A Digression.
The difference between a good history teacher and a poor one lies largely in the skill and purpose of the former in making his work vivid. Vividness is best secured by a comparison of these ancient conditions with our own. And it is a scholastic crime that a child should be allowed to run away with such a notion as this: that at Salamis the “Greek forts on the shore bombarded the Persian fleet and saved the day”; or that “the Persians steamed away in despair.” These are real examples. Such a child needs waking up. Ask him if he knows what a “Marathon runner” is, and show that by means of such runners the place of the telegraph in our modern life was taken. Pictures may be made of great service. Teachers in our great centers, who have their own history rooms, with their proper apparatus and adornments, have a great advantage here; but humbler means, like the Perry pictures, are available by all.
Carthage and the Greeks.
A topic often neglected is the Carthaginian invasion of Sicily. That was part of an age-long struggle between a great commercial empire and the peoples of different races whose main idea was not commercial supremacy. Punic trader and Spartan soldier have left small mark in the temple of fame. Yet not long ago I heard one of our modern iconoclastic historians sharply question whether it might not have been better for the world in the end if Carthage had beaten both Greek and Roman.
The Athenian Empire.
Doubtless trade plays a larger part in political development than many people think. And desire for trade and wealth was a great motive in the upbuilding of the Athenian empire out of the Delian League. It is a shady chapter, like many another island annexation. Similarly it may be said that our spoiling the Dutch of New Netherland was questionable. Yet but for that we might have had no United States. Politically speaking, out of evil good has come. It was the half-pirated wealth of Venice that led to her artistic glory. So the wealth and the political pre-eminence that Athens gained out of the Delian League gave her genius means and scope for its perfect flowering in the age of Pericles. And that will bring us to our next chapter.
English History in the Secondary School
C. B. NEWTON, Editor.