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THE VITALITY OF
PLATONISM
AND OTHER
ESSAYS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ILontron: FETTER LANE, E.G.

C.
F.

CLAY, Manager

(StsinhutQl)

loo,

PRINXES STREET

Berlin:
ILeipjig:
i^jto

A.

ASHER AND CO. F. A. BROCKHAUS

P.

gorfe:
(JTalrutta:

G.

PUTNAM'S SONS
CO., Ltd.

Bombag anU

MACMILLAN AND

A// rights reserved

THE VITALITY OF
PLATONISM
AND OTHER
BY

ESSAYS

JAMES ADAM
LATE FELLOW AND SENIOR TUTOR OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE,

CAMBRIDGE

EDITED BY

HIS

WIFE

ADELA MARION ADAM

Cambridge
at

the University Press 191

1

A3

Cambrilrge

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

TOIC
(J)|ATAT0IC

cmoi

CYNecTi'oic

re kai cyNTpAnezoic,

OYK ACHMOY noAeooc noAiTAic

'EMMANOYHA,
ToAe TO BiBAiAApiON

eyMeNec n^pA eYMeNoyc

KexApicGoa.

ei

MEN 0lAOCO(|)HTeON, (|)lAOC04)HTeON,

TeON, <|)lAOCO(t)HTON"

KAI

MH

(|)lAOCO(J)H-

HANTOaC ApA 4)lAOCO(|)HTeON.

(Aristotle.)

247023

CONTENTS

I.

The

Vitality of Platonism

....
.

PAGE
I

II.

The Divine

Origin of the Soul

35
.

III.

The Doctrine
The Hymn

of the Logos in Heraclitus

IV.

of Cleanthes

....
Value of Classical

77

104
190

V.
VI.

Ancient Greek Views of Suffering and Evil

The Moral and

Education

Intellectual

213

PREFACE

THESE
bridge

essays were read by

my husband
in

as

papers or lectures on various occasions.

The

Divine Origin of the Soul was published

Praelectiofis,

Camin

1906,

and

The

Moral and
the

Intellectual

Value of Classical Education

College Magazine, Vol.
vil.
I

Emmanuel

have to

thank the Syndics of the Cambridge University

Press and the editor of the magazine respectively
for

their

kind permission

to

reprint
to

them.
the

The

Vitality

of Platonism was read

Classical

Society at Aberdeen University in 1902, and to a

similar society In

Edinburgh
the

in the following year.

is

The Doctrine of
read
before

Logos in Heraclitus
University

a paper

the

Oxford

Philological

Society in 1906.

The
at

essay entitled The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes contains the substance of three lectures delivered in

1906

Westminster College, CamSchool of Theology.

bridge, before a

Summer

The

remaining essay on Ancient Greek Views of Suffering

and Evil was

the author's last public lecture, which

viii

Preface
to

was given

the Vacation

Biblical

Students at

Newnham

College, Cambridge, in 1907, one

month

before his death.

In preparing this volume for the press

it

has not

seemed possible altogether

between
the

to eliminate overlapping

essays

among themselves

or

with

James Adam's book on The Religious Teachers of When ideas and illustrations recur, it is Greece.
usually in a different setting,

and they

fulfil

a special

purpose

in the

separate essays.

Dr
proofs,

Giles has

been kind enough

to

to

read

the

and

Mr

Leonard Whibley

give advice

concerning the
I

MS
set

and

its

arrangement.

have prefixed to the book the dedication and

before the last essay.
It
is

motto originally
fitting that the

expression of

my

husband's love for

the college where he

worked should introduce these

echoes of his teaching.

A.
May^
191
1.

M. A.

>

THE VITALITY OF PLATONISM

A
distinguished
philosopher,

speaking of

the

educational value of Plato and Aristotle, remarked

on one occasion that he had grave doubts whether it was expedient to make men study "dead philosophies,

imperfectly understood."
in

It

might

fairly

be said
is

reply that no philosophic system which

at
all

worth studying

has ever been

its

perfectly
;

^,

and some have actually doubted whether Hegel was always intelligible even to himself. But it is a much more disputable assertion to say that Platonism is dead, and if one were to join issue with so bold an antagonist on his own ground and fight him with his own weapons, we should be tempted to maintain on the other hand that Platonism, so far from having joined the majority, is not even sickly or moribund, but rather the only philosophy which is really alive. Like Teiresias in the realm of shades, Plato, we might say, oTo^ TriirvvraL, to\ 8e (tkloI dicrcrovcri. But I am far from making any such reflection upon other philosophic systems, and will content myself with trying to show that the announcement of the
inventor

understood, except, perhaps, by

death of Platonism
A. E.

is

little

premature.
I

The
It is at all

Vitality of Platonism

events a curious and significant sign

of

Plato's

continued vitality that

we

often

find

modern philosophers displaying an almost pathetic

anxiety to father their doctrines upon him.
for

Take
his

example

Lotze,

who

after

explaining

own metaphysical
them

principles,

proceeds to identify
the light of his

with the Platonic Ideas, which he interprets,

as philosophers are apt to do, in

own

theory.

The

truth which
is

Plato intended to

no other than that which we have just been expounding, that is to say, the validity of truths as such, apart from the question whether they can be established in relation to any object in the external world, as its mode of being or I have elsewhere^ tried to show that Lotze's not\
teach, says Lotze,

application

of his

own metaphysical
:

doctrines

to

those of Plato involves an entirely erroneous view

of Plato's theory of Ideas

but

it is

a striking proof

of the vitality of Plato's authority and

name

that
to

successive

generations

of idealists

are so

apt
if

shelter themselves beneath

his wing.
is
still

And
it

the

influence of Plato's teaching

alive in

modern
does
hardly

philosophy, and affects, as in point of fact

affect,

nearly every revival of idealism,

in

it

is

less

of the early apologists for Christianity, such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, show

dominant

theology and religion.

Some

that they recognised

tion

and acknowledged the connecbetween Platonism and the Christian faith when
*

Logic, E. T.= p. 2 10.

'

Adam, Republic of Plato,

vol.

ii.

169

f.


Influence of Plato

they speak of Greek philosophy as a preparation for

Christianity,

wrote by the inspiration of

Clement does, that Plato God iirnrvoia eou^ Few writers have had more influence in shaping the course of theological thought in England than the Cambridge Platonists of the 1 7th century, Cudworth, John Smith, Nathanael Culverwel, and others and the fundamental principles of this school or band of
and
assert, as
;

thinkers were derived from a study of Platonism,

which was
central

uncritical

indeed, and

often

mistaken,

but always apprehended

doctrine of
divinity of the

with the firmest grasp the

religious

Plato's

teaching,

the

essential

generation

In a later human soul. Ackerman and Baur, in their treatises on

Plato, and on Socrates and Christianity, discussed the relationship between Platonism and Christianity with a keener insight and a surer criticism, and pointed out many striking coincidences between the two systems. And to take a still more recent example, Bishop Westcott, nearly all of whose theological writings are coloured by Platonism, has declared that the myths of Plato answered in the first place to Revelation, as an

the Christian elements in

endeavour to enrich the store of human knowledge, and in the second place '*to the Gospel, as an endeavour to present, under the form of facts, the manifestation of Divine Wisdom.". ." Plato," he says,
.

"points us to St John'."

The

stimulus exerted by Platonism on poets and

1 -

Coh.

ad Gent. 180

a,

Migne.
11.

Contetnporary Review^

p.

480

f.

4
-

The

Vitality

of Platonism
In spite

artists

has been hardly less remarkable.

of the severe and almost puritanical regulations by which Plato in the Republic tries to clip the wings of Poetry and Art, the artistic temperament has in all ages been powerfully attracted by his writings,

and it is highly significant of the intellectual affinity between Plato and Ruskin that in drawing up a list of books worth reading Ruskin took his pen and
wrote ''Plato, every word^

The

Platonic conception

of an eternal self-existent principle of Beauty, stand-

ing serene and changeless above

all

the fluctuations

of fashion and taste, has proved an inexhaustible

fountain

of

inspiration

to

some of the
art.

greatest

painters and sculptors in the

creative period of Italian

most flourishing and Perhaps the most

idealis

noteworthy example of the influence of Plato's

ism on the
artistic

imagination

that of Michael

Angelo,
vitalises

who was
all

member

of the Platonic

Academy

at Florence,

and gives expression to the idea which his greatest work in language which

might have come from Plato himself. One of his sonnets, translated by Wordsworth, contains these
truly Platonic lines
:

Beyond the

Heaven-born, the Soul a heaven-ward course must hold'; visible world she soars to seek
is

(For what delights the sense

false

and weak)
rest

Ideal Form^, the universal mould.

The
Cf.

wise m.an,

affirm,

can find no

Man

is

(^uto'

qvk ^yyaov,

dWa

ovpdviov.

Plato, Twi.

90

A.
^

Cf.

Platonic Ideas.

Hostility to Greek ideas

In that which perishes
:

nor

will

he lend

His heart

to

aught which doth on time depend ^

The
word

fact is that Platonism, if

we understand
in a

the

in a

broad and
is

Hteral,

and not
deep

narrow or

pedantic sense,

not

yet dead, and

cannot die,

because
his

its

roots are struck

is

in universal

human

nature. / It

true that in the popular language of

time Plato speaks of the barbarian as the natural

of Greece
;

enemy
ideal

it

is

true that he calls his

own
is

republic emphatically a

Greek

city

but the

animating

spirit of his teaching, as

we

shall see,

the enthusiasm of humanity, and leaves no

for the artificial distinctions of barbarian

room

and Greek,

bond and free. To the most characteristic principles of Greek life and thought he is constantly opposed. The old and all but universal rule of pagan morality, 'Mo good to your friends, and evil to your foes" is attacked by him in the Republic and elsewhere^ with arguments based on a loftier view of man's nature and work than anything which we meet with in Greek literature before his time, and the practical conclusions which he draws that the good man
'*

never does

evil to any,"

*'

that

it

is

better to suffer
"

than to do wrong," have justly been held to fore-

shadow the Sermon on the Mount.

that

Ye have

heard

it hath been said, Thou and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good

shalt love thy neighbour,

Cf. ycVccri? as

opposed

to ovo-ta,

and time

as

opposed

to

eternity.
"^

See Plato, Rep. 509 b et passim. Rep. 335 A ff., Crito 49 c, Gorg. 472 d

ff.

6
to

The

Vitality

of Platonism

them

that hate you,

and pray

for

them which

you and persecute you." Plato does not go so far as this, but he is following the same road. /On questions like the training and work of
despitefully use
,

women, the

true

functions of statesmanship,

the

theory and practice of education, and

prevalent Greek ideas.

many

others

which might be named, Plato is equally hostile to But in nothing does he display so marked an antagonism to contemporary
in

thought and feeling as

theology and religion.

his

attitude

to

Greek
good,

Starting from the fundais

mental principles that the divine nature

immutable, and cannot
with
lie,

he attempts to show,

more refinement perhaps, but hardly less vigour, than Tertullian, that the Olympian theology
violates these canons at every point.

His diatribes

against the religion and theology of

Homer and

Hesiod,

who were regarded by

the Greeks as the

founders of their theogony, were perhaps the severest

blow which paganism suffered before the Christian era, and may fairly be considered as preparing and paving the way {irpoo^oTToieiv) for a higher form of
religious belief.
dria,

TrpoTrapacrKevd^eL

In the words of Clement of Alexant)

(f)L\o(TO(f)La,

TTpoohorroiovcra

Tov

19 y^picTTov TeXeLovixevov^.

genius of Plato

These considerations make it clear that the is by no means exclusively Greek,

and that in many points his teaching is directly opposed to some of the most cherished beliefs of
his

own

age.

Even
^

his
I.

political

sympathies are

Sir.

717 D,

Migne.

Appeal

to

universal aspirations
his

*j

Panhellenic rather than Athenian, and

philo-

sophy, though reared on the

as

soil

of Attica, appeals,

I have already hinted, to certain universal elements in human nature, and not to Hellenic human nature only. For this reason he is careful to place his ideal city under the protection, not of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, or any other divinity peculiarly associated with one particular branch of the Hellenic race he commits it to Apollo, the god of Delphi, the symbol of Greek unity, aye, and
:

something more, the

God

of the

whole human

race,

so far as antiquity recognised such a God of all, the co7nmune humani generis oraculmUy the ancestral interpreter, who seated on the holy stone in the centre

of the earth expounds the Father's will to

kind

{Traa-iv dvOpcoTTOLs,

Rep. 427
instinct^

c).

manAnd what are

all

these universal

human

and aspirations

to

It is said that which Platonism makes appeal ? when Anaxagoras was asked for what purpose he

In order that I may look was born, he replied upon the heavens and the sun," and some of Plato's contemporaries were fond of deriving the word dvOp(DTTo^ from 6 ra dvo) dOpoiv, the creature whose
*'

eyes are directed on the heavenly places, in distinction from the lower animals, whose eyes are bent

downwards on the earth \

In a deeper sense

it

is

perhaps true that Nature has implanted in all mankind an unquenchable longing for the things that are

above

ra dvta

(f)poveLT,

/xt)

tol

iirl

yrj<;.

So Plato

at least believes, in
^

common
Dw.

with an innumerable
\\.

Cf. Lactantius,

Insiit.

c.

i.

The

Vitality

of Platonism

company
and
it is

of the greatest and noblest in every age,

to this inborn passion for perfection that
this innate

he

appeals

though often unconscious yearn-

ing after the ideally true and beautiful and good,

which
God.

finds

to the service of

embodiment in lives devoted Knowledge, Art, Humanity, and The philosophy of Plato furnishes the most
its

highest

poetical

and perhaps the truest answer to

"those obstinate questionings

Of

sense and outward things"

which are the heritage of human nature most inspiring philosophical expression of
"those
first

it

is

the

affections,

Those shado\^7 recollections, Which, be they what they may,

Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Are yet a master light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being

Of

the eternal Silence

truths that

ffltake.

To
Which

perish never;

neither listlessness, nor

mad
joy.
!

endeavour,

Nor Man nor Boy,

Nor Can
It is

all

that

is

at

enmity with

utterly abolish or destroy

because Plato has attempted, and attempted with more success than others, to satisfy these per-

manent

aspirations of

humanity that

his philosophy

still lives,

and

is

likely to live

"While water
tor
av
vS(o/3

flows

and

tall

trees

bloom

in spring"

re pcT^ koX 8cV8pa fxaKpa TeOrjXr].

Plato

view of Nature

9
if

The
the

ancients were in the habit of saying that

in

Muses spoke

Greek, they must have spoken

with the tongue of Plato.

But

it

is

not only in his

:

"

style and language that Plato is poetical his philosophy itself is steeped in poetry, and we shall altogether fail to understand his significance in the history of human thought unless we realise this in-

disputable

fact.

On

this

account

shall

have

frequent recourse to

modern poetry

in

seeking to

explain and illustrate the vitality of Platonism, and

in particular to the poetry of Wordsworth and Tennyson, whose writings are often tinged by philosophic thought. The method which I propose to follow is to give an outline of Plato's teaching, first on Nature and secondly on human nature, adding parallels and illustrations, chiefly from Tennyson and Wordsworth, as opportunity occurs. It is impossible

within the time at

my

disposal to touch on

all

the

leading doctrines of a writer

who ranges
in

with almost

equal authority over the entire domain of

life

human

and thought, but

nature
is

if

succeed

showing you

that Plato's philosophy of Nature

and especially of
discourse

human
prove
lyvQ%

not yet dead,

my
is

may

at least a finger post to point the

Tco

way

an
of

ravTov

/xerioj^rt,

which

Plato's ideal

what a lecture ought to be. Perhaps the best way to approach the subject of Plato's conception of Nature will be to start from
the

Timaeus.
Is

The

central idea of that great dia-

logue
the

the analogy between the

Macrocosm and
Let us

microcosm, the

Universe and man.

J^

lo

The

Vitality

of Platonis7n

consider the Universe

first.

The world

in

which

we

live,

says Plato \

is

the product of two causes,

Necessity and Perfect Reason>^

Necessity performs
is

the function of the passive or material cause, and

in fact

nothing

but the personification of the original,

Ideal Reason, in the person

inchoate, indeterminate material substratum, like the

TTpoiTq vXrj of Aristotle.

of the

Sr)fjiLovpy6<;

or Creator, plays the part of the

the

and evolves order out of stamping formless matter with mathematical forms, "which are themefficient or creative cause,

chaos of blind
copies

necessity,

selves

of the

Eternal

Essences or Ideas,

moulded from them

way-."
It is

in a

mysterious and wonderful

is

thus that the body of the Universe

in

framed.

But as
is

man

there

is

soul as well as

body, so also in the

World

first

The Soul compounded by God himself

Universe.
'*

of the

out of
in

the changeless and the changeful, and then

the

midst of the Universe," as Plato

Soul, and

tells

us, ''he set

drew it through the whole framework, yea and wrapped the whole body of the Universe with a covering of Soul, and made it a sphere for
revolving in a
circle,

one only Universe

its

in lonely

splendour, but able by reason of

its

excellence to be
other,

own companion, and needing no

way he begat
that

being
In

sufficient to itself for this

acquaintance and friend.

Now

will

happy God, the Universe^" ask you to believe that this halfa World-Soul, which
ff.

poetical, half-religious idea of

^

Tim. 47 E

/did.

50

c.

/did.

34

b.

The
according to Plato

So2cl
is

of the World
it

as

were the incarnation of the

Divine Reason, less perfect indeed than God himself but still wholly rational and far from anger or desire I will ask you to believe that this World-Soul or

World-Reason
Nature.
will
I

is

in

reality

Plato's

conception of
Timaeiis
is

think a careful study of the

identification

convince you that the

if

sound.

And

the Soul of the

is

World which God

creates in

the Tiviaeus

in reality Nature, see

It follows that

Nature, as Dante
is

the child of God. that she

material creature,

good and not

is

cording to Plato,
evil

the author

what follows. somewhere says, is spiritual and not a for God, acevil only of good, and
;

In Plato's way of Cometh not from him. thinking God and Nature are not two mutually opposing forces, but an omnipotent Father and a loyal son, working harmoniously together toward
"that
far-off divine

event

To which

the whole Creation moves,"

and Good The fact is that it is Plato, and not prevail. Aristode, who founded the theological view of the Universe, and Aristotle is only Platonising when he We says that God and Nature do nothing in vain. point of view Nature is may add that from another in Plato at once the revelation of God to man and

when Necessity

shall

bow

the

knee,

God's vice-gerent, ever indwelling space and time.

in the

world of
Nature.

So much

at present for Plato's idea of

will

Other important points

come

to light of

them-

12
selves,

The

Vitality

of Platonzsnt
nature,

when I describe his view of human which I now proceed to do.

he
felt

Plato was profoundly attracted by Nature, but

an even deeper interest

is

in

man.

In this

respect he

the true successor of his master Socrates.

The
all

essential nature

and history of humanity, with

all

its

hopes and enthusiasms, with

its

infinite

possibilities for

good and

evil, is

the dominant theme

It

of nearly

all

his greatest dialogues.

would seem
is

that his conception of the Universe itself

in reality

suggested and conditioned by his view of man.

The Universe
essentially the

is

a ''magnus homo," and has a Soul,

purer indeed and grander than the soul of man, but

and just as the truest nature of man is to be sought in his soul and not in his body, so also, as we have seen, it is the Soul, and not the Body of the Universe which constitutes the Nature of the Whole.
in

same

kind

this life, man "is a compound of the mortal and the immortal, standing midway between corruptibility and incorruptibility in the words of Philo, Bvqrrjf; koI aOavdrov (f)vo-eo)<; The mortal part is the body, and its fie96pLOp\" affections and lusts, which Plato in the Timaeus calls the ''mortal kind of soul " (Ov-qrov eT8o9 ^v^i)\ the immortal part is Reason, the eye of soul, the lamp of human life, the representative of God in man,
:

What then, according mian ? As he appears in

to Plato,

is

the nature of

the candle of the Lord.

The

mythical

creation
is

of the rational part of our souls by

1

God

thus
b.

De Mund.

Opif. 46.

See Adam, Republic of Plato, 588

Plato's view of

man

13

described by Plato.

After the Creator had com-

pounded the Universal Soul "again into the same and mingled the Soul of the Universe, he poured that which was left of the former elements, mingling them in somewhat the same way, yet no longer so pure as before, but one or two degrees less pure\" In other words the
cup, in which he blended
rational or immortal part of soul, for
it

is

that alone

which comes immediately from God himself, is made of the same elements as the Soul of the Universe. Now we have already seen that Plato thinks of the

World-Soul as Nature, and I would have you observe what follows as to the relationship existing between Nature and man. Every vestige of hostility and antagonism disappears and Nature, instead of being **red in tooth and claw with ravine," is man s elder brother co-operating with him and the universal Father in one great Trinity of beneficence and love against the stubborn and malignant forces of Necessity and Chaos. It has been said that it is a good thing to have a devil in the world, so long as you keep your foot on his neck. War is the
;

never-ending

lot

of

man

7roXe/xos irdpTcov na-n/jp

and
for

in the struggle against evil

allies.

we have

the gods

our

The

general conception of a natural

affinity or kinship between God and man, and man and Nature was not invented by Plato. It was a familiar Greek idea that men are but " mortal gods," and gods "immortal men^" and Pindar was only
^

Tim. 41

D.

These words are put

into Heraclitus'

mouth by Lucian,

Vif.

Auct. 14.

14

The

Vitality

of Platonism

expressing a
the race of

common belief when he sang *'one is men and gods and from one mother we
:

both

inherit

the

breath

of Hfe\"

There

is

also

reason to believe that the same inspiring conception

had already even before the time of Plato assumed a deeper and more religious significance in Orphic and Pythagorean teaching. The unity between man and nature, again, was an underlying hypothesis of Greek life and the life in harmony with Nature, that is, with the Nature of the Whole, is an ideal which expresses much of the best Greek thought
;

But Plato is the even before the days of Stoicism. first of the Greeks to make the kinship of the divine and human natures the basis of a philosophy of man,

and he expounds the doctrine with more emphasis than any pre-Christian thinkers except the Stoics, and with a far greater wealth of philosophic meaning than any other writer in any age. At this stage I will invite you to pause for a moment and consider the affinity between this view of Nature and that with which we meet in the poems of Wordsworth. The subject of Wordsworth's Platonism has already been briefly touched upon by the author of John Inglesant, in a paper read to the Wordsworth society in 1881 and I observe that a critic in the Ti?nes of to-day (March
:

1903) pronounces Wordsworth ''the profoundest, the most daring Platonist in English literature." Mr
20,

Shorthouse lays stress upon a remarkable passage from the Exctcrsion and finds in it ''the key not
^

Nem.

6.

i.


Plato and Wordsworth
15

only to Wordsworth's Platonism, but to that peculiar conception of his that an entrance into the world of abstract thought may be won by the help of material
objects\"

The

lines of

Wordsworth

are

" While yet a child

and long before

his time

he perceived the presence and the power Of greatness and deep feelings had impressed
:

Had

Great objects on his mind, with portraiture

And
They

colour so distinct, that on his

lay like substances,

mind and almost seem'd

To

haunt the bodily sense-."

''The presence and the power of greatness,'"

says Shorthouse

''this is that 'principle

of excel-

lence' in which Plato believed."

to affirm that

The

poet seems

by the help of the vast objects of and in solitude, we are enabled to understand and to conceive the great realities of abstract thought, and to
nature, perceived in silence
"breathe in worlds

To which

the

Heaven of Heavens

is

but a

veil."

These remarks are suggestive and true but in what I have to say of Wordsworth's Platonism I will pursue a somewhat different, and for some of you perhaps an easier line of thought, confining
;

myself to Wordsworth's view of Nature and her relation to man. It seems to me that the philosophical idea which underlies nearly
all

the finest

poetry of Wordsworth

is

no other than that which

in

we have

already

found
it

Plato,

although

the

English poet develops

'

in

a somewhat different
^

p. 12.

Book

I.

The

Vitality

of Platonism

way from

the Greek philosopher.

To Wordsworth

as to Plato,

Nature

is

a Soul or Spirit, and divine

that

"O

Soul of Nature!

by laws divine
still

Sustained and governed,

dost overflow

With an impassioned

life^

"
!

And
is

just as in Plato

Nature imitates God, and

in

created by Perfect
is

Wisdom, so

Wordsworth

Nature

"a Power
That
is

the visible quality

of Right

And image
Her

and shape Reason that matures

:

processes by stedfast laws;

gives birth

To no

impatient or fallacious hopes,

:

No
Of

vain conceits

provokes to no quick turns

;

self-applauding intellect

but trains
faith

To
In

meekness, and exalts by humble

^"

more than one passage Wordsworth appears

of Nature as an indwelling soul, like

to conceive

Plato's Soul of the

Universe
is

"To
An
In

every form of Being

assigned

active Principle

...
it

subsists
;

all

things, in all natures

in the stars

Of

azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,

In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,

The moving
Spirit that

waters,

and the

invisible air.

knows no insulated
the Soul of
all

spot,

No
^

chasm, no solitude; from link to link

the Worlds I"
=

It circulates,

Prelude,

'

Excursion^

Book xii. Book ix. ad

y^^^^

^qqY

xiii.

init.


Plato and Wordsworth
It is In this spirit that

Wordsworth
light

finds the true

and

essential unity of Nature,

"Even

as

one essence of pervading

Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars

And

the

mute moon

that feeds the lonely

lamp

Couched

in the de\^7 grass \"

With
the

may be compared the passage fromLines coinposed a few miles above Tint em Abbey
this

beginning
"I have
felt

presence that disturbs

me

with the joy

Of elevated thoughts'."

And

it

is

the

same idea
in
:

to his

which the poet gives

description

magnificent expression

of

the

scenery of Switzerland

"The immeasurable

height

Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, The stationary blasts of waterfalls,

And
The The
As

in the

narrow rent

at every turn

Winds thwarting mnds, bewildered and

forlorn,

torrents shooting from the clear blue sky,

rocks that muttered close upon our ears.

Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside

if

a voice were in them, the sick sight

And
The

giddy prospect of the raving streams.

unfettered clouds and region of the Heavens, Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light Were all the workings of one mind, the features Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree;

Characters of the great Apocalypse,

The
Of
'

types

first,

and

and symbols of Eternity, last, and midst, and without end^"

xiv.

Prelude,

Book
i7ifra.

Quoted
Prelude,
A. E.

The Divifie
vi.

0?'igi?i

of the Sou/,

p. 48.

Book

The

Vitality

of Platonism

And

in
is

her relations with man,

beneficent

Nature

and calm she teaches solation we derive from communion with the " kindred spectacles and sounds" of nature, "the noise of wood and water," the starry heavens, the sea, the
!

how kind, and What lessons of moderation us What strength and con-

" everlasting hills "

Of
is

these and similar ideas the

full,

poetry of Wordsworth

and quotations would

be superfluous.
like Plato,
is

will

only add that Wordsworth,

never forgetful of

man when he

writes

of Nature.

As Shorthouse

says,

man," ''man consecrates Nature" ''man and Nature act and re-act\" And thus it is that no one who is
not a friend of
of Nature.

if

''Nature elevates

man

can hope to understand the voice

"But

this

we from the mountains

show,
will

learn

And

this the valleys

That never

they deign to hold

is

Communion where the heart To human weal and woe^."

It is
''the
still

cold

sad music of humanity"

that Nature sings,

"Not

harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To

chasten and subdued"

These
multiplied,

quotations,

which

might
to

be

greatly
that

may seem perhaps

show you

there
^

is

a strong vein of Platonism in Wordsworth.

6 of paper quoted above.

p.

Lines composed at Cora Lin?t. Lines composed a

few

miles above Tintern Abbey,


Celestial origin of

man
19

Mr
is

Shorthouse
''

is

unwilling to assert that

;

Wordsit
I

worth

consciously Platonized

on the contrary,
I

not likely that he ever read the Dialogues."

feel

do not

sure of this, but

is

all

that

wish

at

present

to maintain

Wordsworth's interpretation of basis whether conNature has its Let us now sciously or unconsciously in Platonism.
that

philosophical

return to Plato himself.

The famous words in which Plato proclaims that man is " a celestial and not a terrestrial plant'" sum up a whole school ovpdvLov (J)vt6v, ovk eyyeuov of theological and religious thought. You remember

the passage in which St Paul addresses the Stoic

and Epicurean philosophers on the Areopagus at Athens " God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the
:

bounds of
the Lord,
if

their habitation

that they should seek

feel after

haply they might

him, and find

:

him, though he be not far from any one of us in him we live, and move, and have our being
certain also of your

for
:

as

own
"

poets have said. For

we

are also his offspring

xvii.

tov yap /cat yeVo9 icjxiv (Acts These sentences are full of Stoic moral and religious teaching, and the sentiment with which they conclude, though it may have been derived by

26-28).

Paul from the Phaenoynena of Aratus, who uses the same quotation in the second century before Christ

or

possibly from Aristobulus of Alexandria

this

profound conviction of the universal brotherhood of

'

Tim. 90

A.

20

The

Vitality of

Platonism

men and

their relationship to

God
I

the Father reaches

back through the

the

hymn

of Cleanthes the Stoic to the

great Platonic doctrine which

have named.

It is

same behef

in

the celestial origin of

man

that

inspires the teaching of

some of the
it

early fathers

of the Church, such as Justin Martyr,

Alexandria, and Origen, nor has

lost

Clement of its power to

move

the minds and sway the hearts of

men

to-day.

Perhaps it is not too much to say that the Ik crov yap yivo<; ecr/ieV of Cleanthes is the highest expression of the religious sentiment in the whole range of Greek literature and not unworthy to rank with Our Father which art in the Christian equivalent Heaven." In the presence of this spiritual affinity the distinction between Pagan and Christian seems to fade away, and we have a momentary vision of
''
:

an ideal

faith,

a Trapdhuyixa iv ovpavco, whereof

all

earthly religions are but

perfect day.
Plato's position
it

shadows pointing

to the

on

this subject is that

he believes

to

in

be just the presence of this divine element man which renders his nature most distinctively
specifically

and Plato in the Republic'^, is its likeness to the God-head dv^peUeKov is nothing but OeoeUeKov. Man is most manlike when he most resembles God, and (as Tennyson says) "then most godlike being most a man." The lower appetites which clog and thwart the soul are no part of man at all they are of the earth, earthy,
^'colour

and most

humane

The

likeness of true manhood," says

See Adam, notes on Rep. 501

b,

589

d.

501

b.

Essential divinity of

man
It is

21

whereas man

is

a child of Heaven.

the higher

which

is

the

higher nature

human nature, and according to this man must be defined and placed. The
I

noble lines of George Herbert, which

have
I

else-

where quoted

to illustrate this subject, express the

teaching of Plato better than anything that

at the

can say,
that
it

and may whether Platonism is a dead philosophy or may sometimes be a living faith.

same time serve

to

show you

not,

"

To this life Make their

things of sense

pretence

In

th'

other Angels have a right by birth

tries

Man
With
th'

them both

alone,

And makes them one

one

In soul

hand touching heav'n^ with he mounts and flies,

dies,
stuffe

th'

other earthy

In flesh he

He

wears a

whose thread

is

coarse and round,

But trimm'd with curious lace;

And

should take place

After the trimming, not the stuffe

and ground \''

Of

this doctrine of the essential divinity of

man

I have said in another place that "the sure and abiding conviction of the presence of a divine ele-

ment within us, rendering our nature essentially and truly human, makes itself felt in nearly all the
dialogues of Plato.
his idealism, religious
It is

the ultimate source of

all

and metaphysical, no less than moral and political, and may well be considered the most precious and enduring inheritance which he To me this doctrine has bequeathed to posterity'."
1

Ma?i's Medley.

'

Note en

J^ep,

501

b.

22

The

Vitality

of Platonism

appears to be more fundamental than anything else

in

Plato, except
it

perhaps the theory of Ideas, with

in

which

stands

close

relationship

and

it

is

assuredly the most living, aye and life-giving of

Platonic doctrines.
to understand

all

Let us endeavour for a

it

moment

how

is

connected with other parts

of Plato's teaching

such as his theory of knowledge,

the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, and

the aim and scope of education.

/'

The

only true objects of knowledge, according

Ideas,

to
^^*^

Plato, are the transcendent, self-existing

in

which are poetically described

Phaedrtis.

the

myth

of the

These
realities,

Ideas,

only

true

visible

on Universe and all

in turn
is

which are themselves the the model of which the

its

parts

are

fashioned,

depend

upon the one supreme or sovereign

is,

Idea, that

the Good, so that the whole Universe

if

of thought and things

we may adopt

a phrase

of Aristotle, attached to

dvrjpTr)TaL ck

the

Idea of

that the totality of existences

change the figure, v/e may say is one long altar-stair, ascending step by step from the lowest to the highest,
or God.
to
"

Good

Or

Through the mighty commonwealth of

things,

Up

from the creeping plant

still

to sovereign

manV'

and higher
himself.

through

all

the infinite gradations

is

of the spiritual world, whose lamp or sun

God

Both conceptions are Platonic, and both are also Tennysonian

"For so the whole round earth is Bound by gold chains about the
*

every

way

feet of
^

God^"
d' Arthur.

Wordsworth, Exnirsio?i, Book

iv.

Morte

Human
And
again
:

soul akin to the Ideas

23

"the great world's That slope through darkness up

altar-stairs

to

God\"

To

these transcendent Ideas, and especially to the

Idea of Good, the

Inherent divinity,
is

human
akin,

soul,

in

virtue

of
its

its

and by reason of
It

kin-

ship with the Ideally true and beautiful,

is

able to

apprehend perfection. As the Cambridge Platonists In the seventeenth century loved to say, Man's Reason Is the candle of
the Lord, lighted by

God

himself, to guide the soul

on high.

