HERITAGE OF THE SCHOLAR.
For a thousand years before the Teuton appeared
on the scene of civilization, the sages had been teaching
in the agora of Athens and in the groves and
gardens of its environs. There profound subjective
philosophies were imparted to eager seekers for
truth, and in the schools geometry, rhetoric, music,
and gymnastics gave to the Attic youth a culture
more refined than was ever possessed by any other
people. The Athenians were familiar with a literature
which, for purity and elegance of style, was
never surpassed. The Greeks believed with Plato,
that "rhythm and harmony find their way into the
secret places of the soul, on which they mightily
fasten, bearing grace in their movements, and making
the soul graceful of him who is rightly educated."
There temples rose with stately column and sculptured
frieze, and art fashioned marble in the images
of the gods with a transcendent skill that gave an
enduring name to many of its devotees.
Meantime our ancestors were wandering westward through the forests of Europe, or were dwelling for a time in thatched huts on some fertile plain, or in some inviting glade or grove. But these children of the forest, almost savages, possessed the genius of
