‘If a man were a good painter, he could deceive children and fools by painting a carpenter and showing it from a long way off, because it would seem really to be a carpenter.’ Plato here (Republic, 598c) is undoubtedly describing realistic painting, perhaps not so photographically realistic as the paintings in Pompeii or the painting that we know to-day, but painting which aimed at producing a likeness and rendering the appearance of the original. Such pictures can be seen on the vases of the fourth century and of the late fifth century b.c., for instance the two women on a red-figured perfume vase in the Manchester School of Art, which was painted about the time of the dramatic date of the Republic (Pl. I). But if we go back rather over a hundred years to the black-figure vase reproduced by Mr. Austin in Greece and Rome, vol. vii, we are in a completely different world of flat figures in conventional poses, and if we go further back still to the Geometric vase (Fig. I) which forms the subject of Mr. Austin's article, we are yet further from the world of ‘likeness’. These early Greek painters cannot have wanted to produce likenesses; but what was their aim ?

It is curious that one of the strongest attacks ever made on poetry and artistic inspiration was made by Plato. Plato was not only a great thinker, but also a peerless literary artist. It is therefore disconcerting to read a dialogue like the Ion, in which he first sets up, and then belabours, a ‘man of inspiration’, with all the resources of his ironic wit.

A study of the personality of Cato Censorius is both interesting and instructive because of the times in which he lived, a period which began with the Hannibalic War and included those fateful fifty years of the second century which ordered the destiny of Rome herself and indirectly of the whole world. In the shaping of that destiny Cato played a not unimportant part, and the interest of the man lies both in what he did and in his reactions to the events which confronted him. Such a study also throws light on ancient biographical methods. To the ancient mind the personal element was by far the most important for the understanding of history; the individual acquired a correspondingly higher value and importance in the interpretation of movements and events; and in a time when the State was confronted with many problems, the men who strove to deal with them in different ways assumed importance in men's minds as provoking those very problems which they were only trying to solve.

Fourth-century Athens was the scene of heated professional jealousy between the exponents of different systems of education. One of the most distinguished educational figures of the age was the rhetorician Isocrates, who in the early years of this century opened a school at Athens which attracted pupils from the most illustrious families throughout the Greek world. His father had owned a flute-factory and a moderate income had enabled him to give his son an excellent education. But during or shortly after the Peloponnesian War the family property was lost, and when in 403 the democracy was restored, Isocrates found himself compelled to put his education to some practical use. Physical disabilities, we are told, prevented his taking an active part in public life, and for some years he followed the career of a λογογράφος, one who composed speeches for his clients to deliver in the law-courts. It is a period of his life to which he makes no allusion in his works and we may assume that he was glad to abandon this profession for one better suited to his talents.