In the words of Xathanael Culverwel,

illustrious

perhaps the most truly eloquent of that

:

band of writers and thinkers " The Candle of the Lord it came from him, and 'twould falne return to him,... the face of the soul naturally looks up to God,
coelurnque tueri Jussit,
vulttis, 'tis as

et

erectos

ad

sidera tollere
All

true of the soul as of the body.

light

loves to dwell at

home

with the Father of

Lights.

Heaven
'tis

'tis

Patria

there

fixt

a tabernacle for

hwtinum, God has the Sun, for 'tis good to

be there,
'twill

a condescension In a

Sunne-beam
'twill

that

stoop as low as earth, and that

;

guild this

inferiour part of the world

'tis

the humility of light

It

that

'twill

incarnate and
;

incorporate
'tis

self

unto
look

sublunary bodies
of
Its

yet even there

not forgetful
still

noble birth and original, but

to the

'twill

upwards
^

Father of Lights^"
55.

I71

Memoriam,

discourse of the Light of Nature^ ist Ed., p. 199.

24

The
It is in this

Vitality

of Platonism

way
soul

that the doctrine of the divinity

is

of the

human

connected with the Platonic

theory of knowledge.

How

is

it

related

to

the
?

teaching of Plato on pre-existence and immortality

Throughout the whole of Greek literature, Homer downwards, immortality is universally held to be an attribute of that which is divine, and it is a wide-spread principle of Greek philosophy that
the a(l)6ap7ov
is

from

also dyevrjTov

the

immortal

is
is

also
fully

the uncreated.

Each

of these principles
in the

accepted by Plato, and although

Timaetts he

speaks of the creation of the

that
is

human

soul

by God,

in all probability

only an allegorical
is

way

of

saying that the soul of

man

an efflux or

fragment

aTTocTTracr/xa, as

the Stoics said

of the divine Soul.

its

It certainly

beginning

in time.

does not imply that Soul as such had a In this way the divinity of Soul
its

implies at once

pre-existence and

immortality.
tells
it,

To

tell

the

story of the

Soul

as

Plato

mingling
truth,

poetic
'*

fancy with
all

moral and
lepore

religious

and

overlaying

with the Muses' charm"

nitisaeo

contingens cuncta

would
and an

require
soul

the genius of another Plato.

^^

Each particular
it,

has _aji-,^ndless history behind

prospect before.
in

Infinite

Incarnation

is

only

an episode

life

that stretches throug^h both eternities, a

hakagzplace^or^hall
rather a troubled

we

say a quiet haven

sea,
till

'^.

Nay

and storm-tossed
is

a prison-

house
lies

in

which the soul

chained

Death, the

great deliverer, sets her free, a

dead, until death's

tomb in which soul resurrection morn shall bid

Pre-existence the shadows flee away.

and hnmortality

25

We
man

are again reminded of

that
I
?

St Paul
deliver
"

''
:

wretched
this

am,
"

who

shall

me from
:

body of death

(Rom.

vll. 24).

For we

that are In this tabernacle

do groan, being
unclothed, but

burdened

not for that

we would be Or
in the

clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up

of life" (2 Cor.
V. 4).

words of St Peter,
analogies to the
crapKi, l^cjoTroL-qOeU

both of whose epistles furnish

doctrine of Plato, OavaTOjOeU
Se TTveviiaTi
alive.

many
/-xei^

the death of the body makes

the spirit

Before the round of Incarnation began, says Plato in the Timaeus\ God ''set each soul as it were in a chariot and showed her the nature of the whole,"
in

harmony with which

soul

it

Is

her duty to live

and

in the interval betw^een each successive incarnation,

the

that has

strenuously followed truth and

righteousness on earth, renews her faded fires and plum.es her wings afresh by gazing on the perfect

forms of Beauty and Truth in the realms of the And when she returns to earth again, if she Ideas. have drunk not too deeply of that ''daughter of
Lethe," that awaits "the slipping through from state

happen that a stray sunbeam from the heavenly kingdom enters the window of the prison-house and reminds her of the " imperial palace whence she came," making her to rejoice and sing like " Memnon smitten with the morning
to state
"
it

may

often

This is the Platonic form of that doctrine^ of Reminiscence or Recollection with which we so
sun."
1

41

E,

42

B.

26
often

The
meet
in

Vitality

of Platonism
It
is

English poetry.

this

which

inspires the lines of

Tennyson
is

" Moreover, something

or seems,

That touches me with mystic gleams, Like gUmpses of forgotten dreams

Of something Of something
Such
as

felt,

like
I

something here

know not where; no language may declare*."

done,
is

The same thought

"Who Who How
Or
"
for a

expressed by Boethius^

good he knows not sighs?

can an unknown end pursue?

find? How e'en when haply found Hail that strange form he never knew?
is it that man^s inmost soul Once knew each part and knew the whole

Now, though by fleshly vapours dimmed, Not all forgot her visions past; For while the several parts are lost, To the one whole she cleaveth fast;

Whence he who
Is neither

yearns the truth to find

sight nor blind.

sound of

" For neither does he

know
what

in full,

Nor

is

he

reft

of knowledge quite,
to
is
left,

But, holding

still

He

gropes in the uncertain

that
still

light,

And by the past To win back all

survives
strives."

he bravely

same idea which was in the mind of Wordsworth when he wrote the Ode on the
it is

And

essentially the

Intimations of Immortality.
^
'^

The Two

Voices.
v. 3,
tr.

Consolation of Philosophy,

James.


Doctrine of Reminiscence
"

27

Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be

Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore,

And

hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."

In the prefatory note with which he introduces

this
is

poem, Wordsworth
soul

is

careful to indicate that he

not committed to the doctrine of the pre-existence

:

of the

he merely regards the notion

foundation In humanity
"

"

as

having

sufficient

to justify

him

In

using

It

for poetical purposes.

The

doctrine

almost disappears from Greek philosophy, properly

so-called,

between the time of Plato and the NeoplaIts

tonlsts

but

Influence

Is

traceable In the apocryphal

especially In
''

literature of the

Old Testament, and

the book of the

Wisdom

of Solomon.

was a

child of goodly parts," says the author of that work,

and received a good soul or rather, being good, I came Into a body undefiled " dyaOo^ a)P tjXOov eU It has not been accepted by the crw/xa diJLLavTov^. Christian Church, and now survives In Western
''
;

literature chiefly as a

poetic

fancy.

In the East,

on the other hand, it is still what It was to Plato and to Orlgen, and in later times to Henry Moore an Integral and essential part of the belief in the

eternity of Soul.

The
;

other half of Plato's doctrine

is

has fared better

but there

no

philosophical

system

at the present

day which can be compared

28

The

Vitality

of Platonism
It Is

with Platonism In the extent to which

immortality.
It

moulded

and inspired by the ever-present consciousness of

remains for us to see
In

what way

Plato's

doctrine of the divinity of the

his conception of the

human
is
is

soul affects

scope and method of education.

divine
;

In our essential nature, the soul

Incarnate in a mortal body, she

but

when

clogged and en-

cumbered by the
of flesh. of the teacher
poraries held
?

evils inseparable

In these circumstances, what

Is
It,

from her tenement Is the duty

as

some

of Plato's contem-

is it

blind

nor the opinion even now extinct endeavour "to put sight as were Into eyes other words to the soul with
is

to

it

"

In

fill

and dogma, imperfectly understood, or rather, as Plato would say, not understood at all ? Against this view of education Plato urges unrelenting warfare, for it is the entire and absolute negation of his whole theory and practice. According to him Reason, which is the eye of the soul, present In many men and women, Is never blind although its gaze is only too often directed on the false and fleeting, the hollow and impure. The ''leaden " of tradition, prejudice, passion weights and desire, drag the soul's eye downwards to that which is of
facts
;

moribund

the earth earthy.

Who

then, according to Plato,

?

is

one who makes It his aim, not to multiply, but to remove those leaden weights, that the soul may thus obey her native impulse and soar upwards. Or to change the figure, and avail myself of what I have ventured
the true and heaven-born teacher
Is

He


Tra7tsformation of the soul by education
to write elsewhere,
*'

29

Michael Angelo used to say

it

that every block of marble contained a statue, and that the sculptor brings
to light

by cutting away
face divine'
it

the encumbrances by which the

is is

'human

concealed.

In like manner, according to Plato,

the business of the teacher to prune the soul of his pupil of those unnatural excrescences and incrustations

which hide

its

true nature, until the

all
its

human
and

soul divine stands out in

pristine grace

purity^"

Or

yet again,

the teacher

revolutionist, seeking to turn

is a kind of round the soul of his

pupil from darkness

into light.

In this process of

revolution or circumversion

TrepLaycjyij is the

Greek

word

the moral
possible

as well as the intellectual part of

our nature shares.

this out',
it

Plato

is

most

careful to point
to

and he would have refused

for

admit that

is

the intellect to be

transformed

without a corresponding transformation of the moral But the transformation is effected, according nature.
to Plato,

through the Reason, which

is

the element
will,

of

God

within us, rather than through the

and
the

it is

the development of the reason and the reasoning

faculties

which
is is

his

curriculum

of studies

in

Republic

primarily intended to produce.

that curriculum.^

What
Plane

Theory of Number,

Geometry, Stereometry, Astronomy, Harmonics and Dialectic. We need not suppose that Plato was irrevocably committed to these particular studies he did what every great educational reformer must always do, adopted the leading scientific studies
:

Note on Rep. 518

c.

"

Ibid,

30

The

Vitality

of Platonism
life

of his day, and infused

and meaning into But I feel sure that Plato would never have them. surrendered the one great principle that the avenue to the knowledge of the Ideas leads through Mathefor inasmuch as Nature is matics to Dialectic

new

constructed by God according to mathematical laws he who would apprehend the ^609 ael yeojfjLeTpeL of Nature must travel through Mathematics truths to his goaP. I have elsewhere drawn attention to an

interesting and, as

think, important fact in con-

nexion with the influence of Plato's curriculum on the You are aware course of medieval academic study.
that the curriculum of our Universities used to consist

of a quadrivium and a trivium, the quadrivium

being Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. These four studies you will observe correspond to

Theory of Number, Plane Geometry, Stereometry, Astronomy and Harmonics: for Stereometry, as conceived by Plato,
Plato's five preliminary studies,
is

Academy had
be wrong
studies
in

Now the Platonic only a branch of Geometry. a continuous history till Justinian
we can hardly
was
still

closed the philosophic schools, and

supposing that the adoption of these

the

into

medieval

curriculum

directly or indirectly to the value attached to

by the Platonic

school.

But there

is

due them more

the

striking link cementing our Universities

with

Academy
B.C.
^

of Plato and even with the fourth century

In the medieval Universities those

See Adam, Religious TeacJiers of Greece^
vol.
ii.,

who were
f.;

p.

419

Republic

of Plato,

p.

168.

Educational currimlmn

31

duly qualified in the quadrivium and trivitim received

the
title

of bachelors or masters of Arts, because

Arithmetic, Geometry,

Astronomy and Music,

to-

gether with the studies of the trivium, were technically

called
is

Arts,

Now

the interesting point to

notice

that this use of the

word Arts

in

what

may call the academic sense, who speaks of Number or

Astronomy and Music
the mystic cap
is

actually occurs in Plato,

Arithmetic, Geometry,

as the so-called Arts.

When

placed upon your heads, making

you magistros or 7nagistras artium as the case may be, I ask you to remember that you are indebted to Plato, or the age in which he lived, for part at least of this high sounding and doubtless welldeserved
title.
I

theory as

have spoken of Plato's educational life on earth and But inasmuch as the faculty of nothing more. reason, which the teacher tries to cherish and foster, is immortal and divine, the horizon of the teacher is not limited by this transitory life. The soul, says Plato, takes nothing with it into the unseen world
far,
if it

So

affected our present

except

its

education\

Plato therefore "believes

that the teacher can influence the pupil for hereafter

as well as for

life

here,

and

that the soul which

is

once smitten with the love of truth

advance from knowledge to more knowledge throughout unnumbered lives and phases of existence " still to
still

may

come".

If
'

the seed appears for the

Fhaed. 107
D. vol.
ii.,

moment

to fall

Adam, Rep. of Plato,

p. 168.

32

The
soil,
it

Vitality

of Platonism

on barren
perchance
*'

the teacher
yet
'^

may

be comforted bloom to profit, otherwhere."

still
:

may

We

will not," says the Platonic Socrates, "relinquish

we either persuade Thrasyand the others, or make some progress in machus view of the life which is to come, when in another existence we may chance on topics such as these\" I think you will KaXoi^ TO a9\ov kol rj iXnU fieydXr) agree with me that such a theory of education upholds
our endeavour, until

to us a larger prospect than the usual application of the

term either

in ancient or in

to the familiar saying,

modern times. According some of us are born Platonists,

;

and the

rest Aristotelians

and the Aristotelian

will

probably think that here, as elsewhere, Plato soars

too high.

In reply to this objection, Plato would

if

probably say, and say with truth, that even

goal

the the

appears

to

some impossible

to

reach,

stimulus of a great though unattainable ideal

may

enable them to reach the limits of that to which they

ca7i attain.

Think of the heavenly pastures through

which the soul is led in looking for that untravelled And even if we refuse to follow Plato into land. these loftier regions of thought and speculation, his remarks on educational theory and method furnish many lessons for the guidance of teacher and pupil even within a narrower sphere. Among these I How does Plato will only mention two or three. conceive of the relationship between the teacher and
the taught
?

They
1

are

intellectual

partners

or

comrades

in

the search for knowledge.

J^eJ^.

The

teacher

498

D.

The goal and means of education

is

33
;

himself a learner, and the pupil a teacher

for

it is

from the contact of the two minds that truth or

Another lesson is that education is at once an intellectual and a moral revelation, the Trepiayojyrj of the whole nature of
to light.

knowledge springs

out of darkness into the pupil K cr/coTovs eh (f)m The ultimate goal of intellectual education, light.

according to Plato,
glorious

is

the knowledge of God, and

in assimilation to His image o/xotcjcrts 6eq) Kara to hvpaTou This is Plato's version of man's chief dvOp(o7T(ij\ Hardly less valuable and significant is Plato's end. view of education as the free and unconstrained development of the individual soul, and his conception of the means whereby this end can be attained stimulus, the shock of surprise and contradiction,

moral training culminates

the pleasure of discovery, generalisations prematurely

formed and
the

Q^ladlv

discarded in favour of

new and

Jater generalisations,

destined themselves to suffer

same

fate as the intellectual horizon

widens and
principles

expands.

These and many other kindred

of educational theory are frequently heralded as

new

discoveries of the present day, as for example by

Professor Armstrong,
ling

who

is

never weary of extolIn point

what

he calls the "heuristic" method.

all

of

fact,

they are

employment in abundandy illustrated throughout his dialogues. But we shall miss the most distinctive and essential
element
in Plato's

them found in Plato, and their the art and practice of education is
of

theory of education
^

if

we

seek to

Theaet. i-j^b.
z

A. E.

34

The
its

Vitality of

Platonism

range or isolate it from the rest of his Plato never loses sight of the whole philosophy.

narrow

when
is

treating of the part,

life
is
;

and education

in his

view

but a part of

as

life itself is

of eternity.

The
tot)
is

genius of Plato
okov KoX
fixed
jxkv

always reaching forth after

koL av6poiirivov^
all

7ravTo<; deiov re

"

his
"

gaze

upon
y^povov,
"

" all

time and

existence In

iravTo^

irda-Y)^

8e oucriag*.

the

words of

Goethe,
eternal

every utterance of Plato points to the

Ganzes
in

to

an eternal Unity or

Whole

ein ewig

''an eternal principle of

Goodness, Truth

and Beauty which he

every bosom-."

strives to quicken

and promote
in

In Plato's description of that

the prison-house of Athens
is

momentous scene
to

a scene
in

which there
history
:

no

parallel,

save only one,

human
toi<;

occur the touching and memorable words

eyojye,
ovTTOi
d)

aXX' olfiai
opecri kol

%(jJKpaTe<;, Tl rjkiov elvai iirl

''

Nay, Socrates, I think the sun is still upon the mountains, and has not yet set." In the considerations which I have put before you, I have hardly touched the fringe of a great and noble subject, but I hope that some of you may have at least begun to realise that Plato's sun still shines
SeSu/ceWil

upon the everlasting

^

hills.

Rep. 486

A.
iii.

Farbenlehre^

p.

141,

Weimar, 1893.

Fhaed. 116

e.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CELESTIAL ORIGIN OF THE SOUL FROM PINDAR TO PLATO
II.
Kttt

(TWfxa fxlv rrdvToiV eVtTai Oavdro) 7repnT0Vi,

S'

^ioov

en ActVcTat aiwvo? ctSwXov to yap

ivSu Bk
iv
Trpaa-crovTiov

iarn fiovov

K 0(j)V

/xcXcW, drap cvSoVrco-crtv

TToXXoU ovcipois
;>(a\7r(oi/

StiKVVdt Tp7rvo)V i<f>ep7roL(rav

re Kpiatv.

F iND AR,
Tke body of
but
alive

/ragnient 131 Bergk.

all-powerful deaths
living

all

men
yet

is

subject to

there

remains an image of the

that alone
is

man ; for
from
it

the gods.

It sleeps
to

when

the

limbs

are active,

but
revealeth

them that

sleep in

many a dream

an award of joy or sorrow draiving near.

propose
to

in

the present lecture to invite your

attention

part

of

remarkable

fragment
in

of

Pindar's dirges, preserved

solatio

by Plutarch

his

Con-

ad Apolloniu7n}.

It

has long been recognised

hitherto a stranger,
in

that the Pindaric dirges introduce us to a circle of

ideas to which

Greek poetry

is

although parallels are to be found

Orphic eschatothe fragments

logy and to a certain extent also

'

in

c.

35.

32

36

The Divine Origin of

the

Soul

of Heraclitus.

From whatever
did

source Pindar
out
of

may
and
inner

have derived
he certainly
to refine

his conception of the future world,

not

evolve
else,

it

his

consciousness and nothing

the

power of poetry
never
the

and purify

religious sentiment has

been

better

illustrated

than

by

poet

who

throughout his whole career believed himself the

chosen servant of Apollo, the god of religious and

prophetical as well as of poetical inspiration.
object,
beliefs
:

My

however,
it

is

not to discuss the origin of these

is

rather to trace from Pindar to Plato the

gradual development and progressive intellectualisa-

one of the beliefs contained in the particular fragment which I have put into your hands, and incidentally, perhaps, to remark upon its significance
tion of
in

connexion with later developments

in

Poetry,

Philosophy, and Religion.

word or two

is

necessary with reference to

have taken as the living man," means simply "life." Pindar is using the
the translation.
oXoiv,
I
'*

which

abstract for the concrete.

is

In

my

opinion

W.

Christ

grievously

wrong when he explains the word by

"
:

aevi sernpiterni, " eternity

alo^v is

never so used
*'

by Pindar.
"adjudge^":

In the last line Kpiaiv

means

adjudica-

tion," as Kpiv(ji in a

passage of the Pythians means

TOl% OVT V'dcTTOS O/V.WS

iTTtt/Wvos
v HvOlolSl KpiOiy.
festival,

"To
to

them,

at the

Pythian
"
:

no such glad return

home was adjudged

'

8. Zz.


Homeric
notion of sonl

37

but the specific reference in our fragment, as Boeckh

and other editors have pointed out, Is doubtless to the adjudication of joy and sorrow at the judgment Pindar recognises such a judgment in of the dead.
the second Olympian', and implicitly also In other

fragments of his
wicked.

OprjvoL- describing the

bliss

that

awaits the pious, and the torments in store for the

Anyone who
by side

reads the fragments of the

I

OprjvoL side

will agree,

think, that Kpicriv

is

to

in this way. Let us now turn our attention to the Ideas which We note to begin with Pindar's w^ords embody.

be understood

the survival of the old

as

Homeric notion of the

soul

The soul of shadow of the living self. appeared to Achilles in a Patroclus, you remember,
the
all

vision of the night, ''In

things like to the

man

himself, in stature and fair eyes

and

voice,

and the
there-

raiment on his body was the same^" So fore, we are entirely on Homeric ground.
rest of

far,

But the

the passage belongs to a stratum of Ideas which is unlike anything to be found In the Iliad or In the first place, the soul Is said to be of Odyssey.
divine descent
is
;

secondly, this kinship with the gods

for believing In immortality
decov,

cited

as a ground
icTTi

TO yap

ixovov

Ik

the

first

indication,

believe, in

Greek

literature of a definite

argument
developed

for this belief, such as Plato afterwards

in the

Phaedo
of the
59.

and thirdly, the fundamental Idea in day of judgment

'

the last two lines, the Idea of which the premonitory

vision
'

is

one particular
'

2.

130, 132, 133 Bergk.

11 23. 66.

38

The Divine Origin of

is

the

Soul

application,

that during

life,

so long as
is

awake and conscious, the

the body
to
is

soul

asleep,

we are but when

us

in

awakes and reveals visions of the night that which in our

laid to rest, the soul
see.
It
is

waking moments we cannot

soul,

the

first

of

these conceptions, that of the celestial origin of the

with whose development in Greek literature

to Plato
I

down

wish at present to deal

but

we

shall find that the other

up with
writers

it,

two ideas are closely bound and sometimes make their appearance in
the soul's divinity
as
in
is

by

whom

affirmed.

In

Pindar,

Heraclitus,

thinker with
besides
is
still,

whom
what
belief;

the poet has other points in

common

obscurity,
it

the celestial origin of the soul

a

primarily was,

predominantly religious
inter-

but

the

germs of a philosophical
discernible

pretation

are

already

when
it

the

poet
this

deliberately founds his faith in immortality

doctrine,

upon

and also when by means of

of
divination
in

he explains

the

possibility

during sleep.

The

particular idea involved

the latter part of the

in

passage before
of Plato
^

us,

reappears not only

in

the Republic

but also

an Aristotelian fragment, where

is

we

are told that "

it

whenever the soul

recovers
its

alone and by
is,

itself in sleep,

proper nature," that

''

of course,

its

celestial
"
;

nature,

prophesies the future-

and divines and and the same idea lies at

the root of the Stoic philosophy of divination.

is
it,

Nor
this

indeed,

unknown
IX.

in

modern psychological
in
^

thought.

Pindar's description of the soul

^

572

A.

Fr. 12.


Pindar and modern psychology
39

passage bears an obvious and striking resemblance

to

Mr

Myers' theory of the subconscious or subself,

liminal

which, according to the hypothesis of

is

Professor James,

the

medium
:

of communication

between the soul and that higher or transcendental region which he calls God nor did the analogy escape Mr Myers, for he chooses the Pindaric fragment as the heading of his chapter on Sleep\ In his Ingersoll lecture, again, Professor James

makes the existence of this subliminal self the basis of an argument for immortality, precisely as Pindar
says:
''for

this

alone

is

from the gods."

The

possibility

of a

philosophical
is also,
I

development of the
observe that here
it is

Pindaric notion

think, involved in another

will

passage of Pindar.
simply
y\ivyr\

You

much more that comes from sixth Nemean, however, after

claiming
tv

soul in the old

Homeric
the

sense, or not

gods.

In

the

emphatically pro-

the

original
6eo)v

unity

of

men and gods

suggests
that

dvSpcjT/,

yevos'

Pindar

perhaps the point

mortals
is
is

in

which we resemble the immind or reason {[xeyaf v6ov)\ And it

in
vov<;,

on the divinity of

rather than of

xjjvxv^

that

Greek philosophy, as we shall presently see, chiefly insists. This, and not simply the soul or xpvxyj, is
the philosophical version of that StocrSoro?
that god-given seed or
'

apxoi,

germ
i.

of

life

which Pindar

Hitman
6.
I.

Personality^ vol.

p. 121.

'^

agree with Professor Bury in his explanation of

these words.
2

Ibid. 5.

40
mentions

The Divine Origin of

in

the

Soul
It

would be absurd, of course, to attribute to a poet any rigid psychological nomenclature but no one denies that vov% in Pindar is predominantly, though not exclusively, an intellectual faculty' and in Greek
yet another fragment \
;

philosophy
is

itself,

even,

believe, in Stoicism, vov^

clear,

never the merely siccum lumen, the

cold

light,

which

ive

are sometimes in the habit of calling

is

reason.

The

dry soul, says Heraclitus,

:

the wisest

awi] ^r)pr) i/^fx^? croc^wrarT^

it

but,

we must remember,

was made of
is

fire.

In classical Greek lyric poetry, other than Pindar,

there

considering.

no certain trace of the ideas we are now The younger Melanippides, who died

perhaps about 413 B.C., has left a striking fragment of a prayer, addressed presumably to Dionysus^:
kXvOl
Savjxa
fipoTijJV,
fxoLj
u)

iranp,

tS? act^wov

"

Hear me,

Father, honoured of mortal men,

lord of the ever-living soul."

thou that
If the

art

whole of

this

poem had

survived,

it

is

possible

that

some

further light would be thrown

on the

subject of this lecture.

definite
soul,

Aeschylus has one or two

divine affinity of the

suggestions
in

of the

notably
137 Bergk.
Aios Toi

the passage where he speaks of the

'

v6o<s fxiyaq Kv^cpi/a, etc.,

Py^A.

5.

122; vavTa
d.

ta-avri

rou), tdi'd. 3.

29.

See Buchholz, Sittliche Weltanschauung

Find.

u.

Aesch. p. 24.
^

Fr. 6 Bergk.

The soul

in lyric poets

and tragedy

41

mind's eye as seeing clearly during sleep, whereas

in

the day

men

see not the future

yap
(f>pr]v

^}iOV(TO.

6/Xfxacnv \afXTrpvvTai,

iv yp-epa

Se /xotp' aVpo'cTKOTro? fSpoTwvK

The
also

notion underlying this passage,

and
is

think

passage

in

the Agamemiion-,

the

same
of
a
to

as

we have

already

found

in

the

fragments
is

Pindar and Aristotle.

certain

In sleep the soul

from the shackles of the body, and foresees the future by virtue of her
extent released
natural affinity with
this conception,

the gods.

In

harmony with

revelation

Aeschylus attaches great weight to by means of dreams and even when the
;

body
in

is

awake,

in

moments
in the

of ecstatic elevation,

such as he portrays

person of Cassandra, and

in

those dim forebodings of futurity that so often

the Oresteia, the

haunt the mind of the Chorus

soul appears to give proof of

her connexion with

is

the divine.

Nowhere
as
it

in

Aeschylus, however,

this

doctrine brought into relationship with

in

the belief
indeed,

immortality,
in
I

is

by Pindar

nor.

except

never,
more

recognising a judgment and punishments

believe, rewards

hereafter,

and

in

one

or two further details, do the eschatological pictures

of Aeschylus differ very

much from

those in
is

Homer,
I

except that the all-pervading gloom

intense.

deeper and
will

W^ith

regard to Sophocles,

only say that although

*

Dronke has

rightly called

Eum. 104
189
ff.

f.

a-rd^iL

h"

Iv d' lyrvoi kt\.

See Headlam

in C/.

Rei\ for

1903, p. 241.

42
attention

The Divine Origin of

to

the

Soul

certain

exquisite touches of religious

mysticism
\jjvxiJT^\

in his plays, for

example avrX

iivpLOJv fxiav

the particular subject

we

are

cannot
the case
In
is

be illustrated from him.

is

now discussing With Euripides

form
soul's divinity

different,

and we

shall find that the

which he expresses the Idea of the

of the highest interest and importance in conin

nexion with later philosophical thought

Greece.

But before we speak of Euripides himself, it Is necessary to say something about the sources of that distinctive type of theology with which in his plays and fragments the notion of man's relationship
to

God

is

associated.

In the age of Euripides, the concept of a creative

or world-forming
familiar to

Nous or Reason had been made Greek thought by Anaxagoras' epochtjv

making
together,

declaration, Travra xpyjixara

ofxov'

etra

vov(; lkdo}v avTOL Ste/coV/i-Tycre":

all things were them in order." Whether the creative vovs of Anaxagoras was a

"when
set

Reason came and

or
is Is

purely incorporeal

as

we should
still
it

say spiritual

substance or not,
this

a question

debated

but

much

at least

clear, that if
It

the material of which

was corporeal, was composed differed so

it
it

much from every

other kind of matter that

all.

did

not deserve to be called matter at

To

call

by

the question-begging epithet of ''thought-matter" or "thought-stuff," as Windelband does, throws no

light

upon

forced
^

my judgment and unnatural translation of the Greek

Its

nature, besides being in

O. C. 498.

ap. Diog. Laert.

11.

6.

TJie

Nous of Anaxagoras

43

word

1/0O9.

Gomperz

talks vaguely of ''a kind of

fluid or aether," a ''curious

reasoning

fluid," ''of

an

extremely refined and mobile materiality'." such suggestion appears to me incompatible with the well-known criticism in the Phaedo, where Plato characteristically blames Anaxagoras, because after

Every

announcing that Mind is the cause of everything, he made little or no use of this great principle in explaining the constitution of the Universe, but had
recourse to "airs and aethers and waters and many The opposition in this other such absurdities'."

passage between N'ous on the one hand, and the "airs and aethers" on the other, tells strongly against the identification of Nous with any substance
of the kind

and, indeed, according to Anaxagoras himself, air and aether are among the substances which ASCIIS originally separated off from the
;

primeval mixture or chaos'. to discuss the matter here

:

It
I

is

impossible fully

will

only say that

agree with

Heinze' and Arleth' in holding that Anaxagoras probably intended us to understand by A"o2is an incorporeal essence, although in the absence of an accepted philosophical terminology he failed
to

make
two

the

new

idea absolutely clear.

in

There are
Anaxagoras'
to

still

points

connexion

with

theory of which
'

my

subject requires

me

remind

Greek

T/iin ke rs (E.T.), 1216, 1217.

c.

Phaedo 98

=*

*
'

Fr. 2 Diels {Fragmente der Vorsokratiker). Ueber d. Nov? d. Afiaxagoras (Leipzig, 1890).

Archivf. Gesch.

d.

Philos. viii. 461

if.

44
you.
is

^/^^

Divine Origin of the Soul

The

world-ordering Reason which he describes

its

transcendent rather than immanent, although

In certain things
vov'^
is

immanence
ofo-t

not denied

ecrrti^

8e

Acal

evL\

And

finally,

although this

N'ous possesses

many

of the

attributes

and

dis-

charges

many

of the functions which later philo-

sophy ascribed to the Deity, Anaxagoras in his extant fragments nowhere calls it God. Turn now for a little to the fragments of Diogenes of Apollonia, who lived in Athens during
philosophy
B.C., and whose more than a revision of the physical theory of Anaximenes In the light

the latter part of the

is

fifth

century

in

effect

little

of

Anaxagoras' theory of
only
particular

Mind.
or

The primary
all

substance, says Diogenes, of which

other things
is

are

forms

differentiations,

and strong and eternal and immortal and possessed of much knowledge " {noWa etSos ea-nY, being able " to preserve the measures of all things, winter and summer, night and day, rains and winds and sunny weather^" " By means of Air," he says in another fragment, "all are steered and over all For this very thing seems to me Air has power. God" {avTo yap jxoi rovro deos So/cel ^IvaiY, "and I believe that it reaches to everything and disposes
''great

everything and^is present

in

everything. ...There are

many forms
in

of living creatures

many
In

in

number,

resembling one another neither

appearance nor

way
^

of

life

nor in intelligence owing to the

-

Fr. II Diels.
^0?
is

J^r.

8 Diels.
iOo^.

Fr. 3 Diels.

Usener's certain emendation for


Diogenes of Apollonia
multitude of differentiations
;

"

45
all

but yet they

live

and see and hear by virtue of the same element, and all of them too derive their intelligence from The Air within us, that is, our the same source^"
reason,

Diogenes called a
Tov
first
Oeov)''.

'*

little

part

of

God

(ixLKpoi^ fjLopLou

From
in

these extracts you

will see in

the

place that Diogenes materializes

the

the

pov<;

of

Anaxagoras
avTO
that

element of Air
So/cet

secondly, that he expressly identifies this noetic Air

with

God
thirdly,

yap
this

jxoi

tovto 9eo<;
noetic

eTvai
is

and

divine

Air

not

transcendent, but only

immanent

an
own

all-pervading

cosmic Deity, like the \6yos of the Stoics.

I

have treated thus

briefly of

Anaxagoras and
account,
as

Diooenes not so much on

their

because of the light which they throw on certain

highly characteristic passages of Euripides.

The

ancients were fond of calling Euripides the "philoBrowning, I think, shews sopher upon the stage."
truer insight

when he makes him

incline to poetize

say,

'I

philosophy";

and
In

it

is

with

this

poetical
I

interpretation

of the
to deal.

doctrine of Diogenes that

now proceed
especially

discussing

poetry,

more

dramatic

poetry,

we must
"

of course be mindful of Browning's

indignant protest,
Which Once
of you did I enable
to slip inside

my

breast,

There

to catalogue
I

What
1

like

and label least, what love best?'

'

Fr.

5.

Dials- p. 331.

3.

46

The Divine Origin of the Soul

ancient poet has suffered so
in

No

much

as Euripides

both

his

own
I

Hfetime and afterwards from the

vulgar species of gallery criticism that hisses the

stage-villain.

may
reflect

nevertheless

be allowed to

express
to

my

personal belief that the passages about

be discussed
to

a tone of feeling peculiarly

congenial

the
will

great

poet of

humanity,

for

reason which

afterwards appear.

Let us now consider some of the passages in question. We have seen that Diogenes identifies
the all-pervading Air with God.

To

this

theory

Euripides has an allusion in the famous prayer of

Hecabe

in

the

Troades^

ocTTis 7T0T

et

avj SvcTTOTraaTO's eiScvai,

Zcvs,

fiT

uvayKYj (^vcreog, cire vovs jSpoTwv,

iravra

7rpoar]V^dfxy]v cr^'
[iaivdiv

yap

Sl

d\p6fj>ov

KeXevOov Kara

Slkyjv to.

