Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/183

Rh This is the sort of question which we have now to answer about Xenophon. And in the first place, it must be remembered that in regarding an ancient author from a "real" point of view, there is a historical and antiquarian interest in the very imperfection of his ideas. Flint knives and arrow-heads are prized for our museums, not for their excellence, but for their comparative inadequacy to their respective purposes. So, too, the expression by an old writer of very limited and even erroneous thoughts on subjects with regard to which the world is now better instructed, may be interesting to us as a contribution to the history of the mind of man. From examples of this kind we see that

and we learn to know how unequal was the greatness of the ancients. While in the spheres of Art and the Beautiful and Abstract Thought the Greeks are the masters for all modern times, we find what an immense advantage over them has been given to us by the development of the separate sciences.

The study of Xenophon's writings is peculiarly fertile in reflections of this kind. He serves very well as the representative Greek of the fourth century before Christ. He stands forth as the product of Athens, of the teachings of Socrates, of the debates in the Agora, and, generally speaking, of the "Aryan principles of education." The circumstances of his