We have also to recognize another most powerful influence of which they were the vehicles—­closely related to the other.  The Greeks first articulately conceived and deliberately pursued the ideal of Freedom.  It was, I say, closely related to the other, for they meant by it not merely freedom from physical or political constraint but also inward freedom from prejudice and passion, and they held that knowledge and freedom rendered one another possible.  We may amend our formula and re-state their contribution as the idea and fact of civilization regarded as a process in and to Freedom under the control of Knowledge or Reason, each inspiring, guiding, and fertilizing the other.  Theory and practice thus co-operate and help one another forward; each in its advance liberates the other for a further effort.  The several faculties of the human spirit work harmoniously together in mutual respect and reciprocal alliance.  Hence arises another distinctive feature of the Greek ideal, namely, that of wholeness or all-round completeness; there is in it no one-sided insistence on this or that element in human nature, no tendency to ascetic mutilation, no fear or jealousy of what is merely human, tainted by its animal origin or its secular associations.

But we must not exaggerate.  This ideal was imperfectly defined, still more imperfectly executed or realized.  It would be absurd to suppose that it was held by all Greeks; it was indeed advocated by and for a minority only.  Those who now find in it the impulse and guide of Greek history might be hard put to it if they were obliged to produce evidence of their faith, and they would be forced to confess that there was much to be said against their interpretation.  There is to be acknowledged first the apparent want of internal unity in the Greek world, split up as it was into small and mutually hostile civic groups; and secondly, the loose coherence of each of these groups within itself (for each, we might almost say normally, was torn by intestine faction).  It is a commonplace also that Greek civilization rested upon slavery, so that barbarism was not expelled but remained as a domestic and ever-present evil.  Freedom and enlightenment was not in thought or practice designed for all men, but only for Greeks, and among them only in reality for a privileged minority.  The notion of a civilized world or even a civilized Greece was, if present at all, present only in feeling or imagination, not in clear vision or distinct thought, still less as an ideal of practical politics.  On the other hand the ideal so narrowly conceived was not in principle confined to a ‘chosen people’, or to one strain of blood.  It supplied a programme extensible to all who could show their title to be regarded as members of the common race of humanity.  As the special features of Greek civilization faded, the lineaments of this common humanity emerged more clearly into view, and the Greek, when he was compelled to give up his parochialism and provincialism, found himself already in spirit prepared to take his place as a citizen of the world.  He had learned his lesson, and to him the whole world went to school, first to learn of him what civilization meant and then to better his instructions.