OvrjT

ayts

"

Earth's upholder, throned

upon the Earth,"

etc.

Anaximenes, the philosophical master of Diogenes, taught that the earth "rides upon the air" (eVoxetTat Ta> dept), and also that ''just as our Soul, which is Air, holds us together, so also breath and Air encompass the whole Universe^" You will remember that Plato, too, in speaking of this theory, compares the i\ir to a ^dOpov or pedestal For the most part, however, supporting the earth I when Euripides writes in this vein, it is Aether and In a poet, of course, not Air which he calls Zeus.
for
^

'

884 ff. Phaedo 99

-^

Diels p. 22

^ 6,

25

2.

b.

The Aether

in Etiritides

47

we ought
these

not to expect a clear distinction between

concepts,

two
the

although

already differentiated them.

prefers

Euripides,

Anaxagoras had no doubt,

word ''Aether" partly as having a greater wealth of poetical and religious associations Thus in one fragment' we read than '\\ir."
yata
/xeyto-T?;

koX Aio? AlOijp

" Mightiest Earth

and Aether of Zeus

"

Aether "home of Zeus," though Euripides sometimes describes the element Zeus's Aether," the Aether in in that way, but just which Zeus consists, the Aether of which Zeus is
that
is,

believe,

not

''

made, in no respect different from Zeus himself. The remainder of the fragment clearly shews that

Zeus

is

here

identified
''

with

Aether.

'^^ether,"
;

continues the poet,

is

the father of

men and gods

and Earth receives into her of dewy drops, and bears mortal men, aye, and But the most food, and the tribes of wild beasts."
characteristic
tion
is

womb

the falling rain

example

in

Euripides of this identifica:

contained in the well-known lines

opas Tov
v\j/ov

revs' aTretpov alO^pa

;

Kal yrjv Trept^ i)(pv&' vypal% Iv ayKciAais

TovTOV vo/xt^ Zyjva, rovS rjyov Oiov^

thus translated by ^Ir

Way

"Seest thou the boundless ether there on high That folds the earth around with dewy arms? This deem thou Zeus, this reckon one with God."
1 -

839 Nauck^.
Fr.
941.
Cf.

877

aA/V

alBrjp

tiktu

ae,

KOpa,

Zcvs

os

aV^pOJTTOtS

6l'0{J.d^TaL,

48

The Divine Origin of

is

the

Soul

more than a touch of what W. K. CHfford called ''cosmic emotion" in these verses. Nowhere, however, does ancient literature furnish a more
There
perfect

expression

of

cosmic

feeling

or

finer

example of the poetical treatment of a philosophical conception than we meet with in a less known
fragment of Euripides descriptive of the aetherial creative reason indwelling in the world
:

ere

Tov avTOcfiVu, tov iv alOiptio

pvfx^ia TToivToiv <^v(TLV fXTrXi ^av $',

bv

TTcpt fXv

<f>(j}'5f

iripi

8'

op^vaia
aarpoiv

vv^ alo\6xp(J^S, aKpiTos t

o;)(Xos

O'SeXc^^ws dfxcf>i)(opVL^.

"Thee,

self-begotten,

who

in ether rolled

Ceaselessly round, by mystic links dost bind

The nature of all things, whom veils enfold Of light, of dark night flecked with gleams of gold, Of star-hosts dancing round thee without end."

Mr Way,

to

whom

this translation

is

due, justly
:

compares the familiar

lines of

Wordsworth
"I have
felt

presence that disturbs

;

me

with the joy

Of elevated thoughts a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.

And And

the round ocean,

and the

living air.

the blue sky, and in the

spirit
all

mind
all

of

man

motion and a
rolls

that impels

All thinking things,

objects of

thought,

And

through

all

things."

We

may

say,

think, that in this all-pervading

all
'

spirit, ''the

soul of

the worlds," as he sometimes

593 Nauck-.

Euripides and Wordsworth

calls
it,

49

Wordsworth

finds

unity of Nature

the true and essential

it

embraces, as Euripides would

all

have

said,

the "nature of
as

things,"
light

"Even

one essence of pervading

Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars

And

the

Couched

meek worm that feeds in the dewy grass."

her lonely lamp

between Euripides and Wordsworth is here complete and in Virgil, too, we have exactly
parallel
;

The

the

same conception

deum namque

ire

per

omnes

terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum'.

Some may be
others
will
;

disposed
it

to

call

this

philosophy,

and others, perhaps, religion but in truth it is only one particular way of trying to express that omnipresent unity which poetry and religion make us feel, which science also presupposes, and which it is perhaps the ultimate
call

poetry,

goal of a philosophy of the sciences

believed

it

was
in

to
I

Plato, at least,

demonstrate and
it

apprehend.

But to return.
notice
that
this

think
of

is

deserving of particular
three

each

the

poets

have

named,
is

kind of poetical pantheism, or Natureit

mysticism, as

may more

appropriately be called,

accompanied not only by a deeper sense of the unity between man and nature, but also by a human weal and woe" profounder sympathy with It was a true than we readily find elsewhere.
'*

instinct that
'

prompted Tennyson
4.

to put together in

Georgics

221

f.

also in Ae/ieid 6.

724

ff.

A. E.

50

The Divine Origin of

the

Soul

a single stanza these two characteristics of Virgil's

poetry

"Thou
Thou

that seest Universal

Nature moved by Universal Mind;

majestic in thy sadness

At the doubtful doom of human kind."

The power inherent in Nature dwells also ''in the mind of man," so that the link which binds us to
the one
unites

us also

to

the

other.

You

will

remember
in all

that the later Stoics expressly founded

their doctrine of

human brotherhood on
all

the presence

men
and

of the koivo% \6yos, or universal reason

things, mingling with the

that "

moves through
lesser

great

lights\"

Marcus Aurelius,

for

example, reminds us that man's brotherhood with

mankind depends not on blood, or the generative but on community in mind (vov kolvcji/lo) each man's mind, he says, is God and an efflux from God" and God is ef? Sta iravToiv /cat ovcria "one God, one essence stretching through all fjiia,
all

seed,

things"',"

present in Nature as well as in man.

of Euripides
is

The

humanism

not an intellectual dogma,

;

but the language of the heart

yet

it is

would rather say it is the operation of a law of nature that the most profoundly human of tragedians should have been the author of the
I

mere accident

more than a

greatest

nature-drama

of

antiquity,

mean,

of

course, the Bacchae.

So

far,

have spoken only of the peculiar kind

^

Hymn
XII. 26.

of Cleanthes

2
3

f.

"

yjj

attire-mysticism,

of Euripides
is

51

of poetical theology which

sometimes found in That which Pindar calls " the gods" Euripides. has become, under the TO yap ian jiovov eV Sewv influence, perhaps, of Diogenes, an immanent, all-

embracing aetherial substance designated by the name of Zeus. Let us now turn from the divine to the human, and consider one or two of those passages in which the poet has in view the doctrine The fragment most of man's affinity to God.

commonly
is

cited

by the ancients

in this

connexion

the line
6 vovs ya/j
qfx<2v

iariv iv cKatrro) ^os^.

is

"The

reason in each one of us

is

God."'

Our

first

impression

sentiment as that of

we have here the same Mind is that culmiDante,

that
*'

nating and most precious part of the soul, which is If we look closer, however, we shall see Deity-."
that

the

emphasis

is

on

vov<;

and not on
;

Oe6<;

Euripides means there is no God but reason and This is so the line was explained by Nemesius.
not mysticism, but rationalism, in the sense in which In the word is used in '' Euripides the rationalist."
the prayer of

Hecabe
lt

it

is

difficult to

say whether
etre
z^'ous

the

/SpoTwv ''Zeus,

words
of

Zev?,

avdyKr)

(f)vcro<;,

mind
the

whether thou art Nature's law or man" are meant to be understood in

rationalistic

or in

the

mystical
the

sense.

Per-

haps the
seeing
^

latter interpretation is

more probable,
spoken
K. Hillard.

that
1

Hecabe
'

has

already
c.
ii,

of

Fr. 10

8.

Convito Hi.

tr.

42

52

The Divine Origin of the Soul

in

Zeus

language

suggested

by

the

theory

of
is

Diogenes, according to which the mind of

man

a form of that universally diffused aerial substance

which Diogenes holds to be God.

the two alternatives avdyK-q
(jyucreos

I do not think and t/ov<; /SpoTOJv

are intended to be rigidly construed

if

Zeus, as
is

Hecabe
at

implies,

is

omnipresent Air or Aether, he

and the m.ind of on the last line Kara *' whatever Zeus may be, the hiK-qv Ta OvTjT dyeis sceptre of his kingdom," Hecabe means, ''is justice." But interpret this passage as we may, the doctrine of the kinship between the mind of man and the
man.

once the law of Nature an Democritus and the Atomists

is

allusion,

think, to

The

real

emphasis
:

cosmic mind or aether

lines of the Helena.

is

clearly involved
is

The speaker

whose

character, as
is

Mr

Pearson says,

two Theonoe, to '*an element

in

of mysticism

appropriate."
6 vov%

T(3v

KttT^aVOVTOl/ t^ fxlv OV, yUOJfXqV

8'

)^L

dddvarov, ds dOdvarov alOep

i/jLTreawv^.

"Albeit the mind

Of

the dead live not, deathless consciousness

Still

hath

it,

when

in

deathless aether

merged ^"
a

Here, of course,
the well-known

we have nothing

but

highly

philosophised interpretation of the idea underlying

fifth -century
:

who
'

fell

at

Potidaea
their
ff.

and earth
^

epitaph on the Athenians Aether received their souls, by the gates of Potidaea bodies
"
:

Hel I0I4

Way's translation (substituting

"

mind

" for

''

soul

").

Phenomena of
they were
slain'/'

life

mid death
is

53
the

In the background there

theory, derived,

no doubt, from Anaxagoras, that

the

absokite creation and absolute destruction have no

place in the
call
life

economy of nature

phenomena we

and

and death are only the temporary union subsequent dissolution of pre-existing and

imperishable elements.

The

bearing of this theory

on anthropology

is

thus expressed by Euripides in a

I
*'
:

fragment to which

have already referred All things go back whence they came that which was born of Earth to Earth, and that which sprang from the seed of Aether returns to the firmament of
:

Heaven \"
it

You
as
in

will further notice that in

Euripides

is

not,

the epitaph,
aetherial

^v)(f\,

but vov%, that

returns

to

the

element.

Elsewhere,

in

agreement with Epicharmus (if the fragments are really by Epicharmus^), he calls the divine element in man the element that rejoins the aether by the

name

of nvevixa,
TTvevfxa fxiv Trpo? alOipa

TO

<T<jJjJ.a

8'

CIS

yV^^'

It is interesting in this

connexion to observe that

vov<;

each of these two terms,

a

and

wvevfia, occupies

somewhat analogous

position

not

only

in

the

psychology of Stoicism, but also

St Paul, according to
the TTvevixa,
''is

in the writings

of

whom
it

the highest part of us,

its affinity

what

is

by virtue of

to

God^" "an element,"

'

as

Dr Swete
^ "

has said, '*correFr. 839.

C.I.A.

I.

442.

^ ^

245, 265 Kaibel.

SuppL 533
p. 196.

f.

Sanday and Headlam, Ro7nans,

54

The Divine Origin of

the

Soul

spending to the Divine Spirit and fitted to be the sphere of His operations \" while vov%, in the words of another theologian, is in St Paul just " the nvevfxa operative as a faculty of knowledge directed toward Divine things^" In Euripides, perhaps, it may be

doubted whether

Trvevfxa

really

means much more

in this

than ''breath"; but vov^ certainly does, and

respect there seems to

me

a real analogy between

thinker.
is

the

Greek

and

Christian

Still

more

characteristically

philosophical

the
life

distinction

w^hich the poet here sciousness.

draws between
is

and conin aether,

The
lives,

mind,
that

when reabsorbed
to say,
it it

no longer

has no personal

or individual existence, but

nevertheless shares in
spirit.

the consciousness belonging to the universal

The

passage

we

are

now

discussing

is,

believe,
literature

the earliest explicit affirmation in

Greek

of the kind of cosmic immortality which Aristotle

ascribes
to

his

vov<;

Aurelius also had

'*

in

noLrjTLKo^, and which Marcus view when he wrote the words

in

You

will

disappear
reason

or rather you will be

his generative

him who gave you being changed and reabsorbed into

{jxaKKop Se dvaKrj(j)Oy](Tr)

"

eh

Tov \6yov avTov

tov (nrepjJiaTLKov

Kara

fxeTa/SoXrjvy.

and religious value of this conception depends on the extent to which it emphasises the
ethical

The

prospect

of reunion with

the divine,

rather than

the consequent extinction of our individuality.

To
could

what heights of almost

^

ecstatic
ii.

enthusiasm
p.

it

Hastings, Dictio?iary of the Bible,

409

a.
-

Findlay in Hastings,

Lc. in. p.

720

b.

iv.

14.


Cosmic immortality
55

sometimes

lift

the

poet

may be

seen

from an

extraordinary fragment which would probably have

been denounced as a Neoplatonic forgery, if it had not been referred to by Plutarch as well as quoted

by Clement

"

Upon my back

sprout golden wings

my

feet are fitted with the

:

winged sandals of the

firmament
I

Sirens

and

shall soar to the aetherial

to unite with

Zeus

"

Zy]v\ 7rpo(rfJii^(oi/\

think

it

probable that Zeus

d6dvaTo<;
alOrjp

in this

fragment stands
Euripides

for the

with

which

elsewhere

identifies the god.

In an exhaustive discussion of Euripides' treat-

ment of the subject before

take account of
of those
in

us,

w^e should

have

to

many other

passages, and particularly

w^hich

he alludes to the Orphic and

is

Pythagorean view that the body

or

the prison-house

tomb
I

of the soul
think, in

crco/xa crrjfia-.

But

it

is

prefer-

able,

to

what remains of my allotted time, draw your attention, first, to one or two traces of

the doctrine of the soul's divinity in the discourses

of the historical Socrates, and afterwards to the part

which

this doctrine plays in the

philosophy of Plato.

The

central idea of Socrates' teaching has justly

;

been called Noocracy

things to establish w^as

what he desired above the rule of Reason alike

all

in

the individual and in the state.

In like manner,

according to Xenophon, he sometimes represented

the
in

Godhead
the world
'

as the reason or
(17

wisdom indwelling

eV

Traprl

^povqaisy^
'

No

doubt

Fr. ^11.

/>-.

638, 833.

Afem.

I.

4.

17.

56

The Divine Origin of

the

Soul

Socrates himself developed the notion on practical

rather than theoretical lines, using
it

as a motive to

encourage piety, by dwelling on the unwearied zeal with which this cosmic intelligence consults the for his teleology is almost paininterests of man

fully anthropocentric

but there

is

none the

less a

analogy between the Socratic conception and the philosophical theory we have been discussing. And in at least one passage of the Memorabilia
real

Socrates definitely suggests that the

itself

human mind

is

only a portion of the world-informing Reason,

which,

Xenophon, he occasionally to God. Xenophon is relating a conversation between Socrates and Aristodemus, and has reached the point at which the young man,
according
identified with to ridicule the belief in

though originally disposed

gods,
is

constrained to allow that there

argument from design. says Socrates, "do you suppose that you have a little wisdom yourself, and yet that there is no
force in the

some little "Well now,"

is

wisdom to be found elsewhere ? And that, too, when you know that you have in your body only a
small

fragment of the mighty earth, and a

extending
little bit

little

portion of the great waters, and of the other ele-

ments,

far

and wide,

you received,

suppose, a

of each towards the framing of

your body? Mind alone, forsooth" vovv 8e apa adds Socrates, sarcastically, "which is noixovov where to be found, you seem by some lucky chance In or other to have snatched up from nowhere \"

Mem,

I.

4. 8.


Socrates
its

and

the divinity of the soul

57

full

significance, the implication contained in this

is

concluding sentence

that the soul or rather the

mind
or

{yov<;)

of

man

is,

as the Stoics said, a fragment

;

oLTTOcnraa-fJLa
is

of the universal

the doctrine

mind or God but not elsewhere touched upon by the

Memoradi/ia,
at
least
in

Socrates

of

the

this

particular form, although there

is one other passage where he pronounces the soul to be divined The speech of the dying Cyrus in the Cyropaedia of Xenophon supplies some additional examples of the type of thought which I am trying to illustrate, and in particular makes the doctrine of the divinity of soul into an argument for immortality and divinaIn words that irresistibly recall the Phaedo of tion. Plato, Cyrus expresses a disposition to believe that

the
the

soul,

or

rather

the

vov%

or

reason,

survives

moment

of death, and

being then pure and

\

uncontaminated by communion with the body attains a measure of intelliaKpaTo<; kol KaOapos

beyond what it has hitherto enjoyed. body dissolves, its component factors, Cyrus says, return to the elements with which they and what of the soul ? We cannot see are akin but neither do we see it while it it as it passes, Presumably therefore this we the body. .animates
gence
far

When

the

;are left to infer

:

the

soul likewise, in virtue of

its

divinity, returns to the divine.

is is

Yet another reason

is

given by Cyrus for supposing that our intelligence

heightened after death.

Mem.

In sleep, which
the
soul

the

image

and counterpart of death,

^

most

See

iv. 3. 14.

58
fully

The Divine Origin of the Soul

realises
its

kinship with

the

Godhead, and

penetrates the veil that usually hides from us the

and the explanation is that during sleep more than at any other time the soul is freed from the dominion of the body\ For the origin of these and similar views, which only make explicit what is already implicit in the fragment of Pindar, we must
future
;

doubtless look to the Pythagorean doctrine of the

body

as the sepulchre of the soul

is
I

but what
possible

wish

to suggest

that

it

is
it

perfectly

for

my
the
this

own
way.

part

think

highly

probable

that
in

historical

Socrates

sometimes
is

conversed

The Cyropaedia
;

permeated, of course, by

Socratic ideas and in this instance the parallel between Xenophon and Plato is in favour, so far
as
it

goes, of the presence in their

common

master

of a similar strain or tendency of thought. are such ideas otherwise than in

Nor
the

harmony with

temperament of Socrates. Although no one ever served the cause of Reason better, he was not, in any narrow acceptation of the word, a "rationalist" pure and simple. His susceptibility to the influence of dreams, attested both by Xenophon and Plato his faith in oracles; those frequent "pauses of immobility," during which he would stand for hours
;

together, as

Gellius says,

''

inconnivens,

immobilis,

eisdem in

vestigiis,

tanquam quodani

secessn mentis

atgne animi facto a corp07'e^''\ and, above

intimate
^

all, the sign or " voice," the pledge and symbol of divine

his

relationship
19
f.

to

God
'

for

these
11.

and

CyroJ>. VIII. 7.

Nodes

Ait,

i.

Religious rationalism of Socrates

other features

59

we must seek

analogies in the history,

It is

not of rationaHsm, but of reHgion.

I

impossible,

think, to understand the historical Socrates without

taking account of the religious as well as of the but the link rationalistic elements in his character
;

that unites the

two

is

contained
:

in the doctrine that

Reason

is itself

divine

to

yap iart

fxovov

e/c

deojv.

From

Socrates

we now

pass to Plato.

It

would

require a treatise to give any adequate idea of the extent to which this doctrine penetrates nearly the

whole of Plato's teaching from beginning to end of his long career, and I can hardly even attempt to

shew you how, beyond

other Platonic doctrines, ages, not it has made Platonism live throughout the only in poetry, philosophy, and theology, but also,
all

perhaps, in
is

human

lives.

The most

that

can do

mention one or two different ways in which Plato expresses his belief in man's affinity with the divine, and to indicate a few of the principal
to

implications of the theory in Platonisip, with

some

remarks on

its

connexion with later religious and

analogy
in

philosophical thought.

The

nearest

Plato to the kind of

cosmic deity of earlier and later Greek philosophy Philelms' is of course the soul of the world in the

and Timaeus''

but in Plato,

need hardly
it

say, the

world-soul differs from the

immanent Godhead
is

of

Diogenes and the

immaterial
or

Stoics,

inasmuch as

a purely

spiritual

essence.

In the Philebus

Plato derives the

'

human

soul from the soul of the

28 c

ff.

34 c

ff.

6o
world
;

The Divine Origin of

and the
train

the Soul

of reasoning
is

by which he

supports this derivation

only a more developed

and expanded form of the argument employed by Socrates in his conversation with Aristodemus\
But the conception of a cosmic soul, at least in this particular shape, is absent from the earlier dialogues of Plato and even in the Timaeiis the human soul, or rather the rational and noetic part of it, is not, as in the Philebus, dependent for its origin upon the
;

soul

of the world,
directly

but,

like

the world-soul

itself,

comes

from the supreme

God
say,

or Demiurgus.

'^As concerning the sovereign part of soul within

us," says Plato, " that

which we

and say

truly,

dwells at the top of the body and raises us from

earth towards our heavenly kindred, forasmuch as

we

are a heavenly and not an earthly plant

^vtov

ovK iyyecov,

dW

ovpaviov

we ought

to believe that

God
is,

has given

it

to each of us as a dae7non-y' that

lives, in

a genius or guardian angel to direct our

it

the beautiful phrase of Menander, as

lkV(nojyoiyo%

were our
I

tov ^lov^.

It

is

in

this

passage,

believe, that

we should seek
to

the origin of the view

later Stoics, that the

so

much

insisted

upon by the

faculty of reason,

quote the words of Marcus

Aurelius,

is

just the Saifxajv, ov iKdcTco TrpocrTdT-qv

KoX rjyefJLOva 6 Zev? iScoKev, aTTOcnracrixa iavTov, "the

genius, which Zeus has bestowed on every man, to
1

29 A

ff.

T/m. 90

A.

uTTavTL SatfxoiV dvSpi (rvfiirapia-raraL

vBv'5 yevojjievoi,

/xvcrraytoyos toO (3lov.

Meiiieke

iv. p.

238,

Fusion of religion and metaphysics in Plato

6i

be a ruler and guide, even a fragment of himself." In other Platonic dialogues the form of expression is metaphysical rather than theological, though here,
too,

owing

to the characteristically Platonic

is
I

fusion

of theology and metaphysics, there

still

a certain
say,

colouring of theology, or perhaps

religion.

had better
its
''

In the Republic the soul in

its

essential,

that

is,

rational nature,

is

said to be

akin to the
is

divine and immortal and ever-existent'," that the changeless and eternal essence which Plato
;

to

calls

and in the Phaedo we read that whenthe Ideas ever the soul and by the soul in this dialogue he means z^ous whenever the soul makes use of the body and its senses in any investigation, "she is

dragged by the body into the region of the changeable, and like the objects she is fain to grasp, this way and that she wanders, confused and dizzy like But when she investigates a subject a drunkard. by herself, away she soars into the realm beyond, to join the pure and eternal and immortal and
unchangeable, and, because she
is

of their kindred,

with them she ever dwells as often as it is permitted her to be alone; and then she no longer wanders, but changes not, because she is in contact with the
changeless'."

You

will

see from this passage that

although the doctrine of the soul's celestial origin

has
is

now been
of

intellectualised, its religious

meaning

not yet

lost.

passages

Plato,

For and they are very numerous,

"

the nearest parallel to such

we must
'

look to the Paradiso of Dante.

V. 27.
-

Thou

611

E.

79 C

ff.

62

The Divine Origin of

the

Son I
all

shouldest know," says Beatrice, "that

have their delight in proportion as their sight sinks deep into that Truth wherein every intellect finds rest\" I say no more at present about the manifold

ways
yap

in

which the

infinite variety of Plato's

genius

gives expression to the old Pindaric sentiment, to

icTTL jxovov

eK Oeojv.

Before, however, touching on

let

the applications of the doctrine in Platonism,

call your attention to a

me

new and

historically fruitful

idea with which Plato enriches this ancient belief.

The
to

question as to the essential meaning of the

word man
be

what human had

human.

it is

which we are said hardly as yet been raised by

in virtue of
it

Greek philosophy.
specifically

In the view of Plato,

is

just

the presence of this divine element that

Man

intended
is

he most resembles God. in two passages of the Republic.

makes us most truly man whenj This suggestion is clearly^

is

The

first

where Plato is describing how the true legislative will endeavour to model the character and Looking lives of men after the image of the divine.
artist

now

at

natural,

that
is

is,

ideal

natural in
Justice

Plato

always the ideal

observe how Beauty

at

the

and

and Temperance, and now

is

the

actual

picture he

painting, he will, says Plato, blend and

minofle institutions, like so

manv

colours,

until

he

has obtained to apSpeiKeXov, the colour and complexion of true

manhood

and he

will

found his idea

it

of the avSpeLKekov on that which,

when

eippears

among men, Homer

'

himself called ^eoetSe? re Kal

28.

Canto

106

ff.

Manlike equivalent
0oeLK\op\

to

Godlike

63
Godlike.

The

Manlike,

in short, is the in
it

The second passage occurs parison of human nature as

chimaera
a or

the elaborate com-

now

is

to a kind of

triple-headed

creature,

wearing
its

the
folds

vesture of humanity, and comprising within

many-headed monster, symbolical of desire, a lion, symbolical of spirit, and withal what Plato, in language made familiar to us by St Paul, declares
to

be the

"

inward

man

"

(6

ii>To<?

avO po}7ro^)'\

in

other words the vov^ or

then, Plato asks, shall

Reason.

What
?

account,

we give
in

of virtue

We

will

say

that

virtue

consists

bringing

the

bestial

elements

and the ape imq subjection to the human, "or rather," he continues, "shall we say, tci the Divine " (rw avOpoiTrco, fxaXXov
lion
lacos

the

Toj

9eL0))\

The

suggestion that
is

man

is

truly
after;

>

human

just in proportion as he

divine

was

wards taken up by Aristotle and the Stoics^ and no one can fail to see its hitherto unexhausted, perhaps for ever inexhaustible, significance in "It would seem," says Aristotle, " that religion.
this
"

"is
^

meaning
actually

the divine or rational part of

the
"

man

self"

(Sofete

av

Kal cTvau

inasmuch as it is the supreme and better part of man." The implication in the
eKao-To^

TovToY,

^vinxiyvvvn'i
0.17

re

kol

KepavvvvT<i

K o
St}

twv

eTrtTT/Scv/xaTcuv

to

avhpLK\ov,
ev

Ktvov TKfxaLp6fXvoL,

KOI "Ofxrjpo^; cKciAccrev

kol

TOiS
B.
-

dvOpojTroiS

yyLyv6p,iov

^eoetSes re

OiouK^Xov Rep.

501
^
"

589 See

A.

(for

the Stoics)
7. 9.

e.g.

' 589 D. Marc. Aur.

xir. 3.

Eth. Nic. X.

64

The Divine Origin of

the

Soul
Is

epithet ''better," that the

existent,
is

good alone

the truly

not less Platonic than the pregnant and

powerful phrase in which the pupil of Plato points the moral lesson of this and all his master's teaching
ec^'

odov ivBex^Tai, aBavaTiiuv, "put

Consider

on the immortal,

as far as in thee lies."

now some

of the implications of this

theory

in

Platonism.

Since

man

is

by nature akin

to the divine, the end and object of his existence must of necessity be o/xotaxrt? tco 6eco, "assimilation to

God":
life

the

fullest

possible

realisation

in

this

mortal
truly
TO)

of that immortal nature which alone can

be called our own. The doctrine of o/xotcocrts Oe^ plays a conspicuous part in the teaching of "It
is

Plato.
not, as

some have

God," he says in the Laws', "and asserted, man, who ought to be,

to us the universal

measure or standard."

This

is

the dominating motive throughout nearly the whole of Plato's polemic against Homer in the second and! the Homeric gods are third books of the Republic to be discarded because they do not provide a moral
:

mankind Euripides, you remember, had the same idea, and so had Xenophanes before him and this is also the principle of the reformed
ideal for
:

theology which
in

Plato

is

desirous of inaugurating
political application,

his ideal

state.

In

its

the

o/xoiojcrt?

^w means the establishment of a kingdom

:

of righteousness upon earth

for St/caiocrui/r; in the

Republic
ness,

is

not really a specific virtue, but righteousroot

the

and source of
^

all

the

individual

716

c.


The kingdom of righteousness
virtues, the virtue

65

about which Aristotle \ quoting

says that " neither the
star
Is

a fragment of Euripides*,

morning

nor

the

evening
Is

so

beautiful."

Plato in the Republic

looking for a civitas dei

earth,
kv oX%

ZiKaioavvy) KaTOLKeV and indeed, as the argument unfolds itself, we behold the originally "Hellenic city" gradually changing into a celestial commonwealth,
a
:

new heavens and

new

a Trapdheiyjxa ev ovpapo), as

Plato himself at last

confesses
If

it

to be*.

we

limit

our survey to the progress towards

the
individual

perfection
political
is

of

man

and

In

Plato

always founded upon

I

private virtue
realisation

we may

say,

think,
his

that the

by the
is

Individual

of

true

and

Immortal

nature

described by Plato from three main points of view.

In the Phaedo it appears as the iieXir-q davdrov, the "study" or rather "rehearsal of death," the mortification of our lower nature for the sake of reviving

the higher, dying, in short, that

germ

of this conception

is

of

we may live. course much

I

The
older

than Plato, as he himself points out.

a single illustration from Heraclitus.
In

will

quote

Both living and In our death for when we live our souls are dead and burled in us, and when we die our souls revive and live^" And the Orphic and Pythagorean religious discipline was already to a certain extent a practical Illustra-

"

and dying are present

our

life

'

Ei/i. Nic. V.
2 Pet.
iii.

I.

15.

2
*

^^Q Dindorf
Rep. 470
e,

cf.

Xauck- 4S6.

^
'

13.

592

b.

ap. Sext.
A. E.

Emp.

Fyrrli. in. 230.

66
tion

The Divuie Origin of

of the
Platonic
in

the

Soul
will

precept.

You

observe/

however, that

the fragment of Heraclitus ''we"

means rather the body than the soul, whereas in Plato, as we have seen, the true personality is the and it is the life of vov% while still imprisoned vov% in the body that the Platonic meditatio mortis is
:

intended to resuscitate.

The

soul of the lover of

wisdom, says Plato, ''withholds herself from pleasures and desires and pains and fears so far as she is
able
will
"
;

for

she knows that every

new indulgence
far

add

to the chains

from which she longs to be

from the
ivOivhe
to

released'. must fly away yonder, world of sense and sensual things
:

We
:

y^pr]
is

iKelcre

(fyevyeiv

and the way of

in

flight

grow
and
"

like

unto

God
the

righteousness,

holiness,

observe

characteristic
ixeXerr)

addition

in

wisdom\;\

davdrov or "rehearsal of death has often been compared with the Pauline doctrine
of A^ecrosis, but the parallel deserves, I think, an even closer examination than it has yet received. There is hardly any subject of investigation which invites and permits one to turn so clear a light upon the points of contrast as well as similarity between Platonic and Pauline thought. One such
lies in the predominandy intellectual or rather noetic character of the aspiration expressed

The

Platonic

contrast

in Plato's " rehearsal of death."

say predominandy
so.

intellectual,

for

it

is

by no means exclusively
Plato.
b.

What Mr Netdeship
in

has said of Greek philosophy

general
'

is

pre-eminendy true of
ff.

"We

Phaedo 82 c

xheaet 176

'

Doctrine of rehearsal of death

67

say that Greek moral philosophy, as compared with

modern, lays great stress on knowledge and gives excessive importance to intellect. That impression
arises

mainly from the

to

fact that

we

are struck by the

constant recurrence of intellectual terminology, and

omit

notice

that

reason or intellect

is

aKvays

conceived of as having to do with the good.

is

Reason

having a moral being. ...Their words

Greek thinkers the very condition of man's for reason and rational cover to a great extent the ground which is covered by words like spirit,' spiritual,' and ideal in our philosophy. They would have said that man is a rational being, where we should say that he is
to
' ' '

a spiritual being\"
of Reason, in Plato,

In this way,

believe, the

life

becomes not only

is

intellectual,

but also something akin to what

spiritual
life
:

afterwards called

for in

Platonism, as the Cambridge

it

Platonists

were fond of saying,

is

always Reason

which
that
I

is

the ''candle of the Lord."

At

the

same

time the contrast holds good, with the qualification

second and closely between St Paul's Necrosis and Plato's iiekiriq OavaTov is to be found in the strain of asceticism in the Phaedo, though

have mentioned.
point
of

related

difference

here again the exercise of vov^ brings pleasures of

its

own,
;

the

truest
is

and
the

purest

pleasures,

Plato

says

and Gomperz
touched
it.

right in saying that although

Weltfiucht

soul

of

Plato,

it

never

enchained

But the
Lectures

really

fundamental contrast
n. p. 221.

and Remains^

68

The Divine. Origin of

the

Soul

has already been pointed out by Matthew Arnold\ I will venture to put it in a single phrase of St Paul,
a phrase that as
if

by the touch of some heavenly

alchemy
religion:

at

once transforms a philosophy into a

cLTrodavCiv

avv

Xpt/rroJ.

\6yov

e^ct?,

says Marcus Aurelius,

TO

eavTov
:

ttolovptos,

tl

ovv ov XP^' '^'ovtov yap "thou hast dXXo OikeLS'

;

reason

why

then not use

dost

it ?

If reason
?

does

its

work, what else

thou

require

"

St

Paul's

avv XpiaTO) supplies the something else the driving power which has made the Platonic fxeXeTr) davdrov
an inexhaustible source of moral inspiration throughout the ages.

