{29} Plato’s _Laws_; Æschylus’ _Prometheus Bound_.
{31} Somewhat in the same spirit Plato, in his _Laws_, appeals to the
local position of Ilion among the rivers of the plain, as a proof that it
was not built till long after the Deluge.
{32} Plutarch remarks that the _only_ evidence Greece possesses of the
truth that the legendary power of Athens is no ‘romance or idle story,’
is the public and sacred buildings. This is an instance of the
exaggerated importance given to ruins against which Thucydides is warning
us.
{37} The fictitious sale in the Roman marriage _per coemptionem_ was
originally, of course, a real sale.
{43} Notably, of course, in the case of heat and its laws.
{57} Cousin errs a good deal in this respect. To say, as he did, ‘Give
me the latitude and the longitude of a country, its rivers and its
mountains, and I will deduce the race,’ is surely a glaring exaggeration.
{59} The monarchical, aristocratical, and democratic elements of the
Roman constitution are referred to.
{63a} Polybius, vi. 9. _αὔτη πολιτειῶν ἀνακύκλωσις_, _αὔτς φύσεως
οἰκονομία_.
{63b} _χωρὶς ὀργῆς ἢ φθόνου ποιούμεηος τὴν ἀπόφασιν_.
{63c} The various stages are _σύστασις_, _αὔξησις_, _ἀκμή_, _μεταβολὴ
ἐις τοὔμπαλιν_.
{68} Polybius, xii. 24.
{69a} Polybius, i. 4, viii. 4, specially; and really _passim_.
{69b} He makes one exception.
{69c} Polybius, viii. 4.
{71} Polybius, xvi. 12.
{72a} Polybius, viii. 4: _τὸ παραδοξάτον καθ’ ἡμᾶς ἔργον ἡ τύχη
συνετέλεσε_; _τοῦτο δ’ ἔστι τὸ πάντα τὰ γνωριζόμενα μέρη τῆς οἰκουμένης
ὑπὸ μίαν ἀρχὴν καὶ δυναστείαν ἀγαγεῖν_, _ὂ πρότερον οὐχ εὑρίσκεται
γεγονός_.
{72b} Polybius resembled Gibbon in many respects. Like him he held that
all religions were to the philosopher equally false, to the vulgar
equally true, to the statesman equally useful.
{76} Cf. Polybius, xii. 25, _ἐπεὶ ψιλῶς λεγόμενον αὐτὄ γεγονὸς ψυχαγωγεῖ
μέν_, _ὠφελεῖ δ’ οὐδέν_· _προστεθείσης δὲ τῆς αἰτίας ἔγκαρπος ἡ τῆς
ἱστορίας γίγνεται χρῆσις_.
{78} Polybius, xxii. 8.
{81} I mean particularly as regards his sweeping denunciation of the
complete moral decadence of Greek society during the Peloponnesain War,
which, from what remains to us of Athenian literature, we know must have
been completely exaggerated. Or, rather, he is looking at men merely in
their political dealings: and in politics the man who is personally
honourable and refined will not scruple to do anything for his party.
{86} Polybius, xii. 25.
{124} As an instance of the inaccuracy of published reports of this
lecture, it may be mentioned that all unauthorised versions give this
passage as _The artist may trace the depressed revolution of Bunthorne
simply to the lack of technical means_!
{206} _The Two Paths_, Lect. iii. p. 123 (1859 ed.).