Men not desiring these things were barbarous, no
matter how noble, how rich, and how honest. The ancient and highly
conservative Egyptians were barbarous; the youthful and new-
fangled Gauls were barbarous. An Egyptian in nothing else
resembled a Gaul, but both in the eyes of the Greek were
barbarians.
Evolution and devolution have intervened. The Gaul has become one
of the standards of civilization; the Egyptian has died of his
conservatism; but the problem of the barbarian remains the same.
There are neo-Gauls to-day and neo-Egyptians.
These gentry do not belong to the welter of vulgar barbarism, the
curse of a half educated, half democratized age. They are found
among the upper classes of the intellect, and can rightly be
called by such names as conservative or radical, which show that
they are part of the minority that thinks. Indeed, they are not
barbarous at all in the harsh modern sense of the word; yet the
Greeks would have condemned them.
The barbarism of the neo-Gaul is unrestraint ("punch" is the
nearest modern equivalent). The neo-Gaul is an innovator and this
is his vice. It is a byproduct of originality and a symptom of a
restless desire for change.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215