Pagina 537 di 1391

They had no Themistocles, or Pericles, or Aeschylus, or

Sophocles, or Socrates, or Plato. The individual was not allowed

to appear above the state; the laws were fixed, and he had no

business to alter or reform them. Yet whence has the progress of

cities and nations arisen, if not from remarkable individuals,

coming into the world we know not how, and from causes over which

we have no control? Something too much may have been said in

modern times of the value of individuality. But we can hardly

condemn too strongly a system which, instead of fostering the

scattered seeds or sparks of genius and character, tends to

smother and extinguish them.