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106 THE LYSISTRATA
the glory and grand achievement of the
Western world. 1
Our enthusiasm for that Athenian spirit,
which respected art and gave free rein to
criticism even at the most desperate moment
of the city's history, has carried us a little,
but only a little, away from the matter
in hand the political ideas of the Lysistrata.
Political wisdom, like human folly, seems
to obey a law known to men of science as
" the Conservation of Energy "
quantity and
quality are permanent, form alone changes.
It is the Aristophanic method that differs so
greatly from that of most modern satirists.
For Aristophanes does not confine himself to
driving the blade of his wit into the rotten
he does not score intel-
parts of a bad case ;
lectual points only. His method is more
fundamental. A clever controversialist can
always find joints in the harness of his
foe. When Mr. Shaw meets Mr. Belloc in
public controversy it is hard to say which
makes the greater number of hits. Even
harder is it to say that the cause of truth has
been much advanced. One may hold, fairly
enough, that both sides have been made
1 Of course this panegyric needs qualification. What
panegyric does not ? The Athenians condemned Socrates.
Yes . . . yes. But, as a statement of the general belief
and, what is more, the practice of Athens, these rather excited
paragraphs may stand.