Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/194

158 —The Greeks, in a life which was surrounded by great dangers and upheavals, sought: feeling of safety and last refuge in meditation and knowledge. We, in a state of paralleled safety, have introduced insecurity into meditation and knowledge, and seek case in the struggles of life. —Bold enterprises are rarer in modern times than they were in antiquity and the middle ages,—probably because modens no longer believe in omens, oracles, stars and soothsayers. That is, we have become unable to believe in a predestined future, in which the ancients believed, who—in contradistinction to us— were much less sceptic with regard to that which will be, than to that which is. —"Let us beware of feeling too happy,"—was the secret anxiety of the Greeks in their best time. Hence they preached moderation to themselves. And we? —Whither does it point that our culture not only bears with indulgence the