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diff --git a/22259-0.txt b/22259-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d99f15 --- /dev/null +++ b/22259-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14320 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Legacy of Greece, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Legacy of Greece + Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. + L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. + Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir + Reginald Blomfield + +Author: Various + +Editor: R.W. Livingstone + +Release Date: August 6, 2007 [EBook #22259] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEGACY OF GREECE *** + + + + +Produced by L.N. Yaddanapudi and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +The Legacy of GREECE + +_Essays by_ GILBERT MURRAY, W. R. INGE, +J. BURNET, SIR T. L. HEATH, D'ARCY W. +THOMPSON, CHARLES SINGER, R. W. +LIVINGSTON, A. TOYNBEE, A. E. ZIMMERN, +PERCY GARDNER, SIR REGINALD BLOMFIELD + +_Edited by_ + +R. W. LIVINGSTONE + +[Illustration] + +OXFORD + +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + + +PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE +UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD +BY JOHN JOHNSON +PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + + + +In spite of many differences, no age has had closer affinities with +Ancient Greece than our own; none has based its deeper life so largely +on ideals which the Greeks brought into the world. History does not +repeat itself. Yet, if the twentieth century searched through the past +for its nearest spiritual kin, it is in the fifth and following +centuries before Christ that they would be found. Again and again, as we +study Greek thought and literature, behind the veil woven by time and +distance, the face that meets us is our own, younger, with fewer lines +and wrinkles on its features and with more definite and deliberate +purpose in its eyes. For these reasons we are to-day in a position, as +no other age has been, to understand Ancient Greece, to learn the +lessons it teaches, and, in studying the ideals and fortunes of men with +whom we have so much in common, to gain a fuller power of understanding +and estimating our own. This book--the first of its kind in +English--aims at giving some idea of what the world owes to Greece in +various realms of the spirit and the intellect, and of what it can still +learn from her. + +THE EDITOR. + +_October 1921._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +THE VALUE OF GREECE TO THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. +By GILBERT MURRAY, F.B.A., Regius Professor of Greek in +the University of Oxford 1 + +RELIGION. By W. R. INGE, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's 25 + +PHILOSOPHY. By J. BURNETT, F.B.A., Professor of Greek in the +University of St. Andrews 57 + +MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. +By Sir T. L. HEATH, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., F.R.S. 97 + +NATURAL SCIENCE. By D'ARCY W. THOMPSON, F.R.S., +Professor of Natural History in the University of St. Andrews 137 + +BIOLOGY. By CHARLES SINGER, Lecturer in the History of Medicine +in University College, London 163 + +MEDICINE. By CHARLES SINGER 201 + +LITERATURE. By R. W. LIVINGSTONE, Fellow of Corpus Christi +College, Oxford 249 + +HISTORY. By ARNOLD TOYNBEE, Koraés Professor of Byzantine and +Modern Greek Language, Literature, and History in the +University of London 289 + +POLITICAL THOUGHT. By A. E. ZIMMERN, late Wilson Professor of +International Politics, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth 321 + +THE LAMPS OF GREEK ART. By PERCY GARDNER, F.B.A., Merton +Professor of Classical Archaeology in the University of Oxford 353 + +ARCHITECTURE. By Sir REGINALD BLOMFIELD, F.S.A., R.A. 397 + + + + +THE VALUE OF GREECE TO THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD + + +If the value of man's life on earth is to be measured in dollars and +miles and horse-power, ancient Greece must count as a poverty-stricken +and a minute territory; its engines and implements were nearer to the +spear and bow of the savage than to our own telegraph and aeroplane. +Even if we neglect merely material things and take as our standard the +actual achievements of the race in conduct and in knowledge, the average +clerk who goes to town daily, idly glancing at his morning newspaper, is +probably a better behaved and infinitely better informed person than the +average Athenian who sat spellbound at the tragedies of Aeschylus. It is +only by the standard of the spirit, to which the thing achieved is +little and the quality of mind that achieved it much, which cares less +for the sum of knowledge attained than for the love of knowledge, less +for much good policing than for one free act of heroism, that the great +age of Greece can be judged as something extraordinary and unique in +value. + +By this standard, if it is a legitimate and reasonable one to apply, we +shall be able to understand why classical Greek literature was the basis +of education throughout all later antiquity; why its re-discovery, +however fragmentary and however imperfectly understood, was able to +intoxicate the keenest minds of Europe and constitute a kind of +spiritual 'Re-birth', and how its further and further exploration may be +still a task worth men's spending their lives upon and capable of giving +mankind guidance as well as inspiration. + +But is such a standard legitimate and reasonable? We shall gain nothing +by unanalysed phrases. But I think surely it is merely the natural +standard of any philosophical historian. Suppose it is argued that an +average optician at the present day knows more optics than Roger Bacon, +the inventor of spectacles; suppose it is argued that therefore he is, +as far as optics go, a greater man, and that Roger Bacon has nothing to +teach us; what is the answer? It is, I suppose, that Roger Bacon, +receiving a certain amount of knowledge from his teachers, had that in +him which turned it to unsuspected directions and made it immensely +greater and more fruitful. The average optician has probably added a +little to what he was taught, but not much, and has doubtless forgotten +or confused a good deal. So that, if by studying Roger Bacon's life or +his books we could get into touch with his mind and acquire some of that +special moving and inspiring quality of his, it would help us far more +than would the mere knowledge of the optician. + +This truth is no doubt hard to see in the case of purely technical +science; in books of wider range, such as Darwin's for instance, it is +easy for any reader to feel the presence of a really great mind, +producing inspiration of a different sort from that of the most +excellent up-to-date examination text-book. In philosophy, religion, +poetry, and the highest kinds of art, the greatness of the author's mind +seems as a rule to be all that matters; one almost ignores the date at +which he worked. This is because in technical sciences the element of +mere fact, or mere knowledge, is so enormous, the elements of +imagination, character, and the like so very small. Hence, books on +science, in a progressive age, very quickly become 'out of date', and +each new edition usually supersedes the last. It is the rarest thing for +a work of science to survive as a text-book more than ten years or so. +Newton's _Principia_ is almost an isolated instance among modern +writings. + +Yet there are some few such books. Up till about the year 1900 the +elements of geometry were regularly taught, throughout Europe, in a +text-book written by a Greek called Eucleides in the fourth or third +century B. C.[1] That text-book lasted over two thousand years. Now, of +course, people have discovered a number of faults in Euclid, but it has +taken them all that time to do it. + + [1] Since this paper was first written _Euclid_, Book I, in the + Greek, has been edited with a commentary by Sir Thomas Heath + (Cambridge Press, 1920). It is full of interest and instruction. + +Again, I knew an old gentleman who told me that, at a good English +school in the early nineteenth century, he had been taught the +principles of grammar out of a writer called Dionysius Thrax, or Denis +of Thrace. Denis was a Greek of the first century B. C., who made or +carried out the remarkable discovery that there was such a thing as a +science of grammar, i. e. that men in their daily speech were +unconsciously obeying an extraordinarily subtle and intricate body of +laws, which were capable of being studied and reduced to order. Denis +did not make the whole discovery himself; he was led to it by his master +Aristarchus and others. And his book had been re-edited several times in +the nineteen-hundred odd years before this old gentleman was taught it. + +To take a third case: all through later antiquity and the middle ages +the science of medicine was based on the writings of two ancient +doctors, Hippocrates and Galen. Galen was a Greek who lived at Rome in +the early Empire, Hippocrates a Greek who lived at the island of Cos in +the fifth century B. C. A great part of the history of modern medicine +is a story of emancipation from the dead hand of these great ancients. +But one little treatise attributed to Hippocrates was in active use in +the training of medical students in my own day in Scotland and is still +in use in some American Universities. It was the Oath taken by medical +students in the classic age of Greece when they solemnly faced the +duties of their profession. The disciple swore to honour and obey his +teacher and care for his children if ever they were in need; always to +help his patients to the best of his power; never to use or profess to +use magic or charms or any supernatural means; never to supply poison or +perform illegal operations; never to abuse the special position of +intimacy which a doctor naturally obtains in a sick house, but always on +entering to remember that he goes as a friend and helper to every +individual in it. + +We have given up that oath now: I suppose we do not believe so much in +the value of oaths. But the man who first drew up that oath did a great +deed. He realized and defined the meaning of his high calling in words +which doctors of unknown tongues and undiscovered countries accepted +from him and felt to express their aims for well over two thousand +years. + +Now what do I want to illustrate by these three instances? The rapidity +with which we are now at last throwing off the last vestiges of the yoke +of Greece? No, not that. I want to point out that even in the realm of +science, where progress is so swift and books so short-lived, the Greeks +of the great age had such genius and vitality that their books lived in +a way that no others have lived. Let us get away from the thought of +Euclid as an inky and imperfect English school-book, to that ancient +Eucleides who, with exceedingly few books but a large table of sand let +into the floor, planned and discovered and put together and re-shaped +the first laws of geometry, till at last he had written one of the great +simple books of the world, a book which should stand a pillar and beacon +to mankind long after all the political world that Eucleides knew had +been swept away and the kings he served were conquered by the Romans, +and the Romans in course of time conquered by the barbarians, and the +barbarians themselves, with much labour and reluctance, partly by means +of Eucleides' book, eventually educated; so that at last, in our own +day, they can manage to learn their geometry without it. The time has +come for Euclid to be superseded; let him go. He has surely held the +torch for mankind long enough; and books of science are born to be +superseded. What I want to suggest is that the same extraordinary +vitality of mind which made Hippocrates and Euclid and even Denis of +Thrace last their two thousand years, was also put by the Greeks of the +great age into those activities which are, for the most part at any +rate, not perishable or progressive but eternal. + +This is a simple point, but it is so important that we must dwell on it +for a moment. If we read an old treatise on medicine or mechanics, we +may admire it and feel it a work of genius, but we also feel that it is +obsolete: its work is over; we have got beyond it. But when we read +Homer or Aeschylus, if once we have the power to admire and understand +their writing, we do not for the most part have any feeling of having +got beyond them. We have done so no doubt in all kinds of minor things, +in general knowledge, in details of technique, in civilization and the +like; but hardly any sensible person ever imagines that he has got +beyond their essential quality, the quality that has made them great. + +Doubtless there is in every art an element of mere knowledge or science, +and that element is progressive. But there is another element, too, +which does not depend on knowledge and which does not progress but has a +kind of stationary and eternal value, like the beauty of the dawn, or +the love of a mother for her child, or the joy of a young animal in +being alive, or the courage of a martyr facing torment. We cannot for +all our progress get beyond these things; there they stand, like light +upon the mountains. The only question is whether we can rise to them. +And it is the same with all the greatest births of human imagination. As +far as we can speculate, there is not the faintest probability of any +poet ever setting to work on, let us say, the essential effect aimed at +by Aeschylus in the Cassandra-scene of the _Agamemnon_, and doing it +better than Aeschylus. The only thing which the human race has to do +with that scene is to understand it and get out of it all the joy and +emotion and wonder that it contains. + +This eternal quality is perhaps clearest in poetry: in poetry the +mixture of knowledge matters less. In art there is a constant +development of tools and media and technical processes. The modern +artist can feel that, though he cannot, perhaps, make as good a statue +as Pheidias, he could here and there have taught Pheidias something: and +at any rate he can try his art on subjects far more varied and more +stimulating to his imagination. In philosophy the mixture is more subtle +and more profound. Philosophy always depends in some sense upon science, +yet the best philosophy seems generally to have in it some eternal +quality of creative imagination. Plato wrote a dialogue about the +constitution of the world, the _Timaeus_, which was highly influential +in later Greece, but seems to us, with our vastly superior scientific +knowledge, almost nonsensical. Yet when Plato writes about the theory of +knowledge or the ultimate meaning of Justice or of Love, no good +philosopher can afford to leave him aside: the chief question is whether +we can rise to the height and subtlety of his thought. + +And here another point emerges, equally simple and equally important if +we are to understand our relation to the past. Suppose a man says: 'I +quite understand that Plato or Aeschylus may have had fine ideas, but +surely anything of value which they said must long before this have +become common property. There is no need to go back to the Greeks for +it. We do not go back and read Copernicus to learn that the earth goes +round the sun.' What is the answer? It is that such a view ignores +exactly this difference between the progressive and the eternal, between +knowledge and imagination. If Harvey discovers that the blood is not +stationary but circulates, if Copernicus discovers that the earth goes +round the sun and not the sun round the earth, those discoveries can +easily be communicated in the most abbreviated form. If a mechanic +invents an improvement on the telephone, or a social reformer puts some +good usage in the place of a bad one, in a few years we shall probably +all be using the improvement without even knowing what it is or saying +Thank you. We may be as stupid as we like, we have in a sense got the +good of it. + +But can one apply the same process to _Macbeth_ or _Romeo and Juliet_? +Can any one tell us in a few words what they come to? Or can a person +get the good of them in any way except one--the way of vivid and loving +study, following and feeling the author's meaning all through? To +suppose, as I believe some people do, that you can get the value of a +great poem by studying an abstract of it in an encyclopaedia or by +reading cursorily an average translation of it, argues really a kind of +mental deficiency, like deafness or colour-blindness. The things that we +have called eternal, the things of the spirit and the imagination, +always seem to lie more in a process than in a result, and can only be +reached and enjoyed by somehow going through the process again. If the +value of a particular walk lies in the scenery, you do not get that +value by taking a short cut or using a fast motor-car. + +In looking back, then, upon any vital and significant age of the past we +shall find objects of two kinds. First, there will be things like the +Venus of Milo or the Book of Job or Plato's _Republic_, which are +interesting or precious in themselves, because of their own inherent +qualities; secondly, there will be things like the Roman code of the +Twelve Tables or the invention of the printing-press or the record of +certain great battles, which are interesting chiefly because they are +causes of other and greater things or form knots in the great web of +history--the first having artistic interest, the second only historical +interest, though, of course, it is obvious that in any concrete case +there is generally a mixture of both. + +Now Ancient Greece is important in both ways. For the artist or poet it +has in a quite extraordinary degree the quality of beauty. For instance, +to take a contrast with Rome: if you dig about the Roman Wall in +Cumberland you will find quantities of objects, altars, inscriptions, +figurines, weapons, boots and shoes, which are full of historic interest +but are not much more beautiful than the contents of a modern rubbish +heap. And the same is true of most excavations all over the world. But +if you dig at any classical or sub-classical site in the Greek world, +however unimportant historically, practically every object you find will +be beautiful. The wall itself will be beautiful; the inscriptions will +be beautifully cut; the figurines, however cheap and simple, may have +some intentional grotesques among them, but the rest will have a special +truthfulness and grace; the vases will be of good shapes and the +patterns will be beautiful patterns. If you happen to dig in a +burying-place and come across some epitaphs on the dead, they will +practically all--even when the verses do not quite scan and the words +are wrongly spelt--have about them this inexplicable touch of beauty. + +I am anxious not to write nonsense about this. One could prove the point +in detail by taking any collection of Greek epitaphs, and that is the +only way in which it can be proved. The beauty is a fact, and if we try +to analyse the sources of it we shall perhaps in part understand how it +has come to pass. + +In the first place, it is not a beauty of ornament; it is a beauty of +structure, a beauty of rightness and simplicity. Compare an athlete in +flannels playing tennis and a stout dignitary smothered in gold robes. +Or compare a good modern yacht, swift, lithe, and plain, with a +lumbering heavily gilded sixteenth-century galleon, or even with a +Chinese state junk: the yacht is far the more beautiful though she has +not a hundredth part of the ornament. It is she herself that is +beautiful, because her lines and structure are right. The others are +essentially clumsy and, therefore, ugly things, dabbed over with gold +and paint. Now ancient Greek things for the most part have the beauty of +the yacht. The Greeks used paint a good deal, but apart from that a +Greek temple is almost as plain as a shed: people accustomed to +arabesques and stained glass and gargoyles can very often see nothing in +it. A Greek statue has as a rule no ornament at all: a young man racing +or praying, an old man thinking, there it stands expressed in a stately +and simple convention, true or false, the anatomy and the surfaces right +or wrong, aiming at no beauty except the truest. It would probably seem +quite dull to the maker of a mediaeval wooden figure of a king which I +remember seeing in a town in the east of Europe: a crown blazing with +many-coloured glass, a long crimson robe covered with ornaments and +beneath them an idiot face, no bones, no muscles, no attitude. That is +not what a Greek meant by beauty. The same quality holds to a great +extent of Greek poetry. Not, of course, that the artistic convention was +the same, or at all similar, for treating stone and for treating +language. Greek poetry is statuesque in the sense that it depends +greatly on its organic structure; it is not in the least so in the sense +of being cold or colourless or stiff. But Greek poetry on the whole has +a bareness and severity which disappoints a modern reader, accustomed as +he is to lavish ornament and exaggeration at every turn. It has the +same simplicity and straightforwardness as Greek sculpture. The poet has +something to say and he says it as well and truly as he can in the +suitable style, and if you are not interested you are not. With some +exceptions which explain themselves he does not play a thousand pretty +tricks and antics on the way, so that you may forget the dullness of +what he says in amusement at the draperies in which he wraps it. + +But here comes an apparent difficulty. Greek poetry, we say, is very +direct, very simple, very free from irrelevant ornament. And yet when we +translate it into English and look at our translation, our main feeling, +I think, is that somehow the glory has gone: a thing that was high and +lordly has become poor and mean. Any decent Greek scholar when he opens +one of his ancient poets feels at once the presence of something lofty +and rare--something like the atmosphere of _Paradise Lost_. But the +language of _Paradise Lost_ is elaborately twisted and embellished into +loftiness and rarity; the language of the Greek poem is simple and +direct. What does this mean? + +I can only suppose that the normal language of Greek poetry is in itself +in some sense sublime. Most critics accept this as an obvious fact, yet, +if true, it is a very strange fact and worth thinking about. It depends +partly on mere euphony: _Khaireis horôn fôs_ is probably more beautiful +in sound than 'You rejoice to see the light', but euphony cannot be +everything. The sound of a great deal of Greek poetry, either as we +pronounce it, or as the ancients pronounced it, is to modern ears almost +ugly. It depends partly, perhaps, on the actual structure of the Greek +language: philologists tell us that, viewed as a specimen, it is in +structure and growth and in power of expressing things, the most perfect +language they know. And certainly one often finds that a thought can be +expressed with ease and grace in Greek which becomes clumsy and involved +in Latin, English, French or German. But neither of these causes goes, +I think, to the root of the matter. + +What is it that gives words their character and makes a style high or +low? Obviously, their associations; the company they habitually keep in +the minds of those who use them. A word which belongs to the language of +bars and billiard saloons will become permeated by the normal standard +of mind prevalent in such places; a word which suggests Milton or +Carlyle will have the flavour of those men's minds about it. I therefore +cannot resist the conclusion that, if the language of Greek poetry has, +to those who know it intimately, this special quality of keen austere +beauty, it is because the minds of the poets who used that language were +habitually toned to a higher level both of intensity and of nobility +than ours. It is a finer language because it expresses the minds of +finer men. By 'finer men' I do not necessarily mean men who behaved +better, either by our standards or by their own; I mean men to whom the +fine things of the world, sunrise and sea and stars and the love of man +for man, and strife and the facing of evil for the sake of good, and +even common things like meat and drink, and evil things like hate and +terror, had, as it were, a keener edge than they have for us and roused +a swifter and a nobler reaction. + +Let us resume this argument before going further. We start from the +indisputable fact that the Greeks of about the fifth century B. C. did +for some reason or other produce various works of art, buildings and +statues and books, especially books, which instead of decently dying or +falling out of fashion in the lifetime of the men who made them, lasted +on and can still cause high thoughts and intense emotions. In trying to +explain this strange fact we notice that the Greeks had a great and +pervading instinct for beauty, and for beauty of a particular kind. It +is a beauty which never lies in irrelevant ornament, but always in the +very essence and structure of the object made. In literature we found +that the special beauty which we call Greek depends partly on the +directness, truthfulness, and simplicity with which the Greeks say what +they want to say, and partly on a special keenness and nobility in the +language, which seems to be the natural expression of keen and noble +minds. Can we in any way put all these things together so as to explain +them--or at any rate to hold them together more clearly? + +An extremely old and often misleading metaphor will help us. People have +said: 'The world was young then.' Of course, strictly speaking, it was +not. In the total age of the world or of man the two thousand odd years +between us and Pericles do not count for much. Nor can we imagine that a +man of sixty felt any more juvenile in the fifth century B. C. than he +does now. It was just the other way, because at that time there were no +spectacles or false teeth. Yet in a sense the world _was_ young then, at +any rate our western world, the world of progress and humanity. For the +beginnings of nearly all the great things that progressive minds now +care for were then being laid in Greece. + +Youth, perhaps, is not exactly the right word. There are certain +plants--some kinds of aloe, for instance--which continue for an +indefinite number of years in a slow routine of ordinary life close to +the ground, and then suddenly, when they have stored enough vital force, +grow ten feet high and burst into flower, after which, no doubt, they +die or show signs of exhaustion. Apart from the dying, it seems as if +something like that happened from time to time to the human race, or to +such parts of it as really bear flowers at all. For most races and +nations during the most of their life are not progressive but simply +stagnant, sometimes just managing to preserve their standard customs, +sometimes slipping back to the slough. That is why history has nothing +to say about them. The history of the world consists mostly in the +memory of those ages, quite few in number, in which some part of the +world has risen above itself and burst into flower or fruit. + +We ourselves happen to live in the midst or possibly in the close of one +such period. More change has probably taken place in daily life, in +ideas, and in the general aspect of the earth during the last century +than during any four other centuries since the Christian era: and this +fact has tended to make us look on rapid progress as a normal condition +of the human race, which it never has been. And another such period of +bloom, a bloom comparatively short in time and narrow in area, but +amazingly swift and intense, occurred in the lower parts of the Balkan +peninsula from about the sixth to the fourth centuries before Christ. + +Now it is this kind of bloom which fills the world with hope and +therefore makes it young. Take a man who has just made a discovery or an +invention, a man happily in love, a man who is starting some great and +successful social movement, a man who is writing a book or painting a +picture which he knows to be good; take men who have been fighting in +some great cause which before they fought seemed to be hopeless and now +is triumphant; think of England when the Armada was just defeated, +France at the first dawn of the Revolution, America after Yorktown: such +men and nations will be above themselves. Their powers will be stronger +and keener; there will be exhilaration in the air, a sense of walking in +new paths, of dawning hopes and untried possibilities, a confidence that +all things can be won if only we try hard enough. In that sense the +world will be young. In that sense I think it was young in the time of +Themistocles and Aeschylus. And it is that youth which is half the +secret of the Greek spirit. + +And here I may meet an objection that has perhaps been lurking in the +minds of many readers. 'All this,' they may say, 'professes to be a +simple analysis of known facts, but in reality is sheer idealization. +These Greeks whom you call so "noble" have been long since exposed. +Anthropology has turned its searchlights upon them. It is not only their +ploughs, their weapons, their musical instruments, and their painted +idols that resemble those of the savages; it is everything else about +them. Many of them were sunk in the most degrading superstitions: many +practised unnatural vices: in times of great fear some were apt to think +that the best "medicine" was a human sacrifice. After that, it is hardly +worth mentioning that their social structure was largely based on +slavery; that they lived in petty little towns, like so many wasps' +nests, each at war with its next-door neighbour, and half of them at war +with themselves!' + +If our anti-Greek went further he would probably cease to speak the +truth. We will stop him while we can still agree with him. These charges +are on the whole true, and, if we are to understand what Greece means, +we must realize and digest them. We must keep hold of two facts: first, +that the Greeks of the fifth century produced some of the noblest poetry +and art, the finest political thinking, the most vital philosophy, known +to the world; second, that the people who heard and saw, nay perhaps, +even the people who produced these wonders, were separated by a thin and +precarious interval from the savage. Scratch a civilized Russian, they +say, and you find a wild Tartar. Scratch an ancient Greek, and you hit, +no doubt, on a very primitive and formidable being, somewhere between a +Viking and a Polynesian. + +That is just the magic and the wonder of it. The spiritual effort +implied is so tremendous. We have read stories of savage chiefs +converted by Christian or Buddhist missionaries, who within a year or so +have turned from drunken corroborees and bloody witch-smellings to a +life that is not only godly but even philanthropic and statesmanlike. We +have seen the Japanese lately go through some centuries of normal growth +in the space of a generation. But in all such examples men have only +been following the teaching of a superior civilization, and after all, +they have not ended by producing works of extraordinary and original +genius. It seems quite clear that the Greeks owed exceedingly little to +foreign influence. Even in their decay they were a race, as Professor +Bury observes, accustomed 'to take little and to give much'. They built +up their civilization for themselves. We must listen with due attention +to the critics who have pointed out all the remnants of savagery and +superstition that they find in Greece: the slave-driver, the +fetish-worshipper and the medicine-man, the trampler on women, the +bloodthirsty hater of all outside his own town and party. But it is not +those people that constitute Greece; those people can be found all over +the historical world, commoner than blackberries. It is not anything +fixed and stationary that constitutes Greece: what constitutes Greece is +the movement which leads from all these to the Stoic or fifth-century +'sophist' who condemns and denies slavery, who has abolished all cruel +superstitions and preaches some religion based on philosophy and +humanity, who claims for women the same spiritual rights as for man, who +looks on all human creatures as his brethren, and the world as 'one +great City of gods and men'. It is that movement which you will not find +elsewhere, any more than the statues of Pheidias or the dialogues of +Plato or the poems of Aeschylus and Euripides. + +From all this two or three results follow. For one thing, being built up +so swiftly, by such keen effort, and from so low a starting-point, Greek +civilization was, amid all its glory, curiously unstable and full of +flaws. Such flaws made it, of course, much worse for those who lived in +it, but they hardly make it less interesting or instructive to those who +study it. Rather the contrary. Again, the near neighbourhood of the +savage gives to the Greek mind certain qualities which we of the safer +and solider civilizations would give a great deal to possess. It springs +swift and straight. It is never jaded. Its wonder and interest about the +world are fresh. And lastly there is one curious and very important +quality which, unless I am mistaken, belongs to Greek civilization more +than to any other. To an extraordinary degree it starts clean from +nature, with almost no entanglements of elaborate creeds and customs and +traditions. + +I am not, of course, forgetting the prehistoric Minoan civilization, nor +yet the peculiar forms--mostly simple enough--into which the traditional +Greek religion fell. It is possible that I may be a little misled by my +own habit of living much among Greek things and so forgetting through +long familiarity how odd some of them once seemed. But when all +allowances are made, I think that this clean start from nature is, on +the whole, a true claim. If a thoughtful European or American wants to +study Chinese or Indian things, he has not only to learn certain data of +history and mythology, he has to work his mind into a particular +attitude; to put on, as it were, spectacles of a particular sort. If he +wants to study mediaeval things, if he takes even so universal a poet as +Dante, it is something the same. Curious views about the Pope and the +emperor, a crabbed scholastic philosophy, a strange and to the modern +mind rather horrible theology, floating upon the flames of Hell: all +these have somehow to be taken into his imagination before he can +understand his Dante. With Greek things this is very much less so. The +historical and imaginative background of the various great poets and +philosophers is, no doubt, highly important. A great part of the work of +modern scholarship is now devoted to getting it clearer. But on the +whole, putting aside for the moment the possible inadequacies of +translation, Greek philosophy speaks straight to any human being who is +willing to think simply, Greek art and poetry to any one who can use his +imagination and enjoy beauty. He has not to put on the fetters or the +blinkers of any new system in order to understand them; he has only to +get rid of his own--a much more profitable and less troublesome task. + +This particular conclusion will scarcely, I think, be disputed, but the +point presents difficulties and must be dwelt upon. + +In the first place, it does not mean that Greek art is what we call +'naturalist' or 'realist'. It is markedly the reverse. Art to the Greek +is always a form of _Sophia_, or Wisdom, a _Technê_ with rules that have +to be learnt. Its air of utter simplicity is deceptive. The pillar that +looks merely straight is really a thing of subtle curves. The funeral +bas-relief that seems to represent in the simplest possible manner a +woman saying good-bye to her child is arranged, plane behind plane, with +the most delicate skill and sometimes with deliberate falsification of +perspective. There is always some convention, some idealization, some +touch of the light that never was on sea or land. Yet all the time, I +think, Greek art remains in a remarkable degree close to nature. The +artist's eye is always on the object, and, though he represents it in +his own style, that style is always normal and temperate, free from +affectation, free from exaggeration or morbidity and, in the earlier +periods, free from conventionality. It is art without doubt; but it is +natural and normal art, such as grew spontaneously when mankind first +tried in freedom to express beauty. For example, the language of Greek +poetry is markedly different from that of prose, and there are even +clear differences of language between different styles of poetry. And +further, the poetry is very seldom about the present. It is about the +past, and that an ideal past. What we have to notice there is that this +kind of rule, which has been usual in all great ages of poetry, is +apparently not an artificial or arbitrary thing but a tendency that grew +up naturally with the first great expressions of poetical feeling. + +Furthermore, this closeness to nature, this absence of a unifying or +hide-bound system of thought, acting together with other causes, has led +to the extraordinary variety and many-sidedness which is one of the most +puzzling charms of Ancient Greece as contrasted, say, with Israel or +Assyria or early Rome. Geographically it is a small country with a +highly indented coast-line and an interior cut into a great number of +almost isolated valleys. Politically it was a confused unity made up of +numerous independent states, one walled city of a few thousand +inhabitants being quite enough to form a state. And the citizens of +these states were, each of them, rather excessively capable of forming +opinions of their own and fighting for them. Hence came in practice much +isolation and faction and general weakness, to the detriment of the +Greeks themselves; but the same cause led in thought and literature to +immense variety and vitality, to the great gain of us who study the +Greeks afterwards. There is hardly any type of thought or style of +writing which cannot be paralleled in ancient Greece, only they will +there be seen, as it were, in their earlier and simpler forms. Traces of +all the things that seem most un-Greek can be found somewhere in Greek +literature: voluptuousness, asceticism, the worship of knowledge, the +contempt for knowledge, atheism, pietism, the religion of serving the +world and the religion of turning away from the world: all these and +almost all other points of view one can think of are represented +somewhere in the records of that one small people. And there is hardly +any single generalization in this chapter which the author himself could +not controvert by examples to the contrary. You feel in general a great +absence of all fetters: the human mind free, rather inexperienced, +intensely interested in life and full of hope, trying in every direction +for that excellence which the Greeks called _aretê_, and guided by some +peculiar instinct toward Temperance and Beauty. + +The variety is there and must not be forgotten; yet amid the variety +there are certain general or central characteristics, mostly due to this +same quality of freshness and closeness to nature. + +If you look at a Greek statue or bas-relief, or if you read an average +piece of Aristotle, you will very likely at first feel bored. Why? +Because it is all so normal and truthful; so singularly free from +exaggeration, paradox, violent emphasis; so destitute of those +fascinating by-forms of insanity which appeal to some similar faint +element of insanity in ourselves. 'We are sick', we may exclaim, 'of the +sight of these handsome, perfectly healthy men with grave faces and +normal bones and muscles! We are sick of being told that Virtue is a +mean between two extremes and tends to make men happy! We shall not be +interested unless some one tells us that Virtue is the utter abnegation +of self, or, it may be, the extreme and ruthless assertion of self; or +again, that Virtue is all an infamous mistake! And for statues, give us +a haggard man with starved body and cavernous eyes, cursing God--or give +us something rolling in fat and colour....' + +What is at the back of this sort of feeling? which I admit often takes +more reasonable forms than these I have suggested. It is the same +psychological cause that brings about the changes of fashion in art or +dress: which loves 'stunts' and makes the fortunes of yellow newspapers. +It is boredom or _ennui_. We have had too much of A; we are sick of it, +we know how it is done and despise it; give us some B, or better still +some Z. And after a strong dose of Z we shall crave for the beginning +of the alphabet again. But now think of a person who is not bored at +all; who is, on the contrary, immensely interested in the world, keen to +choose good things and reject bad ones; full of the desire for knowledge +and the excitement of discovery. The joy to him is to see things as they +are and to judge them normally. He is not bored by the sight of normal, +healthy muscles in a healthy, well-shaped body; he is delighted. If you +distort the muscles for emotional effect, he would say with +disappointment: 'But that is ugly!' or 'But a man's muscles do _not_ go +like that!' He will have noted that tears are salt and rather warm; but +if you say like a modern poet that your heroine's tears are 'more hot +than fire, more salt than the salt sea', he will probably think your +statement απιθανον {apithanon} 'unpersuasive', and therefore ψυχρον +{psychron} 'chilling'. + +It is perhaps especially in the religious and moral sphere that we are +accustomed to the habitual use of ecstatic language: expressions that +are only true of exalted moments are used by us as the commonplaces of +ordinary life. 'It is a thousand times worse to see another suffer than +to suffer oneself.' 'True love only desires the happiness of the beloved +object.' This kind of 'high falutin'' has become part of our regular +mental habit, just as dead metaphors by the bushel are a part of our +daily language. Consequently we are a little chilled and disappointed by +a language in which people hardly ever use a metaphor except when they +vividly realize it, and never utter heroic sentiments except when they +are wrought up to the pitch of feeling them true. Does this mean that +the Greek always remains, so to speak, at a normal temperature, that he +never has intense or blinding emotions? Not in the least. It shows a +lack of faith in the value of life to imagine such a conclusion. It +implies that you can only reach great emotion by pretence, or by +habitually exaggerating small emotions, whereas probably the exact +reverse is the case. When the great thing comes, then the Greek will +have the great word and the great thought ready. It is the habitual +exaggerator who will perhaps be bankrupt. And after all--the great +things are sure to come! + +The power of seeing things straight and knowing what is beautiful or +noble, quite undisturbed by momentary boredoms or changes of taste, is a +very rare gift and never perhaps possessed in full by any one. But there +is a profound rule of art, bidding a man in the midst of all his study +of various styles or his pursuit of his own peculiar imaginations, from +time to time _se retremper dans la nature_--'to steep himself again in +nature'. And in something the same way it seems as if the world ought +from time to time to steep itself again in Hellenism: that is, it ought, +amid all the varying affectations and extravagances and changes of +convention in art and letters, to have some careful regard for those +which arose when man first awoke to the meaning of truth and beauty and +saw the world freely as a new thing. + +Is this exaggeration? I think not. But no full defence of it can be +attempted here. In this essay we have been concerned almost entirely +with the artistic interest of Greece. It would be equally possible to +dwell on the historical interest. Then we should find that, for that +branch of mankind which is responsible for western civilization, the +seeds of almost all that we count best in human progress were sown in +Greece. The conception of beauty as a joy in itself and as a guide in +life was first and most vividly expressed in Greece, and the very laws +by which things are beautiful or ugly were to a great extent discovered +there and laid down. The conception of Freedom and Justice, freedom in +body, in speech and in mind, justice between the strong and the weak, +the rich and the poor, penetrates the whole of Greek political thought, +and was, amid obvious flaws, actually realized to a remarkable degree +in the best Greek communities. The conception of Truth as an end to +pursue for its own sake, a thing to discover and puzzle out by +experiment and imagination and especially by Reason, a conception +essentially allied with that of Freedom and opposed both to anarchy and +to blind obedience, has perhaps never in the world been more clearly +grasped than by the early Greek writers on science and philosophy. One +stands amazed sometimes at the perfect freedom of their thought. Another +conception came rather later, when the small City States with exclusive +rights of citizenship had been merged in a larger whole: the conception +of the universal fellowship between man and man. Greece realized soon +after the Persian war that she had a mission to the world, that +Hellenism stood for the higher life of man as against barbarism, for +Aretê, or Excellence, as against the mere effortless average. First came +the crude patriotism which regarded every Greek as superior to every +barbarian; then came reflection, showing that not all Greeks were true +bearers of the light, nor all barbarians its enemies; that Hellenism was +a thing of the spirit and not dependent on the race to which a man +belonged or the place where he was born: then came the new word and +conception ανθρωποτης {anthrôpotês}, _humanitas_, which to the Stoics +made the world as one brotherhood. No people known to history clearly +formulated these ideals before the Greeks, and those who have spoken the +words afterwards seem for the most part to be merely echoing the +thoughts of old Greek men. + +These ideas, the pursuit of Truth, Freedom, Beauty, Excellence are not +everything. They have been a leaven of unrest in the world; they have +held up a light which was not always comforting to the eyes to see. +There is another ideal which is generally stronger and may, for all we +know, in the end stamp them out as evil things. There is Submission +instead of Freedom, the deadening or brutalizing of the senses instead +of Beauty, the acceptance of tradition instead of the pursuit of Truth, +the belief in hallucination or passion instead of Reason and Temperate +Thought, the obscuring of distinctions between good and bad and the +acceptance of all human beings and all states of mind as equal in value. +If something of this kind should prove in the end to be right for man, +then Greece will have played the part of the great wrecker in human +history. She will have held up false lights which have lured our ship to +dangerous places. But at any rate, through calm and storm, she does hold +her lights; she lit them first of the nations and held them during her +short reign the clearest; and whether we believe in an individual life +founded on Freedom, Reason, Beauty, Excellence and the pursuit of Truth, +and an international life aiming at the fellowship between man and man, +or whether we think these ideals the great snares of human politics, +there is good cause for some of us in each generation at the cost of +some time and trouble to study such important forces where they first +appear consciously in the minds of our spiritual ancestors. In the +thought and art of ancient Greece, more than any other, we shall find +these forces, and also to some extent their great opposites, fresh, +clean and comparatively uncomplicated, with every vast issue wrought out +on a small material scale and every problem stated in its lowest terms. + +GILBERT MURRAY. + + + + +RELIGION + + +Those who write about the Greeks must beware of a heresy which is very +rife just now--the theory of _racialism_. Political ethnology, which is +no genuine science, excused the ambition of the Germans to themselves, +and helped them to wage war; it has suggested to the Allies a method of +waging peace. The false and mischievous doctrine of superior and +inferior races is used to justify oppression in Europe, and murder by +torture in America. It will not help us to understand the Greeks. The +Greeks were a nation of splendid mongrels, made up of the same elements, +differently mixed, as ourselves. Their famous beauty, which had almost +disappeared when Cicero visited Athens, was mainly the result of a +healthy outdoor life and physical training, combined with a very +becoming costume. They were probably not handsomer than Oxford rowing +crews or Eton boys. Their flowering time of genius was due to the same +causes which produced similar results in the Italian Renaissance. The +city-state is a forcing-house of brilliant achievement, though it +quickly uses up its human material. We cannot even regard the Greeks as +a homogeneous mixed race. The Spartiates were almost pure Nordics; the +Athenians almost pure Mediterraneans. The early colonists, from whom +sprang so many of the greatest names in the Hellenic roll of honour, are +not likely to have kept their blood pure. Nor was there ever a Greek +culture shared by all the Greeks. The Spartan system, that of a small +fighting tribe encamped in a subject country, recalls that of Chaka's +Zulus; Arcadia was bucolic, Aetolia barbarous, Boeotia stolid, Macedonia +half outside the pale. The consciousness of race among the Greeks +counted practically for about as much as the consciousness of being +white men, or Christians, does in modern civilization. + +Greece for our purposes means not a race, but a culture, a language and +literature, and still more an attitude towards life, which for us begins +with Homer, and persists, with many changes but no breaks, till the +closing of the Athenian lecture-rooms by Justinian. The changes no doubt +were great, when politically Greece was living Greece no more, and when +the bearers of the tradition were no longer the lineal descendants of +those who established it. But the tradition, enshrined in literature, in +monuments, and in social customs, survived. The civilization of the +Roman Empire was not Italian but Greek. After the sixth century, +Hellenism--the language, the literature, and the attitude towards +life--was practically lost to the West for nearly a thousand years. It +was recovered at the Renaissance, and from that time to this has been a +potent element in western civilization. The Dark Ages, and the early +Middle Ages, are the period during which the West was cut off from +Hellenism. Yet even then the severance was not complete. For these were +the ages of the Catholic theocracy; and if we had to choose one man as +the founder of Catholicism as a theocratic system, we should have to +name neither Augustine nor St. Paul, still less Jesus Christ, but Plato, +who in the _Laws_ sketches out with wonderful prescience the conditions +for such a polity, and the form which it would be compelled to take. +Even in speculative thought we know that Augustine owed much to the +Platonists, the Schoolmen to Aristotle, the mystics to the pupil of +Proclus whom they called Dionysius. Only Greek science, and the +scientific spirit, were almost completely lost, and a beginning _de +novo_ had to be made when the West shook off its fetters. + +Hellenism then is not the mind of a particular ethnic type, nor of a +particular period. It was not destroyed, though it was emasculated, by +the loss of political freedom; it was neither killed nor died a natural +death. Its philosophy was continuous from Thales to Proclus, and again +from Ficino and Pico to Lotze and Bradley, after a long sleep which was +not death. Its religion passes into Christian theology and cultus +without any real break. The early Church spoke in Greek and thought in +Greek. In the days of Greek freedom to be a Greek had meant to be a +citizen of a Greek canton; after Alexander it meant to have Greek +culture. None of the great Stoics were natives of Greece proper; Zeno +himself was a Semite. Of the later Greek writers, Marcus Aurelius was a +Romanized Spaniard, Plotinus possibly a Copt, Porphyry and Lucian +Syrians, Philo, St. Paul, and probably the Fourth Evangelist were Jews. +These men all belong to the history of Greek culture. And if these were +Greeks how shall we deny the name to Raphael and Michael Angelo, to +Spenser and Sidney, to Keats and Shelley? When Blake wrote-- + + The sun's light when he unfolds it, + Depends on the organ that beholds it, + +he was summing up, not only the philosophy of the Lake Poets but the +fundamental dogma of the maturest Greek thought. Would not Plato have +rejoiced in Michael Angelo's confession of faith, which Wordsworth has +translated for us? + + Heaven-born, the soul a heavenward course must hold; + Beyond the visible world she soars to seek + (For what delights the sense is false and weak) + Ideal Form, the universal mould. + The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest + In that which perishes; nor will he lend + His heart to aught that doth on time depend. + +Has the highest aspect of Greek religion ever been better expressed than +by Wordsworth himself, to whom, as to Blake, it came by inspiration and +not from books? + + While yet a child, and long before his time + Had he perceived the presence and the power + Of greatness; and deep feelings had impressed + So vividly great objects that _they lay_ + _Upon his mind like substances_, whose presence + Perplexed the bodily sense. + +The spirit of man does not live only on tradition; it can draw direct +from the fountain-head. We are dealing with a permanent type of human +culture, which is rightly named after the Greeks, since it attained its +chief glory in the literature and art of the Hellenic cities, but which +cannot be separated from western civilization as an alien importation. +Without what we call our debt to Greece we should have neither our +religion nor our philosophy nor our science nor our literature nor our +education nor our politics. We should be mere barbarians. We need not +speculate how much we might ultimately have discovered for ourselves. +Our civilization is a tree which has its roots in Greece, or, to borrow +a more appropriate metaphor from Clement of Alexandria, it is a river +which has received affluents from every side; but its head waters are +Greek. The continuity of Greek thought and practice in religion and +religious philosophy is especially important, and it is necessary to +emphasize it because the accident of our educational curriculum leaves +in the minds of most students a broad chasm between the Stoics and the +Christians, ignores the later Greek philosophy of religion altogether, +and traces Christian dogma back to Palestine, with which it has very +little connexion. + +Our sense of continuity is dulled in another way. There is a tendency to +isolate certain aspects of Hellenic life and thought as characteristic, +and to stamp others, which are equally found among the ancient Greeks, +as untypical and exceptional. In the sphere of religion, with which we +are concerned in this essay, we are bidden to regard Plato and Euripides +as rebels against the national tradition, and not as normal products of +their age and country. I do not feel at liberty to pick and choose in +this fashion. A national character may be best exemplified in its +rebels, a religion in its heretics. If Nietzsche was right in calling +Plato a Christian before Christ, I do not therefore regard him as an +unhellenic Greek. Rather, I trace back to him, and so to Greece, the +religion and the political philosophy of the Christian Church, and the +Christian type of mysticism. If Euripides anticipated to an +extraordinary degree the devout agnosticism, the vague pantheism, the +humanitarian sentiment of the nineteenth (rather than of the twentieth) +century, I do not consider that he was a freak in fifth-century Athens, +but that Greece showed us the way even in paths where we have not been +used to look to her for guidance. I am equally reluctant to assume, +without evidence, that the later Platonism, whether we call it religion +or philosophy, is unhellenic. It is quite unnecessary to look for +Asiatic influences in a school which clung close to the Attic tradition. +It is more to the purpose to show how a religious philosophy of mystical +revelation and introspection grew naturally out of the older +nature-philosophies, just as in our own day metaphysics and science have +both been driven back upon the theory of knowledge and psychology. It +should not be necessary to remind Hellenists that 'Know thyself' passed +for the supreme word of wisdom in the classical period, or that +Heracleitus revealed his method in the words 'I searched myself'. + +We shall come presently to certain parts of our modern heritage which +are not Greek either by origin or by affinity. These will not be found +in Euripides or Plato any more than in Herodotus or Sophocles. But some +developments of religion which our Hellenists particularly dislike, and +are therefore anxious to disclaim as alien to Greek thought and +practice, such as asceticism, sacramental magic, religious persecution, +and timid reliance on authority, are maladies of the Greek spirit, and +came into the Church from Hellenistic and not from Jewish sources. It +was Cleanthes who wished to treat Aristarchus as the Church treated +Galileo, for anticipating Galileo's discovery. It was Plutarch, or +rather his revered father, who said, 'You seem to me to be handling a +very great and dangerous subject, or rather to be raising questions +which ought not to be raised at all, when you question the opinion we +hold about the gods, and ask reasons and proofs for everything. The +ancient and ancestral faith is enough; and if on one point its fixed and +traditional character be disturbed, it will be undermined and no one +will trust it'. It is true that Celsus accused the Christians of saying, +'Do not inquire; only believe.' But this was not the attitude of Clement +and Origen, still less of that most courageous pioneer St. Paul; it was +rather the attitude of the average devout pagan. At this time the +defence of popular superstition was no longer a matter of mere policy +but of heartfelt need. Marcus Aurelius was a great immolator of white +cows. The Christians were disliked, not as superstitious, but as +impious. Alexander of Abunoteichos expelled 'Christians and Epicureans' +by name from his _séances_. Lucian is the Voltaire of a credulous age. +As for sacerdotal magic, Ovid explicitly ascribed the _ex opere operato_ +doctrine to the Greeks. + + Graecia principium moris fuit; illa nocentes + impia lustratos ponere facta putat, + a nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis + fluminea tolli posse putatis aqua. + +The Christian Church was the last great creative achievement of the +classical culture. It is neither Asiatic nor mediaeval in its essential +character. It is not Asiatic; Christianity is the least Oriental of all +the great religions. The Semites either shook it off and reverted to a +Judaism purged of its Hellenic elements, or enrolled themselves with +fervour under the banner of Islam, which Westcott called 'a petrified +Judaism'. Christian missions have had no success in any Asiatic +country. Nor is there anything specifically mediaeval about Catholicism. +It preserved the idea of Roman imperialism, after the secular empire of +the West had disappeared, and even kept the tradition of the secular +empire alive. It modelled all its machinery on the Roman Empire, and +consecrated the Roman claim to universal dominion, with the Roman law of +_maiestas_ against all who disputed its authority. Even its favourite +penalty of the 'avenging flames' is borrowed from the later Roman codes. +It maintained the official language of antiquity, and the imperial title +of the autocrat who reigned on the Seven Hills. Nor were the early +Christians so anxious as is often supposed to disclaim this continuity. +At first, it is true, their apologetic was directed to proving their +continuity with Judaism; but Judaism ceased to count for much after the +destruction of the Holy City in A. D. 70, and the second-century +apologists appeal for toleration on the ground that the best Greek +philosophers taught very much the same as what Christians believe. 'We +teach the same as the Greeks', says Justin Martyr, 'though we alone are +hated for what we teach.' 'Some among us', says Tertullian, 'who are +versed in ancient literature, have written books to prove that we have +embraced no tenets for which we have not the support of common and +public literature.' 'The teachings of Plato', says Justin again, 'are +not alien to those of Christ; and the same is true of the Stoics.' +'Heracleitus and Socrates lived in accordance with the divine Logos', +and should be reckoned as Christians. Clement says that Plato wrote 'by +inspiration of God'. Augustine, much later, finds that 'only a few words +and phrases' need be changed to bring Platonism into complete accord +with Christianity. The ethics of contemporary paganism, as Harnack +shows, with special reference to Porphyry, are almost identical with +those of the Christians of his day. They differ in many points from the +standards of 500 years earlier and from those of 1,500 years later, but +the divergences are neither racial nor credal. Catholic Christianity is +historically continuous with the old civilization, which indeed +continued to live in this region after its other traditions and customs +had been shattered. There are few other examples in history of so great +a difference between appearance and reality. Outwardly, the continuity +with Judaism seems to be unbroken, that with paganism to be broken. In +reality, the opposite is the fact. + +This most important truth has been obscured from many causes. The gap in +history made by our educational tradition has been already mentioned. +And our histories of the early Church are too often warped by an +unfortunate bias. Christianity has been judged at its best, paganism at +its worst. The rhetorical denunciations of writers like Seneca, Juvenal, +and Tacitus are taken at their face value, and few have remembered the +convention which obliged a satirist to be scathing, or the political +prejudice of the Stoics against the monarchy, or the non-representative +character of fashionable life in the capital. The modern Church +historian, as Mr. Benn says, has gathered his experience in a college +quadrangle or a cathedral close, and knows little enough about his own +country, next to nothing about what morality was in the Middle Ages, and +nothing at all about what it still is in many parts of Europe. In the +most recent books, however, there is a real desire to hold the scales +fairly, and Christianity has nothing to fear from an impartial +judgement. + +There is also an assumption, which we find even in such learned writers +as Harnack and Hatch, that the Hellenic element in Christianity is an +accretion which transformed the new religion from its original purity +and half-paganized Europe again. They would like to prove that +underneath Catholicism was a primitive Protestantism, which owed nothing +to Greece. The truth is that the Church was half Greek from the first, +though, as I shall say presently, the original Gospel was not. St. Paul +was a Jew of the Dispersion, not of Palestine, and the Christianity to +which he was converted was the Christianity of Stephen, not of James the +Lord's brother. His later epistles are steeped in the phraseology of the +Greek mysteries. The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Fourth Gospel are +unintelligible without some knowledge of Philo, whose theology is more +Greek than Jewish. In the conflict about the nature of the future life, +it was the Greek eschatology which prevailed over the Jewish. St. Paul's +famous declaration, 'We look not at the things which are seen, but at +the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are +temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal', is pure +Platonism and quite alien to Jewish thought. Judaic Christianity was a +local affair, and had a very short life. + +Further, too much is made of the conflict between the official cults of +paganism and Christian public worship. It is forgotten how completely, +in Hellenistic times, religion and philosophy were fused. Without +under-estimating the simple piety which, especially in country +districts, still attached itself to the temples and their ritual, we may +say confidently that the vital religion of the empire was associated +with the mystery-religions and with the discipline of the 'philosophic +life'. It is in this region that the continuity of Catholicism with +Hellenism is mainly to be found. The philosophers at this time were +preachers, confessors, chaplains, and missionaries. The clerical +profession, in nearly all its activities, is directly descended from the +Hellenistic philosophers. + +This claim of continuity may seem paradoxical when we remember the +savage persecutions of the Christians by the imperial government. Of +these persecutions there were several causes. The empire, like all +empires of the same type, rested partly on religious support. Augustus +encouraged his court poets to advocate a revival of piety and sound +morals. A government cannot inquire into religious conviction, but it +can enforce conformity and outward respect for the forms of worship as +'by law established'. The Christians and Epicureans were held guilty of +the same political offence--'atheism'. The State had no quarrel with the +mystery-religions, which were a private matter, but open disrespect to +the national deities was flat disloyalty. The pagans could not +understand why the Church would make no terms with the fusion of +religions (θεοκρασια {theokrasia}) which seemed to them the natural +result of the fusion of nationalities. Apuleius makes Isis say, when she +reveals herself to Lucius, 'cuius numen unicum multiformi specie, ritu +vario, nomine multiiugo totus veneratur orbis'; and she then recounts +her various names. This more than tolerant hospitality of the spirit +seemed to the mixed population of the empire the logical recognition of +the actual political situation, and those who deliberately stood outside +it were at least potentially enemies of society. This was the real +quarrel between the Church and the empire. It is the old State religion +which Augustine attacks, ridiculing the innumerable Roman godlings whose +names he perhaps found in Varro. It is true that Plato, Euripides, and +Xenophanes had attacked the official mythology with hardly less +asperity; but they did not escape censure, and the Christian alienation +from the Olympians was far more fundamental. + +The pagan revival under the empire was rather like Neo-Catholicism in +France. It was patriotic, nationalistic, and conservative, rather than +strictly religious. Celsus, in his lost book against the Christians, +seems to have appealed to their patriotism, urging them to support their +country and its government in dangerous times. As the Church grew in +numbers and power, and the old traditions crumbled away, largely from +the fall in the birth-rate among the upper and middle classes, the +conservatives became more anxiously attached to their own culture, and +saw in Christianity a 'shapeless darkness' which threatened to +extinguish 'all the beautiful things in the world'. We can partly +sympathize with this alarm, though not with the foolish policy which it +inspired. The early persecutions were like Russian 'pogroms', instigated +or connived at by the government as a safety valve for popular +discontent. For at this time the common people hated the Christians, and +half believed the monstrous stories about them. The attacks were not +continuous, and were half-hearted, very unlike the systematic +extermination of Jews and Protestants in Spain. At Alexandria Hadrian +found a money-loving population worshipping Christ and Sarapis almost +indifferently. A wrong impression is formed if we picture to ourselves +two sections of society engaged in constant war. The first real war was +the last, under Diocletian; it was to decide whether paganism or +Christianity was to be the state religion. However, there is no doubt +that the persecutions helped to seal the fate of the old culture. + +Harnack traces three stages in the Hellenization of Christianity. 'In +the earliest Christian writings, apart from Paul, Luke, and John', he +cannot find any considerable traces of Greek influence. 'The real influx +of Greek thought and life' began about 130. The exception is so +important as to make this statement of little or no value. After 130, he +says, 'the philosophy of Greece went straight to the core of the new +religion'. A century or so later, 'Greek mysteries and Greek +civilization in the whole range of its development exercise their +influence on the Church, but as yet not its mythology and polytheism; +these were still to come'. 'Another century had to elapse before +Hellenism as a whole and in every phase of its development was +established in the Church.' The process which he describes began, in +fact, as soon as Christian preachers used the Greek language, and was +never so complete as he says. The Logos-Christology, to which he justly +attributes the greatest importance, is already present in St. Paul's +epistles; the name only is wanting; and the sharp contradiction which +he finds between the Christian idea of a revelation made through a +person at a certain date, and the Greek idea of an apprehension of +timeless and changeless truth, always open to individuals after the +appropriate discipline, was faced and in part overcome by the Greek +Fathers. Harnack also regards Gnosticism as an embodiment of the +genuinely Greek view of revelation, forgetting that orthodox Platonism +was as hostile to Gnosticism as the Church itself. In rejecting +Gnosticism, the Church in fact decided for genuine Hellenism against a +corrupted and barbarized development of it. On the other hand, there is +no period at which we can speak of a complete conquest of Christianity +by Greek ideas. There was a large part of the old tradition which +perished with its defenders, who, obeying the melancholy law which +directs human survival, died out to make way for immigrants and for the +formerly submerged classes, the people with few wants, who were +indifferent to a culture which they had never been allowed to share. + +One more cause of misunderstanding may be illustrated from the writings +of Matthew Arnold. He divides the human race into Hebraizers and +Hellenizers, and classifies the modern English and Americans as +Hebraizers. The fundamental maxim of Hebrew ethics, according to him, is +'Walk by the light you have'; of Greek ethics, 'Take heed that the light +which is in thee is not darkness'. The Hebraizer is conscientious but +unenlightened; the Hellenizer is clear-headed but unscrupulous. +Professor Santayana has lately noted the same difference between the +type of character developed by the Latin nations and by the +Anglo-Saxons. The Mediterranean civilization, older and more +sophisticated, is careful to get its values right; the northern man is +bent on doing something big, no matter what, and follows Clough's +advice: + + Go! say not in thine heart, And what then, were it accomplished, + Were the wild impulse allayed, what is the use and the good? + +But Santayana does not make the mistake of regarding the Reformation as +a return to Palestinian Christianity. This was, indeed, the opinion of +the Reformers themselves; but all religious innovation seeks to base +itself on some old tradition. Christianity at first sought for its +credentials in Judaism, though the Jews saw very quickly that it +'destroyed the Law'. The belief of the Reformers was plausible; for they +rejected just those parts of Catholicism which had nothing to do with +Palestine, but were taken over from the old Hellenic or Hellenistic +culture. But the residuum was less Jewish than Teutonic. On one side, +indeed, the Reformation was a return to Hellenism from Romanism. Early +Christian philosophy was mainly Platonic; early Christian ethics (as +exemplified especially in writers like Ambrose) were mainly Stoical. +There had been a considerable fusion of Plato and the Stoa among the +Neoplatonists, so that it was easy for the two to flourish together. +Augustine banished Stoical ethics from the Church, and they were revived +only at the Reformation. Calvinism is simply baptized Stoicism; it is +logically pantheistic, since it acknowledges only one effective will in +the universe. The creed of nineteenth-century science is very similar. +Puritanism was not at all like Judaism, in spite of its fondness for the +Old Testament; it was very like Stoicism. The Reformation was a revolt +against Latin theocracy and the hereditary paganism of the Mediterranean +peoples; it was not really a return to pre-Hellenic Christianity. It +sheltered the humanism of Erasmus and the late-flowering English +Renaissance, and Christian Platonism has nowhere had a more flourishing +record than in Protestant Britain. + +At the present time a more drastic revolt is in progress among the +_plebs urbana_, which does in truth threaten with destruction 'what we +owe to Greece'. The industrial revolution has generated a new type of +barbarism, with no roots in the past. For the second time in the history +of Western Europe, continuity is in danger of being lost. A generation +is growing up, not uneducated, but educated in a system which has little +connexion with European culture in its historical development. The +Classics are not taught; the Bible is not taught; history is not taught +to any effect. What is even more serious, there are no social +traditions. The modern townsman is _déraciné_: he has forgotten the +habits and sentiments of the village from which his forefathers came. An +unnatural and unhealthy mode of life, cut off from the sweet and +humanizing influences of nature, has produced an unnatural and unhealthy +mentality, to which we shall find no parallels in the past. Its chief +characteristic is profound secularity or materialism. The typical town +artisan has no religion and no superstitions; he has no ideals beyond +the visible and tangible world of the senses. This of course opens an +impassable gulf between him and Greek religion, and a still wider gulf +between him and Christianity. The attempts which are occasionally made, +especially in this country, to dress up the Labour movement as a return +to the Palestinian Gospel, are little short of grotesque. The contrast +is well summed up by Belfort Bax, in a passage quoted by Professor +Gardner. 'According to Christianity, regeneration must come from within. +The ethics and religion of modern socialism on the contrary look for +regeneration from without, from material conditions and a higher social +life.' Here the gauntlet is thrown down to Christ and Plato alike. + +Quite logically the new spirit is in revolt against what it calls +intellectualism, which means the application of the dry light of reason +to the problems of human life. It wishes to substitute for reason what +some of its philosophers call instinct, but which should rather be +called sentiment and emotion. There is no reconciliation between this +view of life and Hellenism. For science is the eldest and dearest child +of the Greek spirit. One of the great battles of the future will be +between science and its enemies. The misologists have numbers on their +side; but 'Nature', whom all the Greeks honoured and trusted, will be +justified in her children. + +The new spirit is especially bitter against the Stoical ethics, which as +we have seen were taken over, with the Platonic metaphysics, by +Christianity. Stoicism teaches men to venerate and obey natural law; to +accept with proud equanimity the misfortunes of life; to be beneficent, +but to inhibit the emotion of pity; to be self-reliant and +self-contained; to practise self-denial for the sake of self-conquest; +and to regard this life as a stern school of moral discipline. All this +is simply detestable to the new spirit, which is sentimental, +undisciplined, and hedonistic. It remembers the hardness of Puritanism, +and has no admiration for its virtues. + +It is often said that the modern man has entirely lost the Greek love of +beauty. This is, I think, untrue, and unjust to our present +civilization, unlovely as it undoubtedly is in many ways. It is curious +that modern critics of the Greeks have not called attention to the +_aesthetic_ obtuseness which showed itself in the defective reaction of +the ancients against cruelty. It was not that they excluded beautiful +actions from the sphere of aesthetics; they never thought of separating +the beautiful from the good in this way. But they were not disgusted at +the torture of slaves, the exposure of new-born children, or the +massacre of the population of a revolted city. The same callousness +appears in the Italian cities at the Renaissance; Ezzelino was a +contemporary of the great architects and painters. I cannot avoid the +conclusion that it is connected in some obscure way with the artistic +creativeness of these two closely similar epochs. The extreme +sensibility to physical suffering which characterizes modern +civilization arose together with industrialism, and is most marked in +the most highly industrialized countries. It has synchronized with the +complete eclipse of spontaneous and unconscious artistic production, +which we deplore in our time. Evelyn, in the seventeenth century, was +still able to visit a prison in Paris to gratify his curiosity by seeing +a prisoner tortured, and though he did not stay to the end of the +exhibition he shows that his stomach was not easily turned. It is +certain that our repugnance to such sights is aesthetic rather than +moral, and probable that it is strongest in the lower social strata. +Several years ago I went to the first night of a rather foolish play +about ancient Rome, in which an early Christian is brought in to be very +mildly tortured on the stage. At the first crack of the whip my +neighbours sprang from their seats, crying, 'Shame! Stop that!'; and the +scene had to be removed in subsequent performances. The operatives in a +certain factory stopped the engines for an hour because they heard a cat +mewing among the machinery. Having with difficulty rescued the animal +from being crushed they strangled it. The explanation of this extreme +susceptibleness must be left to psychologists; but I am convinced that +we have here a case of transferred aesthetic sensibility. We can walk +unmoved down the streets of Plaistow, but we cannot bear to see a horse +beaten. The Athenians set up no Albert Memorials, but they tortured +slave-girls in their law-courts and sent their prisoners to work in the +horrible galleries of the Laureion silver-mines. + +This emergence of a new spirit, which seems to be almost independent of +all traditions, makes it difficult to estimate our present indebtedness +to Greece in matters of religion. It would be difficult even if the +industrial revolution had not taken place. The northern Europeans have +hardly yet attained to self-expression. Their religion is a mixture of +Greek, Latin, and Hebrew elements which refuse to be harmonized, and +which in this country sometimes clash with the ideal of a gentleman, +that lay religion of the English-speaking peoples, which has no longer +any connexion with heraldry or property in land. The English gentleman +is not a Greek any more than he is a Jew. His code makes Odysseus an +amusing rascal; Achilles a violent and sulky savage; and Aristotle's +μεγαλοψυχος {megalopsychos} (as has been said) is rather like a nobleman +in a novel by Disraeli, but not like any other sort of gentleman. The +Englishman is by nature religious; but Christianity in its developed +form is a Mediterranean religion; in all external features it might have +been very different if it had been first planted north of the Alps. +There is, therefore, a chronic confusion in Protestantism which makes +its conflicts with the Latin Church like the battles of undisciplined +barbarians against well-drilled troops. + +Nevertheless, though it is so difficult to separate out the various +threads which make up the tangled skein of our modern religion, it may +be worth while to make the attempt to distinguish, first, those parts of +current Christianity which are not Greek, in the wide sense which I have +chosen for the word, and then those which, in the same sense, are Greek +by origin or affinity. + +Among those elements which are not Greek, the first place must be given +to the original Gospel, of which I have said nothing yet. Our records of +the Galilean ministry, contained in the three synoptic Gospels, were not +compiled till long after the events which they describe, and must not be +used uncritically. But in my opinion, at any rate, the substance of the +teaching of Christ comes out very clearly in these books. No Hellenic +influence can be traced in it; there is not even any sign of the +Hellenized Judaism which for us is represented by his contemporary +Philo. But neither is it possible to call the Gospel Jewish, except with +many qualifications. Christ came before his countrymen as a prophet; he +deliberately placed himself in the line of the prophetic tradition. +Like other prophets of his nation, he did not altogether eschew the +framework of apocalyptic which was at that time the natural mould for +prophecy. But he preached neither the popular nationalism, nor the +popular ecclesiasticism, nor the popular ethics. His countrymen rejected +him as soon as they understood him. The Gospel was, as St. Paul said, a +new creation. It is most significant that it at once introduced a new +ethical terminology. The Greek words which we translate love (or +charity), joy, peace, hope, humility, are no part of the stock-in-trade +of Greek moralists before Christ. Men do not coin new words for old +ideas. Taken as a whole the Gospel is profoundly original; and a +Christian can find strong evidence for his belief that in Christ a +revelation was made to humanity at large, in which the religion of the +Spirit, in its purest and most universal form, was for the first time +presented to mankind. This revelation has to a considerable extent +passed into the common consciousness of the civilized world; but its +implications in matters of conduct, individual, social, and +international, are still imperfectly understood and have never been +acted upon, except feebly and sporadically. It is a reproach to us that +the teaching of Christ must be regarded as only one of many elements +which make up what we call Christianity. The Quakers, as a body, seem to +me to come nearest to what a genuinely Christian society would be. + +Secondly, the Greeks escaped the evils of priestly government. The +Oriental type of theocracy, with which they were familiar in the Egypt +of the Pharaohs, was alien to their civilization. Their sacrifices were +for the most part of the genial type, a communion-meal with the god. But +even in Greece we must remember the gloomy chthonian rites, and the +degradations of Orphism mentioned by Plato in the _Republic_. 'They +persuade not only individuals but whole cities that expiations and +atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices and amusements which fill +a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and of the +dead; the latter sort they call mysteries, and they redeem us from the +pains of hell, but if we neglect them no one knows what awaits us.' This +exploitation of sacramentalism was common enough in Greece; but the +characteristic Caesaro-Papism of Byzantium and modern imperialism was +wholly foreign to Hellenism. It was introduced by Constantine as part of +the Orientalizing of the empire begun by Diocletian. As Seeley says, +'Constantine purchased an indefeasible title by a charter. He gave +certain liberties and received in return passive obedience. He gained a +sanction for the Oriental theory of government; in return he accepted +the law of the Church. He became irresponsible to his subjects on +condition of becoming responsible to Christ.' + +The Greeks never had a book-religion, in the sense in which Judaism +became, and Islam always was, a book-religion. But they were in some +danger of treating Homer and Hesiod as inspired scriptures. To us it is +plain that a long religious history lies behind Homer, and that the +treatment of the gods in Epic poetry proves that they had almost ceased +to be the objects of religious feeling. Some of them are even comic +characters, like the devil in Scottish folklore. To turn these poems +into sacred literature was to court the ridicule of the Christians. But +Homer was never supposed to contain 'the faith once delivered to the +saints'; no religion of authority could be built upon him, and Greek +speculation remained far more unfettered than the thought of Christendom +has been until our own day. + +Those who have observed the actual state of Christianity in +Mediterranean countries cannot lay much stress on the difference between +Christian monotheism and pagan polytheism. The early Church fought +against the tendency to interpose objects of worship between God and +man; but Mariolatry came in through a loophole, and the worship of the +masses in Roman Catholic countries is far more pagan than the +service-books. In the imagination of many simple Catholics, Jesus, Mary, +and Joseph are the chief potentates in their Olympus. + +The doctrine of the creation of the world in time, which was denied by +most pagan thinkers and affirmed by most Christian divines, belongs to +philosophy rather than to religion. The disbelief in the pre-existence +of the soul, a doctrine which for Greek thought stands or falls with the +belief in survival after death, is more important, and may be partly +attributable to Jewish influence. But pre-existence does not seem to +have been believed by the majority of Greeks, and in fact almost +disappears from Greek thought between Plato and the Neoplatonists. It is +possible that the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine may still have a +future. + +There are some who will insist that these differences are insignificant +by the side of the fact that Christianity was the idealistic side of a +revolt of the proletariat against the whole social order of the time. +This notion, which made Christ 'le bon sans-culotte', has again become +popular lately; some have even compared the early Christians with +Bolsheviks. It is a fair question to ask at what period this was even +approximately true. Christ and his apostles belonged to the prosperous +peasantry of Galilee, a well-educated and comfortable middle class. The +domestic slaves of wealthy Romans, who embraced the new faith in large +numbers, were legally defenceless, but by no means miserable or +degraded. After the second century the comparison of the Christians to +modern revolutionists becomes too absurd for discussion. There is a good +deal of rhetorical declamation about riches and poverty in the Christian +Fathers; but unfortunately the Church seems to have done very little to +protest against the crying economic injustices of the fourth and fifth +centuries. From first to last there was nothing of the 'Spartacus' +movement about the Catholic Church. As soon as the persecutions ceased, +the bishops took their place naturally among the nobility. + +When we turn to the obligations of modern religion to Greece, it is +difficult to know where to begin. + +The conception of philosophy as an _ars vivendi_ is characteristically +Greek. Nothing can be further from the truth than to call the Greeks +'intellectualists' in the disparaging sense in which the word is now +often used. The object of philosophy was to teach a man to live well, +and with that object to think rightly about God, the world, and himself. +This close union between metaphysics, morals, and religion has remained +as a permanent possession of the modern world. Every philosopher is now +expected to show the bearing of his system on morality and religion, and +the criticism is often justified that however bold the speculations of +the thinker, he is careful, when he comes to conduct, to be conventional +enough. The Hellenistic combination of Platonic metaphysics with Stoic +ethics is still the dominant type of Christian religious philosophy. It +is curious to observe how competing tendencies in these systems--the +praise of isolated detachment and of active social sympathy--have +continued to struggle against each other within the Christian Church. + +The place of asceticism in religion is so important, and so much has +been written rather unintelligently about the contrast between Hellenism +and Christianity in this matter, that I propose to deal with it, briefly +indeed, but with a little more detail than a strict attention to +proportion would justify. It has often been assumed that a nation of +athletes, who made heroes of Heracles and Theseus, Achilles and Hector, +could have had nothing but contempt for the ascetic ideal. But in truth +asceticism has a continuous history within Hellenism. Even Homer knows +of the priests of chilly Dodona, the Selli, whose bare feet are +unwashed, and who sleep on the ground. This is probably not, as +Wilamowitz-Moellendorff thinks, a description of savage life, but of an +ascetic school of prophets. For the fastdays which introduced the +Thesmophoria were observed by the Athenian matrons in the same way; they +went unshod and sat on the bare earth; and we may compare the +Nudipedalia, ordered by the Romans in time of dearth and mentioned by +Petronius and Tertullian. Prophets and prophetesses fasted at Miletus, +Colophon, and other places. National fasts were ordered in times of +calamity or danger, and Tarentum kept a yearly fast of thankfulness for +deliverance from a siege. The flagellation of boys at Sparta hardly +comes into account, being probably a substitute for human sacrifice; but +the continuance of the cruel rite till nearly the end of antiquity +causes surprise. The worship of Dionysus Zagreus in Thrace was +accompanied by ascetic practices before Pythagoras. Vegetarianism, which +has always played an important part in the ascetic life, was obligatory +on all Pythagoreans; but in this school there was another motive besides +the desire to mortify the flesh. Those who believe in the transmigration +of souls into the bodies of animals must regard flesh-eating as little +better than cannibalism. The Pythagorean and the Orphic rules of life +were well known throughout antiquity, and were probably obeyed by large +numbers. The rule of continence was far less strict than in the Catholic +'religious' life; but Empedocles, according to Hippolytus, advised +abstinence from marriage and procreation, and the tendency to regard +celibacy as part of the 'philosophic life' increased steadily. The Cynic +Antisthenes is quoted by Clement of Alexandria as having expressed a +wish to 'shoot Aphrodite, who has ruined so many virtuous women'. But +the asceticism of the early Cynics and of some Stoics was based not on +self-devotion and spirituality but on the desire for independence, and +often took repulsive forms. Of some among them it may be said that they +did not object to sensual pleasure, they only objected to having to pay +for it. Desire for self-sufficiency is always part of asceticism, but +in the Christian saints it has been a small part. The Greeks who +practised it were from first to last too anxious to be invulnerable; +this was the main attraction of the philosophic life from the time of +Antisthenes, and it remained the main attraction to the end. But +Cynicism and Stoicism (which tend to run together) became gentler, more +humane, and more spiritual under the Roman empire. Seneca, Epictetus, +and Marcus Aurelius often seem to be half Christian. Direct influence of +Christian ethics at this early period is perhaps unlikely; it is enough +to suppose that the spirit of the age affected in a similar way all +creeds and denominations. Self-mortification tended to assume more and +more violent forms, till it culminated in the strange aberrations of +Egyptian eremitism. It is impossible to regard these as either Greek or +Christian; they indicate a pathological state of society, which can be +partly but not entirely accounted for by the conditions of the time. +After a few centuries a far more wholesome type of monachism supplanted +the hermits; the anchorites of the Middle Ages retained the solitary +life, but were very unlike the crazy savages of the Thebaid. In modern +times, those who have been most under the Greek spirit have generally +lived with austere simplicity, but without any of the violent +self-discipline which is said to be still practised by some devout +Catholics. The assiduous practice of self-mastery and the most sparing +indulgence in the pleasures of sense are the 'philosophic life' which +the Greek spirit recommends as the highest. The best Greeks would blame +the life of an English clergyman, professor, or philosopher as too +self-indulgent; we often forget how frugally and hardily the Greeks +lived at all times. But here we have to consider the differences of +climate, and the apparent necessity of a rather generous diet for the +Nordic race. + +The influence of the Greek mysteries upon Christianity is a keenly +debated question, in which passion and prejudice play too large a part. +The information necessary for forming a judgement has been much enlarged +by recent discoveries in Egypt and elsewhere, and, as usually happens, +the importance of the new facts has been sometimes exaggerated. +Protestant theology has on the whole minimized the influence of the +mysteries, and has post-dated it, from an unwillingness to allow that +there was already a strong Catholic element in the Christianity of the +first century. Orthodox Catholicism has ignored it from different but +equally obvious motives. Modernist Catholicism has in my opinion +antedated the irruption of crude sacramentalism into the Church, and has +greatly overstated its importance in the religion of the first-century +Christians. This school practically denies anything more than a +half-accidental continuity between the preaching of the historical +Christ, whom they strangely suppose to have been a mere apocalyptist, +one of the many Messiahs or Mahdis who arose at this period in +Palestine, and the Catholic Church, which according to them belonged to +the same type of religion as the worship of Isis and Mithra. Another +bone of contention is the value of the mystery-religions of Greece. The +very able German scholars who have written on the subject, such as +Reitzenstein and still more Rohde, seem to me much too unsympathetic in +their treatment of the mystery-cults. Lastly, some competent critics +have lately urged that this side of Christianity owed more to +Judaism--Hellenized Judaism, of course--than has been hitherto supposed. + +Plato in the _Phaedo_ says that 'those who established our mysteries +declare that all who come to Hades uninitiated will lie in the mud; +while he who has been purified and initiated will dwell with the gods'. +For, as they say in the mysteries, 'Many are the thyrsus-bearers, but +few are the inspired'. This sacramentalism was not unchallenged, as we +have already seen from Plato himself. Diogenes is said to have asked +whether the robber Pataecion was better off in the other world than the +hero Epaminondas, because the former had been initiated, and the latter +had not. But Orphism, though liable to degradation, purified and +elevated the old Bacchic rites. As Miss Harrison says, the Bacchanals +hoped to attain unity with God by intoxication, the Orphics by +abstinence. The way to salvation was now through 'holiness' (ὁσιοτης +{hosiotês}). To the initiated the assurance was given, 'Happy and +blessed one! Thou shalt be a god instead of a mortal.' To be a god meant +for a Greek simply to be immortal; the Orphic saint was delivered from +the painful cycle of recurring births and deaths. And Orphic purity was +mainly, though not entirely, the result of moral discipline. Cumont says +that the mystery-cults brought with them two new things--mysterious +means of purification by which they proposed to cleanse away the +defilements of the soul, and the assurance that an immortality of bliss +would be the reward of piety. The truth, says Mr. H. A. Kennedy, was +presented to them in the guise of divine revelations, esoteric doctrines +to be carefully concealed from the gaze of the profane, doctrines which +placed in their hands a powerful apparatus for gaining deliverance from +the assaults of malicious demonic influences, and above all for +overcoming the relentless tyranny of fate. This demonology was believed +everywhere under the Roman empire, the period of which Mr. Kennedy is +thinking in this sentence, and it has unfortunately left more traces in +St. Paul's epistles than we like to allow. The formation of brotherhoods +for mystic worship was also an important step in the development of +Greek religion. These brotherhoods were cosmopolitan, and seem to have +flourished especially at great seaports. They were thoroughly popular, +drawing most of their support from the lower classes, and within them +national and social distinctions were ignored. Their ultimate aim cannot +be summed up better than in Mr. Kennedy's words--'to raise the soul +above the transiency of perishable matter through actual union with the +Divine'. It has been usual to distinguish between the dignified and +officially recognized mysteries, like those of Eleusis, and the +independent voluntary associations, some of which became important. But +there was probably no essential difference between them. In neither case +was there much definite teaching; the aim, as Aristotle says, was to +produce a certain emotional state (ου μαθειν τι δειν αλλα παθειν {ou +mathein ti dein alla pathein}). A passion-play was enacted amid the most +impressive surroundings, and we need not doubt that the moral effect was +beneficial and sometimes profound. When the Egyptian mysteries of Isis +and Osiris were fused with the Hellenic, a type of worship was evolved +which was startlingly like Christianity. A famous Egyptian text contains +the promise: 'As truly as Osiris lives, shall he [the worshipper] live; +as truly as Osiris is not dead, shall he not die.' The thanksgiving to +Isis at the end of the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius is very beautiful in +itself, though it is an odd termination of a licentious novel. The +Hermetic literature also contains doctrine of a markedly Johannine type, +as notably in a prayer to Isis: 'Glorify me, as I have glorified the +name of thy son Horus.' I agree with those critics (Cumont, Zielinski, +and others) who attach the 'higher' Hermetic teaching to genuinely +Hellenic sources. But it is not necessary to ascribe all the higher +teaching to Greece and the lower to Egypt. + +Much of St. Paul's theology belongs to the same circle of ideas as these +mysteries. Especially important is the psychology which divides human +nature into spirit, soul, and body, spirit being the divine element into +which those who are saved are transformed by the 'knowledge of God'. +This knowledge is a supernatural gift, which (in the _Poimandres_) +confers 'deification'. St. Paul usually prefers 'Pneuma' as the name of +this highest part of human nature; in the Hermetic literature it is not +easy to distinguish between Pneuma and Nous, which holds exactly the +same place in Neoplatonism. The notion of salvation as consisting in the +knowledge of God is not infrequent in St. Paul; compare, for example, 1 +Cor. xiii. 12 and a still more important passage, Phil. ii. 8-10. This +knowledge was partly communicated by visions and revelations, to which +St. Paul attributed some importance; but on the whole he is consistent +in treating knowledge as the crown and consummation of faith. The +pneumatic transformation of the personality is the centre of St. Paul's +eschatology. 'Though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed +day by day.' The 'spiritual body' is the vehicle of the transformed +personality; for 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God'. +The expression 'to be born again' is common in the mystery literature. + +It would be easy to find many other parallels in St. Paul's epistles, in +the Johannine books which are the best commentary upon them, and in the +theology of the Greek Fathers, which prove the close connexion of early +Christianity with the mystery-religions of the empire. Twenty years ago +it might have been worth while to draw out these resemblances in greater +detail, even in so summary a survey as this. But at present the tendency +is, if not to over-estimate the debt of the Christian religion to +Hellenistic thought and worship, at any rate to ignore the great +difference between the higher elements in the mystery-religions, which +the new faith could gladly and readily assimilate, and the lower type, +the theosophy, magic, and theurgy, which was not in the line of Hellenic +development, and is not to be found in the New Testament. Wendland, +always a judicious critic, has said very truly that St. Paul stands to +the mystery-religions as Plato to Orphism; they are not the centre of +his religious life, but they gave him effective forms of expression for +his religious experience. Or, as Weinel says, 'St. Paul's doctrine of +the Spirit and of Christ is not an imitation of mystery-doctrine, but +inmost personal experience metaphysically interpreted after the manner +of his time.' Writers like Loisy, who say that for St. Paul Jesus was +'a Saviour God, after the manner of Osiris, Attis, or Mithra', and who +proceed to draw out obvious parallels between the sufferings, death, and +resurrection of these mythological personages and the gospels of the +Christian Church, surely forget that St. Paul was a Jew, and that there +are some transformations of which the religious mind is incapable. He +never speaks of Christ as a 'Saviour God'. Even more perverse are the +arguments which are used to prove that the centre of St. Paul's religion +was a gross and materialistic sacramental magic. The apostle, whose +antipathy to ritual in every shape is stamped upon all his writings, who +thanks God that he baptized very few of the Corinthians, who declares +that 'Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the Gospel', is +accused of regarding baptism as 'an _opus operatum_ which secures a +man's admission into the kingdom apart from the character of his future +conduct'. And yet in the Epistle to the Romans, as Weinel says, 'baptism +only once enters his mind, and the Lord's Supper not even once'. Baptism +for him is no _opus operatum_, but a ceremony of social significance, a +symbol conditioning a deeper experience of divine grace, already +embraced by faith. These same critics proceed to illustrate St. Paul's +doctrine of the Lord's Supper by references to the religion of the +Aztecs and other barbarians. But it is hardly worth while to argue with +those who suppose that a man with St. Paul's upbringing and culture +could have dallied with the notion of 'eating a god'. The 'table of the +Lord' is the table at which the Lord is the spiritual host, not the +table on which his flesh is placed. Does any one suppose that 'the table +of demons' which is contrasted with the 'table of the Lord' is the table +at which demons are eaten? Demons had no bodies, as we learn from the +ουκ ειμι δαιμονιον ασωματον {ouk eimi daimonion asômaton} of a +well-known passage in a New Testament manuscript. + +Crude sacramentalism certainly came in later. Its parentage may be +traced, if we will, to those mystery-mongers whom Plato mentions with +disapproval. If Hellenism is the name of a way of thinking, this form of +religion is not healthy Hellenism; that it was held by many Hellenes +cannot be denied. + +The biblical doctrine of the Fall of Man, which the Hebrews would never +have evolved for themselves, remained an otiose dogma in Jewish +religion. It was revivified in Christianity under Greek influence. Man, +as Empedocles and others had taught, was 'an exile and vagabond from +God'; his body was his tomb; he is clothed in 'an alien garment of +flesh'. He is in a fallen state and needs redemption. Hellenism had +become a religion of redemption; the empire was quite ready to accept +this part of Christian doctrine. The sin of Adam became the first scene +in the great drama of humanity, which led up to the Atonement. At the +same time the whole process was never mere history; its deepest meaning +was enacted in the life-story of each individual. Greek thought gave +this turn to dogmas which for a Jew would have been a flat historical +recital. In modern times the earlier scenes in the story, at any rate, +are looked upon as little more than the dramatization of the normal +experience of a human soul. But Greek thought, while it remained true to +type, never took sin so tragically as Christianity has done. The +struggle against evil has become sterner than it ever was for the +Greeks. It must, however, be remembered that the large majority of +professing Christians do not trouble themselves much about their sins, +and that the best of the Greeks were thoroughly in earnest in seeking to +amend their lives. + +Redemption was brought to earth by a Redeemer who was both God and Man. +This again was in accordance with Greek ideas. The Mediator between God +and Man must be fully divine, since an intermediate Being would be in +touch with neither side. The victory of Athanasius was in no sense a +defeat for Hellenism. The only difficulty for a Greek thinker was that +an Incarnate God ought to be impassible. This was a puzzle only for +philosophers; popular religion saw no difficulty in a _Christus +patiens_. The doctrine of the Logos brought Christianity into direct +affinity with both Platonism and Stoicism, and the Second Person of the +Trinity was invested with the same attributes as the Nous of the +Neoplatonists. But the attempts to equate the Trinity with the three +divine hypostases of Plotinus was no more successful than the later +attempt of Hegel to set the Trinity in the framework of his philosophy. + +The subject of eschatology is so vast that it is hopeless to deal with +it, even in the most summary fashion, in one paragraph. It is usually +said that the resurrection of the body is a Jewish doctrine, the +immortality of the soul a Greek doctrine. But the Jews were very slow to +bring the idea of a future life into their living faith; to this day it +does not seem to be of much importance in Judaism. Some form of +Millenarianism--a reign of the saints on earth--would seem to be the +natural form for Jewish hopes to take. This belief, which was the +earliest mould into which the treasure of the new revelation was poured, +has never quite disappeared from the Church, and in times of excitement +and upheaval it tends to reassert itself. The maturest Greek philosophy +regards eternity as the divine mode of existence, while mortals are +born, live, and die in time. Man is a microcosm, in touch with every +rung of the ladder of existence; and he is potentially a 'participator' +in the divine mode of existence, which he can make his own by living, so +far as may be, in detachment from the vain shadows and perishable goods +of earth. That this conception of immortality has had a great influence +upon Christian thought and practice needs no demonstration. It is and +always has been the religion of the mystic. But the Orphic tradition, +with its pictures of purgatory and of eternal bliss and torment, has on +the whole dominated the other two in popular Christian belief. It has +been stripped of its accessories--the belief in reincarnation and the +transmigration of souls, doctrines which maintain a somewhat uneasy +existence within the scheme of the Neoplatonists. The picture of future +retribution is even more terrifying without them. Both the philosophical +and the popular beliefs about the other world are far more Greek than +Jewish; but the attempt to hold these very discrepant beliefs together +has reduced Christian eschatology to extreme confusion, and many +Christians have given up the attempt to formulate any theories about +what are called the four last things. On such a mysterious subject, +definiteness is neither to be expected nor desired. The original Gospel +does not encourage the natural curiosity of man to know his future fate; +and the three types of eschatology which we have described have all +their value as representing different aspects of religious faith and +hope. We must after all confess the truth of St. Paul's words, that 'eye +hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of +man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love +him'. The same apostle reminds us that 'now we see through a mirror, in +riddles, and know only in part'; the face to face vision, and the +knowledge which unites the knower and the known, may be ours when we +have finished our course. In these words, which recall Plato's famous +myth of the Cave, St. Paul is fundamentally at one with the Platonists; +and it may well be that it is by this path that our contemporaries may +recover that belief in eternal life which is at present burning very +dimly among us. + +In conclusion, what has the religion of the Greeks to teach us that we +are most in danger of forgetting? In a word, it is the faith that Truth +is our friend, and that the knowledge of Truth is not beyond our reach. +Faith in honest seeking (ζητησις {zêtêsis}) is at the heart of the Greek +view of life. 