And so it befell that, when the hour of trial came, these
men gave an example of courage and self-devotion, the
memory of which will never perish. Two several times
Grecian civiUzation, which contained the germs of all sub-
sequent European culture and progress, was within a hair's
breadth of being swept away by the flood of Oriental
barbarism. On both occasions that flood was stayed by
the superhuman efforts of Grecian self-sacrifice. In the
year 490 before Christ an innumerable host of Persians
landed on Athenian soil: — Persians; who had found nothing
that could resist the terror of their name from the Indus to
the ^gean Sea. The crisis was awful. The states of
Greece stood aloof in fear and amazement. Sparta, by an
unworthy subterfuge, excused herself from coming to the
aid of Athens. But the threatened city was true to herself.
Her able-bodied sons turned out to a man, and marched
quietly forth to make appeal to the God of battles. Shop-
keepers and mechanics, artists, merchants, and farmers,
they took down their spears and shields, pocketed their
biscuit and salt fish, kissed their children, and walked
through their doors without any notion that they were
going to take part in an affair which all coming generations
would remember with gratitude and admiration. And,
when they came to the sacred Plain of Marathon, they did
not stop to count the odds ; but went at a run straight
into the midst of the twenty myriads of Modes and



162 A BOLIDAT AMONG SOME OLD FRIENDS.
