酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Essays and Lectures-Part6_OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
consequently from the canons of criticism.



The Roman state had attained in his eyes, by means of the mutual

counteraction of three opposing forces, (7) that stable equilibrium



in politics which was the ideal of all the theoretical writers of

antiquity. And in connection with this point it will be convenient



to notice here how much truth there is contained in the accusation

often brought against the ancients that they knew nothing of the



idea of Progress, for the meaning of many of their speculations

will be hidden from us if we do not try and comprehend first what



their aim was, and secondly why it was so.

Now, like all wide generalities, this statement is at least



inaccurate. The prayer of Plato's ideal City - [Greek text which

cannot be reproduced], might be written as a text over the door of



the last Temple to Humanity raised by the disciples of Fourier and

Saint-Simon, but it is certainly true that their ideal principle



was order and permanence, not indefinite progress. For, setting

aside the artistic prejudices which would have led the Greeks to



reject this idea of unlimitedimprovement, we may note that the

modern conception of progress rests partly on the new enthusiasm



and worship of humanity, partly on the splendid hopes of material

improvements in civilisation which applied science has held out to



us, two influences from which ancient Greek thought seems to have

been strangely free. For the Greeks marred the perfect humanism of



the great men whom they worshipped, by imputing to them divinity

and its supernatural powers; while their science was eminently



speculative and often almost mystic in its character, aiming at

culture and not utility, at higher spirituality and more intense



reverence for law, rather than at the increased facilities of

locomotion and the cheap production of common things about which



our modern scientific school ceases not to boast. And lastly, and

perhaps chiefly, we must remember that the 'plague spot of all



Greek states,' as one of their own writers has called it, was the

terrible insecurity to life and property which resulted from the



factions and revolutions which ceased not to trouble Greece at all

times, raising a spirit of fanaticism such as religion raised in



the middle ages of Europe.

These considerations, then, will enable us to understand first how



it was that, radical and unscrupulous reformers as the Greek

political theorists were, yet, their end once attained, no modern



conservatives raised such outcry against the slightest innovation.

Even acknowledged improvements in such things as the games of



children or the modes of music were regarded by them with feelings

of extremeapprehension as the herald of the DRAPEAU ROUGE of



reform. And secondly, it will show us how it was that Polybius

found his ideal in the commonwealth of Rome, and Aristotle, like



Mr. Bright, in the middle classes. Polybius, however, is not

content merely with pointing out his ideal state, but enters at



considerable length into the question of those general laws whose

consideration forms the chief essential of the philosophy of



history.

He starts by accepting the general principle that all things are



fated to decay (which I noticed in the case of Plato), and that 'as

iron produces rust and as wood breeds the animals that destroy it,



so every state has in it the seeds of its own corruption.' He is

not, however, content to rest there, but proceeds to deal with the



more immediate causes of revolutions, which he says are twofold in

nature, either external or internal. Now, the former, depending as



they do on the synchronous conjunction of other events outside the




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号