MY DEAR CHILDREN,

Some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you,
as you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those of you who
are boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek
books; and the girls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure
to come across a great many stories taken from Greek history, and
to see, I may say every day, things which we should not have had if
it had not been for these old Greeks. You can hardly find a well-
written book which has not in it Greek names, and words, and
proverbs; you cannot walk through a great town without passing
Greek buildings; you cannot go into a well-furnished room without
seeing Greek statues and ornaments, even Greek patterns of
furniture and paper; so strangely have these old Greeks left their
mark behind them upon this modern world in which we now live. And
as you grow up, and read more and more, you will find that we owe
to these old Greeks the beginners of all our mathematics and
geometry--that is, the science and knowledge of numbers, and of the
shapes of things, and of the forces which make things move and
stand at rest; and the beginnings of our geography and astronomy;
and of our laws, and freedom, and politics--that is, the science of
how to rule a country, and make it peaceful and strong. And we owe
to them, too, the beginning of our logic--that is, the study of
words and of reasoning; and of our metaphysics--that is, the study
of our own thoughts and souls. And last of all, they made their
language so beautiful that foreigners used to take to it instead of
their own; and at last Greek became the common language of educated
people all over the old world, from Persia and Egypt even to Spain