Third Course: Constitutions and Orators of Greece. Fourth Course: Modern Greece

"Third Course: Constitutions And Orators Of Greece. Fourth Course: Modern Greece" by Cornelius Conway Felton. This scholarly synthesis surveys how Greek city-states built their own constitutions rather than a single national system, emphasizing Greece as the cradle of political liberty, law, and civic eloquence, in contrast to Oriental despotism. It traces politics across ancient Greece with focus on prominent poleis such as Athens and Sparta, the polis-based political culture, and the interplay of public debate, assemblies, and rhetoric. The volume surveys the Spartan Lycurgan framework and the Athenian institutions—Areopagus, Ecclesia, Boule, Heliaia—as well as the evolving balance between liberty and order, and tensions surrounding slavery. Key figures include Draco, Solon, Peisistratus, Cleisthenes, and later orators such as Demosthenes, Lysias, and Isaeus, with philosophical perspectives from Socrates and Plato. The work extends into the Macedonian crisis, the rise of democratic tendencies, and the later Roman and modern Greek influences, including the 1844 constitution and the Greek revival. It weaves in local and travelogue passages that illuminate the transition from heroic polities to modern constitutional life.