PREFACE
MY DEAR CHILDREN,
Some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you, as
you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those of you who are
boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek books;
and the girls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure to come
across a great many stories taken from Greek history, and to see, I may
say every day, things which we should not have had if it had not been for
these old Greeks. You can hardly find a well-written book which has
not in it Greek names, and words, and proverbs; you cannot walk
through a great town without passing Greek buildings; you cannot go
into a well-furnished room without seeing Greek statues and ornaments,
even Greek patterns of furniture and paper; so strangely have these old
Greeks left their mark behind them upon this modern world in which we
now live. And as you grow up, and read more and more, you will
find that we owe to these old Greeks the beginners of all our
mathematics and geometry - that is, the science and knowledge of
numbers, and of the shapes of things, and of the forces which make
things move and stand at rest; and the beginnings of our geography and
astronomy; and of our laws, and freedom, and politics - that is, the
science of how to rule a country, and make it peaceful and strong. And
we owe to them, too, the beginning of our logic - that is, the study of
words and of reasoning; and of our metaphysics - that is, the study of
our own thoughts and souls. And last of all, they made their language
so beautiful that foreigners used to take to it instead of their own; and at
last Greek became the common language of educated people all over the
old world, from Persia and Egypt even to Spain and Britain.