The second
in

of the two aspects in which

is

Plato

represents this great idea

that

which

is

developed

the Sympositmi and elsewhere.

is

adoration in that dialogue

of which

not so

The object of much the primal

Beauty
alike

Goodness, as the primal Beauty, the divine

Plato says that
it

is

ever-existent,

uncreated and imperishable, knowing neither increase

nor decay, beautiful always and everywhere and
all

in

relations
call

and respects
it,

and

all

other

things

which we

beautiful are beautiful because they

participate in

yet in such a

way

that although

beautiful particulars

come

into being

and
all I

perish, the

Ideal Beauty nevertheless suffers no diminution nor

increase nor change of any kind at

of the soul in the

The path
;

Symposium

leads upwards from

the lovely things of earth to those of heaven

^

we

St Paul a?id Protestantism,

13.
^

p. 53. ed.
f.

1889.

Mv.

211 A


Doctrine of Ideal Beauty

69

should use the former as inava^aOiioL or steppingstones, passing first from one to all fair bodies, next

from corporeal beauty to the beauty of institutions and from institutions to sciences, until we arrive at
the study of Ideal Beauty, and at last perceive the

and essential nature^ "Suppose," concludes Diotima, "suppose it were granted to one to behold the Beautiful itself, pure and clear and unadulterated, not tainted by human flesh or colours which man has made, or any other of the countless vanities of mortal life, but the Divine beauty as it stands in its simplicity and isolation do you think it would be an ignoble life that we should gaze thereon and ever contemplate that Beauty and hold communion with it ? Or rather do you not think that in this communion only is it possible for a man, beholding the Beautiful with the organ wherewith
Beautiful in
its

true

alone

it

can be seen, to beget, not images of virtue

but

realities,
is

munion

which he holds comnot an image, but the truth, and having

for

that with

begotten and nourished true virtue to become the

friend of

God and
to

be immortal,

if

ever mortal has

of
is

attained

immortality-."
is

The
life

contemplation

the Ideal Beauty

in

Plato

nay

more,

it

"eternal life"

ipravOa rov ^iov, etnep

ttov olWoOl,

^lOiTov dpdpcoTTcp, deoi^evoj avTo to Ka\6v\

the side of Platonism which has appealed in

to the religious mystic, the poet,
its

This is all ages

and the

artist.

Of

influence

in

religious

mysticism, the

Bampton
211 D.

lectures

of

Mr

Inge

will

supply you with many

212
A.
'

^2IlEf.

"211 D

yo
examples
perhaps,

The Divine Origin of

;

the

Soul
exponent,
also
;

In

sculpture,

Its

greatest

Is

Michael
the

Angelo,
idea

whose sonnets
of

bear witness to the fervour of his Platonism

In

poetry,

central

the

and Symposhim,
in

expressed by one of the Cambridge Platonists

the lines
"All streams of Beauty here below

Do
And
In poetry,
I

from that immense Ocean

flow,

thither they should lead again^":

say, this great conception Inspires the

whole
"

of

Dante's Diviiie

Comedy,
the

and

finds

fit

utterance In

many
with

single passages of the Paradiso,

The

leaves

which
I

all

garden of the

eternal

Gardener blooms,
to
"

love in measure of the

good

transmitted
:

them from him-."

It

And

In

another canto
so

Behold now the height and amplihath

tude of the Eternal Worth, seeing

itself

made
perfect
is

many

mirrors

in

which

it

breaks, while

remaining one

in itself, as

before^"

more

expression of the essential content of Platonism

Thirdly,

not to be found In the writings of Plato himself

the

ascent
is

of

the soul

towards the

fountain of her being

represented by Plato as

an educational process the pursuit of knowledge. This is unquestionably the most characteristic and
fruitful

point of view from which

:

he regards the
ultl-

matter
^

indeed

it

is

the point of view which

in

John Norris (quoted by Harrison, Platonism

Par. 26. 64
ff.

English

Poetry, p. 86).
^
^

Cf. especially // Convito, iv. c. 12.

Par. 29. 142

ft'.


Doctrine of education
mately includes and embraces
every
all

71

the others.
is

In

human

creature,

he holds^ there

present

first an organ whose preservation is of more importance than a thousand eyes since by it alone Truth is seen\ This faculty, "the vision and

from the

the faculty divine,"

to nurture

it

is

the business of the educator

to instil into his pupils

and develop, not

:

from without

for

"to know Rather consists

in

opening out a way

By which the imprisoned splendour may escape Than in effecting entry for a Hght
Supposed
to

be without."

The

principle enunciated in these lines determines

Plato's educational

the whole of
riculum.

method and
is

cur-

In earlier years the object

to bring the

mind

into unconscious

harmony with the beauty of

in Plato's
"

reason through the influence of Poetry and Art, the

proper function of which,

is

way

of thinking,
ttjv

to

"

track out the beautiful

lyy^vtiv

tov

KaXov

(f)-ucrLv'-

as

it

is

manifested in nature, in the

human

form, and in the works and characters of

this

men, and embody

and

this alone in the material

with which they deal. Later, when the reasoning powers begin to awaken, the discipline becomes
severely intellectual,

only such

studies

being adthe eye

mitted as are able, in Platonic phrase, to purge and

revivify
{^eKKaOatpeLV re
:

/cat
is

aval^ojirvpeiv^)

of the soul

but Plato

careful to insist that the

rational faculty can never be turned from darkness

^

Rep. 527

E.

'

Rep. 401

c.

ReJ>.

527

d.

72
to
light

The Divine Origin of

unless

the

Soul

the
it

turned along with

whole nature of the man is and one of the incidental

;

results of the higher curriculum

is

to strengthen the

moral discipline of youth by disclosing the bed-rock

of reason on which philosophic
nature,
it

was founded.

In the truly
it

according to

Plato,

is

the

auwr

intellectualis, the passion for truth, not this or

all

that portion of truth, but

truth,
all

everywhere and

always, that

is

the source of

the moral virtues

courage and high-mindedness, temperance, too In the last analysis, justice, kindness and the rest'.
morality, in
Plato,
is

the love of Truth.

By

the
is

ladder of the mathematical sciences, or as Plato

already

originating, as

call them, "arts" in this have elsewhere tried to shew, our modern academic usage of the word the mind slowly and laboriously climbs upward into the kingdom of realities for we must get behind and above mathematics, behind every other single science, if we are really to attain to knowledge, as the word is understood by Plato. To this elevation we rise by what he calls Dialectic, in the view of Plato the science of sciences, above and beyond all other sciences, even as its final object, the Idea of the Good, determines all the other Ideas. If we

beginning to
I

may
is

try to

interpret

Plato's

dream
it is

like the

language of to-day, and

nearer to fulfilment
say,
is

something a dream which

in in his time,

little

now than
the

we may

perhaps, that

ultimate

goal

of

knowledge

not

even then attained when each

1

Rep. 485 A

ff.


Plato
s

dialectic

73

particular science has at last

its

combined and correlated

supreme

several

classes

of

phenomena under adequate

the o.px^ or first Something more than this

generalisations and these again under one

generalisation which

will constitute

principle of the science.

is

needed, something like the ideal which a recent writer had in view when he suggested that "in

another age.
relating to

all

the branches of knowledge, whether

or

God
^

man

or nature, will

become the

knowledge of and all thino-s, like the stars in heaven, will shed The first principles their light upon one another \" of the several sciences must in their turn be correlated with one another and themselves subsumed under the first principle of all, which in Plato Is
the
It is only then that the philosopher Good. becomes "a spectator of all time and all existence,"

the revelation of a single science,'

only then that he recognises the essential unity of knowledge and understands in the fullest sense

observe
science

how

poetry

again

comes

to

the

aid

of

understands

how
world
is

"The whole round

Bound by

every way

gold chains about the feet of God."

And the weapon to be employed throughout the whole

of this enquiry
is

not the intuitive, but the analytic

and discursive intellect, whose province it is by patient and laborious investigation to demonstrate that Unity, in which the intuitive Intellect, by reason of its affinity thereto, has always and everywhere found rest.
^

Jowett, Plato

II.

p. 25.

74

The Divine Origin of

the
his

Sou/
conception of

The
Good,
have
is

dialectic

of

Plato,

like

an

ideal,

and
it

as such unattainable, perhaps,

ov TrpaKTov ovSe ktyjtov avOpcnTTco,

said.

Aristotle
to

might
us

Well,

is

Plato's

way
in
is

make
veil."

"breathe

worlds

To which

the heaven of heavens

but a

And
it is,

if
I

we

consider his dialectic simply as an ideal,

venture to think, the kind of ideal for which,

looking

apart from idiosyncrasies of thought and language,

philosophy
of which,

is

still,

towards the realisation

part, in

if

we

believe in the unity of knowledge,

every investigator does his

a sphere, whether he

studies

man

however humble or nature, and

whether he succeeds or fails, if only he is actuated by the love of truth. It is false to say that such an
ideal
is

useless because

it

lies

beyond our present

they

powers.

Some men

are so constituted that

need the stimulus of the unattainable to make them reach the utmost limits of that to which they can
attain.

And
I

in point of fact,
it

knew
its

an Ideal, as Plato well

believe

to

be the meaning of the one

great paradox of the Ideal theory

an Ideal is from very nature immanent as well as transcendent, always being realised in the progress we make

towards

it.

Already we "know
|

in

part":

e/c

fiepov^

yLvo)a-KOfxev\

we climb the hill of knowledge in' this life, the nearer we come to that transcendent Unity call it by what name you will,
higher

The

the Absolute, or God, or Nature

I

for all

our names

Cor.

xiii. 9.

Plato
are but a

hope of ultimate perfection

75

shadow of the Truth wherein ''are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." But to Plato this life is not all it is only a single The Platonic doctrine of stage upon our journey. immortality holds out the hope of a continuous
:

advance throughout a

series of lives until at last

knowledge
to

is

made

perfect.

With

perfect

know-

ledge, too, comes perfect goodness or "assimilation

God

"

for

knowledge

in

Plato transforms the

moral as well as the intellectual nature, and the Form of Good, which is the source of knowledge,
is

also the fountain of virtue.

And

in Plato as in

Pindar, the ultimate proof of immortality

that lies deeper than
all

the proof
is

his

arguments and yet

to

heard throughout them all is

the kinship of the

human
6ea)v.

soul with the divine

,

yap ia-n
_

fxovov eV

In the speech delivered by St Paul before the council of the Areopagus, the doctrine which the
apostle declares to be the

common meeting-ground
is

of Greek and Christian thought

just the doctrine

which

have

tried to explain

and

illustrate

through-

out this lecture.

and move and have our being as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring " tov yap I have endeavoured to shew you Kal yivo<; eV/xeV. that St Paul might with equal truth have added *'and as certain of your own philosophers have said": and I have tried to put before you what I

"In him we

live

believe the doctrine really

means

alike in

Poetry

and

in

Philosophy.

The

all-embracing

and yet

yS

The Divine Origin of

**

the

Soul
live

all-transcending unity, In which

we

and move

and have our being" Is just that ultimate reality which Religion, Philosophy and Poetry, each in
its

own language

Sv(rT67racrTo<; elSevau

remember, are trying

is

ocrrts

ttot'

el

av,
to

now and always

;

interpret to the

human

Intellect or heart

and the

doctrine of man's relationship to that great unity

Tov yap KOL yvo<; ia/xev

not the fading echo of a

"dead philosophy": it Is still, what Plato the ever-living watchword of idealism.

made

it,

In conclusion, I would ask you to link the present with the past by adding to the passages
I

have discussed the not

less

noble verses of our

greatest living poet, himself a scholar In the highest or creative meaning of the word
:

"Mother of man's
Breath of his

time-travelling generations,

nostrils,

heart-blood of his heart,

all

God above
Light above

all

gods worshipped by

nations,
art.

light,

law beyond law thou

Thy
The

face

is

as a

sword smiting

in

sunder
iron things

Shadows and chains and dreams and

sea
is

Silent,

All old gray histories hiding thy clear features,

******
the skies are narrower than thy wings.

dumb

before thy face, the thunder

secret spirit

and sovereign,

all

men's

tales,

Creeds woven of

men

thy children and thy creatures

They have woven

for vestures of thee

and

for veils.

Thine hands, without election or exemption, Feed all men fainting from false peace or strife, O thou the resurrection and redemption, The godhead and the manhood and the life\"
^

Swinburne, Mafer triumphalis.

III.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE

LOGOS IN HERACLITUS^

history

There are few questions appertaining to the of ancient philosophy which have been more widely and warmly debated than the meaning By the ancients of the word Xoyos in Heraclitus. cosmic reason it was understood to mean reason diffused, present both in nature and in universally

man, not of
identical with

course

one

incorporeal

entity,

but

the ever-living, ever-thinking

fire

TTvp (f)p6vLiJiov deit^ojov

which constitutes the change:

less

because ever-changing reality of things

and

this KOLvos

\6yo^ or universal reason was held to

In other words, if the be synonymous with God. ancients are to be trusted, the Heraclitean concept of Logos does not really differ from the Stoic, except that on
fire, its

material side,

Logos

is

in

Heraclitus

whereas, according to the strictest Stoic defiit

nition,
'

is

aether.

The

ancient interpretation has

Greek Philosophy

[The references

to Professor Burnet's ar/}'

are given according to the pages of the second edition except

where otherwise stated but his translations are quoted from the first edition, which alone was published in the lifetime of James
;

Adam, and

the variations in the second edition are noted.]

78

The Logos

in

Herachtus

been followed by many exponents of Heracllteanism In modern times, such as Bernays, Patin, Teichmliller,
and, with certain reservations,
a different view.
Zeller
;

but others

example, have taken Heinze denies that the attribute of intelligence or it is thought belongs to the Heraclitean Logos merely what he calls " objective reason," or law, the universal reason manifested in the development of the world, a principle destitute of anything analogous to consciousness or personality and Professor
for
:

Thus,

Burnet goes so

far as to maintain, if

understand
is

him

rightly,

that

the

Logos-doctrine

entirely

word Logos, in the relevant passages of Heraclitus, meaning only ''argument" or ''discourse." It is unnecessary to say more by way of shewing that this is one of those subjects on which doctors disagree and I have selected it as the theme of my discourse, not so much with the hope of convincing others, as with the desire of
Stoic,

the

being

fortified in

my own

opinion
I

by
that,

or
my

the reverse

the discussion which

trust

paper

will

provoke.
It will

conduce
in

to clearness
I

if I

say at the outset

as at present advised,

believe the ancients

were right

regarding the Heraclitean Logos as

virtually identical with the Stoic, although the Stoic

theory was of course far more fully developed and

elaborated in detail.

The

question

"What

does

Heraclitus?"
nation of the

can

be settled

only

Logos mean in by an examiis

fragments.

Other evidence

ad-

Meaning of Heraclitean Logos

missible,

79

but

only by

way

of supplementing

and

confirming the results to which the fragments point;

and

will therefore confine myself,

in the first in-

stance, to Heraclitus'

own
it

words.

The word

\6yQ% occurs in six of the fragments.

is

In at least one of these

used

in

the ordinary

untechnical sense
iTTTOTjcrdai c^tXeet
:

/8A.af avOpojiros

inl Travrl Xoyco

is

"a
it

foolish person

wont

to

be

excited

at

every discoursed"
is

In

another muchsay whether the

Sta^eerat koL
fjv
rj

disputed fragment

difficult to
:

word

is

technical
?

or not

ddkacrcra

(jieTpeeTai

top avTov \6yov okoIos Trpoad^v

is

yeviadai tyrjt'^ "the sea

poured out and meatjv

sured

9 Tov
if

avrov Xoyov oKolos

(with Eusebius)

before
yi],

it

became
it

earth," or

we omit
this

"before
four,

came
one

into
side,

existence."
let

Leaving

fragment on
in

us

consider the

remaining
to

three of which at least

special meaning.
first

Logos appears
is

have a

The
:

first

the fragment placed

by i\Ir Bywater in all probability it was the opening sentence of the book^: ovk ifiev dWa tov

Xoyov aKovcrapTas oixoXoyieiv cro(f)6p icTTL, ev rrdvTa dvai\ "having hearkened not to me, but to the
Logos,
one."
^

it

is

wise
true

to

confess

that

all

things

are

It

is

that

Hippolytus writes Soy/xaro?

of the different views entertained
p.

117 Bywater.
23.

summary

of

some

on

this

passage will be found in Patrick's Heraclitus^

116.

For

Burnet's view see Early Greek Philosophy', p. 148.

^^

There

is

nothing in Arist. Rhet.

:

111.

1407^ 14

to contradict

this supposition

for the

words

ei'

tyj

apxV

o.vtov tov crvyypafxixaTO^

need not mean "

in the first sentence."

8o
instead
of

The Logos
Xoyov
:

in Heraclitus

emendation has been accepted by all subsequent commentators, and the word Soy/xa does not occur till at least a
but

Bernays'

On this fragment I will add that Professor Burnet's translation, "It is wise to hearken not to me but my argument\" involves an antithesis which, though intelligible enough, is only partial, and scarcely
century after Heraclitus.
at present only

adequate,
sentence,

think,

to the prophetic fervour of the

if

particularly

these

words

began

the
:

book.
that
is,

''

Hearken not unto me, but

is

to the

Logos"

it

not

I,

Heraclitus,

who

speak, nor any-

thing that has to do with me, such as

my
:

argument,
I

but the Logos that speaks through

mouthpiece of the Logos, and that Here, as elsewhere, you to hear, not me, but it. Heraclitus speaks as if he believed himself to be " The Sibyl," you remember, inspired. with frenzied mouth, uttering words unsmiling, unadorned,
''

me am the is why I call on

and unanointed, reaches with her voice throughout

a thousand years by reason of the god"."

The second fragment seems

immediately on the
709 atel
OLKOvcraL
TTavTOiv
first,

to

have followed

tov Se \6yQv rouS' eoVrj

d^vveroL ylvovrai dvOpoiTTOi Kal Trpocrdev

Kat
aKovcroLvre^; to Trpcorov.
yivoixivctiv

yap

Kara
koL

tov

\6yov
koI

Tovhe
epyojp

dneLpoLCTL
TOLOVTeoJV
/caret

ioLKacn
okolcop
/cat

TreLpajfjiepoL

ineajv

iyoj

hLTjyevfiai,

hiaipicov

eKacTOv
ttoUovctl,

(jyvaiv

(j)pdl^ojv

oKios

^X^^'

'^ovs Be dkXovs dvOpdjrrov^ \av-

6dpL

oKoaa
^

eyep64vTe<;

OKOxjnep
-

o/coVa

[In ed. 2 ''to

my Word. "J

12.


Fragments relating
^vhovT(.%
to the

Logos
is

8i

iTTiKavQavovTCki.

''

This

Logos
it

always

existent, but

men

fail
it,

to

understand

both before

and when they have heard it for the first time. For, although all things happen according to (or rather by way of) this Logos, men seem as if they had no acquaintance with it when they make acquaintance with such works and words
they have heard
as
I

expound, dividing each thing according to

its

nature,

and explaining how

"
is

it

really

is.

The
all

rest

that to say, presumably, except Heraclitus, who professes to have read the riddle of the Universe "are unconscious of what they do
of mankind

when they

are awake, just as they forget what they

do when asleep^"

The
crai

first

sentence

tov

Se

\6yov rouS' i6vTo%

rj

atei d^vvTOL

ylvovrai avOpcoiroL kol Trpocrdev

olkov-

KOI

aKovcravTe^ to npajTov
"

is

thus translated

by Burnet.
more, yet
they hear
it

Though

this discourse- is true everit

men
at

are as unable to understand

when
have
*'is

for the first time as before the)'

all."
I

heard

it

No

doubt iovros can mean

true'^":

but

submit that the expression "is true

"
it

evermore,"

if

evermore
is

"

means anything, would

false.

suggest that

possible for truth to be some-

times true and sometimes

In point of

fact,

according to Professor Burnet's view, the adverb

adds nothing to iovTo^

ipso facto
^

if

a discourse
is

is

true,

it

is

always
-

true.
2

It

not like

Heraclitus

2.

[In ed.

''Word.^']

[Burnet

/.

f.'

p.

146, says that in Ionic ewv

means "true
6

when coupled
A. E.

with words like A.oyos.]

82
to waste

The Logos
his words.

in Hcraclitus

The

interpretation which

advocate gives its full and proper meaning to old. The Being or Entity which Heraclitus calls \oyos
the
tent,

Logos

that speaks through

him
:

is
is

ever-exis-

uncreated and imperishable

;

that

what the
the

philosopher means
" ever-living "

and we may compare not only

irvp
is

what he says himself about the

Fire that
''

deit^coov,

was and

and

shall

be

always\" but also the manifest echo of iovTos aid

in the
roiv

hymn

of Cleanthes

ciV^' eVa yiyvecrdaL irdv-

one Logos
Kal

\6yov alkv iovra^ "so that all things form Consider next what is ever-existent.''

involved in the words d^vveToi yivovrai dvOpconoL

TTpoaOev

y)

a/coucrat

Ka\

aKovcrai/Tes

to

TTpcoTov.

Professor

Burnet translates:
it

*'men are
it

as unable to understand

when they hear

it

for

the

first

time as before they have heard

at all "
rj

but the two

members

of the clause koI TTpocrdev

TrpciiTov
is

aKovcraL and koL aKovcravTes to

are equally

important
that the

in

the Greek, and there

no indication
to

first

should be subordinated to the second

is
'*

the natural translation the

men

fail

understand

Logos both before they have heard it, and when It is clear they have heard it for the first time." that Heraclitus is blaming his fellow-men for not understanding the Logos before as well as after he expounds it and the censure is virtually repeated in the next line: *'men seem as if they had no experience of the Logos dTrdpoidi ioiKacn when
:

they

make acquaintance
^

with
^

my
line 21.

account of

it."

20.

Discussion of frag^nents

83

And
to

such a censure

is

unjustified
it

and meaningless

unless Heraclitus believed

possible for his readers

apprehend the Logos otherwise than through the The lesson, Heraclitus seems to say, is one ear. it that he who runs may read is present in our daily life and conversation but men are altogether sunk in spiritual and intellectual slumber: ''they know as little of what they are doing when awake As he as they remember what they do in sleep." complains elsewhere, they speak and act ''as if they
; ;

were asleep^": they "do not understand the things with which they meet, nor when they are taught do they have knowledge of them, although they think
they have'."

They

are at variance with that with

intercourse', being

which they
for

live in

most continual

unable, in short, to interpret their

own

experience,

"eyes and ears are bad witnesses to those who have barbarian souls*." Now what is that "with which men live in most continual intercourse" (w This fragment is /xaXto-ra SiT^i^e/cew? 6/>LtXeouo-i)'? preserved by Marcus Aurelius', whose words are
as
TOL

follows

w ixaXiaTa

hi'qveKm^ o^iikovcri Xoyco toj

hia(\>ipovTai.

6\a hiOLKovPTL TovTco

Bywater

at-

tributes to

Marcus the whole expression Xoyoj rw Diels, on the other hand, while ra oka Blolkovptl. rightly holding Marcus responsible for rw ra oXa hiOLKovpTL, believes that Xoyw is due to Heraclitus
:

84
(p

The Logos
^akiorra
hi'qvKi(xi<;

in Heraclitus
\oya>, tovto)
Stat^e-

ofXiXeovcrL

povTaiK

For
;

my own
in

part,

am

disposed to agree

any case, that HeracHtus was thinking of the Logos may be in part inferred from what has been already said, and will appear more
with Diels
but,

clearly in the sequel.

It

w^ould

seem

then

that

the

Logos, whose

is something of have experience, even before we which we already It is, moreover, read its message in the book. "everything happens universal in its operation: according to this Logos " ycvoixevcov yap iravTcov Are we to suppose then that Kara rov \6yov rovhe. the Logos is only as it were the universal law prevailing throughout the realm of nature and humanity, what Heinze calls objective reason, devoid of active rationality or thought ? Nothing has yet been said to exclude such a view and /caret rov \6yov Tovhe. "in accordance with this Logos" might seem at first

prophet Heraclitus claims to be,

to favour

it.

The

phrase

/car

epiv,

however, occuriravra /car cpiv

ring in other fragments of Heraclitus

yiveaOai^
well

shews that
''

/cara, in

Heraclitus,

may

very

mean

by way

of," "

through," without implying

it

the negation of activity in the noun

Strife, in

governs

for

Heraclitus,

is

admittedly something active.

And when we
in

consider one of the other fragments

is

which the Logos

named, we
I

shall find reason

is

for believing that the Heraclitean

Logos

possessed
:

of intelligence.
rov \6yov

The fragment
-'

refer to runs thus

o)<s

S' iovro'^
^

^vvov, t^ojovai ol iroWol

46
:

ISltjv

72 Diels.

cf.

62.

Universality of the Logos

typvT^^ <^p6vy)(jiv
:

85
is

" although the

Logos

universal,

most men
of their

live as if

they had a private intelligence

Heraclitus' inveterate

own\"

If

we remember

tendency to antithesis and balance we cannot escape the conclusion that the koivo% \6yo<;, which he here opposes to a fictitious ISia (jypci^rjo-Ls, is itself (j)p6vr)a-L^
too
:

so that the kolvo^ Xoyo^ in Heraclitus, or

is

among

the Stoics,
indeed,

rational,

and

thinks.

Professor Burnet,

substitutes tov

pronounces tov koyov to be corrupt, and (f)poyeLi' on the strength of another

:

fragment to which I will presently refer alleging that " the kolvos Xoyos of the Stoics accounts for the
change-": but no one,
this petitio p7'incipii.
I

think, has followed

him

in

With one

exception, which
all

Vv'ill

shortly be

men-

tioned, these are

the fragments in which \Qyo% has

an apparently technical sense. The provisional conwe have reached is that the Logos, according to Heraclitus, is eternal and universal immanent alike in nature and in man and that it is endowed
clusion

with the attribute of thought.

The one remaining

Priene lived Bias, son

fragment

is

that in which Heraclitus pays a compli" In

ment

to Bias of Priene.

of Teutamas, ov rrXeoiv \6yo<; q rojv dWcjv^." This does not mean, ''who is of more account than the
>

92.
/.c.^

p.

140.

[In ed.

2, p.

153 Burnet begins the fragment

vii.

with Sio

Set Tre(r6aL to)

^j/w from Sex. Adv. Math.

133 and

attributes toC Xoyov Se ovros ^vvov (which he

now

reads) to the Stoic

interpreter

whom

Sextus

is

following.]

86
rest," as

The Logos
Burnet takes

in Heraclitus
less

it*: still

is

Dr

Patrick right:

"whose word was worth more than

nor yet should

that of others-":

we

translate

(with

Diels

fr.

59)

"von dem mehr die Rede ist als von den anderen." Heraclitus means simply that Bias had more of the Logos the universal and eternal Logos in him

than the other teachers^ of the Greeks, Pythagoras,

for instance,

who iTToirjcre

iojvTov

aro(l)i7]P,

7To\vixa6ir}v,

learning

KaKorexy'^W ''made a wisdom of his own, a heap of and a heap of mischieP." It is natural

enough that one who looked upon himself as the listen not to me, but to the vehicle of the Logos " should attribute an exceptional measure of Logos the same inspiration to the man v/ho forestalled him

''

in

the characteristically Heraclitean sentiment

ot

Let us now consider some of the other fragments which appear to throw light upon the nature of the Logos, without, however, mentioning it by name.

"There is but one wisdom," says Heraclitus, '*to know the knowledge by which all things are steered
through
orocpov,

all":

tv to

o'0(j}6vf

eTrtcrracr^ai yv(x)ixr)v,

y
to

Kv/BepvaTai iravTa 8ta rrdvTOiv^. as

I

The words

tv

understand them, are directed against

the multiplicity of private and particular ''wisdoms,"

put forward by Heraclitus' predecessors, such as

Hesiod,
'

Pythagoras, Xenophanes and

2

Hecataeus,

p.

154.

/^ p

JO,

Patin, Heraklifs Einheitskhre^ p.

56,

comes near
Bk

to this

suggestion, without exactly

*

making

it.

17.

Ciwn,

TToWol KUKoii oXtyoL

dyaOoL

19.


Fragments illustrating
the

Logos
it

87
is

whom

he vituperates

In

fragment 16; but

with

the second part of the sentence that

we

are chiefly
all

concerned.

What
to pass

is

the

yvoi^Li)
?

''by which
"

things

are steered through all"

Remembering

that ''all
yivo\kiv(Mv

things

come
in

by way of the Logos

yap

TTavTOiv

Kara rov \6yov roVSe

we

can hardly be
yvo)iL'iq

wrong

identifying with the

:

Logos the

by

which all things are steered from which, of course, The it follows that the Logos yiyvaxTKeL "knows." also seem to be omniscience of the Logos would
implied
in

the impressive sentence

"Who
fxrj

can escape
hvvop
Trore

from that which

TTO)?

never sets?"
for
it

to

dv

TL? XolOol';
is

that

Heraclitus

{aeiCoJov)

Logos.
8'

can hardly be doubted here thinking of the never-dying have seen moreover, that the

We

Logos

in

Heraclitus
i6pTo<;

is

common

or universal

^vv6<;'

Tov \6yov

^vvov,
things

etc.
is

Now

in

another
ro

well-known fragment thought

be

expressly said to
Ictti

common

to

all

^vov

iradi

(j)poviLv\

In strict logic,

of course, this would

:

not establish the identity of the two conceptions

but Heraclitus
that fui/oV
is

is

not a logician, and

one of his favourite believe that (i)povieiv and Xoyo?, to each of which he
assigns the property of ^worr}^,

we remember catch-words we may

if

were

in

point of fact

inseparably connected
I

in his

mind.

will

now

invite

the fragments in

you to consider one or two of which the philosopher speaks of

If fire in Heraclitus
is

the world-forming
as
it

fire.

only

were the material embodiment

1

of Logos,

we

27.

'

91-

88
shall

The Logos
expect to find

i7i

Heraclitus
far

supposing we are right so

rationality also to this
fairly

that he attributes

element.

The fragments which may

us in identifying the

be held to justify
fire

Logos with
Is

are two

in

number.

In

fragment

20 we read of the "ever-

living fire," that

"was and
same

and

shall

be always/'

Identical with the world-order or cosmos.

PresumIs
:

ably this

is

the

as the \6yo% which always

Tov Se \6yov rovS' kovro^ aleiK

The second
all

frag-

ment speaks of the thunderbolt as steering

TOL

things

Se TTOLVja
is

olaKL^ei

Kpavv6<;".

of course,

only an oracular
parallel to this
:

The name for

In

thunderbolt,
fire
;

and we

have an exact

fragment
"there

the sentence

already quoted

ev to cro(f)6v,

iTricrTacrOai yvoiynqv
is

Kv/BepvoLTaL TTavra Sta TrdvToiv

but one wisall

dom,

to

know

the knowledge by which

all."

things are

have seen that this yvoy^jLiq Is the Logos, so that the fire which steers all things is itself the Logos. And the metaphor in olaKL^eL clearly presupposes the rationality of that which steers the world. The connexion of intelligence with the warm dry element of fire appears moreover in the psychological fragments of Heraclitus.

steered through

Now we

"The dry parched

xjjvxrj

soul

Is

wisest and best"

dpLCTTrj'
:

avT7

iyprj

crocfyajraTr]

koL
"

"It

is

joy to souls to become wet' with the Implication " when a man of course that it is better to be dry is drunk, he is led by a beardless boy, stumbling, not
:

knowing the way he goes, because

2'

his soul
-^

is

wet'."

28.
73-

74, 75.

72.

'

Rationality of the Logos

89

On

these grounds, then,

in

believe that the frag-

ments of Heraclltus are

which he speaks.

establish the rationality of the

themselves sufficient to fwo? \6yo% about

of confirmation,
I

By way

w^ill

remind you of the well-known Sextus Emplrlcus, or rather Aenesldemus for it seems to be is Aenesldemus he is following here
In

passage

which

paraphrasing the account of the Logos contained in "It Is the opinion of the Heraclltus' own book.
philosopher," says Sextus, " that what encompasses us Is rational" (XoytKroV)' and possessed of Intelli-

gence

((^/)i^i9/3e9)....This

divine reason [d^iov \6yov),

according to
respiration,

Heraclltus,

we

draw^ In

by means of

and so we become actively intelligent In sleep we are sunk In forget{yo^poX yLyvofxeda).

our intelligence returns when we awake. For during sleep, when the sensory avenues are closed, the mind within us Is separated from its
fulness, but

connexion with the encompassing element, except that the union by means of respiration Is preserved
as a sort of root;

and the mind when It has thus been separated loses the power of memory which it preBut when we are awake, the mind viously had. peeps out again through the avenues of sense, as if
through windows, and, coming Into contact with the
^

Sextus thinks of

air,

but the element of

air

does not appear

to
at

all,

be recognised by Heraditus. he can only have meant by

manifold transmutations.

If Heraclitus used to -rr^pUxov

it fire,

for the

atmosphere which
fire in

we
its

breathe, according to Heraclitus,

is

nothing but

one of

This passage helps to bring vividly

before our minds the general character of Heraclitus' conception, with its curious intermixture of spirituality and materialism.

90

The Logos

in Heraclitus

encompassing element, puts on the power of reason

(koyLKTjv

ivSverai

SvvafjLLp).

Accordingly, just
fire,

as

when they are placed near the and become red-hot, so in like manner
embers,
of the encompassing element which
is

change

the portion

quartered in

our body becomes

all

but

irrational

when

it

is

hand it is rendered homogeneous with the whole by being connected therewith through the majority of avenues\" It is true, no doubt, that the phraseology of this extract, and some of the ideas which it contains, are postseparated, while on the other

Heraclitean: in particular, as Professor Burnet has

pointed

out,

"the distinction
"

body
in the

is

"we can hardly doubt that the striking simile of the embers which glow when they are brought near the fire is genuine^"
;

far too sharply drawn words of the same authority,

between mind and But for Heraclitus.

and

may add

that the pervading idea of the whole

is

passage, which

that our intellectual

life is

nourished

and sustained by physical communion with the element that surrounds us on every side, is only the materialised form of the doctrine which is the foundation of Heraclitean ethics Set eirecrOai tw fww "follow the universal," i.e. the Logos'. And if we admit that the simile is Heraclitean, we must equally admit that it is meaningless and absurd, unless the surrounding
^

Adv. Math. vn. 127

I.e.

ff.

p.

