Another thing was the introduction of 'the new education,' imported by
'the Sophists,' which substituted for serious studies, definitely limited
and systematically pursued, a crowd of vague and subtle speculations; it
was a mental gymnastic that gave suppleness to the wits, it is true, but
only by corrupting and deteriorating the moral sense, a system that in
the long run was merely destructive. Such, then, was the threefold poison
that was destroying Athenian morality--the triobolus, the noisy
assemblies in the Agora, the doctrines of the Sophists; the antidote was
the recollection of former virtue and past prosperity, which the Poet
systematically revives in contrast with the turpitudes and trivialities
of the present day. There is no turning back the course of history; but
if Aristophanes' efforts have remained abortive, they are not therefore
inglorious. Is the moralist to despair and throw away his pen, because in
so many cases his voice finds no echo?

Again we find Aristophanes' literary views embodying the same good sense
which led him to see the truth in politics and morals. Here likewise it
is not the individual he attacks; his criticism is general. His adversary
is not the individual Euripides, but under his name depraved taste and
the abandonment of that noble simplicity which had produced the
masterpieces of the age of Pericles. Euripides was no ordinary writer,
that is beyond question; but the very excellence of his qualities made
his influence only the more dangerous.

Literary reform is closely connected with moral regeneration, the
decadence of the one being both cause and effect of the deterioration of
the other. The author who should succeed in purifying the public taste
would come near restoring to repute healthy and honest views of life.
Aristophanes essayed the task both by criticism and example--by
criticism, directing the shafts of his ridicule at over-emphasis and