The Ionians, on the contrary, were susceptible, flexile, and more characterized by the generosity of modern knighthood than the sternness of ancient heroism.

Them, not the past, but the future, charmed.

Ever eager to advance, they were impatient even of the good, from desire of the better.

Once urged to democracy-- democracy fixed their character, as oligarchy fixed the Spartan.

For, to change is the ambition of a democracy--to conserve of an oligarchy.
The taste, love, and intuition of the beautiful stamped the Greeks above all nations, and the Ionians above all the Greeks.