170

f.

Fr, 2 Diels.

agree with Patin,

to Heraclitus.

Gomperz and

others in

attributing these

words

Bywater takes a different

view

see//-. 92.

'

The Logos as divine law

element
Is

91

rational.

The

fire

we breathe must be
thought

permanently maintained

at a level of actual

which enables
into a flame.

it

to kindle our

smouldering reason
to
all

As

Heraclitus himself says, ^vvov iart

is

TTaaL TO (bpovieiv

"thought

common
toj

things":

^vv vGco Xiyovra^ icr^upt^ccr^at ^p>)

oKcocnrep
I'Ofxo) 770X19 kol

^vvco Trdvicov,
:

ttoXv IcryypoTepco^

*'

they

who speak
that which
to law,
Trct^re?

with the reason should strongly cleave to

is

common

to

all

things, as a city cleaves

TpecjjovTaL

and much more strongly":

ol

yap

avOpcoTreiOL

vojxol

v7ro

ivo<;

tov
/cat

uetov

Kpariei

yap roarovrov

okocfov
all
:

iOiXei

i^apKcei

TTOLcn Kal TTepiyiv^Tai "for

human
for
it

laws are nur-

tured by the one divine lav;

as
it

prevails as

much

will

and

suffices for all

is

and has something over\"

This divine law

manifestly just the ^etos Xoyos in

which, according to the testimony of the ancients,

Heraclitus believed.
It

would accordingly seem that the

is

Logos

of

Heraclitus

unity,

omnipresent,

rational,

and

divine, the guiding and controlling cause of everything that comes to pass whether by the agency of

man

or of nature.
*'

"

From

the visible light," says

hide, but
it

Clement,

we may perchance
from
:

is

impos-

sible to hide

the intellectual, or in the

shall
[xtj

Heraclitus

Miow

words of a man hide from that which

du rt? XdOoL;)'
I

never

sets ?'" {to

Sui^ov ttotc ttw?

Ao-ainst the view which

am now

defending

it

is

sometimes urged that

s

*'

the

word \6yos did not mean

Migne.

27.

Clem. Faedag. 516

c,

92

The Logos
at all in early

in He^'aclihis

Reason
question

days\"

In

my

opinion this
:

is

hardly a correct statement of the point at Issue

is

the

not whether \6yo^ in Heraclltus

:

Is

exactly

synonymous with Reason

it

is

whether

his

Logos

possesses the attribute of Reason, and this can be

determined only by such a comparative study of the fragments as I have attempted above. It is a mere
petitio principii
X.O

assert that

has nothing to do with reason

stood.
first

Logos in early Greek if what Heraclltus

well

says of Logos cannot be otherwise correctly under-

to

have been the use the word with such an implication. But
Heraclltus
quite

may

in point of fact, as

Teichmiiller has

shown^ the word

in

Logos and its congeners ScaXeyecr^at, for instance, Homer's aX.\a 7117 {xoi raura (J)l\os SteXefaro
;

^vjuo9

even

before

the

time of Heraclltus,
;

fre-

quently imply reflection or thought

and soon after Heraclltus we meet with Xoyo? in Parmenides with the micaning of reason or ratiocination, as opposed Kplvai 8e Xoyw TToXvBrjpLp to sense-perception
:

eXeyypv i^
I

ijjidOev py]6'evTa^.

To

Heraclltus, however,
I

do not think that Xoyoq meant simply reason.

it

think he conceives of
ciple,

rather as the rational prin-

power, or being which speaks to man both from without and from v/ithin the universal Word, which for those who have ears to hear is audible

Burnet,

/.f.'

p.

133 n.^^
:

[In ed.

2, p.

146

n.^ this

statement

is

modified as follows
iv.

"

The

Stoic interpretation given by Marc.

Aur.

46

(J^.

P. 32 b) must be rejected altogether.

till
^

The word
f.

Aoyo5 was never used like that

2

post-Aristotelian times."]

Neuc

Studi?i,

I.

167

ff.

Farm.

i.

36

Diels.

Fragments of Epicharnius
both
in

93

interpretation

Nature and seems

in

their
suit

own
all

hearts.

Such an
in

to

the fragments

first,

which he speaks of the Logos, more especially the "having hearkened not unto me, but to the
Logos,
it

is

wise to confess that

all

things are one."

In his somewhat hurried review of the different connotations of Xoyo'i in Greek literature, Teichmiiller says nothing about Epicharmus and as the fragments which bear the name of this philosopherpoet furnish some confirmation of the view which I
;

have ventured to put before you. while to examine what they have
subject.

it

may be worth
say upon the

to

The principal fragments you may remember, belong

classes.

ascribed to Epicharmus,
to

one or other of three

remains,
the

First

come

the

dramatic

is now acknowledged, I believe, we have about fifteen fragments Whether these are of the Carmen Physicum, genuine or not is a question still debated. Rohde

authenticity of which

by

all.

Secondly,

and Diels attribute them to Epicharmus, while von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff and Kaibel consider them spurious, the latter however maintaining on sufficient grounds that they date from the fifth century before Christ, and were known to Euripides^ The third set of fragments are supposed by Kaibel
to be taken

from the Politeia of Chrysogonus. the flute-player, who wrote in the end of the fifth century i\ristoxenus, as we learn from Athenaeus, B.C.
See Kaibelj Comicorum Graecorum fragmenta^

assigned some of the xbevheTny^dpixeta to this source.

^

i.

p.

i^i ff-

94

The Logos

in Heraclitiis

Now
tions

In the first

and

third of these three collec-

we have

several traces of Heracliteanism.

first.

Let
In

us take the admittedly genuine fragments

doctrine of universal flux, and applies

fragment 170 (Kaibel) the poet takes the Heraclitean

it

for the first

time in Greek literature to the question of the permanence of human personality. If you increase or diminish a number, it is no longer the same as
before.

Similarly with

human beings
(SSe

vvv

opT),

Koi Tos di^^^ojTTOus

1-

fJikv

yap av^iO\ 6

Se

ya

/xav cfiOivei,

p.iTaWaya

Se 7ravTS ivrl Travra tov xP^^'^^

from which the inference

different persons to-day

Is

drawn

that

you and

are

from what we were yesterday,

and from what we

shall

be again to-morrow.

This

interesting fragment has been admirably discussed

by Bernays', who shews

that

it

originated the problem

:

known among
but
I

the Stoics as the av^avofxevo^; \6yos

it

does not bear directly on our subject, and

it

mention

here only to illustrate the

way

in

which

Epicharmus gives a

particular application to

one of

the fundamental principles of Heraclitus.

The same

tendency to work out Heracliteanism

itself in

in detail reveals

sality of

thought and
saying of

fragment 172, which deals with the univeris little more than an elaboration
Heraclitus

of

the

^vpov

icm

Tracri

to

(jypoueeLv.

The
a\K

first

two

lines are as follows

v fxovov^

Ev/xaic, TO croc^oV ccrrtv ov KaO'

oaa-arrep

^rj,

Travra Kal yviofxav e^et.

Epicha7'7mis

und der

Aviavo/xci'os Xoyos.

Ges.

Abh,

i.

109-

117.

"

Fragments of
Everything
is

the

Carmen Physicum
has
also
ypcofxa.

95
In

that

has
it

Hfe,

Heraclitus however
not confined to

would seem that the Logos living objects, any more than in
of the

Stoicism.

The

rest

fragment of pseudo-

Epicharmus seems to mean that although eggs have no yvwfia when they are laid, yet the hen by sitting on them makes them live, and then they have ypcjfjLa.

The two

last

verses are

TO Se aoffibv a
fjiova'

<^t'cris

t66* olSiv w<s e)(t

utto
:

TTCTraiStirrat

yap avravras^

I.e.

(I

think) Nature alone

this

knows the
is),

secret of this
is

wisdom (how
teacher
:

wisdom
et

for

she

her

own

not (as Cobet)

htmis 7iorunt principem

sapientiae naturani solam, quae magistra ipsis ftiit.

We

may compare
(fyiXel-.

the saying of Heraclitus

covert?

KpvTTTecrdaL

But to return.

The fragments
that
is

of the

Carmen Physicnm

contain nothing

suggestive of Heraclitus, except an allusion to the

circulation of the elements^

In the third collection,

I

however, we have what

is,

think, the

statement of the Logos-doctrine to

most explicit be found between

the time of Heraclitus and that of the Stoics.

IcTTiv

dv^pojTro) Aoyic/xos,

ecTi Kat ^ctos A.oyos

6 hi ye TovB^HiiTTov irk^vKtv airo ye rov Otiov Xoyou^.

So Porson

for av Tairas.
I

'

Since writing the above,

observe that Diels interprets the

d. Vorsokratiker-,
i.

fragment in the same way {Frag.

the general sentiment
cf.

p. 91).

With

Empedocles,
vw/xaros

/r.

no. lo

Diels, iravra

yap
^ '

XcrOi

<j>p6vricnv

cx^^^'

'^"^

ai(rai',

See fr. 239, 240 Kaibel.

Diels,
i.e.

p.

98

{/r. 57. 2, 3).

96

The Logos
derivation of the

in Heraclitus

soul from the gods had in by Pindar and others Euripides and Plato we meet with the doctrine that the human z^oGs is in its origin and nature divine but

The

human

already been affirmed

so far as

am

aware, this

is

the only passage in

to the Stoics,

Greek

literature,

until

we come

which apto
I

pears to be definitely and immediately inspired by the

Heraclitean doctrine of Logos.

in the

It

seems

me

clear that the author of these lines written, as

said,

have

end of the
as
I

fifth

century before Christ,

not only had Heraclitus in his mind, but interpreted

have done. we have considered the Logos Up merely as immanent immanent in nature and in man. But the Stoics regarded it in yet another aspect it was also the concors discordia rertoji the harmony in which all mutually antagonistic tendencies or forces, both in the moral and in the physical world, are reconciled. I need only remind you of the lines of Cleanthes:
the
to this point

Logos

aA/\a

cjv

KOL

TO.

Treptcraa
Kttt

<t >
ov

CTrtVracrat,

apna

Ouvat,

Kol KO(T/iLV TaKocrfxa

toSc
wcr6*'

(fjlXa

aoL

cf)t\a

Icttlv.

yap

is

%v iravra crvvrjpixoKas

iaOXa KaKolcnv,

eva ytyvecr^at Travrwv \6yov

auv

coi'to,^.

''Nay, but thou knowest to

make crooked
in

straight:

Chaos
Things

to thee
is

is

order

thine eyes
didst harmonise

The unloved
evil

lovely,

who

with things good, that there should be

all

One Word through

1

things everlastingly-."

18-21.

For other

illustrations of this characteristically Stoic doctrine

see the passages in von

Arnim

Stoicoruin fragmenta veterum

11.

ii68ff.


Harmony of
oppo sites

97

There can be no doubt that the general conception of a supreme and ultimate unity or harmony of
opposites goes back to
Heraclitus.

As

Professor

''are

Burnet has remarked, "opposites," in Heraclitus, but the two faces of the fire which is the thought
"Opposition," Heraclitus says,
avrl^ovv
(jv[k<^ip^i
is

that rules the world \"

'*

co-operation

to

and

the

from differences'-": "were there no higher and lower notes in music, there
fairest

harmony

results

could be no harmony at alP."

;

"As

with the

bow

and the lyre, so with the world it is the tension of opposing forces that makes the structure one "
TToXivTovo^
apfJiOPLr)

Kocrfiov

OKojcnrep
is

to^ov

kol

\vpaq\
in the

The sum
fragment
:

of the whole matter

contained

"Join together that which is whole which is not whole, that which agrees and and that that which disagrees, the concordant and the discordant
cfc
:

from

all comes one

andfrom

one comes alP''

But the particular question which concerns the student of the Logos doctrine is whether Heraclitus, like the Stoics, conI think sidered this ultimate unity to be the Logos. For in the there is every reason to suppose he did. first place he complains, as we have seen, that the " they are at multitude are ignorant of the Logos variance with that with which they live in most continual intercourse": "they seem as if they had
iravTOiv iv /cat e^ ivo<; iravra.
:

no experience of the Logos both before they hear it and when they have heard it for the first time "
:

'

l.c} p.

144

''

f.

46.
59.

'

43-

'

56.
A. E.

'

98
''although the

The Logos

in Heraclitus

Logos is universal, they live as if they had a private intelligence of their own." And in like manner he complains that the multitude do not understand that "hidden harmony" which is ''better than the visible^": "they do not understand," he says, " how that which is discordant is concordant
with
itself-."

It is

fair

inference that this hidden

harmony is the Logos. In the second place, it is the Logos of which Heraclitus at the very outset of
his

book

proclaims

himself

to

be the prophet.

" Listen

not to

me

but to the Logos."

And

the

doctrine in which his preaching actually culminates

the
the

last

word of Heraclitus, so
all

to

speak
the

is

not

the universal flux or

warfare, but

underlying

harmony
antiquity,

of

the opposing forces that

make up

This was well understood in life. and is now generally recognised by modern writers on Heraclitus, among others by Professor In a passage of Philo, to which Patin^ was Burnet. the first to assign its due importance in the history
universal

of Heraclitean criticism,

we

read as follows
is

"

which

is

made up
one
Is
is

of both the opposites

one,

That and
their

when
to

this

dissected, the opposites are brought

light.

not this what the

Greeks say

great and celebrated Heraclitus put in the forefront

of his

philosophy as

its

sum and
.-^

substance, and

boasted of as a

new discovery

We
the

are consequently

bound

to

suppose that

in

Logos whose prophet Heraclitus declared him'

47.
I.e.

'

45-

p. 60.

Philo, Quis rer, div. haer. 43.

Logos as reconciler of opposite

self to be, all opposites are reconciled.

99

The Logos
reveals, that

reveals itself through him, and what

is,

it

the

Logos

itself,

is

unity.
it

"

Having

listened not
all

to

me, but to the Logos,

the

is

wise to confess that

arrive,
I

things are one.'"

at

Thirdly,

we may
in

think,
It
is

same conclusion by yet another way.

Heraclitus
" is
is

tolerably clear that \GyQ%

identified with
this direction.
^eos.

to

be
in

Various indications point

epithet " divine

The

applied by

which we have already interpreted as the Logos, the z^o/xo which " prevails as much as it will and suffices for all and has something over\" We are told by Clement of Alexandria that " Heraclitus the Ephesian believed fire to be God"," and

him

to the el? v6\i.o%

the
I\L

identification

is

generally

admitted,

although

Bovet sees nothing in it beyond a metaphor'. Metaphor or no metaphor, it does not matter much for in Heraclitus metaphor is truth: no one can read
his

fragments without realising

is

this fact,

xlnd

if fire
;

God. the Logos must be God for in Heraclitus we have seen that the Xoyo9 on its material side is There is also at least one fragment of the fire.
philosopher
himself which

appears

to
:

deify

the

and yet
'

it wills not is but one Wisdom be called by the name of Zeus'." The "one Wisdom" is manifestly the Logos, or thought by which all things are steered through

Logos.

''

There

wills to

all'":
1

it

is

willing to be called Zeus, because

-

it

is

91.

Coh.

ad Gent.

p.

165
*

a,

Migne.
*

"

Le Dull

de

Plakm,

p. 102.

65.

19.

72

loo
the
true

The Logos
objective

in Heraclitus

which men ignorantly worship under that name^: on the other hand, it rejects the appellation for the reasons which prompted
reality

Heraclitus to declare that

Homer and

Archilochus

should be scourged and cast out of the arena.

The

Logos has none of the anthropomorphic

degrading attributes

or other

and passions belonging to the

if

Homeric Zeus.
equivalent to

Logos in Heraclitus is 0e6% the Logos must certainly be that

all

And

ultimate reality in which

opposites are reconciled

for Heraclitus expressly says that "

God

is

day and
satiety
6ipo^y

night, winter

and summer, war and peace,

6

and hunger":
TToXeiJLo^; elpijvrj,

^eo?

y]\i.ipy\

ev(j)p6vrj,

^eufjicoi'

Kopos

Xt/xo?-;

and

in

another fragment

we have the idea that to God all things are beautiful and good and right, but men think some things wrong and others right". In short, when Cudworth speaks of God as ^' reconciling all the variety and contrariety of things in the universe into one most lovely and admirable harmony*," he exactly expresses one of the principal ideas which I think Heraclitus
connected with his doctrine of the Logos.

have put before you is correct, we must suppose that Heraclitus was first and foremost a prophet and a theologian rather than a man of science and it is as a theologian that he is
If

the view which

regarded by
^

many

scholars, notably

by Tannery
3.

in

Cf. Zeller, F/u7. der 36.

G.\
'

i.

2. p.

670, n.

' ^

61.
p.

Intellectual

System of the Universe^

207.

Divinity of the Logos

his Science Hellene.

loi

The

hierophantic and oracular

nature of Heraclltus' style points to the same conclusion

is
;

he himself says that "the

lord,

whose oracle

at Delphi, neither utters plainly nor yet conceals

his

meaning, but speaks by signs" (aXXa o-T^/xatVet)', and he seems to have deliberately modelled his style upon Apollo's. I may add also that the fragment
e8LCr]o-dfir)v efxecovTov-,

which

is

sometimes understood
et/xi,
I

as equivalent

merely to avroStSa/cros

''I

am

self-taught," "I enquired of myself," ought,

think,

when

interpreted

by the

light

of the

fragments

already discussed, to be understood in the deeper and more mystical sense " I investigated myself," was by self-study, by looking within and it i.e.
not

without

that

djscovered

the secret of the

is

Universe:

for

the

fwo? Xoyos

present in us as

well as without.
"

The beauty thou

This also bids

dost worship dwells in thee

it

Within thy soul divine

harboureth:
soar,

my

spirit

and

saith

Words

that unsphere

for

me

Heaven's harmony^"

of course a favourite idea in every age with thinkers of the school to which Heraclitus seems to

This

is

" /;^ te ipsum 7'edi : in ijiteriore have belonged. homine habitat Veritas^' as Augustine says. Heraclitean I have endeavoured to shew that the immanent both Logos is at once the Divine Reason all in Nature and in man, and also the unity in which
^

II.

'

80.
tr.

Campanella, So?mefs,

Symonds.

I02
opposites

The Logos
are reconciled.

in Heraclitus

The

first

of these two

conceptions

Greek philosophy between the time of Heraclitus and the

immanence
rise of

appears
;

mean

the

doctrine

of

the
in

divine

again

and

again

Stoicism
or

but the second

the
that

notion of a

world-unity

harmony
I

of
in

differences

is

comuntil
is

paratively rare,

think,

Greek
of

literature
this

Cleanthes.

Some have thought

the

the

leading idea in

drama

Sophocles.
"

"

Un-

deserved suffering," says Professor Butcher,

it

while

is

exhibited in

Sophocles under various

evil

lights,
is

always appears as part of the permitted

a

which

condition

of

a just

and harmoniously ordered

universe'."
I

Nestle has endeavoured to show, not,

think, successfully, that Euripides held the

same

belief,

and borrowed it from Heraclitus. According to Euripides, he says, ^' the whole world, material as well as moral, depends on the reciprocal play of opposites, which however have no absolute value. And thus the entire Cosmos reveals itself as a work of unalterable law, which Heraclitus, and after him Euripides, call Dike, so that in the view of both this Dike is not simply a moral but a cosmic force"."

There are

traces of the belief in Plato, particularly in

ff.

the Laws, 903 b

rw tov

iravTo^; iTTifxeXovfJiivco

npos ttjv

aojTrjpLav kol dperrjv tov oXov ttolvt IcttX crvvTerayfjiipa

.../cat

TO aov fxopiov

eU to
. , .

ttolj/

^vvTeivei j^Xiirov act,

KaiTTep TTavcTfJiLKpov ov
^

fiepos iiTjv evKa

p.

okov kol ov^

127.

Some Aspects of the Gr. Genius^

Euripides^
p.

151.

Heraclit7is

founder of Logos doctrine

103

okov

fjLepov<;

iveKa aTrepya^erat.

In Stoicism the two

essential characteristics of the

Logos are

that

it

is

omnipresent and
since

that

it

reconciles

contrariety of things into a perfect

the seeming harmony; and

each of these characteristics belongs to the

Heraclitean \6yo^,

we

are justified in holding that

Heraclitus, and not the Stoics,

was the founder of

in

the doctrine, which has played so great a part

later religious

and philosophical thought.

IV.
KvSlctt
Zev,

KAEANBOYS YMN02
ttoXvojvvixc,

ddavoLTOiv,

TTayKparks

alet,

(j)i)(Teo)<;

dp)(r)y,

vofJLOV /xera

iravra Kvfiepvoiv,

^ai/^e*

ere

Ik (tov
jxovvoL,

yap noivTeo'cn 6ip.i^ Ornqrolcn TrpocravSdv. yap yevofiecrOa, Oeov fxiix-qixa \a^6vT^
ocra ^a)eL re Kal epirei OvrjT
eiri

yalav.

Tw
croi

o"
87)

KaOvfxvTJaoj Kal crov KpdTO<; alkv deicrco.

TTcts
17

oSe

K6crfJio<;,

ikLcrcrofJLevof;

nepl yalav,

Tret^erat,

Kep dyrjs, Kal kKcov vtto crelo Kpar^lrai'

Tolov

e\ei<i

vTToepyov dvLKTJTOL<; evl yjepcrlv

dfjL(j)i]Kri,

7rvp6.vT, aleL^cjovra
7rXr)yfj<;

Kepavvov
os Sta 7rdvT0)v

10
.

TOV yap VTTO

c^vcrew? rravr^

epya < reXetrat >

^
&)9

(TV

KaTev6vveL<; koivov Xoyov,

(fiOLTa,

ixLyvvfievo^ fJieydkoLS ixLKpol<; re (j)dcrcrLP.

yeyact)<;

Toacro^

vnaros /^acrtXeu? Sta

Traz/rd?BalfJLOP,

ovBe TL yiyveTai epyov inl -yOovl crov Si^a,

ovTe Kar
TrXrjv

15

alOipiov Oelov ttoXov ovt

ivl ttovtco,

oTTocra pit^ovcri KaKol cr(f)eTpr)crLi' dvoiai^;.

4.

yevofxecrOa,
p.

Oeov

for

the corrupt ycVos

iafj.v,

rjxov.

Cf.

Musonius,

90 Hense

avOpw-n-O'^ /xifx-qixa fxkv Oiov fJLOvov Toiv eVtis

yciW

(TTLv.

The

conjecture yivo/xio-Oa

due

to

Meineke.

II. 14.

TcXetrat.
cos
:

Supplied by von Arnim.

yeyaw?.

Toa-aoq

Von Arnim

reads w av rocroq yc(fidforcn,

yaws

ktA.

others suppose a lacuna after

but the error

seems incurable.

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

O God
most glorious,
King,
called

by many a name,
endless

Nature's great

through

years

the

same

Omnipotence, who by thy just decree

Controllest
all,

hail,

Zeus, for unto thee

in all lands to call.
5

Behoves thy creatures

We
On

are thy children,

earth's

we

alone,

of

all

broad ways that wander to and Bearing thine image wheresoe'er we go. Wherefore with songs of praise thy power
forth shew.

fro,

will

Lo!

yonder

Heaven,

that

round

the

earth

is

wheeled, Follows thy guidance,

;

i
still

to thee doth yield

Glad homage thine unconquerable hand Such flaming minister, the levin-brand, Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might Pulsates through all that Nature brings to light; 15
Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows Through all, and in the light celestial glows

Of stars both great and small. O King of Kings Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings

To
Is

birth,

whateer on land or
in

in

the sea

20

wrought, or

high heaven's immensity;

infatuate.

Save what the sinner works

io6
o}CKcl (TV

The
Kol
TOi

Hymn

of Cleanthes
Oeivai,

Treptaord

<t > kiricTTacraL apna

(fiika

Kai KOCTfieLV TaKOCTfJLa, KOL ov

(oSe

crol

(ftika

ecTLV.

yap eh

tv Trdvra crvvy]pixoKa<; ecrOXd KaKolcriVy 20

(xxtS*

ua yiyvecrdaL TrdvTOiV \6yov alev iovra.

ioicriv

ov

(f)eijyovT<;

octol

Ovtjtojp /ca/cot

elcn,

OTJCTfJiopoL,

oIt*

dya6(tiv fxev del KTrjcriv 7ToOeovTe<;

ovT
a>

io-opoxTL Oeov KOLvov vofJLOv ovre KkvovcriVy

25

Kev TTeiOoixevoi crvv vco /Blov ecrOXop e^oiev.

avToi o

avB^ opjxcocrLV dvoL KaKov aX\o9

S6^r)<;

eir

aWo,

ol fxev VTTep

cnrovSri/ hvcrepicTTOv eypvTe<;,

ol S' ein KepSocrijvas rerpaixixevoi

ovhevl

/coct/jloj,

dWoL

8'

et9

dveciv kol (TcofxaTOS rjSea epya.

in

dXkoTe

8'

aXXa

(j)epovTaL,

30

cr7rev8oPTe<; fxdXa Trdynrav

evavTia TcovSe yevecrdai.

dWd
Tjv

Zev TrdvSojpe,

Ke\aLve(j)e<;,

dpyiKepavvey

dv6p(t}TTov%
(TV,

< [xev > pvov

7rL(Tvvo<; (TV

dneipocrTJvrj^
^v-)(fj<;

dno

Xvyprj<Sf

irdrep, cTKehacrov

diroy 809 8e

Kvprjcrat

yvcjfJLTjSf Tj
0(^/9*

Slktis /xera Trdvra Kvfiepvas, 35

av

Tiyirj6evTe<;

dfJLeL^cofxecrOd are Tifirj,

vp.vovvTe^ Ta era

epya

SirjveKe^,

w?

eireoiKe

Ovqrov eovT
ovre 6eoh,

enel ovre

^poroh

yepa<;

dXko

tl fxel^ov

rj

kolvov del vofiov ev Slkyj v^xvelv.

30.

Von Arnim
of the

conjectures

that

the

missing words
like.

may
(for

have been dXXa KaKot?

<l>povT'i

iiriKvpa-av,

or

the

<j>ipovraL

MS)

is

due to Meineke.

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

107

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight: Chaos to thee is order in thine eyes The unloved is lovely, who didst harmonize 25 Things evil with things good, that there should be
:

One Word through One Word whose

all

things everlastingly. the wicked spurn;

:

voice alas!

Insatiate for the

good

their spirits yearn

Yet seeing see

not, neither

hearing hear

30

God's universal law, which those revere,

By reason guided, happiness who win. The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of for an idle name Self-prompted follow
:

sin

Vainly they wrestle

in the lists of

fame

35

Others inordinately riches woo,

Or

dissolute,

the joys of flesh pursue.

there they wander, fruitless
still,

Now

here,

now

For ever seeking good and finding ill. Zeus the all-bountiful, whom darkness shrouds,

40
;

Whose lightning lightens in the thunder-clouds Thy children save from error's deadly sway
:

Turn thou

the darkness from their souls

away
;

Vouchsafe that unto knowledge they attain

For thou by knowledge art made strong to reign O'er all, and all things rulest righteously. So by thee honoured, we will honour thee, Praising thy works continually with songs,

45

As

mortals should

nor higher

meed belongs
5

E'en to the gods, than justly to adore

The

universal law for evermore.

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

Athenagoras, Leg. pro Christianis,

yap Koi

(f>L\6(T0(f)0L

7.

904

b,

Migne
avTO<;

Troo^roX fxlv
fJilv

irri^aXov

crro;^ao'TiKW9,
Trvorj^;

Kivr/^eVrcs

Kara
i/'v;^t;<;

(TV ixTT 6.0 (.lav

T79 Trapa tov Btov

t

vtto

tt]^

avTov

6Kao"TOS IrjTrja-aL

Swarb^; evpeiv T kol vorjcrai tqv dXyOcLav,

i.

Clement, Sf?vm.
TrdvTa
(fi(jnL^Tai.

7.

732 d, Migne ^wtos

S',

oT/xat,

dvaToXy

My

object in these lectures

is

to

expound and

illustrate

the religious significance of Stoicism, in

connexion
Cleanthes.

more

especially

with

the

hymn

of

But before we can profitably enter on

us,
it

the subject before

is

necessary to say a word

or two about the development of religious thought

in

Greece before Stoicism began.

distinguish
in

Leaving out of

account everything of merely secondary importance,

we can

Greek

literature

and

it

is

with literature alone that

we

are

now concernedto Sophocles,

two main

lines

of religious development, the one

represented by the poets from

Homer

and the other by the philosophers from Thales down to the Stoics. The poets for the most part accepted
the leading features of the old

Homeric

theodicy,
;

with

its

polytheism and anthropomorphism

laid

but a

tolerably continuous progress can be traced in the

growing emphasis which was

upon the higher

"

Religious thought in poets

109

and more
to

idealistic

elements

in

Homer's theology,

the suppression or comparative neglect of the

grosser

anthropomorphic features, and more par-

ticularly in the gradual spiritualisation of Zeus.

The

father of
is

Gods and men

infinitely

in

Aeschylus and Sophocles

capable
of
inspiring

Being

more
faith

religious devotion

and

than the Homeric Zeus,

the two opposing

who combines

in a single personality

principles of Naturalism and Idealism, and is always violating the law of righteousness, to which he never-

theless requires, on pain of severest penalties, his

human

subjects to conform.

It

would be impossible,
parallel to the

for instance, to find a true

Homeric

Zeus that occurs in the Suppliant Maidens of Aeschylus I quote it according to Mr Morshead's admirable rendering
beautiful

hymn

to

"

Though

the deep will of Zeus be hard to track

it

Yet doth

flame and glance

beacon

in the dark, 'mid clouds of

chance

That wrap mankind. Yea, though the counsel fall, undone it shall not lie, Whatever be shaped and fixed within Zeus' ruling mind. Dark as a solemn grove, with sombre leafage shaded,
His paths of purpose mnd,

marvel to man's eye.

Smitten by him from towering hopes degraded

lie low and still: and effortless works forth its will The arm divine God from his holy seat, in calm of unarmed power, Brings forth the deed at the appointed hour^

Mortals

Tireless

ZZ^,

iio

The
there
Is

Hymn

of Cleanthes

And

little

or nothing in

Homer

to corre-

spond

to the sentiment of entire

justice of the

Supreme God

to

dependence on the which the Chorus in

Sophocles' Electra give expression

console the maiden
Odp(TL
fJLOLy

when they thus

6dp(TL TCKVOV

Tt /XCytt?

Ot'paVU)

Zcvs, OS <j)opa Trdvra kol Kparvvcu

**

Courage,

my

child,

courage

great

Zeus

still

reigns

in

heaven,

who

oversees and governs alF."

At

the the

same

time,

even
its

in

Sophocles,
of

with

whom

purely poetical development

reaches
highest

Greek
the

religious

thought

point,

Inherent dualism of the

Homeric theology has by

Like most of no means disappeared altogether. his countrymen, Sophocles is still content to speak of the omnipotent Gods as the authors of evil not
less

than of good
purity,
In his

he does not ascribe

to

them
find

moral

any

more

than

Homer

we

passages
the

plays which seem to endorse such

traditional doctrines as the

infatuation
;

or

envy of the Gods and Ate by which they drive men

and above all, there is hardly a suggestion Sophocles of the view that did more, perhaps, than anything else to purify the theology of Greece
into sin
in

view that the divine nature must be such as to furnish a moral standard or ideal to humanity,
so that the

the

supreme

rule of conduct

for

man

be-

comes

6/xota;o-t9 roJ deqi

is

''assimilation to

God."

One

such trace

to be found In the Oedipus at Colofius

'

174

f.

Religious thought in philosophers

1 1

1267

ff.,

where Polynlces makes

:

this

touching appeal

to his father
'

dA\'

\(jri
CTT*

yap kol
Ipyois

Zrjvl crvv6aK0<; Opovoiv

AiSws

Tracri,

kol Trpos

crot',

Trarcp,

-n-apaaraOrJTW.
**

But forasmuch as Zeus himself hath mercy

shall

for the partner

of his throne,

she

not also

find

place

by thee,

my

father?"

This

is

the motive which

makes

nature-religions into

ethical religions.
If

we

turn on the other hand from the poets to

the philosophers,
totally different

we

find

ourselves at once in

atmosphere.

At
the

a very early period,

Greek philosophy raised

against the authority of

standard of
in

revolt

Homer

matters apper-

taining to religion and theology.

The

attempt of

the early

Ionic philosophers to

discover a single

creative cause of the Universe, itself uncreated and

imperishable,

was, however

unconsciously
all

and

am

not sure that they were

of

them wholly un-

conscious of the goal to which they were travelling was a step, I say, in the direction of monotheism

of
in

and when Xenophanes of Colophon

in

the

sixth

century before Christ explicitly affirmed the existence

"one God, supreme in heaven and earth, neither body nor in mind resembling man" it became
:

clear that philosophy

would not be satisfied with nothing merely purifying the old Homeric faith The Homeric suffice. short of a revolution would religion must be discarded altogether, and replaced

1 1

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

by something better fitted to satisfy the highest moral and religious aspirations of man, and at the same time to furnish, if possible, an explanation of nature in which the human intellect could rest. It has been pointed out by Plato that this feud between philosophy and poetry a feud which arose mainly from the odiuvi theologicitni was one of the salient features in the history of Greek literature

down

to the early part of the fourth century before

If

Christ.

we

look at

it

from a somewhat wider

I

point of view, w-e

may

say,

think, that

it

is

one of
in

the most significant and pregnant

phenomena

the

history not only of literature, but of religion, and not

of

Greek religion merely, but of the religious development of the human race. On the one hand, as a German wTiter has said, we have poetry, immor''

talising in imperishable creations the traditional faith,

and on the other hand, we

account of that
faith,

find philosophy, just

on

condemning those
I

creations,"

and

at the

same

time,

think

we may

add, furnishing

materials for a

new and deeper conception

of the
nature.