'Those who would rightly judge of truth', says Aristotle, +'must be arbitrators, not litigants'. 'Happy is he who has learnt the +value of research' (ἱστορια {historia}), says Euripides in a fragment. +Curiosity, as the Greeks knew and the Middle Ages knew not, is a +virtue, not a vice. Nature, for Plato, is God's vicegerent and revealer, +the Soul of the universe. Human nature is the same nature as the divine; +no one has proclaimed this more strongly. Nature is for us; chaos and +'necessity' are the enemy. The divorce between religion and humanism +began, it must be admitted, under Plato's successors, who unhappily were +indifferent to natural science, and did not even follow the best light +that was to be had in physical knowledge. In the Dark Ages, when the +link with Greece was broken, the separation became absolute. The +luxuriant mythology of the early Greeks was not unscientific. In the +absence of knowledge gaps were filled up by the imagination, and the +'method of trial and error'. The dramatic fancy which creates myths is +the raw material of both poetry and science. Of course religious myths +may come to be a bar to progress in science; they do so when, in a +rationalizing age, the question comes to be one of fact or fiction. It +is a mistake to suppose that the faith of a 'post-rational' age, to use +a phrase of Santayana, can be the same as that of an unscientific age, +even when it uses the same formulas. The Greek spirit itself is now +calling us away from some of the vestments of Greek tradition. The +choice before us is between a 'post-rational' traditionalism, +fundamentally sceptical, pragmatistic, and intellectually dishonest, and +a trust in reason which rests really on faith in the divine Logos, the +self-revealing soul of the universe. It is the belief of the present +writer that the unflinching eye and the open mind will bring us again to +the feet of Christ, to whom Greece, with her long tradition of free and +fearless inquiry, became a speedy and willing captive, bringing her +manifold treasures to Him, in the well-grounded confidence that He was +not come to destroy but to fulfil. + +W. R. INGE. + + + + +PHILOSOPHY + + +If we consider the philosophical tendencies of the day, we shall +probably observe first of all that the artificial wall of partition +between philosophy and science--and especially mathematical science--is +beginning to wear very thin. On the other hand, we cannot fail to notice +a reaction against what is called intellectualism. This reaction takes +many forms, the most characteristic perhaps of which is a renewed +interest in Mysticism. It leads also to a strong insistence on the +practical aspect of philosophic thought, and to a view of its bearing on +what had been regarded as primarily theoretical issues, which is known +by the rather unfortunate name of Pragmatism. Now it is just on these +points that we have most to learn from the Greeks, and Greek philosophy +is therefore of special importance for us at the present time. At its +best, it was never divorced from science, while it found a way of +reconciling itself both with the interests of the practical life and +with mysticism without in any way abating the claims of the intellect. +It is solely from these points of view that it is proposed to regard +Greek philosophy here. It would be futile to attempt a summary of the +whole subject in the space available, and such a summary would have no +value. Many things will therefore be passed over in silence which are +important in themselves and would have to be fully treated in a complete +account. All that can be done now is to indicate the points at which +Greek philosophy seems to touch our actual problems. It will be seen +that here, as elsewhere, 'all history is contemporary history', and that +the present can only be understood in the light of the past. + +The word 'philosophy' is Greek and so is the thing it denotes. Unless we +are to use the term in so wide a sense as to empty it of all special +meaning, there is no evidence that philosophy has ever come into +existence anywhere except under Greek influences. In particular, +mystical speculation based on religious experience is not itself +philosophy, though it has often influenced philosophy profoundly, and +for this reason the pantheism of the _Upanishads_ cannot be called +philosophical. It is true that there is an Indian philosophy, and indeed +the Hindus are the only ancient people besides the Greeks who ever had +one, but Indian science was demonstrably borrowed from Greece after the +conquest of Alexander, and there is every reason to believe that those +Indian systems which can be regarded as genuinely philosophical are a +good deal more recent still. On the other hand, the earliest +authenticated instance of a Greek thinker coming under Indian influence +is that of Pyrrho (326 B. C.), and what he brought back from the East +was rather the ideal of quietism than any definite philosophical +doctrine. The barrier of language was sufficient to prevent any +intercourse on important subjects, for neither the Greeks nor the +Indians cared to learn any language but their own. Of course philosophy +may culminate in theology, and the best Greek philosophy certainly does +so, but it begins with science and not with religion. + +By philosophy the Greeks meant a serious endeavour to understand the +world and man, having for its chief aim the discovery of the right way +of life and the conversion of people to it. It would not, however, be +true to say that the word had always borne this special sense. At any +rate the corresponding verb (φιλοσοφειν {philosophein}) had at first a +far wider range. For instance, Herodotus (i. 30) makes Croesus say that +Solon had travelled far and wide 'as a philosopher' (φιλοσοφεων +{philosopheôn}), and it is clear from the context that this refers to +that love of travel for the sake of the 'wonders' to be seen in strange +lands which was so characteristic of the Ionian Greeks in the fifth +century B. C. That is made quite plain by the phrase 'for the sake of +sightseeing' (θεωριης ἑινεκεν {theôriês heineken}) with which the word +is coupled. Again, when Thucydides (ii. 40) makes Pericles say of his +fellow citizens 'we follow philosophy without loss of manliness' +(φιλοσοφουμεν ανευ μαλακιας {philosophoumen aneu malakias}), it is +certainly not of philosophy in the special sense he is thinking. He is +only contrasting the culture of Athens with the somewhat effeminate +civilization of the Ionians in Asia Minor. Even in the next century, +Isocrates tried to revert to this wider sense of the word, and he +regularly uses it of the art of political journalism which he imparted +to his pupils. + +Tradition ascribes the first use of the term 'philosophy' in the more +restricted sense indicated above to Pythagoras of Samos, an Ionian who +founded a society for its cultivation in southern Italy in the latter +half of the sixth century B. C. It is notoriously difficult to make any +positive statements about Pythagoras, seeing that he wrote nothing; but +it is safer on general grounds to ascribe the leading ideas of the +system to the master rather than to his followers. Moreover, this +particular tradition is confirmed by the fact, for which there is +sufficient evidence, that the name 'philosophers' originally designated +the Pythagoreans in a special way. For instance, we know that Zeno of +Elea (_c._ 450 B. C.) wrote a book 'Against the Philosophers', and in +his mouth that can only mean 'Against the Pythagoreans'. Now the +Pythagorean use of the term depends on a certain way of regarding man, +which there is good reason for ascribing to Pythagoras himself. It has +become more or less of a commonplace now, but we must try to seize it in +its original freshness if we wish to understand the associations the +word 'philosophy' came to have for the Greeks. To state it briefly, it +is the view that man is something intermediate between God and 'the +other animals' (ταλλα ζωα {talla zôa}). As compared with God, he is +'mere man', liable to error and death (both of which are spoken of as +specially _human_, ανθρωπινα {anthrôpina}); as compared with 'the other +animals', he is kindly and capable of civilization. The Latin word +_humanus_ took over this double meaning, which is somewhat arbitrarily +marked in English by the spellings _human_ and _humane_. Now it is clear +that, for a being subject to error and death, wisdom (σοφια {sophia}) in +the full sense is impossible; that is for God alone. On the other hand, +man cannot be content, like 'the other animals' to remain in ignorance. +If he cannot be wise, he can at least be 'a lover of wisdom', and it +follows that his chief end will be 'assimilation to God so far as +possible' (ὁμοιωσις τω θεω κατα το δυνατον {homoiôsis tô theô kata to +dynaton}), as Plato put it in the _Theaetetus_. The mathematical studies +of the Pythagoreans soon brought them face to face with the idea of a +constant approximation which never reaches its goal. There is, then, +sufficient ground for accepting the tradition which makes Pythagoras the +author of this special sense of the word 'philosophy' and for connecting +it with the division of living creatures into God, men and 'the other +animals'. If the later Pythagoreans went a step further and classified +rational animals into gods, men and 'such as Pythagoras', that was due +to the enthusiasm of discipleship, and is really a further indication of +the genuinely Pythagorean character of this whole range of ideas. We may +take it, then, that the word 'philosophy' had acquired its special sense +in southern Italy before the beginning of the fifth century B. C. + +It is even more certain that this sense was well known at Athens, at +least in certain circles, not long after the middle of the fifth +century. To all appearance, this was the work of Socrates (470-399 +B.C.). Whatever view may be taken of the philosophy of Socrates or of +its relation to that expounded in Plato's earlier dialogues (a point +which need not be discussed here), it is at least not open to question +that he was personally intimate with the leading Pythagoreans who had +taken refuge at Thebes and at Phlius in the Peloponnesus when their +society came to be regarded as a danger to the state at Croton and +elsewhere in southern Italy. That happened about the middle of the fifth +century, and Socrates must have made the acquaintance of these men not +long after. At that time it would be quite natural for them to visit +Athens; but, after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431 B. C.), +all intercourse with them must have ceased. They were resident in enemy +states, and Socrates was fighting for his country. With the exception of +the brief interval of the Peace of Nicias (421 B. C.), he can have seen +nothing of them for years. Nevertheless it is clear that they did not +forget him; for we must accept Plato's statement in the _Phaedo_ that +many of the most distinguished philosophers of the time came to Athens +to be with Socrates when he was put to death, and that those of them who +could not come were eager to hear a full account of what happened. It is +highly significant that, even before this, two young disciples of the +Pythagorean Philolaus, Simmias and Cebes, had come from Thebes and +attached themselves to Socrates. For that we have the evidence of +Xenophon as well as of Plato, and Xenophon's statement is of real value +here; for it was just during these few years that he himself associated +with Socrates, though he saw him for the last time a year or two before +his trial and death. Whatever other inferences may be drawn from these +facts, they are sufficient to prove that Socrates had become acquainted +with some of the leading philosophers of the Greek world before he was +forty, and to make it highly probable that it was he who introduced the +word 'philosophy' in its Pythagorean sense to the Athenians. + +So much for the word; we have next to ask how there came to be such a +thing as philosophy at all. It has been mentioned that Pythagoras was an +Ionian, and we should naturally expect to find that he brought at least +the beginnings of what he called philosophy from eastern Hellas. Now it +has been pointed out that Greek philosophy was based on science, and +science originated at Miletus on the mainland of Asia Minor nearly +opposite the island of Samos, which was the original home of Pythagoras. +The early Milesians were, in fact, men of science rather than +philosophers in the strict sense. The two things were not differentiated +yet, however, and the traditional account of the matter, according to +which Greek philosophy begins with Thales (_c._ 585 B. C.), is after all +quite justified. The rudimentary mathematical science of which, as +explained elsewhere in this volume, he was the originator in fact led +him and his successors to ask certain questions about the ultimate +nature of reality, and these questions were the beginning of philosophy +on its theoretical side. It is true that the Milesians were unable to +give any but the crudest answers to these questions, and very likely +they did not realise their full importance. These early inquirers only +wanted to know what the world was made of and how it worked, but the +complete break with mythology and traditional views which they effected +cleared the way for everything that followed. It was no small thing that +they were able to discard the old doctrine of what were afterwards known +as the 'elements'--Fire, Air, Earth, and Water--and to regard all these +as states of a single substance, which presented different appearances +according as it was more or less rarefied or condensed. Moreover, +Anaximander at least (_c._ 546 B. C.), the successor of Thales, shook +himself free of the idea that the earth required support of some kind to +keep in its place. He held that it swung free in space and that it +remained where it was because there was no reason for it to fall in one +direction rather than another. In general these early cosmologists saw +that weight was not an inherent quality of bodies and that it could not +be used to explain anything. On the contrary, weight was itself the +thing to be explained. Anaximander also noted the importance of rotary +or vortex motion in the cosmical scheme, and he inferred that there +might be an indefinite number of rotating systems in addition to that +with which we are immediately acquainted. He also made some very +important observations of a biological character, and he announced that +man must be descended from an animal of a different species. The young +of most animals, he said, can find their food at once, while that of the +human species requires a prolonged period of nursing. If, then, man had +been originally such as he is now, he could never have survived. All +this, no doubt, is rudimentary science rather than philosophy, but it +was the beginning of philosophy in this sense, that it completely +transformed the traditional view of the world, and made the raising of +more ultimate problems inevitable. + +This transformation was effected in complete independence of religion. +What we may call secularism was, in fact, characteristic of all eastern +Ionian science to the end. We must not be misled by the fact that +Anaximander called his innumerable worlds 'gods' and that his successor +Anaximenes spoke of Air as a 'god'. These were never the gods of any +city and were never worshipped by any one, and they did not therefore +answer at all to what the ordinary Greek meant by a god. The use of the +term by the Milesians means rather that the place once occupied by the +gods of religion was now being taken by the great fundamental phenomena +of nature, and the later Greeks were quite right, from their own point +of view, in calling that atheism. Aristophanes characterizes this way of +speaking very accurately indeed in the _Clouds_ when he makes +Strepsiades sum up the teaching he has received in the words 'Vortex has +driven out Zeus and reigns in his stead', and when he makes Socrates +swear by 'Chaos, Respiration and Air'. So too the Milesians spoke of the +primary substance as 'ageless and deathless', which is a Homeric phrase +used to mark the difference between gods and men, but this only means +that the emotion formerly attached to the divine was now being +transferred to the natural. + +The Milesians, then, had formed the conception of an eternal matter out +of which all things are produced and into which all things return, and +the conception of Matter belongs to philosophy rather than to science. +But besides this they had laid the foundations of geometry, and that led +in other hands to the formulation of the correlative conception of Limit +or Form. It is needless to enumerate here the Milesian and Pythagorean +contributions to plane geometry; it will be sufficient to remind the +reader that they covered most of the ground of _Euclid_, Books I, II, +IV, and VI, and probably also of Book III. In addition, Pythagoras +founded Arithmetic, that is, the scientific theory of numbers +(αριθμητικη {arithmêtikê}), as opposed to the practical art of +calculation (λογιστικη {logistikê}). We also know that he discovered the +sphericity of the earth, and the numerical ratios of the intervals +between the concordant notes of the octave. It is obvious that he was a +scientific genius of the first order, and it is also clear that his +methods included those of observation and experiment. The discovery of +the earth's spherical shape was due to observation of eclipses, and that +of the intervals of the octave can only have been based on experiments +with a stretched string, though the actual experiments attributed by +tradition to Pythagoras are absurd. It was no doubt this last discovery +that led him to formulate his doctrine in the striking saying 'Things +are numbers', thus definitely giving the priority to the element of form +or limit instead of to the indeterminate matter of his predecessors. + +Pythagoras further differed from his predecessors in one respect which +proved of vital moment. So far was he from ignoring religion, that he +founded a society in southern Italy which was primarily a religious +community. It is quite possible that he was influenced by the growth of +the Orphic societies which had begun to spread everywhere in the course +of the sixth century, but his religion differed from the Orphic in many +ways. In particular, Apollo and not Dionysus was the chief god of the +Pythagoreans, and all our evidence points to the conclusion that +Pythagoras brought his religion, as he had brought his science, from +eastern Hellas, though rather from the islands of the Aegean than from +mainland Ionia. He was much influenced, we can still see, by certain +traditions of the temple of Delos, which had become the religious centre +of the Ionic world. There had, of course, been plenty of religious +speculation among the Greeks before Pythagoras, and it was of a type not +unlike that we find in India, though there are insuperable difficulties +in the way of assuming any Aegean influence on India or any Indian +influence on the Aegean at this date. It may be that the beginnings of +such ideas go back to the time when the Greeks and the Hindus were +living together, though it is still more likely that both the Greeks and +the Indians were affected by a movement originating in the north, which +brought to both of them a new view of the soul. The Delian legend of the +Hyperboreans may be thought to point in this direction. However that may +be, the main purpose of the religious observances practised by the +Orphics and Pythagoreans alike was to secure by means of 'purifications' +(καθαρμοι {katharmoi}) the ransom (λυσις {lysis}) of the soul, which was +regarded as a fallen god, from the punishment of imprisonment in +successive bodies. There is no reason to suppose that Pythagoras +displayed any particular originality in this part of his teaching. It +all depends on the doctrine of transmigration or rebirth (παλιγγενεσια +{palingenesia}), which is often incorrectly designated by the late and +inaccurate term 'metempsychosis'. There is no doubt that Pythagoras +taught this, and also the rule of abstinence from animal flesh which is +its natural corollary, but such ideas had been well known in many parts +of Greece before his time. The real difficulty is to see the connexion +between all this and his scientific work. Here we are of course confined +to inferences from what we are told by later writers; but, if the +doctrine which Plato makes Socrates expound in the early part of the +_Phaedo_ is Pythagorean, as it is generally supposed to be, we may say +that what Pythagoras did was to teach that, while the ordinary methods +of purification were well enough in their way, the best and truest +purification for the soul was just scientific study. It is only in some +such way as this that we can explain the religious note which is +characteristic of all the best Greek science. It involves the doctrine +that the Theoretic Life is the highest way of life for man, a belief +still held by Plato and Aristotle, and to which we shall have to return. +We may note at once, however, that it is not an 'intellectualist' ideal. +There is no question of idle contemplation; it is a strenuous way of +life, the aim of which is the soul's salvation, and it gives rise to an +eager desire to convert other men. Just for that reason, the Pythagorean +philosopher will take part in practical life when the opportunity +offers, and he will even rule the state if called upon to do so. The +Pythagorean society was a proselytizing body from the first, and it +tried to bring in all it could reach, without distinction of +nationality, social position, or sex (for women played a great part in +it from the first). It was precisely its zeal for the reform of human +life, and its attempt to set up a Rule of the Saints in the cities of +southern Italy that led to its unpopularity. If the Pythagoreans had +contented themselves with idle speculation, they would not have been +massacred or forced to take refuge in flight, a fate which overtook them +before the middle of the fifth century. + +It soon proved, however, that the Pythagorean doctrine in its entirety +was too high a one for its adherents, and a rift between Pythagorean +religion and Pythagorean science was inevitable. Those who were capable +of appreciating the scientific side of the movement would tend more and +more to neglect the religious rule which it prescribed, and we find +accordingly that before the end of the fifth century the leading +Pythagoreans, the men whose names we know, are first of all men of +science, and more and more inclined to drop what they doubtless regarded +as the superstitious side of the doctrine. In the end they were absorbed +in the new philosophical schools which arose at Athens. The mass of the +faithful, on the other hand, took no interest in arithmetic, geometry, +music, and astronomy, and with them to follow Pythagoras meant to go +barefoot and to abstain from animal flesh and beans. These continued the +tradition even after scientific Pythagoreanism had become extinct as +such, and they were a favourite subject of ridicule with the comic poets +of the fourth century B. C. + +It is easy for us to see now that all this indicates a real weakness in +Pythagoreanism. Science and religion are not to be brought into union by +a simple process of juxtaposition. We do not know how far Pythagoras +himself was conscious of the ambiguity of his position; it would not be +surprising if he came to feel it towards the end of his life, and we +know for certain that he lived long enough to witness the beginnings of +the revolt against his society in Croton and elsewhere. It is for this +reason that he removed to Metapontum where he died, and where Cicero was +able to visit his tomb long afterwards. We shall see later what the weak +point in his system was, and we shall have to consider how the discord +he had left unresolved was ultimately overcome. For the present, it is +more important to note that he was the real founder both of science, and +of philosophy as we understand them now. It is specially true of science +that it is the first steps which are the most difficult, and Pythagoras +left a sufficient achievement in mathematics behind him for others to +elaborate. The Greeks took less than three centuries to complete the +edifice, and that was chiefly due to Pythagoras, who had laid the +foundations truly and well. + +We have now seen how the two great conceptions of Matter and Form were +reached; the next problem Greek philosophy had to face was that of +Motion. At first the fact of movement had simply been taken for granted. +The Ionian tendency was to see motion everywhere; it was rest that had +to be explained, or rather the appearance of it. However, when the new +conception of an eternal matter began to be taken seriously, +difficulties made themselves felt at once. If reality was regarded as +continuous, it appeared that there was no room for anything else, not +even for empty space, which could only be identified with the unreal, +and it was easy to show that the unreal could not exist. But, if there +is no empty space, it seems impossible that there should be any motion, +and the world of which we suppose ourselves to be aware must be an +illusion. Such, briefly stated, was the position taken up by another +Ionian of southern Italy, Parmenides of Elea (_c._ 475 B. C.), who had +begun as a Pythagorean, but had been led to apply the rigorous method of +reasoning introduced into geometry with such success by the Pythagoreans +to the old question of the nature of the world which had occupied the +Milesians. The remarkable thing about the earliest geometers is, in +fact, that they did not formulate the conception of Space, which seems +to us at the present day fundamental. They were able to avoid it because +they possessed the conception of Matter, and regarded Air as the normal +state of the material substratum. The confusion of air with empty space +is, of course, a natural one, though it may be considered surprising +that it should not have been detected by the founders of geometrical +science. Such failures to draw all the consequences from a new discovery +are common enough, however, in the history of scientific thought. + +Parmenides cleared up this ambiguity, not by affirming the existence of +empty space, but by denying the possibility of such a thing, even before +it had been asserted by any one. He saw that the Pythagoreans really +implied it, though they were quite unconscious of the fact. He is +interesting to us as the first philosopher who thought of expounding his +system in verse. It was not a very happy thought, as the arguments in +which he deals do not readily lend themselves to this mode of +expression, and we may be thankful that none of his successors except +Empedocles followed his example. It has the very great inconvenience of +making it necessary to use different words for the same thing to suit +the exigencies of metre. And if there ever was an argument that demanded +precise statement, it was that of Parmenides. As it is, his poem has the +faults we should look for in a metrical version of Euclid. On the other +hand, Parmenides is the first philosopher of whom we have sufficient +remains to enable us to follow a continuous argument; for we have +nothing of Pythagoras at all, and only detached fragments of the rest. +We can see that he was ready to follow the argument wherever it might +lead. He took the conception of matter which had been elaborated by his +predecessors and he showed that, if it is to be taken seriously, it must +lead to the conclusion that reality is continuous, finite, and +spherical, with nothing outside it and no empty space within it. For +such a reality motion is impossible, and the world of the senses is +therefore an illusion. Of course that was not a result in which it was +possible for men to acquiesce for long, and historically speaking, the +Eleatic doctrine must be regarded as a _reductio ad absurdum_ of earlier +speculation. There is no reason to believe, however, that Parmenides +himself meant it to be understood in this way. He believed firmly that +he had found the truth. + +Several attempts were made to escape the conclusions of Parmenides, and +they all start by abandoning the assumption of the homogeneity and +continuity of matter which had been implicit in the earlier systems, +though it was first brought to the light of day by Parmenides. Here +again the influence of contemporary science on philosophic thought is +clearly marked. Empedocles of Agrigentum (_c._ 460 B. C.), the only +citizen of a Dorian state who finds a place in the early history of +science and philosophy, was the founder of the Sicilian school of +medicine, and it was probably his pre-occupation with that science that +led him to revive the old doctrine of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, which +the Milesians had cast aside, but which lent itself readily to the +physiological theories of the day. He did not use the word afterwards +translated 'elements' (στοιχεια {stoicheia}) for these. It means +literally 'letters of the alphabet', and appears to have been first +employed in this connexion by the Pythagoreans at a later date, when +they found it necessary to take account of the new theory. Empedocles +spoke of the 'four roots' of things, and by this he meant to imply that +these four forms of matter were equally original and altogether +disparate. That furnished at least a partial answer to the arguments of +Parmenides, which depended on the assumption that matter was +homogeneous. He also found it necessary to assume two sources of motion +or forces, as we might call them, though Empedocles thought of them as +substances, one of which tended to separate the 'four roots' and the +other to combine them. These he called Love and Strife, and he supposed +the life of the world to take the form of alternate cycles, in which one +or the other prevailed in turn. In all this he was plainly influenced by +his physiological studies. He thinks of the world as an animal organism +subject to what are now called anabolism and catabolism. The details of +the theory make this quite clear. A similar doctrine was taught by +Anaxagoras (_c._ 460 B. C.), who came from Clazomenae in Asia Minor to +Athens after the Persian Wars, and was one of the teachers of Pericles. +His doctrine of 'seeds', in which the traditional 'opposites'--wet and +dry, cold and hot--were combined in different proportions, is rather +more subtle than that of Empedocles, and it is possible to see in it a +curious anticipation of certain features in modern chemistry. +Anaxagoras too felt it necessary to assume a force or source of motion, +but he thought that one would suffice to account for the rotation +(περιχωρησις {perichôrêsis}) to which he attributed the formation of the +world. He called that force Mind (νους {nous}), but his own +description of it shows that he regarded it as corporeal, though he +thought it was something more tenuous and unmixed than other bodies. +There is little doubt that he selected the term in order to mark the +identity of the source of motion in the world with that in the animal +organism. That again is in accordance with the scientific interests of +the time. In his astronomical theories, however, Anaxagoras showed +himself a true eastern Ionian, and lagged far behind the Pythagoreans. +For him, as for the Ionians of the Aegean down to and including +Democritus, the earth was flat, and the eddy or vortex which gave rise +to the world was still rotation in a plane. A more satisfying answer to +Parmenides was the doctrine of Atomism, which frankly accepted the +existence of space, and asserted that it was just as real as body. The +first hint of such a solution was given by Melissus (_c._ 444 B. C.), +who was a Samian but a member of the Eleatic school. He said, 'If things +are a many, then each of them must be such as I have shown the One to +be.' That was meant as a _reductio ad absurdum_; but, when Leucippus of +Miletus (_c._ 440 B. C.), who had also studied in the school of Elea, +ventured to assert the existence of the Void, there was no longer any +reason for shirking the conclusion which Melissus had stated only to +show its impossibility. The atoms are, in fact, just the continuous +indivisible One of Parmenides multiplied _ad infinitum_ in an infinite +empty space. On that side at least, the theory of body was now complete, +and the question asked by Thales was answered, and it is of great +interest to observe that this was brought about by the renewal of +intercourse between the Ionians of Italy and those of the Aegean, a +renewal which was made possible by the establishment of the Athenian +Empire. Nothing makes us feel the historical connexion more vividly than +the re-emergence of the names of Miletus and Samos after all these +years. There were, however, certain more fundamental problems which +Atomism could not solve, and which were first attacked at Athens itself. +So far, it will be noted, Athens has played no part at all in our story, +and in fact no more than two Athenians ever became philosophers of the +first rank. It is true that they were called Socrates and Plato, so the +exception is a considerable one. It was the foundation of the Athenian +Empire that made Athens the natural meeting-place of the most diverse +philosophical and scientific views. It was here that the east and west +of Hellas came together, and that the two streams of tradition became +one, with the result that a new tradition was started which, though +often interrupted for a time, continues to the present day. + +If we wish to understand the development of Greek philosophy, it is of +the first importance that we should realize the intellectual ferment +which existed at Athens in the great days of the Periclean age. It has +been mentioned already that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae had settled there, +and it was not long before his example was followed by others. In +particular, Zeno of Elea (_c._ 450 B. C.), the favourite disciple of +Parmenides, had a considerable following at Athens. He made it his +business to champion the doctrine of his master by showing that those +who refused to accept it were obliged to give their assent to views +which were at least as repugnant to common sense, and in this way he +incidentally did much for mathematics and philosophy by raising the +difficulties of infinite divisibility and continuity in an acute form. +All that is something quite apart from the influence of the 'sophists' +at a rather later date, though they too came both from the east and from +the west, and though they had been influenced by the more strictly +philosophical schools of these regions. It was into this Athens that +Socrates was born (470 B. C.) about ten years after the battle of +Salamis, and he was naturally exposed to all these conflicting +influences, of which Plato has given us a vivid description in the +_Phaedo_, from his earliest youth. He cannot, in fact, be understood at +all unless this historical background is kept constantly in view. There +can be no reasonable doubt that at a very early age he attached himself +to Archelaus, an Athenian who had succeeded Anaxagoras, when that +philosopher had to leave Athens for Lampsacus. Ion of Chios, a +contemporary witness, said that Socrates had visited Asia Minor with +Archelaus, and that appears to refer to the siege of Samos, when +Socrates was under thirty. There is no reason whatever to doubt the +statement, which Plato makes more than once, that he had met Parmenides +and Zeno at a still earlier date. At any rate, the influence of Zeno on +the dialectic of Socrates is unmistakable. We may also take it that he +was familiar with all sorts of Orphic and Pythagorean sectaries. +Aeschines of Sphettos wrote a dialogue entitled _Telauges_, in which he +represented Socrates as rallying the extreme asceticism of the strict +followers of Pythagoras. So far, however, as we can form a picture of +him for ourselves, he was not the sort of man to become the disciple of +any one. He was a genuine Athenian in respect of what is called his +'irony', which implies a certain humorous reserve which kept him from +all extravagances, however interested he might be in the extravagances +of others. Nevertheless, while still quite a young man, he had somehow +acquired a reputation for 'wisdom', though he himself disclaimed +anything of the sort. He had also, it appears, gathered round him a +circle of 'associates' (ἑταιροι {hetairoi}). The only direct evidence we +have for these early days is the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes (423 B. C.), +which is of course a comedy and must not be taken too literally. On the +other hand, a comic poet who knew his business (and surely Aristophanes +did) could hardly present a well-known man to the Athenian public in a +manner which had no relation to fact at all. It is fortunate that there +is a passage in Xenophon's _Memorabilia_ (i. 6) which seems to supply us +with the very background we need to make the _Clouds_ intelligible. It +represents Socrates in an entirely different light from that in which he +appears in the rest of the work, and it can hardly be Xenophon's own +invention. It seems to refer to a time when Plato and Xenophon were +babies, if not to a time before they were born, and it is probable that +it comes from some literary source which we can no longer trace. We are +told, then, that Antiphon the sophist was trying to detach his +companions (συνουσιασται {synousiastai}) from Socrates, and a +conversation followed in which he charged him with teaching his +followers to be miserable rather than happy, and added that he was right +not to charge a fee for his teaching, since in fact it was of no value. +It will be seen that this implies a regular relation between Socrates +and his followers which was sufficiently well known to arouse +professional jealousy. Socrates does not attempt to deny the fact. He +says that what he and his companions do is to spend their time together +in studying the wisdom of the men of old which they have left behind +them in books, and that, if they come upon anything which they think is +good, they extract it for their own use, and count it great gain if, in +doing this, they become friends to one another. It is obvious that this +suggests something quite different from the current view of Socrates as +a talker at street corners, something much more like a regular school, +and that, so far as it goes, it explains the burlesque of Aristophanes. + +The Socrates of whom we know most is, however, quite differently +engaged. He has devoted his life to a mission to his fellow men, and +especially to his fellow citizens. If we may so far trust Plato's +_Apology_, the occasion of that was the answer received from the Delphic +oracle by Chaerephon, whom we know from Aristophanes as one of the +leading disciples of Socrates in the earlier part of his life. +Chaerephon asked the god of Delphi whether there was any one wiser than +Socrates, and this of course implies that Socrates had a reputation for +'wisdom' before his mission began. The oracle declared that there was no +one wiser, and Plato makes Socrates say in the _Apology_ that this was +the real beginning of that mission. He set out at first to prove that +the oracle was wrong, and for that purpose he tried to discover some one +wiser than himself, a search in which he was disappointed, since he +could only find people who thought they were wise, and no one who really +was so. He therefore concluded that what the oracle really meant was +that Socrates was wiser than other people in one respect only. Neither +he nor any one else was really 'wise', but Socrates was wiser than the +rest because he knew he was not wise and they thought they were. It +ought to be clear that this is mostly 'irony', and it is not to be +supposed that Socrates attached undue importance to the oracle, which he +speaks of quite lightly, but he could hardly have told the story at all +unless it was generally known that his mission did in fact date roughly +from that period of his life. Historically it would probably be truer to +say that the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, in which Socrates served +with great distinction as a hoplite, marked the decisive turning-point. +It was in the camp at Potidaea that he once stood in a trance for +twenty-four hours (431 B. C.), and that seems to point to some great +psychological change, which may very well have been occasioned or +accelerated by his experiences in the war. At any rate we now find him +entirely devoted to the conversion of his fellow citizens, and we must +try to understand what the message he had for them was. + +In the _Apology_ Socrates declares that his mission was divinely imposed +upon him, so that he dare not neglect it, even if it should lead to his +death, as in fact it did. The tone here is quite different from the +half-humorous style in which he deals with the Delphic oracle, and even +the 'divine sign'. That only warned him not to do things, mostly quite +trivial things, which he was about to do, and never told him to do +anything; this, on the contrary, was a positive command, laid upon him +by God, and there can be no doubt that Plato means us to understand this +to have been the innermost conviction of Socrates. It is hard to believe +that Plato could have misrepresented his master's attitude on such a +point. He was present at the trial, and the _Apology_ must have been +written not very long afterwards, when the memory of it was still fresh +in people's minds. Now Plato tells us quite clearly that what Socrates +tried to get the Athenians to understand was the duty of 'caring for +their souls' (ψυχης επιμελειο {psychês epimeleio}). That is confirmed +from other sources, and indeed it is generally admitted. The phrase has, +however, become so familiar that it does not at once strike us as +anything very new or important. To an Athenian of the fifth century B. +C., on the other hand, it must have seemed very strange indeed. The word +translated 'soul' (ψυχη {psychê}) occurs often enough, no doubt, in the +literature of the period, but it is never used of anything for which we +could be called upon to 'care' in the sense evidently intended by +Socrates. Its normal use is to denote the breath of life, the 'ghost' a +man 'gives up' at the moment of death. It can therefore be rendered by +'life' in all cases where there is a question of risking or losing life +or of clinging to it when we ought to be prepared to sacrifice it, but +it is not used for the seat of conscious life at all. It is sometimes +employed to signify the seat of the dream-consciousness or of what is +now called the subconscious or subliminal self, but never of the +ordinary waking consciousness which is the seat of knowledge and +ignorance, goodness and badness.[2] On the other hand, that use of the +word is quite common in the fourth century, and it may be inferred that +this change was due to Socrates. More than once Aristophanes ridicules +him for holding some strange view of the 'soul', and these jests were +made at a time when Plato was only a child. We cannot, of course, expect +to get any very definite idea from them as to the real teaching of +Socrates on this subject, but it is not impossible to see what it was, +if we take into account the views of the soul which had been held by the +philosophical schools of eastern and western Ionia. + + [2] See my paper on 'The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul'. + _Proceedings of the British Academy_, 1915-16, pp. 235 sqq. + +The Ionians of Asia Minor had certainly identified the soul with that in +us which is conscious, and which is the seat of goodness and badness, +wisdom and folly; but they did not regard it as what we call the self or +treat it as an individual. Anaximenes and his school held that the soul +was what they called Air, but that was just because they regarded Air as +the primary substance of which all things are made. The soul was +something, in fact, that comes to us from outside (θυραθεν {thyrathen}) +by means of respiration. As Diogenes of Apollonia expresses it, it is 'a +small portion of the god', that is, of the primary substance, enclosed +in a human body for a time, and returning at death to the larger mass of +the same substance outside. The formula 'Earth to earth and air to air' +was accepted as an adequate description of what takes place at death. +The western Ionians, and especially the Pythagoreans, held a very +different view. For them, the soul was something divine. It was, in +fact, a fallen god, imprisoned in the body as a punishment for antenatal +sin, and it deserved our care in this sense, that it was our chief +business in life to purify it so as to secure its release from the +necessity of reincarnation in another body. But, during this present +life, they held that this divine element slumbers, except in prophetic +dreams. As Pindar puts it, 'It sleeps when the limbs are active.' +Neither of these views was familiar to the ordinary Athenian, but +Socrates of course knew both well, and felt satisfied with neither. When +he spoke of the soul he did not mean any mysterious fallen god which +was the temporary tenant of the body, but the conscious self which it +lies with us to try to make wise and good. On the other hand, his +insistence on our duty to 'care for' it is quite inconsistent with the +view that it is merely something extrinsic, as all the eastern Ionians +down to Anaxagoras had taught. It is, on the contrary, our very self, +the thing in us which is of more importance to us than anything else +whatever. It was to this doctrine of the soul and our duty to it that +Socrates felt he must convert mankind and especially his +fellow-citizens. It was a strange and novel doctrine then; and, if it +has become a commonplace since, that only shows that he was successful, +if not in persuading his fellowmen to act on this knowledge, at least in +making them aware of it. It was in this way that Socrates healed the +rift between science and religion which had proved fatal to the +Pythagorean society, and it may be suggested that the significance of +his teaching is not exhausted yet. As has been indicated above it is to +be found clearly stated in Plato's _Apology of Socrates_, and it +furnishes the only clue to a right understanding of the great series of +Platonic dialogues down to and including the _Republic_ in which +Socrates is represented as the chief speaker. Whether Plato added much +or little of his own to the doctrine of his master in these dialogues is +an interesting historical problem, but it need not concern the ordinary +reader, at least in the first instance. We know from the allusions of +Aristophanes that Socrates himself taught a new doctrine of the soul +when Plato was a child, and no sympathetic reader can fail to see that +the passage of the _Apology_ to which we have referred is intended to be +a faithful account of that doctrine. All the rest is simply its +legitimate development, and it is not of very great importance for us to +determine whether that development is due to Socrates or to Plato. The +inspiration which has been derived from these writings by many +generations will not be lessened by any decision we may come to on this +point, so long as we keep clearly in mind that the new doctrine of soul +is their principal theme, and that this must be understood in the light +of the doctrines which had prepared the way for it. What Socrates did +was really this. He deepened the meaning of the Eastern Ionian doctrine +by informing it with some of the feeling and emotion which had +characterized the Pythagorean teaching on the subject, while on the +other hand he rationalized the Pythagorean theory by identifying the +soul with our conscious personality. + +Now if this is a correct account of what Socrates taught, he must be +regarded as inaugurating an entirely new period in the history of +philosophy. That is implied in the common term 'Presocratics' generally +applied to his predecessors, though the ordinary textbooks are by no +means clear as to the grounds for assigning this pre-eminent position to +Socrates. We can also see how natural it was for him to lay such +emphasis on the conversion of souls as he certainly did. That purpose +continued to dominate Greek philosophy to the very end. No doubt +successive schools varied in their conception of what conversion meant, +but that is the link which binds them all together. In fact, it gave +rise to a new literary form, the 'hortatory discourse' (προτρεπτικος +λογος {protreptikos logos}), which was more and more cultivated as time +went on, and was at last taken over by the fathers of the Christian +church along with much else of a more fundamental character. + +It has been noted already that Socrates had followers among all the +leading philosophical schools of the time, and the possibility is not to +be excluded that we may still learn more of him from the discovery of +new sources. For the present, the recovery of some new and fairly +extensive fragments of the _Alcibiades_ of Aeschines of Sphettos is the +chief addition to our sources of information. We know that Aeschines was +a disciple of Socrates, and the tradition of antiquity was that his +dialogues gave the most faithful picture of the man as he really was. If +so, that was probably because Aeschines had no philosophy of his own. +For us the chief importance of the new fragments is that, if we read +them along with those already known (and it is unfortunate that the old +and the new have not yet been printed together), they strongly confirm +the impression we get from Plato of the manner of Socrates and his +method of argument, and that helps to reassure us as to the essentially +historical character of the Platonic Socrates. The fragments of +Aeschines also corroborate Plato by showing that the conversion of +Alcibiades (whose life he had saved when a young man) was one of the +things that lay nearest his heart. + +But the real successor of Socrates was, of course, Plato himself +(427-347 B. C.). It is not possible to give even an outline of Plato's +philosophy here. Indeed the time has hardly come for that yet, though +much admirable work is now being done, especially by a French professor, +M. Robin, which promises more certain conclusions than have yet been +possible. All that can be attempted here is to indicate the attitude of +Plato to some of the problems we have been discussing. His very great +contributions to the theory of knowledge will be passed over, as they +are beginning to be well understood, and the _Theaetetus_ in particular, +with its sequel the _Sophist_, is more and more coming to occupy its +rightful place as the best introduction to philosophy in general. It is +necessary, however, just to notice in passing a fundamental question of +method which the Platonic dialogues themselves suggest. It is this. +While Socrates is present in every one of them except the _Laws_, he +takes practically no part in some of them, and the dialogues in which +this is the case are known on other grounds to belong to the later years +of Plato's life. There must be some reason for this, and it is obviously +prudent to treat these later dialogues in the first instance as our +primary evidence for Plato's own views. Indeed, it is only after his +philosophy has been reconstructed from these sources and from the +sometimes obscure references to it in Aristotle, that it will be safe +to attempt an answer to the question of how much there may be in the +dialogues of his early life which is properly to be assigned to Plato +himself rather than to Socrates. That is a historical question of great +interest; but, as has been said, the solution of it, if that should ever +prove possible, would not greatly affect the impression that Athenian +philosophy leaves upon us as a whole. + +Now, if we consider Plato's later, and presumably therefore most +independent writings, we find, just as we should expect from a disciple +of Socrates, that the doctrine of soul holds the first place, but that +it has certain features of its own which there is no sufficient ground +for attributing to Socrates. We are too apt to think of Plato as mainly +occupied with what is called the 'theory of Ideas', a theory which is +discussed once or twice in his earlier dialogues, and which is there +ascribed to Socrates, but which plays no part at all in his mature +works. There the chief place is undoubtedly taken by the doctrine of the +soul, and we can see that it is of the first importance for Plato. Soul +is regarded as the source of all motion in the world, because it is the +only thing in the world that moves without being itself moved by +anything else. It is this and this alone that enables Plato to account +for the existence of the world and of mankind, and to avoid the theory +of 'two worlds' into which, as he points out in the _Sophist_, 'the +friends of the Ideas', whoever they may have been, were only too apt to +fall. In Plato this view of the soul culminates in theology of a kind +which he nowhere attributes to Socrates. He represents him, indeed, as a +man of a deeply religious nature, but we do not gather that he had felt +the need of a formal doctrine of God. Plato, on the other hand, has left +us the first systematic defence of Theism we know of, and it is based +entirely on his doctrine of soul as the self-moved mover. But the +highest soul, or God, is not only the ultimate source of motion, but +also supremely good. Now, since there are many things in the world which +are not good, and since it would be blasphemy to attribute these to +God, there must be other souls in the world which are relatively at +least independent. God is not, directly at least, the cause of all +things, but it is not easy to discover the relation in which these other +souls are thought of as standing to God. In the _Timaeus_, the matter is +put in this way. The soul of the world, and all other souls human and +divine, are the work of the Creator, who is identified with God, and +they are not inherently indestructible, since anything that has been +made can be unmade. They are, however, practically indestructible, since +God made all things because He was good and wished them also to be as +good as possible. His goodness, therefore, will not suffer Him to +destroy what He has once made. That of course is mythically expressed, +and Plato is not committed to it as a statement of his own belief, since +it is only the account which _Timaeus_ puts into the mouth of the +Creator. We can see, however, what was the problem with which he was +occupied, and it is not perhaps illegitimate to infer that he approached +the question which still baffles speculation from the point of view that +God's omnipotence, as we should call it, is limited by his goodness. +This is a much more important limitation than that imposed by the +existence of matter, to which Timaeus also refers. In that, he is simply +following the tradition of the Pythagorean society to which he belonged, +as is shown by his identification of matter with space, or rather with +'room'. So far as can be seen at present, we are not entitled to ascribe +this view to Plato without more ado, but that is a point on which the +last word has not yet been said. + +The description of the creation given by Timaeus is of course to be +regarded as mythical in its details, but it has features from which we +may learn a good deal as to the direction taken by Plato's thoughts +about the world. In particular, while the important part played by +geometry is quite intelligible in the mouth of a Pythagorean, he makes +use of certain theories which we know to belong to the most recent +mathematics of the day, in particular the complete doctrine of the five +regular solids, which was due to Theaetetus, who was one of the earliest +members of the Academy, and whom Plato represents as having made the +acquaintance of Socrates just before the master's death. Theaetetus died +young, but we know enough of him to feel sure that he was one of the few +great original mathematicians who have appeared in history. In the +_Timaeus_ the theory of the regular solids is used to get rid once more +of the doctrine of four ultimate 'elements'. These, Timaeus says, are so +far from being elements or letters of the alphabet, that they are not +even syllables. The way in which the so-called elements are built up out +of molecules corresponding in their configuration to the regular solids, +and the explanations of their transmutation into one another based on +the geometrical construction of these figures, is apt to strike the +average reader as fantastic, but one of the most distinguished living +mathematicians and physicists has stated that he is struck most of all +by their resemblance to the scientific theories of the twentieth +century. It will be well, therefore, to avoid hasty judgements on this +point. It is at any rate easy to understand how the study of mathematics +came to hold the preponderating place it did in the Platonic Academy. + +In accordance with the plan of this paper, something must now be said of +Plato's attitude to the practical life, a point on which it is very easy +to make mistakes. No one has insisted more strongly than he has on the +primacy of the Theoretic Life. The philosopher is the man who is in love +with the spectacle of all time and all existence and that is what +delivers him from petty ambitions and low desires. He has made the +toilsome ascent out of the Cave in which the mass of men dwell, and in +which they only behold the shadows of reality. But, even in this +enthusiastic description of the philosophic life, an equal stress is +laid on the duty of philosopher to descend into the Cave in turn and to +rescue as many of their former fellow-prisoners as may be, even against +their will, by turning them to the light and dragging them up into the +world of truth and reality. It is quite easy to understand, in view of +this, that Plato devoted some of the best years of his life to practical +affairs and that he relinquished the studies of the Academy for a time +in order to direct the education of Dionysius II. The thing appeared +well worth doing; for Greek civilization in Sicily, and consequently, as +we can now see, the civilization of western Europe, was seriously +threatened by the Carthaginians. They had been held at bay by Dionysius +I, but after his death everything depended on his successor. Now the +education of Dionysius II had been completely neglected, but he had good +natural abilities, and his uncle Dion, who was Plato's friend, was ready +to answer for his good intentions. Plato could not turn a deaf ear to +such a call. Unfortunately Dionysius was vain and obstinate, and he soon +became impatient of the serious studies which Plato rightly regarded as +necessary to prepare him for his task. The result was a growing +estrangement between Plato and his pupil, which made it impossible to +hope for a successful issue to the plans of Dion. It is unnecessary to +tell the whole story here, but it is right to say that there was nothing +at all impracticable in what Plato undertook, and that he was certainly +justified in holding that the education of Dionysius must be completed +before it would be safe to entrust him with the championship of the +cause of Hellenism in the west. + +His failure to make anything of Dionysius did not lead Plato to abandon +his efforts to heal the wounds of Hellenism. One of the studies most +ardently pursued in the Academy was Jurisprudence, of which he is the +real founder. It was not uncommon for Greek states to apply to the +Academy for legislators to codify existing law or to frame a new code +for colonies which had just been founded. That is the real explanation +of the remarkable work entitled the _Laws_, which must have occupied +Plato for many years, and which was probably begun while he was still +directing the studies of Dionysius. It appears to have been left +unfinished; for, while some parts of it are highly elaborated, there are +others which make upon us the impression of being a first draft. Even +so, it is a great work if we regard it from the proper point of view. It +is, in the first place, a codification of Greek, and especially Athenian +law, of course with those reforms and improvements which suggest +themselves when the subject is systematically treated, and it formed the +basis of Hellenistic, and through that of Roman law, to which the world +owes so much. There is no more useful corrective of the popular notion +of Plato as an unpractical visionary than the careful study of the +dullest and most technical parts of the _Laws_ in the light of the +_Institutes_. + +No attempt has been made here to describe the system of Plato as a +whole, and indeed the time has not yet come when such an attempt can +profitably be made. We have no direct knowledge of his teaching in the +Academy; for we only possess the works which he wrote with a wider +public in view. In the case of Aristotle (384-322 B. C.), a similar +reservation must be made, though for just the opposite reason. We have +only fragments of his published works and what we possess is mainly the +groundwork of his lectures in the Lyceum. It will be seen that there is +still very much to be done here too. From the nature of the case, notes +for lectures take a great deal for granted that would be more fully +explained when the lectures were delivered, and some of the most +important points are hardly developed at all. Nevertheless there are +certain things which come out clearly enough, and it so happens that +they are points of great importance from which we can learn something +with regard to the philosophical problems of the present day. + +In the first place, it is desirable to point out that Aristotle was not +an Athenian, but an Ionian from the northern Aegean, and that he was +strongly influenced by eastern Ionian science, especially by the system +of Democritus (which Plato does not appear to have known) and by the +medical theories of the time. That is why he is so unsympathetic to the +western schools of philosophy, and especially to the Pythagoreans and +the Eleatics. Empedocles alone, who was a biologist like himself, and +the founder of a medical school, finds favour in his eyes. He is not, +therefore, at home in mathematical matters and his system of Physics can +only be regarded as retrograde when we compare it with that of the +Academy. He did indeed accept the doctrine of the earth's sphericity, +but with that exception his cosmological views must be called +reactionary. Where he is really great is in biology, a field of research +which was not entirely neglected by the Academy, but which had been +treated as secondary in comparison with mathematics and astronomy. The +contrast between Plato and Aristotle in this respect seems to repeat on +a higher plane that between Pythagoras and Empedocles, and this suggests +something like a law of philosophical development which may perhaps +throw light on the present situation. It seems as if this alternation of +the mathematical and the biological interest was fundamental in the +development of scientific thought and that the philosophy of different +periods takes its colour from it. The philosophy of the nineteenth +century was dominated in the main by biological conceptions, while it +seems as if that of the twentieth was to be chiefly mathematical in its +outlook on the world. We must not, of course, make too much of such +formulas, but it is instructive to study such alternations in the +philosophy of the Greeks, where everything is simpler and more easily +apprehended. + +On the other hand, Aristotle had been a member of the Academy for twenty +years, and that could not fail to leave its mark upon him. This no doubt +explains the fact, which has often been noted, that there are two +opposite and inconsistent strains in all Aristotle's thinking. On the +one hand, he is determined to avoid everything 'transcendental', and his +dislike of Pythagorean and Platonist mathematics is mainly due to that. +On the other hand, despite his captious and sometimes unfair criticisms +of Plato, he evidently admired him greatly and had been much influenced +by him. It may be suggested that the tone of his criticisms is partly +due to his annoyance at finding that he could not shake off his +Platonism, do what he would. This is borne out by the fact that, when he +has come to the furthest point to which his own system will take him, he +is apt to take refuge in metaphors of a mythical or 'transcendental' +character, for which we are not prepared in any way and of which no +explanation is vouchsafed us. That is particularly the case when he is +dealing with the soul and the first mover. On the whole his account of +the soul is simply a development of eastern Ionian theories, and we feel +that we are far removed indeed from the Platonist conception of the +soul's priority to everything else. But, when he has told us that the +highest and most developed form of soul is Mind, we are suddenly +surprised by the statement that Mind in this sense is merely passive, +while there is another form of it which is separable from matter, and +that alone is immortal and everlasting. This has given rise to endless +controversy which does not concern us here, but it seems best to +interpret it as an involuntary outburst of the Platonism Aristotle could +not wholly renounce. Very similar is the passage where he tries to +explain how the first mover, though itself unmoved, communicates motion +to the world. 'It moves it like a thing beloved,' he tells us, and +leaves us to make what we can of that. And yet we cannot help feeling +that, in passages like this, we come far nearer to the beliefs Aristotle +really cared about than we do anywhere else. At heart he is a Platonist +in spite of himself. + +Aristotle's attitude to the practical life is also dependent on +Plato's. In the Tenth Book of the _Ethics_ he puts the claims of the +Contemplative Life even higher than Plato ever did, so that the +practical life appears to be only ancillary to it. He does not feel in +the same degree as Plato the call for the philosopher to descend once +more into the Cave for the sake of the prisoners there, and altogether +he seems far more indifferent to the practical interests of life. +Nevertheless he followed Plato's lead in giving much of his time to the +study of Politics and that too with the distinctly practical aim of +training legislators. He has often been criticized for his failure to +see that the days of the city-state were numbered, and for the way in +which he ignores the rise of an imperial monarchy in the person of his +own pupil Alexander the Great. That, however, is not quite fair. +Aristotle had a healthy dislike of princes and courts, and the +city-state still appealed to him as the normal form of political +organization. He could not believe that it would ever be superseded, and +he wished to contribute to its better administration. He had, in fact, a +much more conservative outlook than Plato, who was inclined to think +with Isocrates, that the revival of monarchy was the only thing that +could preserve Hellenism as things were then. We must remember that +Aristotle was not himself a citizen of any free state, and that he could +hardly be expected to have the same political instincts as Plato, who +belonged by birth to the governing classes of Athens and had inherited +the liberal traditions of the Periclean Age. This comes out best of all +perhaps, in the attitude of the two philosophers to the question of +slavery. In the _Laws_, which deals with existing conditions, Plato of +course recognizes the _de facto_ existence of slavery, though he is very +sensible of its dangers and makes many legislative proposals with a view +to their mitigation. In the _Republic_, on the other hand, where there +is no need to trouble about existing conditions, he makes Socrates +picture for us a community in which there are apparently no slaves at +all. Aristotle is also anxious to mitigate the worst abuses of slavery, +but he justifies the institution as a permanent one by the consideration +that barbarians are 'slaves by nature' and that it is for their own +interest to be 'living tools'. This insistence upon the fundamental +distinction between Greeks and barbarians must have seemed an +anachronism to many of Aristotle's contemporaries and it had been +expressly denounced by Plato as unscientific. + +The immediate effect of Aristotle's rejection of Platonist mathematics +was one he certainly neither foresaw nor intended. It was to make a +breach between philosophy and science. Mathematical science, whether +Aristotle realized it or not, was still in the vigour of its first +youth, and mathematicians were stirred by the achievements of the last +generation to attempt the solution of still higher problems. If the +Lyceum turned away from them, they were quite prepared to carry on the +Academic tradition by themselves, and they succeeded for a time beyond +all expectation. The third century B. C. was, in fact, the Golden Age of +Greek mathematics, and it has been suggested that this was due to the +emancipation of mathematics from philosophy. If that were true, it would +be very important for us to know it; but it can, I think, be shown that +it is not true. The great mathematicians of the third century were +certainly carrying on the tradition of their predecessors who had been +philosophers as well as mathematicians, and it is not to be wondered at +that they were able to do so for a time. But the really striking fact is +surely that Greek mathematics became sterile in a comparatively short +time, and that no further advance was made till the days of Descartes +and Leibniz, with whom philosophy and mathematics once more went hand in +hand. + +Nor was the effect of this divorce on philosophy itself less +disastrous. Theophrastus continued Aristotle's work on Aristotle's +lines, and founded the science of Botany as his predecessor had founded +that of Zoology, but the Peripatetic School practically died out with +him and had very little influence till the study of Aristotle was +revived long afterwards by the Neoplatonists. + +For the present, the divorce of science and philosophy was complete. The +Stoics and the Epicureans had both, indeed, a scientific system, but +their philosophy was in no sense based upon it. The attitude of Epicurus +to science is particularly well marked. He took no interest in it +whatever as such, but he used it as an instrument to free men from the +religious fear to which he attributed human unhappiness. For that +purpose, the science of the Academy, which had led up to a theology, was +obviously unsuitable, and, like a true eastern Ionian as he was, +Epicurus harked back to the atomic theory of Democritus, adding to it, +however, certain things which really made nonsense of it, such, for +instance, as the theory of absolute weight and lightness, which +Aristotle had unfortunately taught. The Stoics too were corporealists, +and found such science as they required in the system of Heraclitus, +though they also adopted for polemical purposes much of Aristotle's +Logic, taking pains, however, to alter his terminology. Both these +schools, in fact, while remaining faithful to the idea of philosophy as +conversion, forgot that it had always been based on science in its best +days. It was this, no doubt, which chiefly commended Stoicism and +Epicureanism to the Romans, who were never really interested in science. +Both Stoicism and Epicureanism made a practical appeal, though of a +different kind, and that served to gain credit for them at Rome. + +The Academy which Plato had founded still continued to exist, though it +was diverted from its original purpose not more than a generation after +Plato's death. Mathematics, we have seen, had made itself independent, +and the most pressing necessity of the time was certainly the criticism +of the new dogmatism which the Stoics had introduced. That was really +carrying on one side of Platonism and not the least important. It is +true indeed that the Academy appears to us at this distance of time +mainly as a school of scepticism, but we must remember that its +scepticism was directed entirely to the sensible world, as to which the +attitude of Plato himself was not fundamentally different. The real +sceptics always refused to admit that the Academics were sceptics in the +proper sense of the word, and it is possible that the tradition of +Platonism proper was never wholly broken. At any rate, by the first +century B. C., we begin to notice that Stoicism tends to become more and +more Platonic. The study of Plato's _Timaeus_ came into favour again, +and the commentary which Posidonius (_c._ 100 B. C.) wrote upon it had +great influence on the development of philosophy down to the end of the +Middle Ages. It is this period of eclecticism which is reflected for us +in the philosophical writings of Cicero. It had great importance for the +history of civilization, but it is far removed from the spirit of +genuine Greek philosophy. That was dead for the present, and it did not +come to life again till the third century of our era, when Platonism was +revived at Rome by Plotinus. + +It is only quite recently that historians of Greek philosophy have begun +to do justice to 'Neoplatonism'. That is partly due to the contemporary +philosophical tendencies noted at the beginning of this paper, and +partly to historical investigations into the philosophy of the Middle +Ages, which is more and more seen to be dependent mainly on Neoplatonism +down to and including the system of St. Thomas Aquinas. It was in fact +the most decisive fact in the history of Western European civilization +that Plotinus founded his school at Rome rather than at Athens or +Alexandria; for that is how Western Europe became the real heir to the +philosophy of Greece. Every one knows, of course, that Plotinus was a +'mystic', but the term is apt to suggest quite wrong ideas about him. He +is often spoken of still as a man who introduced oriental ideas into +Greek philosophy, and he is popularly supposed to have been an Egyptian. +That is most improbable; and, if it were true, it would only make it the +more remarkable that, though he certainly studied at Alexandria for +eleven years, he never even mentions the religion of Isis, which was so +fashionable at Rome in his day, and which had fascinated so genuine a +Greek as Plutarch some generations before. There is no doubt that what +Plotinus believed himself to be teaching was genuine Platonism, and that +he had prepared himself for the task by a careful study of Aristotle and +even of Stoicism, so far as that served his purpose. No doubt he was too +great a man to make himself the mere mouthpiece of another's thought; +but, for all that, he was the legitimate successor of Plato, and it may +be added that M. Robin, who has taken upon himself the arduous task of +extracting Plato's real philosophy from the writings of Aristotle, has +come to the conclusion that there is a great deal more 'Neoplatonism' in +Plato than is sometimes supposed. + +Plotinus is a mystic, then, though not at all in the sense in which the +term is often misused. He sets before his disciples a 'way of life' +which leads by stages to the highest life of all, but that is just what +Pythagoras and Plato had done, and it is only the continuation of a +tradition which goes back among the Greeks to the sixth century B. C., +nearly a thousand years before the time of Plotinus. His aim, like that +of his predecessors, is the conversion of souls to this way of life, and +he differs from such thinkers as the Stoics and the Epicureans in +holding that the 'way of life' to which he calls them must be based once +more on a systematic doctrine of God, the World and Man. The result was +that the divorce which had existed for centuries between science and +philosophy was once more annulled. We cannot say, indeed, that Plotinus +himself made any special study of Mathematics, but there is no doubt at +all that his followers did, and it is due to them, and especially to +Proclus, that we know as much of Greek Mathematics as we do. Proclus was +indeed the systematizer of the doctrine of Plotinus, though he differs +from him on certain points, and his influence on later philosophy cannot +be overestimated. It can be distinctly traced even in Descartes, whom it +reached through a number of channels, the study of which has recently +been undertaken by a French scholar, Professor Gilson, of the University +of Strasbourg. When his researches are complete, the continuity of Greek +and modern philosophy will be plainly seen, and the part played by +Platonism in the making of the modern European mind will be made +manifest. We shall then understand better than ever why Greek philosophy +is a subject of perennial interest. + +The history of Greek philosophy is, in fact, the history of our own +spiritual past, and it is impossible to understand the present without +taking it into account. In particular, the Platonist tradition underlies +the whole of western civilization. It was at Rome, as has been pointed +out, that Plotinus taught, and it was in certain Latin translations of +the writings of his school that St. Augustine found the basis for a +Christian philosophy he was seeking. It was Augustine's great authority +in the Latin Church that made Platonism its official philosophy for +centuries. It is a complete mistake to suppose that the thinking of the +Middle Ages was dominated by the authority of Aristotle. It was not till +the thirteenth century that Aristotle was known at all, and even then he +was studied in the light of Platonism, just as he had been by Plotinus +and his followers. It was only at the very close of the Middle Ages that +he acquired the predominance which has made so strong an impression on +the centuries that followed. It was from the Platonist tradition, too, +that the science of the earlier Middle Ages came. A considerable portion +of Plato's _Timaeus_ had been translated into Latin in the fourth +century by Chalcidius with a very elaborate commentary based on ancient +sources, while the _Consolation of Philosophy_, written in prison by the +Roman Platonist Boethius in A. D. 525, was easily the most popular book +of the Middle Ages. It was translated into English by Alfred the Great +and by Chaucer, and into many other European languages. It was on these +foundations that the French Platonism of the twelfth century, and +especially that of the School of Chartres, was built up, and the +influence of that school in England was very great indeed. The names of +Grosseteste and Roger Bacon may just be mentioned in this connexion, and +it would not be hard to show that the special character of the +contribution which English writers have been able to make to science and +philosophy is in large measure attributable to this influence. + +But the interest of Greek philosophy is not only historical; it is full +of instruction for the future too. Since the time of Locke, philosophy +has been apt to limit itself to discussions about the nature of +knowledge, and to leave questions about the nature of the world to +specialists. The history of Greek philosophy shows the danger of this +unnatural division of the province of thought, and the more we study it, +the more we shall feel the need of a more comprehensive view. The +'philosophy of things human', as the Greeks called it, is only one +department among others, and the theory of knowledge is only one +department of that. If studied in isolation from the whole, it must +inevitably become one-sided. From Greek philosophy we can also learn +that it is fatal to divorce speculation from the service of mankind. The +notion that philosophy could be so isolated would have been wholly +unintelligible to any of the great Greek thinkers, and most of all +perhaps to the Platonists who are often charged with this very heresy. +Above all, we can learn from Greek philosophy the paramount importance +of what we call the personality and they called the soul. It was just +because the Greeks realized this that the genuinely Hellenic idea of +conversion played so great a part in their thinking and in their lives. +That, above all, is the lesson they have to teach, and that is why the +writings of their great philosophers have still the power to convert the +souls of all that will receive their teaching with humility. + +J. BURNET. + + + + +MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY + + +It has been well said that, if we would study any subject properly, we +must study it as something that is alive and growing and consider it +with reference to its growth in the past. As most of the vital forces +and movements in modern civilization had their origin in Greece, this +means that, to study them properly, we must get back to Greece. So it is +with the literature of modern countries, or their philosophy, or their +art; we cannot study them with the determination to get to the bottom +and understand them without the way pointing eventually back to Greece. + +When we think of the debt which mankind owes to the Greeks, we are apt +to think too exclusively of the masterpieces in literature and art which +they have left us. But the Greek genius was many-sided; the Greek, with +his insatiable love of knowledge, his determination to see things as +they are and to see them whole, his burning desire to be able to give a +rational explanation of everything in heaven and earth, was just as +irresistibly driven to natural science, mathematics, and exact reasoning +in general, or logic. + +To quote from a brilliant review of a well-known work: 'To be a Greek +was to seek to know, to know the primordial substance of matter, to know +the meaning of number, to know the world as a rational whole. In no +spirit of paradox one may say that Euclid is the most typical Greek: he +would know to the bottom, and know as a rational system, the laws of the +measurement of the earth. Plato, too, loved geometry and the wonders of +numbers; he was essentially Greek because he was essentially +mathematical.... And if one thus finds the Greek genius in Euclid and +the _Posterior Analytics_, one will understand the motto written over +the Academy, μηδεις αγεωμετρητος εισιτω {mêdeis ageômetrêtos eisitô}. To +know what the Greek genius meant you must (if one may speak εν αινιγματι +{en ainigmati}) begin with geometry.' + +Mathematics, indeed, plays an important part in Greek philosophy: there +are, for example, many passages in Plato and Aristotle for the +interpretation of which some knowledge of the technique of Greek +mathematics is the first essential. Hence it should be part of the +equipment of every classical student that he should have read +substantial portions of the works of the Greek mathematicians in the +original, say, some of the early books of Euclid in full and the +definitions (at least) of the other books, as well as selections from +other writers. Von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff has included in his +_Griechisches Lesebuch_ extracts from Euclid, Archimedes and Heron of +Alexandria; and the example should be followed in this country. + +Acquaintance with the original works of the Greek mathematicians is no +less necessary for any mathematician worthy of the name. Mathematics is +a Greek science. So far as pure geometry is concerned, the +mathematician's technical equipment is almost wholly Greek. The Greeks +laid down the principles, fixed the terminology and invented the methods +_ab initio_; moreover, they did this with such certainty that in the +centuries which have since elapsed there has been no need to +reconstruct, still less to reject as unsound, any essential part of +their doctrine. + +Consider first the terminology of mathematics. Almost all the standard +terms are Greek or Latin translations from the Greek, and, although the +mathematician may be taught their meaning without knowing Greek, he will +certainly grasp their significance better if he knows them as they arise +and as part of the living language of the men who invented them. Take +the word _isosceles_; a schoolboy can be shown what an isosceles +triangle is, but, if he knows nothing of the derivation, he will wonder +why such an apparently outlandish term should be necessary to express so +simple an idea. But if the mere appearance of the word shows him that it +means a thing _with equal legs_, being compounded of ισος {isos}, equal, +and σκελος {skelos}, a leg, he will understand its appropriateness and +will have no difficulty in remembering it. _Equilateral_, on the other +hand, is borrowed from the Latin, but it is merely the Latin translation +of the Greek ισοπλευρος {isopleuros}, _equal-sided_. _Parallelogram_ +again can be explained to a Greekless person, but it will be far better +understood by one who sees in it the two words παραλληλος {parallêlos} +and γραμμη {grammê} and realizes that it is a short way of expressing +that the figure in question is contained by parallel lines; and we shall +best understand the word _parallel_ itself if we see in it the statement +of the fact that the two straight lines so described go _alongside one +another_, παρ' αλληλας {par' allêlas}, all the way. Similarly a +mathematician should know that a _rhombus_ is so called from its +resemblance to a form of spinning-top (ῥομβος {rhombos} from ῥεμβω +{rhembô}, to spin) and that, just as a parallelogram is a figure formed +by two pairs of parallel straight lines, so a _parallelepiped_ is a +solid figure bounded by three pairs of parallel planes (παραλληλος +{parallêlos}, parallel, and επιπεδος {epipedos}, plane); incidentally, +in the latter case, he will be saved from writing 'parallel_o_piped', a +monstrosity which has disfigured not a few textbooks of geometry. +Another good example is the word _hypotenuse_; it comes from the verb +ὑποτεινειν {hypoteinein} (c. ὑπο {hypo} and acc. or simple acc.), to +_stretch under_, or, in its Latin form, to _subtend_, which term is used +quite generally for 'to be opposite to'; in our phraseology the word +_hypotenuse_ is restricted to that side of a right-angled triangle which +is opposite to the right angle, being short for the expression used in +Eucl. i. 47, ἡ την ορθην γωνιαν ὑποτεινουσα πλευρα {hê tên orthên gônian +hypoteinousa pleura}, 'the side subtending the right angle', which +accounts for the feminine participial form ὑποτεινουσα {hypoteinousa}, +_hypotenuse_. If mathematicians had had more Greek, perhaps the +misspelt form 'hypot_h_enuse' would not have survived so long. + +To take an example outside the Elements, how can a mathematician +properly understand the term _latus rectum_ used in conic sections +unless he has seen it in Apollonius as the _erect side_ (ορθια πλευρα +{orthia pleura}) of a certain rectangle in the case of each of the three +conics?[3] The word _ordinate_ can hardly convey anything to one who +does not know that it is what Apollonius describes as 'the straight line +drawn down (from a point on the curve) in the _prescribed_ or _ordained_ +manner (τεταγμενως κατηγμενη {tetagmenôs katêgmenê})'. _Asymptote_ again +comes from ασυμπτωτος {asymptôtos}, _non-meeting_, _non-secant_, and had +with the Greeks a more general signification as well as the narrower one +which it has for us: it was sometimes used of parallel lines, which also +'do not meet'. + + [3] In the case of the parabola, the base (as distinct from the + 'erect side') of the rectangle is what is called the _abscissa_ (Gk. + αποτεμνομενη {apotemnomenê}, 'cut off') of the ordinate, and the + rectangle itself is equal to the square on the ordinate. In the case + of the central conics, the base of the rectangle is 'the transverse + side of the figure' or the transverse diameter (the diameter of + reference), and the rectangle is equal to the square on the diameter + conjugate to the diameter of reference. + +Again, if we take up a textbook of geometry written in accordance with +the most modern Education Board circular or University syllabus, we +shall find that the phraseology used (except where made more colloquial +and less scientific) is almost all pure Greek. The Greek tongue was +extraordinarily well adapted as a vehicle of scientific thought. One of +the characteristics of Euclid's language which his commentator Proclus +is most fond of emphasizing is its marvellous _exactness_ (ακριβεια +{akribeia}). The language of the Greek geometers is also wonderfully +concise, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary. One of the +complaints often made against Euclid is that he is 'diffuse'. Yet +(apart from abbreviations in writing) it will be found that the +exposition of corresponding matters in modern elementary textbooks +generally takes up, not less, but more space. And, to say nothing of +the perfect finish of Archimedes's treatises, we shall find in Heron, +Ptolemy and Pappus veritable models of concise statement. The purely +geometrical proof by Heron of the formula for the area of a triangle, +Δ{D}=√_{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}_, and the geometrical propositions in Book I +of Ptolemy's _Syntaxis_ (including 'Ptolemy's Theorem') are cases in +point. + +The principles of geometry and arithmetic (in the sense of the theory of +numbers) are stated in the preliminary matter of Books I and VII of +Euclid. But Euclid was not their discoverer; they were gradually evolved +from the time of Pythagoras onwards. Aristotle is clear about the nature +of the principles and their classification. Every demonstrative science, +he says, has to do with three things, the subject-matter, the things +proved, and the things from which the proof starts (εξ ὡν {ex hôn}). It +is not everything that can be proved, otherwise the chain of proof would +be endless; you must begin somewhere, and you must start with things +admitted but indemonstrable. These are, first, principles common to all +sciences which are called _axioms_ or _common opinions_, as that 'of two +contradictories one must be true', or 'if equals be subtracted from +equals, the remainders are equal'; secondly, principles peculiar to the +subject-matter of the particular science, say geometry. First among the +latter principles are definitions; there must be agreement as to what we +mean by certain terms. But a definition asserts nothing about the +existence or non-existence of the thing defined. The existence of the +various things defined has to be _proved_ except in the case of a few +primary things in each science the existence of which is indemonstrable +and must be _assumed_ among the first principles of the science; thus in +geometry we must assume the existence of points and lines, and in +arithmetic of the unit. Lastly, we must assume certain other things +which are less obvious and cannot be proved but yet have to be +accepted; these are called _postulates_, because they make a demand on +the faith of the learner. Euclid's Postulates are of this kind, +especially that known as the parallel-postulate. + +The methods of solution of problems were no doubt first applied in +particular cases and then gradually systematized; the technical terms +for them were probably invented later, after the methods themselves had +become established. + +One method of solution was the _reduction_ of one problem to another. +This was called απαγωγη {apagôgê}, a term which seems to occur first in +Aristotle. But instances of such reduction occurred long before. +Hippocrates of Chios reduced the problem of duplicating the cube to that +of finding two mean proportionals in continued proportion between two +straight lines, that is, he showed that, if the latter problem could be +solved, the former was thereby solved also; and it is probable that +there were still earlier cases in the Pythagorean geometry. + +Next there is the method of mathematical _analysis_. This method is said +to have been 'communicated' or 'explained' by Plato to Leodamas of +Thasos; but, like reduction (to which it is closely akin), analysis in +the mathematical sense must have been in use much earlier. _Analysis_ +and its correlative _synthesis_ are defined by Pappus: 'in analysis we +assume that which is sought as if it were already done, and we inquire +what it is from which this results, and again what is the antecedent +cause of the latter, and so on, until by so retracing our steps we come +upon something already known or belonging to the class of principles. +But in synthesis, reversing the process, we take as already done that +which was last arrived at in the analysis, and, by arranging in their +natural order as consequences what were before antecedents and +successively connecting them one with another, we arrive finally at the +construction of that which was sought.' + +The method of _reductio ad absurdum_ is a variety of analysis. Starting +from a hypothesis, namely the contradictory of what we desire to prove, +we use the same process of analysis, carrying it back until we arrive at +something admittedly false or absurd. Aristotle describes this method in +various ways as _reductio ad absurdum_, proof _per impossibile_, or +proof leading to the impossible. But here again, though the term was +new, the method was not. The paradoxes of Zeno are classical instances. + +Lastly, the Greeks established the form of exposition which still +governs geometrical work, simply because it is dictated by strict logic. +It is seen in Euclid's propositions, with their separate formal +divisions, to which specific names were afterwards assigned, (1) the +_enunciation_ (προτασις {protasis}), (2) the _setting-out_ (εκθεσις +{ekthesis}), (3) the διορισμος {diorismos}, being a re-statement of what +we are required to do or prove, not in general terms (as in the +_enunciation_), but with reference to the particular data contained in +the _setting-out_, (4) the _construction_ (κατασκευη {kataskeuê}), (5) +the _proof_ (αποδειξις {apodeixis}), (6) the _conclusion_ (συμπερασμα +{symperasma}). In the case of a problem it often happens that a solution +is not possible unless the particular data are such as to satisfy +certain conditions; in this case there is yet another constituent part +in the proposition, namely the statement of the conditions or limits of +possibility, which was called by the same name διορισμος {diorismos}, +definition or delimitation, as that applied to the third constituent +part of a theorem. + +We have so far endeavoured to indicate generally the finality and the +abiding value of the work done by the creators of mathematical science. +It remains to summarize, as briefly as possible, the history of Greek +mathematics according to periods and subjects. + +The Greeks of course took what they could in the shape of elementary +facts in geometry and astronomy from the Egyptians and Babylonians. But +some of the essential characteristics of the Greek genius assert +themselves even in their borrowings from these or other sources. Here, +as everywhere else, we see their directness and concentration; they +always knew what they wanted, and they had an unerring instinct for +taking only what was worth having and rejecting the rest. This is +illustrated by the story of Pythagoras's travels. He consorted with +priests and prophets and was initiated into the religious rites +practised in different places, not out of religious enthusiasm 'as you +might think' (says our informant), but in order that he might not +overlook any fragment of knowledge worth acquiring that might lie hidden +in the mysteries of divine worship. + +This story also illustrates an important advantage which the Greeks had +over the Egyptians and Babylonians. In those countries science, such as +it was, was the monopoly of the priests; and, where this is the case, +the first steps in science are apt to prove the last also, because the +scientific results attained tend to become involved in religious +prescriptions and routine observances, and so to end in a collection of +lifeless formulae. Fortunately for the Greeks, they had no organized +priesthood; untrammelled by prescription, traditional dogmas or +superstition, they could give their reasoning faculties free play. Thus +they were able to create science as a living thing susceptible of +development without limit. + +Greek geometry, as also Greek astronomy, begins with Thales (about +624-547 B. C.), who travelled in Egypt and is said to have brought +geometry from thence. Such geometry as there was in Egypt arose out of +practical needs. Revenue was raised by the taxation of landed property, +and its assessment depended on the accurate fixing of the boundaries of +the various holdings. When these were removed by the periodical flooding +due to the rising of the Nile, it was necessary to replace them, or to +determine the taxable area independently of them, by an art of +land-surveying. We conclude from the Papyrus Rhind (say 1700 B. C.) and +other documents that Egyptian geometry consisted mainly of practical +rules for measuring, with more or less accuracy, (1) such areas as +squares, triangles, trapezia, and circles, (2) the solid content of +measures of corn, &c., of different shapes. The Egyptians also +constructed pyramids of a certain slope by means of arithmetical +calculations based on a certain ratio, _se-qeṭ_, namely the ratio of +half the side of the base to the height, which is in fact equivalent to +the co-tangent of the angle of slope. The use of this ratio implies the +notion of similarity of figures, especially triangles. The Egyptians +knew, too, that a triangle with its sides in the ratio of the numbers 3, +4, 5 is right-angled, and used the fact as a means of drawing right +angles. But there is no sign that they knew the general property of a +right-angled triangle (= Eucl. I. 47), of which this is a particular +case, or that they proved any general theorem in geometry. + +No doubt Thales, when he was in Egypt, would see diagrams drawn to +illustrate the rules for the measurement of circles and other plane +figures, and these diagrams would suggest to him certain similarities +and congruences which would set him thinking whether there were not some +elementary general principles underlying the construction and relations +of different figures and parts of figures. This would be in accord with +the Greek instinct for generalization and their wish to be able to +account for everything on rational principles. + +The following theorems are attributed to Thales: (1) that a circle is +bisected by any diameter (Eucl. I, Def. 17), (2) that the angles at the +base of an isosceles triangle are equal (Eucl. I. 5), (3) that, if two +straight lines cut one another, the vertically opposite angles are equal +(Eucl. I. 15), (4) that, if two triangles have two angles and one side +respectively equal, the triangles are equal in all respects (Eucl. I. +26). He is said (5) to have been the first to inscribe a right-angled +triangle in a circle, which must mean that he was the first to discover +that the angle in a semicircle is a right angle (cf. Eucl. III. 31). + +Elementary as these things are, they represent a new departure of a +momentous kind, being the first steps towards a _theory_ of geometry. On +this point we cannot do better than quote some remarks from Kant's +preface to the second edition of his _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_. + +'Mathematics has, from the earliest times to which the history of human +reason goes back, (that is to say) with that wonderful people the +Greeks, travelled the safe road of a _science_. But it must not be +supposed that it was as easy for mathematics as it was for logic, where +reason is concerned with itself alone, to find, or rather to build for +itself, that royal road. I believe on the contrary that with mathematics +it remained for long a case of groping about--the Egyptians in +particular were still at that stage--and that this transformation must +be ascribed to a _revolution_ brought about by the happy inspiration of +one man in trying an experiment, from which point onward the road that +must be taken could no longer be missed, and the safe way of a science +was struck and traced out for all time and to distances illimitable.... +A light broke on the first man who demonstrated the property of the +isosceles triangle (whether his name was Thales or what you will)....' + +Thales also solved two problems of a practical kind: (1) he showed how +to measure the distance of a ship at sea, and (2) he found the heights +of pyramids by means of the shadows thrown on the ground by the pyramid +and by a stick of known length at the same moment; one account says that +he chose the time when the lengths of the stick and of its shadow were +equal, but in either case he argued by similarity of triangles. + +In astronomy Thales predicted a solar eclipse which was probably that of +the 28th May 585 B. C. Now the Babylonians, as the result of +observations continued through centuries, had discovered the period of +223 lunations after which eclipses recur. It is most likely therefore +that Thales had heard of this period, and that his prediction was based +upon it. He is further said to have used the Little Bear for finding the +pole, to have discovered the inequality of the four astronomical +seasons, and to have written works _On the Equinox_ and _On the +Solstice_. + +After Thales come the Pythagoreans. Of the Pythagoreans Aristotle says +that they applied themselves to the study of mathematics and were the +first to advance that science, going so far as to find in the principles +of mathematics the principles of all existing things. Of Pythagoras +himself we are told that he attached supreme importance to the study of +arithmetic, advancing it and taking it out of the region of practical +utility, and again that he transformed the study of geometry into a +liberal education, examining the principles of the science from the +beginning. + +The very word μαθηματα {mathêmata}, which originally meant 'subjects of +instruction' generally, is said to have been first appropriated to +mathematics by the Pythagoreans. + +In saying that arithmetic began with Pythagoras we have to distinguish +between the uses of that word then and now. Αριθμητικη {Arithmêtikê} +with the Greeks was distinguished from λογιστικη {logistikê}, the +science of calculation. It is the latter word which would cover +arithmetic in our sense, or practical calculation; the term αριθμητικη +{arithmêtikê} was restricted to the science of numbers considered in +themselves, or, as we should say, the Theory of Numbers. Another way of +putting the distinction was to say that αριθμητικη {arithmêtikê} dealt +with absolute numbers or numbers in the abstract, and λογιστικη +{logistikê} with numbered _things_ or concrete numbers; thus λογιστικη +{logistikê} included simple problems about numbers of apples, bowls, or +objects generally, such as are found in the Greek Anthology and +sometimes involve simple algebraical equations. + +The Theory of Numbers then began with Pythagoras (about 572-497 B. C.). +It included definitions of the unit and of number, and the +classification and definitions of the various classes of numbers, odd, +even, prime, composite, and sub-divisions of these such as odd-even, +even-times-even, &c. Again there were figured numbers, namely, +triangular numbers, squares, oblong numbers, polygonal numbers +(pentagons, hexagons, &c.) corresponding respectively to plane figures, +and pyramidal numbers, cubes, parallelepipeds, &c., corresponding to +solid figures in geometry. The treatment was mostly geometrical, the +numbers being represented by dots filling up geometrical figures of the +various kinds. The laws of formation of the various figured numbers were +established. In this investigation the _gnomon_ played an important +part. Originally meaning the upright needle of a sun-dial, the term was +next used for a figure like a carpenter's square, and then was applied +to a figure of that shape put round two sides of a square and making up +a larger square. The arithmetical application of the term was similar. +If we represent a unit by one dot and put round it three dots in such a +way that the four form the corners of a square, _three_ is the first +gnomon. _Five_ dots put at equal distances round two sides of the square +containing four dots make up the next square (3²), and _five_ is the +second gnomon. Generally, if we have _n²_ dots so arranged as to fill up +a square with _n_ for its side, the gnomon to be put round it to make up +the next square, _(n+1)²_, has _2n+1_ dots. In the formation of squares, +therefore, the successive gnomons are the series of odd numbers +following 1 (the first square), namely 3, 5, 7, ... In the formation of +_oblong_ numbers (numbers of the form _n(n+1)_), the first of which is +1. 