Greek Art.
Again attention is to be focused on the fact that the Greeks were leaders and masters in art. And the surpassing wonder is that when the rest of the world had been satisfied with winged bulls and sphinxes and grotesquely conventional forms of men these people arrived in a century or two at a perfection which is the delight and the despair of the world. Their supremacy in carving the human figure in marble needs to be connected with their devoted attention to the development of the living form by athletic exercise. In our larger schools will be found casts, perhaps, at any rate, pictures, of the best pieces of Greek art. Their restraint, their simplicity may be dwelt on. In the country where the one lone teacher, not an expert, either in history or art, has not even a “pallid bust of Pallas,” he or she can at least make use of the illustrations in the text-book. Above all, let us try not to let this period be one of dull memorizing of names. It needs interpreting to the young folks so that they may see the wonder of it all, and the controlling influence it has exercised on the ages since.