Godhead and
philosophy

his relation both to

man and

Positively, as well

as negatively, therefore,

the

philosophies
all

of

Greek Xenophanes, of

Heraclitus, above

of Plato and the Stoics

to a

certain extent points the

way

to

Christianity and

Christian thought, whether w^e express the connexion

by the favourite Clementine formula of a divinelyin the scheme of which philosophy is as it were the propaedeutic
appointed education of mankind,


Career of Cleanthes
or

113

preparation

TrpoTraiBeia

or

TrponapacTKevy]^

or

whether we say that there is a real continuity, historical perhaps as well as philosophical, between the theoretical ideals of Greek thinkers and their

more or

less

imperfect

imperfectly realised

for

as

yet they are only

say their more or less im-

perfect realisation in Christianity*.

It is

from

this point of view, then, as expressive

of a kind of

movement

in the direction of Christian

and post-Christian ways of thought and feeling that philosophical thought and religious feeling

would ask you to consider the hymn of Cleanthes. Of the life and character of its author we know enough to make us anxious to know more. He was born probably in 331 B.C., in the town of Assos in
Asia Elinor, eight years before the death of Alex-

Nothing is known to us of the ander the Great. circumstances under which he came to Athens and
began the study of philosophy under Zeno but his zeal for knowledge is attested by the well-authenti;

Cf.

Clement,
ivapyrj,

Strotti.

i.

2.

709

b,

Migne, Philosophy aXry^etas

Sc6o/Xvy;r
oJ?
;

ciKOva

Oeiav Soipeav "EWrjori

kol av-n) ro 'EXXv/iiKo'v.

//?/d.

5.

717 D

CTratoayojyci

yap

6 jo/xos tovs 'EySpatov?,

ts Xpio-TOT' et

al.

Elsewhere he speaks of philosophy as a lamp,

Christ

as

the

sun,

and so
8e

forth.

Cf.

also vi. 392 c 'lovSatoi?

Trapouo-ta?.

\x\v v6[x.o%
-

"EXX-YjcTL

(fiL\o(TO<f)La

fj-xpi

TTJ^s

the one hand and on the other Much remains to be done in this through Jewish Hellenism. At present there are mainly dogmatic asserof enquiry. field tions, on the one side and on the other, with regard to the

There may be

a historical

connexion, on

through Stoicism, which flourished at Tarsus,

existence or non-existence of such a connexion.

A. E.

The
story that
at

Hymn

of Cleanthes

cated

drawing water

he used to earn "his living by night, in order to devote the day-

In course of time he succeeded time to study \" Zeno in the presidency of the Stoic school or
college
;

for

by

this

time Athens had become

what

sophical schools in the sixth century a.d.

she continued to be until Justinian closed the philoa kind of

University town

and the

different schools,

Academic,

Peripatetic, Stoic and Epicurean, were in reality so

many independent
head of the school
his death
in

colleges, each with

its own'-.

a tradition,

organisation and discipline of

He continued
from 264
till

for thirty-two years,

B.C.

232
is

Of

his

work

as a teacher a

single anecdote

preserved illustrating the slow and

It is said

painstaking character of his disputations.

that the

more

versatile

and perhaps more

superficial

Chrysippus, on

whom

the presidency of the college

afterwards devolved'^ became tired of listening to

the long and tedious arguments of his master, and
impatiently exclaimed on one occasion: ''Give

me
But,

your conclusions, and

will find the

proofs^"

in spite of this anecdote,

Cleanthes was assuredly

In

none of your
^ "

*'

dry-as-dust," mechanical pedants.

Pearson, Fragments of Zeno

and

Cleanthes^ p. 35.
iv,

See von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, Phil. Untersuch.

ff.

Anti-

gonos von Karystos, 263

The Academy and Lyceum were

p. 31, for

origin-

ally half-religious foundations,

organised like religious associations

the history of the word "arts."
it

or

Oiacroi.
^

See also supra,

yap

Diog. Laert. vn. 183, reports that

et
fxr]

was commonly said of

moral philosophers

him
"

-^v

XpvcriTTTrog,

ovk av

-^v

^Tod.

Perhaps
j

this is a little characteristic of

at all times

proofs are excogitated to establish theories.

Heraclitiis

and Cleanthes
is

115

none of the

earlier Stoics

there so rich a vein of

religious as well as philosophical inspiration

kind

of suppressed enthusiasm for whatever

is

adorable

and great

in

nature and
in

in

man, breaking out from

time to time

strongly emotional, sometimes half-

oracular utterances such as recall to us the fragments

of the great teacher to

whom,

as
all

it

seems

to me,

Cleanthes owed more than to

together
I

other writers put

mean
doubt

Heraclitus of Ephesus.

As

to
is

the influence of Heraclitus upon Cleanthes, there

no room

for

we

shall find, indeed, that the

surviving fragments of the Ephesian sage are incom-

parably the best commentary on the

is

hymn which

it

the object of these lectures to interpret.

tion of
to

The further question, whether Cleanthes' concepGod and Nature may not have owed something Semitic theology, is not so easy to determine. The

conquests and statesmanship of Alexander had prepared the way for that fusion of Eastern and Western

thought out of which so much that

is

of the highest

and most permanent value in modern religious theory was afterwards developed and Sir Alexander Grant pointed out long ago that *'not a single Stoic of note was a native of Greece proper'": all of them came from the East, many of them " from Semitic towns
;

and

colonies'."

He

even goes so

far as to say that

in the introduction

the "

essence of Stoicism consists

of the Semitic

Greek philosophy I"

1

temperament and a Semitic spirit into In his essay on St Paul and

vol.
'
.

The Ethics of Aristotle,

Ibid.

i.

p.

308.

Ibid. p. 309.

1 1

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Bishop Lightfoot has further elaborated view of Stoicism, holding that "to Eastern affinities Stoicism was without doubt largely indebted for the features which distinguished it from other
Seneca,
this

schools of
intense

Greek philosophy V'

earnestness
characteristicV'

in

particular " the

moral

which
the

was

its

most
pro-

honourable
ing^
''

distinctively

phetic rather than dialectical character of Stoic teachits

recognition of the claims of the individual

soul, the

sense of personal responsibility, the habit

of judicial introspection, in short the subjective view

of ethics''"

all

of which features, he asserts,

now
doors

for the first time ''presented

themselves

at the

of Western

civilisation

and demanded admission ^"

in the firm belief,

A still more striking resemblance betw^een Stoicism

and Judaism
is

to

be found

which

the greatest of the Stoic teachers had in the essential

unity of the divine nature, and here
possible to quote by
it

might be

way

of illustration the remark-

able parallel afforded by the philosophy of Spinoza, between which and Stoicism the affinity is very great.
Sir Frederick Pollock has pointed out that the pantheism of Spinoza^ himself by birth a Jew, was to a large extent a philosophical development of Hebrew monotheism; and in like manner it might be

conjectured that Stoic pantheism arose in somewhat

the

same way.
^ -

But

in

point of

fact,

as will be partially

Dissertations on the Apostolic Age, pp. 252

ff.

/Md.
Ibid, p. 253.

^ 5

Ibid. p. 255.

*
^

j^i^^
iii. p.

Spinoza, his Life

and Philosophy, chap.

%2.

Semitic
evident,
I

Z7ifltience

on Stoicism.
I

117
shall put

hope, from the illustrations

all

before you, nearly

of these so-called Semitic ideas

Greek literature, especially in the philosophy of Plato and the question rather is, whether and to what extent the Semitic element in Stoicism, if it was really
are already to be found
or other in
;

somewhere

there,

helped

to

bring

these

ideas

into

greater

prominence and give them new life and vigour. That the Eastern origin of so many of the Stoics
operated
in this direction, there cannot,
it is
I

conceive,

be any doubt; but

in

an entire mistake to separate

the history of Stoicism from that of Greek philosophy

general, and so far as Cleanthes in particular
is

concerned,
in

we have no

positive evidence that he

was

any way influenced by Semitic thought. The key all his greatest ideas, as I have already said, is to be found in Heraclitus.
to nearly

With
know,
with
it

these preliminary remarks,

let

us

now

turn
I

to a consideration of the

hymn

itself.

So

far as

has not yet been discussed and illustrated

care
in

the

commentary,
is

which it deserves. Mr Pearson's his Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes,

it

excellent so far as

goes, but

it

hardly professes

to

do much more than explain the

text.

The Hymn
treatment
philosophical

of Cleanthes
alike

demands the

fullest possible

on
:

its
is

poetical, its religious

in fact, like

and

its

side

it

the Timaeus of Plato, which

one of the ancients described as a

"hymn

of the

and philosophy, summing up not only most of the best and most inspiring" ideas of Stoicism, without any of the
Universe," a blend of poetry, religion,

1 1

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Stoic aridity and trivialities, but also

noblest Greek thought on

much God and man and

of the

nature

from Heraclitus down to Aristotle, and foreshadowing, in no obscure fashion, what we sometimes
erroneously suppose to be the religious and philosophical discoveries of Christendom'.

A
A.

glance at the

Hymn
first

will

show you

that

it

falls

naturally into four divisions.

We

have
is

the prelude (lines i-6), the

burden of w^hich

*Met us praise Zeus; for

we

are
it

of his family, and

nant.
B.

in his image." apparently the religio2is motive which

made

Here
is

is

predomiline 7

The second

division,

extending from

to line 21, speaks of the operation of the

:

divine

power throughout the world all things in external Nature obey the law of God. These lines contain more of the philosophy of Stoicism than any other part of the hymn. The religion of humanity is merged in a yet wider ideal the religion of the
universe^
In the third section, comprising from line 23 to line 35, the poet describes how human creatures
C.
^

Clement speaks of Cleanthes

Coh.

as

having written

iTrnrvoiq.

diovj
*

ad

Gentes^ 180

b,

Migne.

illustrates

See Hoffding, Philos. of Religion^ p. 290. This passage what Hoffding calls the sy7npathetic type of the religious
Cf. St Paul,

disposition.

Rom.

viii.

22

f.

"The whole

creation

groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the
Spirit,

even we ourselves groan within ourselves

in St

"

cf.

also the

conception of the Aoyo?

John and

in St Paul.

Divisions of the
fall

Hymn
for

away through ignorance, and prays

restoration.

their

enlightenment and
religious
section.

The

ethical
in

and
this

motive comes to the front again

Finally, the note
is

D.
prelude
(36-39)-

which was struck

in the

resumed

at the conclusion of the

hymn
and

So

shall

we

praise the universal law,

thus
gods.
I

fulfil

the highest privilege accorded to

men and
in order.

will discuss

each of these four sections

atci',

KijSictt'

a^avaTwv, 7roXvwvv/x, TrayKpare?

oip^-qye,

Zcv,

(fiV(Toi<;

vofxov fxira

vavTa Kv/Scpvwv,

X-^P^'

(K

cr^ y^P TrdvTiO-cn Oefiis Ovrp-oicn TrpoaavSav. aov yap yv6iJL(r6a, Oeov fXLfxrjfia X.a)(6vT<s

fjLOvvoL,

ocra ^ojet t kol Ipir^t

KadvpLvrjcroi

Ovrjr

IttI

yaiav.

Ta>

crc

koX abv KpaTOS alkv aucrw.

"

O God

most

glorious, called

by many a name.

Nature's great King, through endless years the

same;

Omnipotence, who by thy

ControUest
all,

just decree

hail,

Zeus, for unto thee

in all lands to call.

Behoves thy creatures

We
On

are thy children,

earth's

we

alone, of all
fro.

broad ways that wander to and

Bearing thine image wheresoe'er we go.

Wherefore with songs of praise thy power

I will

forth shew."

*'

called

Let us begin by considering the epithet iroXvcovviie by many a name." Cleanthes, like the Stoics
general,

in

was a

believer, of course, in

whom

he

identified, as will afterwards

one God, be seen, with

the soul of the world, or rather with Reason

imma-

nent in the universe

all

and iroXvMwiJLe

signifies that

the different gods of polytheism are only so

many

120
different

The Hy7nn of Cleanthes

names, or perhaps embodiments of the uni-

versal Spirit, according to the different spheres in

which that Spirit works, or

same thing
resrarded^

different aspects in which he is meet with the same idea in an impressive fragment of HeracHtus-': ''God is day and night, summer and winter, war and peace, satiety but he is changed, just as, when and hunger incense is mingled with incense, it is named accord-

the
We

which

amounts

to the

ing to the flavour of each."

I

It is

highly probable,

think, that this fragment actually suggested to the

Stoics the

method by which they contrived

to recon-

cile their philosophic

pantheism with the religious

;

polytheism of the Greeks

for us to notice
far
is

but the important point

"

that the epithet noXvdjpviJLe implies

'*

more than a mere

accommodation

on the part
It

of a philosopher to the popular religion.

ought

not to be limited
^

in its application to

the gods of the

311.

Cf.

Max
for
;

Miiller's

Hibbcrt Lectures,
says
is

p.

One
Indra,

poet in
Mitra,

the

Veda,

instance,

"

Varuna, Agni
diverse

that

which
Cf.

They and is

call

him

manners."

also the

name in Monotheistic tendency among

one, the wise

the

Babylonians.
B.C.

In

one

inscription,

dating

perhaps

from

2000

or so,

we have a

list

of identifications of the different

gods with special aspects of the supreme god Merodach.

Bel
is

Merodach of lordship and domination,

,,
,,

Nebo
Sin

trading, etc..

,,

the illumination of the night,

and so
theism
'

forth.

See Pinches,

Assyria, p.
is

118.

The Religion of Babylonia and This tendency to a reconciliation with polytext).

of course characteristic of pantheism in every age.

iv-.

36 (following By water's

Universality of

God
all

121

Greek pantheon
in

rather

it

implies that

mankind,

every age and country, worship one and the same Ntimina God, by whatever name they call him.

sicut

nomina,

according to the Latin saying.

In
the

other words, the epithet TToXvcopvfjie strikes at

very outset of the

hymn

a note of universalism
is
:

the

God whom
Greek
fifth

Cleanthes invokes

not the

god of the
the

alone, or of the barbarian

he

is

God
in

of

the whole

human

race.

The

old exclusiveness of
its

century Hellenism has disappeared; and

place

we have

the wider and

more comprehensive

humanity itself. It is true that Cleanthes calls his God by the disbut, owing in tinctively Hellenic name of Zeus large measure to the teaching of Greek drama, the concept of Zeus had already been universalised, more especially by Sophocles^ in his doctrine of a divine law whereof Zeus and Zeus alone is guardian, a law engraved by him in the hearts and consciences of all men, without distinction of race or creed, and of prior obligation to the ordinances made by man and the Zeus of Cleanthes is free from every vestige
ideal of a religion coextensive with
; ;

of exclusiveness or particularism.

The same

conception, that

God

is

god of

all

mankind, and not merely of one particular race or ae people, is again emphasized in the third line
:

yap
^

TravrecTcri

OefXL^; OptjtoIctl

npocravSav

" for

it

is

Cf.
i.

Socrates' advice
3.
I,

to

worship

God

ro/xo)

TrdAcw?,

Xen.

Mem.

and

Plato,
is

I^e/>.

427

c,

where Apollo, as the

Trarpioq

l^-qy-qTYj^

of Zeus,

said to

expound

the universal father,

iracriv a.v6pis>ivoL<i

"to

at

Delphi the
all

will

of Zeus,

mankind.*'

122

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes
name."

meet all mortal men should call upon thy Observe now what is the foundation on Cleanthes builds his dream of a universal, wide, religion. Ik crov yap yevoixecrda "for
that
is

which
world-

all

human

creatures

we"
things
In

''are

thine offspring,
all

made

in

the likeness of God, alone of

mortal that live

and move upon the

earth."

Stoicism, indeed, not

is

man

alone, but universal nature

the creation
;

in a certain

sense the offspring of

God

but

be said to

man is the only creature who can properly be made in the image of God, and it is on

these two grounds combined

man's kinship with God, and man's likeness to God that the poet declares it to be the privilege of every human

have here in the words e/c aov yap yepoixeaOa what is perhaps the most famous expression in Greek literature of

creature to call upon his name.

We

the

profoundly religious
of man's

as

well origin
all

as

philosophical
nature,

doctrine

celestial

and

doctrine that appears in nearly

the best

Greek

thought about religion from Pindar down to Epictetus, and is in an especial sense the property of Stoicism.

remember, the authority of St Paul for looking on this great doctrine as the common meeting-ground of Greek and Christian thought'. It is true that in the speech which he
is,

There

you

will

where

See Findlay in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Paul, it is well pointed out that St Paul looks on man as God's
salvation as the recovery of sonship.
Cf.,

kindred, and

with

Findlay, the use of d7ro\a/xf3dvo> in IVa

Gal.
iv.

ttjv vloO^a-Lav d7ro/\a/3a)/xv,

5,

and

dTroKaraAXacrcrco, Col.

i.

21, 22,

Eph.

ii.

16

et al.


Kinshii) between

man and God

123
at

delivered before the council of the

Areopagus
except

Athens we

find

hardly a single idea,

the

bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, which cannot be

abundantly illustrated from Greek sources

but the

sentiment on which the great prophet of Christianity

as the divinely-appointed universal religion rightly

most stress, is just this Stoic doctrine of the " God kinship between man and God. hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation: that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from any one of us for in him we live, and move, and have our being " a Stoic would rather have said, perhaps, '*God lives in us." "As certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also his offspring tov yap koI yivo<; ecrfxivK The poet whom St Paul has in his mind is not indeed Cleanthes, but Aratus and in all probability, as Norden in his Antike Kunstprosa- has pointed out, the quotation
lays

is

taken not directly from Aratus, but from Aristo-

bulus, a hellenizing

Jew who

flourished about

50

B.C.

and was the

first to

maintain what afterwards became

all his

a favourite patristic theory, that Plato derived

wisdom from Moses, being in fact only Mwi;o'i7S OLTTLKL^CDV Moses Speaking in Attic Greek." We
*'

know from
^

Eusebius"

that

Aristobulus

cited

in

support of his audacious theory that part of Aratus

Acts
xvii.

26-28.
xiii.

-^

p.

475.

'

Praep. Ev.

12. 6.

124

^^^^
in

Hymn

of

Cleanthes

poem
is

which St Paul's quotation occurs, and there evidence to shew that the apostle was not unacthe literature of Jewish

quainted with

Hellenism,

whether he had read any pure Greek literature or But although it is Aratus who is responsible not\ for the particular words in which St Paul here gives
expression to the idea, the conception
the affinity between
characteristic
itself

God and man

that

of

is,

as

have

said,

not only of Stoicism, but of earlier

is

Greek

religious thought, indeed there

is

perhaps no

idea which

than this
as on

more deeply rooted in Greek thought and in order that we may understand its

precise significance in the

hymn
call

of Cleanthes, as well

account of the intrinsic importance of the

itself,
I

doctrine

will

now

your attention to some

of the principal stages in the development of this

idea before the days of the Stoics.

The

first

point to notice

is

that the doctrine in

to

question was by no

means

alien

the ordinary
for

religious consciousness of Greece, as reflected,

example,

the Homeric poems. Not only in Zeus the father of Gods and men," but it is involved in the very nature of anthropomorphic theology that since God resembles man, man in his turn resembles God. From the religious point of
in

Homer

is

''

view, this
that
it

is the great merit of anthropomorphism assumes an essential unity between God and man. Anthropomorphism, in a word, involves theomorphism and in point of fact, as has frequently been remarked, there is no really essential or ultimate
;

See Hastings,

I.e.

s.v,

Paul,

Mortal Gods and immortal men

difference

125

between the Homeric god and the Homeric man, except the attribute of immortality whereas the blessed gods live for ever /^a/cape? d^oi oXkv
:

l6vT^%

we

are but children of a day.

not otherwise than in

what we may
Oeol
"

call

Hence it is harmony with the spirit of orthodox Greek theology when

rt Sat ot ai'6 pcoiroL

Lucian^ makes Heraclitus say:

uvr]ToL
tl

Sal
?

ol

Oeoi

avOpojiroi

aSdvaToi
are

What
is

are

men

Mortal Gods.

What

Gods

But in Homer the preponderating upon the human attribute of the Gods rather than upon the divine affinities of man and the same may be said of Hesiod, in spite of occasional
Immortal men."
laid

stress

and human, example when he declares that " Gods and mortal men are sprung of the same stockV' and again in a fragment preserved by Origen, which tells of the ''common feasts and common assemblies" of gods and men in the days of primeval innocence and bliss'. Another point to be observed is that in Homer, Hesiod, and the bulk of Greek lyric poetrv down to Pindar there is little or no suggestion of a spiritual affinity between man and God man resembles God, and God is conceived in the imaee of man, but the resemblance and affinity extend to the outward bodily form as well as to the soul or rather perhaps, much more than to the soul for it was only by degrees that the notion of the soul as constituting the true and essential nature of the man came to the
as for
:

hints of the original unity of the divine

Vit.

And.

14.

'

O.D. 108.

Fr. 187, Goettling.

126
front in

The

Hymn
''

of

Cleanthes
the natural, and after-

Greek thought. principle holds good

:

Here, as everywhere, the

first

wards the

spiritual."
it

In Pindar's view, as shewn above',

is

only

the spiritual nature of man, the >^vyf\ or soul, which The history of is declared to be of divine descent.
Christian religious thought
is

enough
agent
:

to

prove that

Poetry

is

a most

powerful

in

refining

and

I need only refer you by way of illustration to Palgrave's Treasury of Sacred Song. And the same is true of ancient Greece nor indeed has this inherent power of Poetry ever been better exemplified than by the poet, who throughout his whole career believed himself the chosen servant of Apollo, the most distinctively spiritual of the Greek gods, the god of religious and prophetical, as well as of poetical

purifying the religious sentiment

inspiration.

Although Pindar has not yet shaken himself free from the old Homeric conception of the "^vyfi as nothing but the shadow of the living self, yet all the emphasis is upon the soul it is only the spirit or soul of man, says Pindar, that comes from the Gods: Furthermore, according TO yap ecTTL fxovov Ik Oecov. to what the poet here says, in our waking moments the soul is unconscious or asleep; but when the body is laid to rest, the soul awakes and apprehends the future by virtue of its divine affinity, revealing to us What is the judgment which awaits us after death.
:

the theory underlying this conception

^

Clearly

it is

Divine Origin of the Soul,

Soul and body

127

nothing but the idea familiar to most of us from the

Phaedo of
crcofxa

Plato,

that the

body

is

as

it

were the

prison-house or tomb of the soul

crrjjJLa^

from

crw/xa BecrfJLcoTTJpLoi/,

which we are

set

free

deliverer Death, although sleep, Death's image

twin-sister,

by the and

sometimes effects a partial resuscitation, a kind of temporary reunion of the soul with the
fountain of her being.
it

In

is

said

by Plato

in

the Republic that

somewhat the same way when we

retire to rest after

having feasted the rational part

of our nature with lofty thoughts,

in visions of the

we may,

perhaps,

night apprehend truths greater than

soul reasserting

we know-, the natural divinity of the itself, when temporarily freed from
the flesh and
sixth
its

the tyranny of

desires.

In the literature of the

and

fifth

centuries before Christ, there are not

a few traces of this profoundly religious view of the

between the soul and the body. We meet with it in the Pythagorean school, in Heraclitus, and in Empedocles, and Euripides gives expression
relationship
to the

same thought
t

in the
fxev
Ictti

well-known
KarOavetv,

lines

Ti9 otScv

TO

^rjv
t,rjv

TO Ko^rOavciv 8e

kolto)

voixt^iraL;

"Who
Life

knows
is

if

in the

world beneath the ground,

life?

accounted death, death

who knows ?"^

life

The
involved
'

general theory of
in this

human
is

and destiny

conception, which

closely allied to
shall deliver

Cf. St

Pauls doctrine of viKp^ats.

? "

"Who
24.
^

me

out of the body of this death

'

Rom.

vii.

57^

i^-

^r- 638, Nauck-.

128

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Buddhism, appears to have been elaborated during

the great religious revival, usually

known

as

the

Orphic revival, that spread over a large part of Greece during the sixth century B.C. The notion was that life in the body is a penance which the
soul, itself originally a

God

or a portion of the divine

:

essence, has to pay in consequence of ante-natal sin

so that the end of our endeavours

cultivation of righteousness

is,

by the practice
keep the

of abstinence, by religious ceremonies, and by the

and

holiness, to

soul as far as

may be pure from

the contamination of

the flesh, in order that in due time she

to rejoin the celestial circle

may be qualified

from which she has been

But the point which chiefly concerns us now is that alike In the fragment of Pindar, discussed in the Divine Origin of the Soitl, and in the Orphic religious discipline by which that fragment Is almost
exiled\
certainly Inspired, a clear distinction
is

drawn between

man's bodily nature, which is of the earth, earthy and perishable, and his spiritual nature or soul, which
alone
is
"

divine,

''

am
elixt

a child of earth and starry

koi

heaven

yr\^ ttols

ovpavov

dorrepoevTos,

says the soul in one of the Orphic tablets found In S. Italy': that Is, my body is of the earth, my soul

from heaven.
conception

The religious may be seen from

potentialities

of this

the beautiful lines of

;

the Christian poet

George Herbert

quoted

in

the

See G. Murray in Miss Harrison's Proleg.

Harrison,
Lc. p.

to

Gk. Religion,

660-674.
-

^Nliss

660.


Hu7nan mind a
little

part of God
p.

129
In this

essay on the Vitality of Platonisniy

21.

passage the words

" In soul he

mounts and

flies,

In flesh he dies,"

correspond to the doctrine of

is
it

crcjfjLa crrJ/Aa,

the bodyas crw/xa

the
is

tomb

yet flesh

is

not quite the

same

o-w/xa tainted

by
is

sin.

In

Pindar,

therefore,

the

doctrine

of

mans
soul or

essential divinity

to a certain extent spirituaHsed

by being
xjjvxq
'

restricted to

what he

calls

the

but he seems

still

to conceive of the soul in

not, at least in

the old

Homeric way, and he does

:

this fragment, give

the doctrine

it

is

an intellectual interpretation to and not yet vov<;, which \lfV)(TJ,

There he declares to be descended from the gods. a remarkable passage in the sixth however, is,
N'emean^ where after an emphatic assertion of the %.v dvSpcjp, ev deoiv original unity of men and gods
yevo^

the

poet suggests that perhaps the point

in

which we resemble the immortals is in reality the more intellectual or spiritual part of our nature mind

or reason, ^xiyav poop, Pindar says.

And

it

was

in this

direction that the doctrine of man's celestial origin

was developed after the time of Pindar. Thus for example Diogenes of Apollonia, a philosopher who lived at Athens during the latter part of the fifth
century before
reason within us
Tov
Beov)'^
;

Christ,
is

declared
part of

that

the

povs

or

little

God

{fiiKpop fiopLov

and Euripides, influenced no doubt by

Origi?i

See supra, Divine

Diels, Frag.
d.

of the Soul,
i.

p. 39.

Vorsokratiker-,

p.

331, 28.
9

A. E.

130

The

Hymn
spirit

of Cleanthes
i/ov?

this philosopher,

speaks of the

or iTvevfxa

human mind
element which

or
in

as

the

akin

to

the

aetherial
identifies

more than one passage he

with Zeus, and as destined at last to be reunited with or reabsorbed into the divine or universal mind from

which it came\ But the thinker who more than any other of the Greeks intellectualised the doctrine of man's divine
In Plato descent was Plato. only is divine reason which
:

it

is

always vovs or
of

we must beware

supposing that he conceived of povs merely as the kind of siccum lumen, the clear cold light, the unimpassioned analytic and discursive intellect which we it is a are sometimes in the habit of calling reason
:

religious or spiritual as well as

in

an intellectual faculty
godhead,
ratiociaffinity

Plato,

the link that binds us to the

apprehending the truth not only by means of

nation, but also intuitively, in virtue of
its

with
tions

Him who
to

is

the truth.

Mr
in

Nettleship's observa-

on Greek philosophy
Plato.

general are specially

applicable

"We

say that Greek moral

philosophy, as compared with

modern, lays great

stress on knowledge, and gives importance to the That impression arises mainly from the intellect.
fact that

we

intellectual

by the constant recurrence of terminology, and omit to notice that

are struck

reason or intellect
to

is always conceived of as having do with the good. Reason is to Greek thinkers the very condition of man's having a moral being
^

Eur.

Fr. 941,

Hel.
52.

1014

ff.

quoted supra

Divine Origin

of

tJie

Soul, pp. 47,

Reason and
Their words
'spirit,'

spirit in

man

131

for reason

and
is

rational cover to a great

extent the ground which

'spiritual,'

covered by words Hke

in
is

and

'ideal'

our philosophy.
a rational being, \" of

They would have said where we should say

Understood
in

that a

man
is

that he

a spiritual being
doctrine

this

way,
is

the

man's

relationship to the divine

perhaps the most funda-

mental of Plato's doctrines.

ventured to say,
it
*'

As

have elsewhere
all

is

the ultimate source of

his

and metaphysical, no less than idealism, moral and political, and may well be considered the most precious and enduring inheritance which he It would lead us too has bequeathed to posterity I" far from our immediate subject to justify this statereligious

ment
in

in detail

but before returning to

my

exposition

of Cleanthes,

I will quote to you one or two passages which the founder of idealism in the western world gives expression to the doctrine which has

been the watchword of idealism ever since he lived, and I will also point out to you one characteristic

and

historically fruitful addition

which he made

to

this great doctrine.

You

will

remember

that Plato has

representing that which he calls divine.

two ways of Sometimes

im-

he speaks of the divine

the

in

a half-impersonal way, as

Idea or Form, transcendent at once and

digm or type
^

manent, eternal, changeless and invisible, the parato which the world of generation and
Lectures

and Remains^
^

ii.

p. 221.

'

Republic of Plato

ii.

p. 42.

132

The Hyynn of Cleanthes

decay Imperfectly conforms'.

or

The

totality of

Ideas

Forms

constitutes a perfectly graduated hierarchy,

comparable to the spiritual or angelic hierarchies of and supreme over patristic and medieval theologyall stands the one great unity, which Plato calls the
;

Idea of Good.
as

i\t

other times, again, he uses more

obviously religious language, representing the divine

what we should call a personal being, and desigFrom Plato's point it by the name of God. of view there is not, I believe, any essential or fundamental difference between these two modes of
nating
presentation
Plato
is
:

in

other words, the Idea of

God, and

God

is

the Idea of

Good Good for

:

in

to

Plato philosophy and religion are one and the

thing,

same

and could not be otherwise, inasmuch as God is the supreme truth, and we apprehend him through the divine faculty of reason. Similarly in Dante God is at once the good, the object of universal and immediate
personal being,

desire, the final goal of all particular

striving,

and yet

at the

same time
that
is.

a-

the creative cause of

^

all

Now

whichever of
ix.

Cf.

dvTCTVTra

t<Zv

dXrjOivuiv
is

in

the

Hebrews,

24.

The

whose heaven is the home of all transcendental realities, whose earth is full of their symbols, and these are most abundant where earth is most sacred in the temple (or tabernacle) and worship of his people."
"idealist

writer

of the

Hebrews

an

He

is

Alexandrian too "in his frequent contrasts between the

invisible, imperishable, archetypal world,

and the

visible, perish-

able world of appearance, the imperfect copy (vTrdSety/xa) of the former." Massie in Hastings, /.r. s.v. Allegory.
=

See Lightfoot on Col.

ff.

i.

16

and cf Dante,

Convito, n.

c.

6:

Faradiso, xxviii. 98

Human mind

essentially divine

133

the two forms of expression

numerous passages human mind or spirit to the divine Is emphatically affirmed. Such passages are to be found in Timaetcs 90 ff, Phaedo 79 c ff, and especially Republic 501 b, 589 a, where
prefer,
it

we
in

personal or impersonal

is

possible to find

Plato,

where the

affinity of the

Plato implies that

portion as
w^ards

we

are truly

human

just in proafter;

we are divine. This teaching was worked out by Aristotle and the Stoics
it

and
7, 9,

when

Aristotle in the Niconiachea^i Ethics, x.

would seem that the divine or rational part of man is actually the self, inasmuch as it is the supreme or better part of man, It follows that
says that
self-realisation,
in the true

sense of the word,

will

and development of the immortal part of our nature, and the ethical end for man can be expressed in the formula e<^' oaov ivhe^^raL, adavartt^eiv. "so far as in thee lies, put on the immortal." The lower merely mortal appetites, that clog and thwart the soul, are alien to our true nature as human beings by yielding to them we
consist In the cultivation
:

follow a

life

that

is

not our

own

the
is

way

to attain

our true and proper individuality

"

to

Move upward, working out And let the ape and tiger

the beast

die\"

On

the deeper religious and philosophical sig-

nificance of this great doctrine of man's ideal

essential unity with

God, the history of which

and have

For a

fuller

discussion of this subject see supra, Divine

pp.

Origi?i of the Soul,

62

ff.