2, the successive gnomons are the terms after 2 in the series of +_even_ numbers 2, 4, 6.... Triangular numbers are formed by adding to 1 +(the first triangle) the terms after 1 in the series of natural numbers +1, 2, 3 ...; these are therefore the gnomons (by analogy) for triangles. +The gnomons for pentagonal numbers are the terms after 1 in the +arithmetical progression 1, 4, 7, 10 ... (with 3, or 5-2, as the common +difference) and so on; the common difference of the successive gnomons +for an _a_-gonal number is _a-2_. + +From the series of gnomons for squares we easily deduce a formula for +finding square numbers which are the sum of two squares. For, the gnomon +_2n+1_ being the difference between the successive squares _n²_ and +_(n+1)²_, we have only to make _2n+1_ a square. Suppose that _2n+1=m²_; +therefore _n=½(m²-1)_, and _{½(m²-1)}²+m²={½(m²+1)}²_, where _m_ is any +odd number. This is the formula actually attributed to Pythagoras. + +Pythagoras is said to have discovered the theory of proportionals or +proportion. This was a numerical theory and therefore was applicable to +commensurable magnitudes only; it was no doubt somewhat on the lines of +Euclid, Book VII. Connected with the theory of proportion was that of +_means_, and Pythagoras was acquainted with three of these, the +arithmetic, geometric, and sub-contrary (afterwards called harmonic). In +particular Pythagoras is said to have introduced from Babylon into +Greece the 'most perfect' proportion, namely: + +_a:(a+b)/2=2ab/(a+b):b_, + +where the second and third terms are respectively the arithmetic and +harmonic mean between _a_ and _b_. A particular case is 12:9=8:6. + +This bears upon what was probably Pythagoras's greatest discovery, +namely that the musical intervals correspond to certain arithmetical +ratios between lengths of string at the same tension, the octave +corresponding to the ratio 2:1, the fifth to 3:2 and the fourth to 4:3. +These ratios being the same as those of 12 to 6, 8, 9 respectively, we +can understand how the third term, 8, in the above proportion came to +be called the 'harmonic' mean between 12 and 6. + +The Pythagorean arithmetic as a whole, with the developments made after +the time of Pythagoras himself, is mainly known to us through +Nicomachus's _Introductio arithmetica_, Iamblichus's commentary on the +same, and Theon of Smyrna's work _Expositio rerum mathematicarum ad +legendum Platonem utilium_. The things in these books most deserving of +notice are the following. + +First, there is the description of a 'perfect' number (a number which is +equal to the sum of all its parts, i.e. all its integral divisors +including 1 but excluding the number itself), with a statement of the +property that all such numbers end in 6 or 8. Four such numbers, namely +6, 28, 496, 8128, were known to Nicomachus. The law of formation for +such numbers is first found in Eucl. IX. 36 proving that, if the sum +(S_{n}) of _n_ terms of the series 1, 2, 2², 2³ ... is prime, then +S_{n}.2^{n-1} is a perfect number. + +Secondly, Theon of Smyrna gives the law of formation of the series of +'side-' and 'diameter-' numbers which satisfy the equations _2x²-y²=±1_. +The law depends on the proposition proved in Eucl. II. 10 to the effect +that _(2x+y)²-2(x+y)²=2x²-y²_, whence it follows that, if _x_, _y_ +satisfy either of the above equations, then _2x+y_, _x+y_ is a solution +in higher numbers of the other equation. The successive solutions give +values for _y/x_, namely 1/1, 3/2, 7/5, 17/12, 41/29, ..., which are +successive approximations to the value of √2 (the ratio of the diagonal +of a square to its side). The occasion for this method of approximation +to √2 (which can be carried as far as we please) was the discovery by +the Pythagoreans of the incommensurable or irrational in this particular +case. + +Thirdly, Iamblichus mentions a discovery by Thymaridas, a Pythagorean +not later than Plato's time, called the επανθημα {epanthêma} ('bloom') +of Thymaridas, and amounting to the solution of any number of +simultaneous equations of the following form: + +_x+x₁+x₂+ ... +x_{n-1} = s_, + _x+x₁ = a₁_, + _x+x₂ = a₂_, + ... +_x+x_{n-1} = a_{n-1}_, + +the solution being _x=((a₁+a₂+ ... +a_{n-1})-s)/(n-2)_. + +The rule is stated in general terms, but the above representation of its +effect shows that it is a piece of pure algebra. + +The Pythagorean contributions to geometry were even more remarkable. The +most famous proposition attributed to Pythagoras himself is of course +the theorem of Eucl. I. 47 that the square on the hypotenuse of any +right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other +two sides. But Proclus also attributes to him, besides the theory of +proportionals, the construction of the 'cosmic figures', the five +regular solids. + +One of the said solids, the dodecahedron, has twelve regular pentagons +for faces, and the construction of a regular pentagon involves the +cutting of a straight line 'in extreme and mean ratio' (Eucl. II. 11 and +VI. 30), which is a particular case of the method known as the +_application of areas_. This method was fully worked out by the +Pythagoreans and proved one of the most powerful in all Greek geometry. +The most elementary case appears in Eucl. I. 44, 45, where it is shown +how to apply to a given straight line as base a parallelogram with one +angle equal to a given angle and equal in area to any given rectilineal +figure; this construction is the geometrical equivalent of arithmetical +_division_. The general case is that in which the parallelogram, though +applied to the straight line, overlaps it or falls short of it in such a +way that the part of the parallelogram which extends beyond or falls +short of the parallelogram of the same angle and breadth on the given +straight line itself (exactly) as base is similar to any given +parallelogram (Eucl. VI. 28, 29). This is the geometrical equivalent of +the solution of the most general form of quadratic equation _ax±mx²=C_, +so far as it has real roots; the condition that the roots may be real +was also worked out (=Eucl. VI. 27). It is in the form of 'application +of areas' that Apollonius obtains the fundamental property of each of +the conic sections, and, as we shall see, it is from the terminology of +application of areas that Apollonius took the three names _parabola_, +_hyperbola_, and _ellipse_ which he was the first to give to the three +curves. + +Another problem solved by the Pythagoreans was that of drawing a +rectilineal figure which shall be equal in area to one given rectilineal +figure and similar to another. Plutarch mentions a doubt whether it was +this problem or the theorem of Eucl. I. 47 on the strength of which +Pythagoras was said to have sacrificed an ox. + +The main particular applications of the theorem of the square on the +hypotenuse, e. g. those in Euclid, Book II, were also Pythagorean; the +construction of a square equal to a given rectangle (Eucl. II. 14) is +one of them, and corresponds to the solution of the pure quadratic +equation _x²=ab_. + +The Pythagoreans knew the properties of parallels and proved the theorem +that the sum of the three angles of any triangle is equal to two right +angles. + +As we have seen, the Pythagorean theory of proportion, being numerical, +was inadequate in that it did not apply to incommensurable magnitudes; +but, with this qualification, we may say that the Pythagorean geometry +covered the bulk of the subject-matter of Books I, II, IV and VI of +Euclid's _Elements_. The case is less clear with regard to Book III of +the _Elements_; but, as the main propositions of that Book were known to +Hippocrates of Chios in the second half of the fifth century B. C., we +conclude that they, too, were part of the Pythagorean geometry. + +Lastly, the Pythagoreans discovered the existence of the incommensurable +or irrational in the particular case of the diagonal of a square in +relation to its side. Aristotle mentions an ancient proof of the +incommensurability of the diagonal with the side by a _reductio ad +absurdum_ showing that, if the diagonal were commensurable with the +side, it would follow that one and the same number is both odd and even. +This proof was doubtless Pythagorean. + +A word should be added about the Pythagorean astronomy. Pythagoras was +the first to hold that the earth (and no doubt each of the other +heavenly bodies also) is spherical in shape, and he was aware that the +sun, moon and planets have independent movements of their own in a sense +opposite to that of the daily rotation; but he seems to have kept the +earth in the centre. His successors in the school (one Hicetas of +Syracuse and Philolaus are alternatively credited with this innovation) +actually abandoned the geocentric idea and made the earth, like the sun, +the moon, and the other planets, revolve in a circle round the 'central +fire', in which resided the governing principle ordering and directing +the movement of the universe. + +The geometry of which we have so far spoken belongs to the Elements. +But, before the body of the Elements was complete, the Greeks had +advanced beyond the Elements. By the second half of the fifth century B. +C. they had investigated three famous problems in higher geometry, (1) +the squaring of the circle, (2) the trisection of any angle, (3) the +duplication of the cube. The great names belonging to this period are +Hippias of Elis, Hippocrates of Chios, and Democritus. + +Hippias of Elis invented a certain curve described by combining two +uniform movements (one angular and the other rectilinear) taking the +same time to complete. Hippias himself used his curve for the +trisection of any angle or the division of it in any ratio; but it was +afterwards employed by Dinostratus, a brother of Eudoxus's pupil +Menaechmus, and by Nicomedes for squaring the circle, whence it got the +name τετραγωνιζουσα {tetragônizousa}, _quadratrix_. + +Hippocrates of Chios is mentioned by Aristotle as an instance to prove +that a man may be a distinguished geometer and, at the same time, a fool +in the ordinary affairs of life. He occupies an important place both in +elementary geometry and in relation to two of the higher problems above +mentioned. He was, so far as is known, the first compiler of a book of +Elements; and he was the first to prove the important theorem of Eucl. +XII. 2 that circles are to one another as the squares on their +diameters, from which he further deduced that similar segments of +circles are to one another as the squares on their bases. These +propositions were used by him in his tract on the squaring of _lunes_, +which was intended to lead up to the squaring of the circle. The +essential portions of the tract are preserved in a passage of +Simplicius's commentary on Aristotle's _Physics_, which contains +substantial extracts from Eudemus's lost _History of Geometry_. +Hippocrates showed how to square three particular lunes of different +kinds and then, lastly, he squared the sum of a circle and a certain +lune. Unfortunately the last-mentioned lune was not one of those which +can be squared, so that the attempt to square the circle in this way +failed after all. + +Hippocrates also attacked the problem of doubling the cube. There are +two versions of the origin of this famous problem. According to one +story an old tragic poet had represented Minos as having been +dissatisfied with the size of a cubical tomb erected for his son Glaucus +and having told the architect to make it double the size while retaining +the cubical form. The other story says that the Delians, suffering from +a pestilence, consulted the oracle and were told to double a certain +altar as a means of staying the plague. Hippocrates did not indeed solve +the problem of duplication, but reduced it to another, namely that of +finding two mean proportionals in continued proportion between two given +straight lines; and the problem was ever afterwards attacked in this +form. If _x_, _y_ be the two required mean proportionals between two +straight lines _a_, _b_, then _a:x=x:y=y:b_, whence _b/a=(x/a)³_, and, +as a particular case, if _b=2a_, _x³=2a³_, so that, when _x_ is found, +the cube is doubled. + +Democritus wrote a large number of mathematical treatises, the titles +only of which are preserved. We gather from one of these titles, 'On +irrational lines and solids', that he wrote on irrationals. Democritus +realized as fully as Zeno, and expressed with no less piquancy, the +difficulty connected with the continuous and the infinitesimal. This +appears from his dilemma about the circular base of a cone and a +parallel section; the section which he means is a section 'indefinitely +near' (as the phrase is) to the base, i. e. the _very next_ section, as +we might say (if there were one). Is it, said Democritus, equal or not +equal to the base? If it is equal, so will the very next section to it +be, and so on, so that the cone will really be, not a cone, but a +cylinder. If it is unequal to the base and in fact less, the surface of +the cone will be jagged, like steps, which is very absurd. We may be +sure that Democritus's work on 'The contact of a circle or a sphere' +discussed a like difficulty. + +Lastly, Archimedes tells us that Democritus was the first to state, +though he could not give a rigorous proof, that the volume of a cone or +a pyramid is one-third of that of the cylinder or prism respectively on +the same base and having equal height, theorems first proved by Eudoxus. + +We come now to the time of Plato, and here the great names are Archytas, +Theodoras of Cyrene, Theaetetus, and Eudoxus. + +Archytas (about 430-360 B. C.) wrote on music and the numerical ratios +corresponding to the intervals of the tetrachord. He is said to have +been the first to write a treatise on mechanics based on mathematical +principles; on the practical side he invented a mechanical dove which +would fly. In geometry he gave the first solution of the problem of the +two mean proportionals, using a wonderful construction in three +dimensions which determined a certain point as the intersection of three +surfaces, (1) a certain cone, (2) a half-cylinder, (3) an anchor-ring or +_tore_ with inner diameter _nil_. + +Theodorus, Plato's teacher in mathematics, extended the theory of the +irrational by proving incommensurability in certain particular cases +other than that of the diagonal of a square in relation to its side, +which was already known. He proved that the side of a square containing +3 square feet, or 5 square feet, or any non-square number of square feet +up to 17 is incommensurable with one foot, in other words that √3, √5 +... √17 are all incommensurable with 1. Theodorus's proof was evidently +not general; and it was reserved for Theaetetus to comprehend all these +irrationals in one definition, and to prove the property generally as it +is proved in Eucl. X. 9. Much of the content of the rest of Euclid's +Book X (dealing with compound irrationals), as also of Book XIII on the +five regular solids, was due to Theaetetus, who is even said to have +discovered two of those solids (the octahedron and icosahedron). + +Plato (427-347 B. C.) was probably not an original mathematician, but he +'caused mathematics in general and geometry in particular to make a +great advance by reason of his enthusiasm for them'. He encouraged the +members of his school to specialize in mathematics and astronomy; e. g. +we are told that in astronomy he set it as a problem to all earnest +students to find 'what are the uniform and ordered movements by the +assumption of which the apparent motions of the planets may be +accounted for'. In Plato's own writings are found certain definitions, +e. g. that of a straight line as 'that of which the middle covers the +ends', and some interesting mathematical illustrations, especially that +in the second geometrical passage in the _Meno_ (86E-87C). To Plato +himself are attributed (1) a formula _(n²-1)²+(2n)²=(n²+1)²_ for finding +two square numbers the sum of which is a square number, (2) the +invention of the method of analysis, which he is said to have explained +to Leodamas of Thasos (_mathematical_ analysis was, however, certainly, +in practice, employed long before). The solution, attributed to Plato, +of the problem of the two mean proportionals by means of a frame +resembling that which a shoemaker uses to measure a foot, can hardly be +his. + +Eudoxus (408-355 B. C.), an original genius second to none (unless it be +Archimedes) in the history of our subject, made two discoveries of +supreme importance for the further development of Greek geometry. + +(1) As we have seen, the discovery of the incommensurable rendered +inadequate the Pythagorean theory of proportion, which applied to +commensurable magnitudes only. It would no doubt be possible, in most +cases, to replace proofs depending on proportions by others; but this +involved great inconvenience, and a slur was cast on geometry generally. +The trouble was remedied once for all by Eudoxus's discovery of the +great theory of proportion, applicable to commensurable and +incommensurable magnitudes alike, which is expounded in Euclid's Book V. +Well might Barrow say of this theory that 'there is nothing in the whole +body of the elements of a more subtile invention, nothing more solidly +established'. The keystone of the structure is the definition of equal +ratios (Eucl. V, Def. 5); and twenty-three centuries have not abated a +jot from its value, as is plain from the facts that Weierstrass repeats +it word for word as his definition of equal numbers, and it corresponds +almost to the point of coincidence with the modern treatment of +irrationals due to Dedekind. + +(2) Eudoxus discovered the method of exhaustion for measuring +curvilinear areas and solids, to which, with the extensions given to it +by Archimedes, Greek geometry owes its greatest triumphs. Antiphon the +Sophist, in connexion with attempts to square the circle, had asserted +that, if we inscribe successive regular polygons in a circle, +continually doubling the number of sides, we shall sometime arrive at a +polygon the sides of which will coincide with the circumference of the +circle. Warned by the unanswerable arguments of Zeno against +infinitesimals, mathematicians substituted for this the statement that, +by continuing the construction, we can inscribe a polygon approaching +equality with the circle _as nearly as we please_. The method of +exhaustion used, for the purpose of proof by _reductio ad absurdum_, the +lemma proved in Eucl. X. 1 (to the effect that, if from any magnitude we +subtract not less than half, and then from the remainder not less than +half, and so on continually, there will sometime be left a magnitude +less than any assigned magnitude of the same kind, however small): and +this again depends on an assumption which is practically contained in +Eucl. V, Def. 4, but is generally known as the Axiom of Archimedes, +stating that, if we have two unequal magnitudes, their difference +(however small) can, if continually added to itself, be made to exceed +any magnitude of the same kind (however great). + +The method of exhaustion is seen in operation in Eucl. XII. 1-2, 3-7 +Cor., 10, 16-18. Props. 3-7 Cor. and Prop. 10 prove that the volumes of +a pyramid and a cone are one-third of the prism and cylinder +respectively on the same base and of equal height; and Archimedes +expressly says that these facts were first proved by Eudoxus. + +In astronomy Eudoxus is famous for the beautiful theory of concentric +spheres which he invented to explain the apparent motions of the +planets and, particularly, their apparent stationary points and +retrogradations. The theory applied also to the sun and moon, for each +of which Eudoxus employed three spheres. He represented the motion of +each planet as produced by the rotations of four spheres concentric with +the earth, one within the other, and connected in the following way. +Each of the inner spheres revolves about a diameter the ends of which +(poles) are fixed on the next sphere enclosing it. The outermost sphere +represents the daily rotation, the second a motion along the zodiac +circle; the poles of the third sphere are fixed on the latter circle; +the poles of the fourth sphere (carrying the planet fixed on its +equator) are so fixed on the third sphere, and the speeds and directions +of rotation so arranged, that the planet describes on the second sphere +a curve called the _hippopede_ (horse-fetter), or a figure of eight, +lying along and longitudinally bisected by the zodiac circle. The whole +arrangement is a marvel of geometrical ingenuity. + +Heraclides of Pontus (about 388-315 B. C.), a pupil of Plato, made a +great step forward in astronomy by his declaration that the earth +rotates on its own axis once in 24 hours, and by his discovery that +Mercury and Venus revolve about the sun like satellites. + +Menaechmus, a pupil of Eudoxus, was the discoverer of the conic +sections, two of which, the parabola and the hyperbola, he used for +solving the problem of the two mean proportionals. If _a:x=x:y=y:b_, +then _x²=ay_, _y²=bx_ and _xy=ab_. These equations represent, in +Cartesian co-ordinates, and with rectangular axes, the conics by the +intersection of which two and two Menaechmus solved the problem; in the +case of the rectangular hyperbola it was the asymptote-property which he +used. + +We pass to Euclid's times. A little older than Euclid, Autolycus of +Pitane wrote two books, _On the Moving Sphere_, a work on Sphaeric for +use in astronomy, and _On Risings and Settings_. The former work is the +earliest Greek textbook which has reached us intact. It was before +Euclid when he wrote his _Phaenomena_, and there are many points of +contact between the two books. + +Euclid flourished about 300 B. C. or a little earlier. His great work, +the _Elements_ in thirteen Books, is too well known to need description. +No work presumably, except the Bible, has had such a reign; and future +generations will come back to it again and again as they tire of the +variegated substitutes for it and the confusion resulting from their +bewildering multiplicity. After what has been said above of the growth +of the Elements, we can appreciate the remark of Proclus about Euclid, +'who put together the Elements, collecting many of Eudoxus's theorems, +perfecting many of Theaetetus's and also bringing to irrefragable +demonstration the things which were only somewhat loosely proved by his +predecessors'. Though a large portion of the subject-matter had been +investigated by those predecessors, everything goes to show that the +whole arrangement was Euclid's own; it is certain that he made great +changes in the order of propositions and in the proofs, and that his +innovations began at the very beginning of Book I. + +Euclid wrote other books on both elementary and higher geometry, and on +the other mathematical subjects known in his day. The elementary +geometrical works include the _Data_ and _On Divisions_ (_of figures_), +the first of which survives in Greek and the second in Arabic only; also +the _Pseudaria_, now lost, which was a sort of guide to fallacies in +geometrical reasoning. The treatises on higher geometry are all lost; +they include (1) the _Conics_ in four Books, which covered almost the +same ground as the first three Books of Apollonius's _Conics_, although +no doubt, for Euclid, the conics were still, as with his predecessors, +sections of a right-angled, an obtuse-angled, and an acute-angled cone +respectively made by a plane perpendiular to a generator in each case; +(2) the _Porisms_ in three Books, the importance and difficulty of which +can be inferred from Pappus's account of it and the lemmas which he +gives for use with it; (3) the _Surface-Loci_, to which again Pappus +furnishes lemmas; one of these implies that Euclid assumed as known the +focus-directrix property of the three conics, which is absent from +Apollonius's _Conics_. + +In applied mathematics Euclid wrote (1) the _Phaenomena_, a work on +spherical astronomy in which ὁ ὁριζων {ho horizôn} (without κυκλος +{kyklos} or any qualifying words) appears for the first time in the +sense of _horizon_; (2) the _Optics_, a kind of elementary treatise on +perspective: these two treatises are extant in Greek; (3) a work on the +Elements of Music. The _Sectio Canonis_, which has come down under the +name of Euclid, can, however, hardly be his in its present form. + +In the period between Euclid and Archimedes comes Aristarchus of Samos +(about 310-230 B. C.), famous for having anticipated Copernicus. +Accepting Heraclides's view that the earth rotates about its own axis, +Aristarchus went further and put forward the hypothesis that the sun +itself is at rest, and that the earth, as well as Mercury, Venus, and +the other planets, revolve in circles about the sun. We have this on the +unquestionable authority of Archimedes, who was only some twenty-five +years later, and who must have seen the book containing the hypothesis +in question. We are told too that Cleanthes the Stoic thought that +Aristarchus ought to be indicted on the charge of impiety for setting +the Hearth of the Universe in motion. + +One work of Aristarchus, _On the sizes and distances of the Sun and +Moon_, which is extant in Greek, is highly interesting in itself, though +it contains no word of the heliocentric hypothesis. Thoroughly classical +in form and style, it lays down certain hypotheses and then deduces +therefrom, by rigorous geometry, the sizes and distances of the sun and +moon. If the hypotheses had been exact, the results would have been +correct too; but Aristarchus in fact assumed a certain angle to be 87° +which is really 89° 50', and the angle subtended at the centre of the +earth by the diameter of either the sun or the moon to be 2°, whereas we +know from Archimedes that Aristarchus himself discovered that the latter +angle is only 1/2°. The effect of Aristarchus's geometry is to find +arithmetical limits to the values of what are really trigonometrical +ratios of certain small angles, namely + +1/18 > sin 3° > 1/20, 1/45 > sin 1° > 1/60, 1 > cos 1° > 89/90. + +The main results obtained are (1) that the diameter of the sun is +between 18 and 20 times the diameter of the moon, (2) that the diameter +of the moon is between 2/45ths and 1/30th of the distance of the centre +of the moon from our eye, and (3) that the diameter of the sun is +between 19/3rds and 43/6ths of the diameter of the earth. The book +contains a good deal of arithmetical calculation. + +Archimedes was born about 287 B. C. and was killed at the sack of +Syracuse by Marcellus's army in 212 B. C. The stories about him are well +known, how he said 'Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the +earth' (πα βω και κινω ταν γαν {pa bô kai kinô tan gan}); how, having +thought of the solution of the problem of the crown when in the bath, he +ran home naked shouting ἑυρηκα, ἑυρηκα {heurêka, heurêka}; and how, the +capture of Syracuse having found him intent on a figure drawn on the +ground, he said to a Roman soldier who came up, 'Stand away, fellow, +from my diagram.' Of his work few people know more than that he invented +a tubular screw which is still used for pumping water, and that for a +long time he foiled the attacks of the Romans on Syracuse by the +mechanical devices and engines which he used against them. But he +thought meanly of these things, and his real interest was in pure +mathematical speculation; he caused to be engraved on his tomb a +representation of a cylinder circumscribing a sphere, with the ratio +3/2 which the cylinder bears to the sphere: from which we infer that he +regarded this as his greatest discovery. + +Archimedes's works are all original, and are perfect models of +mathematical exposition; their wide range will be seen from the list of +those which survive: _On the Sphere and Cylinder_ I, II, _Measurement of +a Circle_, _On Conoids and Spheroids_, _On Spirals_, _On Plane +Equilibriums_ I, II, the _Sandreckoner_, _Quadrature of the Parabola_, +_On Floating Bodies_ I, II, and lastly the _Method_ (only discovered in +1906). The difficult Cattle-Problem is also attributed to him, and a +_Liber Assumptorum_ which has reached us through the Arabic, but which +cannot be his in its present form, although some of the propositions in +it (notably that about the 'Salinon', salt-cellar, and others about +circles inscribed in the αρβηλος {arbêlos}, shoemaker's knife) are quite +likely to be of Archimedean origin. Among lost works were the +_Catoptrica_, _On Sphere-making_, and investigations into polyhedra, +including thirteen semi-regular solids, the discovery of which is +attributed by Pappus to Archimedes. + +Speaking generally, the geometrical works are directed to the +measurement of curvilinear areas and volumes; and Archimedes employs a +method which is a development of Eudoxus's method of exhaustion. Eudoxus +apparently approached the figure to be measured from below only, i. e. +by means of figures successively inscribed to it. Archimedes approaches +it from both sides by successively inscribing figures and circumscribing +others also, thereby compressing them, as it were, until they coincide +as nearly as we please with the figure to be measured. In many cases his +procedure is, when the analytical equivalents are set down, seen to +amount to real _integration_; this is so with his investigation of the +areas of a parabolic segment and a spiral, the surface and volume of a +sphere, and the volume of any segments of the conoids and spheroids. + +The newly-discovered _Method_ is especially interesting as showing how +Archimedes originally obtained his results; this was by a clever +mechanical method of (theoretically) _weighing_ infinitesimal elements +of the figure to be measured against elements of another figure the area +or content of which (as the case may be) is known; it amounts to an +_avoidance_ of integration. Archimedes, however, would only admit that +the mechanical method is useful for finding results; he did not consider +them proved until they were established geometrically. + +In the _Measurement of a Circle_, after proving by exhaustion that the +area of a circle is equal to a right-angled triangle with the +perpendicular sides equal respectively to the radius and the +circumference of the circle, Archimedes finds, by sheer calculation, +upper and lower limits to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to +its diameter (what we call π {p}). This he does by inscribing and +circumscribing regular polygons of 96 sides and calculating +approximately their respective perimeters. He begins by assuming as +known certain approximate values for √3, namely 1351/780 > √3 > 265/153, +and his calculations involve approximating to the square roots of +several large numbers (up to seven digits). The text only gives the +results, but it is evident that the extraction of square roots presented +no difficulty, notwithstanding the comparative inconvenience of the +alphabetic system of numerals. The result obtained is well known, namely +3-1/7 > π {p} > 3-10/71. + +The _Plane Equilibriums_ is the first scientific treatise on the first +principles of mechanics, which are established by pure geometry. The +most important result established in Book I is the principle of the +lever. This was known to Plato and Aristotle, but they had no real +proof. The Aristotelian _Mechanics_ merely 'refers' the lever 'to the +circle', asserting that the force which acts at the greater distance +from the fulcrum moves the system more easily because it describes a +greater circle. Archimedes also finds the centre of gravity of a +parallelogram, a triangle, a trapezium and finally (in Book II) of a +parabolic segment and of a portion of it cut off by a straight line +parallel to the base. + +The _Sandreckoner_ is remarkable for the development in it of a system +for expressing very large numbers by _orders_ and _periods_ based on +powers of myriad-myriads (10,000²). It also contains the important +reference to the heliocentric theory of the universe put forward by +Aristarchus of Samos in a book of 'hypotheses', as well as historical +details of previous attempts to measure the size of the earth and to +give the sizes and distances of the sun and moon. + +Lastly, Archimedes invented the whole science of hydrostatics. Beginning +the treatise _On Floating Bodies_ with an assumption about uniform +pressure in a fluid, he first proves that the surface of a fluid at rest +is a sphere with its centre at the centre of the earth. Other +propositions show that, if a solid floats in a fluid, the weight of the +solid is equal to that of the fluid displaced, and, if a solid heavier +than a fluid is weighed in it, it will be lighter than its true weight +by the weight of the fluid displaced. Then, after a second assumption +that bodies which are forced upwards in a fluid are forced upwards along +the perpendiculars to the surface which pass through their centres of +gravity, Archimedes deals with the position of rest and stability of a +segment of a sphere floating in a fluid with its base entirely above or +entirely below the surface. Book II is an extraordinary _tour de force_, +investigating fully all the positions of rest and stability of a right +segment of a paraboloid floating in a fluid according (1) to the +relation between the axis of the solid and the parameter of the +generating parabola, and (2) to the specific gravity of the solid in +relation to the fluid; the term 'specific gravity' is not used, but the +idea is fully expressed in other words. + +Almost contemporary with Archimedes was Eratosthenes of Cyrene, to whom +Archimedes dedicated the _Method_; the preface to this work shows that +Archimedes thought highly of his mathematical ability. He was indeed +recognized by his contemporaries as a man of great distinction in all +branches, though the names Beta and Pentathlos[4] applied to him +indicate that he just fell below the first rank in each subject. Ptolemy +Euergetes appointed him to be tutor to his son (Philopator), and he +became librarian at Alexandria; he recognized his obligation to Ptolemy +by erecting a column with a graceful epigram. In this epigram he +referred to the earlier solutions of the problem of duplicating the cube +or finding the two mean proportionals, and advocated his own in +preference, because it would give any number of means; on the column was +fixed a bronze representation of his appliance, a frame with +right-angled triangles (or rectangles) movable along two parallel +grooves and over one another, together with a condensed proof. The +_Platonicus_ of Eratosthenes evidently dealt with the fundamental +notions of mathematics in connexion with Plato's philosophy, and seems +to have begun with the story of the origin of the duplication problem. + + [4] This word primarily means an all-round athlete, a winner in all + five of the sports constituting the πενταθλον {pentathlon}, namely + jumping, discus-throwing, running, wrestling, and boxing (or + javelin-throwing). + +The most famous achievement of Eratosthenes was his measurement of the +earth. Archimedes quotes an earlier measurement which made the +circumference of the earth 300,000 stades. Eratosthenes improved upon +this. He observed that at the summer solstice at Syene, at noon, the sun +cast no shadow, while at the same moment the upright gnomon at +Alexandria cast a shadow corresponding to an angle between the gnomon +and the sun's rays of 1/50th of four right angles. The distance between +Syene and Alexandria being known to be 5,000 stades, this gave for the +circumference of the earth 250,000 stades, which Eratosthenes seems +later, for some reason, to have changed to 252,000 stades. On the most +probable assumption as to the length of the stade used, the 252,000 +stades give about 7,850 miles, only 50 miles less than the true polar +diameter. + +In the work _On the Measurement of the Earth_ Eratosthenes is said to +have discussed other astronomical matters, the distance of the tropic +and polar circles, the sizes and distances of the sun and moon, total +and partial eclipses, &c. Besides other works on astronomy and +chronology, Eratosthenes wrote a _Geographica_ in three books, in which +he first gave a history of geography up to date and then passed on to +mathematical geography, the spherical shape of the earth, &c., &c. + +Apollonius of Perga was with justice called by his contemporaries the +'Great Geometer', on the strength of his great treatise, the _Conics_. +He is mentioned as a famous astronomer of the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes +(247-222 B. C.); and he dedicated the fourth and later Books of the +_Conics_ to King Attalus I of Pergamum (241-197 B. C.). + +The _Conics_, a colossal work, originally in eight Books, survives as to +the first four Books in Greek and as to three more in Arabic, the eighth +being lost. From Apollonius's prefaces we can judge of the relation of +his work to Euclid's _Conics_, the content of which answered to the +first three Books of Apollonius. Although Euclid knew that an ellipse +could be otherwise produced, e. g. as an oblique section of a right +cylinder, there is no doubt that he produced all three conics from right +cones like his predecessors. Apollonius, however, obtains them in the +most general way by cutting any oblique cone, and his original axes of +reference, a diameter and the tangent at its extremity, are in general +oblique; the fundamental properties are found with reference to these +axes by 'application of areas', the three varieties of which, +_application_ (παραβολη {parabolê}), application with an _excess_ +(ὑπερβολη {hyperbolê}) and application with a _deficiency_ (ελλειψις +{elleipsis}), give the properties of the three curves respectively and +account for the names _parabola_, _hyperbola_, and _ellipse_, by which +Apollonius called them for the first time. The principal axes only +appear, as a particular case, after it has been shown that the curves +have a like property when referred to any other diameter and the tangent +at its extremity, instead of those arising out of the original +construction. The first four Books constitute what Apollonius calls an +elementary introduction; the remaining Books are specialized +investigations, the most important being Book V (on normals) and Book +VII (mainly on conjugate diameters). Normals are treated, not in +connexion with tangents, but as _minimum_ or _maximum_ straight lines +drawn to the curves from different points or classes of points. +Apollonius discusses such questions as the number of normals that can be +drawn from one point (according to its position) and the construction of +all such normals. Certain propositions of great difficulty enable us to +deduce quite easily the Cartesian equations to the _evolutes_ of the +three conics. + +Several other works of Apollonius are described by Pappus as forming +part of the 'Treasury of Analysis'. All are lost except the _Sectio +Rationis_ in two Books, which survives in Arabic and was published in a +Latin translation by Halley in 1706. It deals with all possible cases of +the general problem 'given two straight lines either parallel or +intersecting, and a fixed point on each, to draw through any given point +a straight line which shall cut off intercepts from the two lines +(measured from the fixed points) bearing a given ratio to one another'. +The lost treatise _Sectio Spatii_ dealt similarly with the like problem +in which the intercepts cut off have to contain a given rectangle. + +The other treatises included in Pappus's account are (1) On _Determinate +Section_; (2) _Contacts_ or _Tangencies_, Book II of which is entirely +devoted to the problem of drawing a circle to touch three given circles +(Apollonius's solution can, with the aid of Pappus's auxiliary +propositions, be satisfactorily restored); (3) _Plane Loci_, i. e. loci +which are straight lines or circles; (4) Νευσεις {Neuseis}, +_Inclinationes_ (the general problem called a νευσις {neusis} being to +insert between two lines, straight or curved, a straight line of given +length _verging_ to a given point, i. e. so that, if produced, it passes +through the point, Apollonius restricted himself to cases which could be +solved by 'plane' methods, i. e. by the straight line and circle only). + +Apollonius is also said to have written (5) a _Comparison of the +dodecahedron with the icosahedron_ (inscribed in the same sphere), in +which he proved that their surfaces are in the same ratio as their +volumes; (6) _On the cochlias_ or cylindrical helix; (7) a 'General +Treatise', which apparently dealt with the fundamental assumptions, &c., +of elementary geometry; (8) a work on _unordered irrationals_, i. e. +irrationals of more complicated form than those of Eucl. Book X; (9) _On +the burning-mirror_, dealing with spherical mirrors and probably with +mirrors of parabolic section also; (10) ωκυτοκιον {ôkytokion} ('quick +delivery'). In the last-named work Apollonius found an approximation to +π {p} closer than that in Archimedes's _Measurement of a Circle_; and +possibly the book also contained Apollonius's exposition of his notation +for large numbers according to 'tetrads' (successive powers of the +myriad). + +In astronomy Apollonius is said to have made special researches +regarding the moon, and to have been called ε {e} (Epsilon) because the +form of that letter is associated with the moon. He was also a master of +the theory of epicycles and eccentrics. + +With Archimedes and Apollonius Greek geometry reached its culminating +point; indeed, without some more elastic notation and machinery such as +algebra provides, geometry was practically at the end of its resources. +For some time, however, there were capable geometers who kept up the +tradition, filling in details, devising alternative solutions of +problems, or discovering new curves for use or investigation. + +Nicomedes, probably intermediate in date between Eratosthenes and +Apollonius, was the inventor of the _conchoid_ or _cochloid_, of which, +according to Pappus, there were three varieties. Diocles (about the end +of the second century B. C.) is known as the discoverer of the _cissoid_ +which was used for duplicating the cube. He also wrote a book περι +πυρειων {peri pyreiôn}, _On burning-mirrors_, which probably discussed, +among other forms of mirror, surfaces of parabolic or elliptic section, +and used the focal properties of the two conics; it was in this work +that Diocles gave an independent and clever solution (by means of an +ellipse and a rectangular hyperbola) of Archimedes's problem of cutting +a sphere into two segments in a given ratio. Dionysodorus gave a +solution by means of conics of the auxiliary cubic equation to which +Archimedes reduced this problem; he also found the solid content of a +_tore_ or anchor-ring. + +Perseus is known as the discoverer and investigator of the _spiric +sections_, i. e. certain sections of the σπειρα {speira}, one variety of +which is the _tore_. The _spire_ is generated by the revolution of a +circle about a straight line in its plane, which straight line may +either be external to the circle (in which case the figure produced is +the tore), or may cut or touch the circle. + +Zenodorus was the author of a treatise on _Isometric figures_, the +problem in which was to compare the content of different figures, plane +or solid, having equal contours or surfaces respectively. + +Hypsicles (second half of second century B. C.) wrote what became known +as 'Book XIV' of the _Elements_ containing supplementary propositions on +the regular solids (partly drawn from Aristaeus and Apollonius); he +seems also to have written on polygonal numbers. A mediocre astronomical +work (Αναφορικος {Anaphorikos}) attributed to him is the first Greek +book in which we find the division of the zodiac circle into 360 parts +or degrees. + +Posidonius the Stoic (about 135-51 B. C.) wrote on geography and +astronomy under the titles _On the Ocean_ and περι μετεωρων {peri +meteôrôn}. He made a new but faulty calculation of the circumference of +the earth (240,000 stades). _Per contra_, in a separate tract on the +size of the sun (in refutation of the Epicurean view that it is as big +as it _looks_), he made assumptions (partly guesswork) which give for +the diameter of the sun a figure of 3,000,000 stades (39-1/4 times the +diameter of the earth), a result much nearer the truth than those +obtained by Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy. In elementary geometry +Posidonius gave certain definitions (notably of parallels, based on the +idea of equidistance). + +Geminus of Rhodes, a pupil of Posidonius, wrote (about 70 B. C.) an +encyclopaedic work on the classification and content of mathematics, +including the history of each subject, from which Proclus and others +have preserved notable extracts. An-Nairīzī (an Arabian commentator on +Euclid) reproduces an attempt by one 'Aganis', who appears to be +Geminus, to prove the parallel-postulate. + +But from this time onwards the study of higher geometry (except +sphaeric) seems to have languished, until that admirable mathematician, +Pappus, arose (towards the end of the third century A. D.) to revive +interest in the subject. From the way in which, in his great +_Collection_, Pappus thinks it necessary to describe in detail the +contents of the classical works belonging to the 'Treasury of Analysis' +we gather that by his time many of them had been lost or forgotten, and +that he aimed at nothing less than re-establishing geometry at its +former level. No one could have been better qualified for the task. +Presumably such interest as Pappus was able to arouse soon flickered +out; but his _Collection_ remains, after the original works of the great +mathematicians, the most comprehensive and valuable of all our sources, +being a handbook or guide to Greek geometry and covering practically the +whole field. Among the original things in Pappus's _Collection_ is an +enunciation which amounts to an anticipation of what is known as +Guldin's Theorem. + +It remains to speak of three subjects, trigonometry (represented by +Hipparchus, Menelaus, and Ptolemy), mensuration (in Heron of +Alexandria), and algebra (Diophantus). + +Although, in a sense, the beginnings of trigonometry go back to +Archimedes (_Measurement of a Circle_), Hipparchus was the first person +who can be proved to have used trigonometry systematically. Hipparchus, +the greatest astronomer of antiquity, whose observations were made +between 161 and 126 B. C., discovered the precession of the equinoxes, +calculated the mean lunar month at 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2-1/2 +seconds (which differs by less than a second from the present accepted +figure!), made more correct estimates of the sizes and distances of the +sun and moon, introduced great improvements in the instruments used for +observations, and compiled a catalogue of some 850 stars; he seems to +have been the first to state the position of these stars in terms of +latitude and longitude (in relation to the ecliptic). He wrote a +treatise in twelve Books on Chords in a Circle, equivalent to a table of +trigonometrical sines. For calculating arcs in astronomy from other arcs +given by means of tables he used propositions in spherical trigonometry. + +The _Sphaerica_ of Theodosius of Bithynia (written, say, 20 B. C.) +contains no trigonometry. It is otherwise with the _Sphaerica_ of +Menelaus (fl. A. D. 100) extant in Arabic; Book I of this work contains +propositions about spherical triangles corresponding to the main +propositions of Euclid about plane triangles (e.g. congruence theorems +and the proposition that in a spherical triangle the three angles are +together greater than two right angles), while Book III contains genuine +spherical trigonometry, consisting of 'Menelaus's Theorem' with +reference to the sphere and deductions therefrom. + +Ptolemy's great work, the _Syntaxis_, written about A. D. 150 and +originally called Μαθηματικη συνταξις {Mathêmatikê syntaxis}, came to be +known as Μεγαλη συνταξις {Megalê syntaxis}; the Arabs made up from the +superlative μεγιστος {megistos} the word al-Majisti which became +_Almagest_. + +Book I, containing the necessary preliminaries to the study of the +Ptolemaic system, gives a Table of Chords in a circle subtended by +angles at the centre of ½° increasing by half-degrees to 180°. The +circle is divided into 360 μοιραι {moirai}, parts or degrees, and the +diameter into 120 parts (τμηματα {tmêmata}); the chords are given in +terms of the latter with sexagesimal fractions (e. g. the chord +subtended by an angle of 120° is 103^{p} 53′ 23″). The Table of Chords +is equivalent to a table of the _sines_ of the halves of the angles in +the table, for, if (crd. 2 α {a}) represents the chord subtended by an +angle of 2 α {a} (crd. 2 α {a})/120 = sin α {a}. Ptolemy first gives the +minimum number of geometrical propositions required for the calculation +of the chords. The first of these finds (crd. 36°) and (crd. 72°) from +the geometry of the inscribed pentagon and decagon; the second +('Ptolemy's Theorem' about a quadrilateral in a circle) is equivalent to +the formula for sin (θ-φ) {th-ph}, the third to that for sin ½ θ {th}. +From (crd. 72°) and (crd. 60°) Ptolemy, by using these propositions +successively, deduces (crd. 1½°) and (crd. ¾°), from which he obtains +(crd. 1°) by a clever interpolation. To complete the table he only needs +his fourth proposition, which is equivalent to the formula for cos (θ+φ) +{th+ph}. + +Ptolemy wrote other minor astronomical works, most of which survive in +Greek or Arabic, an _Optics_ in five Books (four Books almost complete +were translated into Latin in the twelfth century), and an attempted +proof of the parallel-postulate which is reproduced by Proclus. + +Heron of Alexandria (date uncertain; he may have lived as late as the +third century A. D.) was an almost encyclopaedic writer on mathematical +and physical subjects. He aimed at practical utility rather than +theoretical completeness; hence, apart from the interesting collection +of _Definitions_ which has come down under his name, and his commentary +on Euclid which is represented only by extracts in Proclus and +an-Nairīzī, his geometry is mostly mensuration in the shape of numerical +examples worked out. As these could be indefinitely multiplied, there +was a temptation to add to them and to use Heron's name. However much of +the separate works edited by Hultsch (the _Geometrica_, _Geodaesia_, +_Stereometrica_, _Mensurae_, _Liber geëponicus_) is genuine, we must now +regard as more authoritative the genuine _Metrica_ discovered at +Constantinople in 1896 and edited by H. Schöne in 1903 (Teubner). Book I +on the measurement of areas is specially interesting for (1) its +statement of the formula used by Heron for finding approximations to +surds, (2) the elegant geometrical proof of the formula for the area of +a triangle Δ {D} = √{_s (s-a) (s-b) (s-c)}, a formula now known to be +due to Archimedes, (3) an allusion to limits to the value of π {p} found +by Archimedes and more exact than the 3-1/7 and 3-10/71 obtained in the +_Measurement of a Circle_. + +Book I of the _Metrica_ calculates the areas of triangles, +quadrilaterals, the regular polygons up to the dodecagon (the areas even +of the heptagon, enneagon, and hendecagon are approximately evaluated), +the circle and a segment of it, the ellipse, a parabolic segment, and +the surfaces of a cylinder, a right cone, a sphere and a segment +thereof. Book II deals with the measurement of solids, the cylinder, +prisms, pyramids and cones and frusta thereof, the sphere and a segment +of it, the anchor-ring or tore, the five regular solids, and finally the +two special solids of Archimedes's _Method_; full use is made of all +Archimedes's results. Book III is on the division of figures. The plane +portion is much on the lines of Euclid's _Divisions_ (of figures). The +solids divided in given ratios are the sphere, the pyramid, the cone and +a frustum thereof. Incidentally Heron shows how he obtained an +approximation to the cube root of a non-cube number (100). Quadratic +equations are solved by Heron by a regular rule not unlike our method, +and the _Geometrica_ contains two interesting indeterminate problems. + +Heron also wrote _Pneumatica_ (where the reader will find such things as +siphons, Heron's Fountain, penny-in-the-slot machines, a fire-engine, a +water-organ, and many arrangements employing the force of steam), +_Automaton-making_, _Belopoeïca_ (on engines of war), _Catoptrica_, and +_Mechanics_. The _Mechanics_ has been edited from the Arabic; it is +(except for considerable fragments) lost in Greek. It deals with the +puzzle of 'Aristotle's Wheel', the parallelogram of velocities, +definitions of, and problems on, the centre of gravity, the distribution +of weights between several supports, the five mechanical powers, +mechanics in daily life (queries and answers). Pappus covers much the +same ground in Book VIII of his _Collection_. + +We come, lastly, to Algebra. Problems involving simple equations are +found in the Papyrus Rhind, in the _Epanthema_ of Thymaridas already +referred to, and in the arithmetical epigrams in the Greek Anthology +(Plato alludes to this class of problem in the _Laws_, 819 B, C); the +Anthology even includes two cases of indeterminate equations of the +first degree. The Pythagoreans gave general solutions in rational +numbers of the equations _x²+y²=z²_ and _2x²-y²=±1_, which are +indeterminate equations of the second degree. + +The first to make systematic use of symbols in algebraical work was +Diophantus of Alexandria (fl. about A. D. 250). He used (1) a sign for +the unknown quantity, which he calls αριθμος {arithmos}, and compendia +for its powers up to the sixth; (2) a sign ([Transcriber's Note: +Symbol]) with the effect of our _minus_. The latter sign probably +represents ΛΙ {LI}, an abbreviation for the root of the word λειπειν +{leipein} (to be wanting); the sign for αριθμος {arithmos} +([Transcriber's Note: Symbol]) is most likely an abbreviation for the +letters αρ {ar}; the compendia for the powers of the unknown are Δ^Υ +{D^Y} for δυναμις {dynamis}, the square, Κ^Υ {K^Y} for κυβος {kybos}, +the cube, and so on. Diophantus shows that he solved quadratic equations +by rule, like Heron. His _Arithmetica_, of which six books only (out of +thirteen) survive, contains a certain number of problems leading to +simple equations, but is mostly devoted to indeterminate or +semi-determinate analysis, mainly of the second degree. The collection +is extraordinarily varied, and the devices resorted to are highly +ingenious. The problems solved are such as the following (fractional as +well as integral solutions being admitted): 'Given a number, to find +three others such that the sum of the three, or of any pair of them, +together with the given number is a square', 'To find four numbers such +that the square of the sum _plus_ or _minus_ any one of the numbers is a +square', 'To find three numbers such that the product of any two _plus_ +or _minus_ the sum of the three is a square'. Diophantus assumes as +known certain theorems about numbers which are the sums of two and three +squares respectively, and other propositions in the Theory of Numbers. +He also wrote a book _On Polygonal Numbers_ of which only a fragment +survives. + +With Pappus and Diophantus the list of original writers on mathematics +comes to an end. After them came the commentators whose names only can +be mentioned here. Theon of Alexandria, the editor of Euclid, lived +towards the end of the fourth century A. D. To the fifth and sixth +centuries belong Proclus, Simplicius, and Eutocius, to whom we can never +be grateful enough for the precious fragments which they have preserved +from works now lost, and particularly the _History of Geometry_ and the +_History of Astronomy_ by Aristotle's pupil Eudemus. + +Such is the story of Greek mathematical science. If anything could +enhance the marvel of it, it would be the consideration of the shortness +of the time (about 350 years) within which the Greeks, starting from the +very beginning, brought geometry to the point of performing operations +equivalent to the integral calculus and, in the realm of astronomy, +actually anticipated Copernicus. + +T. L. HEATH. + + + + +NATURAL SCIENCE + +_Aristotle_ + + +There is a little essay of Goethe's called, simply, _Die Natur_. It +comes among those tracts on Natural Science in which the poet and +philosopher turned his restless mind to problems of light and colour, of +leaf and flower, of bony skull and kindred vertebra; and it sounds like +a prose-poem, a noble paean, eulogizing the love and glorifying the +study of Nature. Some twenty-five hundred years before, Anaximander had +written a book with the same title, _Concerning Nature_, περι φυσεως +{peri physeôs}: but its subject was not the same. It was a variant of +the old traditional cosmogonies. It told of how in the beginning the +earth was without form and void. It sought to trace all things back to +the Infinite, το απειρον {to apeiron}--to That which knows no bounds of +space or time but is before all worlds, and to whose bosom again all +things, all worlds, return. For Goethe Nature meant the beauty, the all +but sensuous beauty of the world; for the older philosopher it was the +mystery of the Creative Spirit. + +Than Nature, in Goethe's sense, no theme is more familiar to us, for +whom many a poet tells the story and many a lesser poet echoes the +conceit; but if there be anywhere in Greek such overt praise and worship +of Nature's beauty, I cannot call it to mind. Yet in Latin the _divini +gloria ruris_ is praised and _Natura daedala rerum_ worshipped, as we +are wont to praise and worship them, for their own sweet sakes. It is +one of the ways, one of the simpler ways, in which the Roman world seems +nearer to us than the Greek: and not only seems, but is so. For compared +with the great early civilizations, Rome is modern and of the West; +while, draw her close as we may to our hearts, Greece brings along with +her a breath of the East and a whisper of remote antiquity. A Tuscan +gentleman of to-day, like a Roman gentleman of yesterday, is at heart a +husbandman, like Cato; he is _ruris amator_, like Horace; he gets him to +his little farm or vineyard (_O rus, quando te aspiciam!_), like Atticus +or the younger Pliny. As Bacon praised his garden, so does Pliny praise +his farm, with its cornfields and meadowland, vineyard and woodland, +orchard and pasture, bee-hives and flowers. That God made the country +and man made the town was (long before Cowper) a saying of Varro's; but +in Greek I can think of no such apophthegm. + +As Schiller puts it, the Greeks looked on Nature with their minds more +than with their hearts, nor ever clung to her with outspoken admiration +and affection. And Humboldt, asserting (as I would do) that the +portrayal of nature, for her own sake and in all her manifold diversity, +was foreign to the Greek idea, declares that the landscape is always the +mere background of their picture, while their foreground is filled with +the affairs and actions and thoughts of men. But all the while, as in +some old Italian picture--of Domenichino or Albani or Leonardo +himself--the subordinated background is delicately traced and +exquisitely beautiful; and sometimes we come to value it in the end more +than all the rest of the composition. + +Deep down in the love of Nature, whether it be of the sensual or +intellectual kind, and in the art of observation which is its outcome +and first expression, lie the roots of all our Natural Science. All the +world over these are the heritage of all men, though the inheritance be +richer or poorer here and there: they are shown forth in the lore and +wisdom of hunter and fisherman, of shepherd and husbandman, of artist +and poet. The natural history of the ancients is not enshrined in +Aristotle and Pliny. It pervades the vast literature of classical +antiquity. For all we may say of the reticence with which, the Greeks +proclaim it, it greets us nobly in Homer, it sings to us in Anacreon, +Sicilian shepherds tune their pipes to it in Theocritus: and anon in +Virgil we dream of it to the coo of doves and the sound of bees' +industrious murmur. + +Not only from such great names as these do we reach the letter and the +spirit of ancient Natural History. We must go a-wandering into the +by-ways of literature. We must eke out the scientific treatises of +Aristotle and Pliny by help of the fragments which remain of the works +of such naturalists as Speusippus or Alexander the Myndian; add to the +familiar stories of Herodotus the Indian tales of Ctesias and +Megasthenes; sit with Athenaeus and his friends at the supper table, +gleaning from cook and epicure, listening to the merry idle troop of +convivial gentlemen capping verses and spinning yarns; read Xenophon's +treatise on Hunting, study the didactic poems, the Cynegetica and +Halieutica, of Oppian and of Ovid. And then again we may hark back to +the greater world of letters, wherein poet and scholar, from petty +fabulist to the great dramatists, from Homer's majesty to Lucian's wit, +share in the love of Nature and enliven the delicate background of their +story with allusions to beast and bird. + +Such allusions, refined at first by art and hallowed at last by familiar +memory, lie treasured in men's hearts and enshrine themselves in our +noblest literature. Take, of a thousand crowding instances, that great +passage in the _Iliad_ where the Greek host, disembarking on the plains +of the Scamander, is likened to a migrating flock of cranes or geese or +long-necked swans, as they fly proudly over the Asian meadows and alight +screaming by Cayster's stream--and Virgil echoes more than once the +familiar lines. The crane was a well-known bird. Its lofty flight brings +it, again in Homer, to the very gates of heaven. Hesiod and Pindar speak +of its far-off cry, heard from above the clouds: and that it 'observed +the time of its coming', 'intelligent of seasons', was a proverb old in +Hesiod's day--when the crane signalled the approach of winter, and when +it bade the husbandman make ready to plough. It follows the plough, in +Theocritus, as persistently as the wolf the kid and the peasant-lad his +sweetheart. The discipline of the migrating cranes, the serried wedge of +their ranks in flight, the good order of the resting flock, are often, +and often fancifully, described. Aristotle records how they have an +appointed leader, who keeps watch by night and in flight keeps calling +to the laggards; and all this old story Euripides, the most naturalistic +of the great tragedians, puts into verse: + + The ordered host of Libyan birds avoids + The wintry storm, obedient to the call + Of their old leader, piping to his flock. + +Lastly, Milton gathers up the spirit and the letter of these and many +another ancient allusion to the migrating cranes: + + Part loosely wing the region; part more wise, + In common ranged in figure, wedge their way + Intelligent of seasons, and set forth + Their aery caravan, high over seas + Flying, and over lands; with mutual wing + Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane. + +But the natural history of the poets is a story without an end, and in +our estimation, however brief it be, of ancient knowledge, there are +other matters to be considered, and other points of view where we must +take our stand. + +When we consider the science of the Greeks, and come quickly to love it +and slowly to see how great it was, we likewise see that it was +restricted as compared with our own, curiously partial or particular in +its limitations. The practical and 'useful' sciences of chemistry, +mechanics, and engineering, which in our modern world crowd the others +to the wall, are absent altogether, or so concealed that we forget and +pass them by. Mathematics is enthroned high over all, as it is meet she +should be; and of uncontested right she occupies her throne century +after century, from Pythagoras to Proclus, from the scattered schools of +early Hellenic civilization to the rise and fall of the great +Alexandrine University. Near beside her sits, from of old, the +daughter-science of Astronomy; and these twain were worshipped by the +greatest scientific intellects of the Greeks. But though we do not hear +of them nor read of them, we must not suppose for a moment that the +practical or technical sciences were lacking in so rich and complex a +civilization. China, that most glorious of all living monuments of +Antiquity, tells us nothing of her own chemistry, but we know that it is +there. Peep into a Chinese town, walk through its narrow streets, +thronged but quiet, wherein there is neither rumbling of coaches nor +rattling of wheels, and you shall see the nearest thing on earth to what +we hear of Sybaris. To the production of those glowing silks and +delicate porcelains and fine metal-work has gone a vast store of +chemical knowledge, traditional and empirical. So was it, precisely, in +ancient Greece; and Plato knew that it was so--that the dyer, the +perfumer, and the apothecary had subtle arts, a subtle science of their +own, a science not to be belittled nor despised. We may pass here and +there by diligent search from conjecture to assurance; analyse a +pigment, an alloy or a slag; discover from an older record than the +Greeks', the chemical prescription wherewith an Egyptian princess +darkened her eyes, or study the pictured hearth, bellows, oven, +crucibles with which the followers of Tubal-Cain smelted their ore. Once +in a way, but seldom, do we meet with ancient chemistry even in Greek +literature. There is a curious passage (its text is faulty and the +translation hard) in the story of the Argonauts, where Medea concocts a +magic brew. She put divers herbs in it, herbs yielding coloured juices +such as safflower and alkanet, and soapwort and fleawort to give +consistency or 'body' to the lye; she put in alum and blue vitriol (or +sulphate of copper), and she put in blood. The magic brew was no more +and no less than a dye, a red or purple dye, and a prodigious deal of +chemistry had gone to the making of it. For the copper was there to +produce a 'lake' or copper-salt of the vegetable alkaloids, which +copper-lakes are among the most brilliant and most permanent of +colouring matters; the alum was there as a 'mordant'; and even the blood +was doubtless there incorporated for better reasons than superstitious +ones, in all probability for the purpose of clarifying (by means of its +coagulating albumen) the seething and turbid brew. + +The 'Orphic' version of the story, in which this passage occurs, is +probably an Alexandrine compilation, and whether the ingredients of the +brew had been part of the ancient legend or were merely suggested to the +poet by the knowledge of his own day we cannot tell; in either case the +prescription is old enough, and is at least pre-Byzantine by a few +centuries. Such as it is, it does not stand alone. Other fragments of +ancient chemistry, more or less akin to it, have been gathered together; +in Galen's book on _The making of Simples_, in Pliny, in Paulus +Aegineta, and for that matter in certain Egyptian papyri (especially a +certain very famous one, still extant, of which Clement of Alexandria +speaks as a secret or 'hermetic' book), we can trace the broken and +scattered stones of a great edifice of ancient chemistry. + +Nevertheless, all this weight of chemical learning figures scantily in +literature, and is conspicuously absent from our conception of the +natural genius of the Greeks. We have no reason to suppose that ancient +chemistry, or any part of it, was ever peculiarly Greek, or that this +science was the especial property of any nation whatsoever; moreover it +was a trade, or a bundle of trades, whose trade-secrets were too +precious to be revealed, and so constituted not a science but a +mystery. So has it always been with chemistry, the most cosmopolitan of +sciences, the most secret of arts. Quietly and stealthily it crept +through the world; the tinker brought it with his solder and his flux; +the African tribes who were the first workers in iron passed it on to +the great metallurgists who forged Damascan and Toledan steel. + +This 'trade' of Chemistry was never a science for a Gentleman, as +philosophy and mathematics were; and Plato, greatest of philosophers, +was one of the greatest of gentlemen. Long, long afterwards, Oxford said +the same thing to Robert Boyle--that Chemistry was no proper avocation +for a gentleman; but he thought otherwise, and the 'brother of the Earl +of Cork' became the Father of scientific Chemistry. + +Now I take it that in regard to biology Aristotle did much the same +thing as Boyle, breaking through a similar tradition; and herein one of +the greatest of his great services is to be found. There was a wealth of +natural history before his time; but it belonged to the farmer, the +huntsman, and the fisherman--with something over (doubtless) for the +schoolboy, the idler, and the poet. But Aristotle made it a science, and +won a place for it in Philosophy. He did for it just what Pythagoras had +done (as Proclus tells us) for mathematics in an earlier age, when he +discerned the philosophy underlying the old empirical art of 'geometry', +and made it the basis of 'a liberal education'.[5] + + [5] επι δε τουτοις Πυθαγορας την περι αυτην φιλοσοφιαν εις σχημα + παιδειας ελευθερου μετεστησεν. {epi de toutois Pythagoras tên peri + autên philosophian eis schêma paideias eleutherou metestêsen.} + _Procli Comment. Euclidis lib. I, Prolegom. II_ (p. 65, ed. + Friedlein). + +The Mediterranean fisherman, like the Chinese fisherman or the Japanese, +has still, and always has had, a wide knowledge of all that pertains to +and accompanies his craft. Our Scottish fishermen have a limited +vocabulary, which scarce extends beyond the names of the few common +fishes with which the market is supplied. But at Marseilles or Genoa or +in the Levant they have names for many hundreds of species, of fish and +shell-fish and cuttle-fish and worms and corallines, and all manner of +swimming and creeping things; they know a vast deal about the habits of +their lives, far more, sometimes, than do we 'scientific men'; they are +naturalists by tradition and by trade. Neither, by the way, must we +forget the ancient medical and anatomical learning of the great +Aesculapian guild, nor the still more recondite knowledge possessed by +various priesthoods (again like their brethren of to-day in China and +Japan) of the several creatures, sacred fish, pigeons, guinea-fowl, +snakes, cuttlefish, and what not, which time out of mind they had +reared, tended, and venerated. + +Of what new facts Aristotle actually discovered it is impossible to be +sure. Could it ever be proved that he discovered many, or could it even +be shown that of his own hand he discovered nothing at all, it would +affect but little our estimate of his greatness and our admiration of +his learning. He was the first of Greek philosophers and gentlemen to +see that all these things were good to know and worthy to be told. This +was his great discovery. + +I have sought elsewhere to show that Aristotle spent two years, the +happiest years perhaps of all his life--a long honeymoon--by the +sea-side in the island of Mytilene, after he had married the little +Princess, and before he began the hard work of his life: before he +taught Alexander in Macedon, and long before he spoke _urbi et orbi_ in +the Lyceum. Here it was that he learned the great bulk of his natural +history, in which, wide and general as it is, the things of the sea have +from first to last a notable predominance. + +I have tried to illustrate elsewhere (as many another writer has done) +something of the variety and the depth of Aristotle's knowledge of +animals--choosing an example here and there, but only drawing a little +water from an inexhaustible well. + +A famous case is that of the 'molluscs', where either Aristotle's +knowledge was exceptionally minute, or where it has come down to us with +unusual completeness. + +These are the cuttle fish, which have now surrendered their Aristotelian +name of 'molluscs' to that greater group which is seen to include them, +together with the shell-fish or 'ostracoderma' of Aristotle. These +cuttle-fishes are creatures that we seldom see, but in the Mediterranean +they are an article of food and many kinds are known to the fishermen. +All or wellnigh all of these many kinds were known to Aristotle. He +described their form and their anatomy, their habits, their development, +all with such faithful accuracy that what we can add to-day seems of +secondary importance. He begins with a methodical description of the +general form, tells us of the body and fins, of the eight arms with +their rows of suckers, of the abnormal position of the head. He points +out the two long arms of Sepia and of the calamaries, and their absence +in the octopus; and he tells us, what was only confirmed of late, that +with these two long arms the creature clings to the rock and sways about +like a ship at anchor. He describes the great eyes, the two big teeth +forming the beak; and he dissects the whole structure of the gut, with +its long gullet, its round crop, its stomach and the little coiled +coecal diverticulum: dissecting not only one but several species, and +noting differences that were not observed again till Cuvier re-dissected +them. He describes the funnel and its relation to the mantle-sac, and +the ink-bag, which he shows to be largest in Sepia of all others. And +here, by the way, he seems to make one of those apparent errors that, as +it happens, turn out to be justified: for he tells us that in Octopus, +unlike the rest, the funnel is on the upper side; the fact being that +when the creature lies prone upon the ground, with all its arms +outspread, the funnel-tube (instead of being flattened out beneath the +creature's prostrate body) is long enough to protrude upwards between +arms and head, and to appear on one side or other thereof, in a +position apparently the reverse of its natural one. He describes the +character of the cuttle-bone in Sepia, and of the horny pen which takes +its place in the various calamaries, and notes the lack of any similar +structure in Octopus. He dissects in both sexes the reproductive organs, +noting without exception all their essential and complicated parts; and +he had figured these in his lost volume of anatomical diagrams. He +describes the various kinds of eggs, and, with still more surprising +knowledge, shows us the little embryo cuttle-fish, with its great +yolk-sac attached, in apparent contrast to the chick's, to the little +creature's developing head. + +But there is one other remarkable feature that he knew ages before it +was rediscovered, almost in our own time. In certain male cuttle-fishes, +in the breeding season, one of the arms develops in a curious fashion +into a long coiled whip-lash, and in the act of breeding may then be +transferred to the mantle-cavity of the female. Cuvier himself knew +nothing of the nature or the function of this separated arm, and indeed, +if I am not mistaken, it was he who mistook it for a parasitic worm. But +Aristotle tells us of its use and its temporary development, and of its +structure in detail, and his description tallies closely with the +accounts of the most recent writers. + +A scarcely less minute account follows of the 'Malacostraca' or +crustaceans, the lobsters and the crabs, the shrimps and the prawns, and +others of their kind, a chapter to which Cuvier devoted a celebrated +essay. There be many kinds of crabs--the common kind, the big 'granny' +crabs, the little horsemen-crabs, that scamper over the sand and which +are for the most part empty, that is to say, whose respiratory cavities +are exceptionally large; and there are the freshwater crabs. There are +the little shrimps and the big hump-backed fellows, or prawns; there are +the 'crangons' or squillae; and the big lobsters and the crawfish or +'langoustes', their spiny cousins. We read about their beady eyes, which +turn every way; about their big rough antennae and the smaller, +smoother pair between; the great teeth, or mandibles; the carapace with +its projecting rostrum, the jointed abdomen with the tail-fins at the +end, and the little flaps below on which the female drops her spawn. In +more or less detail these things are severally described, and the many +limbs severally enumerated, in one kind after another. The descriptions +of the lobster and the langouste are particularly minute, and the +comparison or contrast between the two is drawn with elaborate +precision. In the former, besides other differences between male and +female, the female is said to have the 'first foot' (or leg) bifurcate, +while in the male it is undivided. It seems a trifling matter, but it is +true; it is so small a point that I searched long before at last I found +mention made of it in a German monograph. The puzzling thing is that it +is (as we should say) the last and not the first leg which is so +distinguished; but after all, it is only a convention of our own to +count the limbs from before backwards. To inspect a lobster's limbs, we +lay it on its back (as Aristotle did), and see the legs overlapping, +each hinder one above the one before; the hindmost is the first we see, +and the one we must first lift up to inspect the others. + +Aristotle's account of fishes is a prodigious history of habits, food, +migrations, modes of capture, times and ways of spawning, and anatomical +details; but it is not here that we can elucidate or even illustrate +this astonishing Ichthyology. It is not always easy to understand--but +the obstacle lies often, I take it, in our own ignorance. The +identification of species is not always plain, for here as elsewhere +Aristotle did not reckon with a time or place where the familiar words +of Greek should be unknown or their homely significance forgotten. Among +the great host of fish-names there are several referring, somehow or +other, to the Grey Mullet, which puzzle both naturalist and +lexicographer. A young officer told me the other day how he had watched +an Arab fisherman emptying out his creel of Grey Mullet on some Syrian +beach, and the Arab gave four if not five names to as many different +kinds, betwixt which my friend could see no difference whatsoever. Had +my friend been an ichthyologist he would doubtless have noticed that one +had eyelids and the others none; that one had little brushes on its +lips, another a small but wide-open slit under the jaw, another a yellow +spot on its gill-covers, and so on. The Mullets are a difficult group, +but Aristotle, like the Arab fisherman, evidently recognized their fine +distinctions and employed the appropriate names. Again, Aristotle speaks +of a certain nest-building fish, the 'phycis', and regarding this Cuvier +fell into error (where once upon a time I followed him). In Cuvier's +time there was but one nest-building fish known such as to suit, +apparently, the passage, namely the little black goby; but after +Cuvier's day the nest-building habits of the 'wrasses' became known to +naturalists, as they had doubtless been known ages before to the +fishermen--and to Aristotle. + +Like almost every other little point on which we happen to touch, we +might make this one the starting-point (here comes in the delight and +fascination of the interpreter's task!) for other stories. + +Speusippus, Plato's successor in the Academy, was both philosopher and +naturalist, and we may take it, if we please, that his leaning towards +biology, and the biological trend which at this time became more and +more marked in Athenian philosophy, were not unconnected with the great +impulse which Aristotle had given. However this may be, Speusippus wrote +a book περι Ὁμοιων {peri Homoiôn} 'Concerning Resemblances'; and this, +of which we only possess a few fragmentary sentences, must have been a +very curious and an interesting book. He mentions, among other similar +cases, that our little fish _phycis_ has a close outward semblance to +the sea-perch; and this is enough to clinch the proof that Aristotle's +nest-building fish was not a goby but a wrasse. The whole purport of +Speusippus's book seems to have been to discuss how, or why, with all +Nature's apparently infinite variety, certain animals have a singularly +close resemblance to certain others, though they be quite distinct in +kind. It is a problem which perplexes us still, when we are astonished +and even deluded by the likeness between a wasp and a hover-fly, a +merlin and a cuckoo. In certain extreme cases we call it 'mimicry', and +invoke hypotheses to account for this 'mimetic' resemblance; and those +of us who reject these hypotheses must fain take refuge in others, as +far-reaching in their way. This at least we know, that Speusippus seized +upon a real problem of biology, of lasting interest and even of +fundamental importance. + +To come back to Aristotle and his fishes, let us glance at one little +point more. The reproduction of the eel is an ancient puzzle, which has +found its full solution only in our own day. While the salmon, for +instance, comes up the river to breed and goes down again to the sea, +the eel goes down to the ocean to spawn, and the old eels come back no +more but perish in the great waters. The eel's egg develops into a +little flattened, transparent fish, altogether different in outward +appearance from an eel, which turns afterwards into a young eel or +'elver'; and Professor Grassi, who had a big share in elucidating the +whole matter, tells us the curious fact that he found the Sicilian +fishermen well acquainted with the little transparent larva (the +_Leptocephalus_ of modern naturalists), that they knew well what it was, +and that they had a name for it--_Casentula_. Now Aristotle, in a +passage which I think has been much misunderstood (and which we must +admit to be in part erroneous), tells us that the eel develops from what +he calls γης εντερα {gês entera}, a word which we translate, literally, +the 'guts of the earth', and which commentators interpret as +'earthworms'! But in Sicilian Doric, γης εντερα {gês entera} would at +once become γας εντερα {gas entera}; and between 'Gasentera' and the +modern Sicilian 'Casentula' there is scarce a hairbreadth's difference. +So we may be permitted to suppose that here again Aristotle was +singularly and accurately informed; and that he knew by sight and name +the little larva of the eel, whose discovery and identification is one +of the modest triumphs of recent investigation. + +Aristotle's many pages on fishes are delightful reading. The anatomist +may read of such recondite matters as the _placenta vitellina_ of the +smooth dog-fish, whereby the viviparous embryo is nourished within the +womb, after a fashion analogous to that of mammalian embryology--a +phenomenon brought to light anew by Johannes Müller, and which excited +him to enthusiastic admiration of Aristotle's minute and faithful +anatomy. Again we may read of the periodic migration of the tunnies, of +the great net or 'madrague' in which they are captured, and of the +watchmen, the θυννοσκοποι {thynnoskopoi}, the 'hooers' of our ancient +Cornish fishery, who give warning from tower or headland of the +approaching shoal. The student may learn what manner of fish it was (the +great Eagle-ray) with whose barbed fin-spine--most primitive of +spear-heads--Ulysses was slain; and again, he may learn not a little +about that ναρκη {narkê}, or torpedo, to which Meno compared his master +Socrates, in a somewhat ambiguous compliment. + +In rambling fashion Aristotle has a deal to tell us about insects, and +he has left us a sort of treatise on the whole natural history of the +bee. He knew the several inmates of the hive, though like others of his +day (save, perhaps, only Xenophon), and like Shakespeare too, he took +the queen-bee for a king. He describes the building of the comb, the +laying of the eggs, the provision of the larvae with food. He discusses +the various qualities of honey and the flowers from which these are +drawn. He is learned in the diseases and the enemies of bees. He tells +us many curious things about the economy of the hive and the arts of the +bee-keeper, some of which things have a very modern and familiar look +about them: for instance, the use of a net or screen to keep out the +drones, a net so nicely contrived that these sturdy fellows are just +kept out, while the leaner, slenderer workers are just let in. But it +would be a long, long story to tell of Aristotle's knowledge of the bee, +and to compare it with what is, haply, the still deeper skill and +learning of that master of bee-craft, Virgil. + +Then, having perfect freedom to go whithersoever we chose and to follow +the bees across the boundless fields of ancient literature, we might +read of the wild bees and of their honey out of a rock, and of the +hive-bees too, in Homer; follow them to their first legendary home in +Crete, where the infant Jupiter was fed on honey--as a baby's lips are +touched with it even unto this day; trace their association with +Proserpine and her mother, or their subtler connexion with Ephesian +Diana; find in the poets, from Hesiod to the later Anthology, a hundred +sweet references--to the bee-tree in the oak-wood, to the flowery hill +Hymettus. Perhaps, at last, we might even happen on the place where +Origen seems so strangely to foreshadow Shakespeare--speaking of the +king of the bees with his retinue of courtiers (his officers of sorts), +the relays of workmen (the poor mechanic porters crowding in), the +punishment of the idle (where some, like magistrates, correct at home), +the wars, the vanquished, and the plunder (which pillage they with merry +march bring home To the tent-royal of their Emperor). + +Go back to Aristotle, and we may listen to him again while he talks of +many other kindred insects: of the humble-bee and its kind, of the +mason-bee with its hard round nest of clay, of the robber-bees, and of +the various wasps and hornets; or (still more curiously and +unexpectedly) of the hunter-wasp or 'ichneumon', and how it kills the +spider, carries it home to its nest, and lays its eggs in its poor body, +that the little wasp-grubs may afterwards be fed. Or again of the great +wasps which he calls Anthrenae, and how they chase the big flies, and +cut off their heads, and fly away with the rest of the carcass--all +agreeing to the very letter with what Henri Fabre tells us of a certain +large wasp of Southern Europe, and how it captures the big 'taons' or +horse-flies: 'Pour donner le coup de grâce à leurs Taons mal sacrifiés, +et se débattants encore entre les pattes du ravisseur, j'ai vu des +Bembex mâchonner la tête et le thorax des victimes.' Verily, there is +nothing new under the sun. + +With the metamorphoses of various insects Aristotle was well acquainted. +He knew how the house-fly passes its early stages in a dung-hill, and +how the grubs of the big horse-flies and Tabanids live in decayed wood; +how certain little flies or gnats are engendered (as he calls it) in the +slime of vinegar. He relates with great care and accuracy the +life-history of the common gnat, from its aquatic larva, the little red +'blood-worm' of our pools; he describes them wriggling about like tiny +bits of red weed, in the water of some half-empty well; and he explains, +finally, the change by which they become stiff and motionless and hard, +until a husk breaks away and the little gnat is seen sitting upon it; +and by and by the sun's heat or a puff of wind starts it off, and away +it flies. + +Some of these stories are indeed remarkable, for the events related are +more or less hidden and obscure; and so, with all this knowledge at +hand, it is not a little strange that Aristotle has very little indeed +to tell us about the far more obvious phenomena of the life-history of +the butterfly, and of the several kinds of butterflies and moths. He +does tell us briefly that the butterfly comes from a caterpillar, which +lives on cabbage-leaves and feeds voraciously, then turns into a +chrysalis and eats no more, nor has it a mouth to eat withal; it is hard +and, as it were, dead, but yet it moves and wriggles when you touch it, +and after a while the husk bursts and out comes the butterfly. The +account is good enough, so far as it goes, but nevertheless Aristotle +shows no affection for the butterfly, does not linger and dally over it, +tells no stories about it. This is all of a piece with the rest of +Greek literature, and poetry in particular, where allusions to the +butterfly are scanty and rare. I think the Greeks found something +ominous or uncanny, something not to be lightly spoken of, in that all +but disembodied spirit which we call a butterfly, and they called by the +name of ψυχη {psychê}, the Soul. They had a curious name (νεκυδαλλος +{nekydallos}) for the pupa. It sounds like a 'little corpse' (νεκυς +{nekys}); and like a little corpse within its shroud or coffin the pupa +sleeps in its cocoon. A late poet describes the butterfly 'coming back +from the grave to the light of day'; and certain of the Fathers of the +Church, St. Basil in particular, point the moral accordingly, and draw a +doubtless time-honoured allegory of the Resurrection and the Life from +the grub which is not dead but sleepeth, and the butterfly which (as it +were) is raised in glory. + +Of one large moth, Aristotle gives us an account which has been a puzzle +to many. This begins as a great grub or caterpillar, with (as it were) +horns; and, growing by easy stages, it spins at length a cocoon. There +is a class of women who unwind and reel off the cocoons, and afterwards +weave a fabric with the thread; and a certain woman of Cos is credited +with the invention of this fabric. This is, at first sight, a plain and +straightforward description of the silkworm; but we know that it was not +till long afterwards, nearly a thousand years after, in Justinian's +reign, that the silkworm and the mulberry-tree which is its food were +brought out of the East into Byzantine Greece. We learn something of +this Coan silkworm from Pliny, who tells us that it lived on the ash and +oak and cypress tree; and from Clement of Alexandria and other of the +Fathers we glean a little more--for instance, that the larva was covered +with thick-set hairs, and that the cocoon was of a loose material +something like a spider's web. All this agrees in every particular with +a certain large moth (_Lasiocampa otus_), which spins a rough cocoon not +unlike that of our Emperor moth, and lives in south-eastern Europe, +feeding on the cypress and the oak. Many other silkworms besides the +true or common one are still employed, worms which yield the Tussore +silks of India and other kindred silks in Japan; and so likewise was +this rough silky fabric spun and woven in Hellas, until in course of +time it was surpassed and superseded by the finer produce of the 'Seric +worm', and the older industry died out and was utterly forgotten. + +Ere we leave the subject of insects let us linger a moment over one +which the Greeks loved, and loved most of all. When as schoolboys we +first began to read our Thucydides, we met in the very beginning with +the story of how rich Athenians wore Golden Grasshoppers (as the +schoolmaster calls them) in their hair. These golden ornaments were, of +course, no common grasshoppers, but the little Cicadas, whose sharp +chirrup seemed delightful music to the Greeks. It is unpleasant to our +ears, as Browning found it; but in a multitude of Greek poets, in +Alcaeus and Anacreon and all through the whole Anthology, we hear its +praise. We have it, for instance, in the _Birds_: + + Though the hot sun be shining in the sky + In the deep flowery meadow-grass I lie: + To listen to the shrill melodious tune + Of crickets, thrilled to ecstasy at noon. + +Of this familiar and beloved insect Aristotle gives a copious account. +He describes two separate species, which we still recognize easily; a +larger one and the better singer, the other smaller and the first to +come and last to go with the summer season. He recognized the curious +vocal organ, or vibratory drum, at the cicada's waist, and saw that some +cicadas possessed it and others not; and he knew, as the poets also +knew, that it was the males who sang, while their wives listened and +were silent. He tells how the cicada is absent from treeless countries, +as, for instance, from Cyrene (and why, I wonder, does he go all the way +to Cyrene for his illustration?), neither is it heard in deep and +sunless woods; but in the olive-groves you hear it at its best, for an +olive-grove is sparse and the sun comes through. Then he tells us +briefly, but with remarkable accuracy, the story of the creature's life: +how the female, with her long ovipositor, lays her eggs deep down in +dead, hollow twigs, such as the canes on which the vines are propped; +how the brood, when they escape from the egg, burrow underground; how +later on they emerge, especially in rainy weather, when the rains have +softened the soil; how then the larva changes into another form, the +so-called 'nymph'; and how at last, when summer comes, the skin of the +nymph breaks and the perfect insect issues forth, changes colour, and +begins to sing. In Aristophanes, in Theocritus, in Lucretius, Virgil, +Martial, and in the Anthology, we may gather up a host of poetical +allusions to the natural history thus simply epitomized. + +The Book about Animals, the _Historia Animalium_ as we say, from which I +have quoted these few examples of Aristotle's store of information, may +be taken to represent the first necessary stage of scientific inquiry. +There is a kind of _manual_ philosophy (as old Lord Monboddo called it) +which investigates facts which escape the vulgar, and may be called the +_anecdotes_ or _secret history_ of nature. In this fascinating pursuit +Gilbert White excelled, and John Ray and many another--the whole +brotherhood of simple naturalists. But such accumulated knowledge of +facts is but the foundation of a philosophy; and 'nothing deserves the +name of philosophy, except what explains the causes and principles of +things'. Aristotle would have done much had he merely shown (as Gilbert +White showed to the country gentlemen of his day) that the minute +observation of nature was something worth the scholar and the +gentleman's while; but, far more than this, he made a Science of natural +knowledge, and set it once for all within the realm of Philosophy. He +set it side by side with the more ancient science of Astronomy, which +for many hundred years in Egypt and the East, and for some few centuries +in Hellas, had occupied the mind of philosophers and the attention of +educated men. I have quoted before a great sentence in which he explains +his purpose, and makes excuse for his temerity. 'The glory, doubtless, +of the heavenly bodies fills us with more delight than the contemplation +of these lowly things; for the sun and stars are born not, neither do +they decay, but are eternal and divine. But the heavens are high and +afar off, and of celestial things the knowledge that our senses give us +is scanty and dim. The living creatures, on the other hand, are at our +door, and if we so desire it we may gain ample and certain knowledge of +each and all. We take pleasure in the beauty of a statue, shall not then +the living fill us with delight; and all the more if in the spirit of +philosophy we search for causes and recognize the evidences of design. +Then will nature's purpose and her deep-seated laws be everywhere +revealed, all tending in her multitudinous work to one form or another +of the Beautiful.' + +Aristotle's voluminous writings have come down to us through many grave +vicissitudes. The greatest of them all are happily intact, or very +nearly so; but some are lost and others have suffered disorder and +corruption. The work known as the 'Parts of Animals' opens (as our text +has it) with a chapter which seems meant for a general exordium to the +whole series of biological treatises; and I know no chapter in all +Aristotle's books which better shows (in plainer English or easier +Greek) the master-hand of the great Teacher and Philosopher. He begins +by telling us (it has ever since been a common saying) that every +science, every branch of knowledge, admits of two sorts of +proficiency--that which may properly be termed scientific knowledge, and +that which is within the reach of ordinary educated men. He proceeds to +discuss the 'method' of scientific inquiry, whether we should begin with +the specific and proceed to the general, or whether we are to deal first +with common or generical characters and thereafterward with special +peculiarities. Are we entitled to treat of animals, as is done in +mathematical astronomy, by dealing first with facts or phenomena and +then proceeding to discover and relate their several causes? At once +this leads to a brief discussion (elaborated elsewhere) of the two great +Causes, or aspects of cause--the final cause and the 'moving' or +efficient cause--the _reason why_ or the purpose for which, and the +antecedent cause which, _of necessity_, brings a thing to be such as it +is. Here is one of the great crucial questions of philosophy, and +Aristotle's leaning to the side of the Final Cause has been a dominant +influence upon the minds of men throughout the whole history of +learning. Empedocles had taken another view: he held that the rain comes +when it listeth, or 'of necessity'; that we have no right to suppose it +comes to make the corn grow in spring, any more than to spoil the autumn +sheaves: that the teeth grow by the operation of some natural (or +physical) law, and that their apparent and undoubted fitness for cutting +and grinding is not purposeful but coincident; that the backbone is +divided into vertebrae because of the antecedent forces, or flexions, +which act upon it in the womb. And Empedocles proceeds to the great +evolutionary deduction, the clear prevision of Darwin's philosophy, that +fit and unfit arise alike, but that what is fit to survive does survive +and what is unfit perishes. + +The story is far too long and the theme involved too grave and difficult +for treatment here. But I would venture to suggest that Aristotle +inclined to slur over the physical and lean the more to the final cause, +for this simple reason (whatever other reasons there may be), that he +was a better biologist than a physicist: that he lacked somewhat the +mathematical turn of mind which was intrinsic to the older schools of +philosophy. For better for worse the course he took, the choice he made, +was of incalculable import, and had power for centuries to guide (dare +we say, to bias) the teaching of the schools, the progress of learning, +and the innermost beliefs of men. + +In this one short but pregnant chapter of Aristotle's there is far more +than we can hope even to epitomize. He has much to say in it of +'classification', an important matter indeed, and he discusses it as a +great logician should, in all its rigour. Many commentators have sought +for Aristotle's 'classification of animals'; for my part I have never +found it, and, in our sense of the word, I am certain it is not there. +An unbending, unchanging classification of animals would have been +something foreign to all his logic; it is all very well, it becomes +practically necessary, when we have to arrange our animals on the +shelves of a museum or in the arid pages of a 'systematic' catalogue; +and it takes a new complexion when, or if, we can attain to a real or +historical classification, following lines of actual descent and based +on proven facts of historical evolution. But Aristotle (as it seems to +me) neither was bound to a museum catalogue nor indulged in visions +either of a complete _scala naturae_ or of an hypothetical phylogeny. He +classified animals as he found them; and, as a logician, he had a +dichotomy for every difference which presented itself to his mind. At +one time he divided animals into those with blood and those without, at +another into the air-breathers and the water-breathers; into the wild +and the tame, the social and the solitary, and so on in endless ways +besides. At the same time he had a quick eye for the great natural +groups, such 'genera' (as he called them) as Fish or Bird, Insect or +Mollusc. So it comes to pass that, while he fashioned no hard and fast +scheme of classification, and would undoubtedly (I hold) have thought it +vain to do so, the threads of his several partial or temporary +classifications come together after all, though in a somewhat hazy +pattern, yet in a very beautiful and coherent parti-coloured web. And +though his order is not always our order, yet a certain exquisite +orderliness is of the very essence of his thought and style. It is the +characteristic which Molière hits upon in _Les Femmes savantes_,--'Je +m'attache _pour l'ordre_ au péripatétisme'. + +Before he finishes the great chapter of which we have begun to speak he +indicates that there are more ways than one of relating, or +classifying, our facts; that, for instance, it may be equally proper and +necessary to deal now with the animals and their several parts or +properties, and at another time with the parts or properties as such, +explaining and illustrating them in turn by the several animals which +display or possess them. The 'Parts of Animals' is, then, a corollary, a +necessary corollary, to the more anecdotal _Historia Animalium_. And yet +again, there is a third alternative--to discuss the great functions or +actions or potentialities of the organism, as it were first of all in +the abstract, and then to correlate them with the parts which in this or +that creature are provided and are 'designed' to effect them. This +involves the conception and the writing of separate physiological +treatises on such themes as Respiration, Locomotion, on Sleeping and +Waking, and lastly (and in some respects the most ambitious, most +erudite, and most astonishing of them all) the great account of the +Generation of Animals. + +So the whole range, we might say the whole conceivable range, of +biological science is sketched out, and the greater part of the great +canvas is painted in. But to bring it into touch with human life, and to +make good its claim to the high places of philosophy, we must go yet +farther and study Life itself, and what men call the Soul. So grows the +great conception. We begin with trivial anecdote, with the things that +fisherman, huntsman, peasant know; the sciences of zoology, anatomy, +physiology take shape before our very eyes; and by evening we sit humbly +at the feet of the great teacher of Life itself, the historian of the +Soul. It is not for us to attempt to show that even here the story does +not end, but the highest chapters of philosophy begin. Then, when we +remember that this short narrative of ours is but the faintest +adumbration of one side only of the philosopher's many-sided task and +enterprise, we begin to rise towards a comprehension of Roger Bacon's +saying, that 'although Aristotle did not arrive at the end of knowledge, +he set in order all parts of philosophy'. In the same spirit a modern +critic declares: 'Il n'a seulement défini et constitué chacune des +parties de la science; il en a de plus montré le lien et l'unité'. + +Aristotle, like Shakespeare, is full of old saws, tags of wisdom, jewels +five words long. Here is such a one, good for teacher and pupil +alike--Δει πιστευειν τον μανθανοντα {Dei pisteuein ton manthanonta}. It +tells us that the road to Learning lies through Faith; and it means that +to be a scholar one should have a heart as well as brains. + +By reason partly of extraneous interpolation, but doubtless also through +a lingering credulity from which even philosophers are not immune, we +find in Aristotle many a strange story. The goats that breathe through +their ears, the vulture impregnated by the wind, the eagle that dies of +hunger, the stag caught by music, the salamander which walks through +fire, the unicorn, the mantichore, are but a few of the 'Vulgar Errors' +or 'Received Tenents' (as Sir Thomas Browne has it) which are +perpetuated, not originated, in the _Historia Animalium_. Some of them +come, through Persia, from the farther East: and others (we meet with +them once more in Horapollo the Egyptian priest) are but the exoteric or +allegorical expression of the arcana of ancient Egyptian religion. + +So it comes to pass that for two thousand years and throughout all lands +men have come to Aristotle, and found in him information and +instruction--that which they desired. Arab and Moor and Syrian and Jew +treasured his books while the western world sat in darkness; the great +centuries of Scholasticism hung upon his words; the oldest of our +Universities, Bologna, Paris, Oxford, were based upon his teaching, yea, +all but established for his study. Where he has been, there, seen or +unseen, his influence remains; even the Moor and the Arab find in him, +to this day, a teacher after their own hearts: a teacher of eternal +verities, telling of sleep and dreams, of youth and age, of life and +death, of generation and corruption, of growth and of decay: a guide to +the book of Nature, a revealer of the Spirit, a prophet of the works of +God. + +The purpose of these little essays, I have been told (though I had half +forgotten it), is to help though ever so little to defend and justify +the study of the language and the vast literature of Greece. It is a +task for which I am unfitted and unprepared. When Oliver Goldsmith +proposed to teach Greek at Leyden, where he 'had been told it was a +desideratum', the Principal of that celebrated University met him (as we +all know) with weighty objections. 'I never learned Greek', said the +Principal, 'and I don't find that I have ever missed it. I have had a +Doctor's cap and gown without Greek. I have ten thousand florins a year +without Greek; and, in short', continued he, 'as I don't know Greek, I +do not believe there is any good in it.'