Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/256

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^34 CHRiStiAN GREECE AND LIVING GtlEElC. tional language of physicians and scholars in general. In choosing the Greek no mutual rivalry need be taken into consideration. It is the old, old idiom of a small nation and of a small country. The language is rich and is musical, clear and precise, and especially abounding in combina- tions. It is able to render every modern idea completely, and already it has, in this regard, given life to thousands of words. In thousands of schools, and in every university, it forms a necessary part of instruction. Not only do we use a multitude of Greek words in our daily in- tercourse, but our entire medical lexicology, also the general nomenclature of the arts and of sciences, is, for the most part, dominated by the Greek language. The magnificent structures of the ancient Greeks, their equally splendid works of sculp- ture, have been so little approached by us that nobody, in the whole world, would entertain the possibility of a comparison in our favor when modern achievements are contrasted with the masterpieces of Greek art. The temple of the Olympian Jupiter, the Acropolis of Athens, the Venus of Melos, the Hermes of Praxiteles, are proofs that the Greeks had a much better de-