“On the opposite sides of the atrium,” continued Gannon, “with their faces towards each other, are two wonderful busts of Plato and Socrates. So lifelike are they that they seem to speak.”
“They are well placed, my son. Plato looks to Socrates for intellectual light; Socrates looks to Plato to transmit that light to souls that sit in darkness.”
“Verily, my father, ’tis strange what influence the Greeks have over the Romans.”
“Ah! Forget not, my son,” said Alcmaeon, “that beauty, art, and understanding still rule the world. Rome has conquered Greece by military force; but Greece has conquered the world by that higher celestial force, intellect. Greece has had her day of wealth and power; but her genius, her art, her architecture, her statues, her poetry, and her philosophy are living influences, before whose vitality the Roman legions are impotent.”
“True, my father. Yet before the Roman legions the world trembles,” said Gannon.
“The world trembles from fear, not from the thrill of Roman intellectual power,” earnestly asserted Alcmaeon. “Rome rules the body; Greece, the mind. Rome creates worldly dominions; Greece, heavenly kingdoms. Rome stands for war; Greece stands for peace.”
“The Greeks were brave, O my father. Are they not still brave?” interjected Gannon.
Without replying directly to the eager question of his son, Alcmaeon resumed: “Prometheus brought fire to mortals and was punished; Greece brought reasoning and was punished. But Prometheus is now free; Greece still feeds from her vitals the hunger of the Roman eagle, greedy for gold. Where is the Hercules that will set her free?”
“Is Greek heroism, then, dead?” asked Gannon. “Will no Leonidas, no Themistocles, no Alexander, ever arise again?”
“Nations, like homes, buildings, armies, cities, and individuals, have their genii, my son,” replied Alcmaeon. “Who, therefore, knows the caprices of Fate?”