--I have heard or read the story +again and again, for is it not written in the _Vicar of Wakefield_? But +I never heard that any man, not Goldsmith himself, attempted to confute +the argument. I agree for the most part with the Principal, and can see +clearly that all the Greek that Goldsmith knew, and all the Greek in all +the world, would have meant nothing and done nothing for him. But there +is and will be many another who finds in Greek wisdom and sweet Hellenic +speech something which he needs must have, and lacking which he would be +poor indeed: something which is as a staff in his hand, a light upon his +path, a lantern to his feet. + +In this workaday world we may still easily possess ourselves, as Gibbon +says the subjects of the Byzantine Throne, even in their lowest +servitude and depression, were still possessed, 'of a golden key that +could unlock the treasures of antiquity, of a musical and prolific +language that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the +abstractions of philosophy'. + +Our very lives seem prolonged by the recollection of antiquity; for, as +Cicero says, not to know what has been transacted in former times is to +continue always a child. I borrow the citation from Dr. Johnson, who +reminds us also of a saying of Aristotle himself, that as students we +ought first to examine and understand what has been written by the +ancients, and then cast our eyes round upon the world. And Johnson +prefaces both quotations by another: + + Tibi res antiquae laudis et artis + ingredior, sanctos ausus recludere fontes. + +But now I, who have dared to draw my tiny draft from Aristotle's great +well, seem after all to be seeking an excuse, seeking it in example and +precept. Precept, at least, I know to be of no avail. My father spent +all the many days of his life in the study of Greek; you might suppose +it was for Wisdom's sake,--but my father was a modest man. The fact is, +he did it for a simpler reason still, a very curious reason, to be +whispered rather than told: he did it _for love_. + +Nigh forty years ago, I first stepped out on the east-windy streets of a +certain lean and hungry town (lean, I mean, as regards scholarship) +where it was to be my lot to spend thereafter many and many a year. And +the very first thing I saw there was an inscription over a very humble +doorway, '_Hic mecum habitant Dante, Cervantes, Molière_'. It was the +home of a poor schoolmaster, who as a teacher of languages eked out the +scanty profits of his school. I was not a little comforted by the +announcement. So the poor scholar, looking on the ragged regiment of his +few books, is helped, consoled, exalted by the reflection: _Hic mecum +habitant ... Homerus, Plato, Aristoteles_. And were one in a moment of +inadvertence to inquire of him why he occupied himself with Greek, he +might perchance stammer (like Dominie Sampson) an almost inarticulate +reply; but more probably he would be stricken speechless by the enormous +outrage of the request, and the reason of his devotion would be hidden +from the questioner for ever. + +D'ARCY WENTWORTH THOMPSON. + + + + +BIOLOGY + + +_Before Aristotle_ + +What is science? It is a question that cannot be answered easily, nor +perhaps answered at all. None of the definitions seem to cover the field +exactly; they are either too wide or too narrow. But we can see science +in its growth and we can say that being a process it can exist only as +growth. Where does the science of biology begin? Again we cannot say, +but we can watch its evolution and its progress. Among the Greeks the +accurate observation of living forms, which is at least one of the +essentials of biological science, goes back very far. The word +_Biology_, used in our sense, would, it is true, have been an +impossibility among them, for _bios_ refers to the life of man and could +not be applied, except in a strained or metaphorical sense, to that of +other living things.[6] But the _ideas_ we associate with the word are +clearly developed in Greek philosophy and the foundations of biology are +of great antiquity. + + [6] The word _Biology_ was introduced by Gottfried Reinhold + Treviranus (1776-1837) in his _Biologie oder die Philosophie der + lebenden Natur_, 6 vols., Göttingen, 1802-22, and was adopted by + J.-B. de Lamarck (1744-1829) in his _Hydrogéologie_, Paris, 1802. It + is probable that the first English use of the word in its modern + sense is by Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867) in his work _On the + Physiology, Zoology, and Natural History of Man_, London, 1819; + there are earlier English uses of the word, however, contrasted with + _biography_. + +The Greek people had many roots, racial, cultural, and spiritual, and +from them all they inherited various powers and qualities and derived +various ideas and traditions. The most suggestive source for our purpose +is that of the Minoan race whom they dispossessed and whose lands they +occupied. That highly gifted people exhibited in all stages of its +development a marvellous power of graphically representing animal forms, +of which the famous Cretan friezes, Vaphio cups (Fig. 5), and Mycenean +lions provide well-known examples. It is difficult not to believe that +the Minoan element, entering into the mosaic of peoples that we call the +Greeks, was in part at least responsible for the like graphic power +developed in the Hellenic world, though little contact has yet been +demonstrated between Minoan and archaic Greek Art. + +For the earliest biological achievements of Greek peoples we have to +rely largely on information gleaned from artistic remains. It is true +that we have a few fragments of the works of both Ionian and +Italo-Sicilian philosophers, and in them we read of theoretical +speculation as to the nature of life and of the soul, and we can thus +form some idea of the first attempts of such workers as Alcmaeon of +Croton (_c._ 500 B. C.) to lay bare the structure of animals by +dissection.[7] The pharmacopœia also of some of the earliest works of +the Hippocratic collection betrays considerable knowledge of both native +and foreign plants.[8] Moreover, scattered through the pages of +Herodotus and other early writers is a good deal of casual information +concerning animals and plants, though such material is second-hand and +gives us little information concerning the habit of exact observation +that is the necessary basis of science. + + [7] The remains of Alcmaeon are given in H. Diel's _Die Fragmente + der Vorsokratiker_, Berlin, 1903, p. 103. Alcmaeon is considered in + the companion chapter on _Greek Medicine_. + + [8] Especially the περι γυναικειης φυσιος {peri gynaikeiês physios}, + _On the nature of woman_, and the περι γυναικειων {peri gynaikeiôn}, + _On the diseases of women_. + +Something more is, however, revealed by early Greek Art. We are in +possession of a series of vases of the seventh and sixth centuries +before the Christian era showing a closeness of observation of animal +forms that tells of a people awake to the study of nature. We have thus +portrayed for us a number of animals--plants seldom or never appear--and +among the best rendered are wild creatures: we see antelopes quietly +feeding or startled at a sound, birds flying or picking worms from the +ground, fallow deer forcing their way through thickets, browsing +peacefully, or galloping away, boars facing the hounds and dogs chasing +hares, wild cattle forming their defensive circle, hawks seizing their +prey. Many of these exhibit minutely accurate observation. The very +direction of the hairs on the animals' coats has sometimes been closely +studied, and often the muscles are well rendered. In some cases even the +dentition has been found accurately portrayed, as in a sixth-century +representation on an Ionian vase of a lioness--an animal then very rare +on the Eastern Mediterranean littoral, but still known in Babylonia, +Syria, and Asia Minor. The details of the work show that the artist must +have examined the animal in captivity (Figs. 1 and 2). + +[Illustration: FIG. 1. Lioness and young from an Ionian vase of the +sixth century B. C. found at Caere in Southern Etruria (Louvre, Salle E, +No. 298), from _Le Dessin des Animaux en Grèce d'après les vases +peints_, by J. Morin, Paris (Renouard), 1911. The animal is drawing +itself up to attack its hunters. The scanty mane, the form of the paws, +the udders, and the dentition are all heavily though accurately +represented.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2. A, Jaw bones of lion; B, head of lioness from +Caere vase (Fig. 1), after Morin. Note the careful way in which the +artist has distinguished the molar from the cutting teeth.] + +Animal paintings of this order are found scattered over the Greek world +with special centres or schools in such places as Cyprus, Boeotia, or +Chalcis. The very name for a painter in Greek, _zoographos_, recalls the +attention paid to living forms. By the fifth century, in painting them +as in other departments of Art, the supremacy of Attica had asserted +itself, and there are many beautiful Attic vase-paintings of animals to +place by the side of the magnificent horses' heads of the Parthenon +(Fig. 6). In Attica, too, was early developed a characteristic and +closely accurate type of representation of marine forms, and this +attained a wider vogue in Southern Italy in the fourth century. From the +latter period a number of dishes and vases have come down to us bearing +a large variety of fish forms, portrayed with an exactness that is +interesting in view of the attention to marine creatures in the +surviving literature of Aristotelian origin (Fig. 3). + +[Illustration: FIG. 3. Paintings of fish on plates. Italo-Greek work of +the fourth century B. C. From Morin. + + A. Sargus vulgaris. + B. Crenilabrus mediterraneus. + C. Uranoscopus scaber?] + +These artistic products are more than a mere reflex of the daily life +of the people. The habits and positions of animals are observed by the +hunter, as are the forms and colours of fish by the fisherman; but the +methods of huntsman and fisher do not account for the accurate portrayal +of a lion's dentition, the correct numbering of a fish's scales or the +close study of the lie of the feathers on the head, and the pads on the +feet, of a bird of prey (Fig. 4). With observations such as these we are +in the presence of something worthy of the name _Biology_. Though but +little literature on that topic earlier than the writings of Aristotle +has come down to us, yet both the character of his writings and such +paintings and pictures as these, suggest the existence of a strong +interest and a wide literature, biological in the modern sense, +antecedent to the fourth century. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4. Head and talons of the Sea-eagle, _Haliaëtus +albicilla_: + + A, From an Ionic vase of the sixth century B. C. + B, Drawn from the object. + +From Morin.] + +Greek science, however, exhibits throughout its history a peculiar +characteristic differentiating it from the modern scientific standpoint. +Most of the work of the Greek scientist was done in relation to man. +Nature interested him mainly in relation to himself. The Greek +scientific and philosophic world was an anthropocentric world, and this +comes out in the overwhelming mass of medical as distinct from +biological writings that have come down to us. Such, too, is the +sentiment expressed by the poets in their descriptions of the animal +creation: + + Many wonders there be, but naught more wondrous than man: + + * * * * * + + The light-witted birds of the air, the beasts of the weald and the wood + He traps with his woven snare, and the brood of the briny flood. + Master of cunning he: the savage bull, and the hart + Who roams the mountain free, are tamed by his infinite art. + And the shaggy rough-maned steed is broken to bear the bit. + + Sophocles, _Antigone_, verses 342 ff. + + (Translation of F. Storr.) + +It is thus not surprising that our first systematic treatment of animals +is in a practical medical work, the περι διαιτης {peri diaitês}, _On +diet_, of the Hippocratic Collection. This very peculiar treatise dates +from the later part of the fifth century. It is strongly under the +influence of Heracleitus (_c._ 540-475) and contains many points of view +which reappear in later philosophy. All animals, according to it, are +formed of fire and water, nothing is born and nothing dies, but there is +a perpetual and eternal revolution of things, so that change itself is +the only reality. Man's nature is but a parallel to that of the +universal nature, and the arts of man are but an imitation or reflex of +the natural arts or, again, of the bodily functions. The soul, a mixture +of water and fire, consumes itself in infancy and old age, and increases +during adult life. Here, too, we meet with that singular doctrine, not +without bearing on the course of later biological thought, that in the +foetus all parts are formed simultaneously. On the proportion of fire +and water in the body all depends, sex, temper, temperament, intellect. +Such speculative ideas separate this book from the sober method of the +more typical Hippocratic medical works with which indeed it has little +in common. + +After having discussed these theoretical matters the work turns to its +own practical concerns, and in the course of setting out the natures of +foods gives in effect a rough classification of animals. These are set +forth in groups, and from among the larger groups only the reptiles and +insects are missing. The list has been described, perhaps hardly with +justification, as the _Coan classificatory system_. We have here, +indeed, no _system_ in the sense in which that word is now applied to +the animal kingdom, but we have yet some sort of definite arrangement of +animals according to their supposed natures. The passage opens with +mammals, which are divided into domesticated and wild, the latter being +mentioned in order according to size, next follow the land-birds, then +the water-fowl, and then the fishes. These fish are divided into (1) the +haunters of the shore, (2) the free-swimming forms, (3) the +cartilaginous fishes or Selachii, which are not so named but are placed +together, (4) the mud-loving forms, and (5) the fresh-water fish. +Finally come invertebrates arranged in some sort of order according to +their structure. The characteristic feature of the 'classification' is +the separation of the fish from the remaining vertebrates and of the +invertebrates from both. Of the fifty animals named no less than twenty +are fish, about a fifth of the number studied by Aristotle, but we must +remember that here only edible species are mentioned. The existence of +the work shows at least that in the fifth century there was already a +close and accurate study of animal forms, a study that may justly be +called scientific. The predominance of fish and their classification in +greater detail than the other groups is not an unexpected feature. The +Mediterranean is especially rich in these forms, the Greeks were a +maritime people, and Greek literature is full of imagery drawn from the +fisher's craft. From Minoan to Byzantine times the variety, beauty, and +colour of fish made a deep impression on Greek minds as reflected in +their art. + +Much more important, however, for subsequent biological development +than such observations on the nature and habits of animals, is the +service that the Hippocratic physicians rendered to Anatomy and to +Physiology, departments in which the structure of man and of the +domesticated animals stands apart from that of the rest of the animal +kingdom. It is with the nature and constitution of man that most of the +surviving early biological writings are concerned, and in these +departments are unmistakable tendencies towards systematic arrangement +of the material. Thus we have division and description of the body in +sevens from the periphery to the centre and from the vertex to the sole +of the foot,[9] or a division into four regions or zones.[10] The +teaching concerning the four elements and four humours too became of +great importance and some of it was later adopted by Aristotle. We also +meet numerous mechanical explanations of bodily structures, comparisons +between anatomical conditions encountered in related animals, +experiments on living creatures,[11] systematic incubation of hen's eggs +for the study of their development, parallels drawn between the +development of plants and of human and animal embryos, theories of +generation, among which is that which was afterwards called +'pangenesis'--discussion of the survival of the stronger over the +weaker--almost our survival of the fittest--and a theory of inheritance +of acquired characters.[12] All these things show not only extensive +knowledge but also an attempt to apply such knowledge to human needs. +When we consider how even in later centuries biology was linked with +medicine, and how powerful and fundamental was the influence of the +Hippocratic writings, not only on their immediate successors in +antiquity, but also on the Middle Ages and right into the nineteenth +century, we shall recognize the significance of these developments. + + [9] περι ἑβδομαδων {peri hebdomadôn}. The Greek text is lost. We + have, however, an early and barbarous Latin translation, and there + has recently been printed an Arabic commentary. G. Bergstrasser, + _Pseudogaleni in Hippocratis de septimanis commentarium ab Hunnino + Q. F. arabice versum_, Leipzig, 1914. + + [10] περι νουσων δ {peri nousôn d}. + + [11] περι καρδιης {peri kardiês}. + + [12] Especially in the περι γονης {peri gonês}. + +[Illustration: Fig. 5. MINOAN GOLD CUP. SIXTEENTH CENTURY B. C.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 6. HORSE'S HEAD. FROM PARTHENON. 440 B. C.] + +Such was the character of biological thought within the fifth century, +and a generation inspired by this movement produced some noteworthy +works in the period which immediately followed. In the treatise περι +τροφης {peri trophês}, _On nourishment_, which may perhaps be dated +about 400 B. C., we learn of the pulse for the first time in Greek +medical literature, and read of a physiological system which lasted +until the time of Harvey, with the arteries arising from the heart and +the veins from the liver. Of about the same date is a work περι καρδιης +{peri kardiês}, _On the heart_, which describes the ventricles as well +as the great vessels and their valves, and compares the heart of animals +with that of man. + +A little later, perhaps 390 B. C., is the treatise περι σαρκων {peri +sarkôn}, _On muscles_, which contains much more than its title suggests. +It has the old system of sevens and, inspired perhaps by the philosophy +of Heracleitus (_c._ 540-475), describes the heart as sending air, fire, +and movement to the different parts of the body through the vessels +which are themselves constantly in movement. The infant in its mother's +womb is believed to draw in air and fire through its mouth and to eat +_in utero_. The action of the air on the blood is compared to its action +on fire. In contrast to some of the other Hippocratic treatises the +central nervous system is in the background; much attention, however, is +given to the special senses. The brain resounds during audition. The +olfactory nerves are hollow, lead to the brain, and, convey volatile +substances to it which cause it to secrete mucus. The eyes also have +been examined, and their coats and humours roughly described; an +allusion, the first in literature, is perhaps made to the crystalline +lens, and the eyes of animals are compared with those of man. There is +evidence not only of dissection but of experiment, and in efforts to +compare the resistance of various tissues to such processes as boiling, +we may see the small beginning of chemical physiology. + +An abler work than any of these, but exhibiting less power of +observation is a treatise, περι γονης {peri gonês}, _On generation_, +that may perhaps be dated about 380 B. C.[13] It exhibits a writer of +much philosophic power, very anxious for physiological explanations, but +hampered by ignorance of physics. He has, in fact, the weaknesses and in +a minor degree the strength of his successor Aristotle, of whose great +work on generation he gives us a fore-taste. He sets forth in +considerable detail a doctrine of pangenesis, not wholly unlike that of +Darwin. In order to explain the phenomena of inheritance he supposes +that vessels reach the seed, carrying with them samples from all parts +of the body. He believes that channels pass from all the organs to the +brain and then to the spinal marrow (or to the marrow direct), thence to +the kidneys and on to the genital organs; he believes, too, that he +knows the actual location of one such channel, for he observes, wrongly, +that incision behind the ears, by interrupting the passage, leads to +impotence. As an outcome of this theory he is prepared to accept +inheritance of acquired characters. The embryo develops and breathes by +material transmitted from the mother through the umbilical cord. We +encounter here also a very detailed description of a specimen of +exfoliated _membrana mucosa uteri_ which our author mistakes for an +embryo, but his remarks at least exhibit the most eager curiosity.[14] + + [13] The three works περι γονης {peri gonês}, περι φυσιος παιδιου + {peri physios paidiou}, περι νουσων δ {peri nousôn d}, _On + generation_, _on the nature of the embryo_, _on diseases, book IV_, + form really one treatise on generation. + + [14] περι φυσιος παιδιου {peri physios paidiou}, _On the nature of + the embryo_, § 13. The same experience is described in the περι + σαρκων {peri sarkôn}, _On the muscles_. + +The author of this work on generation is thus a 'biologist' in the +modern sense, and among the passages exhibiting him in this light is his +comparison of the human embryo with the chick. 'The embryo is in a +membrane in the centre of which is the navel through which it draws and +gives its breath, and the membranes arise from the umbilical cord.... +The structure of the child you will find from first to last as I have +already described.... If you wish, try this experiment: take twenty or +more eggs and let them be incubated by two or more hens. Then each day +from the second to that of hatching remove an egg, break it, and examine +it. You will find exactly as I say, for the nature of the bird can be +likened to that of man. The membranes [you will see] proceed from the +umbilical cord, and all that I have said on the subject of the infant +you will find in a bird's egg, and one who has made these observations +will be surprised to find an umbilical cord in a bird's egg.'[15] + + [15] περι φυσιος παιδιου {peri physios paidiou}, _On the nature of + the embryo_, § 29. + +The same interest that he exhibits for the development of man and +animals he shows also for plants. + + 'A seed laid in the ground fills itself with the juices there + contained, for the soil contains in itself juices of every nature + for the nourishment of plants. Thus filled with juice the seed is + distended and swells, and thereby the power (= faculty ἡ δυναμις + {hê dynamis}) diffused in the seed is compressed by pneuma and + juice, and bursting the seed becomes the first leaves. But a time + comes when these leaves can no longer get nourished from the juices + in the seed. Then the seed and the leaves erupt below, for urged by + the leaves the seed sends down that part of its power which is yet + concentrated within it and so the roots are produced as an + extension of the leaves. When at last the plant is well rooted + below and is drawing its nutriment from the earth, then the whole + grain disappears, being absorbed, save for the husk, which is the + most solid part; and even that, decomposing in the earth, + ultimately becomes invisible. In time some of the leaves put forth + branches. The plant being thus produced by humidity from the seed + is still soft and moist. Growing actively both above and below, it + cannot as yet bear fruit, for it has not the quality of force and + reserve (δυναμις ισχυρη και πιαρα {dynamis ischyrê kai piara}) from + which a seed can be precipitated. But when, with time, the plant + becomes firmer and better rooted, it develops veins as passages + both upwards and downwards, and it draws from the soil not only + water but more abundantly also substances that are denser and + fatter. Warmed, too, by the sun, these act as a ferment to the + extremities and give rise to fruit after its kind. The fruit thus + develops much from little, for every plant draws from the earth a + power more abundant than that with which it started, and the + fermentation takes place not at one place but at many.'[16] + + [16] περι φυσιος παιδιου {peri physios paidiou}, _On the nature of + the embryo_, § 22. + +Nor does our author hesitate to draw an analogy between the plant and +the mammalian embryo. 'In the same way the infant lives within its +mother's womb and in a state corresponding to the health of the mother +... and you will find a complete similitude between the products of the +soil and the products of the womb.' + +The early Greek literature is so scantily provided with illustrations +drawn from botanical study, that it is worth considering the remarkable +comparison of generation of plants from cuttings and from seeds in the +same work. + + 'As regards plants generated from cuttings ... that part of a + branch where it was cut from a tree is placed in the earth and + there rootlets are sent out. This is how it happens: The part of + the plant within the soil draws up juices, swells, and develops a + pneuma (πνευμα ισχει {pneuma ischei}), but not so the part without. + The pneuma and the juice concentrate the power of the plant below + so that it becomes denser. Then the lower end erupts and gives + forth tender roots. Then the plant, taking from below, draws juices + from the roots and transmits them to the part above the soil which + thus also swells and develops pneuma; thus the power from being + diffused in the plant becomes concentrated and budding, gives forth + leaves.... Cuttings, then, differ from seeds. With a seed the + leaves are borne first, then the roots are sent down; with a + cutting the roots form first and then the leaves.'[17] + + [17] Ibid. § 23. + +But with these works of the early part of the fourth century the first +stage of Greek biology reaches its finest development. Later +Hippocratic treatises which deal with physiological topics are on a +lower plane, and we must seek some external cause for the failure. Nor +have we far to seek. This period saw the rise of a movement that had the +most profound influence on every department of thought. We see the +advent into the Greek world of a great intellectual movement as a result +of which the department of philosophy that dealt with nature receded +before Ethics. Of that intellectual revolution--perhaps the greatest the +world has seen--Athens was the site and Socrates (470-399) the +protagonist. With the movement itself and its characteristic fruit we +are not concerned. But the great successor and pupil of its founder +gives us in the _Timaeus_ a picture of the depth to which natural +science can be degraded in the effort to give a specific teleological +meaning to all parts of the visible Universe. The book and the picture +which it draws, dark and repulsive to the mind trained in modern +scientific method, enthralled the imagination of a large part of mankind +for wellnigh two thousand years. Organic nature appears in this work of +Plato (427-347) as the degeneration of man whom the Creator has made +most perfect. The school that held this view ultimately decayed as a +result of its failure to advance positive knowledge. As the centuries +went by its views became further and further divorced from phenomena, +and the bizarre developments of later Neoplatonism stand to this day as +a warning against any system which shall neglect the investigation of +nature. But in its decay Platonism dragged science down and destroyed by +neglect nearly all earlier biological material. Mathematics, not being a +phenomenal study, suited better the Neoplatonic mood and continued to +advance, carrying astronomy with it for a while--astronomy that affected +the life of man and that soon became the handmaid of astrology; +medicine, too, that determined the conditions of man's life was also +cherished, though often mistakenly, but pure science was doomed. + +But though the ethical view of nature overwhelmed science in the end, +the advent of the mighty figure of Aristotle (384-322) stayed the tide +for a time. Yet the writer on Greek Biology remains at a disadvantage in +contrast with the Historian of Greek Mathematics, of Greek Astronomy, or +of Greek Medicine, in the scantiness of the materials for presenting an +account of the development of his studies before Aristotle. The huge +form of that magnificent naturalist completely overshadows Greek as it +does much of later Biology. + +CHARLES SINGER. + + +_After Aristotle_ + +All Aristotle's surviving biological works refer primarily to the animal +creation. His work on plants is lost or rather has survived as the +merest corrupted fragment. We are fortunate, however, in the possession +of a couple of complete works by his pupil and successor Theophrastus +(372-287), which may not only be taken to represent the Aristotelian +attitude towards the plant world, but also give us an inkling of the +general state of biological science in the generation which succeeded +the master. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7. ARISTOTLE +From HERCULANEUM +Probably work of fourth century B. C.] + +These treatises of Theophrastus are in many respects the most complete +and orderly of all ancient biological works that have reached our time. +They give an idea of the kind of interest that the working scientist of +that day could develop when inspired rather by the genius of a great +teacher than by the power of his own thoughts. Theophrastus is a +pedestrian where Aristotle is a creature of wings, he is in a relation +to the master of the same order that the morphologists of the second +half of the nineteenth century were to Darwin. For a couple of +generations after the appearance of the _Origin of Species_ in 1859 the +industry and ability of naturalists all over the world were occupied in +working out in detail the structure and mode of life of living things +on the basis of the Evolutionary philosophy. Nearly all the work on +morphology and much of that on physiology since his time might be +treated as a commentary on the works of Darwin. These volumes of +Theophrastus give the same impression. They represent the remains--alas, +almost the only biological remains--of a school working under the +impulse of a great idea and spurred by the memory of a great teacher. As +such they afford a parallel to much scientific work of our own day, +produced by men without genius save that provided by a vision and a hope +and an ideal. Of such men it is impossible to write as of Aristotle. +Their lives are summed up by their actual achievement, and since +Theophrastus is an orderly writer whose works have descended to us in +good state, he is a very suitable instance of the actual standard of +achievement of ancient biology. 'Without vision the people perish' and +the very breath of life of science is drawn, and can only be drawn, from +that very small band of prophets who from time to time, during the ages, +have provided the great generalizations and the great ideals. In this +light let us examine the work of Theophrastus. + +In the absence of any adequate system of classification, almost all +botany until the seventeenth century consisted mainly of descriptions of +species. To describe accurately a leaf or a root in the language in +ordinary use would often take pages. Modern botanists have invented an +elaborate terminology which, however hideous to eye and ear, has the +crowning merit of helping to abbreviate scientific literature. Botanical +writers previous to the seventeenth century were substantially without +this special mode of expression. It is partly to this lack that we owe +the persistent attempts throughout the centuries to represent plants +pictorially in herbals, manuscript and printed, and thus the possibility +of an adequate history of plant illustration. + +Theophrastus seems to have felt acutely the need of botanical terms, +and there are cases in which he seeks to give a special technical +meaning to words in more or less current use. Among such words are +_carpos_ = fruit, _pericarpion_ = seed vessel = pericarp, and _metra_, +the word used by him for the central core of any stem whether formed of +wood, pith, or other substance. It is from the usage of Theophrastus +that the exact definition of fruit and pericarp has come down to us.[18] +We may easily discern also the purpose for which he introduces into +botany the term _metra_, a word meaning primarily the _womb_, and the +vacancy in the Greek language which it was made to fill. '_Metra_,' he +says, 'is that which is in the middle of the wood, being third in order +from the bark and [thus] like to the marrow in bones. Some call it the +_heart_ (καρδιαν {kardian}), others the _inside_ (εντεριωνην +{enteriônên}), yet others call only the innermost part of the metra +itself the heart, while others again call this _marrow_.'[19] He is thus +inventing a word to cover all the different kinds of core and importing +it from another study. This is the method of modern scientific +nomenclature which hardly existed for botanists even as late as the +sixteenth century of our era. The real foundations of our modern +nomenclature were laid in the later sixteenth and in the seventeenth +century by Cesalpino and Joachim Jung. + + [18] It is possible that Theophrastus derived the word pericarp from + Aristotle. Cp. _De anima_, ii. 1, 412 b 2. In the passage το φυλλον + περικαρπιου σκεπασμα, το δε περικαρπιον καρπου {to phyllon + perikarpiou skepasma, to de perikarpion karpou}, in the _De anima_ + the word does not, however, seem to have the full technical force + that Theophrastus gives to it. + + [19] _Historia plantarum_, i. 2, vi. + +Theophrastus understood the value of developmental study, a conception +derived from his master. 'A plant', he says, 'has power of germination +in all its parts, for it has life in them all, wherefore we should +regard them not for what they are but for what they are becoming.'[20] +The various modes of plant reproduction are correctly distinguished in a +way that passes beyond the only surviving earlier treatise that deals +in detail with the subject, the Hippocratic work _On generation_. 'The +manner of generation of trees and plants are these: spontaneous, from a +seed, from a root, from a piece torn off, from a branch or twig, from +the trunk itself, or from pieces of the wood cut up small.'[21] The +marvel of germination must have awakened admiration from a very early +date. We have already seen it occupying a more ancient author, and it +had also been one of the chief preoccupations of Aristotle. It is thus +not remarkable that the process should impress Theophrastus, who has +left on record his views on the formation of the plant from the seed. + + [20] _Ibid._ i. 1, iv. + + [21] _Historia plantarum_, ii. 1, i. + + 'Some germinate, root and leaves, from the same point, some + separately from either end of the seed. Thus wheat, barley, spelt, + and all such cereals [germinate] from either end, corresponding to + the position [of the seed] in the ear, the root from the stout + lower part, the shoot from the upper; but the two, root and stem, + form a single continuous whole. The bean and other leguminous + plants are not so, but in them root and stem are from the same + point, namely, their place of attachment to the pod, where, it is + plain, they have their origin. In some cases there is a process, as + in beans, chick peas, and especially lupines, from which the root + grows downward, the leaf and stem upward.... In certain trees the + bud first germinates within the seed, and, as it increases in size, + the seeds split--all such seeds are, as it were, in two halves; + again, all those of leguminous plants have plainly two lobes and + are double--and then the root is immediately thrust out. But in + cereals, the seeds being in one piece, this does not happen, but + the root grows a little before [the shoot]. + + 'Barley and wheat come up monophyllous, but peas, beans, and chick + peas polyphyllous. All leguminous plants have a single woody root, + from which grow slender side roots ... but wheat, barley, and the + other cereals have numerous slender roots by which they are matted + together.... There is a contrast between these two kinds; the + leguminous plants have a single root and have many side-growths + above from the [single] stem ... while the cereals have many roots + and send up many shoots, but these have no side-shoots.'[22] + + [22] _Historia plantarum_, viii. 1, i. + +There can be no doubt that here is a piece of minute observation on the +behaviour of germinating seeds. The distinction between dicotyledons and +monocotyledons is accurately set forth, though the stress is laid not so +much on the cotyledonous character of the seed as on the relation of +root and shoot. In the dicotyledons root and shoot are represented as +springing from the same point, and in monocotyledons from opposite poles +in the seed. + +No further effective work was done on the germinating seed until the +invention of the microscope, and the appearance of the work of Highmore +(1613-85),[23] and the much more searching investigations of Malpighi +(1628-94)[24] and Grew (1641-1712)[25] after the middle of the +seventeenth century. The observations of Theophrastus are, however, so +accurate, so lucid, and so complete that they might well be used as +legends for the plates of these writers two thousand years after him. + + [23] Nathaniel Highmore, _A History of Generation_, London, 1651. + + [24] Marcello Malpighi, _Anatome plantarum_, London, 1675. + + [25] Nehemiah Grew, _Anatomy of Vegetables begun_, London, 1672. + +Much has been written as to the knowledge of the sex of plants among the +ancients. It may be stated that of the sexual elements of the flower no +ancient writer had any clear idea. Nevertheless, sex is often attributed +to plants, and the simile of the _Loves of Plants_ enters into works of +the poets. Plants are frequently described as male and female in ancient +biological writings also, and Pliny goes so far as to say that some +students considered that all herbs and trees were sexual.[26] Yet when +such passages can be tested it will be found that these so-called males +and females are usually different species. In a few cases a sterile +variety is described as the male and a fertile as the female. In a small +residuum of cases diœcious plants or flowers are regarded as male and +female, but with no real comprehension of the sexual nature of the +flowers. There remain the palms, in which the knowledge of plant sex had +advanced a trifle farther. 'With dates', says Theophrastus, 'the males +should be brought to the females; for the males make the fruit persist +and ripen, and this some call by analogy _to use the wild fig_ +(ολυνθαζειν {olynthazein}).[27] The process is thus: when the male is in +the flower they at once cut off the spathe with the flower and shake the +bloom, with its flower and dust, over the fruit of the female, and, if +it is thus treated, it retains the fruit and does not shed it.'[28] The +fertilizing character of the spathe of the male date palm was familiar +in Babylon from a very early date. It is recorded by Herodotus[29] and +is represented by a frequent symbol on the Assyrian monuments. + + [26] Pliny, _Naturalis historia_, xiii. 4. + + [27] The curious word ολυνθαζειν {olynthazein}, here translated _to + use the wild fig_, is from ολυνθος {olynthos}, a kind of wild fig + which seldom ripens. The special meaning here given to the word is + explained in another work of Theophrastus, _De causis plantarum_, + ii. 9, xv. After describing caprification in figs, he says το δε επι + των φοινικων συμβαινον ου ταυτον μεν, εχει δε τινα ὁμοιοτητα τουτω + δι' ὁ καλουσιν ολυνθαζειν αυτους {to de epi tôn phoinikôn symbainon + ou tauton men, echei de tina homoiotêta toutô di' ho kalousin + olynthazein autous} 'The same thing is not done with dates, but + something analogous to it, whence this is called ολυνθαζειν' + {olynthazein'}. + + [28] _Historia plantarum_, ii. 8, iv. + + [29] Herodotus i. 193. + +The comparison of the fertilization of the date palm to the use of the +wild fig refers to the practice of Caprification. Theophrastus tells us +that there are certain trees, the fig among them, which are apt to shed +their fruit prematurely. To remedy this 'the device adopted is +caprification. Gall insects come out of the wild figs which are hanging +there, eat the tops of the cultivated figs, and so make them swell'.[30] +These gall-insects 'are engendered from the seeds'.[31] Theophrastus +distinguished between the process as applied to the fig and the date, +observing that 'in both [fig and date] the male aids the female--for +they call the fruit-bearing [palm] _female_--but whilst in the one there +is a union of the two sexes, in the other things are different'.[32] + + [30] _Historia plantarum_, ii. 8, i. + + [31] _Ibid._ ii. 8, ii. + + [32] _Historia plantarum_, ii. 8, iv. + +Theophrastus was not very successful in distinguishing the nature of the +primary elements of plants, though he was able to separate root, stem, +leaf, stipule, and flower on morphological as well as to a limited +extent on physiological grounds. For the root he adopts the familiar +definition, the only one possible before the rise of chemistry, that it +'is that by which the plant draws up nourishment',[33] a description +that applies to the account given by the pre-Aristotelian author of the +work περι γονης {peri gonês}, _On generation_. But Theophrastus shows by +many examples that he is capable of following out morphological +homologies. Thus he knows that the ivy regularly puts forth roots from +the shoots between the leaves, by means of which it gets hold of trees +and walls,[34] that the mistletoe will not sprout except on the bark of +living trees into which it strikes its roots, and that the very peculiar +formation of the mangrove tree is to be explained by the fact that 'this +plant sends out roots from the shoots till it has hold on the ground and +roots again: and so there comes to be a continuous circle of roots round +the tree, not connected with the main stem, but at a distance from +it'.[35] He does not succeed, however, in distinguishing the real nature +of such structures as bulbs, rhizomes, and tubers, but regards them all +as roots. Nor is he more successful in his discussion of the nature of +stems. As to leaves, he is more definite and satisfactory, though wholly +in the dark as to their function; he is quite clear that the pinnate +leaf of the rowan tree, for instance, is a leaf and not a branch. + + [33] _Ibid._ i. 1, ix. + + [34] _Ibid._ iii. 18, x. + + [35] _De causis plantarum_, ii. 23. + +Notwithstanding his lack of insight as to the nature of sex in flowers, +he attains to an approximately correct idea of the relation of flower +and fruit. Some plants, he says, 'have [the flower] around the fruit +itself as vine and olive; [the flowers] of the latter, when they drop, +look as though they had a hole through them, and this is taken for a +sign that it has blossomed well; for if [the flower] is burnt up or +sodden, the fruit falls with it, and so it does not become pierced. Most +flowers have the fruit case in the middle, or it may be the flower is on +the top of the pericarp as in pomegranate, apple, pear, plum, and myrtle +... for these have their seeds below the flower.... In some cases again +the flower is on top of the seeds themselves as in ... all thistle-like +plants'.[36] Thus Theophrastus has succeeded in distinguishing between +the hypogynous, perigynous, and epigynous types of flower, and has +almost come to regard its relation to the fruit as the essential floral +element. + + [36] _Historia plantarum_, i. 13, iii. + +[Illustration: Fig. 8. THEOPHRASTUS +From VILLA ALBANI +Copy (second century A. D.?) of earlier work] + +Theophrastus has a perfectly clear idea of plant distribution as +dependent on soil and climate, and at times seems to be on the point of +passing from a statement of climatic distribution into one of real +geographical regions. The general question of plant distribution long +remained at, if it did not recede from, the position where he left it. +The usefulness of the manuscript and early printed herbals in the West +was for centuries marred by the retention of plant descriptions prepared +for the Greek East and Latin South, and these works were saved from +complete ineffectiveness only by an occasional appeal to nature. + +With the death of Theophrastus about 287 B. C. pure biological science +substantially disappears from the Greek world, and we get the same type +of deterioration that is later encountered in other scientific +departments. Science ceases to have the motive of the desire to know, +and becomes an applied study, subservient to the practical arts. It is +an attitude from which in the end applied science itself must suffer +also. Yet the centuries that follow were not without biological writers +of very great ability. In the medical school of Alexandria anatomy and +physiology became placed on a firm basis from about 300 B. C., but +always in the position subordinate to medicine that they have since +occupied. Two great names of that school, Herophilus and Erasistratus, +we must consider elsewhere.[37] Their works have disappeared and we have +the merest fragments of them. In the last pre-Christian and the first +two post-Christian centuries, however, there were several writers, +portions of whose works have survived and are of great biological +importance. Among them we include Crateuas, a botanical writer and +illustrator, who greatly developed, if he did not actually introduce, +the method of representing plants systematically by illustration rather +than by description. This method, important still, was even more +important when there was no proper system of botanical nomenclature. +Crateuas by his paintings of plants, copies of which have not improbably +descended to our time, began a tradition which, fixed about the fifth +century, remained almost rigid until the re-discovery of nature in the +sixteenth. He was physician to Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 B. C.), +but his work was well known and appreciated at Rome, which became the +place of resort for Greek talent.[38] + + [37] See the companion chapter on _Greek Medicine_. + + [38] The surviving fragments of the works of Crateuas have recently + been printed by M. Wellmann as an appendix to the text of + Dioscorides, _De materia medica_, 3 vols., Berlin, 1906-17, iii. pp. + 144-6. The source and fate of his plant drawings are discussed in + the same author's _Krateuas_, Berlin, 1897. + +Celsus, who flourished about 20 B. C., wrote an excellent work on +medicine, but gives all too little glimpse of anatomy and physiology. +Rufus of Ephesus, however, in the next century practised dissection of +apes and other animals. He described the decussation of the optic nerves +and the capsule of the crystalline lens, and gave the first clear +description that has survived of the structure of the eye. He regarded +the nerves as originating from the brain, and distinguished between +nerves of motion and of sensation. He described the oviduct of the sheep +and rightly held that life was possible without the spleen. + +The second Christian century brings us two writers who, while +scientifically inconsiderable, acted as the main carriers of such +tradition of Greek biology as reached the Middle Ages, Pliny and +Dioscorides. Pliny (A. D. 23-79), though a Latin, owes almost everything +of value in his encyclopaedia to Greek writings. In his _Natural +History_ we have a collection of current views on the nature, origin, +and uses of plants and animals such as we might expect from an +intelligent, industrious, and honest member of the landed class who was +devoid of critical or special scientific skill. Scientifically the work +is contemptible, but it demands mention in any study of the legacy of +Greece, since it was, for centuries, a main conduit of the ancient +teaching and observations on natural history. Read throughout the ages, +alike in the darkest as in the more enlightened periods, copied and +recopied, translated, commented on, extracted and abridged, a large part +of Pliny's work has gradually passed into folk-keeping, so that through +its agency the gipsy fortune-teller of to-day is still reciting garbled +versions of the formulae of Aristotle and Hippocrates of two and a half +millennia ago. + +The fate of Dioscorides (flourished A. D. 60) has been not dissimilar. +His work _On Materia Medica_ consists of a series of short accounts of +plants, arranged almost without reference to the nature of the plants +themselves, but quite invaluable for its terse and striking descriptions +which often include habits and habitats. Its history has shown it to be +one of the most influential botanical treatises ever penned. It provided +most of the little botanical knowledge that reached the Middle Ages. It +furnished the chief stimulus to botanical research at the time of the +Renaissance. It has decided the general form of every modern +pharmacopœia. It has practically determined modern plant nomenclature +both popular and scientific. + +Translated into nearly every language from Anglo-Saxon and Bohemian to +Arabic and Hebrew, appearing both abstracted and in full in innumerable +beautifully illuminated manuscripts, some of which are still among the +fairest treasures of the great national libraries, Dioscorides, the +drug-monger, appealed to scholasticized minds for centuries. The +frequency with which fragments of him are encountered in papyri shows +how popular his work was in Egypt in the third and fourth centuries. One +of the earliest datable Greek codices in existence is a glorious volume +of Dioscorides written in capitals,[39] thought worthy to form a wedding +gift for a lady who was the daughter of one Roman emperor and the +betrothed of a second.[40] The illustrations of this fifth-century +manuscript are a very valuable monument for the history of art and the +chief adornment of what was once the Royal Library at Vienna[41] (figs. +9-10). Illustrated Latin translations of Dioscorides were in use in the +time of Cassiodorus (490-585). A work based on it, similarly +illustrated, but bearing the name of Apuleius, is among the most +frequent of mediaeval botanical documents and the earliest surviving +specimen is contemporary with Cassiodorus himself.[42] After the +revival of learning Dioscorides continued to attract an immense amount +of philological and botanical ability, and scores of editions of his +works, many of them nobly illustrated, poured out of the presses of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +[Illustration: Fig. 9 +ΣΟΓΚΟΣ ΤΡΥΦΕΡΟΣ {SOGKOS TRYPHEROS} = _Crepis paludosa_, _Mœn._] + +[Illustration: Fig. 10 +ΓΕΡΑΝΙΟΝ {GERANION} = _Geranium pyrenaicum_, _L._ + +Fifth-century drawings from JULIANA ANICIA M.S., copied from originals +of first century B. C. (?)] + + [39] The manuscript in question is Med. Graec. 1 at what was the + Royal Library at Vienna. It is known as the _Constantinopolitanus_. + After the war it was taken to St. Mark's at Venice, but either has + been or is about to be restored to Vienna. A facsimile of this grand + manuscript was published by Sijthoff, Leyden, 1906. + + [40] The lady in question was Juliana Anicia, daughter of Anicius + Olybrius, Emperor of the West in 472, and his wife Placidia, + daughter of Valentinian III. Juliana was betrothed in 479 by the + Eastern Emperor Zeno to Theodoric the Ostrogoth, but was married, + probably in 487 when the manuscript was presented to her, to + Areobindus, a high military officer under the Byzantine Emperor + Anastasius. + + [41] The importance of this manuscript as well as the position of + Dioscorides as medical botanist is discussed by Charles Singer in an + article 'Greek Biology and the Rise of Modern Biology', _Studies in + the History and Method of Science_, vol. ii, Oxford, 1921. + + [42] This manuscript is at the University Library at Leyden, where + it is numbered Voss Q 9. + +But the greatest biologist of the late Greek period, and indeed one of +the greatest biologists of all time, was Claudius Galen of Pergamon (A. +D. 131-201). Galen devoted himself to medicine from an early age, and in +his twenty-first year we hear of him studying anatomy at Smyrna under +Pelops. With the object of extending his knowledge of drugs he early +made long journeys to Asia Minor. Later he proceeded to Alexandria, +where he improved his anatomical equipment, and here, he tells us, he +examined a human skeleton. It is indeed probable that his direct +practical acquaintance with human anatomy was limited to the skeleton +and that dissection of the human body was no longer carried on at +Alexandria in his time. Thus his physiology and anatomy had to be +derived mainly from animal sources. He is the most voluminous of all +ancient scientific writers and one of the most voluminous writers of +antiquity in any department. We are not here concerned with the medical +material which mainly fills these huge volumes, but only with the +physiological views which not only prevailed in medicine until Harvey +and after, but also governed for fifteen hundred years alike the +scientific and the popular ideas on the nature and workings of the +animal body, and have for centuries been embedded in our speech. A +knowledge of these physiological views of Galen is necessary for any +understanding of the history of biology and illuminates many literary +allusions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. + +Between the foundation of the Alexandrian school and the time of Galen, +medicine was divided among a great number of sects. Galen was an +eclectic and took portions of his teaching from many of these schools, +but he was also a naturalist of great ability and industry, and knew +well the value of the experimental way. Yet he was a somewhat windy +philosopher and, priding himself on his philosophic powers, did not +hesitate to draw conclusions from evidence which was by no means always +adequate. The physiological system that he thus succeeded in building up +we may now briefly consider (fig. 11). + +[Illustration: FIG. 11. Illustrating Galen's physiological teaching.] + +The basic principle of life, in the Galenic physiology, is a _spirit_, +_anima_ or _pneuma_, drawn from the general world-soul in the act of +respiration. It enters the body through the _rough artery_ (τραχεια +αρτηρια {tracheia artêria}, _arteria aspera_ of mediaeval notation), the +organ known to our nomenclature as the trachea. From this trachea the +pneuma passes to the lung and then, through the _vein-like artery_ +(αρτηρια φλεβωδης {artêria phlebôdês}, _arteria venalis_ of mediaeval +writers, the pulmonary vein of our nomenclature), to the left ventricle. +Here it will be best to leave it for a moment and trace the vascular +system along a different route. + +Ingested food, passing down the alimentary tract, was absorbed as chyle +from the intestine, collected by the portal vessel, and conveyed by it +to the liver. That organ, the site of the innate heat in Galen's view, +had the power of elaborating the chyle into venous blood and of imbuing +it with a spirit or pneuma which is innate in all living substance, so +long as it remains alive, the _natural spirits_ (πνευμα φυσικον {pneuma +physikon}, _spiritus naturalis_ of the mediaevals). Charged with this, +and also with the nutritive material derived from the food, the venous +blood is distributed by the liver through the veins which arise from it +in the same way as the arteries from the heart. These veins carry +nourishment and _natural spirits_ to all parts of the body. _Iecur fons +venarum_, the liver as the source of the veins, remained through the +centuries the watchword of the Galenic physiology. The blood was held to +ebb and flow continuously in the veins during life. + +Now from the liver arose one great vessel, the hepatic vein, from +division of which the others were held to come off as branches. Of +these branches, one, our _common vena cava_, entered the right side of +the heart. For the blood that it conveyed to the heart there were two +fates possible. The greater part remained awhile in the ventricle, +parting with its impurities and vapours, exhalations of the organs, +which were carried off by the _artery-like vein_ (φλεπς αρτηριωδης +{phleps artêriôdês}, the mediaeval _vena arterialis_, our pulmonary +artery) to the lung and then exhaled to the outer air. These impurities +and vapours gave its poisonous and suffocating character to the breath. +Having parted thus with its impurities, the venous blood ebbed back +again from the right ventricle into the venous system. But for a small +fraction of the venous blood that entered the right ventricle another +fate was reserved. This small fraction of venous blood, charged still +with the _natural spirits_ derived from the liver, passed through minute +channels in the septum between the ventricles and entered the left +chamber. Arrived there, it encountered the external pneuma and became +thereby elaborated into a higher form of spirit, the _vital spirits_ +(πνευμα ζωτικον {pneuma zôtikon}, _spiritus vitalis_), which is +distributed together with blood by the arterial system to various parts +of the body. In the arterial system it also ebbed and flowed, and might +be seen and felt to pulsate there. + +But among the great arterial vessels that sent forth arterial blood thus +charged with vital spirits were certain vessels which ascended to the +brain. Before reaching that organ they divided up into minute channels, +the _rete mirabile_ (πλεγμα μεγιστον θαυμα {plegma megiston thauma}), +and passing into the brain became converted by the action of that organ +into a yet higher type of spirits, the _animal spirits_ (πνευμα ψυχικον +{pneuma psychikon}, _spiritus animalis_), an ethereal substance +distributed to the various parts of the body by the structures known +to-day as nerves, but believed then to be hollow channels. The three +fundamental faculties (δυναμεις {dynameis}), the _natural_, the _vital_, +and the _animal_, which brought into action the corresponding functions +of the body, thus originated as an expression of the primal force or +pneuma. + +This physiology, we may emphasize, is not derived from an investigation +of human anatomy. In the human brain there is no _rete mirabile_, though +such an organ is found in the calf. In the human liver there is no +_hepatic vein_, though such an organ is found in the dog. Dogs, calves, +pigs, bears, and, above all, Barbary apes were freely dissected by Galen +and were the creatures from which he derived his physiological ideas. +Many of Galen's anatomical and physiological errors are due to his +attributing to one creature the structures found in another, a fact that +only very gradually dawned on the Renaissance anatomists. + +The whole knowledge possessed by the world in the department of +physiology from the third to the seventeenth century, nearly all the +biological conceptions till the thirteenth, and most of the anatomy and +much of the botany until the sixteenth century, all the ideas of the +physical structure of living things throughout the Middle Ages, were +contained in a small number of these works of Galen. The biological +works of Aristotle and Theophrastus lingered precariously in a few rare +manuscripts in the monasteries of the East; the total output of hundreds +of years of Alexandrian and Pergamenian activities was utterly +destroyed; the Ionian biological works, of which a sample has by a +miracle survived, were forgotten; but these vast, windy, ill-arranged +treatises of Galen lingered on. Translated into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, +and Hebrew, they saturated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages. +Commented on by later Greek writers, who were themselves in turn +translated into the same list of languages, they were yet again served +up under the names of such Greek writers as Oribasius, Paul of Aegina, +or Alexander of Tralles. + +What is the secret of the vitality of these Galenic biological +conceptions? The answer can be given in four words. _Galen is a +teleologist_; and a teleologist of a kind whose views happened to fit in +with the prevailing theological attitude of the Middle Ages, whether +Christian, Moslem, or Jewish. According to him everything which exists +and displays activity in the human body originates in and is formed by +an intelligent being and on an intelligent plan, so that the organ in +structure and function is the result of that plan. 'It was the Creator's +infinite wisdom which selected the best means to attain his beneficent +ends, and it is a proof of His omnipotence that he created every good +thing according to His design, and thereby fulfilled His will.'[43] + + [43] A good instance of Galen's teleological point of view is + afforded by his classical description of _the hand_ in the περι + χρειας των εν ανθρωπου σωματι μοριων {peri chreias tôn en anthrôpou + sômati moriôn}, _On the uses of the parts of the body of man_, i. 1. + This passage is available in English in a tract by Thomas Bellott, + London, 1840. + +After Galen there is a thousand years of darkness, and biology ceases to +have a history. The mind of the Dark Ages turned towards theology, and +such remains of Neoplatonic philosophy as were absorbed into the +religious system were little likely to be of aid to the scientific +attitude. One department of positive knowledge must of course persist. +Men still suffered from the infirmities of the flesh and still sought +relief from them. But the books from which that advice was sought had +nothing to do with general principles nor with knowledge as such. They +were the most wretched of the treatises that still masqueraded under the +names of Hippocrates and Galen, mostly mere formularies, antidotaries, +or perhaps at best symptom lists. And, when the depression of the +western intellect had passed its worst, there was still no biological +material on which it could be nourished. + +The prevailing interest of the barbarian world, at last beginning to +settle into its heritage of antiquity, was with Logic. Of Aristotle +there survived in Latin dress only the _Categories_ and the _De +interpretatione_, the merciful legacy of Boethius, the last of the +philosophers. Had a translation of Aristotle's _Historia animalium_ or +_De generatione animalium_ survived, had a Latin version of the +Hippocratic work _On generation_ or of the treatises of Theophrastus _On +plants_ reached the earlier Middle Ages, the whole mental history of +Europe might have been different and the rediscovery of nature might +have been antedated by centuries. But this was a change of heart for +which the world had long to wait; something much less was the earliest +biological gift of Greece. The gift, when it came, came in two forms, +one of which has not been adequately recognized, but both are equally +her legacy. These two forms are, firstly, the well-known work of the +early translators and, secondly, the tardily recognized work of certain +schools of minor art. + +The earliest biological treatises to become accessible in the west were +rendered not from Greek but from Arabic.[44] The first of them was +perhaps the treatise περι μυων κινησεως {peri myôn kinêseôs}, _On +movement of muscles_ of Galen, a work which contains more than its title +suggests and indeed sets forth much of the Galenic physiological system. +It was rendered into Latin from the Arabic of Joannitius (Hunain ibn +Ishaq, 809-73), probably about the year 1200, by one Mark of Toledo. It +attracted little attention, but very soon after biological works of +Aristotle began to become accessible. The first was probably the +fragment _On plants_. The Greek original of this is lost, and besides +the Latin, only an Arabic version of a former Arabic translation of a +Syriac rendering of a Greek commentary is now known! Such a work +appeared from the hand of a translator known as Alfred the Englishman +about 1220 or a little later. Neither it nor another work from the same +translator, _On the motion of the heart_, which sought to establish the +primacy of that organ on Aristotelian grounds, can be said to contain +any of the spirit of the master.[45] + + [44] The early European translations from the Arabic are tabulated + with unparalleled learning by M. Steinschneider, 'Die Europäischen + Uebersetzungen aus dem Arabischen bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts', + in the _Sitzungsberichte der kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften in + Wien_, cxlix and cli, Vienna, 1904 and 1905. + + [45] C. H. Haskins, 'The reception of Arabic science in England,' + _English Historical Review_, London, 1915, p. 56. + +A little better than these is the work of the wizard Michael the Scot +(1175?-1234?). Roger Bacon tells us that Michael in 1230 'appeared [at +Oxford], bringing with him the works of Aristotle in natural history and +mathematics, with wise expositors, so that the philosophy of Aristotle +was magnified among the Latins'.[46] Scott produced his work _De +animalibus_ about this date and he included in it the three great +biological works of Aristotle, all rendered from an inferior Arabic +version.[47] Albertus Magnus (1206-80) had not as yet a translation +direct from the Greek to go upon for his great commentary on the +_History of animals_, but he depended on Scott. The biological works of +Aristotle were rendered into Latin direct from the Greek in the year +1260 probably by William of Moerbeke.[48] Such translations, appearing +in the full scholastic age when everything was against direct +observation, cannot be said to have fallen on a fertile ground. They +presented an ordered account of nature and a good method of +investigation, but those were gifts to a society that knew little of +their real value.[49] + + [46] Roger Bacon, _Opus majus_, edited by J. H. Bridges, 3 vols., + London, 1897-1900. Vol. iii, p. 66. + + [47] On the Aristotelian translations of Scott see A. H. Querfeld, + _Michael Scottus und seine Schrift, De secretis naturae_, Leipzig, + 1919; and C. H. Haskins, 'Michael Scot and Frederick II' in _Isis_, + ii. 250, Brussels, 1922. + + [48] J. G. Schneider, _Aristotelis de animalibus historiae_, + Leipzig, 1811, p. cxxvi. L. Dittmeyer, _Guilelmi Moerbekensis + translatio commentationis Aristotelicae de generatione animalium_, + Dillingen, 1915. L. Dittmeyer, _De animalibus historia_, Leipzig, + 1907. + + [49] The subject of the Latin translations of Aristotle is traversed + by A. and C. Jourdain, _Recherches critiques sur l'âge des + traductions latines d'Aristote_, 2nd ed., Paris, 1843; M. Grabmann, + _Forschungen uber die lateinischen Aristoteles Ubersetzungen des + XIII. Jahrhunderts_, Münster i/W., 1916; and F. Wüstenfeld, _Die + Ubersetzungen arabischer Werke in das Lateinische seit dem XI. + Jahrhundert_, Göttingen, 1877. + +Yet the advent of these texts was coincident with a returning desire to +observe nature. Albert, with all his scholasticism, was no contemptible +naturalist. He may be said to have begun first-hand plant study in +modern times so far as literary records are concerned. His book _De +vegetabilibus_ contains excellent observations, and he is worthy of +inclusion among the fathers of botany. In his vast treatise _De +animalibus_, hampered as he is by his learning and verbosity, he shows +himself a true observer and one who has absorbed something of the spirit +of the great naturalist to whose works he had devoted a lifetime of +study and on which he professes to be commenting. We see clearly the +leaven of the Aristotelian spirit working, though Albert is still a +schoolman. We may select for quotation a passage on the generation of +fish, a subject on which some of Aristotle's most remarkable +descriptions remained unconfirmed till modern times. These descriptions +impressed Albert in the same way as they do the modern naturalist. To +those who know nothing of the stimulating power of the Aristotelian +biological works, Albert's description of the embryos of fish and his +accurate distinction of their mode of development from that of birds, by +the absence of an allantoic membrane in the one and its presence in the +other, must surely be startling. Albert depends on Aristotle--a +third-hand version of Aristotle--but does not slavishly follow him. + +'Between the mode of development (_anathomiam generationis_) of birds' +and fishes' eggs there is this difference: during the development of the +fish the second of the two veins which extend from the heart [as +described by Aristotle in birds] does not exist. For we do not find the +vein which extends to the outer covering in the eggs of birds which some +wrongly call the navel because it carries the blood to the exterior +parts; but we do find the vein that corresponds to the yolk vein of +birds, for this vein imbibes the nourishment by which the limbs +increase.... In fishes as in birds, channels extend from the heart first +to the head and the eyes, and first in them appear the great upper +parts. As the growth of the young fish increases the albumen decreases, +being incorporated into the members of the young fish, and it disappears +entirely when development and formation are complete. The beating of +the heart ... is conveyed to the lower part of the belly, carrying pulse +and life to the inferior members. + +'While the young [fish] are small and not yet fully developed they have +veins of great length which take the place of the navel-string, but as +they grow and develop, these shorten and contract into the body towards +the heart, as we have said about birds. The young fish and the eggs are +enclosed and in a covering, as are the eggs and young of birds. This +covering resembles the dura mater [of the brain], and beneath it is +another [corresponding therefore to the pia mater of the brain] which +contains the young animal and nothing else.'[50] + + [50] The enormous _De Animalibus_ of Albert of Cologne is now + available in an edition by H. Stadler, _Albertus Magnus De + Animalibus Libri XXVI nach der cölner Urschrift_, 2 vols., Münster + i/W., 1916-21. The quotation is translated from vol. i, pp. 465-6. + +In the next century Conrad von Megenberg (1309-98) produced his _Book of +Nature_, a complete work on natural history, the first of the kind in +the vernacular, founded on Latin versions, now rendered direct from the +Greek, of the Aristotelian and Galenic biological works. It is well +ordered and opens with a systematic account of the structure and +physiology of man as a type of the animal creation, which is then +systematically described and followed by an account of plants. Conrad, +though guided by Aristotle, uses his own eyes and ears, and with him and +Albert the era of direct observation has begun.[51] + + [51] Conrad's work is conveniently edited by H. Schultz, _Das Buch + der Natur von Conrad von Megenberg, die erste Naturgeschichte in + deutscher Sprache, in Neu-Hochdeutsche Sprache bearbeitet_, + Greifswald, 1897. Conrad's work is based on that of Thomas of + Cantimpré (1201-70). + +But there was another department in which the legacy of Greece found an +even earlier appreciation. For centuries the illustrations to herbals +and bestiaries had been copied from hand to hand, continuing a tradition +that had its rise with Greek artists of the first century B. C. But +their work, copied at each stage without reference to the object, moved +constantly farther from resemblance to the original. At last the +illustrations became little but formal patterns, a state in which they +remained in some late copies prepared as recently as the sixteenth +century. But at a certain period a change set in, and the artist, no +longer content to rely on tradition, appeals at last to nature. This new +stirring in art corresponds with the new stirring in letters, the +Arabian revival--itself a legacy of Greece, though sadly deteriorated in +transit--that gave rise to scholasticism. In much of the beautiful +carved and sculptured work of the French cathedrals the new movement +appears in the earlier part of the thirteenth century. At such a place +as Chartres we see the attempt to render plants and animals faithfully +in stone as early as 1240 or before. In the easier medium of parchment +the same tendency appears even earlier. When once it begins the process +progresses slowly until the great recovery of the Greek texts in the +fifteenth century, when it is again accelerated. + +During the sixteenth century the energy of botanists and zoologists was +largely absorbed in producing most carefully annotated and illustrated +editions of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and accounts of animals, +habits, and structure that were intended to illustrate the writings of +Aristotle, while the anatomists explored the bodies of man and beast to +confirm or refute Galen. The great monographs on birds, fishes, and +plants of this period, ostensibly little but commentaries on Pliny, +Aristotle, and Dioscorides, represent really the first important efforts +of modern times at a natural history. They pass naturally into the +encyclopaedias of the later sixteenth century, and these into the +physiological works of the seventeenth. Aristotle was never a dead hand +in Biology as he was in Physics, and this for the reason that he was a +great biologist but was not a great physicist. + +With the advance of the sixteenth century the works of Aristotle, and to +a less extent those of Dioscorides and Galen, became the great stimulus +to the foundation of a new biological science. Matthioli (1520-77), in +his commentary on Dioscorides (first edition 1544), which was one of the +first works of its type to appear in the vernacular, made a number of +first-hand observations on the habits and structure of plants that is +startling even to a modern botanist. About the same time Galenic +physiology, expressed also in numerous works in the vulgar tongue and +rousing the curiosity of the physicians, became the clear parent of +modern physiology and comparative anatomy. But, above all, the +Aristotelian biological works were fertilizers of the mind. It is very +interesting to watch a fine observer such as Fabricius ab Acquapendente +(1537-1619) laying the foundations of modern embryology in a splendid +series of first-hand observations, treating his own great researches +almost as a commentary on Aristotle. What an impressive contrast to the +arid physics of the time based also on Aristotle! 'My purpose', says +Fabricius, 'is to treat of the formation of the foetus in every animal, +setting out from that which proceeds from the egg: for this ought to +take precedence of all other discussion of the subject, both because it +is not difficult to make out Aristotle's view of the matter, and because +his treatise on the Formation of the Foetus from the egg is by far the +fullest, and the subject is by much the most extensive and +difficult.'[52] + + [52] Hieronimo Fabrizio of Acquapendente, _De formato foetu_, Padua, + 1604. + +The industrious and careful Fabricius, with a wonderful talent for +observation lit not by his own lamp but by that of Aristotle, bears a +relation to the master much like that held by Aristotle's pupil in the +flesh, Theophrastus. The works of the two men, Fabricius and +Theophrastus, bear indeed a resemblance to each other. Both rely on the +same group of general ideas, both progress in much the same ordered calm +from observation to observation, both have an inspiration which is +efficient and stimulating but below the greatest, both are enthusiastic +and effective as investigators of fact, but timid and ineffective in +drawing conclusions. + +But Fabricius was more happy in his pupils than Theophrastus, for we may +watch the same Aristotelian ideas fermenting in the mind of Fabricius's +successor, the greatest biologist since Aristotle himself, William +Harvey (1578-1657).[53] This writer's work _On generation_ is a careful +commentary on Aristotle's work on the same topic, but it is a commentary +not in the old sense but in the spirit of Aristotle himself. Each +statement is weighed and tested in the light of experience, and the +younger naturalist, with all his reverence for Aristotle, does not +hesitate to criticize his conclusions. He exhibits an independence of +thought, an ingenuity in experiment, and a power of deduction that +places his treatise as the middle term of the three great works on +embryology of which the other members are those of Aristotle and Karl +Ernst von Baer (1796-1876).[54] + + [53] William Harvey, _Exercitationes de generatione animalium_, + London, 1651. + + [54] Karl Ernst von Baer, _Ueber die Entwickelungsgeschichte der + Thiere_, Königsberg, 1828-37. + +With the second half of the seventeenth century and during a large part +of the eighteenth the biological works of Aristotle attracted less +attention. The battle against the Aristotelian physics had been fought +and won, but with them the biological works of Aristotle unjustly passed +into the shadow that overhung all the idols of the Middle Ages. + +The rediscovery of the Aristotelian biology is a modern thing. The +collection of the vast wealth of living forms absorbed the energies of +the generations of naturalists from Ray (1627-1705) and Willoughby +(1635-72) to Réaumur (1683-1757) and Linnaeus (1707-1778) and beyond to +the nineteenth century. The magnitude and fascination of the work seems +almost to have excluded general ideas. With the end of this period and +the advent of a more philosophical type of naturalist, such as Cuvier +(1769-1832) and members of the Saint-Hilaire family, Aristotle came +again to his own. Since the dawn of the nineteenth century, and since +naturalists have been in a position to verify the work of Aristotle, his +reputation as a naturalist has continuously risen. Johannes Müller +(1801-58), Richard Owen (1804-92), George Henry Lewes (1817-78), William +Ogle (1827-1912) are a few of the long line of those who have derived +direct inspiration from his biological work. With improved modern +methods of investigation the problems of generation have absorbed a +large amount of biological attention, and interest has become specially +concentrated on Aristotle's work on that topic which is perhaps, at the +moment, more widely read than any biological treatise, ancient or +modern, except the works of Darwin. That great naturalist wrote to Ogle +in 1882: 'From quotations I had seen I had a high notion of Aristotle's +merits, but I had not the most remote notion what a wonderful man he +was. Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different +ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.' + +CHARLES SINGER. + + + + +MEDICINE + + Ἡροφιλος δε εν τω Διαιτητικω και σοφιαν φησιν ανεπιδεικτον και + τεχνην αδηλον και ισχυν αναγωνιστον και πλουτον αχρειον και λογον + αδυνατον, ὑγιειας απουσης. + + {Hêrophilos de en tô Diaitêtikô kai sophian phêsin anepideikton kai + technên adêlon kai ischyn anagôniston kai plouton achreion kai logon + adynaton, hygieias apousês.} + + +Herophilos, a Greek philosopher and physician (_c._ 300 B. C.), has +truly written 'that Science and Art have equally nothing to show, that +Strength is incapable of effort, Wealth useless, and Eloquence powerless +if Health be wanting'.[55] All peoples therefore have had their methods +of treating those departures from health that we call disease, and among +peoples of higher culture such methods have been reduced in most cases +to something resembling a system. In antiquity, as now, a variety of +such systems were in vogue, and those nations who practised the art of +writing from an early date have left considerable records of their +medical methods and doctrines. We may thus form a fairly good idea of +the medical principles of the Mesopotamian, the Egyptian, the Iranian, +the Indian, and the Chinese civilizations. Much in these systems, as in +the medical procedure of more primitive tribes, was based upon some +theory of disease which fitted in with a larger theory of the nature of +evil. Of these theories the commonest was and is the demonic, the view +that regards deviation from the normal state of health as due either to +the attacks of supernatural beings or to their actual entry into the +body of the sufferer. A medical system based on such a view is +susceptible of great elaboration in a higher civilization, but not being +founded on observation is hardly capable of indefinite development, for +a point must ultimately be reached at which the mind recoils from +complex conclusions far remote from observed phenomena. The medicine of +the ancient and settled civilization of such a people as the +Assyro-Babylonians, for instance, of which substantial traces have been +recovered, is hardly, if at all, more effective, though far more +systematized, than that of many a wild and unlettered tribe that may be +observed to-day. Of such medicine as this we may give an account, but we +can hardly write a _history_. We cannot establish those elements of +continuity and of development from which alone history can be +constructed. + + [55] The works of Herophilus are lost. This fine passage has been + preserved for us by Sextus Empiricus, a third-century physician, in + his προς τοις μαθηματικους αιτιρρητικοι {pros tois mathêmatikous + aitirrêtikoi}, which is in essence an attack on all positive + philosophy. It is an entertaining fact that we should have to go to + such a work for remains of the greatest anatomist of antiquity. The + passage is in the section directed against ethical writers, xi. 50. + +It is the distinction of the Greeks alone among the nations of antiquity +that they practised a system of medicine based not on theory but on +observation accumulated systematically as time went on. The claim can be +made for the Greeks that some at least among them were deflected by no +theory, were deceived by no theurgy, were hampered by no tradition in +their search for the facts of disease and in their attempts at +interpreting its phenomena. Only the Greeks among the ancients could +look on their healers as _physicians_ (= naturalists, φυσις {physis} = +nature), and that word itself stands as a lasting reminder of their +achievement.[56] + + [56] The word φυσικος {physikos}, though it passed over into Latin + (Cicero) with the meaning _naturalist_, acquired the connotation of + _sorcerer_ among the later Greek writers. Perhaps the word + _physicianus_ was introduced to make a distinction from the + charm-mongering _physicus_. In later Latin _physicus_ and _medicus_ + are almost always interchangeable. + +At a certain stage in the history of the Western world--the exact point +in time may be disputed but the event is admitted by all--men turned to +explore the treasures of the ancient wisdom and the whole mass of Greek +medical learning was gradually laid before the student. That mass +contained much dross, material that survived from early as from late +Greek times which was hardly, if at all, superior to the debased +compositions that circulated in the name of medicine in the middle +centuries. But the recovered Greek medical writings also contained some +material of the purest and most scientific type, and that material and +the spirit in which it was written, form the debt of modern medicine to +antiquity. + +It is a debt the value of which cannot be exaggerated. The physicians of +the revival of learning, and for long after, doubtless pinned their +faith too much to the written word of their Greek forbears and sought to +imprison the free spirit of Hippocrates and Galen in the rigid wall of +their own rediscovered texts. The great medical pioneers of a somewhat +later age, enraged by this attempt, the real nature of which was largely +hidden from them, not infrequently revolted and rightly revolted against +the bondage to the Greeks in which they had been brought up. Yet it is +sure that these modern discoverers were the true inheritors of the +Greeks. Without Herophilus we should have had no Harvey and the rise of +physiology might have been delayed for centuries; had Galen's works not +survived, Vesalius would never have reconstructed Anatomy, and Surgery +too might have stayed behind with her laggard sister, Medicine; the +Hippocratic collection was the necessary and acknowledged basis for the +work of the greatest of modern clinical observers, Thomas Sydenham, and +the teaching of Hippocrates and of his school is the substantial basis +of instruction in the wards of a modern hospital. In the pages which +follow we propose therefore to review the general character of medical +knowledge in the best Greek period and to consider briefly how much of +that great heritage remained accessible to the earlier modern +physicians. The reader will thus be able to form some estimate of the +degree to which the legacy has been passed on to our own times. + +It is evident that among such a group of peoples as the Greeks, varying +in state of civilization, in mental power, in geographical and economic +position and in general outlook, the practice of medicine can have been +by no means uniform. Without any method of centralizing medical +education and standardizing teaching there was a great variety of +doctrines and of practice in vogue among them, and much of this was on a +low level of folk custom. Such lower grade material of Greek origin has +come down to us in abundance, though much of it, curiously enough, from +a later time. But the overwhelming mass of earlier Greek medical +literature sets forth for us a pure scientific effort to observe and to +classify disease, to make generalizations from carefully collected data, +to explain the origin of disease on rational grounds, and to apply +remedies, when possible, on a reasoned basis. We may thus rest fairly +well assured that, despite serious and irreparable losses, we are still +in possession of some of the very finest products of the Greek medical +intellect. + +There is ample evidence that the Greeks inherited, in common with many +other peoples of Mediterranean and Asiatic origin, a whole system of +magical or at least non-rational pharmacy and medicine from a remoter +ancestry. Striking parallels can be drawn between these folk elements +among the Greeks and the medical systems of the early Romans, as well as +with the medicine of the Indian Vedas, of the ancient Egyptians, and of +the earliest European barbarian writings. It is thus reasonable to +suppose that these elements, when they appear in later Greek writings, +represent more primitive folk elements working up, under the influence +of social disintegration and consequent mental deterioration, through +the upper strata of the literate Greek world. But with these elements, +intensely interesting to the anthropologist, the psychologist, the +ethnologist, and to the historian of religion, we are not here greatly +concerned. Important as they are, they constitute no part of the special +claim of the Greek people to distinction, but rather aid us in uniting +the Greek mentality with that of other kindred peoples. Here we shall +rather discuss the course of Greek scientific medicine proper, the type +of medical doctrine and practice, capable of development in the proper +sense of the word, that forms the basis of our modern system. We are +concerned, in fact, with the earliest evolutionary medicine. + +We need hardly discuss the first origins of Greek Medicine. The material +is scanty and the conclusions somewhat doubtful and perhaps premature, +for the discovery of a considerable fragment of the historical work of +Menon, a pupil of Aristotle, containing a description of the views of +some of the precursors of the Hippocratic school, renews a hope that +more extended investigation may yield further information as to the +sources and nature of the earliest Greek medical writings.[57] The study +of Mesopotamian star-lore has linked it up with early Greek astronomical +science. The efforts of cuneiform scholars have not, however, been +equally successful for medicine, and on the whole the general tendency +of modern research is to give less weight to Mesopotamian and more to +Egyptian sources than had previously been admitted; thus very recently +an Egyptian medical papyrus of about 1700 B. C. has been described which +bears a distinct resemblance to some of the Hippocratic treatises.[58] A +number of drugs, too, habitually used by the Greeks, such as +_Andropogon_, _Cardamoms_, and _Sesame orientalis_, are of Indian +origin. There are also the Minoan cultures to be considered, and though +our knowledge is not yet sufficient to speak of the heritage that Greek +medicine may or may not have derived from that source, it seems not +improbable that Greek hygiene may here owe a debt.[59] Omitting, +therefore, this early epoch, we pass direct to the later period, +between the sixth and fourth centuries, from which documents have +actually come down to us. + + [57] This fragment has been published in vol. iii, part 1, of the + _Supplementum Aristotelicum_ by H. Diels as _Anonymi Londinensis ex + Aristotelis Iatricis Menonis et Aliis Medicis Eclogae_, Berlin, + 1893. See also H. Bekh and F. Spät, _Anonymus Londinensis, Auszuge + eines Unbekannten aus Aristoteles-Menons Handbuch der Medizin_, + Berlin, 1896. + + [58] As we go to press there appears a preliminary account of the + very remarkable Edwin Smith papyrus, see J. H. Breasted in _Recueil + d'études egyptologiques dédiées à la mémoire de Champollion_, Paris + 1922, and _New York Historical Society Bulletin_, 1922. + + [59] It is tempting, also, to connect the Asclepian snake cult with + the prominence of the serpent in Minoan religion. + +The earliest medical school of which we have definite information is +that of Cnidus, a Lacedaemonian colony in Asiatic Doris. Its origin may +perhaps reach back to the seventh century B. C. We have actual records +that the teachers of Cnidus were accustomed to collect systematically +the phenomena of disease, of which they had produced a very complex +classification, and we probably possess also several of their actual +works. The physicians of Cos, their only contemporary critics whose +writings have survived, considered that the Cnidian physicians paid too +much attention to the actual sensations of the patient and to the +physical signs of the disease. The most important of the Cnidian +doctrines were drawn up in a series of _Sentences_ or Aphorisms, and +these, it appears, inculcated a treatment along Egyptian lines of the +symptom or at most the disease, rather than the patient, a statement +borne out by the contents of the gynaecological works of probable +Cnidian origin included in the so-called 'Hippocratic Collection'. A few +names of Cnidian physicians have, moreover, come down to us with titles +of their works, and a later statement that they practised anatomy. There +can be little doubt too that the Cnidian school drew also on Persian and +Indian Medicine. + +The origin of the school of the neighbouring island of Cos was a little +later than that of Cnidus and probably dates from the sixth century B. +C. Of the Coan school, or at least of the general tendencies that it +represented, we have a magnificent and copious literary monument in the +Corpus Hippocraticum, a collection which was probably put together in +the early part of the third century B. C. by a commission of Alexandrian +scholars at the order of the book-loving Ptolemy Soter (reigned 323-285 +B. C.). The elements of which this collection is composed are of varying +dates from the sixth to the fourth century B. C., and of varying value +and origin, but they mainly represent the point of view of physicians +of the eastern part of the Greek world in the fifth and fourth +centuries. + +The most obvious feature, the outstanding element that at once strikes +the modern observer in these 'Coan' writings, is the enormous emphasis +laid on the actual course of disease. 'It appears to me a most excellent +thing', so opens one of the greatest of the Hippocratic works, 'for a +physician to cultivate _pronoia_.[60] Foreknowing and foretelling in the +presence of the sick the past, present, and future (of their symptoms) +and explaining all that the patients are neglecting, he would be +believed to understand their condition, so that men would have +confidence to entrust themselves to his care.... Thus he would win just +respect and be a good physician. By an earlier forecast in each case he +would be more able to tend those aright who have a chance of surviving, +and by foreseeing and stating who will die, and who will survive, he +will escape blame....'[61] + + [60] This word _pronoia_, as Galen explains (εις το Ἱπποκρατους + προγνωστικον {eis to Hippokratous prognôstikon}, K. xviii, B. p. + 10), is not used in the philosophic sense, as when we ask whether + the universe was made by chance or by _pronoia_, nor is it used + quite in the modern sense of _prognosis_, though it includes that + too. _Pronoia_ in Hippocrates means knowing things about a patient + before you are told them. See E. T. Withington, 'Some Greek medical + terms with reference to Luke and Liddell and Scott,' _Proceedings of + the Royal Society of Medicine_ (_Section of the History of + Medicine_), xiii, p. 124, London, 1920. + + [61] _Prognostics_ 1. + +Just as the Cnidians by dividing up diseases according to symptoms +over-emphasized diagnosis and over-elaborated treatment, so the Coans +laid very great force on prognosis and adopted therefore a largely +expectant attitude towards diseases. Both Cnidian and Coan physicians +were held together by a common bond which was, historically if not +actually, related to temple worship. Physicians leagued together in the +name of a god, as were the Asclepiadae, might escape, and did escape, +the baser theurgic elements of temple medicine. Of these they were as +devoid as a modern Catholic physician might be expected to be free from +the absurdities of Lourdes. But the extreme cult of prognosis among the +Coans may not improbably be traced back to the medical lore of the +temple soothsayers whose divine omens were replaced by indications of a +physical nature in the patient himself.[62] We are tempted too to link +it with that process of astronomical and astrological prognosis +practised in the Mesopotamian civilizations from which Ionia imitated +and derived so much. Religion had thus the same relation to medicine +that it would have with a modern 'religious' medical man as suggesting +the motive and determining the general direction of his practice though +without influence on the details and method. + + [62] There is a discussion of the relation of the Asclepiadae to + temple practice in an article by E. T. Withington, 'The Asclepiadae + and the Priest of Asclepius,' in _Studies in the History and Method + of Science_, edited by Charles Singer, vol. ii, Oxford, 1921. + +During the development of the Coan medical school along these lines in +the sixth and fifth centuries, there was going on a most remarkable +movement at the very other extreme of the Greek world. Into the course +and general importance of Sicilian philosophy it is not our place to +enter, but that extraordinary movement was not without its repercussion +on medical theory and practice. Very important in this direction was +Empedocles of Agrigentum (_c._ 500-_c._ 430 B. C.). His view that the +blood is the seat of the 'innate heat', εμφυτον θερμον {emphyton +thermon}, he took from folk belief--'the blood is the life'--and this +innate heat he closely identified with soul. More profitable was his +doctrine that breathing takes place not only through what are now known +as the respiratory passages but also through the pores of the skin. His +teaching led to a belief in the heart as the centre of the vascular +system and the chief organ of the 'pneuma' which was distributed by the +blood vessels. This pneuma was equivalent to both soul and life, but it +was something more. It was identified with air and breath, and the +pneuma could be seen to rise as shimmering steam from the shed blood of +the sacrificial victim--for was not the blood its natural home? There +was a pneuma, too, that interpenetrated the universe around us and gave +it those qualities of life that it was felt to possess. Anaximenes (_c._ +610-_c._ 545 B. C.), an Ionian predecessor of Empedocles, may be said to +have defined for us these functions of the pneuma; ὁιον ἡ ψυχη ἡ ἡμετερα +αηρ ουσα συγκρατει ἡμας, ὁλον τον κοσμον πνευμα και αηρ περιεχει {hoion +hê psychê hê hêmetera aêr ousa synkratei hêmas, holon ton kosmon pneuma +kai aêr periechei}, 'As our soul, being air, sustains us, so pneuma and +air pervade the whole universe';[63] but it is the speculation of +Empedocles himself that came to be regarded as the basis of the +Pneumatic School in Medicine which had later very important +developments. + + [63] The works of Anaximenes are lost. This phrase of his, however, + is preserved by the later writer Aetios. + +Another early member of the Western school who made important +contributions to medical doctrine--in which relation alone we need +consider him--was Pythagoras of Samos (_c._ 580-_c._490 B. C.). For him +number, as the purest conception, formed the basis of philosophy. Unity +was the symbol of perfection and corresponded to God Himself. The +material universe was represented by 2, and was divided by the number +12, whence we have 3 worlds and 4 spheres. These in turn, according at +least to the later Pythagoreans, give rise to the four elements, earth, +air, fire, and water--a primary doctrine of medicine and of science +derived perhaps from ancient Egypt and surviving for more than two +millennia. The Pythagoreans taught, too, of the existence of an animal +soul, an emanation of the soul of the universe. In all this we may +distinguish the germ of that doctrine of the relation of man and +universe, microcosm and macrocosm, which, suppressed as irrelevant in +the Hippocratic works, reappears in the Platonic and especially in the +Neoplatonic writings, and forms a very important dogma in later +medicine. + +A pupil of Pythagoras and an older contemporary of Empedocles was +Alcmaeon of Croton (_c._ 500 B. C.), who began to construct a positive +basis for medical science by the practice of dissection of animals, and +discovered the optic nerves and the Eustachian tubes. He even extended +his researches to Embryology, describing the head of the foetus as the +first part to be developed--a justifiable deduction from appearances. +Alcmaeon introduced also the doctrine that health depends on harmony, +disease on discord of the elements within the body. Curiosity as to the +distribution of the vessels was excited by Empedocles and Alcmaeon and +led to further dissection, and Alcmaeon's pupils Acron (_c._ 480 B. C.) +and Pausanias (_c._ 480 B. C.), and the later Philistion of Lokri,[64] +the contemporary of Plato, all made anatomical investigations. + + [64] For the work of these physicians see especially M. Wellmann, + _Fragmentsammlung der griechischen Aerzte_, Bd. I, Berlin, 1901. + +The views of Empedocles, and especially his doctrine that regarded the +heart as the main site of the pneuma, though rejected by the Coan school +as a whole, were not without influence on Ionia. Diogenes of Apollonia, +the philosopher of pneumatism, a late fifth-century writer who must have +been contemporary with Hippocrates the Great, himself made an +investigation of the blood vessels; and the influence of the same school +may be traced in a little work περι καρδιης {peri kardiês}, _On the +heart_, which is the best anatomical treatise of the Hippocratic +Collection. This work describes the aorta and the pulmonary artery as +well as the three valves at the root of each of the great vessels, and +it speaks of experiments to test their validity. It treats of the +pericardium and of the pericardial fluid and perhaps of the musculi +papillares, and contrasts the thickness of the walls of right and left +ventricles. The author considers that the left ventricle is empty of +blood--as indeed it is after death--and is the source of the innate heat +and of the absolute intelligence. These views fit in with the doctrines +of Empedocles, so that we may perhaps even venture to regard this work +as a surviving document of the Sicilian school. It is interesting to +observe that we have here the first hint of human dissection, for the +author tells us that the hearts of animals may be compared to that of +man. The distinction of having been the first to write on human anatomy, +as such, belongs however, probably to a later writer, Diocles, son of +Archidamus of Carystus, who lived in the fourth century B. C.[65] + + [65] Galen, περι ανατομικων εγχειρησεων {peri anatomikôn + encheirêseôn}, _On anatomical preparations_, § 1, K. II, p. 282. + +We may now turn to the Hippocratic Corpus as a whole. This collection +consists of about 60 or 70 separate works, written at various periods +and in various states of preservation. At best only a very small +proportion of them can be attributed to Hippocrates, but the discussion +of the general question of the 'genuineness' of the works is now +admitted to be futile, for it is certain that we have no criteria +whatever to determine whether or no a particular work be from the pen of +the Father of Medicine, and the most we can ever say of such a treatise +is that it appears to be of his school and in his spirit. Yet among the +great gifts of this collection to our time and to all time are two which +stand out above all others, the picture of a man, and the picture of a +method. + +The man is Hippocrates himself. Of the actual details of his life we +know next to nothing. His period of greatest activity falls about 400 B. +C. He seems to have led a wandering life. Born of a long line of +physicians in the island of Cos, he exerted his activities in Thrace, +Abdera, Delos, the Propontis (Cyzicus), Thasos, Thessaly (notably at +Larissa and Meliboea), Athens, and elsewhere, dying at Larissa in +extreme old age about the year 377 B. C. He had many pupils, among whom +were his two sons Thessalus and Dracon, who also undertook journeys, his +son-in-law Polybus, of whose works a fragment has been preserved for us +by Aristotle,[66] together with three other Coans bearing the names +Apollonius, Dexippus, and Praxagoras. This is practically all we know +of him with certainty. But though this glimpse is very dim and distant, +yet we cannot exaggerate the influence on the course of medicine and the +value for physicians of all time of the traditional picture that was +early formed of him and that may indeed well be drawn again from the +works bearing his name. In beauty and dignity that figure is beyond +praise. Perhaps gaining in stateliness what he loses in clearness, +Hippocrates will ever remain the type of the perfect physician. Learned, +observant, humane, with a profound reverence for the claims of his +patients, but an overmastering desire that his experience shall benefit +others, orderly and calm, disturbed only by anxiety to record his +knowledge for the use of his brother physicians and for the relief of +suffering, grave, thoughtful and reticent, pure of mind and master of +his passions, this is no overdrawn picture of the Father of Medicine as +he appeared to his contemporaries and successors. It is a figure of +character and virtue which has had an ethical value to medical men of +all ages comparable only to the influence exerted on their followers by +the founders of the great religions. If one needed a maxim to place upon +the statue of Hippocrates, none could be found better than that from the +book Παραγγελιαι {Parangeliai}, _Precepts_: + + ην γαρ παρη φιλανθρωπιη παρεστι και φιλοτεχνιη + + {ên gar parê philanthrôpiê paresti kai philotechniê} + + 'Where the love of man is, there also is love of the Art.'[67] + + [66] _Historia animalium_, iii. 3, where it is ascribed to Polybus. + The same passage is, however, repeated twice in the Hippocratic + writings, viz. in the περι φυσιος ανθρωπου {peri physios anthrôpou}, + _On the nature of man_, Littré, vi. 58, and in the περι οστεων + φυσιος {peri osteôn physios}, _On the nature of bones_, Littré, ix. + 174. + + [67] Παραγγελιαι {Parangeliai}, § 6. + +The numerous busts of him which have reached our time are no portraits. +But the best of them are something much better and more helpful to us +than any portrait. They are idealized representations of the kind of man +a physician should be and was in the eyes of the best and wisest of the +Greeks.[68] + + [68] See Fig. 1. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1. HIPPOCRATES +British Museum, second or third century B. C.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 2. ASCLEPIUS +British Museum, fourth century B. C.] + +The method of the Hippocratic writers is that known to-day as the +'inductive'. Without the vast scientific heritage that is in our own +hands, with only a comparatively small number of observations drawn from +the Coan and neighbouring schools, surrounded by all manner of bizarre +oriental religions in which no adequate relation of cause and effect was +recognized, and above all constantly urged by the exuberant genius +for speculation of that Greek people in the midst of whom they lived and +whose intellectual temptations they shared, they remain nevertheless, +for the most part, patient observers of fact, sceptical of the +marvellous and the unverifiable, hesitating to theorize beyond the data, +yet eager always to generalize from actual experience; calm, faithful, +effective servants of the sick. There is almost no type of mental +activity known to us that was not exhibited by the Greeks and cannot be +paralleled from their writings; but careful and constant return to +verification from experience, expressed in a record of actual +observations--the habitual method adopted in modern scientific +departments--is rare among them except in these early medical authors. + +The spirit of their practice cannot be better illustrated than by the +words of the so-called 'Hippocratic oath'. That document, though of late +date in its present form, throws a flood of light on the ethics of Greek +medicine. + + 'I swear by Apollo the physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and + Panacea, invoking all the gods and goddesses to be my witnesses, + that I will fulfil this Oath and this written covenant to the best + of my power and of my judgment. + + 'I will look upon him who shall have taught me this art even as on + mine own parents; I will share with him my substance, and supply + his necessities if he be in need; I will regard his offspring even + as my own brethren, and will teach them this art, if they desire to + learn it, without fee or covenant. I will impart it by precept, by + lecture and by all other manner of teaching, not only to my own + sons but also to the sons of him who has taught me, and to + disciples bound by covenant and oath according to the law of the + physicians, but to none other. + + 'The regimen I adopt shall be for the benefit of the patients to + the best of my power and judgment, not for their injury or for any + wrongful purpose. I will not give a deadly drug to any one, though + it be asked of me, nor will I lead the way in such counsel; and + likewise I will not give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But + I will keep my life and my art in purity and holiness. Whatsoever + house I enter, I will enter for the benefit of the sick, refraining + from all voluntary wrongdoing and corruption, especially seduction + of male or female, bond or free. Whatsoever things I see or hear + concerning the life of men, in my attendance on the sick or even + apart from my attendance, which ought not to be blabbed abroad, I + will keep silence on them, counting such things to be as religious + secrets. + + 'If I fulfil this oath and confound it not, be it mine to enjoy + life and art alike, with good repute among all men for all time to + come; but may the contrary befall me if I transgress and violate my + oath.'