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Gallegos Directory 03
Page 04
The more one examines into life and the motives of it, the more does one perceive that the imagination, concerning itself with hopes of escape from any conditions which hamper and confine us, is the dynamic force that is transmuting the world. The child is for ever planning what it will do when it is older, and dreams of an irresponsible choice of food and an unrestrained use of money; the girl schemes to escape from the constraints of home by independence or marriage; the professional man plans to make a fortune and retire; the mother dreams ambitious dreams for her children; the politician craves for power; the writer hopes to gain the ear of the world--these are only a few casual instances of the desire that is always at work within us, projecting us into a larger and freer future out of the limited and restricted present. That is the real current of the world, and though there are sedate people who are contented with life as they see it, yet in most minds there is a fluttering of little tremulous hopes forecasting ease and freedom; and there are also many tired and dispirited people who are not content with life as they have it, but acquiesce in its dreariness; yet all who have any part in the world's development are full of schemes for themselves and others by which the clogging and detaining elements are somehow to be improved away. Sensitive people want to find life more harmonious and beautiful, healthy people desire a more continuous sort of holiday than they can attain, religious people long for a secret ecstasy of peace; there is, in fact, a constant desire at work to realise perfection.
The Achaean exiles, whose numbers were now reduced from 1000 to 300, landed in Greece (B.C. 151) with feelings exasperated by their long confinement, and ready to indulge in any rash enterprise against Rome. Polybius, who had returned with the other exiles, in vain exhorted them to peace and unanimity, and to avoid a hopeless struggle with the Roman power. Shortly afterward an adventurer laid claim to the throne of Macedonia (B.C. 149). He was a man of low origin called Andriscus, but he pretended to be the son of Perseus, and assumed the name of Philippus. At first he met with some success, and defeated the Roman Praetor Juventius, but, after reigning scarcely a year, he was conquered and taken prisoner by Q. Metellus.
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