The Heroes | Page 2

one
great Hellen race, who lived in what we now call Greece, in the islands
of the Archipelago, and along the coast of Asia Minor (Ionia, as they
call it), from the Hellespont to Rhodes, and had afterwards colonies and
cities in Sicily, and South Italy (which was called Great Greece), and
along the shores of the Black Sea at Sinope, and Kertch, and at
Sevastopol. And after that, again, they spread under Alexander the
Great, and conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Persia, and the whole East.
But that was many hundred years after my stories; for then there were
no Greeks on the Black Sea shores, nor in Sicily, or Italy, or anywhere
but in Greece and in Ionia. And if you are puzzled by the names of
places in this book, you must take the maps and find them out. It will
be a pleasanter way of learning geography than out of a dull

lesson-book.
Now, I love these old Hellens heartily; and I should be very ungrateful
to them if I did not, considering all that they have taught me; and they
seem to me like brothers, though they have all been dead and gone
many hundred years ago. So as you must learn about them, whether
you choose or not, I wish to be the first to introduce you to them, and to
say, 'Come hither, children, at this blessed Christmas time, when all
God's creatures should rejoice together, and bless Him who redeemed
them all. Come and see old friends of mine, whom I knew long ere you
were born. They are come to visit us at Christmas, out of the world
where all live to God; and to tell you some of their old fairy tales,
which they loved when they were young like you.'
For nations begin at first by being children like you, though they are
made up of grown men. They are children at first like you--men and
women with children's hearts; frank, and affectionate, and full of trust,
and teachable, and loving to see and learn all the wonders round them;
and greedy also, too often, and passionate and silly, as children are.
Thus these old Greeks were teachable, and learnt from all the nations
round. From the Phoenicians they learnt shipbuilding, and some say
letters beside; and from the Assyrians they learnt painting, and carving,
and building in wood and stone; and from the Egyptians they learnt
astronomy, and many things which you would not understand. In this
they were like our own forefathers the Northmen, of whom you love to
hear, who, though they were wild and rough themselves, were humble,
and glad to learn from every one. Therefore God rewarded these
Greeks, as He rewarded our forefathers, and made them wiser than the
people who taught them in everything they learnt; for He loves to see
men and children open- hearted, and willing to be taught; and to him
who uses what he has got, He gives more and more day by day. So
these Greeks grew wise and powerful, and wrote poems which will live
till the world's end, which you must read for yourselves some day, in
English at least, if not in Greek. And they learnt to carve statues, and
build temples, which are still among the wonders of the world; and
many another wondrous thing God taught them, for which we are the
wiser this day.
For you must not fancy, children, that because these old Greeks were
heathens, therefore God did not care for them, and taught them nothing.

The Bible tells us that it was not so, but that God's mercy is over all His
works, and that He understands the hearts of all people, and fashions all
their works. And St. Paul told these old Greeks in after times, when
they had grown wicked and fallen low, that they ought to have known
better, because they were God's offspring, as their own poets had said;
and that the good God had put them where they were, to seek the Lord,
and feel after Him, and find Him, though He was not far from any one
of them. And Clement of Alexandria, a great Father of the Church, who
was as wise as he was good, said that God had sent down Philosophy to
the Greeks from heaven, as He sent down the Gospel to the Jews.
For Jesus Christ, remember, is the Light who lights every man who
comes into the world. And no one can think a right thought, or feel a
right feeling, or understand the real truth of anything in earth and
heaven, unless the good Lord Jesus teaches him by His Spirit, which
gives man understanding.
But these Greeks, as St. Paul told them, forgot what God had