[69] + + [69] Translation by Professor Arthur Platt. + +Respected equally throughout the ages by Arab, Jew, and Christian, the +oath remains the watchword of the profession of medicine.[70] The +ethical value of such a declaration could not escape the attention even +of a Byzantine formalist, and it is interesting to observe that in our +oldest Greek manuscript of the Hippocratic text, dating from the tenth +century, this magnificent passage is headed by the words 'from the oath +of Hippocrates according as it may be sworn by a Christian.'[71] + + [70] It must, however, be admitted that in the Hippocratic + collection are breaches of the oath, e. g. in the induction of + abortion related in περι φυσιος παιδιου {peri physios paidiou}. + There is evidence, however, that the author of this work was not a + medical practitioner. + + [71] Rome Urbinas 64, fo. 116. + +When we examine the Hippocratic corpus more closely, we discern that not +only are the treatises by many hands, but there is not even a uniform +opinion and doctrine running through them. This is well brought out by +some of the more famous of the phrases of this remarkable collection. +Thus a well-known passage from the _Airs, Waters, and Places_ tells us +that the Scythians attribute a certain physical disability to a god, +'but it appears to me', says the author, 'that these affections are just +as much divine as are all others and that no disease is either more +divine or more human than another, but that all are equally divine, for +each of them has its own nature, and none of them arise without a +natural cause.' But, on the other hand, the author of the great work on +_Prognostics_ advises us that when the physician is called in he must +seek to ascertain the nature of the affections that he is treating, and +especially 'if there be anything divine in the disease, and to learn a +foreknowledge of this also.'[72] We may note too that this sentence +almost immediately precedes what is perhaps the most famous of all the +Hippocratic sentences, the description of what has since been termed the +_Hippocratic facies_. This wonderful description of the signs of death +may be given as an illustration of the habitual attitude of the +Hippocratic school towards prognosis and of the very careful way in +which they noted details: + + 'He [the physician] should observe thus in acute diseases: first, + the countenance of the patient, if it be like to those who are in + health, _and especially if it be like itself, for this would be the + best_; but the more unlike to this, the worse it is; such would be + these: _sharp nose, hollow eyes, collapsed temples; ears cold, + contracted, and their lobes turned out; skin about the forehead + rough, distended, and parched; the colour of the whole face + greenish or dusky_. If the countenance be so at the beginning of + the disease, and if this cannot be accounted for from the other + symptoms, inquiry must be made whether he has passed a sleepless + night; whether his bowels have been very loose; or whether he is + suffering from hunger; and if any of these be admitted the danger + may be reckoned as less; and it may be judged in the course of a + day and night if the appearance of the countenance proceed from + these. But if none of these be said to exist, and the symptoms do + not subside in that time, be it known for certain that death is at + hand.'[73] + + [72] Kühlewein, i. 79, regards this as an interpolated passage. + + [73] Littré, ii. 112; Kühlewein, i. 79. The texts vary: Kühlewein is + followed except in the last sentence. + +Again, in the work _On the Art_ [_of Medicine_] we read: 'I hold it to +be physicianly to abstain from treating those who are overwhelmed by +disease',[74] a prudent if inhumane procedure among a people who might +regard the doctor's powers as partaking of the nature of magic, and +perhaps a wise course to follow at this day in some places not very far +from Cos. Yet in the book _On Diseases_ we are advised even in the +presence of an incurable disease 'to give relief with such treatment as +is possible'.[75] + + [74] Περι τεχνης {Peri technês}, § 3. + + [75] Περι νουσων α' {Peri nousôn a'}, § 6. + +Furthermore, works by authors of the Hippocratic school stand sometimes +in a position of direct controversy with each other. Thus in the +treatise _On the Heart_ an experiment is set forth which is held to +prove that a part at least of imbibed fluid passes into the cavity of +the lung and thence to the parts of the body, a popular error in +antiquity which recurs in Plato's _Timaeus_. This view, however, is +specifically held to be fallacious by the author of the work _On +Diseases_, who is supported by a polemical section in the surviving +Menon fragment. + +Passages like these have convinced all students that we have to deal in +this collection with a variety of works written at different dates by +different authors and under different conditions, a state that may be +well understood when we reflect that among the Greeks medicine was a +progressive study for a far longer period of time than has yet been the +case in the Western world. An account of such a collection can therefore +only be given in the most general fashion. The system or systems of +medicine that we shall thus attempt to describe was in vogue up to the +Alexandrian period, that is, to the beginning of the third century B. C. + +Anatomy and physiology, the basis of our modern system, was still a very +weak point in the knowledge of the pre-Alexandrians. The surface form of +the body was intimately studied in connexion especially with fractures, +but there is no evidence in the literature of the period of any closer +acquaintance with human anatomical structure.[76] The same fact is well +borne out by Greek Art, for in its noblest period the artist betrays no +evidence of assistance derived from anatomization. Such evidence is not +found until we come to sculpture of Alexandrian date, when the somewhat +strained attitudes and exaggerated musculature of certain works of the +school of Pergamon suggest that the artist derived hints, if not direct +information, from anatomists who, we know, were active at that time. It +is not improbable, however, that separate bones, if not complete +skeletons, were commonly studied earlier, for the surgical works of the +Hippocratic collection, and especially those on fractures and +dislocations, give evidence of a knowledge of the relations of bones to +each other and of their natural position in the body which could not be +obtained, or only obtained with greatest difficulty, without this aid. + + [76] A reference to dissection in the περι αρθρων {peri arthrôn}, + _On the joints_, § 1, appears to the present writer to be of + Alexandrian date. + +There are in the Hippocratic works a certain number of comparisons +between human and animal structures that would have been made possible +by surgical operations and occasional accidents. The view has been put +forward that some anatomical knowledge was derived through the practice +of augury from the entrails of sacrificial animals. It appears, however, +improbable that a system so scientific and so little related to temple +practice would have had much to learn from these sources, and, moreover, +since we know that animals were actually dissected as early as the time +of Alcmaeon it would be unnecessary to invoke the aid of the priests. +The unknown author of the περι τοπων των κατα ανθρωπον {peri topôn tôn +kata anthrôpon}, _On the sites of_ [_diseases_] _in man_, a work written +about 400 B. C., declares indeed that 'physical structure is the basis +of medicine', but the formal treatises on anatomy that we possess from +Hippocratic times give the general anatomical standard of the corpus, +and it is a very disappointing one. The tract _On Anatomy_, though +probably of much later date (perhaps _c._ 330 B. C.), is inferior even +to the treatise _On the Heart_ (perhaps of about 400 B. C.). + +Physiology and Pathology are almost as much in the background as anatomy +in the Hippocratic collection. As a formal discipline and part of +medical education we find no trace of these studies among the +pre-Alexandrian physicians. But the meagreness of the number of +ascertained facts did not prevent much speculation among a people eager +to seek the causes of things. Of that speculation we learn much from the +fragments of contemporary medical writers and philosophers, from the +medical works of the Alexandrian period, and to some extent from the +Hippocratic writings themselves. But the wiser and more sober among the +writers of the Hippocratic corpus were bent on something other than the +causes of things. Their pre-occupation was primarily with the suffering +patient, and the best of them therefore excluded--and we may assume +consciously--all but the rarest references to such speculation. + +The general state of health of the body was considered by the +Hippocratists to depend on the distribution of the four elements, earth, +air, fire, and water, whose mixture (_crasis_) and cardinal properties, +dryness, warmth, coldness, and moistness, form the body and its +constituents. To these correspond the cardinal fluids, blood, phlegm, +yellow bile and black bile. The fundamental condition of life is the +_innate heat_, the abdication of which is death. This innate heat is +greatest in youth when most fuel is therefore required, but gradually +declines with age. Another necessity for the support of life is the +_pneuma_ which circulates in the vessels. All this may seem fanciful +enough, but we may remember that the first half of the nineteenth +century had waned before the doctrine of the humours which had then +lasted for at least twenty-two centuries became obsolete, and perhaps it +still survives in certain modern scientific developments. Moreover, the +finest and most characteristic of the Hippocratic works either do not +mention or but casually refer to these theories which are not essential +to their main pre-occupation. Their task of observation of symptoms, of +the separation of the essentials from the accidents of disease, and of +generalization from experience could go on unaffected by any view of the +nature of man and of the world. Even treatment, which must almost of +necessity be based on _some_ theory of causation, was little deflected +by a view of elements and humours on which it was impossible to act +directly, while therapeutics was further safeguarded from such influence +by the doctrine of _Nature as the healer of diseases_, νουσων φυσεις +ιητροι {nousôn physeis iêtroi}, the _vis medicatrix naturae_ of the +later Latin writers and of the present day. + +Diseases are to be cured, in the Hippocratic view, by restoring the +disturbed harmony in the relation of the elements and humours. These, in +fact, tend naturally to an equilibrium and in most cases if left to +themselves will be brought to this state by the natural tendency to +recovery. The process is known as _pepsis_ or, to give it the Latin +form, _coctio_, and the turning-point at which the effects of this +process exhibit themselves is the _crisis_, a term which, together with +some of its original content, has still a place in medicine. Such a +turning-point does in fact occur in many diseases, especially those of a +zymotic character, on certain special days, though undue emphasis was +laid by the Greek physicians upon the exact numerical character of the +event. It was no unimportant duty of the physician to assist nature by +bringing his remedies to bear at the critical times. If the crisis is +wanting, or if the remedies are applied at the wrong moment, the disease +may become incurable. But diseases were only immediately or proximately +caused by disturbances in the balance or harmony of the humours. This +was a mere hypothesis, as the Hippocratists themselves well knew. There +were other more remote causes which came into the actual purview of the +physician, conditions which he could and did study. Such conditions +were, for instance, injudicious modes of life, exposure to climatic +changes, advancing age, and the like. Many of these could be directly +corrected. But for those that could not there were various therapeutic +measures at hand. + +That human bodies are and normally remain in a state of health, and that +on the whole they tend to recover from disease, is an attitude so +familiar to us to-day that we scarcely need to be reminded of it. We +live some twenty-three centuries later than Hippocrates; for some +sixteen of those centuries the civilized world thought that to retain +health periodical bleedings and potions were necessary; for the last +century or two we have been gradually returning on the Hippocratic +position! + +The chief glory of the Hippocratic collection regarded from the clinical +point of view is perhaps the actual description of cases. A number of +these--forty-two in all--have survived.[77] They are not only unique as +a collection for nearly 2,000 years, but they are still to this day +models of what succinct clinical records should be, clear and short, +without a superfluous word, yet with all that is most essential, and +exhibiting merely a desire to record the most important facts without +the least attempt to prejudge the case. They illustrate to the full the +Greek genius for seizing on the essential. The writer shows not the +least wish to exalt his own skill. He seeks merely to put the data +before the reader for his guidance under like circumstances. It is a +reflex of the spirit of full honesty in which these men lived and worked +that the great majority of the cases are recorded to have died. Two of +this remarkable little collection may be given: + + 'The woman with quinsy, who lodged with Aristion: her complaint + began in the tongue; voice inarticulate; tongue red and parched. + _First day_, shivered, then became heated. _Third day_, rigor, + acute fever; reddish and hard swelling on both sides of neck and + chest; extremities cold and livid; respiration elevated; drink + returned by the nose; she could not swallow; alvine and urinary + discharges suppressed. _Fourth day_, all symptoms exacerbated. + _Fifth day_, she died.' + + [77] They are to be found as an Appendix to Books I and III of the + _Epidemics_ and embedded in Book III. + +We probably have here to do with a case of diphtheria. The quinsy, the +paralysis of the palate leading to return of the food through the nose, +and the difficulty with speech and swallowing are typical results of +this affection which was here complicated by a spread of the septic +processes into the neck and chest, a not uncommon sequela of the +disease. The rapid onset of the conditions is rather unusual, but may be +explained if we regard the case as a mild and unnoticed diphtheria, +subsequently complicated by paralysis and by secondary septic infection, +for which reasons she came under observation. + + 'In Thasos, the wife of Delearces who lodged on the plain, through + sorrow was seized with an acute and shivering fever. From first to + last she always wrapped herself up in her bedclothes; kept silent, + fumbled, picked, bored and gathered hairs [from the clothes]; + tears, and again laughter; no sleep; bowels irritable, but passed + nothing; when urged drank a little; urine thin and scanty; to the + touch the fever was slight; coldness of the extremities. _Ninth + day_, talked much incoherently, and again sank into silence. + _Fourteenth day_, breathing rare, large, and spaced, and again + hurried. _Seventeenth day_, after stimulation of the bowels she + passed even drinks, nor could retain anything; totally insensible; + skin parched and tense. _Twentieth day_, much talk, and again + became composed, then voiceless; respiration hurried. _Twenty-first + day_, died. Her respiration throughout was rare and large; she was + totally insensible; always wrapped up in her bedclothes; throughout + either much talk, or complete silence.' + +This second case is in part a description of low muttering delirium, a +common end of continued fevers such as, for instance, typhoid. The +description closely resembles the condition known now in medicine as the +'typhoid state'. Incidentally the case contains a reference to a type of +breathing common among the dying. The respiration becomes deep and slow, +as it sinks gradually into quietude and becomes rarer and rarer until it +seems to cease altogether, and then it gradually becomes more rapid and +so on alternately. This type of breathing is known to physicians as +'Cheyne-Stokes' respiration in commemoration of two distinguished Irish +physicians of the last century who brought it to the attention of +medical men.[78] Recently it has been partially explained on a +physiological basis. We may note that there is another and even better +pen-picture of Cheyne-Stokes respiration in the Hippocratic collection. +It is in the famous case of 'Philescos who lived by the wall and who +took to his bed on the first day of acute fever'. About the middle of +the sixth day he died and the physician notes that 'the respiration +throughout was _like that of a person recollecting himself_ and was +large and rare'. Cheyne-Stokes breathing is admirably described as 'that +of a person recollecting himself'. + + [78] John Cheyne (1777-1836) described this type of respiration in + the _Dublin Hospital Reports_, 1818, ii, p. 216. An extreme case of + this condition had been described by Cheyne's namesake George Cheyne + (1671-1743) as the famous 'Case of the Hon. Col. Townshend' in his + _English Malady_, London, 1733. William Stokes (1804-78) published + his account of Cheyne-Stokes breathing in the _Dublin Quarterly + Journal of the Medical Sciences_, 1846, ii, p. 73. + +Such records as these may be contrasted with certain others that have +come down from Greek antiquity. We may instance two steles discovered at +Epidaurus in 1885, bearing accounts of forty-four temple cures. The +following two are fair samples of the cures there described: + + '_Aristagora of Troizen._ She had tape-worm, and while she slept in + the Temple of Asclepius at Troizen, she saw a vision. She thought + that, as the god was not present, but was away in Epidaurus, his + sons cut off her head, but were unable to put it back again. Then + they sent a messenger to Asclepius asking him to come to Troizen. + Meanwhile day came, and the priest actually saw her head cut off + from the body. The next night Aristagora had a dream. She thought + the god came from Epidaurus and fastened her head on to her neck. + Then he cut open her belly, and stitched it up again. So she was + cured.' + + 'A man had an abdominal abscess. He saw a vision, and thought that + the god ordered the slaves who accompanied him to lift him up and + hold him, so that his abdomen could be cut open. The man tried to + get away, but his slaves caught him and bound him. So Asclepius cut + him open, rid him of the abscess, and then stitched him up again, + releasing him from his bonds. Straightway he departed cured, and + the floor of the Abaton was covered with blood.'[79] + + [79] The Epidaurian inscriptions are given by M. Fraenkel in the + _Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum_ IV, 951-6, and are discussed by + Mary Hamilton (Mrs. Guy Dickins), _Incubation_, St. Andrews, 1906, + from whose translation I have quoted. Further inscriptions are given + by Cavvadias in the _Archaiologike Ephemeris_, 1918, p. 155 (issued + 1921). + +In the records of almost all temple cures, a great number of which have +survived in a wide variety of documents, an essential element is the +process of εγκοιμησις {enkoimêsis}, _incubation_ or temple sleep, +usually in a special sleeping-place or Abaton. The process has a close +parallel in certain modern Greek churches and in places of worship much +further West; there are even traces of it in these islands, and it is +more than probable that the Christian practice is descended by direct +continuity from the pagan.[80] The whole character of the temple +treatment was--and is--of a kind to suggest to the patient that he +should dream of the god, an event which therefore usually takes place. +Such treatment by suggestion is applicable only to certain classes of +disease and is always liable to fall into the hands of fanatics and +impostors. The difficulty that the honest practitioner encounters is +that the sufferer, in the nature of the case, can hardly be brought to +believe that his ailment is what in fact it is, a lesion of the mind. It +is this which gives the miracle-monger his chance. + + [80] We are almost told as much in the apocryphal _Gospel of + Nicodemus_, § 1, a work probably composed about the end of the + fourth century. + +Examine for a moment the two cases from Epidaurus, which are quite +typical of the series. We observe that the first is described simply as +a case of 'tape-worm' without any justification for the diagnosis. It is +not unfrequent nowadays for thin and anxious patients to state, +similarly without justification, that they suffer from this condition. +They attribute certain common gastric experiences to this cause of which +perhaps they have learned from sensational advertisements, and then they +ask cure for a condition which they themselves have diagnosed, but which +has no existence in fact. Such a case is often appropriately treated by +suggestion. Though the elaborateness of the suggestion in the temple +cure is a little startling, yet it can easily be paralleled from the +legends of the Christian saints. Moreover, we must remember that we are +not here dealing with an account set down by the patient herself, but +with an edificatory inscription put up by the temple officials. + +In the second inscription, the man with an abdominal abscess, we have a +much simpler state of affairs. It is evident that an operation was +actually performed by the priest masquerading as Asclepius, while the +patient was held down by the slaves. He is assured that all is a dream +and departs cured with the tell-tale comment 'and the floor of the +Abaton was covered with blood'. + +These cases might be multiplied indefinitely without great profit for +our particular theme, for in such matters there is no development, no +evolution, no history. There can be no doubt that a very large part of +Greek practice was on this level, as is a small part of modern medicine, +but it is not a level with which we are here dealing and we shall +therefore pass it by. But a word of caution must be added. Such temple +worship has been compared with modern psycho-analysis. That method, like +all methods, has doubtless been abused at times; but it is in essence, +unlike the temple system, a purely scientific process by which the +ultimate basis of the patient's delusions are laid bare and demonstrated +to him. + +There is indeed another side to these Asclepian temples. They gradually +developed along the lines of our health resorts and developed many of +the qualities--lovely and unlovely--that we associate with certain +continental watering places. On the bad side they became gossiping +centres or even something little better than brothels, as we may gather +from the _Mimes_ of Herondas. On the good side they formed a quiet +refuge among beautiful and interesting surroundings where the sick, +exhausted, and convalescent might gain the benefits that accrue from +pure air, fine scenery, and a regular and regulated mode of life. It is +more than probable too that the open air and manner of living benefited +many cases of incipient phthisis. + +Returning to the Hippocratic collection, the purely surgical treatises +will be found no less remarkable than those of clinical observation. A +very able surgeon, Francis Adams (1796-1861), who was eminent as a Greek +scholar, gave it as his opinion in the middle of the nineteenth century +that no systematic writer on surgery up to his time had given so good +and so complete an account of certain dislocations, notably of the +hip-joint, as that to be found in the Hippocratic collection. Some types +of injury to the hip, as described in the Hippocratic writings, were +certainly otherwise quite inadequately known until described by Sir +Astley Cooper (1768-1841), himself a peculiarly Hippocratic +character.[81] The verdict of Adams was probably just, though since his +time the surgery of dislocations, aided especially by X-rays, has been +enabled to pass very definitely beyond the Hippocratic position. +Admirable, too, is the Hippocratic description of dislocation of the +shoulder and of the jaw. In dislocation of hip, shoulder, or jaw, as in +most similar lesions, there is considerable deformity produced. The +nature and meaning of this deformity is described with remarkable +exactness by the Hippocratic writer, who also sets forth the resulting +disability. The principles and indeed the very details of treatment in +these cases are, save for the use of an anaesthetic, practically +identical with those of the present day. The processes are unfortunately +not suitable for detailed quotation and description here, but they are +of special interest since a graphic record of them has come down to us. +There exists in the Laurentian Library at Florence a ninth-century Greek +surgical manuscript which contains figures of surgeons reducing the +dislocations in question. There is good reason to suppose that these +miniatures are copied from figures first prepared in pre-Christian times +many centuries earlier, and we may here see the actual processes of +reduction of such fractures, as conducted by a surgeon of the direct +Hippocratic tradition[82] (see Figs. 3, 4). + + [81] Astley Paston Cooper, _Treatise on Dislocations and Fractures + of the Joints_, London, 1822, and _Observations on Fractures of the + Neck and the Thighbone_, &c., London, 1823. + + [82] This famous manuscript is known as Laurentian, Plutarch 74, 7, + and its figures have been reproduced by H. Schöne, _Apollonius von + Kitium_, Leipzig, 1896. + +[Illustration: From MS. of APOLLONIUS OF KITIUM, of Ninth Century +Copied from pre-christian original + +Fig. 3 REDUCING DISLOCATED SHOULDER + +Fig. 4 REDUCING DISLOCATED JAW] + +In keeping with all this is most of the surgical work of the collection. +We are almost startled by the modern sound of the whole procedure as we +run through the rough note-book κατ' ιητρειον {kat' iêtreion}, +_Concerning the Surgery_, or the more elaborate treatise περι ιητρου +{peri iêtrou}, _On the Physician_, where we may read minute directions +for the preparation of the operating-room, and on such points as the +management of light both artificial and natural, scrupulous cleanliness +of the hands, the care and use of the instruments, with the special +precautions needed when they are of iron, the decencies to be observed +during the operation, the general method of bandaging, the placing of +the patient, the use and abuse of splints, and the need for tidiness, +order, and cleanliness. Many of these directions are enlarged upon in +other surgical works of the collection, among which we find especially +full instructions for bandaging and for the diagnosis and treatment of +fractures and dislocations. A very fair representation of such a surgery +as these works describe is to be found on a vase-painting of Attic +origin of the earlier part of the fifth century, and, therefore, a +generation before Hippocrates (see fig. 5). There are also several +beautiful representations on vases of the actual processes of bandaging +(fig. 6). + +[Illustration: FIG. 5. +A GREEK CLINIC OF ABOUT 480-470 B. C. From a vase-painting. + +In the centre sits a physician holding a lancet and bleeding a patient +from the median vein at the bend of the right elbow into a large open +basin. Above and behind the physician are suspended three cupping +vessels. To the right sits another patient awaiting his turn; his left +arm is bandaged in the region of the biceps. The figure beyond him +smells a flower, perhaps as a preservative against infection. Behind the +physician stands a man leaning on a staff; he is wounded in the left +leg, which is bandaged. By his side stands a dwarfish figure with +disproportionately large head, whose body exhibits deformities typical +of the developmental disease now known as _Achondroplasia_; in addition +to these deformities we note that his body is hairy and the bridge of +his nose sunken; on his back he carries a hare which is almost as tall +as himself. Talking to the dwarf is a man leaning on a long staff, who +has the remains of a bandage round his chest. + +See E. Pottier, 'Une Clinique grecque au V^{e} siècle (vase antique du +collection Peztel)', _Fondation Eugène Piot, Monuments et Mémoires_, +xiii. 149, Paris, 1906. (Some of our interpretations differ from those +of M. Pottier.)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6. A kylix from the Berlin Museum of about 490 B. C. +It bears the inscription ΣΟΣΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕΝ {SOSIAS EPOIÊSEN}, _Sosias +made_ (_me_), and represents Achilles bandaging Patroclus, the names of +the two heroes being written round the margin. The painter is +Euphronios, and the work is regarded as the masterpiece of that great +artist. The left upper arm of Patroclus is injured, and Achilles is +bandaging it with a two-rolled bandage, which he is trying to bring down +to extend over the elbow. The treatment of the hands, a department in +which Euphronios excelled, is particularly fine. Achilles was not a +trained surgeon, and it will be observed, from the position of the two +tails of the bandage, that he will have some difficulty when it comes to +its final fastening!] + +Among the surgical procedures of which descriptions are to be found in +the Hippocratic writings are the opening of the chest for the condition +known as _empyema_ (accumulation of pus within the pleura frequently +following pneumonia), and trephining the skull in cases of fracture of +that part--two fundamental operations of modern surgery. Surgical art +has advanced enormously in our own times, yet a text-book containing +much that is useful to this day might be prepared from these surgical +contents of the collection alone. + +When we pass to the works on Medicine, in the restricted sense, we enter +into a region more difficult and perhaps even more fascinating. We are +no longer dealing with simple lesions of known origin, but with the +effects of disease and degeneration, of the essential character of which +the Hippocratic writers could in the nature of the case know very +little. Rigidly guarding themselves from any attempt to explain disease +by more immediate and hypothetical causes and thus diverting the +reader's energies in the medically useless direction of vague +speculation--the prevalent mental vice of the Greeks--the best of these +physicians are content if they can put forward generalized conclusions +from actually observed cases. Many of their thoughts have now become +household words, and they have become so, largely as a direct heritage +from these ancient physicians. But it must be remembered that ideas so +familiar to us were with them the result of long and carefully recorded +experience and are like nothing that we encounter in the medicine of +other ancient nations. Such conclusions are best set forth perhaps in +the wonderful book of the _Aphorisms_ from which we may permit ourselves +a few quotations: + + 'Life is short, and the Art long; the opportunity fleeting; + experiment dangerous, and judgement difficult. Yet we must be + prepared not only to do our duty ourselves, but also patient, + attendants, and external circumstances must co-operate.'[83] + + [83] The first lines are the source of the famous lines in Goethe's + _Faust_: + + 'Ach Gott! die Kunst ist lang + Und kurz ist unser Leben, + Mir wird bei meinem kritischen Bestreben + Doch oft um Kopf und Busen bang.' + +In this one memorable paragraph, so condensed in the original as to be +almost untranslatable, he who 'first separated medicine from philosophy' +puts aside at once all speculative interest while in the actual presence +of the sick. His whole energy is concentrated on the case in hand with +that peculiar attitude, at once impersonal and intensely personal, that +has since been the mark of the physician, and that has made of Medicine +both a science and an art. + + 'For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure.'[84] + + 'The aged endure fasting most easily; next adults; next young + persons, and least of all children, and especially such as are the + most lively.' + + 'Growing bodies have the most innate heat; they therefore require + the most nourishment, and if they have it not they waste. In the + aged there is little heat, and therefore they require little fuel, + for it would be extinguished by much. Similarly fevers in the aged + are not so acute, because their bodies are cold.' + + 'In disease sleep that is laborious is a deadly symptom; but if + sleep relieves it is not deadly.' + + 'Sleep that puts an end to delirium is a good symptom.' + + 'If a convalescent eats well, but does not put on flesh, it is a + bad symptom.' + + 'Food or drink which is a little less good but more palatable is to + be preferred to such that is better but less palatable.' + + 'The old have generally fewer complaints than young; but those + chronic diseases which do befall them generally never leave them.' + + [84] The extreme of treatment refers in the original to the extreme + restriction of diet, ες ακριβειην {es akribeiên}, but the meaning of + the Aphorism has always been taken as more generalized. + +Here we have a group of observations, some of which have become +literally household words, nor is it difficult to understand how such +sayings have passed from professional into lay keeping. This magnificent +book of _Aphorisms_ was very early translated into Latin, probably +before and certainly not later than the sixth century of the Christian +era, and thus became accessible throughout the West. Manuscripts of this +Latin version, dating from the ninth and tenth centuries of our era, +have survived in the actual places in which they were written, at Monte +Cassino in Southern Italy and at Einsiedeln in Switzerland, and in 991 +the book of _Aphorisms_ was well known and closely studied at the +Cathedral school of Chartres. From France the _Aphorisms_ reached +England, and they are mentioned in documents of the tenth or eleventh +century. By now, too, the book had been translated into Syriac and later +into Arabic and Hebrew, so that in the true mediaeval period it was +known both East and West, and in the vernacular as well as the classical +tongues. From the oriental dialects several further translations were +again made into Latin. An enormous number of manuscripts of the work +have survived in almost every Western dialect, and these show on the +whole that the text has been surprisingly little tampered with. In the +middle of the thirteenth century some of the better-known Aphorisms were +absorbed into a very popular Latin poem that went forth in the name of +the medical school of Salerno, though with a false ascription to a yet +earlier date. The Salernitan poem, being itself translated into every +European vernacular, further helped to bring Hippocrates into every +home. + +But by no means all the Aphorisms are of a kind that could well become +absorbed into folk medicine. It is only those concerning frequently +recurring states to which this fate could befall. The book contains also +a number of notes on rare conditions seldom seen or noted save by +medical men. Such are the following very acute observations: + + 'Spasm supervening on a wound is fatal.' + + 'Those seized with tetanus die within four days, or if they survive + so long they recover.' + + 'A convulsion, or hiccup, supervening on a copious discharge of + blood is bad.' + + 'If after severe and grave wounds no swelling appears, it is very + serious.' + +These four sentences all concern wounds. The first two refer to the +disease _tetanus_, which is very liable to supervene on wounds fouled +with earth, especially in hot and moist localities. The disease is +characterized by a series of painful muscular contractions which in the +more severe and fatal form may become a continuous spasm, a type that is +referred to in the first sentence. It is true of tetanus that the later +the onset after the wound is sustained the better the chance of +recovery. This is brought out by the second sentence. The third and +fourth sentences record untoward symptoms following a severe wound, now +well recognized and watched for by every surgeon. There were, of course, +innumerable illustrations of the truth of these Aphorisms in extensive +wounds, especially those involving crushed limbs, in the late war. + + 'Phthisis occurs most commonly between the ages of eighteen and + thirty-five.' + + 'Diarrhœa supervening on phthisis is mortal.' + +The period given by the _Aphorisms_ for the maximum frequency of onset +of the disease is closely borne out by modern observations. The second +Aphorism is equally valid; continued diarrhœa is a very frequent +antecedent of the fatal event in chronic phthisis, and post-mortem +examination has shown that secondary involvement of the bowel is an +exceedingly common condition in this disease. + +No less remarkable is the following saying: 'In jaundice it is a grave +matter if the liver becomes indurated.' Jaundice is a common and +comparatively trivial symptom following or accompanying a large variety +of diseases. In and by itself it is of little importance and almost +always disappears spontaneously. There is a small group of pathological +conditions, however, in which this is not the case. The commonest and +most important of these are the fatal affections of cirrhosis and cancer +of the liver in which that organ may be felt to be enlarged and +hardened. If therefore the liver can be so felt in a case of jaundice, +it is, as the Aphorism says, of gravest import. Representations of such +cases have actually come down to us from Greek times. Thus on a monument +erected at Athens to the memory of a physician who died in the second +century of the Christian era we may see the process of clinical +examination (fig. 7). The physician is palpating the liver of a dwarfish +figure whose swollen belly, wasted limbs, and anxious look tell of some +such condition as that described in the Aphorism. The ridge caused by +the enlarged liver can even be detected on the statue. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7. ATHENIAN FUNERARY MONUMENT +Second century A. D. British Museum + +Inscription reads: 'Jason, also called Dekmos, the Acharnian, a +physician', followed by his genealogy. By side of patient stands a +cupping vessel.] + +'We must attend to the appearances of the eyes in sleep as presented +from below; for if a portion of the white be seen between the closing +eyelids, and if this be not connected with diarrhœa or severe purging, +it is a very bad and mortal symptom.' In this, the last Aphorism which +we shall quote, we see the Hippocratic physician actually making his +observations. Now during sleep the eyeball is turned upward, so that if +the eye be then opened and examined only the white is seen. In the later +stages of all wasting and chronic diseases the eyelids tend not to be +closed during sleep. Such patients, as is well known, often die with the +eyes open and sometimes exhibiting only the whites. + +But the Hippocratic physician was not content to make only passive +observation; he also took active measures to elicit the 'physical +signs'. In modern times a large, perhaps the chief, task of the student +of medicine is to acquire a knowledge of these so-called physical signs +of disease, the tradition of which has been gradually rebuilt during the +last three centuries. Among the most important measures in which he +learns to acquire facility is that of auscultation. This useful process +has come specially into vogue since the invention of the stethoscope in +1819 by Laennec, who derived valuable hints for it from the Hippocratic +writings. Auscultation is several times mentioned and described by the +Hippocratic physicians, who used the direct method of listening and not +the mediate method devised by Laennec. There are, however, certain cases +in which the modern physician still finds the older non-instrumental +Hippocratic method superior. In the Hippocratic work περι νουσων {peri +nousôn}, _On diseases_, we read of a case with fluid in the pleura that +'you will place the patient on a seat which does not move, an assistant +will hold him by the shoulders, and you will shake him, applying the ear +to the chest, so as to recognize on which side the sign occurs'. This +sign is still used by physicians and is known as _Hippocratic +succussion_. In another passage in the same work the symptoms of +pleurisy are described and 'a creak like that of leather may be heard'. +This is the well known _pleuritic rub_ which the physician is accustomed +to seek in such cases, and of which the creak of leather is an excellent +representation. + +Such quotations give an insight into the general method and attitude of +the Hippocratics. Of an art such as medicine, which even in those times +had a long and rational tradition behind it, it is impossible to give +more than the merest glimpse in such a review as this. The actual +practice is far too complex to set down briefly. This is especially the +case with the ancient teaching as regards epidemic disease at which we +must cursorily glance. The Hippocratic physicians and indeed all +antiquity were as yet ignorant of the nature, and were but dimly aware +of the existence, of infection.[85] For them acute disease was something +imposed on the patient from outside, but how it reached him from outside +and what it was that thus reached him they were still admittedly +ignorant. In this dilemma they turned to prolonged observation and noted +as a result of repeated experience that epidemic diseases in their world +had characteristic seasonal and regional distributions. One country was +not quite like another, nor was one season like another nor even one +year like another. By a series of carefully collated observations as to +how regions, seasons, and years differed from each other, they succeeded +in laying the basis of a rational study of epidemiology which gave rise +to the notion of an 'epidemic constitution' of the different years, a +conception which was very fertile and stimulating to the great +clinicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is by no +means without value even for the modern epidemiologist. The work of the +modern fathers of epidemiology was consciously based on Hippocrates. + + [85] The ancients knew almost nothing of infection _as applied + specifically_ to disease. All early peoples--including Greeks and + Romans--believed in the transmission of qualities from object to + object. Thus purity and impurity and good and bad luck were + infections, and diseases were held to be infections in that sense. + But there is little evidence in the belief of the special + infectivity of _disease as such_ in antiquity. Some few diseases + are, however, unequivocally referred to as infectious in a limited + number of passages, e. g. ophthalmia, scabies, and phthisis in the + περι διαφορας πυρετων {peri diaphoras pyretôn}, _On the differentiae + of fevers_, K. vii, p. 279. The references to infection in antiquity + are detailed by C. and D. Singer, 'The scientific position of + Girolamo Fracastoro', _Annals of Medical History_, vol. i, New York, + 1917. + +Before parting with the Hippocratic physician a word must be said as to +his therapeutic means. His general armoury may be described as +resembling that of the modern physician of about two generations ago. +During those two generations we have, it is true, added to our list of +effective remedies but, on the other hand, there has been by common +consent a return to the Hippocratic simplicity of treatment. After rest +and quiet the central factor in treatment was Dietetics. This science +regarded the age--'Old persons use less nutriment than young'; the +season--'In winter abundant nourishment is wholesome, in summer a more +frugal diet'; the bodily condition--'Lean persons should take little +food, but this little should be fat, fat persons on the other hand +should take much food, but it should be lean'. Respect was also paid to +the digestibility of different foods--'white meat is more easily +digestible than dark'--and to their preparation. Water, barley water, +and lime water were recommended as drinks. The dietetic principles of +the Hippocratics, especially in connexion with fevers, are substantially +those of the present day, and it may be said that the general medical +tendency of the last generation in these matters has been an even closer +approximation to the Hippocratic. 'The more we nourish unhealthy bodies +the more we injure them'; 'The sick upon whom fever seizes with the +greatest severity from the very outset, must at once subject themselves +to a rigid diet'; 'Complete abstinence often acts well, if the strength +of the patient can in any way sustain it'; yet 'We should examine the +strength of the sick, to see whether they be in condition to maintain +this spare diet to the crisis of the disease'. 'In the application of +these rules we must always be mindful of the strength of the patient and +of the course of each particular disease, as well as of the constitution +and ordinary mode of life in each disease.' + +Besides diet the Hippocratic physician had at his disposal a +considerable variety of other remedies. Baths, inunctions, clysters, +warm and cold suffusions, massage and gymnastic, as well as gentler +exercise are among them. He probably employed cupping and bleeding +rather too freely, and we have several representations of the +instruments used for these operations (fig. 8). He was no great user of +drugs and seldom names them except, we may note, in the works on the +treatment of women, which are probably of Cnidian origin and whence the +greater part of the 300 constituents of the Hippocratic pharmacopœia are +derived. Thus his list of drugs is small but several known to him are +still used by us. + +The work of these men may be summed up by saying that without +dissection, without any experimental physiology or pathology, and +without any instrumental aid they pushed the knowledge of the course and +origin of disease as far as it is conceivable that men in such +circumstances could push it. This was done as a process of pure +scientific induction. Their surgery, though hardly based on anatomy, was +grounded on the most carefully recorded experience. In therapeutics they +allowed themselves neither to be deceived by false hopes nor led aside +by vain traditions. Yet in diagnosis, prognosis, surgery and +therapeutics alike they were in many departments unsurpassed until the +nineteenth century, and to some of their methods we have reverted in the +twentieth. Persisting throughout the ages as a more or less definite +tradition, which attained clearer form during and after the sixteenth +century, Hippocratic methods have formed the basis of all departments of +modern advance. + +But the history of Greek medicine did not end with the Hippocratic +collection; in many respects it may indeed be held only to begin there; +yet we never get again a glimpse of so high an ethical and professional +standard as that which these works convey. From Alexandrian times +onwards, too, the history of Greek medicine becomes largely a history of +various schools of medical thought, each of which has only a partial +view of the course and nature of medical knowledge. The unravelling of +the course and teachings of these sects has long been a pre-occupation +of professed medical historians, but the general reader can hardly take +an interest in differences between the Dogmatists, Empirics, and +Methodists whose doctrines are as dead as themselves. In this later +Alexandrian and Hellenistic age the Greek intellect is no less active +than before, but there is a change in the taste of the material. A +general decay of the spirit is reflected in the medical as in the +literary products of the time, and we never again feel that elevation of +a beautiful and calmly righteous presence that breathes through the +Hippocratic collection and gives it a peculiar aroma. + +We shall pass over the general course of later Greek medicine with great +rapidity. A definite medical school was established at Alexandria and +others perhaps at Pergamon and elsewhere. Athens, after the death of +Aristotle and his pupils, passes entirely into the background and is of +no importance so far as medicine is concerned. At Alexandria, where a +great medical library was collected, anatomy began to be studied and two +men whose discoveries were of primary importance for the history of that +subject, Erasistratus and Herophilus, early practised there. With +anatomy as a basis medical education could become much more systematic. +It is a very great misfortune that the works of these two eminent men +have disappeared. Of Herophilus fragments have survived embedded in the +works of Galen (A. D. 130-201), Caelius Aurelianus (fifth century), and +others. These fragments have been the subject of one of the earliest, +most laborious, and most successful attempts made in modern times to +reconstruct the lost work of an ancient author.[86] For Erasistratus our +chief source of information are two polemical treatises directed against +him by Galen. Recently, too, a little more information concerning the +works of both men has become available from the Menon papyrus. + + [86] K. F. H. Marx, _Herophilus, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der + Medizin_, Karlsruhe, 1838. + +It has been found possible to reconstruct especially a treatise on +anatomy by Herophilus with a considerable show of probability. He opened +by giving general directions for the process of dissection and followed +with detailed descriptions of the various systems, nervous, vascular, +glandular, digestive, generative, and osseous. There was a separate +section on the liver, a small part of which has survived. It is of his +account of the nervous system that we have perhaps the best record, and +it is evident that he has advanced far beyond the Hippocratic position. +In the braincase he saw the membranes that cover the brain and +distinguished between the cerebrum and cerebellum. He attained to some +knowledge of the ventricles of the brain, the cranial and spinal nerves, +the nerves of the heart, and the coats of the eye. He distinguished the +blood sinuses of the skull, and the _torcular Herophili_ (winepress of +Herophilus), a sinus described by him, has preserved his name in modern +anatomical nomenclature. He even made out more minute structures, such +as the little depression in the fourth ventricle of the brain, known to +modern anatomists as the _calamus scriptorius_, which still bears the +name which he gave it (καλαμος ὡ γραφομεν {kalamos hô graphomen}), +because it seemed to him, as Galen tells us, to resemble the pens then +in use in Alexandria.[87] We still use, too, his term _duodenum_ +(δωδεκαδακτυλος εκφυσις {dôdekadaktylos ekphysis} = twelve-finger +extension), for as Galen assures us, Herophilus 'so named the first part +of the intestine before it is rolled into folds'.[88] The duodenum is a +U-shaped section of the intestine following immediately on the stomach. +Being fixed down behind the abdominal cavity it cannot be further +convoluted, and this accounts for Galen's description of it. It is about +twelve fingers' breadth long in the animals dissected by Herophilus. + + [87] Galen, περι ανατομικων εγχειρησεων {peri anatomikôn + encheirêseôn}, _On anatomical preparations_, ix. 5 (last sentence). + + [88] Galen, περι φλεβων και αρτηριων ανατομης {peri phlebôn kai + artêriôn anatomês}, _On the anatomy of veins and arteries_, i. + +Erasistratus, the slightly younger Alexandrian contemporary of +Herophilus, has the credit of further anatomical discoveries. He +described correctly the action of the epiglottis in preventing the +entrance of food and drink into the windpipe during the act of +swallowing, he saw the lacteal vessels in the mesentery, and pursued +further the anatomy of the brain. He improved on the anatomy of the +heart, and described the auriculo-ventricular valves and their mode of +closure. He distinguished clearly the motor and sensory nerves. He seems +to have adopted a definitely experimental attitude--a very rare thing +among ancient physicians--and a description of an experiment made by him +has recently been recovered. 'If', he says, 'you take an animal, a bird, +for example, and keep it for a time in a jar without giving it food and +then weigh it together with its excreta you will find that there is a +considerable loss of weight.'[89] The experiment is a simple one, but it +was about nineteen hundred years before a modern professor, Sanctorio +Santorio (1561-1636), thought of repeating it.[90] + + [89] The quotation is from chapter xxxiii, line 44 of the _Anonymus + Londinensis_. H. Diels, _Anonymus Londinensis_ in the _Supplementum + Aristotelicum_, vol. iii, pars 1, Berlin, 1893. + + [90] Sanctorio Santorio, _Oratio in archilyceo patavino anno 1612 + habita; de medicina statica aphorismi_. Venice, 1614. + +The anatomical advances made by the Alexandrian school naturally reacted +on surgical efficiency. The improvement so effected may be gathered, for +instance, from an account of the anatomical relationships in certain +cases of dislocation of the hip given by the Alexandrian surgeon +Hegetor, who lived about 100 B. C. In his book περι αιτιων {peri +aitiôn}, _On causes_ [_of disease_], he asks 'why (certain surgeons) do +not seek another way of reducing a luxation of the hip.... If the joints +of the jaw, shoulder, elbow, knee, finger, &c., can be replaced, the +same, they think, must be true of all parts, nor can they give an +account of why the femur cannot be put back into its place.... They +might have known, however, that from the head of the femur arises a +ligament which is inserted into the socket of the hip bone ... and if +this ligament is once ruptured the thigh bone cannot be retained in +place'.[91] This passage contains the first description of the structure +known to modern anatomists as the _ligamentum teres_, a strong fibrous +band which unites the head of the femur with the socket into which it +fits in the hip bone, like the string that binds the cup and ball of a +child's toy. This ligament is ruptured in certain severe cases of +dislocation of the hip. + + [91] This is the only passage of Hegetor's writing that has + survived. It has been preserved in the work of Apollonius of Citium. + +After the establishment of the school at Alexandria, medical teaching +rapidly became organized, but throughout the whole course of antiquity +it suffered from the absence of anything in the nature of a state +diploma. Any one could practise, with the result that many quacks, +cranks, and fanatics were to be found among the ranks of the +practitioners who often were or had been slaves. The great Alexandrian +school, however, did much to preserve some sort of professional +standard, and above all its anatomical discipline helped to this end. + +Between the founding of the Alexandrian school and Galen we are not rich +in medical writings. Apart from fragments and minor productions, the +works of only five authors have survived from this period of over four +hundred years, namely, Celsus, Dioscorides, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, and +two Ephesian authors bearing the names of Rufus and Soranus. + +The work of Celsus of the end of the first century B. C. is a Latin +treatise, probably translated from Greek, and is the surviving medical +volume of a complete cyclopaedia of knowledge. In spite of its +unpromising origin it is an excellent compendium of its subject and +shows a good deal of advance in many respects beyond the Hippocratic +position. The moral tone too is very high, though without the lofty and +detached beauty of Hippocrates. Anatomy has greatly improved, and with +it surgical procedure, and the work is probably representative of the +best Alexandrian practice. The pharmacopœia is more copious, but has not +yet become burdensome. The general line of treatment is sensible and +humane and the language concise and clear. Among other items he +describes dental practice, with the indications for and methods of tooth +extraction, the wiring of teeth, and perhaps a dental mirror. There is +an excellent account of what might be thought to be the modern operation +for removal of the tonsils. Celsus is still commemorated in modern +medicine by the _area Celsi_, a not uncommon disease of the skin. The +_De re medica_ is in fact one of the very best medical text-books that +have come down to us from antiquity. It has had a romantic history. +Forgotten during the Middle Ages, it was brought to light by the +classical scholar Guarino of Verona (1374-1460) in 1426, and a better +copy was discovered by his friend Lamola in 1427. Another copy was found +by Thomas Parentucelli (1397-1455), afterwards Pope Nicholas V in 1443, +and the text was later studied by Politian (1454-94). Though one of the +latest of the great classical medical texts to be discovered, it was one +of the first to be printed (Florence, 1478), and it ran through very +many early editions and had great influence on the medical renaissance. + +[Illustration: Fig. 8. VOTIVE TABLET representing cupping and bleeding +instruments from Temple of Asclepius at Athens. In centre is represented +a folding case containing scalpels of various forms. On either side are +cupping vessels.] + +After Celsus comes Dioscorides in the first century A. D. He was a Greek +military surgeon of Cilician origin who served under Nero, and in him +the Greek intellect is obviously beginning to flag. His work is +prodigiously important for the history of botany, yet so far as rational +medicine is concerned he is almost negligible. He begins at the wrong +end, either giving lists of drugs with the symptoms that they are said +to cure or to relieve, or lists of symptoms with a series of named +drugs. Clinical observation and record are wholly absent, and the spirit +of Hippocrates has departed from this elaborate pharmacopœia. + +With the second century of the Christian era we terminate the creative +period of Greek medicine. We are provided with the works of four +important writers of this century, of whom three, Rufus of Ephesus, +Soranus of Ephesus, and Aretaeus of Cappadocia, though valuable for +forming a picture of the state of medicine in their day, were without +substantial influence on the course of medicine in later ages. + +Rufus of Ephesus, a little junior to Dioscorides, has left us the first +formal work on human anatomy and is of some importance in the history of +comparative anatomy. In medicine he is memorable as the first to have +described bubonic plague, and in surgery for his description of the +methods of arresting haemorrhage and his knowledge of the anatomy of +the eye. A work by him _On gout_ was translated into Latin in the sixth +century, but remained unknown till modern times. + +Soranus of Ephesus (A. D. _c._ 90-_c._ 150), an acute writer on +gynaecology, has left a book which illustrates well the anatomy of his +day. It exercised an influence for many centuries to come, and a Latin +abstract of it prepared about the sixth century by one Moschion has come +down to us in an almost contemporary manuscript.[92] It is interesting +as opposing the Hippocratic theory that the male embryo is originated in +the right and the female in the left half of the womb, a fallacy derived +originally from Empedocles and Parmenides, but perpetuated by Latin +translations of the Hippocratic treatises until the seventeenth century. +His work was adorned by figures, and some of these, naturally greatly +altered by copyists, but still not infinitely removed from the facts, +have survived in a manuscript of the ninth century, and give us a +distant idea of the appearance of ancient anatomical drawings.[93] We +may assist our imagination a little further, in forming an idea of what +such diagrams were like, with the help of certain other mediaeval +figures representing the form and distribution of the various anatomical +'systems', veins, arteries, nerves, bones, and muscles which are +probably traceable to an Alexandrian origin.[94] + + [92] Leyden Voss 4° 9^{*} of the sixth century is a fragment of this + work. + + [93] V. Rose, _Sorani Ephesii vetus translatio Latina cum additis + Graeci textus reliquiis_, Leipzig, 1882; F. Weindler, _Geschichte + der gynäkologisch-anatomischen Abbildung_, Dresden, 1908. + + [94] The discovery and attribution of these figures is the work of + K. Sudhoff. A bibliography of his writings on the subject will be + found in a 'Study in Early Renaissance Anatomy' in C. Singer's + _Studies in the History and Method of Science_, vol. i, Oxford, + 1917. + +Aretaeus of Cappadocia was probably a contemporary of Galen (second half +of the second century A. D.). As a clinical author his reputation stands +high, perhaps too high, his descriptions of pneumonia, empyema, +diabetes, and elephantiasis having especially drawn attention. In +treatment he uses simple remedies, is not affected by polypharmacy, and +suggests many ingenious mechanical devices. It would appear that +Aretaeus is not an independent writer, but mainly a compiler. He relies +largely on Archigenes, a distinguished physician contemporary with +Juvenal, whose works have perished save the fragments preserved in this +manner by Aretaeus and Aetius. Aretaeus was a very popular writer among +the Greeks in all ages, but he was not translated into Latin, and was +unknown in the West until the middle of the sixteenth century.[95] He is +philologically interesting as still using the Ionic dialect. + + [95] First Latin edition Venice, 1552; first Greek edition Paris, + 1554. + +There remains the huge overshadowing figure of Galen. The enormous mass +of the surviving work of this man, the dictator of medicine until the +revival of learning and beyond, tends to throw out of perspective the +whole of Greek medical records. The works of Galen alone form about half +of the mass of surviving Greek medical writings, and occupy, in the +standard edition, twenty-two thick, closely-printed volumes. These cover +every department of medicine, anatomy, physiology, pathology, medical +theory, therapeutics, as well as clinical medicine and surgery. In style +they are verbose and heavy and very frequently polemical. They are +saturated with a teleology which, at times, becomes excessively tedious. +In the anatomical works, masses of teleological explanation dilute the +account of often imperfectly described structures. Yet to this element +we owe the preservation of the mass of Galen's works, for his intensely +teleological point of view appealed to the theological bias both of +Western Christianity and of Eastern Islam. Intolerable as literature, +his works are a valuable treasure house of medical knowledge and +experience, custom, tradition, and history. + +As in the case of the Hippocratic corpus, so in the case of the Galenic +corpus we are dealing to some extent with material from various +sources. In the case of Galen, however, we have a good standard of +genuineness, for he has left us a list of his books which can be checked +off against those which we actually possess. The general standpoint of +the Galenic is not unlike that of the Hippocratic writings, but the +noble vision of the lofty-minded, pure-souled physician has utterly +passed away. In his place we have an acute, honest, very contentious +fellow, bristling with energy and of prodigious industry, not unkindly, +but loving strife, a thoroughly 'aggressive' character. He loves truth, +but he loves argument quite as much. The value of his philosophical +writings, of which some have survived, cannot be discussed here, but it +is evident that he is frequently satisfied with purely verbal +explanations. An ingenious physiologist, a born experimenter, an +excellent anatomist and eager to improve, possessing a good knowledge of +the human skeleton and an accurate acquaintance with the internal parts +so far as this can be derived from a most industrious devotion to +dissection of animals, equipped with all the learning of the schools of +Pergamon, Smyrna, and Alexandria, and rich with the experience of a vast +practice at Rome, Galen is essentially an 'efficient' man. He has the +grace to acknowledge constantly and repeatedly his indebtedness to the +Hippocratic writings. Such was the man whose remains, along with the +Hippocratic collection, formed the main medical legacy of Greece to the +Western world. + +Some of Galen's works are mere drug lists, little superior to those of +Dioscorides;[96] with the depression of the intelligence that +corresponded with the break up of the Roman Empire, it was these that +were chiefly seized on and distributed in the West. Attractive too to +the debased intellect of the late Roman world were certain spurious, +superstitious, and astrological works that circulated in the name of +Galen and Hippocrates.[97] The Greek medical writers after Galen were +but his imitators and abstractors, but through some of them Galen's +works reached the West at a very early period in the Middle Ages. Such +abstractors who were early translated into Latin were Oribasius +(325-403), Paul of Aegina (625-690), and Alexander of Tralles (525-605). +Of the best and most scientific of Galen's works the Middle Ages knew +little or nothing. + + [96] e. g. περι κρασεως και δυναμεως των ἁπαντων φαρμακων {peri + kraseôs kai dynameôs tôn hapantôn pharmakôn} and the φαρμακα + {pharmaka}. + + [97] e. g. _De dinamidiis Galeni_, _Secreta Hippocratis_ and many + astrological tracts. + +Later Galen and Hippocrates became a little more accessible, not by +translation from the Greek, but by translation from the Arabic of a +Syriac version. The first work to be so rendered was a version of +_Aphorisms_ of Hippocrates which, however, as we have seen, were already +available in Latin dress, together with the Hippocratic _Regimen in +acute diseases_, and certain works of Galen as corruptly interpreted by +Isaac Judaeus. These were rendered from Arabic into Latin by +Constantine, an African adventurer who became a monk at Monte Cassino +and died there in 1087. Constantine was a wretched craftsman with an +imperfect knowledge of both Arabic and Latin. More effective was the +great twelfth-century translator from the Arabic, Gerard of Cremona +(died 1185), who turned many medical works into Latin from Arabic, and +who was followed by a whole host of imitators. Yet more important for +the advance of medicine, however, was the learned revival of the +thirteenth century. In the main that revival was based on translations +from Arabic, but a certain number of works were also rendered direct +from the Greek. During the thirteenth century Aristotle's scientific +works began to be treated in this way, but more important for the course +of medicine were those of Galen, and they had to wait till the following +century. The long treatise of Galen, περι χρειας των εν ανθρωπου σωματι +μοριων {peri chreias tôn en anthrôpou sômati moriôn}, _On the uses of +the bodily parts in man_, was translated from the Greek into Latin by +Nicholas of Reggio in the earlier part of the fourteenth century. This +work, with all its defects, was by far the best account of the human +body then available. Many manuscripts of the Latin version have +survived, and it was translated into several vernaculars, including +English, and profoundly influenced surgery. The rendering into Latin of +this treatise, and its wide distribution, may be regarded as the +starting-point of modern scientific medicine. Its appearance is moreover +a part of the phenomenon of the revived interest in dissection which had +begun to be practised in the Universities in the thirteenth century,[98] +and was a generally accepted discipline in the fourteenth and +fifteenth.[99] + + [98] Dissection of animals was practised at Salerno as early as the + eleventh century. + + [99] The sources of the anatomical knowledge of the Middle Ages are + discussed in detail in the following works: R. R. von Töply, + _Studien zur Geschichte der Anatomie im Mittelalter_, Vienna, 1898; + K. Sudhoff, _Tradition und Naturbeobachtung_, Leipzig, 1907; and + also numerous articles in the _Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und + Naturwissenschaften_; Charles Singer, 'A Study in Early Renaissance + Anatomy', in _Studies in the History and Method of Science_, vol. i, + Oxford, 1917. + +Until the end of the fifteenth century progress in anatomy was almost +imperceptible. During the fifteenth century more Galenic and Hippocratic +texts were recovered and gradually turned into Latin, but still without +vitally affecting the course of Anatomy. The actual printing of +collected editions of Hippocrates and Galen came rather late, for the +debased taste of the Renaissance physicians continued to prefer +Dioscorides and the Arabs, of whom numerous editions appeared, so that +medicine made no advance corresponding to the progress of scholarship. +The Hippocratic works were first printed in 1525, and an isolated +edition of the inferior Galen in 1490, but the real advance in Medicine +was not made by direct study of these works. So long as they were +treated in the old scholastic spirit such works were of no more value +than those of the Arabists or others inherited from the Middle Ages. +Even Hippocrates can be spoilt by a commentary, and it was not until the +investigator began actually to compare his own observations with those +of Hippocrates and Galen that the real value of these works became +apparent. The department in which this happened first was Anatomy, and +such revolutionaries as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1518), who never +published, and Vesalius (1514-1564), whose great work appeared in 1543, +were really basing their work on Galen, though they were much occupied +in proving Galen's errors. Antonio Benivieni (died 1502), an eager +prophet of the new spirit, revived the Hippocratic tradition by actually +collecting notes of a few cases with accompanying records of deaths and +post-mortem findings, among which it is interesting to observe a case of +appendicitis.[100] His example was occasionally followed during the +sixteenth century, as for instance, by the Portuguese Jewish physician +Amatus Lusitanus (1511-_c._ 1562), who printed no fewer than seven +hundred cases; but the real revival of the Hippocratic tradition came in +the next century with Sydenham (1624-1689) and Boerhaave (1668-1738), +who were consciously working on the Hippocratic basis and endeavouring +to extend the Hippocratic experience. + + [100] Benivieni's notes were published posthumously. Some of the + spurious Greek works of the Hippocratic collection have also case + notes. + +Lastly surgery came to profit by the revival. The greatest of the +sixteenth-century surgeons, the lovable and loving Ambroise Paré +(1510-1590), though he was, as he himself humbly confessed, an ignorant +man knowing neither Latin nor Greek, can be shown to have derived much +from the works of antiquity, which were circulating in translation in +his day and were thus filtering down to the unlearned. + +Texts of Hippocrates and of Galen had formed an integral part in the +medical instruction of the universities from their commencement in the +thirteenth century. The first Greek text of the _Aphorisms_ of +Hippocrates appeared in 1532, edited by no less a hand than that of +François Rabelais. With the further recovery of the Greek texts and +preparation of better translations, these became almost the sole mode of +instruction during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The +translators became legion and their competence varied. One highly +skilled translator, however, is of special interest to English readers. +Thomas Linacre (1460?-1524), Physician to Henry VIII, Tutor to the +Princess Mary, founder and first president of the College of +Physicians, a benefactor of both the ancient Universities and one of the +earliest, ablest, most typical, and most exasperating of the English +humanists, spent much energy on this work of translation for which his +abilities peculiarly fitted him. He was responsible for no less than six +important works of Galen, of which one, the _De temperamentis et de +inaequali intemperie_, printed at Cambridge in 1521, was among the +earliest books impressed in that town and is said to be the first +printed in England for which Greek types were used. It has been honoured +by reproduction in facsimile in modern times. Such works as these, +purely literary efforts, had great vogue for a century and more, and +were much in use in the Universities. These humanistic products +sometimes produced, among the advocates of the new scientific method, a +degree of fury which was only rivalled by that of some of the humanists +themselves towards the translators from the Arabic. But these are now +dead fires. As the clinical and scientific methods of teaching gained +ground, textual studies receded in medical education, as Hippocrates and +Galen themselves would have wished them to recede. + +The texts of Hippocrates and Galen have now ceased to occupy a place in +any medical curriculum. Yet all who know these writings, know too, not +only that their spirit is still with us, but that the works themselves +form the background of modern practice, and that their very phraseology +is still in use at the bedside. Modern medicine may be truly described +as in essence a creation of the Greeks. To realize the nature of our +medical system, some knowledge of its Greek sources is essential. It +would indeed be a bad day for medicine if ever this debt to the Greeks +were forgotten, and the loss would be at least as much ethical as +intellectual. But there is happily no fear of this, for the figure and +spirit of Hippocrates are more real and living to-day than they have +been since the great collapse of the Greek scientific intellect in the +third and fourth centuries of the Christian era. + +CHARLES SINGER. + + The author has to thank Mr. R. W. Livingstone, Dr. E. T. + Withington, Prof. A. Platt, and Mr. J. D. Beazley for corrections + and suggestions. + + + + +LITERATURE + + +A man walking down Shaftesbury Avenue from Piccadilly to Charing Cross +Road passes the _Lyric Theatre_. If it is the evening, a _dramatic_ +performance is probably taking place inside. It may be a _tragedy_, or +some form of _comedy_. If it is a _musical comedy_ and he enters, he +will see elaborate _scenery_ and a play which may open with a _prologue_ +and which is partly composed of _dialogue_ between the various +_characters_, partly of songs in various _metres_ sung by a _chorus_ to +the accompaniment of an _orchestra_. As the words in italics indicate, +our imaginary passer-by will have seen, though he may not have suspected +it, a symbol of the indelible mark which the Greeks have set on the +aesthetic and intellectual life of Europe, and of the living presence of +Greece in the twentieth century. An ancient Athenian might be startled +at the sight of a musical comedy and its chorus, but he would be looking +at his own child, a descendant, however distant, degenerate, and hard to +recognize, of that chorus which with dance and song moved round the +altar of Dionysus in the theatre of his home. + +The same imprint, clear or faint, is on all our literary forms, except +perhaps one. Epic, lyric, elegiac, dramatic, didactic, poetry, history, +biography, rhetoric and oratory, the epigram, the essay, the sermon, the +novel, letter writing and literary criticism are all Greek by origin, +and in nearly every case their name betrays their source. Rome raises a +doubtful claim to satire, but the substance of satire is present in the +Old Comedy, and the form seems to have existed in writings now lost. +There are even one or two _genres_, such as the imaginary speech, which +Greece invented and which are not, fortunately, found in modern +literature. When the curtain rose on Homer, European literature did not +exist: long before it falls on the late Byzantines, the lines were laid +on which it has moved up to our own day. This is the entire work of a +single people, politically weak, numerically small, materially +poor--according to the economy of nature which in things of the mind and +the spirit gives a germinating power to few. The Greeks are justly +admired for individual poems, plays, and pieces of writing; but it was +something even greater to have explored the possibilities of literature +so far that posterity, while it has developed Greek _genres_, has not +hitherto been able to add to them. This is one part of the Greek Legacy +to literature. + +Another part are the works themselves. Literature can only be judged by +reading it, and certainly it cannot be characterized in a few pages. But +a man ignorant of Greek and anxious to estimate its value might form +some idea by inquiring the opinions of qualified judges. He would find +them unanimous: I suppose it is true that no man of eminence qualified +to speak has ever spoken of Greek literature in any tone but one. The +first testimony is that of the Romans. It is borne by their literature, +starting in translations from Greek, adopting one after another of their +_genres_, permeated through and through (and most of all in the greatest +writers) by imitations, reminiscences, influences of Greek, confessing +and glorying in the debt. 'In learning,' says Cicero, 'and in every +branch of literature, the Greeks are our masters.'[101] A Roman boy +should begin his studies with Greek, Quintilian thought, 'because Latin +learning is derived from Greek.'[102] The same note is repeated in the +literature of the Renaissance, and re-echoed by the most various voices +of our own century. + + [101] _Tusc._ 1. 1. 2. + + [102] _Inst. Or._ I. 1. 12. + +'Though one of the Greek tragedians may seem rather greater and more +complete than another, their work as a whole has a single pervading +quality. It is marked by grandeur, excellence, sanity, complete +humanity, a high philosophy of life, a lofty way of thinking, a powerful +intuition (_Anschauung_). We find these qualities in their surviving +lyric and epic poetry as well as in their drama: we find them in their +philosophers, orators, and historians and, to an equally high degree, in +their surviving sculpture.'[103] + + [103] Goethe, _Gespräche_, 3. 387. + +'Beside the great Attic poets, like Aeschylus and Sophocles, I am +absolutely nothing.'[104] + + [104] Ibid., 3. 443. + +'He spoke with great animation of the advantage of classical study, +Greek especially. "Where," he said, "would one look for a greater orator +than Demosthenes; or finer dramatic poetry, next to Shakspere, than that +of Aeschylus or Sophocles, not to speak of Euripides." Herodotus he +thought "the most interesting and instructive book, next to the Bible, +which had ever been written".'[105] + + [105] Wordsworth, _Table-talk_. + +'The period which intervened between the birth of Pericles and the death +of Aristotle is undoubtedly, whether considered in itself or with +reference to the effects which it has produced upon the subsequent +destinies of civilized man, the most memorable in the history of the +world.... The wrecks and fragments of these subtle and profound minds, +like the ruins of a fine statue, obscurely suggest to us the grandeur +and perfection of the whole. Their very language ... in variety, in +simplicity, in flexibility, and in copiousness, excels every other +language of the western world.' Then, after some words on their +sculpture, he adds: 'their poetry seems to maintain a very high, though +not so disproportionate a rank, in the comparison' (with other +literatures).[106] + + [106] Shelley, _On the Manners of the Ancients_. + +'The Greeks are the most remarkable people who have yet existed.... They +were the beginners of nearly everything, Christianity excepted, of which +the modern world makes its boast.... They were the first people who had +a historical literature; as perfect of its kind (though not the highest +kind) as their oratory, their sculpture, and their architecture. They +were the founders of mathematics, of physics, of the inductive study of +politics, of the philosophy of human nature and life. In each they made +the indispensable first steps, which are the foundation of all the +rest.'[107] + + [107] Mill, _Dissertations_, ii. 283 f. + +'I have gone back to Greek literature with a passion quite astonishing +to myself.... I felt as if I had never known before what intellectual +enjoyment was. Oh that wonderful people! There is not one art, not one +science, about which we may not use the same expression which Lucretius +has employed about the victory over superstition "_Primum Graius homo_". +I think myself very fortunate in having been able to return to these +great masters while still in the full vigour of life and when my taste +and judgement are mature. Most people read all the Greek that they ever +read before they are five-and-twenty.... A young man, whatever his +genius may be, is no judge of such a writer as Thucydides. I had no high +opinion of him ten years ago. I have now been reading him with a mind +accustomed to historical researches and to political affairs; and I am +astonished at my own former blindness, and at his greatness. I could not +bear Euripides at college. I now read my recantation. He has faults +undoubtedly. But what a poet!'[108] + + [108] Macaulay, _Life and Letters_, i. 43. + +These men--and there is no difficulty in adding to their number--are not +only qualified but unprejudiced witnesses. They have no _parti pris_. +They cannot be accused, as schoolmasters and dons are sometimes accused, +of holding shares in a great Trading Bank of Greece and Rome Unlimited, +and having a personal motive for their enthusiasm. Nor can it be said +that they admired Greece because they knew nothing better. All--Goethe +no less than the others--had English literature in their hands, knew it +well and appreciated its greatness. Yet this, given in their own words, +is the impression which Greek made on them. _Securus iudicat orbis +terrarum_; and the verdict here is plain. It is clear that we have in +Greek a surviving body of poetry and prose which is of unique interest +to any one who cares for literature. + + * * * * * + +I have tried to give a summary answer to the question, What did the +Greeks achieve? They invented every literary _genre_ which we know, they +laid the lines which European literature has followed, they created a +body of prose and poetry which has won the homage of the world. The +further question, What can the world still learn from them, is less easy +to answer. The answer lies in Greek literature, and the essence of a +literature cannot be extracted and bottled in a number of abstract +formulae. No literature is great in virtue of its qualities, which are +always something less than the literature itself, but only in so far as +it expands to the breadth of the universe and climbs to its height. This +is the final test which must be applied. How far Greek literature +satisfies it, can be judged from the testimonies which have been quoted +above. + +Remembering this let us deliberately narrow our view and talk of +qualities: and here, narrowing it again, let us confine the discussion +to certain qualities, which are found indeed in all literatures, but are +elsewhere neither so universal nor carried to so high a power. No one +can think of Greek literature without thinking of them; they live on the +lips of its admirers, and in them the inspiration of Greek literature is +chiefly enshrined. These essential qualities are Simplicity, Perfection +of Form, Truth and Beauty. Greek literature is much more than these +qualities. The _Agamemnon_, the _Oedipus_, the _Bacchae_ are not to be +explained wholly by them. The greatness of these plays is partly +something individual, and partly it is what makes _King Lear_ or +_Faust_ or _Brand_ great: and that is neither entirely nor mainly +simplicity or beauty or truth or form. But my object is to emphasize +qualities for which Greek is exceptional, and though some critics may +have talked of the beauty of Greek literature till beauty was absurdly +supposed to be its chief or only quality, they were right to recognize +the prominence of beauty there, and though truth is a mark of the +greatest writing in all languages, it is more universal in Greek than in +any other literature. + + * * * * * + +If a reader turned from Milton to Homer, from Shakespeare to Sophocles, +from Plato or Aristotle to some modern work on ethics, politics, or +literary criticism, he would find one point of difference between the +earlier and the later writers in the greater simplicity of the former. +They are briefer: the _Oedipus Tyrannus_ has 1530 lines while the first +two acts of _Hamlet_ alone have more than 1600, and Greek histories and +philosophical writings are correspondingly shorter than their modern +counterparts. The whole of Thucydides could be printed in a twenty-four +page issue of _The Times_, and leave room to spare; the essay of +Aristotle on Poetry, which for generations dictated the principles of +dramatic writing, has forty-five short pages; the _Republic_ of Plato, +which has influenced thought more than any other philosophic work, has a +little over three hundred. Brevity indeed is not always simplicity, and +it is possible to be at once simple and lengthy. But any one who +examines these Greek writers will find that they are brief, because, +avoiding bypaths and by-plots, elaboration or minute detail, they strike +out the central features of their picture with an effortless economy of +line. Their writing has a double quality. It shows a firm hold on the +central and fundamental things: and it presents them unmixed with and +unconfused by minor issues, so that they stand out like forest trees +which no undergrowth of brushwood masks. It is important to make this +distinction, for all great literature has the first of these qualities; +the second is largely an accident of time. As civilization moves further +from its origin, it cannot but receive a thousand tributaries that +continually augment its volume, and colour and confuse its streams: at +the sources it flows clear and untroubled. The interests of an early age +are the primal and essential interests of human nature and the +literature of such an age presents them unalloyed and uncomplicated by +lesser issues. In the thinkers the main and fundamental problems stand +clearly out, and Plato and Thucydides take us straight to them. The +poets make their poetry from emotions and interests that are as old as +man, and have none of the refinements and complications which education +and a long inheritance of culture superadd to the essential stuff of +human nature. 'You Greeks are always children,' said the Egyptian priest +to Solon; and he spoke the truth in a sense which he did not mean. The +Greeks' feelings were not dulled or sophisticated by the _damnosa +hereditas_ of the past. Neither their life nor their mental atmosphere +was complicated. They had not 'thought themselves into weariness'. They +were the children of the world, and they united the startling acuteness, +directness, and simplicity of children to the intellects of men. + +Pater took _La Gioconda_ of Leonardo da Vinci to symbolize the +difference of modern and ancient art, and to illustrate the intricacy +and complication of the former, as compared with the simplicity of the +latter. 'Hers is the head,' he writes of the Monna Lisa, 'upon which all +"the ends of the world are come", and the eyelids are a little weary. It +is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little +cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite +passions. Set it for a moment beside one of those white goddesses or +beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this +beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed! All the +thoughts and experience of the world have etched and moulded there, in +that which they have of power to refine and make expressive the outward +form.... She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the +vampire, she has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the +grave; and has been a diver in deep seas, and keeps their fallen day +about her ...; and all this lives only in the delicacy with which it has +moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelids and the hands. +The fancy of a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand +experiences, is an old one; and modern thought has conceived the idea of +humanity as wrought upon by, and summing up in itself, all modes of +thought and life. Certainly Lady Lisa might stand as the embodiment of +the old fancy, the symbol of the modern idea.' Slightly fanciful and +Pateresque as these words are, they are substantially true, as any one +who sets Monna Lisa by a piece of fifth-century sculpture can easily +see. There is the same contrast between Greek literature and our own. +How 'troubled' would Homer or Sophocles be by the writings of Browning +or Meredith, of Henry James or Conrad, in whom so many eddies and +cross-currents of thought and experience unite. + +Compare the story of Hector and Andromache with some famous passage from +any of these writers. 'So spake glorious Hector and stretched out his +arm to his boy. But the child shrunk crying to the bosom of his +fair-girdled nurse, dismayed at the look of his dear father and in fear +of the bronze and the horsehair crest that nodded fiercely from his +helmet's top. Then his dear father and his lady mother laughed aloud: +forthwith glorious Hector took the helmet from his head and laid it, all +gleaming, on the earth; then kissed he his dear son and danced him in +his arms, and spoke in prayer to Zeus and all the gods, "O Zeus and all +ye gods, grant that this my son may be as I am, pre-eminent among the +Trojans, and as valiant in might, and may he be a great king of Troy." +So he spoke and laid his son in his dear wife's arms; and she took him +to her fragrant bosom, smiling through tears. And her husband had pity +to see her and caressed her with his hand, and spoke and called her by +her name: "Dear one, I pray thee be not of oversorrowful heart; no man +against my fate shall send me to my death; but destiny, I ween, no man +hath escaped." So spake glorious Hector and took up his +horsehair-crested helmet; and his dear wife departed to her home, often +looking back and letting fall great tears. And she came to the +well-built house of man-slaying Hector, and found therein her many +handmaidens, and stirred lamentation in them all. So they wept for +Hector, while he yet lived, in his house; for they thought that he would +no more come back to them from battle.'[109] These are emotions shared +by mankind twenty centuries before Christ and twenty centuries after +him, common equally to Shakespeare or Napoleon and to the stupidest and +least educated of mankind; and these emotions are expressed with a +simplicity as elemental as themselves. Subjects as simple may be found +in our literature; expression as direct would be hard to find. Even a +primitive like Chaucer is the heir of dimly apprehended inheritances +from Greece and Rome, and is haunted by fancies from lost and living +fairylands of literature. It is in our Bible that we find the elemental +feelings of Homer and an expression even more direct. 'And she departed +and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in +the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went +and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: +for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat down +over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.'[110] + + [109] Homer, _Iliad_, vi. 466 ff. (with omissions: chiefly from the + translation of Lang, Leaf, and Myers). It should be remembered that, + of the three figures in this scene, the husband will be dead in a + few days, while within a year the wife will be a slave and the child + thrown from the city wall. + + [110] Genesis xxi. 14 f. + +Like the writer of the Pentateuch, Homer lived in a world whose +emotions were elemental, and writing of this kind came naturally to him. +The weight of tradition began to weigh on succeeding ages, but it never +became heavy, because the accumulations were small and the world was +still comparatively simple. Also its poets and prose writers moved in +the fields of action as soldiers and politicians, continually +confronting the realities of life, and knowing them as they are, not as +they appear in a study. Thus their topics are central, the writing is +simple. The subjects of the _Oedipus Tyrannus_ or the _Hercules Furens_ +might be called morbid; but not the handling of them by Sophocles and +Euripides. The unnatural element is in the background and almost +unnoticed; the interest lies in the spectacle of great men in +overwhelming disaster--an elemental theme and belonging to the general +life of man. The treatment is as simple as in Homer, the figures few, +subordinate interests out of sight, the light thrown full on the central +tragedy. Hence comes a rare intensity, an immediacy of impression, a +sense of nearness to the thing described, which will strike anyone who +reads the messenger's speech in the _Hercules Furens_, or the scene +where the identity of Oedipus is discovered, or indeed any great passage +in Greek Drama. This simplicity of treatment persists, when with +Menander and the Alexandrians we pass into a world more like our own and +find literature, still simple in form, but more artistic, more +intellectual, more literary, less centrally and fundamentally human. + +It would be foolish to demand that modern writers should have the +simplicity of Homer or the age of Pericles, or to pretend that they +cannot be great without it. Every age must and will have its own +literature, reflecting the minds and circumstances of those who write +it. Nor is the advantage entirely on the side of the Greeks. A drama of +Shakespeare or a novel of Tolstoi, with their long roll of _dramatis +personae_, are more like life than a Greek tragedy with its absence of +byplot and its few, central, characters. A modern historian would have +recorded and discussed aspects of the history of fifth-century Greece +which Thucydides ignores. Modern literature may claim that, with less +intensity, it has greater amplitude and a more faithful presentation of +the complexity of life. On the other hand the Greeks are free from that +dominance of the abnormal which is one danger of modern literature; they +do not explore sexual and other aberrations or encourage their readers +to explore them. They are also free from that dominance of the +unessential, which, in life as in literature, is a more innocent but +more subtle and perhaps equally ruinous vice. That is why their +simplicity is refreshing and salutary. _Porro unum necessarium._ In life +human beings return from a distracting variety of interests to a few +simple things; or, if they do not return, run the risk of losing their +souls. In literature, which is the shadow of life, they need to do the +same. + + * * * * * + +The simplicity of Greek literature is accompanied by the highest +literary art. Nothing could be more surprising. The primitive conditions +that preserve simplicity are apparently incompatible with technical +perfection, which is a late-born child of literature and the creation of +matured taste, long experiment, and patient work. But in Greek, and +perhaps only in Greek, _naïveté_ and art go hand in hand. There is +something almost uncanny in Homer's union of the two: it is a paradox +that the character of Achilles, the death of Hector, the primitive +cunning of Odysseus, should be portrayed in such a metre and such a +vocabulary; it seems unnatural that so highly wrought and refined a +medium should be used to depict the life and ideas of a society which is +nearer to savagery than to civilization. But unnatural or not, so it is. + +The most obvious quality of Greek literature is its form, the high level +of its technique. There are exceptions: the earlier plays of Aeschylus +are crude in conception, the prose of Gorgias is as fantastic as that +of Lyly, the sentences of Thucydides are often awkward and +ungrammatical; Aeschylus stands at the origin of drama, Gorgias and +Thucydides are the creators of periodic prose, and they have the +weaknesses of pioneers. But in general, Greek work in poetry and prose +is highly wrought and finely finished; and so rapidly did their art find +itself, that within the lifetime of Aeschylus Sophocles reached the +highest level of dramatic and literary technique, and within a +generation from Thucydides Plato evolved his unequalled style. An +artistic instinct was in the blood of the Greeks, and betrays itself +throughout their literature, in the choric odes with their complicated +respondencies and subtle variations; in Plato arranging and rearranging +the first eight words of his _Republic_; in the interest which the +Greeks took in the theory of literary art, seeking here as elsewhere +λογον διδοναι {logon didonai}, to give an account of their practice. How +much more they reflected on it than we do, the _Rhetoric_ of Aristotle, +the _De Compositione_ of Dionysius and the endless writings of the +rhetoricians show. + +This is universally admitted, but justice is more rarely done to even +clearer evidence of the Greek gift for technique. Other nations have +understood the art of writing, and left those monuments in words which +are as unsubstantial and fleeting as air, yet more imperishable than +brass or stone; but no nation has created literary art in the sense in +which the Greeks created it, or developed, as they did, the various +literary _genres_ out of nothing. They had no models or guides or +external help. Rome had Greek literature to follow and herself gave +patterns to her successors; but the Greeks made what they made out of +nothing, and are thus creators in the true sense of the word, and as no +other people have been. Two instances, Homer and the Greek Drama, will +serve to show this. + +In the dawn of a literature at least, we expect roughness and crudity, +an uncertain judgement and a faltering hand; but the first known Greek +poem, like Athena in the myth, is born full grown and mature. Yet its +makers made the story and the rich language and the elaborate and +unrivalled metre for themselves. It does not lessen this achievement +that the Homeric poems may have been the fine flower of a period of +poetic growth; the work that went to form them was done by Greeks. But +it needs imagination to appreciate the difficulty of the task which they +undertook unconsciously and performed without theory or deliberate +purpose by the mere light of nature. + +It is hard to create even a primitive poetic vocabulary, where one does +not exist, and there is nothing primitive about + + ὁι δ' ὡς τ' αιγυπιοι γαμψωνυχες αγκυλοχειλαι + πετρη εφ' ὑψηλη μεγαλα κλαζοντε μαχωνται, + + {hoi d' hôs t' aigypioi gampsônyches ankylocheilai + petrê eph' hypsêlê megala klazonte machôntai,} + +or + + ὁσσον δ' ηεροειδες ανηρ ιδεν οφθαλμοισιν + ἡμενος εν σκοπιη, λευσσων επι οινοπα ποντον, + τοσσον επιθρωσκουσι θεων ὑψηχεες ἱπποι.[111] + + {hosson d' êeroeides anêr iden ophthalmoisin + hêmenos en skopiê, leussôn epi oinopa ponton, + tosson epithrôskousi theôn hypsêchees hippoi.} + + [111] _Iliad_, xvi. 428 f.: 'As vultures with crooked talons and + curved beaks that upon some high crag fight, screaming loudly.' + _Ibid._ v. 770 f.: 'As far as a man's view ranges in the haze, as he + sits on a point of outlook and gazes over the wine-dark sea, so far + at a spring leap the loud-neighing horses of the gods.' + +It is hard, as the beginnings of Roman poetry show, to devise a metre +which is not rough, unmusical, or even grotesque: yet for richness and +strength this first metre of Europe has never been rivalled by the +Greeks or by any one else. The same natural technical skill appears in +more subtle things even than metre or language. Homer is born knowing by +some instinct the profound secret of literary art which Aristotle +formulated centuries later as the principle of unity of Action. The plot +of a play, he writes in the _Poetics_, 'should have for its subject a +single action, whole and complete, with a beginning, a middle, and an +end.... It will differ in structure from historical compositions, which +of necessity present not a single action, but a single period, and all +that happened within that period to one person or to many, little +connected together as the events may be.... Such is the practice, we may +say, of most poets. Here again the transcendant excellence of Homer +appears. He never attempts to make the whole war of Troy the subject of +his poem. It would have been too vast a theme, and not easily embraced +in a single view: while if he had kept it in moderate limits it would +have been over-complicated by the variety of incidents. As it is, he +detaches a single portion.'[112] Once stated, the principle of unity of +action becomes a commonplace of literary art. But, as the _Annals_ of +Ennius or the _Faerie Queen_ show, it is not obvious until stated, and +the poets from whose practice Aristotle made his induction, must have +had a rare technical instinct unconsciously to preserve unity of +interest through the complications of a long epic or drama. Such +achievements were only possible to a people with a natural genius for +literary art. In the hands of the Greeks the various elements of +literature found their τελος {telos} and achieved their natural form, +almost with the same instinctive evolution by which a seed unfolds to +its predestined shape. + + [112] _Poetics_, c. 23 (tr. Butcher). + +This can be illustrated even better from Greek drama. A modern author +who wishes to write a play may not find the task easy, but he knows the +general form which a drama has to take and the general principles to be +followed in writing it. The right length is given him, the division into +scenes and acts, the methods of exposition and dialogue, the conception +of a _dénouement_, the law of unity of action, and the rest. The fathers +of Greek tragedy had no such help. They had no drama in our sense of the +word, but simply a band of fifty persons dressed like satyrs, and +dancing round an altar and singing a song. Out of this anything or +nothing might have been made. The Greeks, with the instinctive and +unerring motions of genius, developed from it the highest and most +elaborate of literary forms, and within a hundred years are writing +plays which Shelley classes with _King Lear_, and which Swinburne can +call, 'probably, on the whole, the greatest spiritual work of man'. + +In divining the principles of literary art and evolving the various +kinds of literature no people can be compared to the Greeks, and +probably none can show a mass of work executed with so uniformly high a +finish. But when we compare writer with writer we shall find individual +artists to rival them. Though the strength of English literature does +not lie in technical perfection, Milton, Pope, and Tennyson--to name no +others--have in their different ways as firm a grasp of it as any Greek, +and it can be learned from French writers, with whom it is the rule +rather than the exception, as well as from the Greeks. This is hardly +true of another quality of Greek writing, which may be classed with +technical finish, though it is in fact something more. It is one of the +most characteristic features of Greek; yet on first acquaintance, it is +often disconcerting and even distasteful. If a reader new to the +classics opened Thucydides, his first impression would probably be one +of jejuneness, of baldness. If, fresh from Shelley or Tennyson, he came +across the epigram of Simonides on the Spartan dead at Thermopylae, + + ω ξειν', αγγελλειν Αακεδαιμονιοις ὁτι τηδε + κειμεθα, τοις κεινων ῥημασι πειθομενοι,[113] + + {ô xein', angellein Aakedaimoniois hoti têde + keimetha, tois keinôn rhêmasi peithomenoi,} + +he might see little in it but a prosaic want of colour. This exceeding +simplicity or economy is a stumbling-block to those who are accustomed +to the expansive modern manner. Yet such a reader would have been making +the acquaintance of some of the finest things in Greek literature, which +is always at its greatest when most simple, and he would have been face +to face with a characteristic quality of it. + + [113] 'Stranger, tell the Spartans that we lie here, obeying their + words.' + +The contrast with the usual English manner may be illustrated by +quoting a famous epigram--Ben Jonson's epitaph on a boy actor: + + Weep with me, all you that read + This little story; + And know, for whom a tear you shed, + Death's self is sorry. + + 'Twas a child that so did thrive + In grace and feature, + As heaven and nature seemed to strive + Which owned the creature. + + Years he numbered scarce thirteen + When Fates turned cruel, + Yet three filled zodiacs had he been + The stage's jewel; + + And did act (what now we moan) + Old men so duly, + As sooth the Parcae thought him one, + He played so truly. + + So, by error, to his fate + They all consented; + But, viewing him since, alas, too late! + They have repented. + +These lines--and they are not the whole of the poem--are enough to +illustrate the difference between the Greek method and the English, the +latter rich and profuse, following the flow of an opulent fancy, the +former reticent and restrained, leaving the reader's imagination room +and need to play its part. There are materials for half-a-dozen epigrams +in Ben Jonson's poem. Had he been Simonides or Plato, he would have +stopped after the fourth line and, in the opinion of some critics, by +saving his paper he would have improved his poem. + +In their theory and in their practice the Greek writers were true to +this principle of Economy. Their proverbs proclaim it 'the half is +greater than the whole': 'sow with the hand and not with the whole +sack.' The great passages of their literature illustrate it. It is to be +found no less in Thucydides' account of the siege of Syracuse and in the +close of the _Phaedo_ or the _Republic_ than in the death of Hector or +the meeting of Priam and Achilles. The Greek writers may have emotions +that would seem to demand vehement and extended expression, topics to +inspire a poet and tempt him to amplify them; but resisting the +temptation they set the facts down quietly and pass on practically +without comment. The close of the _Phaedo_ exemplifies this restraint. +Plato has just related with severe economy of detail the death of his +master. His comment on the event which saddened and confounded his whole +life is but this: 'Such, Echecrates, was the death of our friend, the +best man, I think, that I have ever known, the wisest too and the most +just.'