134

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

thus briefly traced from Pindar

will

down
It

to Aristotle,
is

not on

this

occasion dwell.

admirably

brought out by Principal Caird

in his Gifford lectures

on The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity, a book which I would ask you to read as a sequel to these It may however be noted that according lectures.
to St

Paul the highest element in man, which he

is

terms nvevixa,
principle
TTvevfjia

the part of our nature by which

we

are allied to God, and that he sometimes denotes this

by the Platonic term

vovs,

which means the

seeking to apprehend divine things\

is

What
its
I

concerns us chiefly at present

significance in Stoicism
;

to

understand

and on

this subject

will

same time recommending you to study the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated by Kendall, and the discourses of Epictetus, in Mr Long's translation. After what has hitherto
a few words, at the

now say

been

said,

you

will

readily understand that in pro-

nouncing man to be the offspring of God eK crov yap yevojxecrOa Cleanthes means simply that the intellectual and spiritual part of our nature, that is to

say, our vov<; or reason,

is

in the fullest

sense of the

term divine, a fragment or

quently
maintained,

efflux, as the Stoics fre-

of God.

This

is

cardinal

doctrine of Stoic anthropology, from Zeno"

down

to
in

Marcus Aurelius
most of
^

but

it

is

much more prominent

later than in earlier

my

Stoicism, and for that reason illustrations will be drawn from Epictetus

See Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece, p. 381 f. See e.g. Fragment 95 in Pearson's Fragments of

7^710 a?id

Cleanthes.

Divinity of

man

in Stoicism

135
Aurelius

and

his pupil the

Roman Emperor. Marcus

never wearies of ringing the changes on this idea.

"God

sees

men's

Inner Selves stripped of their

material shells and husks and impurities.

Mind

to

mind, his mental being touches only the like elements

and immanent from him\" Elsewhere he speaks of the God " or ''daemon" or ''divine element" within us', "my God and daemon^" the spirit which is "mind and God/' whereas the
in us derivative
'*

body

is

but "refuse clay'," and identifies the

self,

spirit

with the true

the inner

man

or ego, that part of

our nature which alone can truly be called our own^

remember, is the power concealed within there is the mandate, the Never confound life, there, one may say, the man.
pulls

"That which

the

strings,

with the mere containing shell, and the various appended organs. They may be compared to tools,
it

with this difference, that the connexion

action or inaction, the parts are of

is

organic.

Indeed, apart from the inner cause which dictates

no more use than

the weaver's shuttle, the writer's pen, or the coach-

man's whip^"

Let us now consider some of the implications which this doctrine carries with it in Stoicism. What bearing has the belief in man's celestial origin and kinship upon his conception, first of the duty he owes
to himself,

fellow-men
'

and secondly of the duty he owes to his I will take these two points separately.
Kendall.
*
^

XII. 2,
V.

tr.

11.

13, in. 5, xi. 19 al, xii.

'

i.

3 ^

10.
tr.

III.

3, tr.

Kendall.

xii. 3.

X. 38,

Kendall.

136

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

First then, as to the duty

we owe

to ourselves.

The keynote

of Stoic morahty, so far as concerns

is

the individual in his relation to himself,

in the following

contained
" If a

passages of Epictetus.

man

should be able to assent to this doctrine as he ought,

one especial manner, and that God is the father both of men and of gods, I suppose that he would never have any
that

we

are

all

sprung from

God

in

ignoble

or mean thoughts about himself But if Caesar (the emperor) should adopt you, no one
;

could endure your arrogance and if you know that you are the son of Zeus, will you not be elated? Yet we do not so; but since these two things are mingled in the generation of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelligence in common with the gods, many incline to this kinship, which is miserable and mortal and some few to that which is divine and happy. Since then it is of necessity
;

that every

man

uses everything according to the

it,

opinion which he has about

those, the few,

who

think that they are formed for fidelity and modesty

and a sure use of appearances have no mean or

ignoble thoughts

about themselves

but with the

say,

many

it is
.'^

quite the contrary.

For they

What

am
bit

poor, miserable man, with

;

my

wretched

of flesh. Wretched, indeed but you possess something better than your bit of flesh. Why then do you neglect that which is better, and why do you
attach yourselves
(that
is,

to

this^

"Nevertheless he"

Zeus) **has placed by every

'

man

a guardian,

I.

3, tr.

Long.

Mans

duty

to

himself

I37

every man's Daemon, to whom he has committed is the care of the man, a guardian who never sleeps,

what better and more careof us? ful guardian could he have intrusted each When then you have shut the doors and made darkness within, remember never to say that you are but God is within, and your alone, for you are not
never deceived.

For

to

and what need have they of light To this God you ought to see what you are doing? Caesar. to swear an oath just as the soldiers do to But they who are hired for pay swear to regard the have safety of Caesar before all things; and you who received so many and such great favours, will you

Daemon

is

within,

not swear, or

when you have sworn,

?

will

abide by your oath

And what

shall

you not you swear ?

be disobedient, never to make any charges, never to find fault with anything that he has given, and never unwillingly to do or to suffer anything

Never

to

that

is
?

necessary.

Is

this

oath like

the

soldier's

oath

swear not to prefer any man to Caesar: in this oath men swear to honour themselves before alP." Side by side with these two passages set

The

soldiers

the following from Marcus Aurelius: ^'Live with the gods {(Tvl^v Oeols). And he lives with the gods,

whoever presents to them his soul acceptant of their dispensations, and busy about the will of God, even that particle of Zeus, which Zeus gives to every man mind and for his controller and governor to wit, his
reason'."

You
I.

will see that

is,

the

God
'

within us, that

14,
tr.

from one point of view our mind or spirit, appears

'

Long.

V.

27,

tr.

Kendall.

3^

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s
whom we
are to follow

as an Internal oracle, a guide

"walk with God" {aKokovO-qaov Oeai), says Marcus With this may be compared Heraclitus' iSi^rjo-oifxr)!/ ifxecovTov^ and the Brahmanism of the
Aurelius'.

Upanishads, as exemplified

in the following lines

Self,

"Whoso

shall find

him the awaken'd

he, the All

that lodgeth in this darkling patch'd-up house,

builder of

all

is

he maketh
is

his is the world, the

world in sooth

he.

When
his

straightway he beholdeth god in Self

is

sovran of what hath been and

to be,
its

thought no more shall waver in

way'."

From another point of view this divine faculty may be regarded as conscience: ''God is near thee," we read in Seneca, ''with thee, within thee... there
dwells in us a holy spirit {sacer intra nos spiritus
sedet), to

evil

deeds
''
:

keep watch and ward over our good and (malortim bonorumque nostrorum ob-

servator et custosfT
writes

To

the

same

effect

Epictetus

When we

are children our parents deliver

all

us to a paedagogue to take care on

occasions that

we suffer no harm. But when we are become men, God delivers us to our innate conscience {1^<^vt(^
us. This guardianship no way despise, for we shall both displease God and be enemies to our own conscience^"
o-vveiSTJcreL) to

take care of
in

then

we must

Or again the divine particle within us is represented as a treasure or talent committed to our
'

vn. 31,
Fr. 80.

tr.

Rendall.
3

Cf. cVco-^at O^oh,

xn. 27.

ticity

^ Ep. Bamett, Hinduis77i, p. 16. ^\. 2. Fr. 97, tr. Long. Doubts have been held as to the authenof this fragment ; but in sentiment, at least, it is Stoic.

Aspects of the divine factdty in

charge.
"

man

139

Keep

the deity within inviolate and free

from scathed"
erect,

as

called'-.''

''Keep your God within pure and though at any moment Hable to be reMan's duty is '*to keep the god implanted
perturbed by any tumult

in his breast unsoiled, not

of impressions, keeping his watch serene, a seemly

follower of god, not false to truth in utterance or to
justice in actl"

Passages such as these have often

''
:

Know been compared with the words of St Paul ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the
spirit

of

God

dwelleth in you^?"

"Know

ye not

body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in }'ou, which ye have from God'?" and it is certain, not only that a Stoic might quite well have
that your

used
to

this language,

but also that the ethical motive

which the Apostle here appeals honour the divine element within you plays a very great part But when St Paul conin later Greek Stoicism.

tinues

"and ye

are not your

^"

bought with a price be pointed

difference
out,
is

own; for ye were he adds a new and far more

will

powerful motive, a motive which, as

aftenvards

the one great and fundamental

between Christianity on the one hand, and Greek philosophy upon the other, the stimulus of a divine yet human personality, in whose death we live by dying unto sin, Finally, the divine element within us is sometimes conceived of by the Stoics as a kind of God-given
^

n. 17,
III.

tr.
tr.

Kendall.
Kendall.

ni. 12, after Kendall.

i

16,

* '

Cor.

iii.

16.

Ibid.

vi.

19.

Ibid.

140

The

Hymn
''

of Cleanthes

seed or germ, which

cultivate

it is our privilege and duty to It suffices," says Marcus and develop. Aurelius', "to attend only to the daemon within The Stoics were no oneself and truly cultivate it." believers in pre-existence, as pre-existence was understood by Plato but if Epictetus and others may
;

be trusted, neither did they hold that the mind

birth

is

at

no more than a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper for the registration merely of sense-impressions
nor indeed could such a view have possibly been
entertained by those
as from the
first

who regarded
to

the

human mind

a portion of the divine.

On

the

contrary,

according

the

express

statement of

Epictetus,
subjects as

we have

certain "innate notions" on such

good and evil, honourable and base, the becoming and the unbecoming, what we ought to do and what we ought not to do^ etc. These "innate notions " were called in Stoicism e/x<^urot npoXijxpeLS and they were strictly limited to the domain of thus, for example, morality, aesthetics and religion we have no e/x<^vT09 7r/)dXT7i//ts of a right-angled triangle, but the notion of God's existence, on the
: :

other hand,

is

innate I

At

first,

however, these ideas

obscurae, adumb7^atae

are undeveloped and obscure

intellegentiae, Cicero calls

them, notitiae parvae rerurn

;

maximaru7ii tanquam eleme^ita vuHutis^

and

it

is

only after they have been articulated {SL7]p6pojfxipaL

TTpoXnjxljeLs)

by self-conscious,
^

reflective
^

thought that

n. 13.

II.

II.

^ *

IhW. and Cic.

JV.

D.
:

11.

12

and

45.

Laws,

I.

26 and 59

De

Fin. v. 59.

Duty of

self-realisation

141

they begin to have a positive value'.

the
individual

In this

way

becomes a the moral progress of process of emulation or development of what is already present in the mind by reason of its divine affinity, in other words a process of self-realisation, the word self being understood as usual of the inner
or higher
it

self,

that

is

the

human

nature in so far as
is

is

also

divine.

Self-realisation

one of

the

cardinal principles of Stoic ethics.

Up to this point, I have spoken only of the way in which the Stoic teachers' conception of man's affinity with God affected their view of what may be called But, it may fairly be asked, was personal morality. morality, then, in Stoicism, only self-regarding? This
is

a reproach w^hich has often been brought against

;

the system
for

and we must allow that there

reproach
in

is

reason

such

the somewhat academic

pictures which they often

draw of the wise man

apathy
perfect

the
self-

ideal type of perfect virtue, perfect

classic

(in the

meaning of the word), and

sufficiency.

If we turn, however, to the works of and Marcus Aurelius and the spirit which Epictetus animates these writers is altogether in keeping with

the latter half of Cleanthes'

hymn

we

shall find that

the Stoic conception of self-realisation or self-culture was not and could not possibly be purely selfish or
self-regarding, just because the self which the Stoic

endeavours to realise not what we should

1

is

essentially the universal

and
all.

call

the individual self at

u.

See on the whole subject Bonhoffer, Epictet

ff.

die S/oa,

187

142

The

Hymn

of Chant hes
is

The

divine faculty of reason

not the monopoly of

the wise

man

it

exists in every

human

being, the

pledge of our

common

brotherhood, the proof of the

jNIarcus Aurelius
is

universal fatherhood of God.

always reiterating the doctrine that man's brotherhood with all mankind depends not on "blood or the
generative seed, but on community in mind
KOLi^(ovLa)\ for
"

{vov

"each man's mind," he

It

says, ''is god,

an efflux of deity^"

follows that the ideal

man

never

''

forgets his

bond of brotherhood with every

"for
it is

rational creature^":

the distinctive property

of a rational being to love his neighbours^"

''We

are
**

made

for co-operation," says

Marcus

Aurelius",

like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the

"

upper and
there-

the lower rows of teeth."

You

are part of a social

whole, a factor necessary to complete the

fore

sum

your every action should help to complete the

life.

social

Any
its

action of yours that does not tend,

life

directly or remotely, to this social end, dislocates

and
like

infringes

unity.

It is

an act of sedition, and

some

separatist doing
civic

what he can

to

break

away from

accords"

Hence

the Stoic con-

ception of self-realisation, so far from being monastic,

can only be attained through the service of others.

"

No one outside the pale of Christianity," says Mr Dill, "has perhaps ever insisted so powerfully on
live

the obligation to
^

for

others... as
^

Seneca has

XII. 26.
III.

/did.

tr.

Kendall.

4, tr.
rrj<i

Kendall.
\oyLKyj<; yj/vxTj^,

*
5

lSlov
II.

to (fnkelv tous TrX-qatov.

*^

XI.

I.

T,

tr.

Kendall.

ix. 2t,, tr.

Kendall.

Duty of
done'."

social sei^ice

143
but the repre-

And

in this respect

Seneca
"

is

sentative of later Stoicism.

ness,"

Man

is

we

read in Marcus Aurelius,

made for kind"and whenever

he does an act of kindness or otherwise helps forward the common good, he thereby fulfils the law of his being and comes by his own'." And in another
passage
"

Do

that

which reason, your king and

lawgiver suggests for the help of

dv6pdmo)v)\''
It
is

men

(in
in

ax^yekda

all

summed up
Aurelius:
deep:

a single
to

pregnant

text

of

Marcus

(^iXtjcov

dv6po)Tnvovyevo^' dKoXovdrjaov

''love

mankind:

walk with God'." You cannot walk with God, unless you love mankind. The highest expression of what may be called
the social side of Stoicism
citizenship, for
is

the doctrine of world-

which the teaching of Socrates and Plato had already prepared the way. It is a favourite Stoic idea that the world is a fjLeydXrj ttoXi?, a great men being city, whose citizens are men and gods

as

were the children, and God the universal Bst enim mundus^' says Cicero, ''quasi father'. communis deorum atque hominum domus aut urbs Within this great community the utrorumqtie\'' earlier Stoics, it is true, recognised a narrower and
it
''

more exclusive commonwealth, analogous

in

some

Roman
VII. 31,

Society

from Nero

to

Marcus Aurelius,
^

p.

326.

IX. 42, tr.

tr.

Kendall. Kendall.
it

iv. 12, tr.

Kendall.

*
^

We
De

are as

were

TratSes o-vv avSpao-6 in

the World-City.

See

Von
^

Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, in. 334.

Nat. Deor.
11.

154.

144

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

and emOnly good men," bracing only the good or wise. are fellow-citizens and friends and relasaid Zeno, between fools or sinners there tions and free men^" But, owing in some degree enmityl is nothing but to the fact that the Stoic wise man always remained
respects to the conception of a church,
"
''
:

an unrealisable aspiration or
wealth of the

ideal,

the

common-

wise plays a comparatively small

;

part in practical as opposed to theoretical Stoicism

and

in

Epictetus and his pupil

it

is

nearly always
ideal that pre-

the wider and

vails.
''

more comprehensive
I

In so far as

am
"

Antoninus," said Marcus,

"

my

city
it

and fatherland
is

is

Rome, but
koX
dvOpojiTcOj

as a

human
ws
fxkv

being,

the world
rj

(ttoXis

Trarpis,

^KvTOJvivo),

fJLOL

'l^coixr],

ws Se
read

6 KocrfJiO^^).

In

Epictetus,

again,

we

''If

the things are

by the philosophers about the between God and man, what else remains kinship Never in for men to do than what Socrates did ? what country you belong, reply to the question, to say that you are an Athenian or a Corinthian, but
true which are said
that

you are a

citizen

of the world

(fcocr/xto?).

He

then who... has learned that the greatest and

supreme and the most comprehensive community is that which is composed of men and God, and that from God have descended the seeds not only to my father and grandfather, but to all beings which are generated on the earth and are produced,
and particularly
^

to rational beings
^

for these only

154.

Fr. 149, Pearson.

VI. 44.

f^i'd.

"

Universal brotherhood
are

145

by their nature formed to have communion God, being by means of reason conjoined with him why should not such a man call himself
with

a citizen of the world,

why

not a son of
slaves
as as

God^?"
well
as
saints.

In

this

great

commonwealth,
sinners

freemen

participate,

well

as

Writing
slaves,

against

the

inconsiderate

treatment

of

Epictetus observes: "Slave yourself, will you not bear with your own brother, who has Zeus for his progenitor, and is like a son from the same seeds and of the same descent from above ?... Will you not remember who you are, and whom you
rule
?

that they are kinsmen, that they are brethren

by nature, that they are the offspring of Zeus'?" And Marcus Aurelius for his part speaks of the
sinner as a brother, "participating not indeed in

the

same

flesh

and blood, but

in

the

same mind

and partnership with the divine^": they err unwillingly, he says, through ignorance*: "teach them
then, or bear w^ith them'."
Totit savoir, cest tout

pardonner.

With

this

we may compare
pirate

the

fol-

lowing fragment.

"A

had been cast on the

land and was perishing through the tempest.

and brought the pirate into his house, and supplied him with everything else that was necessar)^ When the man was reproached by a person for doing kindness to the bad, he replied, I have shown this regard not

man took clothing and gave

it

to him,

I.

9, tr.
I, tr.

Long.
Kendall.

'1-13,

tr.

Long.

Cf. Dill,
*

I.e.

p.

328.

'

II.

iv. 3.

VIII. 59, tr.

A. E.

Kendall. 10

146
to the

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes
If

man, but to mankind\"

we would underthings

stand the true historical significance of the Stoic

cosmopolitanism,
that
it is

we must above

all

essentially a religious ideal, since the

is

remember bond

of citizenship
his

man's unity with

It
is is

man
in

in virtue of

unity with God.

the prototype, and so

part at least

far as

Greek thought
In

concerned,

the progenitor of the Christian civitas dei or ''city

Marcus Aurelius we have the very phrase: '''Dear city of Cecropsl' saith the poet, and wilt thou not say Dear city of God^' ?" We have a kind of unconscious prophecy in a noble
of God."
'

fragment of Cicero's de republica, a fragment

spired by what
is

in-

best and most enduring in the

:

philosophy of Plato and the Stoics

not be one law at

"And

there will

Rome and

another at Athens,
;

one law to-day and another law to-morrow

but the

same law everlasting and unchangeable will bind all nations at all times and there will be one common
;

Master and Ruler of all, even God, the framer, the arbitrator, and the proposer of this law. And he who will not obey it will be an exile from himself,

naturam hominum by virtue of that very act, suffer the greatest of all penalties, even though he shall have escaped all other punishments which can be Christianity has done something to imagined^"
aspernatus

and, despising the nature of man

will,

1 ^

Pseudo-Epictetus, Fr. 109,

IV. 23, tr.
III.

tr.

Long.
{Studies

Kendall.
tr.

c.

22^

Churton Collins

in

Shakespeare^

p.

127).

Cosmopolitanism a
bring this ideal nearer
realised
;

religiotis ideal

147
fully

but
is

it

can only be

when

the prayer
will

fulfilled:

"Thy
it

kingis

dom come.
heaven
\"

Thy

be done on earth, as
said

in

Enough has now been

pounding
but also

by way of exof

and
in

illustrating
it

the

doctrine
in

man's

divine descent as

appears not only

Stoicism

earlier

Greek

literature.

Let us now

proceed to discuss the second division of the hymn.

We

shall find

it,

think, equal in point of interest

first.
Trept

and importance
crol
St)
TTttS

to the

oSe Kocr/xo?, cXtcro-o/xevos

yatav,

Trei^erat,

^ Kev ay/^s, kcu kojv vtto

ai/t/cT/Tots

trcto

KpaTurai'

rolov Ix^ts VTToepyov

aiiJL<f}T]Krj,

evi

^epcriv

TTvpoevT, atei^ojovra
Tr-Xrjy^^
(f>v(T0}<s

Kepavvov
irdvT

Tov yap VTTO

<S

Ipya <TXilTai>.

(TV

Karev^vvets kolvov Xoyov, 6s Sta Tzavroiv

fJLLyvvfXvo<i

<f>OLTa,
(US

/xeyaXots /utKpois T t^aeo-crtv.

ToVcros ycyaojs VTraros ^acrtA-cvs ota Travros.

7rt

ovSe Tt ytyverat Ipyov

^^ovl o-ov Stxa, Sat/xov,

oure Kar' alOipiov d^iov ttoXov out' evi ttoVtu),

ttX^v OTToVa pi'CovGL KaKol

a-<f>Tpr)<JLV

avotats.

dAAa
Kttt

oo)

Kttt

TO,

TrepLO-a-d

<t>

eTrto-rao-at
<f>L\a
<toI

aprta ^ctvai,
c^tAa (ttlv.

KocrfxcLV TdKoa-fxa,

kol ov

(oSe
ujcr^*

yap

is

tv iravra awqp/JLOKas icrOkd KaKolcnv,

Iva ytyvccr^at Trotvrojv Aoyov aiV eovra.

"Lo! yonder Heaven,

Follows thy guidance,

that
still

round the earth is wheeled, to thee doth yield

Glad homage; thine unconquerable hand Such flaming minister, the levin-brand

Cf.

Dill,

U.

p.

328:

"The

Stoic school has the glory of

anticipating

tiie

diviner dream, yet far from realised, of a

light

human

brotherhood under the

from the Cross."

10

148

The

Hymn
all

of Cleanthes

Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might

Pulsates through
that Nature brings to light;

Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows

Through all, and in the light celestial glows Of stars both great and small. O King of kings Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings To birth, whate'er on land or in the sea
Is wrought,

or in high heaven's immensity;

Save what the sinner works infatuate. Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight:

Chaos

to thee
is

is

order: in thine eyes

The unloved

lovely,

who

didst harmonise

Things evil with things good, that there should be

One Word through

all

things everlastingly."

The
is

general idea running through these lines

that the whole of external Nature, organic and

implicit

inorganic, yields

obedience to the law of

in

God

and

if

we

look at

them

connexion with the

next division of the

to line 35),

poem

(extending from line 22

we
to

shall see that

one of the objects of

parallel
:

Cleanthes

is

contrast

Nature's obedience with

man's disobedience.

For a Christian
with Thee, and tarry

we

may compare
An
Thy

the lines of
I
sit

Henry Vaughan

"Sometimes

hour or two, then vary.

other creatures in this scene

Thee only aim, and mean Some rise to seek Thee, and with heads
Erect,

peep from

their
is

beds;
in the

Others, whose birth

tomb,

And

cannot quit the womb,

Sigh there, and groan for Thee,

Their
I

liberty.
I

would

were a stone, or

tree,

Or

flower by pedigree,


Nature
s obedience to

Goa

149

Or some poor highway

herb, or spring
!

To

flow, or bird to sing

I

Then should
But
I

tied to

one sure
stray

state

All day expect

my

date;

am

sadly loose,

and

A
O

giddy blast each way;

let

me

not thus range

Thou

canst not changed"

But the verses of Cleanthes need elucidation in nearly every detail. I will first endeavour to explain their meaning in such a way as to disentangle the principal ideas which they express and after:

wards

will

discuss and

illustrate

these ideas at

greater length.

"Then

all

this

universe,

circling

around the

earth,
:

obeys,

following thy guidance,

and

willingly accepts thy rule

such a
fire-

minister hast thou in thine unconquered hands, two-edged,

fraught, the ever-living thunderbolt
:

for

under

its

pulsations

all

the works of nature are accompHshed.

Therewith thou directest

all things,

the universal Word, that the great

moves through

mingling wdth

and

lesser lights."

We
or Zeus,

have here, you

will

observe,
first

three

appa-

rently distinct conceptions

the supreme
:

God

who

is

addressed throughout
his

second the

ever-living thunderbolt,

minister

and
or

thirdly,

the

KOLvos

X6yo<;

or

universal

Word

Reason,

represented as carried to and fro throughout the

world by means of the thunderbolt as the shuttle

carries the thread.

In reality, however, the thunder-

and the Universal Word are not numerically separate either from the supreme God or from
bolt
^

Creation

waiting for Deliverance (Palgrave,

p. 91).

Treasury of

Sacred Song,

150
:

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

one another they are only two different aspects, in which the highest Unity reveals himself to us, two mutually complementary points of view from which the human intellect regards him\ We must
not forget that Stoicism
dualistic
is

a monistic and not a

there
all
is
:

system

to
is

the

Stoic

nothing

outside God,
call

who

the universe or

what we

matter and what

we

call

spirit are a unity in

living thunderbolt"

mean by the ''everThis oracular phrase is taken from Heraclitus, who in one fragment speaks of the "ever-living fireV and in another says that "the
him.

What

then does the poet

?

thunderbolt steers
K^pavv6%y.

all

things" (ra Se Travja

ota/ct{et

Now in Heraclitus "the thunderbolt" is only a poetical synonym for the material aspect of the yvoyy.7] or Xoyo9, the thought that interpenetrates
and
rules

the world

and

similarly

in

Cleanthes,

the "ever-living thunderbolt" means the immanent, omnipresent Godhead regarded on what may be
called his

material or physical side.

The

Stoics,

indeed,

sometimes

go so
:

far

as

to

identify

the

Deity with a species of fire, exactly as Heraclitus appears to have done one of their definitions of

God
the
^

is

" creative fii^e,

generation

of

proceeding systematically to the world'"; that is to say,

is

Just so in the Timaeus of Plato, the 87^/xtoupyo9

not to

be viewed as distinct from the Idea on the model of which he frames the world he is that Idea, regarded in its creative or
:

movent
-

aspect.
8

Fr. 20.
TTvp reyyiKov^ oS<5 ySaSt^ov
e-Tri

p^

28.

ycvecret koct^xov

Aetius

I.

7.

33,

p.

306, Diels.

The ever-liviuz thunderbolt

SI

evolving the world from himself according to the

unalterable law of his

own being

although,

when

speaking more exactly, they prefer to use the word "aether" of the divine substance a curious anticipation, by the way, of recent theories of the

structure of matter.

further point deserving of

notice

in

connexion with the expression

is this.

"ever-

living thunderbolt"

We
own

have seen that the

philosophy, by the
will

Stoics spared no effort to reinterpret the popular

religion in terms of their

extensive use of allegory

that

and you

the

thunderbolt

is

always
:

and art the emblem of Zeus worshipped as God of the thunderbolt (Zeu? /cepavvLos), and sometimes as the thunderbolt itself
(Zevs Kpavp6<;^).

remember Greek poetry nay more, Zeus was

in

Thus, while following

his

master
to

Heraclitus, Cleanthes at the

same time contrives

give a philosophical interpretation, as philosophers

are

wont

to do, to a familiar article of the popular

creed.

The

phrase " beneath whose pulsations

is

all

the

works of Nature are accomplished,"

certain
intrinsic

an allusion to
that
in
is,

the characteristically Stoic doctrine of

tension
or strain

t6vo<;,

present

the

original divine substance out of

is

which the universe formed, a doctrine about which I will only say
that
it

now
atom.

is

another curious foreshadowing of

theories of the constitution of the
let

certain

modern

Passing over this subject,

to

us

consider

what Cleanthes washes us

^

understand by the kolvos

States,
j.

In Mantinca.

See Farnell, Cults of the Greek

p. 45.

152
\6yo^,

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes
that
**

the universal
all

word or reason

moves
lesser

through
lights."

things, mingling with the great

and

As

the "thunderbolt" expresses the material,

so the ''universal
call

word" expresses what we should

the spiritual aspect of the immanent, omnipresent

Godhead.
versitatis

We

are told by Tertullian that Cleanthes

conceived of the \oyQ% as a

spirit

permeator imipermeating the universe^ and

spirittis
;

another authority informs us that he considered

to

God

be the soul of the v/orld

(t^-]v

tqv kog-ixov

xjjvx'qJ^Y'

Here, then, we have the great doctrine of the Logos in its Greek form a doctrine which, as I hope to

show you

presently, reaches back to Heraclitus,

in

and
it

forward to St John, although

doubtless owes something to
is

the fourth Gospel

influence,

Hebrew

and

undoubtedly transformed and transfigured by the introduction of an element which is neither Greek
nor Hebrew, but
in

the true and etymological mean-

ing of the word, exclusively Christian.

The

lines that follow touch incidentally

:

on the
''Nor
is

question of free-will and moral res|3onsibility

aught done without thy

will,

Lord, on earth, or in

the aetherial firmament divine, or in the sea, except

do through their own tolly " and thereafter we have a profoundly religious characteri-

what

evil m.en

sation of the
discord,
**

Godhead

as the

Harmony

in

whom

all

both physical and moral, is reconciled. Nay, but thou knowest also how to make odd even, and bring order out of chaos and the unloved is For thou hast joined together into loved by thee.
;

Cleanthes, ir. 12, Pearson.

Jr. 14.

The Logos and cosmic harmony

one whole
all

153
evil,

things good with

all

all

things

in

such a way that

make up one

universal

Word,

existent evermore."

which have emerged in this somewhat rapid survey of the second division of the hymn are three in number. There is first, the immanence of God in the world secondly, the contopics
:

The

ception of

God

as the discors concordia reriim

in

the
The

cosmic harmony

which

all
:

partial

discords are

comprehended and
about the
last
oriorin

conciliated

and
all

finally,

we have
involves

the question of free-will, with

that

it

of moral evil in the world.

of these topics can best be dealt with as an

;

appendix or epilogue to the other two

first

and the two

are only

somewhat

slightly difterent phases of

full meaning and significance endeavour to expound. of which I will now Here, as formerly, we must begin with Heraclitus. We are expressly told by Clement of Alexandria and that Heraclitus declared fire to be God'

the

Logos

doctrine, the

although none of the extant fragments affirms the

identity in so

many

words,

it

can be shown,
fire

think,

that this omnipresent rational

wdiich he calls

\oyos

conception of the It would lead us too far to trace the Godhead'. history of the doctrine of the divine immanence in
is

in point of fact Heraclitus'

Greek literature from Heraclitus down and I must content myself with saying
'

to the Stoics;

that

it

under-

Coh.

ad

Ge?it. 5.

165

a,

Migne.
is

For a

full

discussion of the steps by which this conclusion

reached, see suj>ra, The

Doctrine of the

Logos

in Heraclitus, pp. yQff.

154

^'^^

Hymn

of Cleantkes

went the usual process of spiritualisation ** first the natural and afterwards the spiritual " through the influence of poetry and philosophy^ until we meet with it in an altogether dematerialised or spiritual

form
soul.

in

the Platonic theory of the cosmic or world

It

should also be remarked that whereas in

Heraclitus

God

is

conceived of only as immanent

in

and not as transcendent,

conformity with the

Plato on the

usual trend of pantheistic theology,

other hand represents the world-soul as distinct from

were his viceworld of space and time, an emanation, as it would seem, from his own transcendence and thus the Platonic form of the doctrine satisfies the two essential conditions of theism, according to which the Godhead is at once transcendent and immanent. The Stoics, as w^e have seen, reverted
It

the Creator or supreme God, as

in the

gerent

to Heraclitus in

both particulars, affirming only the

immanence of God in their doctrine of the omnipresent Logos, and denying the duality of matter and spirit through their identification of the Logos
with
TTt'ev/xa

lvQ^p\.Kov,

Let

me endeavour
how
this

to

''warm breath" or ''aether." show you in a little more

detail

conception of the divine immanence

and omnipresence was worked out

by Stoicism,

^ See especially the fragments of Epicharmus, ed. Kaibel. In Euripides, too, we have a kindred conception see Adam,
:

Religious Teachers of Greece, pp. 299

ff.

and something of the

same kind meets us in Anaxagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia (in whom, however, the materialism reappears), and in Socrates:
ibid.

pp.

261

ff.,

266

f.,

348

f.

All-pervading Godhead
before
I

155

proceed to remark upon

its

religious

mean-

ing and value.

The

all-pervading Deity or world-soul or Logos

different

for

these

designations,

together

with

many

others, such as Justice, Providence

and Fate,

are practically synonymous, or at most express but

which the human mind conceives of this all-pervading Godhead was the divine unity
different

ways

in

regarded by the Stoics as a

spirit or Trvevfxa

a kind

of ''atmospheric current" present in every form of

matter, whether organic or inorganic
:

but the degree

of tension or strain persisting in the wvevfjLa

TTvevfjiaTLKos t6i^o<;

as

the
least,

it

was

called, is

by no means
is

the

same throughout.
of earth,

Where

the tension

as in inorganic objects, stones, for example, minerals,

pieces

wood and

so

forth,

the
tl)

Trvevfjia

appears as a kind of current {irvevfjiaTLKOP

stream-

ing from the centre to the extremities of the object

and back again

This, which
still,

to the centre, with

power

to hold the
it

thing together, but with no powder to

is

make

the lowest grade of

a revelation of the

Trvev^ia,

move. though

of course,

Godhead, the
it

Stoics called i^is or "cohesion," because

(TvveKTiK-q ZvvajXL^,

possesses

by means of which it prevents the We must not call it object from falling to pieces.
soul, but
it

is

the substitute for soul in inorganic

in

things.

Next higher
which
is

the scale comes

<^vo-t9

or

" Nature,"

so to speak the soul of plants,

the

word

"

Nature

"

being used

in a

highly technical

or scientific sense, with a play of course on ^vrov

"plant."

Here the tension

of the npevfjia

is

greater,

156
involving the

The

Hymn
at

of Cleanthes

power of movement, upward

least,

and
of

downward movement
plants.
It
is

together with such

life

other attributes or qualities as belong to the

not until

the ascent that

we reach the we meet with >\}vyj\ or

Finally,

third stage in
soul,

which

is

the form in which the Trveviia reveals itself in the

lower animals.

when man

is

reached,

we

have rational soul or ^01^9, the form of Trvevfia in which the tension is highest, for, as we have already seen, man's vqvs is in a peculiar and distinctive sense
a portion of God.

