of the twentieth century owe an incalculable debt.
To the Jews we owe most of our notions of religion; to the Romans
we owe traditions and examples in law, administration, and the
general management of human affairs which still keep their influence
and value; and finally, to the Greeks we owe nearly all our ideas
as to the fundamentals of art, literature, and philosophy, in
fact, of almost the whole of our intellectual life. These Greeks,
however, our histories promptly teach us, did not form a single
unified nation. They lived in many "city-states" of more or less
importance, and some of the largest of these contributed very little
directly to our civilization. Sparta, for example, has left us
some noble lessons in simple living and devoted patriotism, but
hardly a single great poet, and certainly never a philosopher or
sculptor. When we examine closely, we see that the civilized life
of Greece, during the centuries when she was accomplishing the most,
was peculiarly centered at Athens. Without Athens, Greek history
would lose three quarters of its significance, and modern life and
thought would become infinitely the poorer.


2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant.--Because,
then, the contributions of Athens to our own life are so important,
because they touch (as a Greek would say) upon almost every side
of "the true, the beautiful, and the good," it is obvious that
the outward conditions under which this Athenian genius developed
deserve our respectful attention. For assuredly such personages
as Sophocles, Plato, and Phidias were not isolated creatures, who
developed their genius apart from, or in spite of, the life about