s, but composed of incorrupt,
sharply defined and symmetrical features, whose eye-sockets are so
formed that it would be impossible for such eyes to squint and take
furtive glances on this side and on that, but they must turn the whole
head. The manners of that period are plain and fierce. The reverence
exhibited is for personal qualities; courage, address, self-command,
justice, strength, swiftness, a loud voice, a broad chest. Luxury and
elegance are not known. A sparse population and want make every man his
own valet, cook, butcher and soldier, and the habit of supplying his
own needs educates the body to wonderful performances. Such are the
Agamemnon and Diomed of Homer, and not far different is the picture
Xenophon gives of himself and his compatriots in the Retreat of the Ten
Thousand. "After the army had crossed the river Teleboas in Armenia,
there fell much snow, and the troops lay miserably on the ground covered
with it. But Xenophon arose naked, and taking an axe, began to split
wood; whereupon others rose and did the like." Throughout his army
exists a boundless liberty of speech. They quarrel for plunder,
they wrangle with the generals on each new order, and Xenophon is as
sharp-tongued as any and sharper-tongued than most, and so gives as good
as he gets. Who does not see that this is a gang of great boys, with
such a code of honor and such lax discipline as great boys have?

The costly charm of the ancient tragedy, and indeed of all the old
literature, is that the persons speak simply,--speak as persons who have
great good sense without knowing it, before yet the reflective habit has
become the predominant habit of the mind. Our admiration of the antique
is not admiration of the old, but of the natural. The Greeks are not
reflective, but perfect in their senses and in their health, with
the finest physical organization in the world. Adults acted with the
simplicity and grace of children. They made vases, tragedies, and
statues, such as healthy senses should,--that is, in good taste. Such
things have continued to be made in all ages, and are now, wherever
a healthy physique exists; but, as a class, from their superior
organization, they have surpassed all. They combine the energy of
manhood with the engaging unconsciousness of childhood. The attraction
of these manners is that they belong to man, and are known to every
man in virtue of his being once a child; besides that there are always
individuals who re