The first period in every nation has been that called the heroic or
golden age. Whether this was, in reality, or only in poetic dream, the
best age, depends upon another question: What is the true aim in the
life of men and nations? If it be but to live comfortably and without
confusion, then the architecture and laws of later times are a proof of
progress; but if the great end be to develop the whole man, and live a
brave, thoughtful, truthful life, with or without tumult, then is the
first the golden age; for, entering on a new mode of life, undirected by
habits of thought or action from his ancestors, each man makes use of
his personal thought in finding out, and volition in choosing, his
method of life. No history has recorded the internal state of such a
nation, but only the fact that it has always been successful in
preserving its liberties against invasion.
The next is the age of leaders, when individual thought has so far
departed that they begin to look to others not yet as governors, but
directors. This, to a superficial view the noblest age, marks the
beginning of a decline. Its great power of invasion, as under Pericles
or Caesar, comes from the fact that, while strength enough is left to
carry out the details, there is not enough of independence in thought to
mar the unity in the plan of its leader.
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