[114] + + [114] _Phaedo_, 118 B. + +There are noble examples of reticence and economy in English literature, +some of the most conspicuous of which can be traced to classical +influence; but no one would contend that these qualities are the rule in +our great writers. The English genius is rich and lavish rather than +restrained. It is less in its nature to write like Sappho, + + Ἑσπερε, παντα φερων οσα φαινολις εσκεδας' αυως, + φερεις οιν, φερες αιγα, φερεις απυ ματερι παιδα,[115] + + {Hespere, panta pherôn osa phainolis eskedas' auôs, + phereis oin, pheres aiga, phereis apy materi paida,} + + [115] fr. 95: 'Star of evening, bringing all things that bright dawn + has scattered, you bring the sheep, you bring the goat, you bring + the child back to its mother.' + +than like Byron, + + O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things-- + Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer, + To the young bird the parent's brooding wings, + The welcome stall to the o'er-laboured steer; + Whate'er of peace about our hearthstone clings, + Whate'er our household gods protect of dear, + Are gathered round us by thy look of rest; + Thou bring'st the child too to its mother's breast. + +Something may be said in favour of both methods. Amplitude of treatment +and fullness of detail enrich the imagination while economy stimulates +it. The latter may become jejune, and is safe only in the hands of great +writers: the former is apt to provide too rich a feast and to leave the +full-fed mind inert. Everything is done for it and nothing left it to +do. Economy on the other hand throws the reader on his own resources. It +sets the imagination wandering in the fields of infinity. Some readers +find this one of the essential delights of literature, though others +prefer that the author should take them by the hand and indicate every +detail with the precision of the sign-posts at a German _Kurort_. + +Economy is the reflection in literature of that σωφροσυνη {sôphrosynê}, +which is the most deeply-rooted of Greek ideals, the most untranslatable +of Greek words. But it was helped by an accident. If the art of printing +were lost, modern works would contract within narrower limits, and the +Greek economy was encouraged by the fact that Fust was not yet born. We, +who do not rely on hand-copying for the propagation of our books, +naturally write at greater length: and while it loses in conciseness, +literature has a compensating gain in amplitude. But the habit of +writing for money, which encourages abundant production, and the +existence of the printing-press, which makes it easy, expose us to +dangers from which the ancients were free. The newspapers are the worst +offenders, saying many things which need not be said at all, and saying +everything in a superfluous and excessive way. But literature suffers +hardly less. The greatest figures of the last fifty years, such as +Browning, Meredith, Hardy and Conrad, dilute their pages with +unessential, if not inferior, stuff, and produce writing which has not +received the _summa manus_. Had their work been less by a half--a +modest reduction--it would have been more perfect because more time +could have been devoted to it, more powerful because each stroke would +have been precise and strong, more telling because these strokes would +not have been combined with ineffective blows. This is even truer of +lesser men and other forms of literature. It is because the _Agricola_ +of Tacitus extends to but thirty pages, that the biography of a Roman +civil servant of no great genius will outlive those of far greater men. +The art of omission is the art which English writers most need to learn; +the literary _lima_ is their least-handled tool. Both art and tool were +perfectly understood and constantly used by the Greeks. + + * * * * * + +The third mark of Greek Literature, with which I have to deal, is +perhaps its most important, certainly its most universal quality. It is +truthfulness. The Greeks told no fewer lies than other races, but they +had the desire and the power to see the world as it is. By this +essential quality they gave Europe the conception of philosophy and +science. These we inherit from them alone; Palestine and our German +ancestors neither created them, nor show any signs of the temper that +creates them, and Rome received her share from Greece. + +The word 'Truthfulness' may seem to suggest the realism of some modern +writers. But the Greek truthfulness was different. It should be +distinguished from the laboured detachment and painful impartiality of +such a writer as Flaubert, whose realism conceals him in the same sense +as the walls of the engine-room conceal the panting machines within. The +Greek Truthfulness is spontaneous, natural, and effortless--the native +quality of the artist, who sees, and forgets himself in the vision. Nor +has it anything to do with photographic realism. It has not the +impersonality of that method or its flat and lifeless effect. A man, and +no machine, makes the picture, feeling intensely what he sees, and +though this intensity does not distort his vision, we are conscious, as +we read, of a human personality, and we feel the electric thrill of +life. + +Nor is it akin to that type of modern realism, which, like a noxious +drug, lays hold on the spirits and depresses the heart--the realism +which paints so black a picture of human life, that it affects us +physically like days of continued fog, and gives us no more complete and +truthful a picture of the world. There is hardly any Greek writer, +perhaps none at all, of whom this can be said. Many moderns can +faithfully describe what is disagreeable, but their effects are often +brutal and always depressing. The gift of portraying suffering and evil +with unflinching truth, yet of conveying other feelings than those of +mere horror, is reserved for few. Its rarity perhaps explains the rarity +of great tragedy, of which it seems to be a condition that it shall +truthfully show what is darkest in life, without leaving a final and +dominant sense of gloom. The great Greek writers possessed this secret. +They are as sensitive to evil and suffering as any writer and fully as +faithful in recording them. But whereas other men are simply depressed +or disgusted or appalled, lose their vital forces, and gaze in paralysed +fascination, these writers, in virtue of a sense which is more aesthetic +than moral, are aware of tremendous issues, see in sordid suffering the +agonies of a labouring universe, and feel awe and wonder, not mere +disgust and distress, at what human beings suffer and endure. That is +why Homer leaves us with another feeling than depression, when he tells +how Priam begged his son's body from the man who killed him. 'So Priam +entered unseen of them and stood near and clasped with his hands the +knees of Achilles and kissed the terrible murderous hands that had slain +so many of his sons. But Achilles was amazed at the sight of Priam, and +amazed were the rest, and they looked at each other. And Priam entreated +and addressed him. "Remember your own father, godlike Achilles: he is of +like years with me, and stands on the hateful road of old age. Perhaps +the neighbours round about harry him and there is none to keep misery +and ruin from him. Yet when he hears that you are alive, he rejoices and +hopes, day in, day out, to see his dear son returning from Troy. But I +am utterly wretched, for I begat the best of sons in Troy, and none of +them is left. The one I had, who was the stay of Troy and its people, +you killed but now as he fought for his country--even Hector. Respect +the gods, Achilles, and pity me, and remember your own father. I am more +unhappy than he. I have faced what no other mortal man ever yet +faced--to stretch my hand to the face of my sons' slayer."'[116] There +is suffering and evil enough here, and there is no attempt to disguise +or lessen them. Yet most readers, I think, would read this passage with +different feelings from those provoked by the close of _Madame Bovary_ +or of _Jude the Obscure_. Its truthfulness is neither ugly nor +depressing. + + [116] _Iliad_, xxiv. 277 f. (with omissions). + +Nor again is the Greek truthfulness identical with objectivity. An +objective writer tells his story and conveys his impressions, as far as +possible, by relating facts without commenting upon them. Dramatists and +novelists are compelled by the nature of their art to be objective in +this sense of the word (though Fielding and Thackeray in the one field, +and Ibsen and Shaw in the other, manage to make their comments with +their own lips, not those of their characters). But such a writer would +not of necessity be more truthful or impartial than any one else. He can +distort truth as thoroughly by selecting certain facts and ignoring +others as by making misleading comments. He may be violently one-sided +and present only the facts that support his view, thus indirectly +putting himself into what he writes quite as fully as a confessed +partizan, though less openly. Such a writer is objective, but his +objectivity with him is no more than a literary method. Now it is true +that the Greeks use this method, telling a story without personal +comments, not only in their epics and plays where this method is +natural, but also in their histories and elsewhere. Thucydides for +instance tells the story of a great war, yet his comments on it are few, +and are mainly given in the dramatic and would-be objective form of +speeches by leading men of the day. But the Greeks have objectivity in a +far more important sense than this. Their objectivity is no literary +device but a quality of mind. They have the power of standing aloof from +matters in which they are personally interested, and surveying them from +outside like impartial spectators, with the keenest interest, but +without bias. As the Delphic priestess in the act of prophecy lost her +individuality and became the mouthpiece of the god, so the Greek allowed +facts to speak for themselves, became their mouthpiece and banished the +intrusive ego. If therefore we call the Greeks objective, all this must +be included in our definition of the word. + +We shall understand Greek 'truthfulness' best, if, dropping +philosophical terms, and forgetting modern meanings, we remember a +saying of Anaxagoras, who, when asked for what purpose he was born, +replied: 'To contemplate the works of nature.' The disinterested passion +for contemplating things, which gathered inquiring groups round Socrates +to discuss what justice and friendship mean, or whether goodness is +knowledge and can be learnt, has its counterpart in literature. The +Greeks were fascinated by the spectacle of man and the world, and their +fascination is seen not only in their formal philosophy. Of their poets +too it may be said that they were born to see the world and human +life--not to moralize or to indulge in sentiment or rhetoric or +mysticism about it, but to see it. Keats's description of the poetic +temperament fits them closely: 'It has no self, it is everything and +nothing.... It enjoys light and shade.... A poet is the most unpoetical +of anything in existence, he is continually in, for, and filling some +other body.' In such a mood men will write literature that may justly be +called truthful. Avoiding the didactic, they will not distort truth to +suit personal bias; avoiding rhetoric, they will not sacrifice it to +fine phrases; avoiding sentiment and fancy, they will not gratify their +own or their hearer's feelings at the expense of truth; avoiding +mysticism, they will not move away from facts into a world of emotions. +Their care will be to see things, and their delight will be in the mere +vision. They will echo the words of Keats, 'If a sparrow comes before my +windows, I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel'[117]: +they will not treat it as Shelley treats the skylark, or even as Keats +and Wordsworth treat the nightingale. Herein is one of the secrets of +Greek poetry, for the Greek poets, more than any others, bring us in a +manner entirely simple and natural into immediate contact with what they +describe, and thus escape the thousand distortions for which epigram, +rhetoric, sentiment, fancy, mysticism and romanticism are responsible. +This secret may be called 'directness'. It is the habit of looking +straight and steadily at things, and describing them as they are, the +very contrary of the habit of didactic comment and of rhetorical or +emotional inflation. The 'direct' writer, in the fullest extent that is +possible, keeps himself and his feelings in the background. He does not +allow the mists which rise from a man's personality to come between him +and his subject. + + [117] I have taken these quotations of Keats from Bradley, _Oxford + Lecture on Poetry_, p. 238. + +A few instances of directness will give a better idea of it than many +definitions. The epigram quoted a few pages back shows how the Greek +writer lets his subject speak instead of expressing his own feelings +about it. So does the following epitaph, placed by a father on his son's +grave. + + Δωδεκετη τον παιδα πατηρ απεθηκε Φιλιππος + ενθαδε την πολλην ελπιδα Νικοτελην.[118] + + {Dôdeketê ton paida patêr apethêke Philippos + enthade tên pollên elpida Nikotelên.} + + [118] Callimachus, _Epigr._ 20: 'His father Philip laid here to rest + his twelve-year old son, his high hope, Nicoteles.' + +The bereaved father says nothing of his sorrow, or the greatness of his +loss, but records his son's name and age and says that he was his +father's 'high hope', and so doing gives us everything. Simonides does +not express his own feelings about the heroism of the Spartan dead; +their grave speaks for them to the passer-by. Nor is this a mere +literary method, a way of writing which states facts and leaves them to +make an impression by their own weight, unaided by comment or +explanation. A comparison of Ben Jonson's epigram with the Greek +epitaph, will show that directness is much more than this. The fancies +with which Jonson closes are pretty; but they are false, for they are +really incompatible with deep feeling: the Greek directness never loses +from sight the dead child; it sees only that and the father's sorrow. + +The following extract deals with a very different subject, but +illustrates directness equally well. The scene is the Athenian colony of +Amphipolis on the Struma; the dramatis personae are the Spartan general +Brasidas who wishes to capture it, and the Athenian Thucydides who was +then at Thasos, distant half a day's sail from Amphipolis. 'As soon as +Thucydides heard the news about Brasidas, he sailed quickly to +Amphipolis ... in order to garrison it if possible before it could +capitulate, or at any rate to occupy Eion (its seaport). Meanwhile +Brasidas, fearing the arrival of the Athenian fleet at Thasos and +hearing that Thucydides ... was one of the leading men of the country, +did his utmost to get possession of the city before he arrived.... He +therefore offered moderate terms.... These terms were accepted, and the +city was surrendered to him. On the evening of the same day Thucydides +and his ships sailed into Eion, but not until Brasidas had taken +possession of Amphipolis: another night, and he would have seized +Eion.'[119] The gist of the story contained in this extract is plain. +The Spartan general Brasidas seized the important town of Amphipolis, +and the Athenian general came too late to save it. But who would guess +that the Athenian general Thucydides was the historian Thucydides who +wrote these words, and that the episode which he here describes with +such detachment and neutrality earned him perpetual exile under pain of +death, from the country which he passionately loved? Thucydides has told +the bare facts, objectively, as if they related to some one else, +without a comment, without a word of protest, excuse, explanation or +regret on the crowning disaster of his life. He writes of himself in the +third person. This is not the way in which modern generals write of +their mishaps, but it is the Greek way. Thucydides has forgotten himself +and his feelings; he sees only the disastrous day when he sailed up the +Struma with his ships and found the gates of Amphipolis closed against +him. He ignores himself so far that he does not call it disastrous, +though disastrous it was for himself and his country. With the same +detachment he speaks of the enslavement of Melos and the tragedy of +Syracuse, though he thinks, and makes us feel, that the one was the +crowning crime, the other the crowning disaster of his country. He +narrates the plain facts and leaves the reader to draw his inferences. +If we did not know that he was an Athenian, we could hardly tell from +his history whether he took the side of Athens or Sparta in the war; so +entirely are he and his feelings kept in the background. Yet he was an +ardent patriot, and he is describing the war in which his country lost +supremacy and empire. No historian of the war of 1914-18, whether on the +Allied or the German side, is likely to write of it in this way. + + [119] _Thuc._ iv. 104, 105, 106 (tr. Jowett, mainly). + +The art of Homer has the same quality of detachment. He is a Greek, +writing of a ten years' war between Greeks and Asiatics, yet most of his +readers sympathize with Hector rather than with Achilles. He himself +preferred neither, but saw and felt equally with both; with the hero who +fought the losing battle for Troy, and with him who lost his friend, +and, intoxicated with sorrow, could see and feel nothing but a passion +of revenge. It would seem hardly possible to write the close of the 22nd +Book of the _Iliad_, where the heroes meet, without taking sides; we, no +doubt, should take Hector's side. But Homer stands apart from the +quarrel, and sees both men and the feelings of both, writing with the +pen of the Recording Angel, not of the Judge. What he or Thucydides +thought in each case can only be guessed at. They have presented the +facts without comment, and the facts tell their own tale, explain +themselves, carry with them the feelings they should evoke, and shine by +their own light, like the phosphorescence of the sea. + +Little thinking is needed to see that the direct, detached, objective +temper is the generative principle of the Greek achievement, for it is +the parent of science and philosophy, which are the children of a desire +to see things in themselves as they are, and not as the seer might wish +them to be. The effects of this temper in poetry can be appreciated by a +comparison of certain phenomena of our own literature which are absent +from Greek. The comparison will indicate, too, what modern writers can +learn from the Greeks, and enable us to judge whether the lessons are +needed. + +The habit of keeping the eye on the subject, which is the essence of +directness, discourages, and indeed excludes, conventionality, +sentimentalism, fancifulness, which prevent a writer from seeing and +recording life as it is. These failings are always with us, and as I +have given one instance of their working in Ben Jonson's epigram and +have discussed the matter elsewhere,[120] I shall pass to diseases which +are more particularly modern, and with which directness is equally at +war. + + [120] _The Greek Genius and its Meaning to us_, pp. 74 ff. + +The richness of the English language is in itself a danger. English, +like Latin, lends itself superbly to ranting, a capacity discovered by +the Elizabethans. Modern writers tend to more delicate excess, and have +exploited the musical quality of English. This is clear from such a +collection as the _Oxford Book of Victorian Verse_, which faithfully +represents the output of the age, and contains some fine poetry, but +also a very large percentage of what Horace called, _Versus inopes rerum +nugaeque canorae_. There is an intolerable deal of sack to a very little +bread among the imitators of Tennyson. To such rhetorical or musical +trifles no better antidote can be found than Greek literature, for there +is no rhetoric in it, and what melodious nothings it contained, were +parodied in its own age and have scantily survived to ours. In general +it avoided both by its directness. The rhetoric of Lucan or Byron, the +predominance of sound over sense in some of Shelley and much of +Swinburne arise because those poets shut their eyes to the real world +and become lost in the music of words. The Greek, starting with facts, +not with sounds or with feelings about facts, could not easily become +the victim of words. The temptation did not arise for him, or if it did, +his sin was easily detected. Herein he is a good model, especially for +poets who are apt to lose sight of the earth and pass into an unearthly +paradise of vague feelings. For the greatest poetry is the poetry of +things, not of words, and to whatever regions the Muse may take her +flight, she can only be safe if she starts from Earth, and keeps her +communication with it open. + +Directness is also a protection against that literature of egotism which +is the excess into which subjective poetry easily falls. Legitimate when +kept within bounds, the habit of putting oneself into what one writes +can become an offence, and from this offence English literature is not +free. No one can complain because Milton and Wordsworth are less +detached than Shakespeare or Sophocles; but the subjectivity of Byron or +Carlyle is very different. Their subject is continually darkened by the +shadow of their personality; it suffers a partial, at times a total, +eclipse. Childe Harold sees himself in all that he sees, projects +himself into Belgium, Athens and Rome, and colours the bluest skies with +the jaundiced hues of his temperament. This is almost equally true of +Carlyle's pupils, Ruskin and Froude, and, among the moderns, of a swarm +of minor poets and novelists, who display before the public the pageant +of their indignant or bleeding hearts. Egotism is a fault of manners as +much as of morals, and has its peculiar effect and its appropriate +penalty. Its effect is to distract a man's attention from major to minor +issues, from the large world to the small self; its penalty is that it +wearies its audience, and the next generation, if not its own, dislikes +the continual obtrusion of an element in which it has no interest. Hence +oblivion, often unjust, is the punishment which the egotist suffers. +Even our age, interested as it is in personalities, has little time to +spare for those of Byron or Carlyle; it is too busy with the characters +of its own contemporaries to trouble about those of its predecessors. +But no Greek writer is forgotten for this cause. Whatever their other +offences, the Greeks are free from literary egotism. Directness turned +their eyes to the external world, and taught them to see even themselves +from without. + +Egotism is a minor defect in English literature. To some it may even +seem to be a virtue. A more serious weakness, which our literature +shares with other modern literatures, is one-sidedness or incompleteness +of view, which reveals itself by a series of reactions, and in England +has taken the form of an oscillation between sentimentalism and a rather +cruel realism, the latter being dominant at the present time. These two +schools represent excesses of temperament, the one of generosity and +kindliness, the other of truth; and among our writers of genius Dickens +and Hardy typify them well. The one school desire in fiction to reward +their good characters and punish the bad, just as they would wish that +life should do; and truth is not allowed to thwart their benevolence or +their indignation. In defiance of all probability Micawber and Mr. Mell +make a success of life in Australia, though truth cries out that they +were born to be failures; while the foot of punishment moves more +swiftly and visibly in the pages of Dickens than it does in fact. Then +comes the veracious person, who, growing indignant at a travesty of life +that misleads the reader and insults truth, gives us the opposite +extreme in an imagined world where the shadows are deepened and the high +lights carefully blocked out. Scott and Dickens picture a world in which +at the end vice finds itself in the gutter while virtue marries the +heroine. Later, Thomas Hardy has given us _Jude the Obscure_ and _Tess +of the D'Urbervilles_.[121] Here is a protest, a redressing of the +balance, by an advocate who rises to supply a side of the case which has +been ignored. Yet once again Truth is violated, and by her sworn +servant; for the world that Hardy portrays is not the world as it is. +When Dickens makes Mr. Micawber the District Magistrate of Port +Middlebay, he is not representing life, but saying what he and his +audience would like to believe in order to feel comfortable when they +close the book. As a protest therefore against him in the next +generation comes Thomas Hardy, who after recording the miserable end of +Tess, writes 'The President of the immortals had ended his sport with +Tess'. In so writing he is no true recorder any more than was Dickens, +but the self-appointed Judge of a universe which he conceives to be +cruel. + + [121] In these novels and in _The Dynasts_ Mr. Hardy allows his + personal views to depress one side of the scales: in his lesser + novels he has often shown that he can hold the balance even. This + distinction should be borne in mind in all the criticisms of his + work, which I have ventured to make. + +Neither Dickens nor Hardy can be called unveracious writers; both give a +picture of life that is true up to a point. Hardy, in particular, errs +less by distortion than by omission; he sees one side of life, but at +the expense of another side; he fails to hold the balance fairly, and +lacks the large charity of the universe. Both writers are incomplete. No +one could say of them, what is completely true of most Greek writers and +largely true of all, that they see life steadily and see it whole. Still +less can this be said of their followers, who, after the fashion of +disciples, imitate and develop their defects, and oscillate between +sentimental falsity, and the starkness and brutality which have been +familiar in English literature during the last twenty years and in +French literature for a much longer period. None of these writers, not +even the best, is direct. Like Dickens, they consult their generous +hearts, or, worse, ask: 'Can truth be told without making the public +angry?' Or, like Hardy, they veil a didactic purpose under the name of +realism, and register a bitter personal protest against the cruelty of +life. In either case they narrow their view, and see the world through a +mist of temperament. + +This point may be illustrated by examining a famous passage from Homer, +and then asking how a sentimental and a realistic writer might have +treated it. Imagine the death of Hector in the hands of Dickens or +Hardy. The first most probably would not have permitted it to occur, or, +if he had, would have made Achilles the villain of the piece and +emphasized and developed the tragedy in the manner of his death scenes, +till he had wearied the reader with pathos. Confronted with such a +tragedy he would have given the rein to emotion. Mr. Hardy, we may +guess, would be impressed less by the pathos of the scene, than by the +savagery of Achilles and the misgovernment of a universe in which such +things were possible, and he would not have let these morals escape his +readers. By small touches, by stressing suitable incidents, he would +have made the tragedy more tragic, and the brutality more brutal. It is +thus that he has treated the death of Jude. By so doing, both Dickens +and Hardy in their different ways, would have been allowing their own +personalities rather than the facts to speak, and, seeing only one side +of the story, would have made it less complicated than life and less +complete. But in the _Iliad_ we see nothing of Homer's personality and +hear no voice but that of the facts. The story tells itself without the +heightening of artifice. The two men are brought before our +eyes--Hector, the last hope of Troy, with his wife and child waiting for +him at home--Achilles, mad with the memory of his dead friend. There is +no judgement and no comment, but only the thing as it was. + +To those who would maintain that Dickens or Hardy give an accurate +picture of the world, there are two answers. First, their world is not +the world as Shakespeare or Meredith sees it; this for many persons will +be a sufficient disproof of its reality. Second, the history of English +and French literatures has been for the last 150 years a history of +successive reactions. The classical school was followed by the +romantics, the romantics by the realists; each was a protest and a +reaction against its predecessor. These swerving movements must have a +cause. Now there are no reactions in literature unless there is some +excess to provoke them. The existence of a reaction is a symptom of +disease, and not only would it never take place apart from disease, but +there is always a chance that it may go too far; for as in the body, so +in the world of letters, a balance once disturbed is difficult to +restore. But Greek literature, unlike our own and unlike French, at no +stage developed by reaction. Its epic poets are followed by the lyrists +and these by the tragedians: tragedy passes into the New Comedy, which +is followed by the learned and artistic poetry of Alexandria. In prose +the unperiodic style of Herodotus is succeeded by the style of +Thucydides; while Plato and the various orators develop different types +of writing. None of these styles, however, and none of these writers, +are in reaction against one another. Some traces of reaction against +the Homeric outlook of Sophocles may perhaps be found in Euripides. But +this contrast lies between two individual writers and not between two +literary schools, and has no analogy with the relation of the romantic +to the classical or to the realist movements. It is far less marked, for +instance, than the contrast between Voltaire and Victor Hugo or that +between Victor Hugo and Flaubert. There is no reaction in the +development of Greek literature, because at no stage is there any excess +to react from; and there is no excess, because the Greek writers are +direct and objective, because they are mirrors that reflect life, not +imperfect lenses that distort it each according to its own imperfection. + +The literature of the Elizabethans here resembles Greek. It is indeed +more wayward, more fanciful, more personal, more luxuriant than the +Greek; but it is on the whole more disinterested, freer from any +didactic bent, more inclined to contemplate life for its own sake than +the literature of any succeeding epoch in England. Since the Puritans a +didactic strain has continually appeared in our writers. We have had +revolts and protests, and then, by reaction, more protests and revolts. +However admirable in morals, this Protestantism is injurious in +literature, for, like all rebellions, it ends in excess and destroys the +even-balanced temper which is essential to the creation of the greatest +literature. This didactic temper, often disguised as realism, has never +been stronger than in our own age, when many who might have found their +profession in the Churches are diverted to other paths and seek in +literature an outlet that in the past would have been found in the +pulpit. Messrs. Wells, Shaw, Galsworthy--to mention no others--are +parsons _manqués_, who were designed by nature to write not plays or +novels but sermons. Or rather they are dual personalities: clergyman and +creative writer have been combined in them and the clergyman has +corrupted the poet. The unsatisfied appetite for preaching which a +hundred years ago would have been quieted by writing an evangelical +tract, to-day issues in a novel or a play. The moral differs, the form +changes, the intention and temper are the same. + +It is ungrateful to cavil at this moralizing and didactic temper, which +animates a large part of the nation and is responsible for much of the +British achievement. But its place is in the world of action not in that +of letters, and it does not produce the greatest literature or the +truest thought. The Greeks might have gained by a greater infusion of +it: we, on the other hand, can learn something from their intellectual +disinterestedness which in political and social controversies would make +opposing views more intelligible and the path to truth easier and +plainer, in literature would free us from excesses that are followed by +reaction to a contrary excess, and in national life would guard us from +the materialism which besets an industrial and commercial age. It is not +confined to the Greeks; but by no people is the ideal of intellectual +truth more clearly and universally exhibited than by those who first +brought it into an indifferent world, and who built upon it their +literature and art no less than their science and philosophy. + + * * * * * + +The last quality of Greek literature of which I wish to speak is not one +which we should expect to find in combination with truthfulness; it is +certainly very rare in modern realists. Yet the Greek instinct for +beauty is beyond question. There is the evidence of Winckelmann, who, +living in a world that had forgotten Greek, rediscovered it; or of +Keats, who was not brought up to the familiarity with Greek that breeds +obtuseness and indifference, but made acquaintance with it when he was +of an age to judge. The impression made both on Keats and Winckelmann is +that of a new and surpassing beauty. There is the evidence of 'the +beautiful mythology of Greece',[122] the offspring of an untaught +folk-imagination, and so far richer in the quality of beauty than the +mythology of the North. Even in the sawdust of a mythological dictionary +the stories of Atalanta, Narcissus, Pygmalion, Orpheus and Eurydice, +Phaethon, Medusa keep their magic. + + [122] Keats, _Preface to Endymion_. + +The following extract from the hymn of Demeter may illustrate this +beauty, though it is not one of the greatest passages of Greek +literature and its writer is unknown. It is the story of the Earth +Mother and her daughter Persephone: + + ἡν Αιδωνευς + ἡρπαξεν, δωκεν δε βαρυκτυπος ευρυοπα Ζευς, + παιζουσαν κουρησι συν Ωκεανου βαθυκολποις + ανθεα τ' αινυμενην, ῥοδα και κροκον ηδ' ια καλα + λειμων' αμ μαλακον και αγαλλιδας ηδ' ὑακινθον + ναρκισσον θ', ὁν φυσε δολον καλυκωπιδι κουρη + Γαια Διος βουλησι χαριζομενη Πολυδεκτη, + θαυμαστον γανοωντα· σεβας το γε πασιν ιδεσθαι + αθανατοις τε θεοις ηδε θνητοις ανθρωποις· + του και απο ῥιζης ἑκατον καρα εξεπεφυκει, + κωζ' ἡδιστ' οδμη, πας δ' ουρανος ευρυς ὑπερθε + γαια τε πας' εγελασσε και ἁλμυρον οιδμα θαλασσης. + ἡ δ' αρα θαμβησας' ωρεξατο χερσιν ἁμ' αμφω + καλον αθυρμα λαβειν· χανε δε χθων ευρυαγυια + Νυσιον αμ πεδιον, τη ορουσεν αναξ Πολυδεγμων + ἱπποις αθανατοισι[123] + + {hên Aidôneus + hêrpaxen, dôken de baryktypos euryopa Zeus, + paizousan kourêsi syn Ôkeanou bathykolpois + anthea t' ainymenên, rhoda kai krokon êd' ia kala + leimôn' am malakon kai agallidas êd' hyakinthon + narkisson th', hon physe dolon kalukôpidi kourê + Gaia Dios boulêsi charizomenê Polydektê, + thaumaston ganoônta; sebas to ge pasin idesthai + athanatois te theois êde thnêtois anthrôpois; + tou kai apo rhizês hekaton kara exepephykei, + kôz' hêdist' odmê, pas d' ouranos eurys hyperthe + gaia te pas' egelasse kai halmyron oidma thalassês. + hê d' ara thambêsas' ôrexato chersin ham' amphô + kalon athyrma labein; chane de chthôn euryagyia + Nysion am pedion, tê orousen anax Polydegmôn + hippois athanatoisi}. + + [123] _Hymn to Demeter_, l. 2 ff. The translation is mainly from + Pater, _Greek Studies_. 'Whom, by the consent of far-seeing, + deep-thundering Zeus, Aidoneus carried away, as she played with the + deep-bosomed daughters of Ocean, gathering flowers in a meadow of + soft grass and roses and crocus and fair violets and iris and + hyacinths and the strange glory of the narcissus which the Earth, + favouring the desire of Aidoneus, brought forth to snare the + flower-like girl. A wonder it was to all, immortal gods and mortal + men. A hundred blossoms grew up from the roots of it, and very sweet + was its scent, and the broad sky above, and all the earth and the + salt wave of the sea laughed to see it. She in wonder stretched out + her two hands to take the lovely plaything: thereupon the wide-wayed + earth opened in the Nysian plain and the king of the great nation of + the dead sprang out with his immortal horses.' + +Turn from this to some parallel poem in English literature, such as +_Oenone_ or _Tithonus_. Beautiful as Tennyson is, the Greek has a better +beauty, a beauty not of words or metaphors or highly-wrought art, but +simpler, more spontaneous and more instinctive, as though not man but +nature herself was speaking. Two writers, who are qualified to judge by +being themselves among the great poets of the world, and who knew and +appreciated other literatures, but speak in this way about Greek alone, +have testified to the uniqueness of this beauty. Goethe says stiffly but +precisely: 'in the presence of antiquity the mind feels itself placed in +the most ideal state of nature; and even to this day the Homeric hymns +have the power of freeing us, at any rate, for moments, from the +terrible burden which the tradition of many hundreds of years has rolled +upon us.' In these words Goethe has touched on the simplicity and the +naturalness of Greek beauty, in contrast to the more exotic and +elaborate beauty of which mediaeval and modern art and literature are +full. Keats writing about the Grecian urn also had in his mind the +liberating power of Greek beauty: + + Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought + As doth eternity; Cold Pastoral! + When old age shall this generation waste + Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe + Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst, + 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'--that is all + Ye know on earth and all ye need to know. + +These words point to another trait of Greek beauty, which any one who +has seen Greek statues must have felt: it does not provoke speculation +just as it does not excite desire, because no elements are mingled with +it that might stir such feelings. It has no admixture, but is mere +beauty, sought for itself. + +Not only is Greek beauty different in quality from our own, but it is +more abundant. This surely would be the verdict of an impartial critic +who compared Homer, the lyrists, the tragedians, Plato, Theocritus, the +epigrammatists, with the corresponding names in modern literatures. It +amounts to a different way of viewing the world; the Greeks were more +sensitive to beauty than we are, just as some people are more sensitive +than others to colours or sounds, to moral or intellectual issues. This +is curiously illustrated in their treatment of tragic themes. There is +no want of tragedy in Homer or the dramatists--their view of life is +probably darker than our own--and they have been praised for a pessimism +that faced and admitted the black truth. Yet the cloud of evil is +continually broken by rays of beauty. Thus Homer lights up the tragic +parting of Hector and Andromache by the story of the child and the +nodding plumes, yet does not use the incident, as many writers would +have used it, to heighten the tragedy, which indeed it neither +emphasizes nor diminishes: it is merely a gratuitous touch of delight in +children, as accidental and natural as the brighter moments which, in +life if not in realistic novels, diversify the darkest hours. Thus too +Aeschylus preludes the bloody slaughter of Salamis with the white horses +of the dawn, the echoes in the cliffs, the foam whitening beneath the +oars, and when he speaks of the island where the Persians are butchered, +does not forget the dances in which Pan rejoiced there of old. Thus, +again, one of the most tragic moments in the _Hippolytus_ is followed by +the song, + + Could I take me to some cavern for mine hiding, + In the hill-tops where the Sun scarce hath trod; + Or a cloud make the home of mine abiding, + As a bird among the bird-droves of God! + Could I wing me to my rest amid the roar + Of the deep Adriatic on the shore, + Where the water of Eridanus is clear, + And Phaëthon's sad sisters by his grave + Weep into the river, and each tear + Gleams, a drop of amber, in the wave.[124] + + [124] ll. 732 f. (tr. Murray). + +The union of beauty and tragedy may be a paradox, but no reader can miss +its power. The mere story of Hector's death as told by Homer is +poignant, even when read in an English translation: the magic of the +original language and metre doubles the effect. The combination of these +two apparently inconsistent things, which is one of the marks of Greek +poetry, is, of course, found in other literatures; the description of +Ophelia's death in _Hamlet_ is an instance of it. But no drama except +Greek has that regular interweaving of tragedy with exquisite lyrics by +which some of its most powerful effects are secured. + +Effect is the wrong word to use, for we have here no literary trick, but +a view of life, which is naturally complete and clearsighted, which is +sensitive to the beauty that no evil can destroy, which sees the +splendour in tragedy itself, and remembers that though the days of +darkness are many it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun. +This philosophy, implied throughout Greek literature, commends it to +many people. Those who disagree with the philosophy will not quarrel +with the beauty itself. Hellenism is one of the forces which are +continually being buried and re-found, and which, like talismans, have a +disturbing power when they fall afresh into human hands. Those who read +the literature of the age which rediscovered Greek will see that it +brought above all a sense of liberation and expansion. At the +Renaissance as in the eighteenth century, Greece found the world in +chains, and broke them and threw down the prison walls. The fetters of +the two epochs were different, but freedom was brought, at the +Renaissance partly, and in the age of Winckelmann entirely, by the +vision of beauty which Greece exhibited. Our own age has many chains and +knows well the burden of which Goethe spoke. It has multiplied ugliness +far faster than beauty, and its writers, prolific, interesting, and +thoughtful as they are, do not help it here. It may well find, as other +ages have found, in this quality of Greek literature a healing and +liberating power. + + * * * * * + +English literature is surpassed by none, but its defects or dangers are +at points where Greek is strong. Greek simplicity recalls us to the +central interests of the human heart. Greek truthfulness is a challenge +to see the world as it is and shun the emptiness of mere music, the +falsities of rhetoric or sentiment, the incompleteness of writers who, +instead of seeing life as a whole, ignore or emphasize a part of it as +their own sympathies dictate. Greek beauty is a memorial of an aspect of +the universe to which ages of thought are often blind. Greek technique +is a lesson in 'form' and a reminder of its place in literature. + +Nor is the study of Greek a danger to our national genius. Contact with +highly developed foreign models may warp or cramp a literature in its +infancy, but cannot harm it when full grown and robust. The native +character is then too firmly established to be corrupted, and it is pure +gain to have another standard for comparison, for detection of +weaknesses and their cure. A reference to English literature will +support this view and show that though the influence of Greek there has +often been great, it has not been distorting. Consider the English poets +who owe most to Greece--Milton, Gray, Shelley, Keats, Landor, Tennyson, +Matthew Arnold, Swinburne, Bridges. It would puzzle any critic to find a +common denominator between these men, or to trace back to Greece any +universal feature in their poetry, except perhaps perfection of form. +Technical perfection is not so serious or frequent a vice in English +writers, that it can be complained of, and even this common element +vanishes, if we add to the poets already quoted the Brownings, who +prized and understood Greek and the Greek spirit as well as any of them. + +At first sight it may seem strange that Shelley and Keats, Arnold and +Swinburne, who were not merely passionate admirers of Greece but drew +their chief inspiration from her, should be so different in style and +matter. The explanation is simple. Some influences are tyrannous; they +impose themselves, they dominate, they enslave. But there is a better +and rarer type of influence, which stimulates and inspires yet leaves +the poet free to develop his own genius with enlarged horizons and +quickened sensibilities. Greek influence on our writers has been of this +kind; perhaps because its literature is singularly free from the +artifice and mannerism which lend themselves to mimicry and seems like +Nature with her many voices speaking. + +R. W. LIVINGSTONE. + + + + +HISTORY + + +I + +_The Relationship between Ancient Greek and Modern Western Civilization_ + +Ancient Greek society perished at least as long ago as the seventh +century A. D. Many historians would date its death a good many centuries +earlier, and all would agree that even if there are symptoms that life +still lingered in the body down to this time, its mental and physical +energies had long failed, and that the change from lethargy to death was +hardly perceptible when it came. Thus even on the most cautious +reckoning, there is an interval of thirteen centuries between the close +of Greek history and our own times, and the great age of Greek +history--the time when Ancient Greek society was in its prime, when it +was shaping its own destiny and deflecting the destiny of its +neighbours--is separated from our generation by more than two thousand +years. What legacy has come down, through these great periods of time, +from Ancient Greek society to the contemporary world? Before trying to +answer this big question, let us consider a smaller one: What is the +legacy of Ancient Greek History to our own society? That portion of +contemporary humanity which inhabits Western Europe and America +constitutes a specific society, for which the most convenient name is +'Western Civilization', and this society has a relationship with Ancient +Greek society which other contemporary societies--for instance, those of +Islam, India, and China--have not. It is its child. + +This description of the relationship between Ancient Greece and the +modern Western world may be something more than a metaphor, for +societies like individuals are living creatures, and may therefore be +expected to exhibit the same phenomena. At any rate the metaphor +illustrates the facts. To begin with, the histories of the two societies +overlap. The origins of modern Western society may be traced back a +century or two before the Christian era, when the lands and races of +Western Europe came into contact with the Levant, where Greek society +had grown up and was then in its maturity. The germ of Western society +first developed in the body of Greek society, like a child in the womb. +The Roman Empire was the period of pregnancy during which the new life +was sheltered and nurtured by the old. The 'Dark Age' was the crisis of +birth, in which the child broke away from its parent and emerged as a +separate, though naked and helpless, individual. The Middle Ages were +the period of childhood, in which the new creature, though immature, +found itself able to live and grow independently. The fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, with their marked characteristics of transition, +may stand for puberty, and the centuries since the year 1500 for our +prime. The metaphor works out sufficiently well to throw light on our +particular problem: the legacy bequeathed to the Modern West by Ancient +Greece. + +Children 'inherit' from their parents in several senses of the word. +There are features and instincts physically transmitted from the one to +the other. There are imitations in early childhood of the parent's +speech and gesture which are not perhaps strictly predetermined by the +relationship, but which are yet performed subconsciously and are in fact +so inevitable that the child is never aware that it is exercising choice +in the matter. And there is deliberate and conscious imitation at a +later stage when the child is sufficiently mature to appreciate its +parent's character. These several forms of 'legacy' from parent to child +differ primarily in the extent to which the acceptance and use of them +depends upon the child's own will, and it will probably be admitted that +the legacies which are the less certain to be transmitted are also the +more important if the transmission happens to take place. For example, a +child's life and character are more affected by deliberate imitation of +its parent at a relatively advanced age than by the unchosen inheritance +of some particular colour of hair and eye or shape of chin or pitch of +temperament. On the other hand, while the inheritance of these latter +characteristics from one among a limited number of ancestral strains is +inevitable, the voluntary legacy may never be transmitted at all. The +child will not claim it unless he knows his parent and admires or +respects him. The parent's premature death or removal or the lack of +sufficient sympathy between the parent and the child can in this case +inhibit the transmission, and the potential legacy, with its momentous +possibilities of influence upon the child's career, will never in fact +be bequeathed. + +These considerations may guide us in an analysis of the legacy which we +have received from our parent society--the civilization of Ancient +Greece. First, has Ancient Greece transmitted to us anything comparable +to the physical and psychological legacy of an individual human parent +to her child? This is a difficult question for us to answer, just as it +is difficult for members of the same family to appreciate the 'family +likeness' between them. A Moslem or Hindu or Chinaman could judge better +than we. But it is certainly possible that the comparative similarity of +climatic conditions and the comparative unity of racial stock has +created a closer relationship between these two societies than between +either one of them and any other. The poetry and philosophy and social +life and political institutions of Ancient Greece and the Modern West +may conceivably constitute a single species when contrasted with the +institutions of other civilizations. A modern West European or American +may have a greater innate appreciation for Homer than for the Old +Testament or for Sokrates than for Buddha or Confucius. The parallel +which historians so often draw, or imply, between the conflict of +Ancient Greece with the Ancient East and that of the Modern West with +the Modern East may rest on a real kinship between the two Occidental +civilizations as contrasted with their respective Oriental neighbours. +But this is uncertain and on the whole unprofitable ground. When we come +to the 'subconsciously chosen' type of legacy, the analogy with the +relationship between parent and child becomes more evident. + +Legacies of this type from Ancient Greek society are prominent in the +Middle Ages--the childhood of modern Western civilization which followed +the 'Dark Age' crisis of birth. One of the first needs of our young +Western society as it struggled to its feet was a symbol of its +unity--something corresponding to the attainment of self-consciousness +by the individual human being--and for this it borrowed the last +constructive idea of the Ancient Greek world. The mediaeval 'Holy Roman +Empire' had quite a different purpose and function, in the childhood of +modern Western civilization, from the purpose and function of the Roman +Empire in the old age of Ancient Greece. But the young civilization did +not think of inventing a new institution for its individual needs. In +its subconscious pursuit of its own development it conceived itself to +be reviving one of the customs of its venerable parent. The political +thinkers of Charlemagne's day never imagined that the idea of world +unity could be embodied in any other form. + +Again, a century or so later, certain portions of Western society, +especially the populations of North and Central Italy and the Low +Countries, had outdistanced the rest in economic development and needed +institutions of local self-government to give their economic vitality +free play. In this case, again, Western civilization reverted to an +Ancient Greek institution and revived the 'city-state'. A little later +still, the rapidly growing and differentiating body of Western +civilization was impelled towards territorial expansion, and sought it, +like Ancient Greece in a similar period, round the shores of the +Mediterranean. This mediaeval movement of expansion, which is commonly +called the Crusades, but which made itself felt in Spain and Sicily and +the Aegean as well as in the 'Holy Land', is a remarkable parallel to +the propagation of Ancient Greek city-states round the same shores +between about 750 and 600 B. C. In drifting back upon the Mediterranean, +the mediaeval West was searching for new realms to conquer, but it was +really captured by the romance of its ancestral home. + +Here, then, are three prominent features in mediaeval Western +history--the Holy Roman Empire, the Flemish and Italian communes, and +the Crusades--which were legacies from Ancient Greek history in the +sense of being subconscious reversions to the habits of the parent +society. But have these mediaeval legacies from Ancient Greece been +really important constituents in our history viewed as a whole? Have +they not rather been false growths which led to little or nothing? The +Holy Roman Empire was never more than a mirage. The sense of unity in +the modern Western world is derived not from this but from a really +original institution, the early Papal Church, in which any legacy from +Ancient Greece would be hard to discern. The national states of modern +Europe and America are derived not from mediaeval Ghent or Bruges or +Florence or Venice but from the new, though clumsy, feudal communities +of mediaeval England and France. And the expansion of Western society +has not followed the direction indicated by the Crusades. The false +trail of the Mediterranean was practically abandoned after less than +three centuries' trial. The true domain of modern Western civilization +has been found in regions which Ancient Greece hardly explored: Northern +Germany and Scandinavia and the British Isles, the North Sea and the +Baltic, the Atlantic and the continent of America. Thus our mediaeval +legacies from Ancient Greece--the subconscious reversions of +childhood--are historical curiosities rather than vital links between +the two civilizations. Our really important legacy from Ancient Greece +was adopted with full consciousness and deliberation when we stood on +the threshold of our own maturity. + +The legacy of this third type which we have received from Ancient Greece +has been given the general name of the Renaissance. It was a determined +and successful attempt, on the part of our society, to learn everything +that the literary and artistic remains of our great predecessor could +teach us. It lay within our choice to study these remains or to pass +them by, and the fact that we chose to study them has been one of the +greatest and the most fortunate decisions in the career of our +civilization. The several aspects of this acceptance of what Ancient +Greece had to offer have been treated already in the other chapters in +this volume. Here it is merely necessary to point out that the +Renaissance was a study and assimilation not only of Ancient Greek +literature and art, but of architecture, natural science, mathematics, +philosophy, political ideas, and all the other higher expressions of a +great society. The absorption of this vast current of life largely +accounts for the wonderful impetus which has revealed itself in Western +civilization during the last four centuries. + +Has the current now spent its force? Has the legacy adopted four +centuries ago been used up and exhausted? Under the inspiration of +Ancient Greece, has the modern West now created a literature, art, +architecture, science, mathematics, philosophy, and political thought +which equal or surpass the Ancient patterns and turn them from an +inspiration into an encumbrance? That seems to be the fundamental +question behind the controversy about the study of Ancient Greek life in +England to-day. Perhaps the answer may be found--if we may go back to +our metaphor--in the uniqueness of the individual personality. + +If one considers the relations of a parent and child, or indeed of any +two human beings, it is evident that the one could never exhaust all +that could be learnt from the personality of the other. The one might +acquire every physical, mental, and moral attainment that the other +could display, and yet the other's unique individuality would remain--an +inexhaustible subject of study, throwing perpetual new light upon the +life of the observer himself and of his fellow human beings. This is +true of any two human beings, but if the two happen to be people of +commanding character and genius it becomes a truism which it would be +almost ludicrous to question. Let us apply this to the study not of one +individual but of one society by another, and let us take the case in +point, in which the two societies happen to be great civilizations. The +study of a great civilization has a unique value, not merely for members +of another civilization which stands to it in the relation of child to +parent, but for every seeker after knowledge who has a civilization of +his own. This ultimate and most precious legacy of Ancient Greece is at +the disposal of Moslems, Hindus, and Chinese, as well as Westerners. For +receiving it there are two qualifications: a good understanding and an +open mind. + + +II + +_Ancient Greek Civilization as a Work of Art_ + +Civilizations are the greatest and the rarest achievements of human +society. Innumerable societies have been coming into being and perishing +during many hundreds of thousands of years, and hardly any of them have +created civilizations. One can count the civilizations on one's fingers. +We have had perhaps three in Europe: the Minoan in the Aegean Islands +(the dates 4000-1100 B. C. roughly cover its history); the Greek or +Graeco-Roman round the coasts of the Mediterranean (its history extends +between the eleventh century B. C. and the seventh century A. D.); and +our modern Western civilization round the coasts of the Atlantic, which +began to emerge from twilight in the eighth century A. D. and is still +in existence. Then there are the ancient civilizations of Egypt and +Lower Mesopotamia, which were first dominated by Ancient Greece and then +amalgamated into the single Middle Eastern civilization of Islam; and +there are the civilizations of India and China. Even if we count as +civilizations the societies existing in Mexico and Peru before the +Spanish Conquest, the total number of known independent civilizations, +compared with the total number of known human societies, is very small. +And it is so because the achievement is astonishingly difficult. There +are two constant factors in social life--the spirit of man and its +environment. Social life is the relation between them, and life only +rises to the height of civilization when the spirit of man is the +dominant partner in the relationship--when instead of being moulded by +the environment (as it is in the tropical forests of Central Africa and +Brazil), or simply holding its own against the environment in a kind of +equilibrium (as it does on the steppes of Central Asia or Arabia, among +the nomads), it moulds the environment to its own purpose, or +'expresses' itself by 'impressing' itself upon the world. The study of a +civilization is not different in kind from the study of a literature. In +both cases one is studying a creation of the spirit of man, or, in more +familiar terms, a work of art. + +Civilization is a work of art--in the literal meaning of the phrase and +not merely by a metaphor. It is true that works of art are made by +individuals, civilization by a society. But what work of art is there in +which the individual artist owes nothing to others? And a civilization, +the work of countless individuals and many generations, differs in this +respect from a poem or a statue not in kind but only in degree. It is a +social work of art, expressed in social action, like a ritual or a +play. One cannot describe it better than by calling it a tragedy with a +plot, and history is the plot of the tragedy of civilization. + +Students of the drama, from Aristotle onwards, seem to agree that nearly +all the great tragedies in literature are expositions of quite a few +fundamental plots. And it is possible that the great tragedies of +history--that is, the great civilizations that have been created by the +spirit of man--may all reveal the same plot, if we analyse them rightly. +Each civilization--for instance, the civilization of Mediaeval and +Modern Europe and again that of Ancient Greece--is probably a variant of +a single theme. And to study the plot of civilization in a great +exposition of it--like the Hellenic exposition or our own Western +exposition--is surely the right goal of a humane education. + +But of course one asks: Why study Ancient Hellenic civilization rather +than ours? The study of any one civilization is so complex, it demands +so many preliminary and subordinate studies--linguistic, institutional, +economic, psychological--that it is likely to absorb all one's energies. +The greatest historians have generally confined themselves to the study +of a single civilization, and the great Greek historians--Herodotus, +Thucydides, and Polybius--concentrated on their own, and only studied +others in so far as their own came into contact with them. Clearly, +people who are going to be historians, not for life, but as an education +for life, must make their choice. They must practically confine +themselves to studying one civilization if they are to reap the fruits +of study at all, and in this case it is natural to ask: Why study +Hellenism rather than our own history? There are two obvious arguments +in favour of studying modern history. It seems more familiar and it +seems more useful. And it would be a mistake to misrepresent these +arguments by stating them only in their cruder forms. 'Familiar' does +not mean 'easy', and to say that modern history seems more useful than +ancient does not mean that the study of it is a closer approximation to +a Pelman course. There is an exceedingly crude view of education among +some people just now--perhaps it is largely due to the war, and may +disappear like other ugly effects of the war--which inclines to +concentrate education on applied chemistry, say, or engineering, with a +vague idea that people whose education has been devoted to these +subjects will be more capable of competing with foreigners in the dye +industry or of working in munition factories in the next emergency. In +the same way, conceivably, concentration on modern history might be +supposed to equip a student for securing concessions abroad for a firm, +or for winning a parliamentary election. Of course, this attitude, +though it is rather widespread just now, is absurd. The fallacy lies in +confusing the general theoretical knowledge of a subject acquired +through being educated in it with the technical knowledge and personal +experience which one must have to turn the same subject to practical +account in after life. There is no difference of opinion on this point +between 'humanists' and 'scientists'. The issue is between people who do +not appreciate the value of the pursuit of knowledge as an end in +itself, and those who do appreciate it and who therefore understand what +education means. True lovers of knowledge and true believers in +education will be found on the same side in this controversy, whether +the subject of their study happens to be the spirit of man or the laws +of its environment. But apart from that crude utilitarianism, which is +as unscientific as it is un-humane, a serious argument for studying +modern rather than ancient history can also be stated from the humane +and the scientific point of view. It may be argued that the direct +experience we have of our own civilization makes it possible for us to +have a deeper, and therefore a more humane and scientific, understanding +of it than we can ever have of Ancient Greece. And one might go on to +argue, on grounds of humanism alone, that such a comprehension of the +character and origins of our civilization would have a more profound +humanizing influence upon its development than a less intimate study of +a different civilization could produce. This argument is bound to appeal +to the generation which has experienced the war. The war is obviously +one of the great crises of our civilization. It is like a conflagration +lighting up the dim past and throwing it into perspective. The war makes +it impossible for us to take our own history for granted. We are bound +to inquire into the causes of such an astonishing catastrophe, and as +soon as we do that we find ourselves inquiring into the evolution of +Western Civilization since it emerged from the Dark Age. The shock of +the Peloponnesian War gave just the same intellectual stimulus to +Thucydides, and made him preface his history of that war with a critical +analysis, brief but unsurpassed, of the origins of Hellenic +civilization--the famous introductory chapters of Book I. May not these +chapters point the road for us and counsel us to concentrate upon the +study of our own history? + +This question deserves very serious consideration, not merely from the +utilitarian, but from the scientific and humane point of view. But the +answer is not a foregone conclusion. There is a case for studying the +civilization of Ancient Greece which can be summed up in four points, as +follows: + +(i) In Greek history the plot of civilization has been worked out to its +conclusion. We can sit as spectators through the whole play; we can say: +'This or that is the crisis; from this point onwards the end is +inevitable; or if this actor had acted otherwise in those circumstances +the issue would not nave been the same.' We can grasp the structure of +the tragedy and divide it into acts. But in our own history we are like +players in the middle of the piece, and though we may be able to say +'This is the third act or the fourth act', we cannot say 'This is the +last act or the last but one'. We cannot foretell the future; the work +of art we are studying is incomplete, and therefore we cannot possibly +apprehend it as an artistic whole, however vivid may be our experience +of isolated scenes and situations. The first point in favour of Greek +history is its completeness and its true perspective from our point of +view. + +(ii) The second is that the historical experience of the Greeks has been +more finely expressed than ours. Its expression is in all Greek art and +literature--for it is a great mistake to suppose that historical +experience is expressed in so-called historical records alone. The great +poets of Greece are of as much assistance in understanding the mental +history of Greece (which is after all the essential element in any +history) as the philosophers and historians. And Greek historical +experience or mental history is better expressed in Greek literature +than ours is in the literature of modern Europe. Without attempting to +compare the two literatures as literatures it can be said with some +confidence that the surviving masterpieces of Greek literature give a +better insight into the subjective side of Greek history--into the +emotions and speculations which arose out of the vicissitudes of Greek +society and were its most splendid creations--than any insight into the +subjective side of modern history which we can obtain by studying it +through modern literature. + +(iii) The third point is expressed in the concluding phrase of +Aristotle's definition of tragedy (_Poetics_, vi. 2). 'Tragedy', he +says, 'is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a +certain magnitude ... through pity and fear effecting the proper +καθαρσις {katharsis} or purgation, of these emotions.' (Butcher's +translation.) This word καθαρσις {katharsis}--purgation, purification, +cleansing, discharge--has been the subject of interminable controversy +among scholars, but any one acquainted with Ancient Greek literature who +has lived through the war will understand what it means. Certainly the +writer found, in the worst moments of the war, that passages from the +classics--some line of Aeschylus or Lucretius or Virgil, or the sense of +some speech in Thucydides, or the impression of some mood of bitterness +or serenity in a dialogue of Plato--would come into his mind and give +him relief. These men had travelled along the road on which our feet +were set; they had travelled it farther than we, travelled it to the +end; and the wisdom of greater experience and the poignancy of greater +suffering than ours was expressed in the beauty of their words. In the +writer's personal experience that relief was obtained from acquaintance +with Greek civilization as expressed in Greek literature. It put one in +communication with a different civilization from our own--with people +who had experienced all and more than we had experienced, and who were +now at peace beyond the world of time and change. Καθαρσις {Katharsis}, +then, is the emotional value which is peculiar to the study of a +different civilization, and which one cannot get, at any rate with the +same intensity, by the study of his own. + +(iv) This emotional value has its intellectual counterpart in the +comparative method of study, which one gets by studying, not his own +circumstances, but circumstances comparable to, without being identical +with, his own. This is a commonplace in the field of language. The study +of Ancient Greek is generally admitted to have more educative value for +an Englishman than the study of modern French or German, because Greek +and English embody the fundamental principles of human language in +entirely independent forms of expression, while French and English, in +addition to the elements common to all language, share the special +background of the Bible and the Classics, which have given them an +extensive common stock of phraseology and imagery. This applies equally +to the study of civilization. One learns more by studying Ancient Greek +religion and comparing it with Christianity than by studying +Christianity in ignorance of other religious phenomena; and one learns +more about institutions by studying the Greek city-state and comparing +it with the modern national state than by merely studying the evolution +of the national state in modern Europe. If we take utility to mean +intellectual and not practical utility--and as humanists and scientists +we do--we may claim without paradox that the study of Greek civilization +is valuable just because it is not our own. + +These, then, are four points in favour of Greek history: we possess the +whole tragedy, it is a magnificent expression of the plot, and it has a +peculiar emotional value and a peculiar intellectual value which the +drama in which we ourselves are actors cannot have for us. + +At this point it is necessary to give a sketch of the plot of Greek +history--every one must make his own sketch; the writer offers his to +provoke the reader to make his own--and then to illustrate the second +point, the beauty of the expression, by quoting half a dozen passages +from ancient authors. The other two points--the cathartic and the +comparative value of Greek history--are matters of personal experience. +I have little doubt that the reader will experience them himself if he +takes up this study seriously and from a broad point of view. + + +III + +_The Plot of Ancient Greek Civilization_ + +The genesis of Ancient Greek civilization is certainly later than the +twelfth century B. C., when Minoan civilization, its predecessor, was +still in process of dissolution; and the termination of Ancient Greek +civilization must certainly be placed before the eighth century A. D., +when modern Western civilization, its successor, had already come into +being. Between these extreme points we cannot exactly date its beginning +and end, but we can see that it covers a period of seventeen or eighteen +centuries. + +It is easier to divide the tragedy into acts. We can at once discern two +dramatic crises--the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War and the +foundation of the Roman Empire. We can for convenience take precise +dates--431 B. C. and 31 B. C.--and group the action into three acts or +phases, one before, one between, and one after these critical moments. + +It is best to give the analysis in tabular form: + +_Act I_ (11th cent.-431 B. C.). + + 1. Synoikismos (formation of the city-state, the cell of Greek + society), 11th cent.-750 B. C. + + 2. Colonization (propagation of the city-state round the + Mediterranean), 750-600 B. C. + + 3. Economic revolution (change from extensive to intensive growth), + 600-500 B. C. + + 4. Confederation (repulse of Oriental universal empire and creation + of an inter-state federation, the Delian League), 500-431 B. C. + + +_Act II_ (431 B. C.-31 B. C.). + + 1. The Greek wars (failure of inter-state federation), 431-355 B. + C. + + 2. The Oriental wars (the superman, conquest of the East, struggle + for the spoils, barbarian invasion), 355-272 B. C. + + 3. The first rally (change of scale and fresh experiments in + federation--Seleucid Asia, Roman Italy, Aetolian and Achaean + 'United States'), 272-218 B. C. + + 4. The Roman wars (destruction of four great powers by one; + devastation of the Mediterranean world), 218-146 B. C. + + 5. The class wars (capitalism, bolshevism, Napoleonism), 146-31 B. + C. + + +_Act III_ (31 B. C.-7th cent. A. D.). + + 1. The second rally (final experiment in federation--compromise + between city-state autonomy and capitalistic centralization), 31 + B. C.-A. D. 180. + + 2. The first dissolution (external front broken by tribesmen, + internal by Christianity), A. D. 180-284. + + 3. The final rally (Constantine τον δημον προσεταιριζεται {ton dêmon + prosetairizetai}--tribesmen on to the land, bishops into the + bureaucracy), A. D. 284-378. + + 4. The final dissolution (break of tradition), A. D. 378-7th cent. + +This analysis is and must be subjective. Every one has to make his own, +just as every one has to apprehend for himself the form of a work of +art. But however the historian may analyse the plot and group it into +acts, it must be borne in mind that the action is continuous, and that +the first emergence of the Greek city-state in the Aegean and the last +traces of municipal self-government in the Roman Empire are phases in +the history of a single civilization. It may seem a paradox to call this +civilization a unity. But the study of Greek and Latin literature leaves +no doubt in one's mind that the difference of language there is less +significant than the unity of form, and that one is really dealing with +a single literature, the Hellenic, which in many of its branches was +imitated and propagated in the Latin language, just as it was to a +lesser extent in Hebrew, or later on in Syriac and Arabic. The unity is +even more apparent when, instead of confining our attention to +literature, we regard the whole field of civilization. It is not really +possible to draw a distinction between Greek history and Roman history. +At most one can say that at some point Greek history enters on a phase +which it may be convenient to distinguish verbally by connecting it with +the name of Rome. To take the case of the Roman Empire--the reader may +possibly have been surprised to find the Roman Empire treated as the +third act in the tragedy of Greece; yet when one studies the Empire one +finds that it was essentially a Greek institution. Institutionally it +was at bottom a federation of city-states, a solution of the political +problem with which Greek society had been wrestling since the fifth +century B. C. And even the non-municipal element, the centralized +bureaucratic organization which Augustus spread like a fine, almost +impalpable net to hold his federation of municipalities together, was +largely a fruit of Greek administrative experience. As papyrology +reveals the administrative system of the Ptolemaic Dynasty--the Greek +successors of Alexander who preceded the Caesars in the government of +Egypt--we are learning that even those institutions of the Empire which +have been regarded as most un-Greek may have been borrowed through a +Greek intermediary. Imperial jurisprudence, again, interpreted Roman +municipal law into the law of a civilization by reading into it the +principles of Greek moral philosophy. And Greek, not Latin, was still +the language in which most of the greatest literature of the Imperial +period was written. One need only mention works which are still widely +read and which have influenced our own civilization--Plutarch's _Lives_, +Marcus Aurelius' _Meditations_, and the New Testament. They are all +written in Greek, and who will venture to assert that the age in which +they were written falls outside Greek history, or that the social +experience which produced them was not an act in the tragedy of Hellenic +civilization? Even statistically the Empire was more Greek than anything +else. Probably a considerable majority of its inhabitants spoke Greek as +a lingua franca, if not as their mother-tongue. Nearly all the great +industrial and commercial centres were in the Greek or Hellenized +provinces. Possibly, during the first two centuries of the Empire, more +Greek was spoken than Latin by the proletariat of Rome itself. The Greek +core of the Roman Empire played the part of Western Europe in the modern +world. The Latinized provinces were thinly populated, backward, and only +superficially initiated into the fraternity of civilization. Latinized +Spain and Africa were the South America, Latinized Gaul and Britain the +Russia of the Ancient Greek world. The pulse of the Empire was driven +by a Greek heart, and it beat comparatively feebly in the non-Greek +extremities. + + +IV + +_The Literary Expression of the Plot_ + +And now, after having suggested a reading of the plot, it is time to let +the actors speak for themselves. There is only space to quote half a +dozen passages, but they have been chosen to illustrate the critical +scenes and situations in the drama as it has been sketched out, and they +may persuade the reader that there is something to be said for the +present interpretation. + +We shall not dwell on the period I have called the first act--that is, +the period before 431 B. C. But the reader is recommended, again, not to +lay aside the Greek poets when he takes up the Greek historians. Homer +will reveal more of the opening scenes than Herodotus; and the +exaltation of spirit produced by the repulse of the Persians, and +expressed institutionally in the foundation of the Delian League, can +hardly be realized emotionally without the poetry of Aeschylus. But the +philosophers and scientists are indispensable too. Professor Burnet's +_Early Greek Philosophy_, or his _Greek Philosophy from Thales to +Plato_, throws light on history and not merely on the Greek theory of +knowledge. And the reader should make acquaintance with the little work +on 'Atmospheres, Waters, and Localities' emanating from the Hippokratean +school of medicine. It is only thirty-eight pages in the Teubner text +(Hippocratis _Opera_, vol. i), and it gives clearer expression than +Herodotus to the fifth-century scientific point of view. Here is one +passage which might have been written in Victorian England. The writer +is describing a peculiar disease prevalent among the nomads of southern +Russia. 'The natives', he remarks, 'believe that this disease is sent by +God, and they reverence and worship its victims, in fear of being +stricken by it themselves. I too am quite ready to admit that these +phenomena are caused by God, but I take the same view about all +phenomena and hold that no single phenomenon is more or less divine in +origin than any other. All are uniform and all may be divine, but each +phenomenon obeys a law, and natural law knows no exceptions.' + +It is hard to leave this first act of the tragedy. It is a triumph of +youth, and the phrase in which Herodotus sums up the early history of +Sparta expresses the prevailing spirit of early Hellenic civilization. +Ανα τε εδραμον και ευθενηθησαν {Ana te edramon kai euthenêthêsan}: 'They +shot up and throve.' But there is another phrase in Herodotus which +announces the second act--an ominous phrase which came so natural to him +that one may notice about a dozen instances of it in his history. Εδει +γαρ τω δεινι γενεσθαι κακως {Edei gar tô deini genesthai kakôs}: 'Evil +had to befall so-and-so, and therefore'--the story of a catastrophe +follows in each case. The thought behind the phrase is expressed in +Solon's words to Croesus (Herodotus, Bk. I, ch. 32): 'Croesus, I know +that God is ever envious and disordering' (ταραχωδες {tarachôdes}), 'and +you ask me about the destiny of man!' + +Note the epithet translated 'disordering'; we shall meet the word ταραχη +{tarachê} again. It is the bitter phrase of a man who lived on from the +great age into the war, but not so bitter as the truth which the writer +could not bring himself wholly to express. 'No single phenomenon', as +contemporary Greek science realized, 'is more or less divine than any +other', and the 'envious and disordering' power, which wrecked Greek +civilization, was not an external force, but the very spirit of man by +which that civilization had been created. There is a puzzling line in +Homer which is applied once or twice to features in a landscape--for +instance, to a river: 'The gods call it Xanthos, mankind Skamandros.' So +we might say of the downfall of Greece: the Greeks attributed it to the +malignity of God, but the divine oracles gave a different answer. + +Why did the Confederacy of Delos break down and Greece lose her youth in +a ruinous war? Because of the evil in the hearts of men--the envy +aroused by the political and commercial greatness of Athens in the +governing classes of Sparta and Corinth; and the covetousness aroused by +sudden greatness in the Athenians, tempting their statesmen to degrade +the presidency of a free confederacy into a dominion of Athens over +Greece, and tempting the Athenian proletariat, and the proletariat in +the confederate states, to misuse democracy for the exploitation of the +rich by the poor. Envy and covetousness begat injustice, and injustice +disloyalty. The city-states, in their rivalry for dominion or their +resentment against the domineering of one state over another, forgot +their loyalty to the common weal of Greece and fought each other for +empire or liberty. And the wealthy and well-born citizens forgot their +loyalty to the city in their blind, rancorous feud against the +proletariat that was stripping them of property and power, and betrayed +their community to foreign enemies. + +'Strange how mortals blame the gods. They say that evil is our +handiwork, when in truth they bring their sufferings on themselves. By +their own folly they force the hand of fate. See, now, how Aigisthos +forced it in taking the wedded wife of Atreides and slaying her lord +when he returned, yet he had sheer destruction before his eyes, for we +ourselves had forewarned him not to slay the king nor wed his wife, or +vengeance would come by Atreides' son Orestes, whene'er he should grow +to manhood and long for his home. So spake our messenger, but with all +his wisdom he did not soften the heart of Aigisthos, and now he has paid +in full' (_Odyssey_, _a_ 32-43). + +These lines from the first canto of the _Odyssey_ were imagined by a +generation which could still afford to err, but as Greece approached her +hour of destiny, her prophetic inspiration grew clearer. The poets of +the sixth century were haunted more insistently than the Homeridai by +the possibilities of disaster inherent in success of every kind--in +personal prosperity, in military victory, and in the social triumph of +civilization. They traced the mischief to an aberration of the human +spirit under the shock of sudden, unexpected attainment, and they +realized that both the accumulated achievement of generations and the +greater promise of the future might be lost irretrievably by failure at +this critical moment. 'Surfeit (κορος {koros}) breeds sin ὑβρις {hubris} +when prosperity visits unbalanced minds.' In slightly different words, +the proverb recurs in the collections of verses attributed to Theognis +and to Solon. Its maker refrained from adding what was in his and his +hearers' thoughts, that ὑβρις {hubris}, once engendered, breeds αιη +{aiê}--the complete and certain destruction into which the sinner walks +with unseeing eyes. But the whole moral mystery, to its remorseless end, +was uttered again and again in passionate words by Aeschylus, who +consciously discarded the primitive magical determinism in which +Herodotus afterwards vainly sought relief. + + Φιλει δε τικτειν ὑβρις + μεν παλαια νεα-- + ζουσαν εν κακοις βροτων + ὑβρις τοτ' η τóθ', ὁτε το κυριον μολη + φαος τοκου, + δαιμονα τ' εταν, αμαχον, απολεμον, + ανιερον θρασος, μελαι-- + νας μελαθροισιν Ατας, + ειδομενας τοκευσιν. + + {Philei de tiktein hubris + men palaia nea-- + zousan en kakois brotôn + hubris tot' ê tóth', hote to kyrion molê + phaos tokou, + daimona t' etan, amachon, apolemon, + anieron thrasos, melai-- + nas melathroisin Atas, + eidomenas tokeusin.} + + But Old Sin loves, when comes the hour again, + To bring forth New, + Which laugheth lusty amid the tears of men; + Yea, and Unruth, his comrade, wherewith none + May plead nor strive, which dareth on and on, + Knowing not fear nor any holy thing; + Two fires of darkness in a house, born true, + Like to their ancient spring. + + (_Agamemnon_, vv. 763-71, Murray's transl.) + +The poet of the crowning victory over Persia was filled with awe, as +well as exultation, at the possibilities for good or evil which his +triumphant generation held in their hands. Were they true metal or base? +The times would test them, but he had no doubt about the inexorable law. + + Ου γαρ εστιν επαλξις + πλουτου προς κορον ανδρι + λακτισαντι μεγαν δικης + βωμον εις αφανειαν. + + {Ou gar estin epalxis + ploutou pros koron andri + laktisanti megan dikês + bômon eis aphaneian.} + + Never shall state nor gold + Shelter his heart from aching + Whoso the Altar of Justice old + Spurneth to night unwaking. + + (_Agamemnon_, vv. 381-4, Murray's transl.) + +The _Agamemnon_ was written when Athens stood at the height of her glory +and her power, and before her sons, following the devices of their +hearts, 'like a boy chasing a wingèd bird', had set a fatal +stumbling-block in the way of their city, or smirched her with an +intolerable stain. The generation of Marathon foreboded the catastrophe +of the Peloponnesian War, yet the shock, when it came, was beyond their +powers of imagination, and the effect of it on the mind of Greece was +first expressed by the generation which was smitten by the war in early +manhood. This is how it was felt by Thucydides (iii. 82): + +'So the class-war at Korkyra grew more and more savage, and it made a +particular impression because it was the first outbreak of an upheaval +that spread in time through almost the whole of Greek society. In every +state there were conflicts of class, and the leaders of the respective +parties now procured the intervention of the Athenians or the +Lakedaimonians on their side. In peace-time they would have had neither +the opportunity nor the inclination to call in the foreigner, but now +there was the war, and it was easy for any party of violence to get +their opponents crushed and themselves into power by an alliance with +one of the belligerents. This recrudescence of class-war brought one +calamity after another upon the states of Greece--calamities that occur +and will continue to occur as long as human nature remains what it is, +however they may be modified or occasionally mitigated by changes of +circumstance. Under the favourable conditions of peace-time, communities +and individuals do not have their hands forced by the logic of events, +and can therefore act up to a higher standard. But war strips away all +the margins of ordinary life and breaks in character to circumstance by +its brutal training. So the states were torn by the class-war, and the +sensation made by each outbreak had a sinister effect on the next--in +fact, there was something like a competition in perfecting the fine art +of conspiracies and atrocities.... + +(iii. 83) 'Thus the class-war plunged Greek society into every kind of +moral evil, and honesty, which is the chief constituent of idealism, was +laughed out of existence in the prevailing atmosphere of hostility and +suspicion. No argument was cogent enough and no pledge solemn enough to +reconcile opponents. The only argument that appealed to the party +momentarily in power was the unlikelihood of their remaining there long +and the consequent advisability of taking no risks with their enemies. +And the stupider the combatants, the greater their chances of survival, +just because they were terrified at their deficiencies, expected to be +outwitted and outmanœuvred, and therefore plunged recklessly into +action, while their superiors in intellect, who trusted to their wits to +protect them and disdained practical precautions, were often caught +defenceless and brought to destruction.' + +There is the effect of the great Greek war upon the first generation. +Thucydides, of course, had a sensitive and emotional temperament. He is +always controlling himself and reining himself in. But one is struck by +an outburst of the same feeling in a younger man, Xenophon, who was +ordinarily in harmony with his age and was probably rather unimaginative +and self-complacent by nature. The war had given Xenophon his +opportunity as a soldier and a writer. He was not inclined to quarrel +with the 'envious and disordering' powers that had ruined Greek +civilization. But in the last paragraph of the History of his Own Times +he is carried away, for he has just been describing the battle of +Mantinea (362 B. C.), in which he had lost his son. + +'The result of the battle', he writes, 'disappointed every one's +expectations. Almost the whole of Greece had mobilized on one side or +the other, and it was taken for granted that if it came to an action, +the victors would be able to do what they liked and the vanquished would +be at their mercy. But Providence so disposed it that both sides ... +claimed the victory and yet neither had gained a foot of territory, a +single city or a particle of power beyond what they had possessed before +the battle. On the contrary, there was more unsettlement and disorder +(ταραχη {tarachê}) in Greece after the battle than before it. But I do +not propose to carry my narrative further and will leave the sequel to +any other historian who cares to record it.' (_Hellenica_, vii. 5 fin.) + +Space forbids quotation from Plato, but the reader is recommended, while +studying his metaphysics for his philosophy, to note his moods and +emotions for the light they throw upon the history of his lifetime. +Plato's long life--427 to 347 B. C.--practically coincided with the +first phase of the second act of the tragedy--the series of wars that +began in 431 B. C., and that had reduced the Greek city-states to +complete disunion and exhaustion by 355. Plato belonged to the cultured +governing class which was hit hardest by these first disasters. At the +age of twenty-nine, after witnessing the downfall of Athens, he had to +witness the judicial murder of Sokrates--the greatest man of the older +generation, who had been appreciated and loved by Plato and his +friends. Plato's own most promising pupil, whom he had marked out for +his successor, was killed in action in a particularly aimless +recrudescence of the war. Plato's political disillusionment and +perversity are easy to understand. But it is curious and interesting to +watch the clash between his political bitterness and his intellectual +serenity. In the intellectual and artistic sphere--as a writer, +musician, mathematician, metaphysician--he stood consciously at the +zenith of Greek history; but whenever he turned to politics he seems to +have felt that the spring had gone out of the year. He instinctively +antedated the setting of his dialogues. The characters nearly all belong +to the generation of Sokrates, which had grown to manhood before the war +and whose memories conjured up the glory that the war had extinguished. +Note, also, his 'other-worldliness', for it is a feature that comes into +Greek civilization with him and gradually permeates it. He turns from +science to theology, from the world of time and change to the world of +archetypes or ideas. He turns from the social religion of the city-state +to a personal religion for which he takes symbols from primitive +mythology. He turns from politics to utopias. But Plato only lived to +see the first phase of the catastrophe. As we watch the remainder of +this second act--those four terrible centuries that followed the year +431 B. C.--there come tidings of calamity after calamity, like the +messages of disaster in the Book of Job, and as the world crumbles, +people tend more and more to lay up their treasure elsewhere. In the +_Laws_, Plato places his utopia no farther away than Crete. Two +centuries later the followers of Aristonikos the Bolshevik, outlawed by +the cities of Greece and Asia, proclaim themselves citizens of the City +of the Sun. Two centuries later still, the followers of Jesus of +Nazareth, despairing of this world, pray for its destruction by fire to +make way for the Kingdom of Heaven. + +Plato's state of mind gives the atmosphere of the first phase after the +catastrophe. For the second phase--the conquest of the East and the +struggle for the spoils--the reader may be referred to Mr. Edwyn Bevan's +_Lectures on the Stoics and Sceptics_ and to Professor Gilbert Murray's +Conway Memorial lecture on _The Stoic Philosophy_. They will show him a +system of philosophy which is no longer a pure product of speculation +but is primarily a moral shelter erected hastily to meet the storms of +life. The third phase--the rally of civilization in the middle of the +third century B. C.--is mirrored in Plutarch's lives of the Spartan +kings Agis and Kleomenes. Any one who reads them will feel the gallantry +of this rally and the pathos of its failure. And then comes the fourth +phase--the Roman wars against the other great powers of the +Mediterranean world. The Hannibalic war in Italy was, very probably, the +most terrible war that there has ever been, not excepting the recent war +in Europe. The horror of that war haunted later generations, and its +mere memory made oblivion seem a desirable release from an intolerable +world. + + Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, + quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur. + et velut anteacto nil tempore sensimus aegri, + ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis, + omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu + horrida contremuere sub altis aetheris oris, + in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum + omnibus humanis esset terraque marique, + sic, ubi non erimus, cum corporis atque animai + discidium fuerit quibus e sumus uniter apti, + scilicet haud nobis quicquam, qui non erimus tum, + accidere omnino poterit sensumque movere, + non si terra mari miscebitur et mare caelo. + +That is a passage of Lucretius (iii. 830-842) which follows upon an +elaborate argument to prove that death destroys personality and that the +soul is not immortal. Here is an attempt at a translation: + +'So death is nothing to us and matters nothing to us, since we have +proved that the soul is not immortal. And as in time past we felt no +ill, when the Phoenicians were pouring in to battle on every front, when +the world rocked with the shock and tumult of war and shivered from +centre to firmament, when all mankind on sea and land must fall under +the victor's empire and victory was in doubt--so, when we have ceased to +be, when body and soul, whose union is our being, have been parted, then +nothing can touch us--we shall not be--and nothing can make us feel, no, +not if earth is confounded with sea and sea with heaven.' + +Lucretius wrote that about a hundred and fifty years after Hannibal +evacuated Italy, but the horror is still vivid in his mind, and his +poetry arouses it in our minds as we listen. The writer will never +forget how those lines kept running in his head during the spring of +1918. + +But the victors suffered with the vanquished in the common ruin of +civilization. The whole Mediterranean world, and the devastated area in +Italy most of all, was shaken by the economic and social revolutions +which the Roman wars brought in their train. The proletariat was +oppressed to such a degree that the unity of society was permanently +destroyed and Greek civilization, after being threatened with a violent +extinction by Bolshevik outbreaks--the slave wars in Sicily, the +insurrection of Aristonikos and the massacres of Mithradates in +Anatolia, the outbreaks of Spartakos and Catilina in Italy--was +eventually supplanted by a rival civilization of the proletariat--the +Christian Church. The revolutionary last phase in the second act--the +final phase before the foundation of the Empire--has left its expression +in the cry of the Son of Man: 'The foxes have holes and the birds of the +air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.' It +was one of those anonymous phrases that are in all men's mouths because +they express what is in all men's hearts. Tiberius Gracchus used it in +his public speeches at Rome; two centuries later it reappears in the +discourses of Jesus of Nazareth. + + Ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis + Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi, + nec fuit indignum superis bis sanguine nostro + Emathiam et latos Haemi pinguescere campos.... + Di patrii, Indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater + quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana Palatia servas, + hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo + ne prohibete. satis iam pridem sanguine nostro + Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae.... + vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes + arma ferunt; saevit toto Mars impius orbe; + ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae, + addunt in spatio, et frustra retinacula tendens + fertur equis auriga neque audit currus habenas. + + (_Georgics_, i. 489 seqq.) + +'Therefore Philippi saw Roman armies turn their swords against each +other a second time in battle, and the gods felt no pity that Emathia +and the broad plains of Haemus should twice be fattened with our +blood.... + +'Gods of our fathers, gods of our country, god of our city, goddess of +our hearths who watchest over Tuscan Tiber and Roman Palatine, forbid +not this last saviour to succour our fallen generation. Our blood has +flowed too long. We have paid in full for the sins of our +forefathers--the broken faith of ancient Troy.... + +'The bonds are broken between neighbour cities and they meet in arms. +Ungodly war rages the world over. The chariots launched on the race +gather speed as they go; vainly dragging on the reins the driver is +swept away by his steeds and the team heeds not the bridle.' + +It is a prayer for the lifting of the curse, and this time the 'envious +and disordering' powers gave ear. The charioteer regained control, and +we are carried on to the third act of the tragedy, in which no small +part of its beauty and a very great part of its significance is to be +found. The imperial peace could not save the body of Greek +civilization--the four centuries of war had inflicted mortal wounds; but +possibly it saved its soul. Although Augustus had not the abilities of +Caesar, he felt and pitied the sorrows of the world, and he succeeded in +expressing the pity and repentance, the ruthfulness for and piety +towards the past, which were astir in the spirits of his generation. But +what phrase is adequate to characterize the Empire? The words 'Decline +and Fall' suggest themselves, but how should they be applied? Gibbon +took the second century of the Empire, the age of the Antonines, as the +Golden Age of the Ancient World, and traced the decline and fall of the +Empire from the death of Marcus Aurelius. On the other hand, if the +present reading of the plot is right, the fatal catastrophe occurred six +centuries earlier, in the year 431 B. C., and the Empire itself was the +decline and fall of Greek civilization. But was it only that? One is apt +to think so when one reads the diary of Marcus Aurelius, and pictures +him in his quarters at Carnuntum, fighting finely but hopelessly on two +fronts--against the barbarians on the Danube and the sadness in his own +soul. + +'Human life! Its duration is momentary, its substance in perpetual flux, +its senses dim, its physical organism perishable, its consciousness a +vortex, its destiny dark, its repute uncertain--in fact, the material +element is a rolling stream, the spiritual element dreams and vapour, +life a war and a sojourning in a far country, fame oblivion. What can +see us through? One thing and one only--philosophy, and that means +keeping the spirit within us unspoiled and undishonoured, not giving way +to pleasure or pain, never acting unthinkingly or deceitfully or +insincerely, and never being dependent on the moral support of others. +It also means taking what comes contentedly as all part of the process +to which we owe our own being; and, above all, it means facing death +calmly--taking it simply as a dissolution of the atoms of which every +living organism is composed. Their perpetual transformation does not +hurt the atoms, so why should one mind the whole organism being +transformed and dissolved? It is a law of nature, and natural law can +never be wrong.' (Μáρκος Αντωνινος εις εαυτóν {Márkos Antôninos eis +eautón}, ii fin.) + +But after quoting Marcus Aurelius, the first citizen of the Empire, it +is necessary to add a quotation from Paul of Tarsos, a citizen who has +as good a claim as any other to be heard: + +'"How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come?" Thou fool, +that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.... It is sown in +corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is +raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.' ... + +It startles us to be reminded that these two actors appeared on the +stage in the same act of the drama, and that Paul actually played his +part a century before Marcus played his. Paul's voice suggests not only +a younger generation but quite a different play. His thought in the +lines just quoted is inspired by a predecessor whom Marcus regarded as +one of the innumerable prophets of the proletariat. 'Except a corn of +wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit.' The saying was included in the miscellaneous +traditions about Jesus of Nazareth which were passing from mouth to +mouth among the illiterate masses, but which had not begun to excite the +curiosity of the educated classes in Marcus's day. What would the +scholar have made of it if a collection of these traditions had fallen +under his eye, scrawled on bad paper in barbarous Greek? Little enough, +for he would have missed the whole background of his own sentiment and +thought, which was nothing less than the background of Greek +civilization. Great literary memories crowd the brief passage of his +diary quoted above--Epiktetos and Lucretius and the Stoa, Plato and +Sokrates, Demokritos and the Hippokratean school of medicine from which +we took our first quotation, and simpler minds and more primitive +artists in the dim generations behind. We are carried right back through +the tragedy at which we have been looking on. The two men are worlds +apart, in spite of the fact that their propositions, when we strip them +naked, are much the same. 'The organism is transformed and +dissolved.'