Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/39

n] THE PASSING OF THE ANTIQUE MAN 21 Knowledge should be beautiful as well; it should pertain to noblest matters, and thus preserve the principle of proportioninent in seeking the best most strenuously. Yet the love of beauty entered lifers small details and trivialities ; and the love of knowl- edge was not academic, for the Hellene had universal curiosity. Thus gifted with clear perception, and with reason and imagination which might build systems of philos- ophy or present life's truths in poetry and sculpture, the Greek was a consummate artist; he could create whatever he loved. His was a happy nature, and with great faculty of joy. To him life was joyous, although mortal, and its prizes, which his intellect approved, were to be desired passionately. Artist as he was, his was the passion as well as the thought of beauty. Men who thus keenly sought whatever they desired, and who sought ever to know better what to seek, desired liberty to direct their lives to the goal of their desire. The thoughtful, eager Greek was individual- istic, seeking the complete fulfilment of his many- sided nature. Philosophers might point out that the State was the greater man, the all-embracing consum- mation of its citizens. And in great Greek days, citizens made this real in beautiful devotion to the city. Nevertheless, the Greek tended always to re- vert to the living of his own life in its most perfect fulfilment. The Roman was undisturbed by a multiplicity of loves. Self-control was a simpler quality with him than with the Greek. It rose from practical judgment.