Even Caesar had some apprehensions and fears, for he had never previously known Calpurnia a victim to feminine superstitions, and he now saw her greatly agitated: so that when the priests had repeatedly sacrificed and reported the omens as unfavourable, he decided to send Antony to dismiss the senate.

On this Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, in whom Caesar had such confidence as to have made him his second heir, but who was in the conspiracy with the other Brutus and Cassius, afraid that a day's delay might result in the truth becoming known, laughed at the seers and warned Caesar that he was exposing himself to criticism and to a charge of treating the senate in cavalier fashion. They had met by his instructions and were ready to vote unanimously that he should be declared king of all the provinces outside Italy and be allowed to wear a crown anywhere but in Italy. If he told them to adjourn their sitting for the present and meet again when Calpurnia had better dreams, what would his detractors say, and who would listen to his friends, when they argued that his behaviour was not arbitrary and tyrannical? If he was determined to declare it a non-dies, it would be better for him to appear in person and to adjourn the senate after addressing it. With these words Brutus took Caesar's arm and led him out. He had only gone a short way from his house when a strange slave tried to get word with him. Prevented by the thronging crowd round Caesar, he forced his way into the house and put himself in Calpurnia's hands, begging her to keep him till Caesar returned, for he had an important message to him.

Artemidorus of Cnidus, a Greek professor, whose occupation had made him intimate with some of Brutus's circle, so that he knew most of what was going on, came with the information he intended to give in writing. He saw that Caesar took any petitions and handed them to his attendants, so coming very near, he said: 'Read this, Caesar, alone and at once, for it deals with a matter of serious importance to you.' Caesar took

the paper and tried several times to read it, but was prevented by the crowds that pressed to speak to him. He kept it in his hand and it was the only paper he had when he entered the senate.

All these things might happen accidentally. But we see the guiding and ordaining finger of God in the place in which the senate met that day and in which the struggle and the murder took place. It was one of the buildings which Pompey had raised and dedicated along with his theatre, and a statue of Pompey stood there. They say that Cassius before the act turned his eyes to this statue and silently invoked it; he was inclined to the doctrines of Epicurus,1 but the hour and the imminence of danger inspired him with emotions that made him forget his theories. Antony who was a powerful man and loyal to Caesar was kept out of the way by Brutus Albinus, who purposely arranged a long interview with him. When Caesar entered, the senate rose out of respect for him. Some of Brutus's confederates took up their position behind his chair; others went towards him as though to support Tillius Cimber's petition on behalf of his exiled brother, and followed Tillius to Caesar's seat. Caesar sat down and waved their petitions away. They became more vehement in their requests and he showed annoyance, till Tillius seized his robe with both hands and began to pull it off his neck. This was the signal for the attack.

Casca gave him the first blow, striking him in the neck. He was naturally nervous at the opening of their great venture, and the wound was a slight one and not mortal. Caesar turned, and seizing the dagger held it, at the same time crying out in Latin, Miserable Casca, what are you doing?' while his murderer shouted in Greek, 'Brother, help.' So the murder began. Those who were not in the conspiracy were too horrified and panic-stricken at what they saw either to run away or to help, and did not even venture to cry out. The conspirators

'An anti-theological materialism.

all drew their naked daggers and Caesar found himself surrounded. Wherever he turned, he met blows, saw steel levelled at his face and eyes, and found himself driven like a wild beast and penned in by all their hands. It had been agreed that each of them should draw blood and flesh their swords, and that is why Brutus dealt him a single blow, striking him in the groin. Some say that he fought the others, twisting this way and that and shouting, but that when he saw the sword of Brutus drawn, he pulled his robe over his face and threw himself down by the base of Pompey's statue-either by accident or because his murderers pushed him there. It was drenched with his blood, and men thought that Pompey presided in vengeance over the death of his enemy, who lay at his feet and gasped his life out from a multitude of wounds. He is said to have received twenty-three: and many of his murderers wounded each other as they rained their blows on his body.

XV

SCIENCE: HIPPOCRATES, ARISTOTLE,

THEOPHRASTUS

Most people, when they think of the Greek genius, naturally call to mind its masterpieces in literature and art. . . . But the Greek, with his insatiable desire to know the true meaning of everything in the universe and to be able to give a rational explanation of it, was just as irresistibly driven to natural science, mathematics, and logic.-SIR T. L. HEATH.

GREEK scientific works are on different footing from Greek literature and philosophy? The latter are living and instructive to-day time has antiquated the former, as it antiquates the science of every age, and we should only read them for their historical interest, or because, however wrong in detail, they are in some sort preserved from corruption by the still indwelling genius that created them. For this reason the following chapter treats a great topic very briefly. I have kept it to the end, so that the subject could be seen as a whole. But what is isolated in this chapter was not isolated in life. Science rose in the seventh century B. C. and thenceforward ran an unbroken course, continually influencing Greek thought. Unlike our own science, it went in the company of philosophy, and flowed from the same

source.

I have called Greece the sole creator of that spirit of free inquiry and scientific thought which in religion, morals, politics, and physical science makes the civilization of the West what it is. That seems a big claim. It does not of course mean that the achievements of modern science were anticipated by the Greeks; obviously such an idea is absurd. But achievements in science and philosophy are made possible mainly by a certain attitude to life, a certain way of looking at the world. This way is first found in Greece. There is no trace of it elsewhere in Europe, and if the Greeks had never existed, there is no sign that the West would have evolved either philosophy or science. So much would be universally admitted. Obviously there is nothing in our intellectual life (I am not speaking of religion) which does not ultimately spring from seeds sown in Greece. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors contribute nothing,

and Rome learnt her philosophy as she learnt her poetry, from Greek models.

And not Europe only, but the whole world, is passing under the dominion of the Greek spirit. The nineteenth century began the transformation, still incomplete, of India, Japan, China, Egypt, Turkey, by European influences, as two centuries before the civilization of America had been transformed. Those countries have learnt or are learning from us a particular way of looking at life and the world. That way is Greek. Important as are the philosophies of India and China, they are imaginative rather than scientific in spirit, the independent scientific achievement of those countries is small, and it is not Eastern thought that is mastering the West but Western thought that is mastering the East. The germ of that thought was sown in Mitylene about 600 B. C.; it seeded itself in all departments of life and covered the Greek and Roman world. It fell with the fall of the Roman Empire, into whose framework it had grown, and civilization for a thousand years fell back from the heights which it had attained. It was not till Greek literature had been re-discovered that the Renaissance came and the modern world began. At that time the kingdoms of the East were more advanced and more powerful than those of the West. But from that day the West slowly began to overtake them, and to-day the East turns to Europe, and imports not merely European manufactures but European thought. At the origin of this thought we will now look. It begins in science and mathematics, and this chapter, which covers some eight centuries, is confined to their origin and development.

To appreciate what the Greeks did, imagine yourself in the atmosphere in which a Greek boy grew up in the seventh century B. C., that is, without any of the scientific knowledge which we automatically acquire, because those about us possess it. What would you suppose to be the shape and size of the earth? How would you map it? What would you think of the lights that burn, far out of reach, by day or by night, in the sky above, and how would you explain their motions, disappearances or eclipses? Of what are they and the earth composed? How would you class the millions of living things that inhabit the earth? If you or your neighbours were ill, how would you treat them? Some of these questions would never suggest themselves, and it would be a colossal task to answer any of them; the more difficult because we should not start with an open mind. Tradi