10 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. Greek of to-day is essentially the Greek of the old glorious time, is the magnificence of the beauty and contents of the classical monuments of literature. As a large tree which excludes all sun rays underneath its mighty foliage will not permit other plants to be lighted and warmed and to thrive within its reach, so have the over- whelming magnitude and the sublimity of the classical form of the old literature prevented a post-classical literature from developing. Since the Greeks for centuries had, on the one hand, the richest and most beautiful works of the class- ical period, and, on the other hand, the most insignificant products of a later time, they natur- ally enough had recourse again and again to the old treasures. During the reign of barbarism in Europe — that is, from the fifth to the twelfth century — the Greeks were the exclusive, jealous conservators of science, arts, industry; they did not allow, even to themselves, that something of the sacred deposit be changed, as if during this sad gap in the history of Europe they had had the thought of transmitting all intact to more prosperous times. During the Latin and the Byzantine reign the Greek writers, neither con- trolled nor encouraged by public opinion-, neg- lected themselves, and their style necessarily
