154
Comfort in a life of peril.—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.
155
Extinct scepticism.—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.
156
Evil through wantonness.—"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?
157
Worship of the natural sounds.—Whither does it point that our culture not only bears with indulgence the