--'That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.' +They are both representing death as a phase in the process of nature, +but it is not till we grasp the similarity of the thought that we fully +realize the difference in the outlook and the emotion. + +Under the smooth surface of the Empire there was a great gulf fixed +between the 'bourgeois' society of the city-states and the descendants +of the slaves imported during the Roman Wars; but the Empire, by +gradually alleviating the material condition of the proletariat, +insensibly affected their point of view. The development of their +religion--the one inalienable possession carried by the slaves from +their Oriental homes--is an index of the psychological change. In the +last phase of the Second Act, the 'Red Guards' of Sicily and Anatolia +had been led by prophets and preachers of their Oriental gods. Their +religion had lent itself to their revolutionary state of mind. But under +the Empire, as descendants of the plantation-slaves succeeded in +purchasing their freedom and forming a new class of shopkeepers and +clerks, their religion correspondingly reflected their rise in the +world. They remained indifferent, if not hostile, to the Imperial +Hellenic tradition, but they began to aspire to a kingdom of their own +in this world as well as in the next. The force which had broken out +desperately in the crazy wonder-working of Eunous of Enna and had then +inspired the 'other-worldly' exaltation of Paul of Tarsos, was soon +conducted into the walls of chapels, and the local associations of +Christian chapel-goers were steadily linked up into a federation so +powerfully organized that the Imperial federation of city-states had +eventually to choose between going into partnership with it or being +supplanted. Thus the empire of which Marcus and Paul were citizens was +more than the third act in the tragedy of Ancient Greece. While it +retarded the inevitable dissolution of one civilization it conceived its +successor, and when, after Marcus's death, imperial statesmanship +failed, and the ancient organism long preserved by its skill at last +broke down, the shock did not extinguish new and old together, but +brought the new life to birth. By the seventh century after Christ, when +Ancient Greek civilization may be said finally to have dissolved, our +own civilization was ready to 'shoot up and thrive' and repeat the +tragedy of mankind. + +The writer can best express his personal feeling about the Empire in a +parable. It was like the sea round whose shores its network of +city-states was strung. The Mediterranean seems at first sight a poor +substitute for the rivers that have given their waters to make it. Those +were living waters, whether they ran muddy or clear; the sea seems just +salt and still and dead. But as soon as we study the sea, we find +movement and life there also. There are silent currents circulating +perpetually from one part to another, and the surface-water that seems +to be lost by evaporation is not really lost, but will descend in +distant places and seasons, with its bitterness all distilled away, as +life-giving rain. And as these surface-waters are drawn off into the +clouds, their place is taken by lower layers continually rising from the +depths. The sea itself is in constant and creative motion, but the +influence of this great body of water extends far beyond its shores. One +finds it softening the extremes of temperature, quickening the +vegetation, and prospering the life of animals and men, in the distant +heart of continents and among peoples that have never heard its name. + +ARNOLD TOYNBEE. + + + + +POLITICAL THOUGHT + + +In a survey of the legacy of Ancient Greece to our modern civilization +and its problems, it might well seem at first sight as though the +political contribution of Greece could be ignored. Greek art, Greek +literature, Greek philosophy are among the world's abiding possessions, +for the human passions and questionings which gave them birth and the +human needs to which they minister will last as long as human life +itself. But Greek political thinking is so much bound up with the +peculiar and evanescent external conditions of fifth and fourth century +Greece, centres indeed so exclusively round the special problems of its +intellectual metropolis, Athens, that its interest might appear to have +passed away with the régime to which it owes its existence. The +_Agamemnon_ and the _Antigone_, with their teachings of destiny and +duty, the Hermes of Olympia and the Parthenon frieze, with their +ever-irresistible charm of youthfulness, the _Phaedo_ with its +discussion of immortality, the _Metaphysics_ of Aristotle with their +still subtler and more abstruse speculations, source of so much of our +Christian doctrine and apologetic--all these require little defence +against the Philistine of to-day, if only he can be induced to gaze at +his intended victim before he delivers his blow. But Thucydides with his +long and detailed account of an inter-tribal or inter-municipal war, +decked out with sham speeches which were never delivered: Plato with his +imaginary Utopia, half a small Greek provincial town, half an impossible +and unendurably regimented socialist model community, based on a +fine-drawn and fallacious comparison between the qualities of the human +soul and the class-divisions which happened to prevail in the Greek +society of the time: Aristotle with his laborious investigations into +the municipal pathology of his day and his detailed prescriptions for +the betterment of his fellow-provincials and their institutions--what +have we to do with all this in an age of world problems and conflicts +and of not merely continent-wide but international ideas and projects of +organization? The first duty of any one who seeks to interest the modern +reader in Greek political discussion is to be perfectly frank and lucid +about its limitations. He need have no cause to be afraid that, when +these have been written off from his prospectus, there will be too +little of value remaining. + +These limitations can be summarized under two main heads. They arise, +firstly, from a _difference of scale_, and secondly, from a _difference +of outlook_, between ancient and modern political thought. + +The difference of scale leaps to the eye at once, although its +consequences are not all of them so obvious. Ancient Greece was, for +political purposes, a congeries of sovereign states, generally centring +round the urban metropolis of a rural district smaller than that of an +average English county. The material upon which Greek political thought +worked was, therefore, from our modern point of view not only +small-scale but almost Lilliputian. This can best be appreciated when we +consider how many gradations of scale are interposed in the modern world +between the government of a town or district of the size of +fifth-century Athens and the government of our own sovereign state, the +British Commonwealth. Athens was far smaller than Leeds, Johannesburg, +or Chicago: yet to be Mayor of any of these is not to fill a position of +commanding responsibility, as political responsibility is understood in +the large-scale world of to-day. The American State, the South African +province and Dominion and (for certain purposes) the English County +stand between the giant municipality and the sovereign parliament. To a +British Premier passing from a coal strike which reacts upon the trade +of the entire world to an Imperial Conference engaged in tracing out an +agreed line of policy on the Pacific Question, the problems of a +Pericles, or even of an Alexander, would seem but child's play. + +Let us see what results from this difference of scale. In the first +place, Greek political thought although (as we shall see) it aimed at +_universality_, at arriving at certain definite laws or conclusions +about politics, never succeeded in divesting itself of a certain element +of local or national individuality. When Plato and Thucydides think and +write of 'the State' they are also thinking of the City--the same word, +_polis_, serves indeed for the two--and not merely of the City, i. e., +of any municipality, but of a particular city. There are elements in +Greek political thought which, just because they owe their inspiration +to Athens, can never be universalized. A treatise on education in which +general psychological conclusions were intermingled with conclusions +based on experience at some English school with a very unique tradition, +would require to be carefully examined and applied with caution to the +problems of adolescent life in Japan or Nigeria. Similarly, in so far as +Greek political thought is Athenian or (to use a much disputed term in +what I hold to be its proper sense) _national_, it is not truly +political. + +The distinction that I am trying to draw is a difficult one and cannot +be understood without a short digression about the nature of the study +of politics. Politics is the study or activity of government, of the +management of the public or common affairs of men. We need +'politicians', men who will devote themselves to meeting the demand for +the management of our common affairs--we need them not because we are +Englishmen, Irishmen, or Americans, but because we are human beings +living together in society, and because our co-operative relations and +activities require to be guided and controlled. Whether the 'politician' +is a tyrant or a Minister of the people is not here to the point; the +point is that he is the manager of what the Romans called _res publica_, +the Latin for the good old English word 'Commonwealth'. Politics is +therefore primarily concerned with the practical problems arising out of +the fact that a number of different human beings are living together, +and the more different they are and the smaller their greatest common +measure, the more truly political do such problems become. The first +business, of the politician or governor is, as Aristotle said, to see +that men shall live (the twin problems of supply and defence), his +second to see that they shall live well (in the first instance the +problems of health and physical development and well-being). In the last +analysis _pure politics_, as our great grandchildren may discover if +ever the World-State becomes a reality, is mainly concerned with +_administration_, administration of the affairs common to all in the +interests of all. + +Now ancient Greek politics were entangled, and modern politics also are +still too largely entangled, with the discussion of matters which are +not _common_ at all, and do not constitute the material of politics in +the true sense of the word--with questions arising, not out of the +common need for a common law, but out of the inner ultimate and +ineradicable differences between the various nations and other groupings +of mankind. When the League of Nations or the Dublin City Council is +discussing an epidemic of small-pox or the improvement of some dock or +wharf, or schools for mothers, or the problem of juvenile employment it +is dealing with common interests which affect human beings as human +beings: it is on the plane of politics proper. But when the Dublin City +Council, following in the wake of the nineteenth century democratic +movement throughout Europe, puts forward some proposal in order to give +satisfaction to the sentiment that Ireland being the home of a nation +ought to be a sovereign state, and when the League of Nations is asked +to deal with the political situation created by the clash of contending +nationalisms in the British Isles or elsewhere, both bodies, as +governing bodies, are out of their depth: for they are faced with an +impossible task. Established to deal with politics proper, with the +common affairs of men as men, they are bound to flounder helplessly when +they are cajoled into the thorny intimate and (let it be added) far more +fascinating region of national and individual personality--to a region +where, the deeper you penetrate, the less common, uniform, standardized +or standardizable are the interests involved, and the less susceptible +of being 'settled', or even understood, by the rough and ready +politician accustomed to deal with matters in the bulk and to measure up +the results on a quantitative reckoning in the cold and cosmopolitan +language of statistics. + +In reading the Greek political writers then, we must be careful to +distinguish the universal from the local and ephemeral element. The +latter is indeed of great interest and value; but we shall tend to miss +the really precious and permanent elements in their thought if we do not +take pains to disentangle Thucydides the disillusioned Athenian patriot +from Thucydides the scientific historian and psychologist, and Plato the +aristocrat born out of due season from Plato the unrivalled student of +human nature and of the permanent needs of human society. + +The failure to recognize this distinction has led to much +misunderstanding and shallow thinking in attempts to apply Greek ideas +and maxims too literally to modern life. It is only too common to hear +Englishmen, whose knowledge of politics and history, outside the +newspapers, is confined to stray reminiscences from a not very ardent +pursuit of the classics in their school and college days, basing +confident predictions of the failure of modern democracy on some _obiter +dictum_ of Thucydides or Plato and assessing the fate of the British +Commonwealth in terms borrowed from some judgement of Sallust or Tacitus +on its wholly different Roman prototype. It is flippancy or pedantry +like this which gives rise to the onslaughts of a Cobden or Herbert +Spencer or an H. G. Wells and to the practical man's suspicion of a +classical education. One might as well go to last year's market reports +for guidance in a business deal of to-day as have recourse to Plato, or, +for that matter, to Macchiavelli, in an existing political emergency. If +a classical education, designed as it is in England to promote +'character' rather than 'intellect' (a vicious distinction which leaves +no room for such a quality as intellectual integrity) often leaves +behind it but a meagre residuum of knowledge and ideas, it should at +least cause the public school man of yesterday and the London clubman of +to-day to realize the limitations of his field of study and to abstain +from confident political generalization. The Labour M.P. who once +remarked to the writer, _à propos_ of an Indian debate, that he had been +in the House just long enough to know that all he knew about India was +that he knew nothing about it, had been brought up, if not in a better +at least in a cannier school. There is no sounder training for the +student of politics and history, or indeed of any serious subject, than +to know everything about something, whether it be the chronological +order of Plato's dialogues or the problem of humidity in weaving-sheds, +or about placing a field or keeping a wicket. That is why the Duke of +Wellington who, if he lacked the intellectuality of a Foch, at least +knew both his England and his own job of military science, selected the +playing fields rather than the classical classrooms of Eton as the home +and training-ground of that concentrated and disinterested endeavour of +mind and spirit which had carried his army through patient years of +effort to victory. It is all to the good that our classical devotees, +faced with criticism and competition from many quarters, should be +acquiring both a greater humility and a greater seriousness. + +Our first caution then, is that Greek political thought is both national +and universal, and that we must learn to distinguish what pertains to +nationality from what pertains to government. + +A second result which flows from the small-scale character of Greek +politics is that we nowhere find an adequate treatment of the problem +of _foreign relations_. Foreign policy is one of the weak spots of +modern democracy; it is, perhaps, the element in our political technique +which is most in need of thoroughgoing revision. We have yet to induce +the modern citizen to pay continuous attention to issues which, although +they are seemingly remote from his purview, may at any moment shake the +whole fabric of his everyday existence; and, when we have done this, we +have to persuade him to approach these world-problems not in the spirit +of a competitive aggrandizement but with a view to discovering what is +the best line of policy in the interests of the world as a whole. So +long as the peoples remain self-absorbed, the governments will continue +to conduct their mutual relations on a basis of individual +self-interest, and the meetings of the Assembly of the League of Nations +will remain what they are at present, not gatherings of statesmen solely +bent, each from his own angle and upbringing, on the welfare of +humanity, but barterings of politicians who (with rare exceptions) have +come to the fair to do the best business they can for their own clients. +Now Thucydides and Plato give us no help for the League of Nations. Such +a phrase as 'the interests of humanity as a whole' would have been +politically meaningless to them. They did not think of humanity as a +whole; they thought of it as divided sharply into two sections, Greeks +and Barbarians, and of the Greek world as a small oasis of intelligence +and culture ringed round by a wide and indefinite expanse of barbarism. +We also, it is true, speak of 'advanced' and 'backward' peoples: but the +latter are not, as they were to the Greeks, a formidable mass, tribe +upon tribe, of military power extending up to and beyond the known or +legendary confines of the world; they are child-races under our watchful +care and control. We have explored and surveyed the whole earth, and +where we find weakness or inferiority, we establish a trusteeship. To +the Greeks, ever on their guard against barbarian inroads from north, +south, east and west, from Scythians and Libyans, Persians and +Carthaginians, the mandate clause of the Covenant would have seemed both +theoretically undesirable and practically impossible. No Greek writer +ever dreamed of a system of international co-operation between the +governments of the world as men then knew it. All of them thought in +terms of competition and ever-recurrent warfare or, at best, of a +precarious balance of power. Even Plato's Utopia had its soldier class; +and they were real soldiers, not merely police. In this respect, at any +rate, vanquished Germany, with practically the whole of her population +relieved from military duty and available for productive tasks, has the +advantage over the most ideal construction of ancient Greece. + +There is a further point to be noted under this head. If Greek thought +gives us no guidance in foreign policy, it is no more helpful, except +very indirectly, in another difficult region, that of _industrial +policy_. The problem of industrial policy, or what is sometimes roughly +described as the Labour problem, may perhaps be thus stated: how to +secure or maintain for civilized mankind (or for our own particular +section of it) the goods and services it needs, whilst at the same time +providing justice and freedom for those who produce them. To put it more +shortly, how to secure that a good life for the consumer shall be +compatible with a good life for the producer. It is a problem which goes +to the root of democracy: for the world has never yet known a time when +the increase of wealth and the consequent growth of refinement and +civilization in the upper section of the community did not lead to +degradation and injustice in the lower. Here too the Greeks can give us +no help. They did not even face the problem but fail to solve it, like +the Romans. Their material civilization was so simple that the problem +hardly arose for them at all--except in certain cases, such as that of +the mine-slaves. But the fact that they acquiesced, without a twinge of +conscience or a trace of repining, in the institution of slavery +indicates how they would probably have faced it had it arisen. Confront +Plato with the complexity of modern industry, prove to him, as any +modern lecturer could, that, for Northern man at any rate, life can only +be maintained without degradation on a basis of widespread industrialism +and with our familiar equipment of railways, steamships, telephones, _et +hoc genus omne_, and it is safe to predict that he would fail to give +the reply which the modern reformer would expect from him. Instead of +embracing one of the many current varieties of socialism which +masquerade as his bastard progeny, he would either accept his +interlocutor's premisses and tell him to build up his precious northern +civilization on a basis of slavery; or he would reject them and advise +him, with Samuel Butler, to make a bonfire of the machines. The latter +is, indeed, the more probable alternative; for it is that to which the +more thoughtful and prophetic (perhaps one can add also, the more +Hellenic) of our modern guides are turning. When men so diverse as +Tagore the Indian sage and Rathenau the German Trust magnate tell us +that the disease from which we are suffering is 'mechanization', and +that our crying need is for greater simplicity, it seems safe to predict +that Plato would not reject the possibility of providing a 'good life' +for the modern man in a world divested of most of the rattling and +tinkling paraphernalia of which the nineteenth century so plumed itself +as the inventor. + +Let us pass now to our second limitation, that arising not from the +difference of scale but from the difference of outlook between Greek and +modern speculation. We can best sum this up by saying that whereas +modern political thought, like modern thought generally, works from the +inner to the outer, from the individual to the state and society, the +ancient thinkers habitually work in the opposite direction, setting the +interests of the community or state above those of the individual. This +is what Fustel de Coulanges intended to convey when he declared that +ancient man had no conception of the meaning of liberty. Liberty is no +doubt a somewhat confusing and ambiguous term; it is hard to cut it +loose from its political associations, from national independence and +democratic self-government. We can perhaps therefore improve upon the +French writer by saying that the Greek political thinkers do not +recognize, or do not make proper allowance for, the rights and +responsibilities of the individual soul. Just as they failed to +distinguish between Nationality and Government, so they failed also to +distinguish between Conscience and Public duty. Socrates, indeed, +meeting his death in obedience both to Conscience and Law, had a glimpse +of the higher truth; but his followers did not take up this side of his +message or, in so far as they did so in their study of individual +morality, they did not relate it to their theories of politics. It was a +greater than Socrates who summed up and put the problem with his +incomparable directness and irony: _Render unto Caesar the things which +are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's_. If this had been +said in the presence of Thucydides, the keenest practical brain that +applied itself to Greek political thinking, he simply would not have +known what it meant. To him Caesar and God, or, to translate them into +his own language, Athens and Athena, were not opposing but practically +identical terms. When the Athenian, as he described him, 'spent his +body, as a mere external tool, in the city's service and counted his +mind as most truly his own when employed on her behalf,' he was, +according to the universal Greek belief, serving both his God and his +neighbour, both his own highest good and the noblest of the world's +causes. His life was a unity: for he had not yet learned to disentangle +his soul from the soul of the City or the herd, or his God from the god +of Israel or of Athens. The Greek thinkers, as we shall see, sincerely +endeavoured to distinguish between the 'good citizen' and 'the good man' +and to base the State on foundations of the spirit; but their work was +vitiated by their failure to realize the extent and urgency of the claim +of the individual soul. Men must be spiritually free before they can +co-operate politically on the highest terms. In the last analysis the +weakness of Greek political speculation can be traced back to the +weakness of Greek religion. Even Plato played with Pagan orthodoxy and +gave the Delphic Apollo a titular place in his Utopia, proving himself +as timid in touching Greek superstitions as English thinkers to-day are +in touching the Monarchy. It is this basis of insincerity which reveals +itself throughout the superstructure. Greek political thought contains +already the germs of the disease which, centuries later, led men, +plebeians first, later patricians also, to turn away from the outworn +symbols that stood for the union of Church and State and to seek comfort +in a religion which, if it undermined and eventually overturned the last +and greatest of the ancient Empires, established the City of the Soul +upon a firm and enduring basis. Julian's _Vicisti Galilaee_ marked the +end of one strain or tradition in ancient political thought which, +originating in the local worships of the City-State, had lasted on, with +gathering momentum, until, all over the known world, men bowed the knee +before the altar of Caesar, the God-Emperor. From this there was no way +forward except through revolution; and mankind paid, in the night of the +Dark Ages, for sins of compromise and insincerity committed during long +centuries of enlightenment. + +The liabilities thus frankly stated, let us turn to the assets. + +The first valuable contribution the Greeks made to political study was +that they invented it. It is not too much to say that, before +fifth-century Greece, politics did not exist. There were powers and +principalities, governments and subjects, but politics no more existed +than chemistry existed in the age of alchemy. An imitation of an idea, +as Plato has taught us, is not the same as an idea; nor is the imitation +of a science the same as a science. Rameses and Nebuchadnezzar, Croesus +the Lydian and Cyrus the Persian, ruled over great empires; but within +their dominions there were no politics because there were no public +affairs. There were only the private affairs of the sovereign and his +ruling class. Government and all that pertained to it, from military +service and taxation to the supply of women for the royal harem, was +simply the expression of the power and desire of the ruler. The great +advance made by Greece was to have recognized that public or common +interests exist and to have provided, first for their management, and +secondly for their study. In other words, the Greeks were the first to +rescue the body politic from charlatans and to hand it over to +physicians. + +How great an achievement this was we can best recognize when we consider +how large a place the true study of politics, and the terms and ideas to +which it has given rise, fills in the life of the modern man--especially +of the modern Englishman. Justice and liberty, law and democracy, +parliament and public opinion--all these and many more we owe to the +peasants and craftsmen of the small Greek republics who, having felt the +need for a better management of their humble concerns, set to work to +provide it, with the same inventiveness, the same adaptation of means to +end, which led them, in other fields, to the invention of the classic +temple or of the drama. If it is going too far to say that every modern +politician owes his stock-in-trade of general ideas to the Greeks, there +are certainly few who do not owe them their perorations. + +This is not the place to enlarge on the features of Greek political +organization or to point out the various elements in Greek political +theory or practice which have proved of permanent value. Only a very +summary appreciation can be attempted. But certain points can be picked +out as being of special interest to the citizen of to-day. + +In the first place, the Greeks, having made clear to themselves that +public or common affairs existed, sat down resolutely to study them. +Convinced believers in reason, they did not fall into the convenient +English fallacy of believing that institutions are not made but 'grow', +or that difficulties which seem too thorny for timid fingers to touch +will settle themselves by being left alone. Political problems, they +felt, were caused by men, by the interaction of human wills and desires, +and by men, by the conscious and deliberate application of human +intelligence, they could and must be solved. In spite of their belief in +mysterious powers which control the destinies of men and nations, they +did not think it decent to abandon public affairs to Providence; nor did +they avert their gaze from them as too mundane for the squeamish +intellectual to handle and turn them over to the tender mercies of the +ignorant and less scrupulous demagogue or doctrinaire. Their public +affairs were no more interesting than ours: they were indeed +considerably less interesting--unless we are prepared to argue that the +election of generals to command an army far smaller than the Swiss is a +more arresting issue than the choice of a government to bear rule over +400 millions of men on five continents, or that the question of peace or +war between two small neighbouring mountain territories outweighs in +interest the discussion of the relations between the white and yellow +races of mankind. And, if Greek politics were not interesting in +themselves, they suffered still further by comparison with the other +topics which lay ready to claim the Greek citizen's attention. The +modern voter who is too idle to cast his ballot, will give up to +business or to pleasure, to motor-car and music-hall, the time and the +trouble that he owes to humanity. When the Athenian spent a hot and +exhausting day (for why should we think their nerves less susceptible to +glare than ours?) listening to a parliamentary debate or to a lawsuit on +a hard stone seat in the open air, he was postponing till to-morrow, or +till his crops and fruit-trees permitted him the leisure, the discussion +of some masterpiece of drama or some new issue of human thought which +had leapt during the last few days or months from the brain of a fellow +citizen into immortality. If it is hard for the citizen of New York to +spare the time to dethrone Tammany, or for the electors of Great Britain +to uproot its more outwardly respectable analogue on this side of the +Atlantic, when his life, and his newspapers, are full of vulgar and +ephemeral distractions, how much harder must it have been for a +Euripidean enthusiast, or a student of Socrates or Protagoras, to +descend for long days to solid earth in order to strike a bargain with a +Thracian chieftain or to assess some poor devil's damages in drachmae! +Let us honour, not pity or despise them, for having thought it right to +do so, for having deliberately determined to infuse into public affairs, +in themselves so drab and dull, so deficient in the fineness and +subtlety which characterize men's more intimate concerns, the interest +derived from the very fact that honest, sincere, and able minds devoted +themselves to their study. As Huxley could make the geological +procession of the ages revolve round a piece of chalk, and Sir Richard +Owen reconstruct primitive man from the bone of his great toe, so the +citizen of Athens, as we see him depicted for us in the pages of +Thucydides, could raise the great permanent issues of politics, and +cause them to remain living for us two thousand years later, in debates +which were ostensibly concerned with mere provincial trivialities. When +such was the atmosphere created, no wonder that those who stayed away +were held up to obloquy in an expression (ιδιωτης {idiôtês}) of which +our English 'idiot' is the exact transcription. + +Let us dwell for a moment on the attitude of mind in which the Greek +citizen approached political problems. He was both a Conservative and a +Radical; or rather, he brought to politics the best of Conservatism +together with the best of Radicalism. He was a Conservative because he +reverenced tradition and recognized the power and value of custom. None +of our modern Conservative writers and defenders of the existing order, +not Burke himself or Bismarck or Chateaubriand, had a deeper sense than +the Athenian for 'those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings +admitted shame'. Athens was a Conservative democracy. Most democracies, +despite the labels of their politicians, are in reality Conservative; +for the common man whose régime they represent is Conservative from the +very nature of his life and occupation; it takes leisure and travel, or +a wider education than any democracy has as yet bestowed on its young +people, to lift the minds of the mass of men out of the rut of habit. +But Athens was far more Conservative than the modern democracies with +whom we are acquainted. Where the British public rebukes an awkward +writer by conspiring to boycott his books, so that, unless he has +private means, he is eventually silenced, where the United States, going +a step farther, deny his works the privilege of the mails, Athens does +not scruple to administer hemlock, and, if an _élite_ is indignant or +sorrowful, the democracy applauds. Even at the height of the recent Red +Terror the United States never went so Conservative as this. This should +help us to realize the rock-firm basis of tradition, of use and wont, of +patriarchal sanctities, which underlay the working of fifth-century +Athenian democracy as we watch its apparent vicissitudes. The citizen +could use his mind as freely as he would on the material presented to +him for his consideration; but there was a point at which the State, and +his own instincts, cried 'Halt'; and, except in rare cases, he obeyed. +It is only fair to add that the most enlightened modern opinion would +entirely support the Athenian view against the discussion of 'unwritten +laws' in Parliament. The difference between the Conservative Athenian +democrat and the modern Liberal in such matters is, not that the one +refuses, while the other demands, the discussion of life's sanctities in +Parliament and law-court, but that the one appeals to custom and the +other to conscience as the sanction of the unwritten law itself. Whether +it be the gods or man, the law of the hearth or of the heart, that is at +issue, both agree that what is private and holy has no place in the +forum of common debate. + +But, within these well-recognized limits, the Greek citizen was a +Radical; that is to say, he was ready to apply his reason to public +affairs without fear or prejudice. He loved straight and sincere +thinking; he tried hard to face the real situation before him and not to +be clouded or led astray by side-issues or inhibitions. There is many a +lesson in common honesty to be learnt by our politicians and public in +the speeches of Thucydides. Shallow critics have been known to dub them +cynical, an adjective which the English, adepts in self-deception, are +fond of applying to nations sincerer in self-analysis than themselves. +When we refuse formally to reopen an issue on which action is in fact +being taken daily, because it is a party question and a Coalition +government is in power, when we leave to the healing mercies of time a +problem with regard to which inaction itself constitutes a policy, when +we deliberately invent party labels or election cries designed to +confuse the mind of the voter and to distract him from the real issue, +when our politicians have become professionals in the art of what +Thucydides described as 'the use of fair phrases to arrive at guilty +ends' and a British Premier, more euphemistically, as 'political +strategy', we might do worse than sit down to read, mark, learn, digest, +and apply to our modern situations, the immortal speeches or essays in +which Thucydides lays bare for us the heart of the political life of his +day, and to let them act as a purge of some of our own too sugary diet. +The bitter-sweet of truth is not always popular on the hustings; but it +is good feeding for the plain citizen, whether ancient or modern. + +This leads on to a further reflection. The Greeks, in their political +thinking, were essentially realists, rather than idealists. This is true +of all the Greek writers, even those who, like Plato, starting from the +market-place of Athens, lead us up to a Utopia in the clouds. They were +realists in that they based their political studies on the world as it +is and human nature as it is, rather than on some personal and fanciful +conception of what man and the world ought to be. To put it in other +words, they are realists because they are psychologists, because they +applied the psychological method to political problems. That they were +the first to do so goes without saying: for no one before them had +applied any method at all, except in the most rough-and-ready manner. +But they did it so perfectly, with such utter and artistic simplicity, +that those who followed them accepted or criticized their results +without observing the basis of human study on which they were built up, +and it is only in quite recent years, through the work of patient +inquirers who, like Graham Wallas, have laboured systematically in both +fields, that politics and psychology have once more been drawn together. + +It may perhaps seem strange to a modern reader to be told that, in this +very important respect, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle are sounder in +their method than the whole long line of political thinkers and +statesmen up to our own day. Let the reader who doubts it turn to the +texts. He will find that all the three writers whom I have named toiled +at the study of human nature before they set pen to paper. The +_Republic_ opens with several books of psychological analysis, no doubt +at times a little fantastic in its attempts at premature classification, +but full of life and reality, and not only Greek reality but human +reality. Aristotle precedes his work on _Politics_, in which he embodied +the results of a study of all the available political and constitutional +material of his day--for a Greek could work like a modern German or +American thesis-grubber when he tried--with a book on _Ethics_ which is +still regarded, quite rightly, as a standard work for the modern +student. As for Thucydides, his knowledge of men, the fruit of patient +experience deepened by disappointment, is felt behind every line of his +book, as one descries it in the features of his undegenerate descendant +Venizelos. Turn now to the moderns. Where in Hobbes or in Bentham, in +Locke or Burke or Rousseau, in the individualists or the Socialists, the +Hegelians or the anarchists, do we find, until quite recently, a really +wide and open-minded attempt to see man as he is? Our ears are assailed +by a chorus of catchwords, based on some arbitrary and ephemeral +estimate of men's reactions to outward events and institutions. Men +argue backwards and forwards as to whether 'human nature can be +changed', whether man is guided solely by self-interest, or is only +waiting to be set free from sordid cares to be guided solely by his love +for his fellows, whether fear or hope, custom or the sense of adventure, +form his natural and most compelling spur to action. Meanwhile in the +great debate, in Burke's _Reflections_ as in Marx's _Capital_, in Maine +and Mill and Mazzini, as among the hacks who vulgarize their results in +text-books and election literature, man as he is has vanished behind a +cloud of doctrine or verbiage. We need the simplicity, or cynicism, of +the Greeks to recall us to realities. + +Let us for a moment imagine Thucydides face to face with the problems of +our post-war world of to-day. We have only to read his immortal analysis +of the war-mood of Greece, and of the nervous and emotional phenomena +which accompanied it, to realize that his first effort would have been +to explain us to ourselves. He would not allow us to acquiesce idly in +our vague disillusionment, our impatience of foreigners, our suspicion +of the idealisms of the Wilson brand. He would trace our discontent +ruthlessly to its sources and hold up to our eyes the strange compound +of sorrow and fatigue, impatience and disappointment, aspiration and +helplessness which makes us what we are. 'The war-mood brought with it +many and terrible symptoms such as have occurred and will always +continue to occur, so long as human nature remains what it is; though in +a severer or milder form, according to the variety of the particular +cases.' Thucydides would have had eyes for it in all its forms, mild or +severe, simple or complex, pitiful or repulsive. He would show us the +English upper and middle class, shaken out of its comfort and +complacency, its easy and patronizing security, by the shock of war and +bereavement, facing a future of unknown and terrifying ideas and forces, +with the brutal tax-gatherer administering the _coup de grâce_ to its +equanimity: the working class, called to fight for a cause which it but +dimly understood, in the hope of a new world which victory was to call +into being, exhorted by the nation's leaders to be as daring in its home +policies as in the trenches, and then confronted with a world of failing +markets and impoverished customers and with the full rigour of the +merciless laws of supply and demand which, just because it had wished +them out of existence, it had grown accustomed to believe could be +ignored, oscillating, according to age, temperament or experience, +between resignation and impotent fury, between old-fashioned +trade-unionism and the latest fashion in extremism: France, emerging +nerve-racked from a fifty years' obsession and a five years' nightmare, +half-dead with sorrow and suspense, yet too proud in victory to own her +weakness, looking round, half-defiant, half-wistful, among her allies +for one who can understand her unspoken need, and longing, with all the +intensity of her sensitive nature, to be able to resume, in security and +quietness of mind, the arts and activities of normal life in which she +has been, and will be again, the Athens of the modern world: Germany, +tougher in fibre than her western neighbour yet equally shaken and +exhausted: a land of sheep without a shepherd, rushing hither and +thither seeking for a direction and a _Weltanschauung_, her amazing +powers of industry and concentration and her rich and turbid life of +feeling running to waste for lack of channelled guidance: Belgium, +self-confident, industrious and rejuvenated: Italy, made one at last and +measuring her strength to face the tasks of a new epoch in her history: +and, behind, the great new surging world of the Slav, from the +disciplined enthusiasm of Prague, under her philosopher-president, to +the birth-agonies of a new Russia in the grip of the rough +tyrant-physicians of the Kremlin. All this a modern Thucydides would +attempt to set before us, not forgetting the conservative forces and the +gods of the older generation, the great Catholic and Protestant, Moslem +and Socialist traditions, the power of the bankers and the merchants, +the universities and the press, and all the various types of humanity +produced and hall-marked by their activity. And then, and not till then, +having shown us what we are, each of us in his niche and all of us +together in our little corner in the vast Temple of mankind, having made +us see our pettyisms and orthodoxies against a universal background of +time and space, he would have broken silence and allowed himself to +speak to us of remedies. _Know yourself_ is the first, perhaps the only, +message of the scientific historian to our bewildered age. + +But by what right, it will be asked, in this age of _Wissenschaft_ and +_Fachmenschen_, of specialism and research-institutes and organized +intellectual production, do you speak of Thucydides as a scientific +historian? Here is a man who, without a university degree or any +university training at all, after a brief military career for which he +took no staff college course (as witness his generalship), sits down to +write a chronicle of the war in which he played a part, basing his +account simply on his own experience and on the testimony of such +eye-witnesses as he was able to meet. Any tiro on the history staff at a +modern college or university could predict the result--one of those +bulky volumes, full of detail and post-prandial reminiscence, in which +splenetic elderly gentlemen have so often sought to justify their own +existence, and to call down damnation on the War Office, before an +indifferent public. How can anything better be expected from a mere +soldier, a rough practical man, untrained in the arts of research, in +collecting facts on slips of paper and arranging and re-arranging them +till an induction emerges, in looking up reference books in libraries +and 'listing' them in a neat alphabetical bibliography, totally ignorant +of the _Hilfswissenschaften_, the laborious subsidiary studies on the +basis of which scientific history is built up, ignorant even of foreign +languages, who has read no sociology, and is not even aware of its +existence, whose geographical studies are limited to his own journeys +and the tales of his friends, who, finally, has the impertinence to +intersperse his narrative with fictitious speeches, thus destroying any +pretence at a scientific character for his treatise, and revealing it in +its true nature as a mere work of art or imagination? It may indeed be +doubted whether a modern trained librarian, working according to the +classification laid down by the standard Congress library at Washington, +would, when his attention was drawn to it, admit so offending a writer +on to his history shelves at all. His place, he would probably say, is +with the prose-poets, or with the writers of historical fiction next +door to them. + +Yet turn to the opening chapters of Thucydides' book. You will find most +of the sciences on which long modern treatises are written: but you will +find something more: you will find them blended into a unity. Let those +who deny that Thucydides was a sociologist, who continue to claim that +Herbert Spencer, inventor of the horrid word, invented also the science, +re-read Thucydides' account of the evolution (for it was as an evolution +that he saw and depicted it) of Greek society from the earliest times to +his own day. Let those who cry up anthropology examine into his +treatment of legend and custom and his power, untrained in Seminar or +institute, to use it as sociological evidence. Let the geographers, too +forgetful sometimes that man is not the creature of environment alone, +refresh their minds by recalling those brilliant sallies in geographical +thinking in which he explains some of the features of early Greek +settlement and city-building. It is not only orthodox history, of the +school of Ranke, of which Thucydides is the father and inspirer: there +is not one of the many movements which have sought to broaden out +historical study in recent years, from Buckle and Leplay and Vidal de la +Blache down to the psycho-analysts of our own day and of to-morrow who +will not find in Thucydides some gleaming anticipation along the path of +their own thought. + +Here we touch upon what is perhaps the cardinal merit of the Greek +political thinkers, as it is of the Greek contribution as a whole. They +saw all the problems: but saw each in its place within the larger whole. +They 'saw life steadily and saw it whole'. Matthew Arnold's line is +hackneyed enough; but it cannot be bettered. To put the same thought in +another way, the Greeks were natural Catholics, while we of to-day, +especially on the political field, are constantly relapsing into an +unhelpful Protestantism. By Catholicism I mean nothing doctrinal, or +indeed religious at all, but simply the habit of mind which insists on +looking at the whole before the parts, at setting the common before the +sectional interest, and in sweetening and harmonizing the inevitable +contrarieties and antagonisms of life by remaining steadily conscious of +its major and reconciling interests. A Catholic is one whose intellect, +to use the words of Newman, himself, despite his religious label, one of +the greatest of the tribe, 'cannot be partial, cannot be exclusive, +cannot be impetuous, cannot be at a loss, cannot but be patient, +collected and majestically calm, because it discerns the end in every +beginning, the origin in each end, the law in every interruption, the +limit in each delay, because it ever knows where it stands and how its +path lies from one point to another'. Protestantism, on the other hand, +is the attitude of protest, of revolt, of indignation: the spirit which +is conscious only of what it is _against_, and is too ignorant, or too +angry, to survey the whole field of problems involved in its protest or +to think out an alternative scheme. If the Greeks can render us no other +service in our discontents they can at least lift us, by the example of +their wide and fearless vision, out of our petty Protestant +rebelliousness and recrimination and plant our feet solidly on the rock +of steady Catholic thinking. + +Take a few instances, drawn from Plato, of what I call the Catholic +spirit. Perhaps the most difficult and unsettling of all our modern +problems is that of the relations between men and women in a society +which has granted or is about to grant to women complete equality of +rights and opportunities without having effected the corresponding inner +revolution of thought and sentiment. Masculine society, in other words, +despite a multitude of professions, has not yet admitted, still less +assimilated, the educated woman into its ranks. Here is a problem with +far reaching and most difficult implications which Plato discussed more +than two thousand years ago, but in how different a spirit from so many +of the 'feminists' of to-day. Not that he was less 'advanced' in his +speculations: he was ready to face all that there was to face and to go +a good deal farther in his suggestions of policy than would be regarded +as printable in a modern English or American review. But his spirit is +throughout perfectly serene and, in the best sense of the word, +scientific, so that he can work out his argument to the end without a +trace of squeamishness or false modesty. Where shall we find in our +modern discussions of women's employment, equal work for equal pay, and +the like, the central point so simply and clearly stated as in the +following sentence: 'Then, if we find either the male or the female sex +excelling the other in any art or other pursuit, we shall say that this +particular pursuit must be assigned to one and not to the other; but if +we find that the difference simply consists in this, that the female +conceives and the male begets, we shall not allow that that goes any way +to prove that a woman differs from a man with reference to the subject +of which we are speaking, and we shall still consider that our guardians +and their wives should follow the same pursuits.' If all our modern +discussion were as clean and direct as this, we should have made greater +progress in this subject by now. Greek intellectual integrity, and +clarity of thought and expression, were not hampered by a festering and +obstructive legacy of what it is a libel on a great movement to describe +as Puritanism. + +Take a second example--the influence of occupation on character. This is +a subject which goes to the root of many of our social problems for, +till we have studied the reactions of different classes of employment, +not only on the body but on the mind, and perfected our methods of +vocational guidance, we shall still have left open one of the greatest +avenues to unhappiness. The modern inquirer will find a very interesting +adumbration of this line of thought in the _Republic_; and if here, as +in the problem of the relations between men and women, he finds Plato's +remedies somewhat drastic, and is inclined to dissent from his veto on +actors and acrobats, let him consider the appalling extent to which, +during recent generations, the consumer has been pampered at the expense +of the producer, and ask himself how often, when he attends a music-hall +as a narcotic after a distracting day, or when he rings up on the +telephone or books a ticket at a railway office, he considers the kind +of life to which he is an accomplice in condemning those who minister to +his needs and desires. Plato believed in the value of beauty and, being +more than a mere modern aesthete, held no skindeep creed. He knew and +understood the vital significance of rhythm and harmony, of grace and +freedom, in the outward order of life as in the soul; and if he found +himself plunged down in the centre of one of our modern hives of +progress he would have some searching questions to ask. For 'absence of +grace' he tells us 'and bad rhythm and bad harmony are sisters to bad +words and bad nature' and 'we would not have our guardians reared among +images of evil as in a foul pasture and there day by day, and little by +little, gather impressions from all that surrounds them, until at last a +great mass of evil gathers in their inmost souls and they know it not'. +Has the most widespread malady of our time ever been better diagnosed; +and do not our capitalist and socialist physicians, with their merely +material remedies, look very small by the side of this commanding and +convincing simplicity of statement? + +We have dwelt upon some of the special directions in which Thucydides +and Plato can be of help to us. Let us now turn briefly to the third of +the great triad. Aristotle is, of course, the most systematic thinker of +the three: and it is just for that very reason that the two elements +already noted in Greek political thought, the local and ephemeral and +the universal, are most closely interwoven and most baffling to +disentangle. Tutor of Alexander though he was, his mind is incapable of +stepping outside the city-state framework. His _Ethics_ is half a +treatise on human nature, half a book, akin to the _Characters_ of +Theophrastus, on deportment for a Greek citizen. No wonder that +successive generations of English undergraduates have failed to respond +to the human excellence or social charm, of his hero or paragon, +described as 'the big-souled' or 'magnificent man'. Similarly the +_Politics_ is a book in which it needs a trained reader, already +familiar with Greek life, to pick out the universal from the particular +and draw his own modern conclusions. But when you have read, say, the +first book of the _Politics_ in this spirit, when you have ruled out +from what is said of the State all that pertains solely to the City, +when you have made allowance for the hazardous biological, +psychological, and sociological generalizations ('man is more of a +political animal than bees or other gregarious animals', 'he who is by +nature not his own but another's and not a man is by nature a slave', +'the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the +individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part'), based, +as the examples show, on the embryonic condition of those sciences at +the time, you have a large residuum of practical wisdom that is and will +remain of value to the modern world. + +Let us look for a moment at one element in this legacy, for it has +recently become a subject of much controversy--Aristotle's conception of +the State, and of its relation to other social and political groupings. +As has already been said, Greek political thought is open to criticism +for unduly neglecting the claim of the individual. Aristotle is less +open to this indictment than either of his great compeers: he does +indeed allow, for certain favoured individuals, an inner or +'theoretical' life, as he calls it, remote from the concerns of the +City-State and almost, except for its excessive intellectuality, +recalling the monastic ideal of the Middle Age. But this is only for the +fewest. Nevertheless it involved the admission that behind the citizen +remained the man, who might conceivably on occasion have his rights, +that 'political science', as he says, 'does not make men', as Thucydides +regarded Athens as making Athenians, 'but receives them from nature and +uses them'. And the justification for this taking over of human nature +by the state, this subjection of man over the whole or part of his +nature, is clearly set forth. It is that 'man when perfected [i. e. +taken over and educated by the State] is the best of animals, but, when +separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all', or, as he puts +it in another place, the man who does not participate in State or city +life is 'either a beast or a god'--more likely (as the order of the +words indicates) the former. In other words, it is law and justice, not, +as Thucydides would have it, an exaltation of the spirit to its highest +power, nor, as Plato preaches, some organic identification between the +inner life of the soul and the outward order of society, which is the +basis and justification of politics. 'It is justice', he says, using the +word in a strict, not a platonic or metaphysical sense, 'which is the +bond of men in states, and the administration of justice, i. e. the +determination of what is just, which is the principle of order in +political society.' + +Now, with this principle clearly laid down, and with the claim of the +individual thus partially or at least implicitly recognized, it is +easier to understand Aristotle's _intransigeant_ attitude towards the +claims of associations other than the state, a point on which much +recent controversy has turned. 'Every state', so his _Politics_ open, +'is an association of some kind, and every association is established +with a view to some good.... But if all associations aim at some good, +the state, or political association, _which is the highest of all and +which embraces all the rest_, aims, and in a greater degree than any +other, at the highest good.' In other words, in cases of conflict of +allegiance between the state or political association and some other +form of grouping, whether Church or Trade Union or professional or +humanitarian organization, the claim of the state must take precedence. + +This doctrine has been much attacked as involving an indefensible 'State +absolutism', a denial of 'personality' to lesser groups, even as a +negation of the right to lesser loyalties. Mr. Figgis, in a number of +suggestive, if unconvincing, writings, has recalled the theories of the +Jesuits and other anti-state minorities and protestants on this subject, +reinforcing them from the Nonconformist and Trade Union theories or +inclinations of our own day: and a whole school of younger 'progressive' +intellectuals made bold to follow him. The assault on state-sovereignty +has, however, already been brought to a standstill by the impact of +fact. Strange as it may appear in an age of sectarianism and rebel +theorizing, the war revealed the truth that the mass of mankind, now as +in ancient Greece, respond at need to the call of citizenship: that when +the cry goes up summoning each and all to the tents, it is not this or +that little tabernacle but the protecting shelter of the larger and more +truly representative state organizations to which men flock; that the +sects and conventicles which have fed the enthusiasm and provided the +activity of leisure hours cannot maintain their appeal when the whole +fabric of our society is in danger. Exclusive of those who refused +allegiance on true grounds of conscience, and the despicable remnant who +shammed a similar conviction, the number of Englishmen who definitely +set allegiance to some other political or social grouping before +allegiance to the state was surprisingly small. So little are +fundamental loyalties, or the dictates of an unanalysed common sense, +affected, in this country, by fine-spun theories and arguments. + +But what we called commonsense views, after all, can be analysed and +ought to be analysed. And there is a very sound and practical reason, as +Aristotle knew, why men prefer the state to lesser associations. It is +because the state leaves them more free. Those who talk of +state-absolutism are ignoring the simple truth that there is no tyranny +like the tyranny of near neighbours. The smaller the group the tighter +its stranglehold over your life and activities. Groups and lesser +loyalties are highly necessary, and indeed desirable, in our modern +large-scale society; but they involve men, and especially weak-willed +and thoughtless men, in far greater dangers than their larger +citizenship. What the confessional at its worst may be to a woman, +professional or business or other loyalty may be to a man. The modern +world is full of men who have bartered away their integrity of soul to +preserve the unity of the party or the unbroken tradition of the +organization or the interests of the trade or even the existence of the +business. If the secrets of all hearts could be revealed, how many high +officials and dignitaries in Church and Party, in Trade Union and +employers' federation, would be discovered to be thinking and even +saying in private what their lesser loyalties forbid them to proclaim in +public to their fellow-guildsmen. The state, in its larger field, may +sometimes commit terrible blunders and even crimes; but at least, in +these days of large-scale government, it does not expose its citizens to +the daily falsehoods and hypocrisies, to the insidious clogging of the +wheels of progress with the grit of petty personal considerations, which +seem inevitable in the life of the smaller groupings of men and women. +Seen in this light, the state stands out as the guardian not only of +justice but of freedom, of an inner freedom of soul and spirit with +which the professional and syndicalist attitude of mind is so often in +flagrant, if unavowed, contradiction. If all this was not visible to +Aristotle when he penned his immortal opening paragraph of the +_Politics_, he is at least entitled to the credit of having laid his +doctrine of state-sovereignty on a foundation so sure that over twenty +centuries of discussion from the Stoics and Cynics, through Augustine +and Dante, down to Rousseau and Lenin, have not been able to shake it. +Against Church and Soviet, as against sage and hermit and anarchist, the +territorial state still holds its own over the whole civilized world; +and the latest construction of idealism at Geneva, misnamed though it +is, is but an association of such states, far larger indeed in average +size, but of the same kind and composition as those upon which the Greek +philosopher fixed as the true object of political study and the most +effective and enduring agency for securing a good life for civilized +mankind. + +What are the chief and most enduring thoughts which contact with the +Greek political thinkers leaves with us? They are surely twofold, the +first concerning the material of politics, the second concerning the men +and women of to-day who are called to be citizens. Public affairs, we +feel, so far from being a tiresome preoccupation or 'a dirty business' +are one of the great permanent interests of the race: if they were not +too trivial or too debasing for great artists like Thucydides and Plato, +we need not fear lest they be too trivial or debasing for ourselves. And +if they are not beneath our study, neither should they elude it by being +enwrapped in clouds of rhetoric or in the cotton-wool of sentimentality. +The Greeks should teach us, once and for all, that the common affairs of +mankind are matter to think about as well as to feel about. What +distinguishes what we call a 'good' statesman and a 'public-spirited' +citizen from their less truly political colleagues is not that they have +warmer feelings--there are as many affectionate sons and loving husbands +among the tools of politics as among the elect--but the fact that by a +resolute use of the related powers of intellect and imagination they +have been able to raise their feelings on to a higher plane and to face +great issues with a mind attuned, not to the familiar appeal of hearth +and home, but to the grander and more difficult music of humanity. The +psychologists are teaching us, in the individual life, how we can +'sublimate' our emotions, when life denies them an outlet on the level +of our desire, by raising them to a higher and more rarified range of +feeling and action. As we can sublimate our love of individuals, so we +can sublimate our love of country, not quenching or denying our +patriotism, but consciously dividing and apportioning it. We must learn +to preserve for our blood and nation that precious part of our gift of +service which, just because it is intimate and of the family, cannot be +offered directly to humanity; but we must learn also the more difficult +lesson of transferring to the international stage, the arena where men, +because they are men, labour at common tasks and seek a greatest common +measure of co-operation, all these interests and loyalties which safely +and rightly belong there. This is the claim and call of the modern +Caesar, whether his separate capitals remain, as they are to-day, in +London, Paris, Washington, and the other centres of state-sovereignty, +or whether mankind can rise, if not in our own day, to the level of a +single allegiance. We shall neglect that call at our peril. For, unless +we render unto Caesar that which is properly his, unless we discard our +unthinking and divisive nationalisms, our noble sentiments will avail us +nothing and, in the civil war of the angels, patriotism against +patriotism, Mammon and Beelzebub will come into their own. In these days +of large-scale organization and mammoth syndicates, it takes a Caesar, a +multi-national government, to keep a giant trust at bay. Had the land of +Washington and Lincoln been broken up into separate governments instead +of drawn together into a single territory of United States, private +interests would have taken and defeated each government in detail, and +freedom would have vanished from the land--unless indeed, in some +conflict of devil with devil, of bank and railroad against oil and +lumber, the angels crept once more into their own. The same reasoning +applies to the smaller governments in other continents to-day. Local +patriotism is but a stripling David in face of the Goliaths of modern +commercialism. More and more men will be driven, if not by reason, then +by exploitation and suffering, to learn the lesson of what is still +mistakenly thought of as imperialism until they find themselves crying +out, with the apostle of the Gentiles, who fought his own battle against +nationalism, 'I appeal unto Caesar.' + +But the Greeks have a message for us not only as regards the material of +our politics but as regards ourselves. What can we do to help humanity +forward in these problems of its common affairs? The age of +Utopia-dreams is over. We know now that modern science has made the +world one place and that social salvation is not to be found, as the +early socialists imagined, by fleeing from the haunts of men and +founding some model city in a wilderness. We must make our contribution +here and now, in the drab world in which fate has set us. If we cannot +hope to turn it into Utopia, let us at least make it as much like Utopia +as we can. This, after all, is Plato's message, even in the most +idealistic and visionary of his books. The famous passage is worth +quoting in detail: + + 'Then do you think any less of our argument because we cannot prove + that it is possible to found a state of the kind we have + described?' + + 'Surely not,' he said.... + + 'Then do not compel me to show that what we have decided in our + argument could in all respects be reproduced in experience. If we + manage to discover how a state could be organized in any close + correspondence to our description, then you must allow that we have + discovered that your commands could be realized. Will you not be + content with that? I certainly should be.' + + 'Yes, I will,' he said. + + 'Then next apparently we must try to discover ... what is the + smallest change by which a state might arrive at this manner of + constitution....' + + 'Most certainly,' he said. + + 'Well, there is one change,' I said, 'which I think we could + certainly prove would bring about the revolution. It is certainly + neither a small nor an easy change, but it is possible.' + + 'What is it?' he said. + + 'Now,' I said, 'I am at the very topic which we likened to the + greatest wave. Spoken, however, it shall be, even though it is + likely to deluge me with laughter and ridicule.... Consider then + what I am about to say.' + + 'Say on,' he said. + + 'Unless,' I said, 'lovers of wisdom bear sovereign rule in states, + or those who are now called sovereigns and governors become sincere + and capable lovers of wisdom, and government and love of wisdom be + brought together, and unless the numerous natures who at present + pursue either government or wisdom, the one to the exclusion of the + other, be forcibly debarred from this behaviour, there will be no + respite from evil, my dear Glaucon, for states, nor, I fancy, for + humanity; nor will this constitution, which we have just described + in our argument, come to that realization which is possible for it + and see the light of day. It is this which has for so long made me + hesitate to speak. I saw how paradoxical it would sound. For it is + given to few to perceive that no other constitution could ever + bring happiness either to states or individuals.' + +Thus far the philosopher of antiquity. His words are sometimes +interpreted as a cry for some philosopher-genius to take the task of +government out of our too feeble grasp. But that is not his message for +us. The age in which philosopher-emperors were possible has passed +beyond recall. To us Plato's words are an appeal to become, each and all +of us, in our own sphere, lovers of wisdom according to the measure of +our ability. If we would amend the world around us--and it is in sore +need of amendment--our first duty is to eschew falsehood and to follow +truth in our own lives, in our thoughts and actions. Revolutions spring +not from without inwards but from within outwards; and it is often when +the external world seems most sick and sorrowful, when selfishness and +irresponsibility sit enthroned in the world's seats of government, that +the power of truth is most active in the silent region of the soul, +strengthening it in order that it may issue forth once again to impress +man's unconquerable purpose of order, justice and freedom upon the +recalcitrant material which forms the stuff of men's common problems on +this small globe of ours. + +A. E. ZIMMERN. + + + + +THE LAMPS OF GREEK ART + + +Amid the superficialities and struggles of the world around us, it is +refreshing to turn back for a moment to the mellow wisdom of Matthew +Arnold; and I will start with a quotation from _Literature and Dogma_: +'As well imagine a man with a sense for sculpture not cultivating it by +the help of the remains of Greek art, or a man with a sense for poetry +not cultivating it by the help of Homer and Shakespeare, as a man with a +sense for conduct not cultivating it by the help of the Bible.' To +Arnold the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, Greek art, are the great and +eternal classics, which for all time must be the stimulus and the models +for the greatest of human achievements. Beyond doubt in the fifty years +since Arnold wrote there has been a marked drift away from classics of +every kind. To acknowledge classics at all seems a survival of the +spirit of aristocracy. We are convinced that we are better than our +fathers, and must break away from their tutelage. In some degree this +arises out of the unrest and nervous strain produced by the great war. +But it does not come only from nervous tension. It is a definite +tendency of society, which has to be considered on its merits by all who +feel called on to take a share in the world movement. We cannot ignore +those who are drifting away from the settled anchorages, or we run the +risk of being ignored ourselves. + +The task has fallen to me to try to give reasons why Greek art has still +a claim on our attention. Among Englishmen the appreciation of art never +has been and never can be as keen as the appreciation of poetry and +philosophy. But on the other hand I think it can be shown that in the +field of art our debt to Greece is even greater than in the field of +philosophy and poetry. For in these latter we have a certain national +genius, and have produced classics recognized through Europe. But in art +our achievements have been but moderate; and at the present time a +living sense of art is probably rarer among us than in any highly +civilized country except America. + +I will begin with a bold assertion, which I hope to justify as we +proceed. But for ancient Greece, the art of Europe would to-day be on +much the same level as the fantastic and degraded art of India. And but +for the continued influence of Greek art, that of Europe would +continually be in danger of drifting into chaotic extravagance. + +In the century before the Persian wars of 500-480 B. C., Greece, both +Ionian and Dorian, was throwing out fresh shoots of life in every +direction, breaking through the crust of archaic convention, producing a +new standard of excellence, in poetry, in philosophy, in history, and in +art. In every province, morals, intellect, imagination, Greece was +striking out, to the right and the left. And in the century after the +Persian wars, she reaped the full harvest of her splendid sowing, and +produced the masterpieces which have remained ever since memorable, to +the study of which each generation recurs, and whence it learns of what +human nature is capable. + +After 400 B. C. there was not, as many suppose, a sudden decline in the +quality of artistic production. Many of the works of the later centuries +were in their way almost unsurpassable. The philosophy of Aristotle, the +poetry of Theocritus, such statues as the Aphrodite of Melos and the +Victory of Samothrace, are great lights for all time. But the works of +maturity have seldom the charm which marks those which are full of the +optimism and promise of youth. + +Ruskin has written an admirable work on the Seven Lamps of Architecture, +a work which, though it sometimes passes into extravagance, is full of +suggestion and even inspiration. It seems to me strange that while the +economic views of Ruskin, full of generosity, but also wanting in +measure and any basis of fact, should still be current among us, his +writings on art, in which his genius had full course, should be +comparatively neglected. However that may be, as one who has been +greatly stimulated by those writings, I propose to try to produce a +faint echo of one of them by speaking successively of the lamps of Greek +art, lamps which give us light and serve to show our way. I find in +Greek art eight notable features: (1) Humanism, (2) Simplicity, (3) +Balance and Measure, (4) Naturalism, (5) Idealism, (6) Patience, (7) +Joy, (8) Fellowship. + +As my space is closely limited I cannot attempt to develop the subject +of Greek art in all its provinces and in all its bearings. I must limit +myself to the art of sculpture, the most characteristic branch, and the +only branch which has left us sufficient materials for the formation of +a satisfactory notion. And I must limit myself further to such of the +sculpture as represents the human form. In the representation of some +animals, such as the horse, the later Greeks produced some wonderful +examples, but in the depiction of animals other peoples have rivalled +them, whereas in the depiction of men and women they stand alone. + + +I + +_Humanism._ Three great discoveries lay open to the awakened spirit of +man, when he began to realize and reflect upon his surroundings. The +first was the discovery of God, which was mainly the work of the +Prophets of Israel, though no doubt Greece added much on the +intellectual side; and the religions both of Judaea and Greece were +carried to a higher point by Christianity. The second was the discovery +of man himself, which was in all essentials the great work of Greek +thinkers and writers. The third, begun in Greece, has been carried very +much farther in modern times, the discovery of nature and her laws. I +think that reflection will show that of the three discoveries the last +is the least important, for though it has vastly changed the habits and +the surroundings of mankind, and has offered him long vistas of material +progress, yet it has not changed his nature much, nor added greatly to +his happiness. We know how the delights of thought, of art, of poetry +and music have overcome barbarism and given to multitudes a new pleasure +in existence. But the results of scientific progress have not as yet +done all that we might have hoped for mankind. Every great discovery in +physical science has been turned, primarily, not to the welfare but to +the destruction of mankind. The ocean-going ship is tracked by the +submarine; air-ships are used to drop bombs on defenceless cities, some +of the most notable achievements of chemistry are poison-gases. We may +of course hope that this is but a passing phase, and that brighter times +are before us. But I venture to suggest that the true road to progress +cannot be found unless we preserve the Jewish and the Greek points of +view. We must not lose sight of the ethical and religious bearing of +science, and not be content with merely regarding it as a means of +exploiting the material world. Instead of harnessing the forces of +nature to true human ends, to happiness, we have allowed them to be used +for any purpose, moral or immoral, by any one who by cunning or pushing +has gained control of them. We have dehumanized the world, and allowed +it to ride rough shod over human life. + +The discovery of man and his capacities, then, is the great gift of +Greece to the world. There were epics before the _Iliad_, but no epic +full of charm, of tragedy, of tears and laughter. There were +philosophers before Socrates; but they were busied in trying to find the +physical constituents of the world. Socrates took up the motto of Delphi +'Know thyself', and became the progenitor of all who study the nature of +duty and of happiness. In the same way there was much art in the world +before the rise of Greece, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Crete. But it +was not a humanist art. It represented the worship of the Gods, battles, +and sieges, the life of the fields. But the human figures in these +scenes were conventional: there was nothing in them to stir the finer +feelings, to produce a love of beauty, to raise man above the ordinary +daily level. The Greeks knew of earlier works of art; but they declined +to be seduced, as the Phoenicians and Etruscans were seduced, into a +facile imitation of them. They realized, no doubt subconsciously rather +than consciously, that they were called to set forth a new and human +art, and had in them powers which could produce it. They began a process +which developed with astonishing rapidity, and which cannot cease, +unless, as seems now not impossible, barbarism reinvades a weary world. + +'Man is the measure of all things' is the doctrine ascribed to +Protagoras of Abdera, which shocked the people of Athens and is attacked +by Plato in his more constructive mood. It is a doctrine lending itself +to abuse, and still more to caricature; but it is really the teaching of +Socrates no less than of Protagoras; and it has held its own from his +times to those of the Utilitarians and Pragmatists. Certainly it is at +the basis of the Greek view of life, in which man with his feelings, his +faculties, and his endeavours, stands in the foreground, and all else +appears as a vague background. + +It was quite natural that as the Greek thinkers interpreted all +experience in relation to human powers and faculties, so the artists of +Greece thought of all nature in terms of the human body. Thus while the +stern monotheism of later Israel absolutely prohibited the +representation in art of any living thing, and especially of man, Greek +artists entirely devoted themselves to such representation. + +The great result of the working of the spirit of humanism in Greek art +was the representation of the Gods in human form. There is still +prevalent among us a survival of the Jewish hatred of the representation +of the divine element in the world by the mimetic art of sculpture. We +still repeat, day by day, the Jewish commandment, 'Thou shalt not make +to thyself any graven image'. Now I am not going to find any fault with +the intense feeling of iconoclasm, which was one of the mainsprings of +Jewish religion. I have no doubt that in the development of that +religion, hatred and contempt for the idols of the surrounding nations +was of inestimable value to the race. The struggle, ever renewed, +against the invasion of idolatry was necessary to the development of +that pure prophetic religion which it was the highest mission of the +Jewish race to set forth and propagate in the world. I would not even +speak against the echoes of it in the modern world. To the Moslems of +our days, as to the ancient Jews, it appears to be a necessary corollary +of any lofty and spiritual conception of the divine. And when we read of +the destruction of religious images by our Puritan ancestors we cannot +withhold from them an inner sympathy. The hatred of images was one side +of the pure and passionate belief in spiritual religion which it was the +mission of the great Reformers to revive and propagate in Europe. + +But it is possible to appreciate this side of religion without being +blind to other aspects of it. Our religion comes not only from Judaea, +but also from Greece. The Jewish passion for the divine righteousness +lies at its roots. But that passion is consistent with narrowness, +bigotry, inhumanity. For the modifications of it which come from the +working of the spirit of humanism we have to turn to the Hellenes, for +the feeling of the likeness in nature between God and man, the love of +the beauty of the created works of God, the joy in whatever is sweet, +whatever is comely, whatever is charming. The beauty and majesty of God +appealed to the Greek, as the unapproachable transcendence of God +inspired the Jew. + +So it fell to the Greek artists to try to set forth in marble and in +bronze the gentler and more social side of the divine nature. There is a +sweet reasonableness in the words of Maximus of Tyre: 'The Greek custom +is to represent the Gods by the most beautiful things on earth--pure +material, the human form, consummate art. The idea of those who make +divine images in human shape is quite reasonable, since the spirit of +man is nearest of all things to God and most godlike.' + +The whole history of Greek sculpture, from its rise in the sixth century +to its decline in the third, is inspired by this desire to represent the +divine by the most beautiful things on earth. The sculpture of the great +nations of the East, Egypt and Assyria, is full of figures of the Gods, +and of scenes of worship. But these figures do not rise above the human. +The gods appear as conventional figures, mere ordinary men and women. +And to distinguish them from mortal beings, the artists of the East +proceed in the manner of symbolism: they make additions to the human +types which are to signify the divine attributes, but do not really +embody them. They add wings to represent the swiftness of the deity, +wings not meant for actual flight, but only symbols of rapid motion. +They represent them as victoriously overthrowing wild beasts and +monsters, which stand for the powers of evil, ever bent on thwarting +their action. In some of their most archaic works, the Greeks fall into +the imitation of this way. They represent Apollo flanked by two +vanquished griffins, Artemis with wings, and holding in her hands +captive lions. But their artistic sense soon revolted against such crude +and clumsy ways of representation. They began to try to represent the +divine character of their deities, not by arbitrary and external +symbols, but by modifying the human types in the direction of the ideal. +Sometimes, indeed, in later art we find survivals of early symbolism in +the form of an attribute. Hermes is still winged, but the wings are +transferred to his cap or his boots. Zeus may still carry the +thunderbolt, the symbol of his rule over the storm. Apollo may be still +radiate, combining human form with the rays which proceed from the +visible sun. + +But these are only survivals, and do not affect the process, carried on +by artist after artist and school after school, by which the gods +absorbed ever more fully the qualities of the most perfect manhood. +Zeus, as father of gods and men, is an idealization of the human father, +combining justice and dignity with benevolence and kindness; Athena +becomes the embodiment of the divine reason and wisdom, perhaps the most +fully idealized of all the forms of the gods, since this armed and +victorious virgin with wisdom seated on her brow had little in common +with the secluded and domestic women of her city of Athens. Apollo has +not the muscles of the trained athlete, but in his nobleness of +countenance and perfect symmetry of shape, he stands for all that a +young man might grow towards by self-restraint and aspiration. At a +somewhat lower level Herakles bears the form of the wrestler, admirably +proportioned but more powerful than even the greatest of athletes; +Hermes is the ideal runner, every muscle adapted to swift and lithe +movements. + +Thus in the types of the gods which were produced when Greek art was at +its best we have a series of supermen and superwomen who represent the +highest and best to which mortals can hope to attain, types embodying +the highest perfection of body and mind. The influence of those types +has gone on from century to century, never in the darkest ages wholly +forgotten, and serving at all times to redeem human nature from foulness +and degradation. All through the history of art they have been acting as +a raising and purifying element. + +It was not until the decay of the Olympic religion in the fourth century +that these types fell to a lower level. The sense of beauty in the +artist remained as keen as ever, the technique of art even improved, but +the religion of humanism was debased by less noble tendencies, and the +gods took on too much not the nature of man as he might become, but the +form of man as he actually is in the world. + +Not the forms only of the gods, but the history of their appearances on +earth and their dealings with mankind found expression in painting and +relief. Plato, as we know, condemned the myths of the gods as unworthy +from the ethical point of view. But we shall misjudge myths if we +suppose that they were actually believed in, or served to regulate +conduct. What they did was greatly to further the picturesqueness and +joy of life. And when they became less important in cultus they survived +in poetry, and served greatly to temper the harsh prose of actual life. +We must remember that some of the Jewish tales which have so much +interested and charmed our forefathers are hardly to be defended on +strict ethical principles, yet they have been a leavening and widening +influence. Who would wish to expel from churches the stories of Adam and +Eve, of Joseph and David, on grounds of ethical purism? The life of the +many is not so highly decorated that we should wish to expel from it +elements so pleasing. + +As the Gods tend more and more to take forms beautiful but entirely +human, so do the notable features of the landscape, rivers and +mountains, sky and sea, take on themselves human shape. Sun and moon, +wind and storm, are completely humanized. The society of Olympus, the +powers manifested in nature, appear in sculpture as a human society, but +of more than human beauty and dignity. And such rendering of the gods +leads, as we shall presently see, to an ideal rendering of men. As the +gods come down in the likeness of men, so men are raised to the level of +the gods. Hence the intrinsic and inexhaustible idealism of Greek +sculpture, to which I will presently return. + +Few works of art more fully and more attractively show the +anthropomorphic tendency of Greek art than the sunrise vase of the +British Museum. It shows us the whole morning pageant of nature +humanized. On the right appears the sun-god driving a chariot of winged +horses, who rise out of the sea. Before him the stars, represented as +youths, plunge into the water. To the left is the moon-goddess on +horseback, setting behind the hills, on one of which is a mountain-god +in an attitude of surprise. Before the sun hurries Eos, the winged dawn, +who by a bold citation of mythology is represented as pursuing Cephalus +the hunter, of whom she was enamoured. We have the features of the +daybreak; but they are all represented not as facts of nature, but in +their influence on Gods and men. + +I do not figure this vase, as I have already done so in my _Principles +of Greek Art_; but instead I give an almost equally beautiful +representation from the lid of a toilet vase in the Sabouroff Collection +at Berlin. We have here the same three figures of the sun-god, the +moon-goddess, and the winged dawn, who, however, in this case is driving +a chariot. The form of the whole group and the radiate symbol in the +midst stands admirably for the vault of heaven (Fig. 1). + +[Illustration: Fig. 1. VASE REPRESENTING SUNRISE] + +Another extreme example of anthropomorphism is the embodiment of the +sustaining power of the pillar in the so-called Caryatids of the +Erechtheum (Fig. 2). Really they are Corae, maidens dedicated to Athena, +and willingly in her service bearing up the weight of the architrave of +her temple. Possibly the notion is not wholly satisfactory; but if it be +tolerated, could it have been more nobly carried out? The square and +stalwart form of the women, the mass of hair which strengthens their +necks, the easy pose, all make us feel that the task is not beyond their +strength or oppressive. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2. CARYATID of Erechtheum] + +Beside the Greek Caryatid I must be allowed to place a modern version, +by Rodin. For the power and the technique of Rodin I have great +admiration; but when his works are placed beside those of Greece, we +feel at once their inferiority in dignity, in simplicity, in ideality +(Fig. 3). + +[Illustration: Fig. 3. CARYATID by Rodin] + + +II + +The second lamp of Greek art is _Simplicity_. The artist sees quite +clearly what he desires to produce, and sets about producing it without +hesitation, without self-consciousness, with no beating about the bush. +Of course the more primitive and less conventional a society is, the +easier it is for artists to be simple. In a complicated society +simplicity and directness are apt to be confused with what is +commonplace or even with the foolish. The simplicity of Wordsworth and +of Tennyson does sometimes cross the line. The Greeks had the great +advantage of coming before other cultivated peoples, so that there was +no commonplace to avoid. They could be simple, as the wild rose and the +primrose are simple. What could be more simple than the _Iliad_? The +same simplicity marks Greek sculpture. It requires no great exercise of +the intellect to understand it. It presents every figure in a clear and +unsophisticated way. + +As there is no more sure sign of a fine nature than the absence of +self-consciousness, so there is no more sure sign of greatness in art +than simplicity. The Greeks did not strive to be original, to make +people stare, to do the unusual. One of the most usual subjects in Greek +relief is a battle between male warriors and Amazons. Such battles adorn +many temples. And in every case they are distinctive in style. One could +not mistake a group from the temple at Phigaleia for a group from the +Mausoleum. And there is no sameness: almost every group has some point +or touch of its own, which makes it a variety on the usual theme. One +Amazon is falling from her horse, one is asking for quarter, one is +following up a retreating foe. But no group is insistent that the +passer-by should look at it. The relief was the decoration of a temple; +and if its originality drew men's attention from the temple itself, or +from the Deity seated enthroned within, it might justly be accused of +impertinence, of exceeding due measure. The sculptor did his best; but +he was careful to do nothing which was out of harmony with its +surroundings. He sank himself in his work. And even when he was engaged +on a more serious substantive work, what he most avoided was the +incongruous and unbecoming. He so worked that the attention of the +spectator was concentrated not on the character of the workmanship, but +on the person or the subject portrayed. The idea which he tried to +incorporate in marble or bronze was not his own thought about the +subject, but the character which really belonged to it in the mind of +the people. + +This singleness of purpose is well illustrated by a story about the +painter Protogenes. He painted the figure of a Satyr, and beside it, as +a trifle, he inserted a partridge. But when he found that admiration for +the lifelikeness of the partridge tended to distract the attention of +visitors from the main figure, he painted it out. + +No doubt simplicity implies limitation. It is not easy in any age to +strike the deepest note without some surrender of simplicity. The higher +phases of the mental and spiritual life, mysticism, symbolism, and the +like are not to be expressed with complete simplicity in any form of +art. One cannot deny that the Greek view of life was limited; that the +Greeks did not attempt to represent in art the highest aspirations of +the soul. It was an entirely perverted ingenuity which sought a +generation ago to find mystic meaning in the representations on Greek +vases. Attempts to portray the Deities of the Mysteries scarcely count +as works of art. Such figures as Sabazius, Isis, Mithras, only come into +ancient art in its decadence. I would not maintain that the modern +world, with its infinitely varied emotions, or the higher aspirations of +religions like the Christian or the Buddhist, could be satisfied with +such simple schemes as those of Greek sculpture, which appeal to human +instinct and human intelligence rather than to the more recondite +emotions. Such emotions, however, in my opinion, do not find any +appropriate embodiment in the arts of which I am treating--the graphic +and plastic arts. In poetry they have at all times found a noble +expression; and in modern days a perhaps still completer expression in +music, which was in pre-Christian days in a very rudimentary condition. +But painting is but ill suited to the rendering of these vague +aspirations. And still more unsuited is sculpture, the most imitative +and objective of all the arts. The attempts which have been made in +recent years by some sculptors to give a mystic turn to their art seems +to me doomed to failure by the essential nature of sculpture. A Western +mind can have little sympathy with the art which has moved most on +mystic lines, the art of India, which in such efforts has abandoned the +search for beauty, and so given up the really artistic point of view. +Mere prettiness no doubt is an unsatisfying ideal: but a loftier beauty, +in harmony with the world around us and the soul within us, is another +thing. + +In order that simplicity may be in the highest degree admirable, it must +be combined with two other qualities--intense love of beauty, and the +utmost patience in execution. It must not lead on the one side to a mere +unideal copy of nature, nor on the other to a hasty and slovenly kind of +work. + +The figure already mentioned, the Caryatid of the Erechtheum, is a model +of perfect simplicity. For further illustration of the quality I have +chosen the bronze charioteer from Delphi, and the Artemis from Gabii, +now in the Louvre. The former (Fig. 4) is a youth of noble family, clad +in the long dress necessary to protect from the wind a man driving a +chariot. The latter (Fig. 5), a work of the school of Praxiteles, +represents a young girl fastening her dress on her shoulder. Both are as +free as they can be from any attempt at novelty or originality: yet no +one with any taste could for a moment hesitate to pronounce them +admirable. The object of the artist was to make works as perfect as +possible. And to that end he goes straight, without any complication, +and without the least care that others may have done similar works, +against which he must assert originality. + +[Illustration: Fig. 4 +CHARIOTEER of Delphi] + +[Illustration: Fig. 5 +ARTEMIS of Gabii] + +Beside the two figures I have cited I place a more modern group (Fig. +6), also by a man of genius, Peter Vischer. It has the same simplicity +and the same care in execution as the Greek works, but in beauty it will +not compare with them; and one feels regret that so great an artist +should have spent his powers on so unsuitable a subject as the rivets +and plates of a suit of armour. The lady, though not without charm, +seems artificial and affected beside the exquisite freshness of the girl +of Praxiteles. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6. KNIGHT AND LADY +By Peter Vischer] + + +III + +The third lamp of Greek art is _Balance and Measure_, the recognition of +limit and law. This is most obvious in architecture, and especially in +its most characteristic production, the temple. The form of the temple, +when once established, remained fixed, within certain limits of +variation, for all time. A most accomplished writer, M. Boutmy, has +admirably shown how all the constituent parts of the temple are related +one to the other, how a plan, a consistent rhythm, runs throughout it. +Each part has a definite function, which it accomplishes in the simplest +and clearest way. The pillars are made simply to support, and their +shape and slight decoration is in accordance with that purpose. Their +form ensures a maximum of stability. The channeling or fluting carries +the eye of the spectator upwards to the capital which swells outwards to +support the heavy straight line of the cornice. Above the cornice, the +grooves of the triglyphs carry on the lines of fluting from the columns +towards the roof. The walls of the temple are not primarily intended to +support, but to enclose the sacred cella, and are adorned only at their +upper edge, as a curtain might be, with a decorative frieze. The whole +building is thought out as a home for the statue of the deity which it +encloses; and no part is allowed to adorn itself except in subordination +to this general purpose. Like the shells of molluscs or the hives of +bees, it is the direct embodiment of an idea, a purpose, only a +conscious and reflective, not a merely instinctive purpose. + +The sculptural decoration, which is so striking a feature of the temple, +is also carefully subordinated to purpose and idea. No part of the +structure which bears a strain, if we except one or two early and +unsatisfactory experiments, was decorated. The business of column and +architrave was to bear weight; and if they were ornate they would seem +less well adapted to that purpose. Only in parts of the building which +were from the point of view of construction otiose, such as pediment and +metope, was the art of the sculptor allowed to play; and even then it +was bound to play appropriately to the nature of the deity within and +the festivals of which the temple was to be the focus. There was no room +for cross-purposes or disturbing thoughts. + +This rigidity of form and subordination to reason is as characteristic +of Attic tragedies as of temples. It would indeed be possible to work +out a close parallel between the two forms of art. But we must return to +our immediate subject, sculpture. Temple sculpture exhibits the +qualities of balance and measure in the highest degree. In case of the +pediment there is a central point, just under the apex, where the +dominant figures of the scene portrayed are placed; and on either side +of this central figure or group, figure balances figure, until we come +to the corners, which are occupied by reclining forms, dying warriors, +or river-gods or spectators. In case of the metope, the square field is +filled with two or three figures balanced about a central line, a scheme +self-contained and harmonious, which may be compared to a geometrical +diagram, and carries simplicity to the farthest point. + +Rhythm, balance, symmetry are the translation into sculpture of the +spirit of discipline and self-control, which the Greeks learned by hard +necessity. The civilization of the Ionians in Asia is a brilliant +sunrise, an overflowing of the delight in life, in beauty, in the +exercise of all the faculties, which for a time dominated Greece itself. +And their art was joyous and free. The artists of Ionia invaded Athens +in the sixth century, visiting the luxurious court of Peisistratus, and +inspiring Peloponnesus, even Sparta, as the excavations of the British +School in Athens have abundantly shown. But the Ionians were trodden +down under the heavy foot of Persia: excess of freedom and want of +cohesion and discipline was their ruin. The Great King of Persia was +determined to trample in a like manner on Greece Proper; and he would +have succeeded but for the discipline and devotion of the Dorians. It +was the Spartans, aided by the brilliant military talent of Miltiades +and Themistocles, who saved Greece from slavery. A military caste, like +the Templars and Hospitallers of mediaeval Europe, they furnished the +backbone of the Greek army and dispersed the hordes of Asia as easily as +did the hardy Macedonians of Alexander the Great a century and a half +later. + +The Athenians, with their quick wits, understood whence came their +salvation, and in the early part of the fifth century the tide of Ionian +influence was turned back, and Dorian manners, Dorian dress, Dorian art, +became dominant from Thessaly to Laconia. It is precisely the Dorian +ideas of discipline, of measure, of self-control, which entering into +the art of Greece made it a noble and continuous development, instead of +a mere brilliant flash. Plato was well aware of the dangers which beset +the Athenians from their extreme versatility and want of reverence, and +he foresaw how these qualities would in the end destroy the civilization +which they had adorned. He so clearly saw this that he was inclined to +prefer the conventional and monotonous art of Egypt to the brilliant +Greek art of his own time. This is, of course, to carry ethical +prejudice to the length of fanaticism, and to transgress the very law of +moderation which inspired him. But it was only in his old age that he +went thus far. + +This careful balance and proportion may be observed, as has often been +pointed out, in the designs of Greek vases, where the painted subject +not only is in itself a balanced scheme, but is also planned in relation +to the shape of the vases themselves. A group suitable to an amphora +would look out of place on a drinking cup. And in the cup itself the +outside requires a different treatment from the inside. The whole is +planned not merely to give free scope to the artist, but to be +appropriate, fitting, harmonious. Our first figure well illustrates this +thesis. + +Even in the case of substantive sculpture, figures or groups made to +stand by themselves in market-place or portico, the Greek love of +harmony, or as they would have put it, of rhythm and symmetry prevails: +ancient critics in those accounts of Greek sculpture, of which fragments +have come down to us in the writings of Pliny and Quintilian, lay great +stress on these features. They show us that whereas in early art a +merely external and mechanical balance had prevailed, in the course of +the fifth century this love of order and measure was taken into the very +being of art. Pythagoras of Rhegium, whose works are unfortunately lost +to us, made great progress in rhythm and symmetry. His contemporaries, +Myron and Polycleitus, who carried the athletic art of Peloponnesus +almost to its highest point, were celebrated, Myron for the rhythm in +motion which he infused into his sculpture, Polycleitus for the careful +balance of his athletes and the system of proportion which he embodied +in their figures. Pheidias was more essentially ideal than either of +these, as we shall presently see, but he also most diligently preserved +in the Parthenon and other works a spirit of measure and reasonableness. + +Measure and balance in art differ widely from mere convention. 'Order is +Heaven's first law.' All fine character is formed, not by following +random impulses as they arise, but by making them conform to reason and +duty, disciplining them as wild horses are disciplined and taught to +serve mankind. Horses indeed may be over-disciplined, and by cruelty all +spirit may be taken out of them. And men may be over-disciplined, so +that their impulses die away from inanition. The Spartans were +over-disciplined; and through constant repression of natural tendencies +they became mere machines, and before long died out. But reasonable +restraint imposed on strong natural tendencies produces noble results in +all spheres of activity. + +The same thing is true in art. Measure and discipline do not of course +make it easier to produce works of art; for in the nature of the case +discipline is at first grievous and is felt as a barrier. But for the +production of good and lasting works of art, discipline and law are +necessary. Take as an example the art which is simplest, poetry. It is +easier to write blank verse than to write sonnets. But it is far easier +to write _good_ sonnets than good blank verse, simply because the +constant restraint of the form stimulates thought and invention, +prevents too great haste, exercises the ingenuity. In the same way the +somewhat rigid laws of composition of pediment metope and frieze +compelled the Greek artist to think out schemes suitable to those forms. + +It would not be possible to find a better example of order and balance +in reliefs than is furnished by the magnificent sarcophagus from Sidon +(Fig. 7), on one side of which is represented one of the victories of +Alexander the Great. At first sight it may seem a confused mêlée. But +when we look closer we see careful arrangement underlying the apparent +disorder. Alexander, charging from the left, is balanced by Parmenio +charging from the right: the horseman in the middle between the leaders +seems to come out of the background; and on either side of him is a +fighting group, to the left a Macedonian foot soldier fighting a Persian +on foot, to the right a light-armed Greek resisting a Persian horseman. +Two Persian archers balance one another. There are in the scene five +Greeks to eight Persians, indicating the numerical superiority of the +latter. And if we knew more about the battle we should probably find its +principal phases hinted at in the groups. The relief tells us far more +about the battle than would a naturalistic representation of one corner +of the field. The Greek artist could not work without using his reason +and his sense of order as well as his skilled hand. