Chapter 14: Judgment of the Ancients

Now, is fine for us also, when we struggle over something which ought to have sublimity of address and greatness of mind, to mold in our souls how Homer would have said this same thing, if he had happened upon it, and how Plato and Demosthenes would have made it sublime, or Thucydides in history. You see, these persons, falling before our purview in our moment of emulation, and being conspicuously appropriate, will somehow carry up our souls to the standards which we have pictured for ourselves. 2. And still more, if we sketch this beforehand in our thoughts: how would Homer, if he were present, hear what I have spoken, or Demosthenes, and how would they have responded to it? You see, to undergo such a trial is, really, a great thing: to establish such a jury and theatre for our speeches and writings and to play at placing what we have written under the audit of such heroes as our judges and witnesses. 3. And a greater stimulus than these provide will come if you ask in addition: “These things which I am writing-how will the ages after me hear them?” But if one be afraid to say something which will survive past the due date of· his own life and time, it must be that the conceptions of the man’s soul are blind and, as it were, abortive-not carried to the final birth which brings later fame.