harmless illusion about Growth and Decay?” But it 
     happens not to be so harmless, because it implies 
     another doctrine. Implicit in the formula is the dogma 
     that earlier Greek artists must have been striving all the 
     while to attain a naturalism, to achieve a life-like imitation 
     that was beyond their powers. Yet, reverting to literary 
     comparison, it is not generally claimed that in dramatic 
     presentation, Aeschylus, to take an example, was 
     struggling to be as true to life as Menander; or 
     Shakespeare as true to life as Shaw. It is even 
     conceivable—rather probable—that Aeschylus would have 
     disapproved of the New Comedy, and Shakespeare of 
     Shaw.

     Seltman keeps the whole range of Greek interests in 
simultaneous play, as it were, waiting for the intrusion of a new