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7. SARCOPHAGUS FROM SIDON] + + +IV + +The fourth notable quality of Greek art is _Naturalism_. Painting and +sculpture, being representative or mimetic arts, are dependent for their +effects on the careful observation and loving study of nature. Probably +this is not the feature in works of Greek sculpture which would be most +conspicuous to a modern eye. And it cannot be doubted that the habit of +exact observation produced by modern nature studies, our familiarity +with such helps to sight as telescopes and magnifying glasses, our +constant use of photography, have made most of us better acquainted with +the phenomena of the world about us than were the Greeks. But compared +with the works of preceding ages, Greek sculpture must have seemed +amazingly naturalist. Even works of the archaic period, like the +pediments from Aegina, show a knowledge of the human form infinitely +more accurate than any to be found in Assyrian palaces or Egyptian +temples. There is probably always a good deal of illusion in the minds +of the schools which are constantly springing up, which profess to break +away from all conventions and to go back to nature herself. To reach +nature except through human senses and human combinations is quite +impossible. And any artist who determines to give us nature merely as +the photographic plate or the mechanical cast gives it to us simply +wastes his powers, and produces a result of no interest whatever to any +one. According to Pliny Lysippus professed to take nature alone for his +teacher; but in fact the works of Lysippus, so far as we can recover or +trace them, are full of most definite style. An artist has to look at +nature through his own eyes, and those eyes give to what he sees a +character based in part on his own personality. Everything he sees is +refracted in the waters of his subjectivity, from which he cannot +escape. + +Nevertheless, the whole historic course of Greek sculpture is steeped in +the study of nature; and we see as it proceeds more and more clearly the +results of careful observation. The artist had in fact opportunities for +the study of what he considered the one important group of phenomena, +human bodies, such as a modern artist cannot hope to compass. In the +baths and gymnasia where all young men of free birth spent part of their +mornings in running, leaping, wrestling, or swimming, he could daily +watch the beautiful bodies of athletes in every variety of pose and +action. He knew them as a trainer knows horses, or a fancier knows dogs. +He would have little need of a special model; but would daily observe +some fresh detail of muscles, some notable pose which he could add from +memory to his conception of the human body. + +But in the greatest periods of art naturalism is not predominant. Its +constantly working tendency is kept in check by noble ideas and noble +style. There is in the development of sculpture a constant approach to +nature, but nothing of the nihilism which looks on all aspects of nature +as equally fit subjects for art. The artists of the pediments of Aegina +could not bring themselves to conceal the beautiful bodies of the +fighting warriors by rigid armour like that copied in Vischer's group. +Thus we find the paradox of armed men in battle, but without armour. The +utmost pains are taken with the nude limbs. In the wonderful bronze +charioteer found at Delphi (Fig. 4), which dates from about 470 B. C., +the garment necessary to protect the man from the rush of air is very +simply treated; but the arms and feet, which the garment does not +conceal, are wrought with marvellous accuracy and truth to nature. It +seems almost as if the artist were compensating himself for the +extremely simple work on the drapery by an almost excessively close +study of nature where it was possible. The head, on the other hand, is +typical and not individual; for in fact individual portraits were +scarcely possible at the time. + +This would be the place to speak of Greek portraits, if space allowed +it. I will only point out the erroneousness of the popular view, that +Greek portraits were conventional and uninteresting; and that it was the +Romans who introduced individuality into portraiture. It is strange that +a view which is utterly false should have gained such currency. It is +true that Greek portraits of the fifth and even the fourth century have +in them much of the type, and individual traits are softened in accord +with the strongly idealizing tendencies of the age. But from the third +and second centuries we have a great number of portraits which are in +the highest degree characteristic and individual, a wonderful gallery of +philosophers and poets and statesmen which for lifelikeness cannot be +surpassed. All the finest of the portraits of Romans were by Greek +artists. I can give but one example of really fine Greek portraiture, a +statue of Demosthenes of the third century B. C. (Fig. 8). It is a +portrait indeed. The long lean arms and the pose are quite as individual +and characteristic as the face with its melancholy expression and deep +lines of anxiety. We have the man from head to foot; not as is so often +the case in modern statues, a portrait head set on a conventional body. + +[Illustration: Fig. 8. DEMOSTHENES +By Polyeuctus] + +For comparison with Demosthenes I set a statue of a great modern +statesman, Abraham Lincoln, by Barnard (Fig. 9), not the best statue of +him, but one which is approved by many. It aims at truth, but only +attains caricature, by exaggerating Lincoln's awkwardness and +angularity, the size of his hands and feet, and the anxiety in his face. +This exaggeration has been proved by a comparison with many photographs +of Lincoln, which show that he was careful in dress and by no means +wanting in dignity. The statue of Demosthenes is marvellous for truth; +but it adds a touch of pathos; the statue of Lincoln misses the truth, +through exaggerating the least pleasing features of the subject. + +[Illustration: Fig. 9. ABRAHAM LINCOLN +By Barnard] + +When we want to ascertain how close Greek sculpture could come to actual +fact, we turn from the great ideal age to the Hellenistic period. +Lysistratus, the brother of Lysippus, began to take moulds in plaster +from individual faces. At the great medical school of Alexandria the +anatomy of the human frame, from which earlier ages in a spirit of piety +had shrunk, became usual: some of the great physicians, such as +Herophilus and Erasistratus, being noted for the completeness of their +study of anatomy. In the art of the third century B. C. we see the +inevitable result of such studies in a more precise and learned +rendering of the muscles and the skin. And artists no longer hesitated +to represent bodies wasted with toil and exposure to the weather, or +emaciated with fasting. There are many such figures in our museums, +showing a marvellously close study of the forms of peasants and old +women and children. I figure one of these, preserved in the museum of +the Conservatori of the Capitol at Rome, an aged shepherdess carrying a +lamb (Fig. 10). But it will be observed that close as this form is to +the facts of common life, there is yet in it nothing repulsive. It is in +a sense a type rather than an individual, a poem of nature rather +than a portrait. It is parallel to the pastorals of Theocritus. It +strongly contrasts with such loathsome figures as some modern sculptors +in their exaggerated love of fact, even if repulsive, have inflicted +upon us, such as the Vieille Héaulmière of Rodin (Fig. 11), a figure of +an aged and decayed prostitute. I know, of course, that some critics +would defend the last-mentioned work on ethical grounds, as showing how +hideous the decay of sensual beauty may become; but I venture to doubt +whether sculpture is an appropriate vehicle for a moral lesson of that +kind, because it can only represent and cannot explain. + +[Illustration: Fig. 10 +AGED SHEPHERDESS +Alexandrian] + +[Illustration: Fig. 11 +LA VIEILLE HÉAULMIÈRE +By Rodin] + + +V + +So we come to the fifth lamp of Greek art, _Ideality_. It is in the +idealism of their rendering of the body of man that the Greeks have +surpassed all other peoples and left an imperishable record. The history +of Greek art is the history of a search for beauty, for poetry, for +whatever can charm and delight. + +In the earliest sculptural works of Greece, as Lange the Dane was the +first to point out, we find not a direct imitation of the facts of the +visible world, but impressions taken from that world, stored in the +memory, and put together in accordance with subjective purpose rather +than objective law. It is indeed thus that clever children work, when in +the picture-writing of their sketch books they violate the laws of +perspective by combining separate aspects and memories of an object into +an inconsistent whole. They will not omit any peculiarity of a person +which happens to have struck them, even when in the profile which they +sketch it would be invisible. They think of a face as turned towards +them, of legs as walking past them. Every face must have two eyes, every +body two arms, whether they would be visible under the natural +conditions or not. In early Greek reliefs it is common to find the body +down to the waist full-face, the body below the waist in profile, with +no transition between the two. The well-known metopes from Selinus in +Sicily are good examples. It is a kind of procedure common to the early +art of all peoples. But the Greeks differ from other nations in this; +that when they improved away these early crudities they retained the +predominance of thought over things, of man over nature, in a word of +the ideal element in art. They regarded the body of man not, as the +materialists do, as man himself, but as a shell produced by the inner +working of the spirit, to be seen by the eyes of thought and +imagination, as well as by the bodily eyes. Hence they were always +aspiring from that which exists in appearance to that which lies behind +the mere phenomenon. They realized that nature, when she produces an +individual, never wholly succeeds, she falls short of the idea. And the +artist by a loving sympathy with the creative Spirit, may venture to +improve what she has made, to carry out her intentions more fully, to +incorporate more completely the idea. The Greek artist, appreciating and +venerating the body, tries to raise it to a higher and more perfect +level. A simple kind of idealism may be found in athletic art. In their +practice of athletics the Greeks did not, like the moderns, think only +of the number of feet an athlete could leap, or the space of time he +would take to run a distance. They thought also of his _form_, of the +rhythmic and harmonious character of his action. If an athlete showed +ugly form, they would hiss him, as they would an incompetent actor. Most +of their exercises were done to the accompaniment of the flute. In all +the statues of athletes which have come down to us, not one shows an +inharmonious development, powerful chest and weak legs, or muscular legs +and poor arms. It is more than probable that as the features of +Alexander the Great influenced the portraits of his officers and +followers, so the specially beautiful forms of some of the athletes who +were most admired, tended to create a type, something of which appears +in all the athlete figures of the time. + +No doubt any one who is well acquainted with Greek types and with the +forms of modern athletes will observe that the Greek physical build is +not identical with that of our days. The equable climate and the +unstrained life of the young men produced something more rounded and +fleshy than we see in the north. Our athletes are less harmoniously +built, with more prominent sinews, more harsh and wiry in type. An +American trainer who is also a sculptor, Dr. Tait McKenzie, working as +some of the Greek sculptors worked, from the average measurements of a +number of young men, has produced types of strength and beauty, by no +means exactly like the statues of Greece, but in their way almost +equally beautiful. I instance the beautiful fifth-century figures of +Greek boxers, softened by idealism, but admirable for strength and +symmetry; and the Apoxyomenos, a man scraping himself with a strigil, as +was the custom in the baths (Fig. 12). This is a work of the third +century, after the artists had imported their knowledge of anatomy into +their works, which had effects both good and bad. And beside the +Apoxyomenos I place an athlete by Tait McKenzie, produced from the +careful comparison and measurements of hundreds of young athletes of +Harvard and Philadelphia (Fig. 13). This is a work of modern idealism +produced by similar processes to those to which we owe the excellence of +Greek athletic sculpture. + +[Illustration: Fig. 12 +ATHLETE WITH STRIGIL] + +[Illustration: Fig. 13 +ATHLETE, by Tait McKenzie] + +The types of female beauty come into Greek sculpture later than the +types of male beauty. In Ionian and early Attic sculpture women appear +closely wrapped up in drapery. Pheidias and his contemporaries did not +venture to represent undraped women. They showed the beauties of the +female form not apart from, but by the help of, drapery. It was reserved +for the age of Praxiteles and Scopas to represent the Goddess of Love in +the guise of a nude woman; and Praxiteles made an apology for the +innovation by introducing the motive of bathing as an explanation and a +palliation. And even the Aphrodite of Praxiteles is remarkably free +from all attempt at sensuous attraction, or self-consciousness. Solid, +noble, and stately in form, she is a type or model rather than an +individual. Later sculptors, it is true, departed from this line of +simple harmoniousness, and tried to make the figure more attractive to +the average man. But it does not become weak, and it does not become +vulgar. The noble Aphrodites of the fourth century have fixed the type +of female beauty in school after school of artists down to our own time. + +This ideal is perhaps for us best incorporated in the Aphrodite of Melos +in the Louvre, a work of the Hellenistic age, combining with the great +fourth-century tradition a perfection of detail and an informing life +which belong to a later time. But while most people of taste profess a +devotion to her, that devotion is usually untinged by knowledge or real +appreciation; for there could hardly be a greater contrast than that +between the bodily forms of the Goddess of Melos and those of the women +who are most admired in our days. I was almost disposed to figure side +by side the Goddess and the bodily forms which figure in our fashion +plates. The fashion plates do not represent women as they are, but as +they would like to be; they represent not the actual, but the modern +ideal. And what an ideal! + +Some readers may smile at the notion of taking seriously these ephemeral +productions. But no one would take them lightly who was familiar with +the facts of psychology. We well know that when certain types of women +are set constantly before the rising generation as beautiful and to be +imitated they will necessarily exercise a great influence on the future +of the race. Young men will look out for such types to admire and to +court: young women will try to resemble them. The hideous mistake in +aesthetics will exercise a constant dragging power, pulling the young +away from the light and the air of heaven towards the caves of evil +spirits. + +Few more charming representations of young womanhood in Greece exist +than the Artemis from Gabii already cited (Fig. 5). One must confess +that the divine element in it is but slight. But what could be fresher, +simpler, more exquisitely natural? + +No doubt as in the case of men, so in the case of women, we must make +allowance for race and climate. A full and rotund development of +physique is far rarer in northern than in southern Europe. The English +race is taller, less solidly built, slighter than the ancient Greek. +Among us hard tendons usually take the place of solid muscles. And the +practise of athletic games by women undoubtedly tends to make them in +some respects conform more to the male type. In moderation physical +exercises may improve health and strength without tending to deprive the +vital organs of nourishment. But the overtrained woman is farther from +the healthy life of nature than the overtrained man. And whether the +overexertion be of the body or of the intelligence, it tends to destroy +true womanliness. + +It is a pity that some sculptor does not do for the ideal of womanhood +what Dr. Tait McKenzie has done for the ideal of athletic manhood. Of +course the process would not be the same. No one wants an ideal type of +the female athlete, unless we wish to restore the race of Amazons, but +we do sorely need to have before our eyes types which embody the +physical ideal of efficient womanhood. At present while nude womanhood +in art conforms in a great measure to the Greek tradition, clothed +womanhood follows the types of the street, modified by the baseless +caprices of fashion. The two stand in unreconciled contrast. The Greeks +when painting women on a vase often drew their figures in outline before +they added clothes. But any one who tries to draw the outline of the +female figure beneath the clothes on a fashion-plate will stand aghast +at what he has produced. + +Cicero repeats an instructive story in regard to the painter Zeuxis, who +lived about 400 B. C. He was commissioned to make for the people of +Croton a painting of Helen of Troy. He first inquired, what seems to +have been a matter of common knowledge, who were the most beautifully +made young men in that city, which was noted for its athletes. He next +asked that he should be allowed to study the forms of the sisters of +these men, judging that the sisters must partake of the beauty of the +brothers. Out of these he selected five girls for more continued study, +and by such aid produced his picture. We cannot suppose that he would be +so clumsy as to select at random beautiful details from each of the +five; in that way he would produce only an eclectic monstrosity. But, +working in the presence of beautiful examples, his sense of beauty would +rise in tone to the highest of which he was capable. + +In this story several points are noteworthy. It shows that the type of +beauty in men was more advanced and more generally recognized than the +type of beauty in women. And it shows the Greek artistic mind ever on +the watch to catch some new note of beauty to add to the traditional +stock. Professor Brücke, in his excellent work on the beauties of the +human form, observes that in the ideal statues of Greece many features +may be discovered which in the actual world of men and women are very +rare, but the charm of which can scarcely be disputed. There went on +from school to school, and from period to period, a sort of accumulation +of beauty which was ever increasing. Every beautiful model which was +studied added something to what Brücke calls the stock of beauty at the +disposal of artists. + + +VI + +The sixth lamp of Greek art is _Patience_ in striving after perfection. +In the finer work of Greek sculptors one finds an utterly ungrudging +expenditure of time and care which reminds one of the working of +Nature herself, Nature who is never in a hurry, who is never contented +with a hasty sketch, but works regardless of time. We are told of +Protogenes that he spent seven years on a single figure, and I think he +would have spent seven more if he had thought that he could thereby have +improved his painting. Nothing strikes one more strongly in such works +as the charioteer of Delphi and the Hermes of Praxiteles than the pains +taken with every detail. It is by careful work, continued through +successive generations, that sculpture attained such mastery in the +representation of the muscles of the body as we find in the Borghese +fighting figure of the Louvre, and such delicacy in the rendering of +drapery as we find in the Victories of the Balustrade at Athens, or the +Victory of Samothrace. + +But the delicacy and minuteness of Greek work is of course most obvious +in the reliefs of coins and in gems. The coins were not primarily meant +to please the eye, but to circulate in the fish-market; yet a multitude +of the dies are so exquisitely finished that they lose little when +magnified to many diameters, and will bear the most critical +examination. The intaglio gems were meant for the sealing of documents, +the seal taking the place of the modern signature; but the figures upon +seals are in their way as finished as great works of sculpture. Seals +even more usually than coins gain rather than lose if they are enlarged. +Yet they were executed without the help of magnifying glasses. Their +subjects are taken from the widest field, the figures of deities, tales +from mythology, portraits, animal forms; like the coins they introduced +as an undercurrent to the prosaic life of every day an element of poetry +and imagination. + + +VII + +The seventh lamp, which goes as naturally with idealism as care and +patience go with naturalism, is joy, _joie de vivre_. Keats has +expressed the Greek sense of art in an immortal line, 'A thing of beauty +is a joy for ever'. It was the overflowing gladness which lies at the +root of creation and evolution which took eternal form in the painting +and sculpture of the Greeks and inspired all their works. The same +irrepressible joy which gives colour to the flowers, sweetness to the +fruit, song to the birds, and sexual desire to mankind reached here one +of its most perfect manifestations. The life of the Greeks was by no +means one of unmixed happiness. Each city was not unfrequently at war +with its neighbours; and the penalty of complete defeat was sometimes +the razing of its walls, the slaughter of its men, and the enslavement +of its women. Disease, even plague, constantly ravaged the land; and the +resources of modern surgery and modern anaesthetics were not present to +curb their ravages. The life of the majority in country huts, and still +more in the slums of the cities, most of all in the mines, was rougher +and more sordid than is the case in the modern world, in countries in +their normal state. And the people had not even that hope of a blessed +hereafter which sustained the people of the Middle Ages. Yet under all +these clouds, their spirit was hopeful and aspiring. And their art +reflects ever the brighter side of things. Surely they were wise and +right. We seek out works of art not to foster pessimism but to inspire +optimism, not to show us the world of nature on its repulsive side, but +to reveal to us how much underlying beauty is to be found in it. ''Tis +life not death for which we pant, More life and fuller that we want.' + +At the same time, Greek art in some forms was extremely serious and +keenly alive to the darker side of existence. The Greeks invented +tragedy, the poetical reflection of the severity of fate. Would any +modern audience be found, which would be prepared to sit for a whole +summer day listening eagerly to the grand expression by such poets as +Aeschylus and Sophocles of the power of Nemesis, the instability of all +prosperity, the misfortunes which hunt those who have the ill luck to +displease the gods? Surely not. And not in Greek tragedy only, but in +elegiac poetry and in epigram, we find perfect reflections of our most +gloomy moods. But for such expressions of sorrow and despair the Greeks +felt that sculpture, and even painting, were not suitable vehicles. They +belong to moods, and are not suitable for illustration in the market +place and the temple. The roads which led to Greek cities were +frequently bordered with monumental tombs. If in the reliefs and +inscriptions of these tombs there had been any telling echo of the +sorrow and regret of bereaved survivors, every one would have entered +the cities in a black mood. As it is, as every one who has been in the +museums of Athens knows, the sepulchral artists carefully avoided +anything which might harrow the feelings. They represented the dead at +their best, engaged in victorious warfare, or in athletic sports or in +the happy family circle. A gentle air of melancholy could not be +avoided; but there was nothing to shock, nothing to oppress the spirits. +The deceased represented seemed still to share the occupations and +pleasures of the living, not to be shut off from the world of happiness. + +Milton has expressed, in his magnificent prose, the profound joy of the +world of the Renaissance at the recovery of the Bible, and free liberty +of reading it, after it had been shut away from the laity by the +organized Church. Equally intense, and more exuberant, was the delight +of scholars and artists, when the asceticism and pessimism of the Middle +Ages, which had given birth to such bodies as the Carmelite monks and +the mendicant friars, gave way before the revival of Greek literature +and art. The world seemed suddenly to have renewed its youth. No doubt +the sudden expansion led to foul excesses; but it was yet a great +landmark in human progress. + + +VIII + +The eighth light of Greek art is _Fellowship_. Perhaps there is no +quality in it which is more instructive for our days than this. The +extreme individualism which is the most remarkable characteristic of +modern times lays the utmost stress on the right or the duty of an +artist to express _himself_ in his work, to work out his own vein of +originality, to give to the world a rendering of his own qualities and +individuality. And no doubt no great artist can help doing this in a +measure. When he works he must be himself; he can only see the world +through the medium of his character and talents. And as every man is a +microcosm, a reflection in miniature of the great world of human beings, +what is really good and original in an artist must appeal to something +in the human world; must have a meaning for people of a certain class or +a certain training, or a certain country. But whether an artist is the +better for a conscious attempt thus to externalize his personality; +whether he is improved by being self-conscious and reflective in his art +is a different question. + +Scarcely any feature of Greek art is more impressive to a student than +its continuous and uninterrupted course. When once it has started it +does not turn back, but goes forward steadily, for a time rising +superior to difficulty after difficulty, attaining a higher and higher +level, then in the fifth century branching out in various directions +into styles and groups, then going on with great technical skill, but +with a loss of inspiration. It is a course of evolution as steady as +that of any kind of plant or animal. This shows that it did not depend +upon the rise of successive men of talent or genius, each of whom was +intent on expressing himself; but upon the rise and influence of +successive artistic schools, each of which did not merely follow the +personality of a founder or teacher, but stood for a phase in the +development of the common life of the Greek people. The schools were +Ionian or Dorian, Attic or Argive, and harmonized with the whole +civilization of such fractions of the race. Ionian art went with the gay +and pleasure-loving ways of the Asiatic coast. Dorian art reflected the +restraint, the balance, the self-control of the people of Peloponnesus. +Attic art not only conformed to the refined taste of the people of +Athens, but suited also the strong mental bias of the most intellectual +city which ever existed. Of course these schools did not flourish in +complete isolation one from the other; city influenced city and artist +artist; but in a far less degree than would be the case now. A school of +sculpture was a species; and all the individuals of the species were +more like one another than they were like any of their contemporaries +outside. + +Thus when we examine any work of Greek sculpture, before the eclectic +schools came into being, we find it easy to determine its period, often +within narrow limits, and we are usually able to assign it with +confidence to a particular school, imperfect as is our knowledge of the +history of Greek art. But we can scarcely ever say that it is the work +of an individual artist, unless it stands on a basis bearing the +author's name, or unless ancient critics and historians have left us +detailed descriptions of a work which survives. I am speaking of Greek +originals; the copies of earlier works made by Greek artists of a late +period for Roman galleries are often so confused in style and so +careless in execution that they serve only to mislead, even if they have +escaped the Italian restorer of recent date. + +Great and connected series of statues and reliefs, such as constitute +the sculptural adornment of such temples as that of Zeus at Olympia or +the Parthenon or the Mausoleum, are the joint productions of a number of +sculptors who worked together, no doubt under the general supervision of +some architect or chief mason, but probably under very little control. +Such works combine considerable variety in execution with a general +similarity so great that a superficial observer does not see their +differences. Public opinion in London seems to hold that Pheidias made +the whole of the pediments and the frieze of the Parthenon; though in +some cases contiguous figures are so markedly various amid the general +likeness as to prove separate hands. In the case of the Erechtheum at +Athens there is extant a long list of payments to a number of artists +for the several figures of the frieze. There was no general contractor, +no artist who hired his masons by the day, but every man who produced +one of the figures in relief was paid for it sixty drachmas, without +regard to its difficulty or its simplicity. + +It is comparatively easy to get a set of skilled stone-masons to carry +out with exactness a plan of which all the details are worked out for +them, and which requires only faithful copying. And it must have been +easy for a set of Egyptian sculptors who made their figures according to +a rigid conventional pattern to produce a uniform result. But for a +number of skilled workers who were allowed great liberty in detail to +produce an harmonious whole was infinitely harder. And that the Greek +masons regularly accomplished this result shows how strong upon them was +the influence of the school. Nor did they merely work from nature; but +their production was of an idealizing kind. It is clear that they must +have had not merely similar tools and similar mechanical processes, but +the same purposes and ideals. They must have had what we should call a +collective personality. It is more than probable that among the workers +on the Parthenon were Alcamenes and Agoracritus, two sculptors who rose +to great fame. It is certain that among the workers on the Erechtheum +was Praxias, a pupil of Calamis, and probably a relative of Praxiteles. +The distinction between artist and mason, so marked in our day, scarcely +existed in Greece. The mason who had talent became a noted sculptor; and +the sculptor, instead of making a model in wax or plaster, set to work, +like Michelangelo, on the block of marble himself. Probably sometimes, +like Benvenuto Cellini, he cast his own bronze statues. + +Generally in all great periods of art there is such fellowship. And in +sculpture in particular the design and the execution are so closely +connected that it is an abuse to assign the two functions to different +men, and even to different classes of men. Greece was pre-eminently the +land of productive guilds, of families of artists, of groups of workers +who were of one heart and one spirit, and who therefore worked in one +style. One of the closest parallels to a Greek school of sculpture is to +be found in the group of Pre-Raphaelite artists of the middle of the +last century, Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Millais, Collins, and their +companions. This group had a religious or ideal starting-point in the +revived Anglo-Catholicism which arose in Oxford at the time, and they +had principles of art in common which they embodied in their work. Their +paintings, before they diverged one from another, form a distinct +species, and have an interest for the historian of civilization greater +than that of any other English school. + + +IX + +In order that we may estimate the influence of Greek art on the +civilization of Europe, it is necessary briefly to trace its +reappearances through the ages. Its first conquest was Rome. The +victorious Roman Generals, Marcellus, Scipio, Flamininus, Mummius, and +others, brought to the imperial city, to adorn their triumphs, an +immense quantity of Greek sculpture and paintings, of which they robbed +the great storehouses of works of art in the temples and stoae of +Hellas, Sicily, and Asia Minor. The earlier Emperors, especially Nero, +followed their example, so that in the time of Pliny the naturalist all +the public places of Rome were crowded with sculptures of bronze and +marble and with the painted masterpieces of great artists. It became +fashionable for wealthy Romans, such as Hortensius and Cicero, to stock +their country-houses with such works. Even so, the demand was not +satisfied; and Greek artists were imported into Rome, where they set up +great workshops, and poured out an incessant stream of fresh works of +art. Of such our modern museums are full. Generally speaking they are of +little artistic merit, copies of various degrees of excellence of the +great works of earlier generations. For the Roman plutocrats had little +taste. Because certain figures or groups had a great reputation, and +especially because they had been purchased at a high price by Greek +cities and kings, the Roman collector liked to have copies of them in +his villa; and the artists who produced these copies were mere workers +for hire, without originality and without aspirations. Sometimes when +employed on such works as the Arch of Titus, or the Column of Trajan, +the novelty of the theme stimulated the artist to attempt something of a +more original kind. And occasionally the fire within took course and +produced a finer work than ordinary. Under the art-loving Emperor +Hadrian there was a sort of St. Martin's summer of sculpture; but its +productions were smooth, elegant and refined rather than original or +interesting. The charm of art was not appreciated by the Roman people; +only the few who professed cultivation really cared whether a figure was +good or bad, and even the few were a little ashamed of their +preferences. + +Into the Roman Empire, in the first three centuries of our era, +Christianity gradually ate its way. It originated among the Jews, to +whom all representation of living things was hateful. And it developed +under the influence of Greek oriental mysticism, which had no kinship +with sculpture and painting; and so far as it had any expression in +those arts worked in the direction of that symbolism against which Greek +art was a protest. Thus we could not expect any fresh inspiration for +art from early Christianity; on the contrary, Christianity would work +upon it as a blighting influence. If we examine the remains of Christian +art in those early centuries, in sarcophagus and mural painting, we find +that it merely copied the contemporary pagan art, only changing the +subjects portrayed, and introducing a further development in the +symbolic interpretation of ordinary scenes. + +Christianity offered almost no field for the exercise of Greek +anthropomorphism. The latter was closely bound up with polytheism and +hero-worship. The Christian Apostles and Saints, who took the place of +the pagan Deities, were men who had lived on the earth and whose deeds +belonged not to mythology but to history, although at the time the line +between history and mythology was not clearly drawn, and history was +largely diluted with myth. A few impersonations of nature, such as +river-gods, lingered on in the paintings of the Roman catacombs. And +winged genii were common there, whether cupids or cherubs it would be +hard to say. But there was no realm into which artistic fancy could +stray, filling it with super-men and super-women. Angels might be +portrayed; but they all came from the Jewish angelology; and there was +no artistic tradition as to their types: it was only later that the +types of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and others were distinguished. + +The second principle of Greek art, balance and symmetry, had almost +disappeared in pagan art in the Antonine age. The reliefs of triumphal +arches and of sarcophagi are crowded with figures inserted without order +or method. Even the mural paintings of Pompeii have escaped from +control; and show no purposeful arrangement. Law and order have given +place to individual fancy, unless in cases where earlier schemes are +adopted. And with artistic arrangement has disappeared all attempt to +idealize, to produce forms nobler and more beautiful than those seen +every day. The figure of Antinous is the latest in which we find any +attempt to produce a type of ideal beauty. Even the Virgin Mary and her +Son are depicted without any attempt to render them beautiful. Nor +indeed does naturalism fare better than idealism. The representation of +the human body is no longer studied. The figures are clothed: and the +clothing is purely conventional, while the features of the landscape are +far less carefully introduced than in Hellenistic Greek art. + +In fact one feels that the artist had little interest in his art. Scenes +from the Old and the New Testament are the usual subjects. But the +depiction is little more than picture-writing, mere copies of +traditional groups. The only thing regarded as of any interest is the +meaning. The ethical and spiritual point of view overlies and smothers +any interest in the representation. + +And this predominance of the didactic element over the sense of +proportion, the love of beauty, the appreciation of nature prevails more +and more as Europe slowly moves towards the dark ages. The lamps of +Greek art burn more and more dimly. They are never wholly extinguished; +for in all ages there are born artists to whom they are the light of +life; and in mediaeval carvings one finds here and there a touch of +humanism, most often in grotesque or satyric figures. We must never +forget that some of the later masterpieces of Greek work, such as the +Column of Trajan and the Arch of Beneventum, were always to be seen. And +little as they were appreciated by ordinary people, an artist here and +there derived from them some appreciation of the beauty of humanity. + +Then in the thirteenth century the dry bones began to come together. The +breath of fresh life stirred Europe, or at least parts of Europe, such +as North Italy, Southern Germany, Eastern France. The magnificent Gothic +Cathedrals rising in the north called forth the talent of the painter +and the sculptor for their adornment. A great Christian art arose, and +in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries flourished widely. Certain +qualities of high art it certainly had. It was lighted by the lamp of +fellowship. The sculpture was the work not of individuals, but of +guilds, groups of workers of the same style, and inspired by the same +motives. It attained to great beauty in decoration, in the adaptation to +architectural purpose of the forms of plants and flowers. Where it was +most defective was in the rendering of the human form, whether nude or +draped, for in such matters the artists had no schooling to be compared +with that of the Greeks. + +When the full Renaissance came with the dispersion of the educated +Greeks through Europe, there was a conscious reawakening of the artistic +influence of Greece, contemporaneously with the revived interest in +Greek literature and philosophy. A few great works of ancient sculpture, +the Laocoon, the Dying Gaul of the Capitol, the Apollo Belvedere were +discovered; and collections of ancient gems and coins were formed by +many of the wealthy. We can judge from the life of Benvenuto Cellini how +profound was the effect produced by such discoveries. The great Italians +of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries felt as if they had climbed out +of darkness into light. To rival works of Greek art was looked upon as +the highest ambition which an artist could cherish. Sculptors so great +as Donatello and Michelangelo took the scanty remains of Greek +masterpieces as their models, and measured their attainments by the +degree of success which they reached in copying them. The lamps of Greek +balance and symmetry, Greek idealism, and Greek naturalism were +rekindled, and the crowd of artists vied one with another in walking by +their light. + +We may mark four stages in the rediscovery of Greek sculpture. The first +is the Italian Renaissance already mentioned. The second originated in +the visit of Winckelmann to Italy in 1755, and the application by Goethe +and Lessing of his discoveries to the judgement of contemporary art. It +tended greatly to the raising and purifying of the artistic taste of +Europe. The splendid promise of the Renaissance had degenerated into the +mannerism and extravagance of Bernini and his contemporaries. +Winckelmann called it back to simplicity, to self-restraint, to +ideality. But before long this teaching also was perverted; and such +sculptors as Thorwaldsen and Canova were misled by the defects of the +inferior examples of Greek sculpture, which were the only ones +accessible to Winckelmann, into a slavish copy of the antique or works +of an artificial grand style. Then came the third wave of revived Greek +influence, when the sculptures of the Parthenon found a home in London, +and critics were able to observe how infinitely superior the +masterpieces of a really great age were to the copies of Roman times and +the adaptations of the Hellenistic age. When Haydon the painter first +saw the Parthenon marbles he was immensely impressed; but that which +struck him most strongly was not the ideality, for which they have since +become proverbial, but the wonderful naturalism of much of their detail +in contrast to the grandiose conventions of his contemporaries. The +fourth stage in our knowledge of Greek sculpture comes from the very +fruitful excavations on Greek soil, especially at Athens, Olympia, and +Delphi, which have shown us how widely varied is the range of the +ancient sculptors, how many their styles, how admirable their technique. +This extension of our knowledge has not, it is true, as yet much +affected contemporary art, as art was affected by the teachings of +Winckelmann and the publishing of the marbles of the Parthenon. Until +last year there was no book in English setting forth the results of the +excavations of Delphi; and there is even now no book in English +performing the same service for the excavations at Olympia. Sculptors +are so little educated in the history of their craft, that they do not +easily learn from new sources of knowledge. But by degrees, beyond +doubt, the new views of Greek art will filter down to them. A few +recently discovered sculptures, such as the Charioteer of Delphi, the +Hermes of Praxiteles, the bronze head from Beneventum in the Louvre, the +Demeter of Cnidus, have by their overpowering charm affected artists and +art. And most sculptors profess a great admiration for Greek works, +notably Rodin, who, although the tendency of his works is not in a +classical direction, yet uses the strongest language in praising the +Greek masterpieces. But in general the tendency of art towards extreme +individualism and the search after novelty have more than counteracted +the somewhat shallow admiration of sculptors for what is antique. + + +X + +At present religion and culture alike are struggling against the waves +of barbarism reinvading. It is not my business to speak here of the +forces which are trying to crush religion among us. But I may fitly +conclude by sketching some of the tendencies against which culture based +upon that of Greece is our best antidote. If I have rightly set forth +the principles of Greek literature and art in past pages, the nature of +their influence under present conditions will be clear. + +I must venture on a parallel which seems to me very suggestive, though +some readers may regard it as risky. There are two great standards set +up in the past, to control the wayward fanaticisms of men, and to keep +them within the bounds of reason and good sense. The standard in +religion is set by the New Testament: the standard in art is set by +Greece. As at the Renaissance the peoples of Europe went back for their +inspiration and their models to the literature and the art of Hellas, so +at the Reformation they, or at all events the Teutonic races, went back +to the early records of Christianity, appealing to them against the +venality and corruption of the dominant Church. And ever since, at +intervals, there has arisen, alike in the field of culture and in that +of religion, an echo of the appeal to the classical past. It is to the +New Testament that Apostles like John Wesley and George Fox made their +appeal, setting up in opposition to the conventions and worldliness of +the Church in their times the spirituality and simplicity of the +apostolic age, just as Goethe and Lessing turned men's minds from what +was contrary to reason and good taste in their surroundings to Greek +beauty and simplicity. And however some of the followers of Wesley and +Fox may have gone beyond due bounds towards fanaticism, yet in every +branch of the Christian Society the influence of those modern prophets +has been renovating and purifying, just as the schools of critics which +followed Goethe tended greatly to increase among us sweetness and light. + +In our schools and colleges, until quite lately, the religion of the New +Testament and the tradition of the Greek and Roman Classics have gone +together, the one preserving us from superstition and materialism in +religion, the other making war upon the inherited barbarisms and +brutalities which we have from our not very distant ancestors. The +spirit of anarchy in religion would persuade us that there is no divine +sanction for goodness and no eternal stamp on vice, that morality is a +matter of convention which every society and every nation has a right to +invert if it judges such inversion in the line of its interests. The +spirit of anarchy in art proclaims that all the works of nature are +equally beautiful or equally ugly, that nothing which exists is unfit to +be represented in our galleries and public places, that so long as a +picture or a statue arouses a sentiment it does not matter whether the +sentiment be one of delight and aspiration or one of horror. If once the +idea of beauty as the end to be aimed at be expelled from art, art sinks +like a stone to the bottom of the sea. Some people are ready to tolerate +any monstrosity in art, however remote from nature, however offensive +to decency, however repugnant to humanity. The whole artistic +inheritance of the race from the day when men began to climb out of +barbarism is liable to be thrown away by an age which has unbounded +confidence in its own wisdom. + +I should, however, be sorry to stop at this point, for I might leave on +readers the impression that I am in favour of the mere imitation of +works of Greek art. That is by no means my view. In the last century +several sculptors, overpowered by the charm of the antique, produced +statues which closely followed ancient patterns, such as the Hope and +the Hebe of Thorwaldsen, some of the statues of Rauch and Schadow, and +the tinted Venus of Gibson. Such works were necessarily stillborn; they +had not in them any breath of the life of a new age, any attempt to +conform to changed conditions. Very different was the following of the +antique by Michelangelo. He admired with enthusiasm such works of the +Greek chisel as he knew; but he produced not dull and academic +reflections of them, but works of the most splendid originality and the +greatest charm. He imbibed not the letter but the spirit of Greek art; +and even succeeded better than most artists in combining that spirit +with a breath of Christianity. + +The parallel which I have drawn may be carried farther. A reversion to +the letter of the New Testament writers has been often attempted by +considerable religious leaders of our time, especially Tolstoi and the +Quakers. They have gone back to the injunctions of the Sermon on the +Mount, and tried literally to abide by them. But it has become apparent +to all but fanatics that such procedure would be fatal to civil +government and civilized life. It is the spirit not the letter of the +teaching of Jesus which is life-giving. In just the same way an +acceptance of the mere externals of Greek art would not help us at all; +but a revival of its spirit would be a great inspiration to modern +artists. The lamps of Greek art will give light in any age. Greek +idealism, Greek balance and measure, Greek love of what is natural and +healthful, Greek simplicity and moderation are of the very essence of +good art in all ages. We can no more revive the exact conditions under +which art arose than we can import into England the clear air, the +bright sun, the clear-cut shadows of the Greek landscape. But we can +still look up to the philosophy, the poetry, and the art of Greece as +classical, as a revelation of what is most pleasing and most enduring in +human nature. And if we neglect them and reject them from the education +of our children, we shall destroy what has been ever since the +Renaissance the source of pure joy and refined feeling in the majority +of cultured men; we shall make a great gap which material prosperity, a +deeper knowledge of the secrets of nature, the invention of fresh modes +of amusement, can never fill. And if we trust merely to the reflections +of the Greek spirit in modern literature and art, we shall be acting as +the Roman Church in its darker ages has acted, in shutting away from the +people recourse to the primary documents of religion, and obliging them +to be content with such interpretations of those documents as the ruling +hierarchy judged to be useful. We must retain the right of appeal to our +classical examples, whether in religion, in literature, or in art. +Arnold was right. The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, Greek art remain the +stars by which we may direct our course over stormy seas. + +P. GARDNER. + + + + +ARCHITECTURE + + +Nobody has ever disputed the beauty of Greek Architecture. We recognize +the justice of a description of the Parthenon as 'le suprême effort du +génie à la poursuite du beau'; but the layman must sometimes ask himself +what does it mean? Where did it come from, where did it go to, why is it +thought so beautiful, how was it that this people relatively +insignificant in power, in territory, and in numbers, was able to attain +to this astonishing supremacy in art? These are questions not easily +answered. The evidence is fragmentary and not always conclusive, the +ruins of a few temples and buildings, a technical treatise by a +garrulous third-rate writer in the first century A. D.,[125] the +anecdotes of an indefatigable collector[126] a little later, the notes +of a traveller in the second century,[127] and the materials collected +by the patient research of scholars and archaeologists, pieced together +on more or less ingenious hypotheses. Indeed, a great part of what is +written on Greek Architecture is simply hypothesis. There is not much to +go on, yet Greek Architecture (and by this I mean the architecture of +the sixth and fifth centuries B. C.) remains one of the great +outstanding facts in the history of the Architecture of the Western +world, and the Art of the age of Pericles is the fountain-head to which +artists still return. + + [125] Vitruvius, _De Architectura_. + + [126] Pliny the Elder, _Historia Naturalis_, xxxvi. + + [127] Pausanias, Ἑλλαδος Περιηγησις {Hellados Periêgêsis}. + +Where that art sprang from, and how it grew, is largely a matter of +speculation. There have been legends of civilizations wiped out in +tremendous cataclysms that left no trace behind them. Vague suggestions +are made that the cradle of the race was in Asia. All we know for +certain is that the earliest civilizations of which actual historical +evidence remains are those of Chaldea and Egypt, and that the art of +these countries reached a high degree of attainment long before we come +upon the earliest traces of art of any sort in Greece. That both these +countries contributed in varying degrees to the art of Greece is +certain, but that is not the whole of the story. As we shall see, +another element comes into play, which made of that art almost a new +creation, differing in outlook and ideal from any art that preceded it, +stamped by the genius of a vigorous northern race with a character all +its own. The art of the East and the art of the West never really fused. +There is a difference in kind between the joyous vitality of pure Greek +art, and the gloomy vision of Asia, with its craving for the vast and +terrible, its sombre imagination, its lack of humanity and indifference +to the individual. + +It is not, however, till far down in the progress of history that this +differentiation asserts itself. Greek art is relatively a late +development. The Great Pyramid at Ghizeh was built some 2,000 years +before a stone was laid of the masonry of Mycenae. The Hall of Columns +of Karnak, with its columns sixty feet high, was probably coeval with +the Treasury of Atreus: in other words, when the art of Greece and of +the islands was scarcely out of the barbaric stage, a wonderful art had +been in existence across the Mediterranean from time immemorial. Both +Egypt and Chaldea attained a high degree of civilization long before the +Dorians were ever heard of. At some remote period the Egyptian influence +penetrated to Crete and Cyprus, the islands of the Aegean, and the +mainland of Greece; and the intermediaries were the Phoenicians, that +enterprising race of merchant adventurers, whose home was in Syria, and +whose fleets traversed the Mediterranean from East to West. The +Phoenicians were traders and not artists. In Egypt they came into +contact with a highly developed art, beyond their comprehension in its +essential features, yet including details which could easily be +apprehended by their quick commercial intelligence. Wherever they +touched on their voyages, Cyprus, Crete, the southern islands of the +Aegean, the mainland of Greece, the south of Italy, Sicily, Carthage, +the Balearic islands, Spain in the far west, they probably carried with +them, for trading purposes, minor articles of Egyptian workmanship which +may have supplied hints to the indigenous peoples. Where they +established settlements, they reproduced what they could recollect of +the methods of Egyptian architecture, possessing at second-hand a +knowledge of technical methods in advance of anything within the +knowledge of the people among whom they settled. Rudimentary +anticipations of the Ionic volute are found in Phoenician capitals, +vague reminiscences of what the traders had seen in Egypt and elsewhere. +Moreover, the Phoenicians, who possessed the skill of sailors in the use +of tackle, would have had little difficulty in handling large stones set +dry in more or less regular courses, which was a characteristic feature +of Cretan and Mycenaean building. It is too soon to describe the work as +architecture. It is doubtful if the Phoenicians possessed any aptitude +for the arts. Their rôle was that of intermediaries only. + +Obscure as was the part played by the Phoenicians in the early origins +of art in Greece and the islands, there was another channel through +which Eastern influences came to bear on its development, which is even +more uncertain. To the west of Chaldea and north of Syria, dwelt a race +of which little is known, the Hittites. Carchemish, their capital, was +on the upper Euphrates, north-east of Antioch, and their power appears +to have extended westward through Asia Minor to the shores of the +Aegean. Dr. Sayce says that in the thirteenth century B. C. it extended +from 'the banks of the Euphrates to the shores of the Aegean, including +both the cultured Semites of Syria and the rude barbarians of the Greek +Seas', he even says that the Hittites 'brought the civilization of the +East to the barbarous tribes of the distant West'. What actually remains +of Hittite art hardly bears out this statement. When the Hittite power +was at its height, Minoan 'art' had long been practised in Crete, and +according to the most popular chronology, had already passed its prime +and given way to the art of Mycenae and Tiryns. The scanty evidence of +Hittite art consists of bas-reliefs of figures and animals cut on the +face of rocks along the natural caravan routes through Asia Minor from +East to West. This and the evidence of seals and engraved gems show that +Hittite art was derived first from Chaldea, later from Egypt. It +undoubtedly exercised some influence on the art of the early Greek +settlers on the eastern side of the Aegean, and gave it an Asiatic cast, +which it never lost throughout all its later developments. For the +Greeks of Asia Minor never really understood the austere ideal of Doric +art. Ionian art crossed westward to Greece, but the Dorian never went +east. It was the art of a strong northern race, that found no place for +itself among the softer peoples of Asia Minor. + +At this point we can take up the first rudimentary beginnings of Greek +art. The discoveries of the last forty years have proved the existence +in Crete and Cyprus, Southern Greece, and the islands of the Aegean, of +an archaic art of obscure origin, of very great interest, and of +remarkable attainment in certain directions, long before the earliest +beginnings of what we mean when we speak of Greek architecture. So far +as architecture is concerned, this archaic art is of relatively minor +importance. It plays a small part, if any, in subsequent developments, +and though enthusiastic explorers claim to find in it anticipations of +the details of modern domestic architecture, the evidence produced is +unconvincing. Great movements in the arts always owe some debt to the +periods that have preceded them, but Minoan and Mycenaean art, at any +rate in regard to architecture, was rather the last word of a decaying +civilization than the first herald of the glorious art of Greece in the +sixth and fifth centuries B. C. We are still far back in remote ages, +remote that is so far as Greek art is concerned, anywhere between 2000 +and 1000 B. C. or even earlier,[128] back in the Minoan age of Crete +with its rudimentary architecture, and its relatively high excellence in +the crafts, and in the age of Mycenae and Tiryns, the age that produced +the Lion Gate at Mycenae, and that strange half-barbaric work, if I may +be pardoned the term, the Treasury of Atreus. It is worth pausing to +consider these archaic buildings, not so much to show a relationship to +later work (which scarcely existed), as to call attention to the fact +that the Minoan and Mycenaean builders were moving unconsciously in a +direction that would never have led to the column and lintel +architecture of the seventh and sixth centuries B. C. It might have led +to some form of dome construction, it could never have led to the Doric +of the Sicilian temples. No stronger evidence of the genius of the +Dorian invaders could be produced than that, with this unpromising art +in possession, they were yet able in the course of three or four +centuries to create Greek architecture. The design of the Lion Gate is a +strange jumble of ill-adjusted motives. It is set in a wall of great +stones roughly squared and laid dry. Two monolith jambs support a huge +lintel, cambered in the middle like the tie-beams of our +sixteenth-century roofs. Above the lintel the courses are gathered over, +leaving between their lower faces and the top of the lintel a +triangular space of a steep pitch (about 60°), in which was inserted a +frontispiece carved on a single stone representing two lions standing up +on either side of an archaic column supporting a fragment of a +rudimentary architrave.[129] The heraldic pose of the lions and the +technique of their sculpture, so suggestive of Assyrian reliefs with +their splendid sense of muscular form and energy, are far ahead of an +architecture that is still barbaric, scarcely architecture at all. There +is here nothing to suggest the Doric of Paestum and Selinus, much to +recall the megalithic buildings of Syria, and the sculpture of the +farther East. + + [128] Sir Arthur Evans has drawn up an ingenious chronology of Early + Minoan (2800-2200 B. C.), Middle Minoan (2200-1700 B. C.), and Late + Minoan (1700-1200 B. C.). The evidence is almost entirely that of + pottery discovered on the site. The whole question of the relations + of Minoan to Mycenaean art, and of this archaic art to the earlier + civilizations of Egypt and Chaldea, is very obscure and uncertain. + + [129] The heraldic treatment of the lions is of Eastern origin. The + Greeks had a tradition that the chieftains of Mycenae came from + Lydia. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1. LION GATE, MYCENAE] + +The Treasury of Atreus is still more remarkable, not only because it +shows more skill in building, but because its design is based on a +structural motive which seems to have been wholly abandoned by the +successors of the Mycenaean builders. The Treasury of Atreus (or Tomb of +Agamemnon) was excavated in a hill, and consists of a long passage about +120 ft. by 21 ft. wide, with retaining walls of megalithic masonry on +either side, terminating in a great entrance doorway. This doorway is +flanked on either side by columns tapering downwards, and decorated with +chevrons in a manner very similar to Norman work of the eleventh +century, and apparently intended solely for ornament.[130] The entrance +opened into a circular domed chamber about 48 ft. 6 in. in diameter, 45 +ft. 4 in. high, out of which opened another smaller chamber. The dome, +in section, is built on the curve of a parabola, formed with courses +projecting over one another, and not set out radial to the curve of the +dome--in other words it is not a true dome or arch, but a succession of +corbels. The internal face of the dome is dressed down, and was covered +with ornament of some sort, whether metal rosettes, or enamelled +terra-cotta, or wholly in metal, possibly the famous gold of Mycenae, is +not known. The whole of this chamber was covered in with a mound of +earth, in accordance with the primitive custom of concealing the +chieftain's grave. It is impossible to find, in this extremely +interesting monument or in the domed chamber of Orchomenos in Boeotia, +any trace of future developments in Greek architecture. Both in +intention and in its psychological background it seems almost as remote +from the Doric Temple as the Great Pyramid itself. In point of fact +architecture was still in a rudimentary stage. It has been proved +abundantly that Architecture comes late in the sequence of the Arts. +People could draw well, long before they could design. Among the +cavemen, for example, there were admirable draughtsmen, but they had to +make their drawings on the sides of caves. That there existed in the +Minoan and Mycenaean ages skilful potters and metal-workers, is shown by +the vases of Knossos and the gold cups found at Vaphio near Sparta; that +they built habitable buildings and decorated them to the best of their +ability is also proved, as, for example, the palace of Tiryns, but it +has not yet been shown that their builders reached the degree of skilled +design, at which building becomes architecture. Architecture had not yet +found itself in Greece. + + [130] Portions of these columns are now in the British Museum. + +Then somewhere about 1000 B. C. came the Dorian invasions, and the art +of Crete and Mycenae vanished into space--possibly the legend was right +which said that the conquered people of the mainland carried it away +with them to Asia. Anyhow, the three or four centuries following the +Dorian invasions are a blank which future research may fill out for us, +and so far as art is concerned, there appears to have been a _détente_, +during which the new race was settling down to its conquest, finding +itself, and assimilating something at any rate of the older +civilization. The survival of such buildings as the Treasury of Atreus +show that the Dorians were not simple barbarians, destroying all that +came in their way. Even Sparta in its earlier days was not a mere +military machine. Discoveries made in 1906-9 suggest that from the ninth +to the seventh centuries B. C. Sparta had some sort of an art of its own +showing traces of Asiatic influence in its pottery--a little later +Sparta concluded an alliance with Croesus, King of Lydia, and Bathycles, +an artist of Magnesia in Ionia, was treated with honour in Sparta. The +Dorians were something more than fighters, they seem to have possessed +some sort of civilization, and to have been endowed with a natural +capacity for the arts, which after two or three centuries of experiment +will find its own splendid expression within very definite and original +lines. The legend of the return of the Heracleidae was to be justified +by their later history. No merely imitative race could have evolved the +perfect manner of the great Doric temples from the scraps of Egypt and +the East, and the rudimentary buildings of Crete and Mycenae. + +Greek architecture for the purpose of this study is Dorian architecture, +and its elements are simple. It was evolved in the design of their +temples, and with the exception of their theatres it was summed up in +these temples. From the period during which Greek architecture was being +built up to its maturity, say from the seventh century B. C. to the +completion of the Parthenon in the fifth century B. C., the whole life +of the Greek was coloured and dominated by his religion and its +observances; and his religion was not the sinister mystery of Egypt, but +on the whole a cheerful open-air Pantheism that gloried in the life and +beauty of the visible world in which he lived. He himself was content to +live in a poor house, so long as he had his market-place, his ceremonial +theatre, and the glorious temples of his Gods. Moreover, to whatever +depths the Athenians may have sunk in the time of St. Paul, in the +heroic days of Pericles they were remarkable for constancy of purpose +and the steadfastness of their ideals. They stood on the ancient ways, +and it never occurred to them to abandon the tradition of their fathers, +their business was to carry it forward to perfection. The result was +that the architecture of their temples proceeded on lines that long use +had made sacrosanct; and its technique is summed up in the history of +two orders, the Doric and the Ionic.[131] + + [131] The order, I may say for the uninitiated, means the complete + ordonnance of the column, the architrave resting immediately on its + capital, the frieze and the cornice. It is the final expression of + the simple device of the post and lintel, of the beam resting on the + heads of two or more posts; and there is little doubt that in its + ultimate origin, the Order is the translation into stone of the + details of a rudimentary wooden construction. + +Now, the order, its character, dimensions and disposition, with the wall +of the Cella (or enclosed shrine) within the colonnade, summed up the +elements, the vocabulary, if one may so put it, of Greek architecture; +and we come here at the outset on a curious quality of the Greek genius, +and one that differentiates it from the Roman. The properties of wood +and stone as materials are clearly different, things can be done with +the one which are impossible with the other; but the Greeks either did +not realize this or did not trouble their heads about it. They found +that the post and lintel was a simple means of building, and they +adopted it as their permanent method of construction. If the span became +too wide, they thickened the posts (the columns of Paestum are 7 ft. in +diameter) and increased the strength of the beam (the architrave). Hence +the vast solidity of the Doric order of the temples of Sicily and Magna +Graecia. The Greek was incurious about construction _qua_ construction. +He found, in the column and the lintel, means perfectly adequate to +realize his ideal of high unalterable beauty, and he was content. The +Romans, who for a time were satisfied with these simple methods, became +impatient of the constructive limitation of the post and lintel. They +wanted to cover in great spaces, and to leave the floor unencumbered; +and concentrating on this they arrived at the arch, the vault, and the +dome, and so became the greatest builders of the world. To them, the +orders were a mere appanage of decoration, which they never properly +appreciated, of which they mistook the intention, adopted the worst +elements, and often enough made a gross misuse. The Greeks took another +line. They adopted the column and lintel once for all as the only +possible method of construction, and devoted all their labours to the +incessant refinement of this type, eliminating the unessential, arriving +by constant selection at the most perfect expression of their purpose, +and their purpose was not that of the Roman and the modern architect, +mainly utilitarian, it was directed entirely to the aesthetic appeal, +the appeal to the emotions through beauty of line, of form, and in a +less degree of colour. 'The whole fabric of Greek art goes to pieces +when it is brought into contact with a purely utilitarian nation like +Rome.'[132] + + [132] _Hellenistic Sculpture_, by Guy Dickins, p. 85. The author, + who wrote with something of the insight of the artist as well as the + accurate knowledge of the scholar, died of wounds, on the Somme, in + 1916. + +Of the two orders, the Doric and the Ionic, the Doric seems to me the +purest embodiment of the true Greek spirit, in its faultless form, and +its austere restraint and rejection of the unessential. It was, +moreover, the order _par excellence_ of the Greek temple of the +mainland. The Erechtheum was the only Ionic temple of first-rate +importance in Greece, and the employment of the Ionic order in Greece +was confined to interiors and minor buildings. As for the Corinthian +order, the favourite order of the Romans, it was scarcely recognized by +the Greeks. In all their great temples, in Greece, in Sicily, and Magna +Graecia, they used the Doric order. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE AT PAESTUM] + +How this order was arrived at we do not really know. Ingenious +conjectures have been made as to its origin in wooden construction, +and though some of these conjectures are more probable than others they +leave us pretty well where we were in regard to the stages by which it +reached its final form. It has been suggested that the Doric column +originated in the wooden post of the earliest temples, such as are +supposed to have existed in the Heraion at Olympia. The square post +would have its angles taken off, and become an octagon, and the further +elimination of the angles would gradually produce a form nearly circular +in plan, in which the arrises of the chamfered angles would remain, and +this might easily suggest to artists so sensitive as the Greeks, their +further refinement and definition by a slight hollow between the arrises +which would constitute the flutings of the Doric column. Its derivations +from the Minoan and Mycenaean columns seems most improbable. There are +two essential parts in the Doric column, the shaft and the capital (the +Greeks did not use any base for this order). The Minoan columns taper +downwards instead of upwards, an utterly unconstructional form, and +though in the palace of Knossos and at Tiryns columns of this shape +appear to have been used to carry lintels, the stone columns on either +side of the entrance to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae were used for +decorative and not for structural purposes. On the other hand columns of +great massiveness tapering upwards had been used long before in Egypt; +and though there is evidence against it, it still seems probable that +the suggestion of the shaft of the Doric column may have come from +Egypt. We first find it in Greece in the seventh century B. C. at the +period when Psammetichus I (671-617 B. C.) opened Egypt to Greek trade +and settlement. The Greek colony of Naukratis on the west side of the +Nile delta was founded by Milesians about 650 B. C. and by the middle of +the sixth century B. C. definite trade relations were established +between Naukratis and the mainland of Greece. The Greek settlement at +Daphnae on the eastern arm of the Nile appears to have been founded at +about the same time as Naukratis, in both cases with the sanction and +encouragement of the Egyptian king. The earliest Doric temples in +Greece, Sicily, and Magna Graecia date from the end of the seventh +century and early part of the sixth century. The nearness of date makes +it probable that the shaft of the Doric order had its origin in the +Egyptian column seen by some quick-witted Greek when trading in Egypt. +When we come to the capital of the column, the rôles seem to be +reversed, for we find nothing in Egyptian architecture to suggest the +echinus moulding under the square abacus of the Doric column; whereas +the Mycenaean column had a rudimentary capital which may have suggested +the idea of the Doric capital. But the notable thing about it is that +when we first come across the Doric capital in Sicily and Greece, it is +already far in advance of anything that had gone before it in Greece, +and it is quite different from the columns of Egypt. In the Doric temple +of Corinth (650-600 B. C.) the columns have already reached the type +form, the tapered shaft with its entasis or slight convex curvature in +outline, its massive solidity (the ratio is one of diameter to four and +a quarter of height), and the bold parabolic curve of the echinus +moulding under the abacus of its cap. In this form, the Doric column was +an absolutely fresh note in architecture. Archaic though they were, +these columns at Corinth show that the Greeks were already on the track +of those refinements of form, those optical corrections and +compensations, which differentiate Greek architecture from that of any +other race. The exaggeration in the entasis of the archaic column +disappears, its tapering was diminished, its height increased, and the +overhang of the capitals reduced, till in the Theseion (465 B. C.) and +the Parthenon (450-438 B. C.) we reach the final inimitable type. The +column, which at Paestum was not much over four times the height of its +correct diameter, is now over five times, the great overhanging +capitals are reduced to reasonable dimensions, the depth of the +entablature is diminished, the axis of the column is slightly inclined +inwards to give the impression of stability, the shafts have the slight +curve or 'entasis' just sufficiently marked to prevent the outline of +the column looking incurved; the lines of the stylobate, or continuous +base, on which the columns stand, and the entablature which they carry, +have a slight rise toward the centre in order to correct the impression +of the lines sinking in the middle; the columns at the angles are +thickened, because standing free with the light all round them they +would otherwise appear smaller than the columns standing against the +background of the building. Nothing was left to chance; every aspect of +the building, the relation of every part to the whole, and of the whole +to its part, was studied profoundly, so that there should be no failure +in its perfect harmony. Except in Egyptian architecture, and there to a +much smaller extent, nothing like this had been done before. What the +Greeks did, was to formulate a rhythmical architecture, in which each +part stood in a definite and considered relation to the whole, so that +even in their ruined state these Doric temples give an irresistible +impression of a great idea, a great architectural epic, in which each +detail, however beautiful, was subordinated to the unity of the +conception as a whole. It is this abstract quality which lifts Greek +Doric so far above the ambitious art of later ages, and indeed above all +but the very finest work of any period of architecture. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3. DORIC TEMPLE, CORINTH] + +Many attempts have been made to discover the secret of this wonderful +perfection of proportion. That the Greeks had a system of their own, +that they worked to definite ratios of dimension and number, and +employed graphic methods of determining their proportions, such as the +use of triangles and the like to determine the limits of their designs, +seems certain. But no contemporary account of any such system remains; +and all the explanations that are given are _ex post facto_, made by +theorists analysing existing buildings, not by architects designing new +ones. Some four or five hundred years later Vitruvius compiled a +treatise on architecture, in which, following the doctrines of the +school of Alexandria, he expounded a Greek theory of proportion on the +basis of the human figure. Vitruvius is obscure, and does not seem to +have been certain himself whether the proportion of the parts of a +design were to bear a relation to the whole, analogous to that of +members of a human body to the body as a whole, or whether the +proportions of the order were to be taken from the actual proportions of +the human body; and he complicates the position by reference to the +'perfect numbers' of the Greeks. But here again he was uncertain whether +the 'perfect number' was ten or six. After which, and having, in his +reference to the human figure as the canon of proportion, unwittingly +set a trap for the scholars and artists of the Renaissance, he drops the +subject and digresses into a general classification of temples, with +formal rules for the placing and dimensions of columns, which have +formed the staple of treatises on classical architecture ever since. One +should speak with gratitude of the labours of Vitruvius, because, after +all, his is the only technical treatise left us on the subject; but he +applied to the pure Greek temples a system evolved centuries later by +critics and theorists; he was thinking chiefly of Roman versions of +Greek architecture, and he was more interested in technical rules and +precepts for the use of architects than in that abstract beauty which +was all the Greek cared for. No classification, however laborious, will +reach the mystery of Greek architecture. Its beauty is too subtle to be +reduced to any formula. + +The Doric order reigned supreme throughout the great period from the +sixth till the end of the fifth century B. C. It failed with the failure +of the high ideals of Athens. Other forces came into play to which it no +longer responded, and later Greek critics even found fault with the +Doric order for certain 'mendosae et inconvenientes symmetriae';[133] +but that order, the true symbol of the sons of Heracles, was one of the +most momentous contributions ever made to the art of architecture. It +was the keynote of Greek architecture throughout its finest period. +Later it was superseded by the Ionic order, and when Rome became +paramount in the western world, that, in its turn, yielded its place of +pride to the Corinthian order, opulent, luxurious, a little vulgar, a +true register of the lowering of the sense and standard of beauty that +followed the downfall of Athens. + + [133] _Vitruvius_, iii. 1. The difficulty was, that if the triglyph + was placed on the angle of the building (the practice of the Greeks) + and the next triglyph was placed over the axis of the column, the + metope (or panel) between these two triglyphs would be larger than + the metopes between the triglyphs axial over the other columns. The + Greeks solved it by reducing the width of the end intercolumniation, + but later critics disliked this, and solved it by removing the end + triglyph from the angle and placing it axial over the end column. + +Meanwhile, on the other side of the Aegean, the Ionic order was reaching +its perfect form through a similar process of systematic thought on a +type definitely adopted. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor were of very +early origin. Legend attributed their foundation to the earlier +inhabitants of Greece, driven out by the Dorians. By the sixth century +B. C. the Greek colonies were well established on the west and +south-west coasts of Asia Minor, and had evolved their own +characteristic architectural idiom in the Ionic order and its column, +more slender than the Doric, with its moulded base and its strange +characteristic capital, unsuitable from the constructional point of view +in stone or marble, yet ultimately attaining the exquisite beauty of +line and modelling of the capitals of the Erechtheion at Athens. Two +things seem fairly certain as to the origin of this capital; first, that +it was derived from the wooden horizontal head-pieces fixed on posts to +reduce the bearing of the primitive wooden lintels; and, secondly, that +the first suggestion of the volute reached the Ionian Greeks from the +East. A crude anticipation of the volute is found in Phoenician work, +and it also appears on a Hittite relief at Boghaz Keui in the middle of +Asia Minor. Its origin in either case was oriental, and we have here the +other motive in Greek architecture, Eastern, at any rate exotic, and, as +compared with Doric, almost alien to the true Greek genius. Yet this +astonishing people gave it a form as far removed from its barbarous +originals, as the Doric capitals of the Parthenon from the capitals of +the columns of Mycenae, and when the Greeks of both sides of the Aegean +drew together after the defeat of the Persians, the Ionic order crossed +the sea, and assumed a place of honour in the temples of Greece, still, +however, with rare exceptions, in subordination to the Doric order. In +the colonies in Asia Minor, the supremacy of the Ionic order had long +been recognized. The Ionic temple of Hera at Samos, 368 ft. long by 178 +ft. wide, is supposed to have been built at the end of the sixth or +early in the fifth century B. C., and this was the forerunner of the +great fourth-century temples of Ionia, built when Architecture had +changed its direction and Hellenistic Art was beginning its adventurous +career. + +With these two orders as the terms and idioms of expression the Greeks +built up the architecture of their temples. Their plans were the +simplest possible. The rudimentary type was a simple chamber or cella, +with a loggia open to the air except for two columns standing between +the two extremities of the side walls, which terminated in pilasters +known as 'antae'.[134] The next stage was to bring the colonnade +forward,[135] stage number three repeated the column at the other end of +the building,[136] stage number four continued the colonnade along the +sides,[137] stage number five doubled the colonnade on all four +sides,[138] and stage number six retained the outer rows of columns but +omitted the inner row along the sides, leaving a wide passage-way all +round the main building.[139] Vitruvius gives a further classification +by the spacing of columns which will be found in all the handbooks of +classic architecture. With minor variations in detail, these types +remained constant for the temples of Greece and Rome. The principal +alterations occurred in the extension of the temple proper, at the +expense of the surrounding colonnade. In the Archaic temples, such as +the older temples of Selinus in Sicily (sixth century B. C.), the +portico and colonnade occupy three-quarters of the site. In the temple +of Hephaestus (Theseion) at Athens (fifth century B. C.) the cella +occupies only a little more than half the total area, and in the +Parthenon, built some twenty years later, the size of the cella is still +further increased. Most of these temples were covered in. Hypaethral +temples, in which the cella was open to the sky, are mentioned by +Vitruvius, and it is probable that some of the larger ones at any rate +were partly open to the sky. But how the openings were arranged is +almost entirely a matter of conjecture. The roof used was of a very flat +pitch, one of height to four of base, later it was even flatter, and +this dictated the slope of the pediments. This roof covered the whole of +the building, that is, both the cella and the colonnades on either side +of it, and as the Greeks were ignorant of the principle of the +triangulated truss built up of beams in compression and tension, they +were at a loss to know how to carry their roof without pushing out their +walls. Hence the great solidity of their buildings, and the rather +clumsy expedient of the colonnades in the interiors of temples which +appear to have been the only means they could think of to carry the +roof. One has to bear it in mind in thinking of Greek architecture, that +the Greeks were not constructors in the sense that the Romans were; they +built well, and the best of their masonry was extraordinarily +skilful--only by unusual skill in the cutting and setting of stone could +they have carried out the delicate curves in the columns and other parts +of their buildings--but construction, in the sense of the invention of +new methods to meet difficult conditions, did not interest the Greek, +and one cannot help thinking that the Greeks may have been more +successful with the outside of their buildings than with the inside. It +seems clear that they devoted most of their attention to the external +elevations. It is not really known for certain how they lit their +temples, though of course all sorts of suggestions of top-lighting have +been made. It is possible that in some cases they were lit only from the +principal entrance, and it is certain that the Greek did not want for +the interior of his temple any such floods of light as are necessary +under our northern skies. In the first place, he enjoyed a most +brilliant and penetrating light, so that within his colonnades reflected +light was amply sufficient to show the friezes and other ornaments, and +he did not hesitate to use strong primary colours to heighten and +explain their effect, wherever he found it necessary. In the second +place, within the shrine itself, other considerations came into play. A +certain luminous atmosphere, rather than positive light was what was +aimed at, and the deep shadows of these internal colonnades might have +helped this effect, adding to the mystery of the figure of the God. + + [134] Vitruvius gives this as the 'aedes in antis'. + + [135] Pro-style (colonnade in front). + + [136] Amphipro-style (colonnade at both ends). + + [137] Peripteral (single colonnade all round). + + [138] Dipteral (double colonnade all round). + + [139] Pseudo-dipteral (inner row of columns omitted). + +This, too, may be the explanation of what must strike an architect as an +anomaly of design, the Greek habit of placing enormous figures in the +interior of their temples. The Greek, in his own way, was a very +religious man. In his temple, he was doing his utmost to set forth the +majesty of his God, and if it was necessary for this purpose he was even +prepared to sacrifice his principles as an artist, to ignore the scale +of his interior and the rhythmic harmony of his design, by the +introduction of gigantic figures. The eye judges by what it knows, and +the readiest way of arriving at some idea of the size of a building or a +monument is by relating it to the normal size of the human figure. +Vitruvius, in his confused way, suggested that the human figure was the +canon and standard of architectural design, but how is it possible to +determine the scale of a building which contained a figure at least six +times the size of a man, reaching from the floor to the roof? The +chryselephantine figure of Zeus at Olympia, made by Pheidias, is +supposed to have been some thirty-five feet high, and to have reached +nearly to the roof, passing the double tier of columns and the gallery +above the aisles of the cella. Moreover, this god was represented as +seated on his throne, so that by no possibility could it have been in +scale with the building so far as the architecture was concerned. Even +the gigantic temple of Zeus at Agrigentum with its external columns 61 +ft. 9 in. in height, and large enough for a man to stand within one of +the flutings of the columns, could hardly have stood up to figures on +such a scale as this. Such a violent contrast in scale broke the +principle of συμμετρια {symmetria}, that strict relation of the part to +the whole which the Greek artists maintained elsewhere with scrupulous +care. Artists with such a consummate sense of proportion as the Greeks +possessed would hardly have made a mistake here, and the conclusion one +comes to is that where their religion was in question, everything had to +give way. Indeed, one can imagine the tremendous effect of this colossal +figure seen dimly in the half-light of the cella, filling the whole +temple with its presence. The same anomaly in scale occurred in the +Akropolis at Athens, where the vast figure of Athene Promachos must have +reduced the beautiful Caryatides of the Erechtheum to insignificance. M. +Choisy makes a gallant effort to show that this want of relationship in +scale, and also in the siting of the temples, was deliberate and +considered. As a fact, the general rule that seems to have been observed +in the time of Pericles was that new temples should always be built on +the site of the older ones,[140] but axis lines were neglected, and even +the masses of the Propylaea, beautiful building as it must have been, +did not balance. The Akropolis was just a collection of unrelated +buildings, and in the great Temenos of Delphi the various monuments were +all anyhow.[141] The Sacred Way meandered about like an S, and the only +method it observed was to clear the various treasuries and shrines which +appear to have been scattered about within the enclosure, with a +disregard of each other little less than brutal--a rather suggestive +symbol of the internecine rivalry of the small Greek states. At Delphi, +also, there was a huge figure of Apollo Sitalkas said to have been +seventeen metres high, which must have been hopelessly out of scale. The +fact was that Greek architects of the fifth century had not yet arrived +at the conception of the city as a whole. They had an admirable eye for +a site, for example, the position of the Parthenon itself, and the +temple of Hera Lacinia at Agrigentum placed high above the sea, but it +is unhistorical to invest even the architects of the Parthenon and the +Propylaea with a knowledge and outlook which was not thought of till a +hundred years later. Even the Greek architects and sculptors of the +fifth century B. C. were not omniscient, yet within their limits, in +their mastery of what they set themselves to do, the artists of the age +of Pericles remain unapproachable, and theirs was the Golden Age of +Architecture. They had fixed for all time essential elements of the art, +and had set up a standard of attainment in pure form which no subsequent +architecture has ever been able to reach. + + [140] The Erechtheum was an exception. + + [141] See _Delphi_, by Dr. Frederick Poulsen, p. 52. It is suggested + that the Sacred Way was in existence before the shrines were built, + and that its wanderings were necessitated by the gradients of the + hillside. No sort of attempt, however, seems to have been made to + correct this, or to treat it as an element of design. + +The fall of Athens closed this splendid chapter, but Greek +architecture was by no means done with. The Silver Age, the Hellenistic +art that followed, is of intense interest. With the rise of the +Macedonian monarchy the stage of history shifted from the mainland to +the Ionian colonies on the coast of Asia Minor. Cities such as Ephesus +and Miletus became immensely prosperous, Mausolus of Halicarnassus, the +Attalids of Pergamon, possessed wealth that would have been unimaginable +to the Greeks of Marathon. The City State, fighting desperately for its +existence, inspired by high ideals of patriotism and religion, was a +thing of the past. These Greeks of Ionia were well content to enjoy the +comfort and prosperity of a settled civilization without having to fight +for it; and the whole atmosphere of their existence must have been +different from the strenuous life of Greece in the fifth century. +Moreover, the Ionian Greek, influenced, even if subconsciously, by the +spirit of Asia, was by temperament unable to maintain the intellectual +level of the Doric architecture of the mainland; and a difference +appears in the whole orientation of art, in sculpture perhaps even more +than in architecture. The history of Hellenistic art has yet to be +written. It has been described as decadent, and it was undoubtedly +responsible for some very poor stuff, but it also produced the 'Victory' +of Samothrace, one of the finest things ever done in sculpture, and some +very remarkable developments in architecture. It is not to be judged by +the standards of the art that preceded it. The Ionian Greek of the +fourth and third centuries B. C. broke away from the tradition of the +mainland, a tradition always rather alien to his instincts. His interest +lay less in a somewhat impersonal religion than in the assertion of his +own individuality. He did not understand the lofty patriotism, and the +high ideal of abstract beauty that had inspired Pericles and his artists +in the Akropolis; indeed, there is a curiously modern feeling about much +of his work, which became more marked as he came under the dominance of +Rome. The individualism, the realism, the revivalism, and the +commercialism of modern art, were all anticipated by the Hellenistic +artists of Ionia, of Rhodes, of Alexandria, and of Athens itself in the +Roman period. Civilization was becoming more complex, and one finds this +reflected in Hellenistic art, at once more florid than the Doric of the +fourth century, yet also more skilful in its handling of complicated +problems of planning and design. No one wanted archaic simplicity when +the wealth of Asia was flowing into the treasuries of the Ionian states, +and the expression of this opulent ease is found in their magnificent +temples, such as the third temple of Artemis at Ephesus, of which the +outer colonnade measured 342 ft. 6 in. by 163 ft. 9 in., or the vast +temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus, 165 ft. wide by 360 ft. long out +to out of the colonnades; or the amazing monument of Mausolus of Caria +at Halicarnassus, or the great altar of Pergamon. Fragments of the +columns of the Temple of Artemis, now in the British Museum, tell of its +size and richness, they also give the first hint of the downfall of art +and civilization which was to follow centuries later. The Greeks of the +great period had kept the structural parts of their building free of +ornament. It would never have occurred to them to interfere with the +lines of the column in any way that would contradict its purpose; but +the Greek architects of Ephesus not only placed their columns on +pedestals (making them so far less stable in appearance), but they +adorned the lower part of their Ionic columns with figures, of admirable +execution, but perfectly inappropriate in the position they occupy. One +cannot imagine Pheidias making a mistake such as this. Splendid in +execution as Hellenistic sculpture often was, it won its place at the +expense of architecture; one looks in vain for that selection and +restraint which give its undying distinction to the earlier work. + +[Illustration: Fig. 4. TEMPLE OF THESEUS, ATHENS] + +The Greeks of the fifth century realized that architecture is an art +with a definite purpose other than that of a mere vehicle for sculpture, +and that it makes its aesthetic appeal by its own inherent qualities of +rhythm, and proportion, spacing, mass, and outline. Though they used +sculpture and colour to heighten and intensify the effect of their +architecture, they saw very clearly the function of the arts in relation +to each other, and kept their sculpture and their colour in strict +relation to the aesthetic purpose of their architecture. It is a point +on which later architects went lamentably astray. A great deal of early +Renaissance work is mere ornamentation of buildings, indeed in buildings +such as the Certosa of Pavia the architecture has almost ceased to +exist; and most of the bad architecture of the last fifty years is due +to the deplorable fallacy that ornament is architecture. The columns of +Ephesus, the sculpture of the altar of Pergamon, brilliant as they were +in technical accomplishment, were the first hint of that decline which +was in time to undermine the whole fabric of the Arts. Architecture was +deposed from its high intellectual dominance. It tended more and more to +become a conventional affair, and it was an easy transition from the +exuberance of Hellenistic art to the point-blank vulgarity of Roman +ornamental architecture. + +It was, however, inevitable that the fine simplicity of Periclean art +should vanish with its ideals, and one finds a certain compensation in +the extension of the range and outlook of architecture, which we owe to +the Hellenistic architects of the fourth and succeeding centuries B. C. +So far as perfection of form was concerned, it was impossible to carry +the art beyond the stage to which Ictinus and Callicrates had brought +it; but there still remained something, and something very important, to +be done. Axial planning, the consideration of the relation of building +to building, seem to have been outside the consciousness of Greeks of +the fifth century, and each building was treated as an unrelated unit. +But the inconvenience of this, its loss of opportunity, and the +necessity of order and method, must have become apparent, as +civilization became more complex and more exacting. By the end of the +fourth century B. C. the tradition of architectural technique was +firmly established, and architects were able to turn their attention to +problems of large planning, and these they seem to have handled with +extraordinary skill. So far, what had been done in this direction had +been due to religious inspiration, as in the processional ways leading +to the Egyptian temples or the avenue of figures at Branchidae. What the +Hellenistic architects did was to think out consecutive schemes of city +planning, in which the dominant motive of arrangement was artistic. They +had learnt to treat the temples, the public buildings, the open spaces +and approaches, as the elements of one harmonious composition, in which +the utmost use was made of the natural opportunities of the site. At +Ephesus, for example, there is supposed to have existed a consecutive +scheme, larger than anything of the kind carried out even in France in +the eighteenth century, though the evidence, it should be noted, is +largely conjectural. As presented by sanguine and enthusiastic restorers +the scheme was magnificent. Next the port, and facing it on one side, +was the Arsenal, a regular building opening on to a court surrounded by +a colonnade, which again opened on to the great 'Place', a square +enclosure some 850 ft. wide north and south, by 650 ft. east and +west,[142] surrounded by a colonnade on all four sides, with exhedrae, +or semicircular recesses. In the centre of this Place was an oblong +water-piece, about 300 ft. by 200 ft., and on the farther side, opposite +the Arsenal buildings, were the Senate House and other public buildings; +and behind these and to the right and left of them the Theatre and the +Stadium, partly excavated in Mount Coressus. The Arsenal, the great +Place with its water-piece, and the public buildings, were laid out on +an axis line, and on a regular rectangulated plan. + + [142] The Place Vendôme measures 450 ft. × 420 ft.; Grosvenor Square + about 650 × 530; and Lincoln's Inn Fields about 800 × 630, measured + from wall to wall of buildings. + +A scheme such as this (if it is possible to accept a conjectural +restoration), thought out in all its bearings, meant a real advance in +the range of architecture. It is useless to look for the faultless +beauty of the fifth century, but the resourcefulness and skill of the +Hellenistic architects gave a new meaning to the art; and indeed they +might almost be said to have established the first stage in the +development of its modern practice. It was from these able Hellenistic +architects that the Romans learnt the monumental planning of their +cities, and for centuries the architects most frequently employed were +Greeks of Asia Minor. At this point, Hellenistic architecture merges +into Roman, and loses its distinctive character. Through Roman it passes +on to modern architecture, and so in a sense the chain is complete; but +between this later art and pure Greek architecture there is a great gulf +fixed, differences not only of technique but of outlook, of ideal, and +of temperament. The mighty Doric of Paestum, Selinus, and Segesta, the +Theseion and the Parthenon, remains for all time the perfect expression +of the soul of ancient Greece. + +It is one of the ironies of history that when in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries scholars and artists awoke to the fact that there +had been a great architecture in the past they should have known of no +other version of it but the Roman. What splendid developments might have +followed if the finer spirits of the Renaissance, Alberti, Bramante, or +Peruzzi, had founded their theories of architecture on the temples of +Sicily and Magna Graecia, instead of on the debased examples of Imperial +Rome! They, at least, would have caught a glimpse of the beauty of +abstract form and perfect harmony, the secret of which seems to have +been revealed to the Greeks alone among the peoples of the world--and to +them for only a transient period of their history. Unfortunately, when +Greek architecture was discovered in the second half of the eighteenth +century, it became the shibboleth of the 'virtuosi'. The national +traditions, both of France and England, were lost, Greek architecture +became the fashion, and the misguided enthusiasm of pedants and +amateurs insisted on literal reproductions which completed the +extinction of architecture as a vernacular art, and replaced it by the +series of revivalisms from which it has suffered for the last one +hundred and fifty years. Conscious and deliberate tinkering with the art +of architecture ended by destroying it. + +We can never hope to revive Greek architecture, nor should we attempt to +do so. There was once a well-known Scotch architect who held that the +column and the lintel was the only permissible form of construction, and +with this limitation and ill-selected Greek details he produced some +fantastically ugly buildings. Following a similar line of thought a +famous critic of the last century condemned methods of construction not +sanctioned by the Old Testament. Both were wide of the mark; because, +above and beyond all technical details of architecture is the spirit in +which it is approached, the intellectual outlook of the artist on his +art, and this may express itself in widely differing forms. In Greek +architecture of the Golden period, that outlook was definite and +distinctive, and it was one that has a very urgent lesson for us to-day. +The aim and ideal of the Greek was beauty of form, and this beauty, +which he sought in the first instance as the expression of his religion, +ultimately became almost a religion in itself. To the realization of +this ideal he devoted all his powers, sparing himself no pains in +chastening his work till it had attained the utmost perfection possible. +He merged himself in this work, without thought of the expression of +himself in his vision of a divine and immutable beauty. It hardly +occurred to him that his individual emotions were worth preserving. (In +the sculpture of the great period the expression of the face is usually +one of unruffled calm.) Although religious emotion was the source and +inspiration of his work, his work was impersonal. He was aloof from that +feverish anxiety for self-revelation which has made much modern art so +interesting pathologically, and so detestable otherwise. Nor again had +he anything of the virtuoso about him. To him technique was not an end +in itself. In Hellenistic art it became so, but not in the Golden Age. +Indeed, he was sometimes almost careless of exact modelling, and in +architecture he did not use the order as a mere exhibition of +scholarship. In his search for beautiful form, he stood upon the ancient +ways, patient and serene, moving steadily to his appointed end. 'Ainsi +procède le génie grec, moins soucieux du nouveau que du mieux, il +reporte vers l'épuration des formes l'activité que d'autres dépensent en +innovations souvent stériles, jusqu'à ce qu'enfin il atteigne l'exquise +mesure dans les efforts, et dans les expressions l'absolue +justesse.'[143] There have been rare periods since, when Architecture +has moved with the same calm unhesitating purpose, Gothic architecture, +for example, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and certain phases +of eighteenth-century architecture in France and England, when tradition +was still active and vital, and artists were content to let well alone. + + [143] Choisy, _History of Architecture_, vol. i, p. 298. + +Modern conditions seem to be wholly against the Greek standpoint in art. +The Arts are in the melting-pot, the old standards of attainment are +trampled under foot, and the prophets prophesy falsely. Quite lately we +were asked to find our inspiration in the fetishes of the Gold Coast, +and if the aim of the artist is to outstrip his brethren in brutality, +the advice is sound. A recent critic justified the antics of certain +artists by the necessity they were under of advertising themselves. +That, no doubt, is the readiest way to immediate success. But the +question for the critic is, not the personal advancement of the artist +but the value of his work; and one would ask if any good work at any +period in the history of art has been inspired by this ambition to shout +louder than one's neighbours. Certainly, the standpoint of the Greek was +the exact opposite. He did not seek advertisement and notoriety. He was +happy with his inner vision of beauty, and intent only on its +realization. He had not the smallest desire to shock or startle any +one. There are occasions when shock tactics are necessary, but they are +not necessary every day in the week, nor is it necessary to make a clean +sweep of the past before one sets to work in one's own little corner of +art. + +What is wanted in modern art is some consciousness of this old Greek +spirit, some recognition of its value. The Greeks of the age of Pericles +wanted neither revivalism nor revolution; they moved forward, without +haste or anxiety, on traditional lines, and they were able to do so +because their art was so interwoven with their life that, in the plastic +arts, they could no more have changed their methods of expression than +they could have changed their manner of speech. That high outlook on +life is lost and hardly to be recovered under modern conditions of +social life and political government. It was perhaps only possible under +the true democracy of the small Greek city state, when every citizen +took his share in the ordered life of the community. Yet the Greek ideal +remains. In our fitful fever of honest intention and wrong judgement, +high endeavour and point-blank commercialism, Greek art, the art of +Pheidias and Ictinus, is still the wise mother to whom we must return. +The lesson of the Parthenon is the lesson of a steadfast vision of +beauty, held high above individual effort and failure, realizing itself +not in complex detail or calculated eccentricity, but in a serene and +exquisite simplicity of form. It teaches us that in the arts there are +no short cuts, and that anarchy, the destruction of what has been won +for us in the past, is not advance but the straight road to the +bottomless pit of barbarism. Instead of repudiating the work of his +fathers, the Greek carried it on to its perfection, and built his palace +of art on a sure foundation because he turned neither to the right hand +nor to the left, but steadily set his face towards the light. + +REGINALD BLOMFIELD. + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Notes and Errata | + | | + | Greek text is followed by the transliterated version in | + | braces. | + | | + | The following typographical errors have been corrected. | + | | + | Error Correction | + | back black | + | stedfast steadfast | + | | + | The following words are found in hyphenated and unhyphenated | + | forms in the text. The numbers of instances are given in | + | parentheses. | + | | + | cuttle-fish (2) cuttlefish (1) | + | fresh-water (1) freshwater (1) | + | pre-occupation (4) preoccupation (1) | + | preoccupations (1) | + | re-arranging (1) rearranging (1) | + | re-discovery (2) rediscovery (3) | + | super-men (1) supermen (1) | + | super-women (1) superwomen (1) | + | text-book (5) textbook (2) | + | text-books (2) textbooks (3) | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Legacy of Greece, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEGACY OF GREECE *** + +***** This file should be named 22259-0.txt or 22259-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/2/5/22259/ + +Produced by L.N. 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