Now in this ascending scale of existences I would have you particularly observe that each higher grade includes and embraces all the lower minerals have the lower animals eft?, eft9, plants eft? and (^vcrcs and man efts, (f>v(TLs, ^^rj and (f)vcrLs and i/zv^'^
: : :

vov<s

so

that

there

is

real

solidarity

or

unity

stretching "through

all

things," not merely, as

commonwealth of Wordsworth says,

the mighty

"Up
up

from the creeping plant to sovereign man^"

but from the lowest creations of even inorganic nature

to

sovereign
is

man

for

God
is

according to the
eVojortg

Stoics

present even in the most ignoble forms of

In this
the
''

matter.
Kocr/JLov,

way God
"

the true

tov

unity

or " unification of the world,"

in the

language of Cleanthes, the universal

"that flows

Word

or

Reason
Through
all,

and

in the light celestial

glows

Of

stars

both great and small";

'

Excursion,

iv.

God
"even as"

the unification

of

existences

157

to quote again

from Wordsworth,
of pervading light

"one essence

Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars

And

the

Couch'd

in the

meek worm dewy

that feeds her lonely

lamp

grass\"

From

the

considerations
it

which

placed before you,

will

be evident to

have now you all that

nature as

the Stoics found a revelation of

well as in the heart of man.

God in Anyone who

wishes to

follow out their treatment of this subject in detail

cannot do better than read the de natura deorum of

Cicero in
Professor Mayor's
edition

one

of the

most interesting and suggestive treatises on natural It would be a fascinating enquiry to trace the parallels between the Stoic and
theology ever written.
the early Christian conceptions of the divine

imman-

more the Logos

ence,

especially the Johannine interpretation of

as the
is

''

timeless

life,

of which the tem-

poral world

a manifestation"," but on the present

occasion
in

I will rather call your attention to the way which the Stoic deification of Nature reappears in certain types of modern half-religious and halfphilosophical poetry, making mention, however, by

the way, of what

^

seems

to

me

really striking
in

Prelude^
I.e.

Book
459:

xiv.

See also especially Critolaus

twv draKTojv,
d(TviJi(f)<jJvo}v,

von

Arnim,
(Ivai

11.

tI St/ttot

ovyl koX ttjv tov Koafxav (jivaiv X^kt^ov

Tr]v

fxaKpaLOiva " t-^v rd^tv

dp/xovtav

twv dvap-

fioaroiv, TT/v irvfxcjuiiviav

TT]V

t^v

ttjv Ivcocrtv
Kttl

twv SLeaTrjKOTwv,
8eV8pWV
^VCTIV,

^vXuiV /XV

KOL

XLBuiV

^tV, (TirapTWV T

xj/vxjjv

Se ^woiv dirdvTiDV, dvOpwTroiV Se ;" (TTTOuSatW TcXeLOTdrrjv

'

vovv

koL

Xoyov,

dperrjv Se

Inge, Christian Mysticism, p. 46.

158

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes
In
the
fifth

example of the influence exerted by Stoicism on

primitive
Christian

thought.

of the
"

sayings of Jesus discovered in 1897

saith,

we

read

Jesus

wherever there are [two], they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone, I say, I am Raise the stone, and there thou s halt find with him.

me ;

cleave the

wood and

there

am

/."

It is

impos-

anyone who is familiar with Stoicism to read this Logion without thinking at once of the Stoic conception of the omnipresent Logos, although in Christianity of course the Logos has become incarI would venture also nate in the person of Christ.
sible for

to suggest that the second of the \\\^ additional

sayings discovered at Oxyrhynchus

be

fully

understood, except in

1903 cannot connexion with the

in
I

Stoic

doctrines

which

have described.

will

quote the Logion according to Professor Swete's restoration, except in one passage, where I follow
Grenfell and

Hunt
the

"

Jesus saith,

draw you
heaven.

to

They

that

kingdom ? are upon the earth and the

is

who are those that The kingdom is in

under the

fowls of the air and every creature that

earth and in

Hades and the fishes of the sea these And the kingdom of are they which draw you. heaven is within you, and whoever shall know himFor if ye shall truly know yourself shall find it. will also know^ that ye are sons of the selves, ye and ye shall know that ye are almighty Father
;

within

the

city,

and ye are the

details,
vXoi <tt
it

city."

Without
say

pursuing the subject into

^

will suffice to
Tov Trarpos, etc

Reading

koX ciS^ctctc

on

VfJLils

Deification of
that

Nature
to

59

we have

here,

as

it

seems

me, an

early-

Christian version of two great Stoic doctrines

the

presence of

God

in

every species of living creature

to the

throughout the world, pointing us

Father divine
ourselves, so

from

whom we
know

also come,

and the presence of God

to

in a yet still

more intimate sense within

ourselves
is

that to

know

the Father and

our relationship to Him.

Premising
Deity of
defined
let

that

the
is

indwelling,

omnipresent,

the

Stoics

identical with Nature^

and

from one point of view indeed they sometimes

of

God and Nature in exactly the same terms", now turn our attention for a little to the poetry Wordsworth, in order that we may see how the
us

doctrine of the
I

Logos

still

lives in

do not of course suggest that

:

modern thought. Wordsworth owes

is

anything to Stoicism

happily this

one of those

fundamental truths which religion and poetry and

philosophy are always
preting in every age.
Stoics,

rediscovering

and

reinter-

To Wordsworth,
I

as to the
:

Nature

is

a soul or spirit^ and divine

that by laws divine
still

"O

Soul of Nature

Sustained and governed,

dost overflow

With an impassioned
^

life^

"
I

The natura naturans

I

of scholastic philosophy.

' ^

See Zeno, Fr. 46, with Pearson's note.

do not mean
is

to

imply, of course, that Wordsworth's

Nature

a Trvevfxa in the full Stoic sense of the word.

"

Pre-

sumably he would have conceived of " Nature

never reflected on the subject at
'

as ao-w/xaro?,

though (being a poet rather than a philosopher) he probably

all.

Prelude^

Book

xii.

i6o

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes
Hke the Stoic

In more than one passage he represents Nature

as

an

immanent
"To An
In

indwelHng

soul,

world-soul.
every form of being
active Principle
it

is

assigned

subsists
in the stars

all

things, in all natures;

Of azure heaven \ the unenduring clouds, In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks, The moving waters and the invisible air.
Spirit that

knows no insulated
;

spot,

No

charm, nor solitude

from link to link

all

It circulates,

the Soul of

the worlds^"

And

also in the

well-known passages from Lines

scenery of Switzerland,
in

composed a few miles above Tintei^n Abbey and the

description of the

the

Prelude,

Book
Stoic

vil
is

The
of
the

central idea in these extracts

suggestive

Logos
is

but

passage there
of eternity"
idealism,

one

line

in
'*

the

last-mentioned

the types and symbols

still

that

lifts

us to a
the

higher level of
the

recalling

to

Platonist

world of

invisible realities,

whereof things seen and temporal

dvTLTVTra rcov akrjOivaiv,

are only types and shadows

In the following passage of Browning's Paracelsus

we have
^

a splendid elaboration on the theme of the

line, /xtyvv/xevos /xeyaXot? ^iKpol<; T <^a.(Tcnv.

Cleanthes'

2
^

Excursion,

Book

ix.

Quoted supra. The Divine Origin of the

p. 17.

Soul, p.

48

Vitality

of Platonism,

::

i6i

Presence of

God

in

Nature

presence of

God

in

Nature, without anything that

exceeds the range of Stoic thought

"The centre-fire heaves underneath the earth, And the earth changes Hke a human face; The molten ore bursts up among the rocks,
Winds
into the stone's heart, outbranches bright

In hidden mines, spots barren river-beds,

Crumbles into

fine

sand where sunbeams bask

God

joys therein.

The wroth

sea's

waves are edged

With foam, white

as the bitten lip of hate,

When, in the solitary waste, Of young volcanos come up,

strange groups
cyclops-like,

Staring together with their eyes on flame

God tastes a pleasure in their uncouth pride. Then all is still earth is a wintry clod
:

But spring-wind,

like a

dancing

psaltress, passes

Over

its

breast to

Buds tenderly

The

^^ithered

waken it, rare verdure upon rough banks, between tree-roots and the cracks of
face.

frost.

Like a smile striving with a wrinkled

Above, birds

fly

in

merry

flocks,

the lark

Soars up and up, shivering for very joy;

Afar the ocean sleeps;

Flit

white fishing gulls

is

where the strand

;

purple with

its

tribe

Of nested Umpets

savage creatures seek

Their loves in woods and plain

and
this

God

renews

His ancient rapture.

Thus He

dwells in
last

all,

From
Of

life's

viimite beginnings,

up at

To ?nan

the

consummation of

scheme

being, the completion of this sphere of life^"

One
are

of the consequences that follow from the

Stoic doctrine of the

Logos

is

that

man and Nature

sympathy and

bound

in

the

closest
^

possible

Paracelsus,
II

A. E.

62
*'all

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

union:

Marcus Aurelius, "are for intertwined with one another in a holy bond up one w^orld, and one God, one they all make
things,"

says

essence stretches

through all\"

No

poet dwells

more frequently or fondly on this topic than Wordsworth and to him, as to the Stoics, the bond of
;

union between nature and humanity

*'

is

that the

something
is

far

more deeply

interfused,

Whose

dwelling

the light of setting suns"

dwells also in " the

mind of man." And that is just the reason why in Wordsworth no one who is not a friend of man can hope to understand the voice of
nature.
*'

But

this
this

And

we from the mountains the valleys show;

will
is

learn

That never

they deign to hold cold

Communion where the heart To human weal and woe^"

It is
''

the

still

sad music of himanity that Nature

sings,"

"Not

harsh nor grating, though of ample power

chasten and subdue."

To

Browning has more to say of man than of nature but he too recognizes the affinity between them, and bases it, like Wordsworth, on the presence of the divine in both: as you will see if you read Henry Jones' book on Browning as a Religious and Philosophical Teacher.
It is time,

however, to return to Cleanthes.

is

We

have seen that the Stoic doctrine of the Logos

1

not

vn.

9.

Lines composed at Cora Linn.


Godhead
as harmoniser

163

only an attempt to express the immanence of God in the world, but also represents the Godhead as the being who, in the words of Cudworth, reconciles
the variety and contrariety of things in the universe into one most lovely and admirable har" all

mony \"
"Nay, but thou knowest to niake crooked Chaos to thee is order, hatred love Evil with good in one great harmony
:

straight,

Accordant, interfused through

all

the world

One

universal, ever-living

Word."
to Heraclitus
;

This conception also goes back

is

it

indeed, as Alois Patin has pointed out, the

Alpha

and

Omega

of his whole philosophy.

We

are in the

habit,

and rightly, of associating with the name of Heraclitus the doctrine of the never-ceasing flux of
TToivTa pel.

things
gigantic

The
of

world, in his view,

is

one
ever

battle-field

opposing

forces

for

waging internecine warfare. ''Thou shouldest know," he says, *'that war is universal-"; "everything happens by strife^" "war is the father of all, and
;

the

king of all^"
for

On
;

this

Homer

praying that
for

strife

among gods and men

he censures might perish from were there no strife, the

account

universe would pass away'.

But Heraclitus' last word is not multiplicity and discord it is unity and harmony. " Having hearkened not unto me, but to the Logos, it is wise
:

to confess that all things are ojie^

^

In a passage of

l7itellectual

System of the Utiiverse,

'*

p. 207.
'

Fr. 62.

Fr. 46.

Fr. 44.

Fr. 43 n.
II

164
Philo the

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes
:

Jew we read

as follows
is

"

made up
one
is

of both the opposites

one,

That which is and when this

and

dissected, the opposites are brought to light.

this

Is not

what the Greeks say

Heraclitus put in the
its

their great

celebrated

forefront

of his

philosophy as
as a

sum and
?

substance, and boasted of

is

new

discovery^

"

This then

the revelation of

which Heraclitus believes himself to be the prophet. " The hidden harmony," he says, " is better than the visible^" It is just because men do not perceive
this
"

hidden harmony that they have gone astray.

not understand," he says,
is
'^

They do
is

how
:

that

which
the

discordant

concordant with

itself
:

as with
is

bow and
"

the lyre, so with the world

it

the

tension of opposing forces that

makes the
at all\"

structure

onel"

Were

there no higher and lower notes in

music, there could be no

harmony

The

fact

that opposites are always passing into

one another
''

shows, according to Heraclitus, that they are only

two different sides of the same thing. The living and the dead, the sleeping and the waking, the young and the old, are the same for the latter when they have changed are the former, and the former when they have changed again are the latter'." The gist of the whole matter is contained in the following
:

fragment: "Join together that which is whole and that which is not whole, that which agrees and that

which disagrees, the concordant and the discordant:

^

Quoted by
Fr. 47.
Fr. 43.

Patin, Heraklits Einheitslehre, p. 60.

2 ^

' '

Fr. 45.

Fr, 78.

The hidden harmony

165
air'
{Ik

from

all comes one

and from one comes

7rdvT0)v ev,

kol ef ivo^ Travraf.

is

One which
which is in which
all

at the

Now what same time Many, this Many

is this
?

at the

same time One

What
?

is

the Unity

opposites are harmonised

Heraclitus

himself gives the answer quite plainly in two frag-

have already quoted. " It is God who is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger'." And again "To God all things are beautiful and good and right, but man believes that some things are wrong and others
ments, one of which
I
:

rights"
If

we
I

try to

estimate the ethical and religious

value of this great idea, which appears again and

again,

need hardly
theism,

say, in nearly

every form of
its

pantheistic thought, and has also

left

mark on

Christian

we
evil

between physical evil on the other.

as

must distinguish, I think, on the one hand, and moral

practical rule of Heraclitean

The
is

of Stoic

ethics

that

we should
:

follow

the

conform to the divine Logos Set eTrecrOai And inasmuch as the Logos is a harmony TO) ^vvco. that inevitably involves what from our finite and partial point of view we call discord, it may be
universal,

rightly said that

we conform
and

to the universal,
evil are

when
:

we recognize
state of
"

that pain

necessary and

inevitable concomitants of

good

in

human

life

mind

that induces patience

and resignation.
"It
all
is

They
'

also serve

who
'

only stand and wait."

not good for men," says Heraclitus, ''to get

Fr. 59.
Fr. 36.
''

that

Fr. 61.

66

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

good,

Sickness makes health pleasant and hunger satiety; weariness rest\" In the words of Robert Browning, a poet who frequently reminds us of Heraclitus,
they desire.
"

Type needs
pity

antitype

As Needs

night needs day, as shine needs shade, so good

evil;

how were

understood

Unless by pain^"

But there is something more to be said than this. Greek philosophy the philosophy of Heraclitus, of Plato, of the Stoics holds with not less emphasis than Christianity that there is something of the infinite in every human being and from this point of view pain and suffering may be regarded as a means of educating the more divine and universal

part of our nature.

or school in which
individual
lives

Suffering

is

in fact a yvjjLvdo-Lov

we should
the

learn to look at our

from

higher standpoint,
;

the
all

standpoint of the infinite or whole

think otherwise.

for

"to God

things are beautiful and good and right," though

men

God, says Plato, created the part for the sake of the whole, and not the whole for the sake of the part^ an echo, it would almost seem, of
the sentiment attributed to Heraclitus, that

"God

accomplishes

all

things with a view to the

It
is

harmony

of the whole'."

a fundamental article of the

Stoic creed that nothing can befall the individual

not sorrow, nor pain, nor death

which
''

is

not for the

to

good of the whole.

^

We

must therefore study

Francis Furini.
Fr. 61.

J^r.

104.
c.

Laws, 903


The
live
in

infinite in the individual

167

the universal, and not in the part, to emit,

brace in our regard, as Marcus Aurelius expresses

''all

time and
all

all

being,

and see that by the side of

being,

individual things are but a grain of millet,

by that of time as the turn of a screw\" Later Stoicism, in particular, is permeated by this idea. The ideal man, says Marcus Aurelius, is "convinced
that destiny
is

good

for

his apportioned

destiny

sweeps man on with the vaster sweep of things"." He ''welcomes gladly all that in the web of " I am in harmony with all destiny befalls himl"
that
is

a part

of thy
is

For me nothing
in

early

harmony, great Universe. and nothing late, that is

is

season for thee.

All
!

fruit

for

me, which thy

Seasons bear,
unto thee are
TTavra,
rise

Nature

From
(e/c

thee, in thee,
TrdvTa,
eV

and
crol

all

things'"'

aov

constant effort to eU crk 7TdvTa)\ above the narrow individual standpoint and
It is this
life

survey our individual

order
to

as part of the universal

it

sub specie aeternitatis as

its

were

that

lends

Stoicism
:

peculiar moral

dignity and eleva-

tion

but

we must beware

of supposing that from

the Stoic point of view our essential individuality

would be obliterated or enslaved by the realisation of such an ideal. On the contrary, the true self would be emancipated emancipated from the tyranny of the lower and unessential self, which is perpetually striving, by the gratification of the sensual and selfish impulses, to break loose from the whole

X. 17,

tr.

Kendall.

in. 4,

tr.

Kendall.

Ibid.

IV. 23, tr.

Kendall.

68

The

Hymn

of Chant hes

of which

we

are a part and

become no more than

it

"a dismembered hand,

It
is

lying severed from the body to which

or foot, or decapitated head, \"

belonged

only in the service of the divine and universal

law of virtue, according to the Stoics, that man attains his true individuality, his essential freedom
for
is

right.

what does freedom mean ? Freedom to do what This is the meaning of the Stoic paradox

that only the wise

man

is

free.

Epictetus puts the

says
"

whole matter
is

in

a nutshell,

name

for virtue,

when he slavery a name

Freedom

for vice'."

You

will see that the Stoic

is

conception of moral freedom

like the Christian, with the difference, of course,

Logos whereby the Christian becomes free " If the son shall make you is the son of Man. For he that was free, ye shall be free indeed I"
that the
''

called

in

the

Lord, being
:

a bondservant,

is

the

Lord's freedman
free, is
is

likewise he that was called, being Christ's bondservant \" In St Paul he alone

free

who

is

the hovko^ Xptcrrov.

Anyone who

attempts to express the philosophical meaning of

must inevitably do seen from the following extract from Principal Caird's Fundamental Ideas of Christianity " It is the freedom and fulfilment of our spiritual being to breathe in the atmosphere of the universal life, to become the organ of the infinite reason. And the goal and perfection of our spiritual life would be reached, if
this
article

of Christian

faith

so in terms of Stoicism, as

may be
:

xM.

Aur.

VIII. 34, tr.

viii.

Kendall.

' ^

Fr.
i

8.
vii.

St

John

36.

Cor.

22.

Essential freedom of

man

169

every movement of our mind, every pulsation of

our intellectual and moral
it,

so that in isolation
call

were identified with from it we had no life we

life

could

our own^"

There

is

nothing

in

this

sentence that a Stoic might not have written.

to

And
I

the Stoic not less than to the Christian, as

spiritual

have already indicated, the road to

freedom

may sometimes be
"

the via dolorosa.

By many

a stern

The

world's rude furnace

and fiery blast must thy blood refine,

And many

a gale of keenest

woe be

passed,

Till every pulse beat true to airs divine'"."

Stated above that, in endeavouring to estimate the value of the Stoic conception of the Logos as the unity in which all opposites are harmonised, it is important to draw a distinction between the evils which we call physical and those which we
I

call

moral.

So

far

as physical evil
offer,

is

concerned,

the solution which the Stoics

suffering

that pain

and

are part of the divine dispensation and

to

contribute

the universal

harmony, though not

perhaps entirely satisfactory to the intellect, is one that in nearly every age has powerfully appealed
to the religious sentiment^

But when we proceed,

to

as
'

the
Vol.

Stoics
I.,

sometimes do,

apply the

same

p.

153.

'

Keble.

Palgrave's Treasury of Sacred Song, p. 215.

are,

There

however, not a few traces of other solutions in

Stoicism pointing to a kind of qualified dualism.

We

hear, for

example, of hanxovta
deficiency in

<fiavka,

of dvdyKT], of a certain weakness or

cXAeu/^i?)

God

(do-^eVeta,

and so

forth.

See von

Arnim,

/,c.

11.

1171, 1174, 1178, 1183

al.

170

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

solution to the existence of moral evil, neither the

intellectual nor the religious part of

our nature

is

likely to acquiesce.

It is

of

little

avail to assure us

that moral

evil
:

fulfils

a useful part in the

it

economy

of the whole

for

without

there would be no such

thing as moral good.

Continence, for example, has

a meaning only in relation to incontinence, justice to

injustice, truth to

falsehood and so on.

These and

other such considerations were frequently brought

forward by Chrysippus,
in
''

who

takes refuge, as usual,

in

a similitude.

"Just as

comedies," he says,

there are

some

ludicrous jests, which regarded in

themselves are bad, but which nevertheless add a

charm to the poem considered as a whole, you consider wickedness alone and by itself, it is deserving of censure but wickedness is not To which Marcus without its use in the wholes"
certain

so

if

Aurelius very properly replies

''
:

Take

care

that

you do not become the cheap coarse

Chrysippus speaks". "

jest of

which

The

question as to the origin

and place of moral evil in the universe is of course one of the greatest difficulties in every pantheistic or monistic system, and it is interesting to notice that the solution attempted by Chrysippus appears
continually in the history of pantheism.

We

may

take Spinoza as an example.

"

Man," according

Spinoza
" is in

quote from

Mr

Picton's Pantheis^n^

to

God, and of God.

vile,

But what are we

liar,
'

to say

of bad men, the

the base, the

the mur-

derer
^

Are they
11.

also in

God and
-

of
42.

God

Spinoza
^

von Arnim,

1181.

See

vi.

p. 69.

Pantheistic view of evil

does not blench.

in his doctrine of

Yes, they

are.

But here comes

ideas.'

'adequate' and 'inadequate

Thus,
presses

if

itself.

you see the colour red, it completely exIt cannot be defined and needs no

explanation.
it

As

it

is

in

the Infinite

Thought

so

have an 'adequate idea' of it. But now if you see on an artist's canvass a splotch of red and blue and yellow, part of a work only begun, it gives you no adequate idea. True, you have an adequate idea of each several colour, but
is

in ours.

We

not of their relations to the work conceived. get that you would have to enter into the the artist and see as he sees.
colour would take

To
of

mind

Then

the splotch of

whole
as
it

its place as part of a harmonious and would give you an adequate idea just does to the artist." In this way, according
;

to Spinoza,

we must presume
"

that

things with the eye of Infinite

if we could see Thought we should

it,

have an
say,

''

adequate idea

as he calls

that

is

to

we

should fully comprehend

how moral

evil

promotes the universal harmony which he

with God.

identifies

Such a solution, while difficulty by administering

fied.

it

shelves the intellectual

it

as

were a sedative

to

the enquiring mind, leaves our moral sense unsatis-

We

feel

that virtue

and vice are

:

essentially
is

antagonistic and irreconcilable

so that

it

no

real

monism which looks on the Deity as the unification harmony of the two, but only dualism in disguise, dualism masquerading under the mask of monism. Hence the Stoics felt themselves compelled upon
or

172

The

Hymn

of Cleaftthes
It

occasion to cast about for a different solution.

is,

of course, a favourite device of pantheism to cut

the knot by denying the reality of moral evil alto-

gether

evil

is

the negative of good, a

''

phantom

however, could not possibly take refuge in a view so entirely alien to the high moral earnestness which distinguishes their creed. Between virtue and vice,
that dissolves before the light."
Stoics,
in

The

Stoicism, the gulf

is

infinite

according to the

strictest

teaching of the school, indeed, moral good

evil are the

and moral
all

only things that really count:

other things, riches and poverty, sickness and

even life itself, are "indifferent." The soluwhich the Stoics tended to adopt is contained in the words of Cleanthes God is the author of all things, "except what wicked men do through their
health,
tion
:

own

folly."

It

is

simply the popular doctrine of

responsibility, the

free-will

and moral

doctrine on

which the
praise
forth.

institutions of civilised society are founded,

and blame, reward and punishment, and so

In
its

theoretical expression
in the

it

is

as old as
:

Homer, who
"

Odyssey makes Zeus exclaim

us,

Men

say that their evils are from

thro7igJi

but they

themselves

their

own
is

infatnatton,

have

sorrows beyond that which

ordained\"

These
Stoic

words

teachers",

were constantly and Cleanthes

in
is

the

mouth
they

of

probably thinking of

them

here.

The

theory which

embody
it

is
is

doubtless of considerable practical value, but

1

Od.

I.

32-34.
in

'

See the passages

von Arnim,

n.

999

f.

Freewill and predestination

hardly consonant with theoretical

173
;

monism
every
see

and

it

comes

into direct

and immediate
If
is

conflict with the

effect,

Stoic belief in

predestination.

as

the Stoics believed,

the result of an unalterable

difficult

chain of causes,

it

is

to

how

either

the sinner or the saint can possibly be other than

he

is.

This obvious and patent contradiction did

not escape the notice of ancient critics of Stoicism;

and desperate attempts were made to evade it. Those of you who are curious on this subject will find all the most important materials for studying the matter in von Arnim's StoicoriLm veteruvi fragwill content myself with saying that I menta^.
although in the course of their discussions on the
subject they succeeded in

bringing to light some

precepts of the highest ethical value, and anticipated

nearly
all

the principal attempts ot later philosophy

to deal with the

problem of

free-will

and predestin-

ation

on

its

speculative side, they were unable to

invent a satisfactory intellectual solution of a pro-

blem which philosophy, perhaps, will never solve. But to any one who pleaded predestination as an excuse for wrong-doing, the Stoic had his answer if the sin was fore-ordained, ready so also was We are told that Zeno was once the punishment. whipping a slave for theft, and the slave who may perhaps have overheard one of his master s dispu"It was fated for me to steal." protested tations "Yes, and to be whipped," said Zeno'. This is the Stoic counterpart of the old Aeschylean doctrine
:

''^

n.

974

ff.

Apophthegmata of Zeno

54, Pearson.

174
that even
still

The
if

Hymn

of Cleanthes
it

the responsibility rests with Fate,

is

the doer

who must
:

suffer.

It

is

in vain that

Clytemnestra, as
sword, exclaims

she shrinks from

the avenging

"Not

I,

but Fate,

is

guilty of these sins."

The

reply of Orestes leaves no loophole of escape

"This
fatal

doom

then,

it

is

Fate that sends^"

have now considered the principal ideas contained in the second of the four divisions into which we have divided the hymn of Cleanthes. The two remaining sections will not detain us long.
Cleanthes proceeds to describe
individual good,

We

how

the wicked turn

aside from the universal law, each pursuing his

own
for

and missing
;

it,

just because he does

not seek

it

in the universal

after

which he prays

their illumination.
OV cf)VyOVT^
SvcTfxopoL,
iuJCTLV

ocroL 6viJTWV

KaKOt

t(ri,

OCT

dya^oji/ jikv act KTrjaiv tto^covtcs

ovT
<S

icTopioo-L

Ocov KOLVov vofxov ovTc KXvovcnv,

V(3

KV TTuOoiXeVOL (TVV
8'

(StOV icrOXoV )(OLV.

itr

avTol

avO^

6pix(ji(TLv

avoL KaKov aXXos

oAXo,

ot fXv vTrep

So^s

o-TrovSrjv hvcripiirrov

;(oi/tS,

ot 8* 7rt KcpSoo-vi^as Terpafx/xevoL ovSevl Kocrfjuo,

aAAoi

8' 15

avecTLv kol (T(vfxaTO<s lySca cpya.

eTT*

aA-Xore 8

aXXa

(Jbcpovrai,

(TTrcuSovres fxaXa Trafiirav IvavTia rCivhi y^vicrdai.

"

One Word

whose

voice alas

the wicked spurn

Insatiate for the

good

their spirits yearn

Yet seeing see

not, neither hearing hear

God's universal law, which those revere,

Choephoriy 909

f.

Man

oblivious

of

God
sin

175

By reason guided, happiness who win. The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of Self-prompted follow for an idle name
:

Vainly they wrestle in the

lists

of fame

Others inordinately riches woo,

Or

dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.

Now

here,

now

there they wander, fruitless

ill."

still,

For ever seeking good and finding

Here again there are reminiscences

In one fragment, for example,
is

of Heraclitus.

we

read:
if

"The Logos
they had a
in

universal

but most

men

live as
"
;

private intelligence of their

"

own^

and

another

They

are at variance with that with which they

live in

idea in

most continual intercourse-." The general this part of the hymn, if we read it in
is,

connexion with what precedes,

already, that

as

have said

man

alone

is

oblivious of his

Maker

the

rest

of Nature,

both inanimate and animate,

For a Christian parallel obeys the law of God. we may perhaps compare the beautiful lines of Henry Vaughan from the poem entitled Creation
waiting for Revelation^ The prayer with which
begins with supplication,
oAXa Zcr
qv

the

hymn
in

concludes
:

and ends

praise

7rdv8wpe, K\aLVcf>S,

apyLKipavvi\
cxtto

av^pojTTOvs <iJ.\v> pvov

(TV,

o.7rLpocrvv'i]<;

\vypr]<;,

TTciTep,
rj

(TKeBaaov
ctv

i/^'^t??

oltto,

86s Se Kvp-ijcraL

yvi^fxrjs,

ttlctvvos

8tK7;s

ixira iravTa KvjSepvas,

Fr. 92.

Fr. 93.

^
*

Quoted

supra, p. 148
:

f.

apycKepavvc

with reference to the aUt^ojovra Kepavvov of

V.

10

(see supra, p. 151).

1/6
6<f>p*

The
av

Hynm

of Cleanthes
(r
oj9
TLfxrj.

TLjJLrjOiVT^?

dixLfi(ofJLcr6d

vfivovvTe^ ra <ra cpya Sit^vckcs,

lirioLKi.

OvqTov iovTf
ovre
OeoL'i,
rj

cTTCt

ovT ^poTOLS ycptt?

dWo

Ti /xei^ov

kolvov dei vo/xov iv BUrj v/xvctv.

"Zeus the

all-bountiful,

whom

darkness shrouds,

Whose lightning lightens in the thunder-clouds Thy children save from error's deadly sway
:

Turn thou the darkness from

For thou by knowledge
O'er
all,

their souls

away

Vouchsafe that unto knowledge they attain;

art

made

strong to reign

and

all

things rulest righteously.

So by thee honoured, we will honour thee, Praising thy works continually with songs.

As

mortals should;

nor higher meed belongs

E'en to the gods, than justly to adore

The

universal law for evermore."

Side by side with these lines I will ask you to set two characteristic utterances of later Stoicism, one by Epictetus the slave, and one by his pupil Marcus Aurellus, the Emperor of Rome. The first Is as " I am a lame old man, and can do nothing follows If I were a else, but I can sing praise to God. nightingale, I should do the part of a nightingale,
:

if

a swan,

should act like a swan.

;

As

it Is,

am

must sing praise to God. This I do it, and will not desert my post, so is my work long as I am permitted to remain and I call upon These are the you to join in this same song'." hear now the words of the words of the slave ''What then ? Serenely you await the Emperor. whether it be annihilation or change. And while end,
a rational being
:

I.

i6.


Practical
the
effect

of Stoic ideas

177

hour yet tarries, what sufficeth ? Reverence and bless the gods, do good to men, endure and
refrain "
6eov<; [lev
cri/Beiv

kol

ev(f)r)fjLeLv,

av6pojirov^

8e ev rroielv, koi dve^ecrOai avTOJV kol direyecrd ai^.

The

object of these lectures, as

said at the

beginning,

has been to explain and Illustrate the

religious ideas of Stoicism.

But there
of the

Is

another

side

from which the religion of Stoicism

studied.

Read
these

the
will

history

early

may be Roman
lives

Empire, and you

effect

begin to realise the practical

in

of

Ideas

ennobling

the

of

men and women, and keeping them

death.

faithful

unto

There are few more heroic

figures in history

than the Stoic martyrs of the time of Nero.

''

The

dying words of Arria, as she took the dagger from Paete, non her breast and gave It to her husband, " Paetus, It does not hurt"" were not as dolet''

lesser natures
:

have sometimes insinuated, a histrionic exclamation no one who realises w^hat death means will for a moment cherish such an unworthy thought they were the spontaneous utterance of a noble taught by Stoicism to triumph over pain and death. And Arria is typical of many of the noblest and gentlest spirits in the dark days of the Reign of
Terror.
it

But on the mass of the people Stoicism,

must be confessed, made but little impression. Many reasons might be alleged in explanation. Contrasting Christ with Socrates, Justin Martyr says
^

V. 33, after

Rendall.

'

Pliny,

Ep,

iii.

i6.

A. E.

12

178
*'

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

was known in part by Socrates (for Christ was and is the Logos present in every man...) in Christ not philosophers alone and scholars believed, but also working men, the ignorant as well as the learned, and were taught by Him to despise To much the same glory and fear and death \" effect Origen^ says that Plato and the wise men of the Greeks catered only for those who are considered the better classes, and despised the masses whereas the Jewish prophets and the disciples of Jesus try to provide the most wholesome spiritual food for the
In Christ
:

who

masses of mankind. Greek philosophy was

ordinary

far

more
nature

in

touch with

uneducated human
is
;

than

modern

philosophy
"

but

never ''popular."
tically
:

even Greek philosophy was Plato in one passage says pathe-

do not expect that the majority of men will ever believe in the theory of Ideas " and in another passage we have the significant words toI% 8e ttoXXois You may remember that even the ovSe SiaXeyojaat.
I
:

more liberally-minded among the

fathers

early Christian
''

sometimes asked the question,

Did

philo"^

sophy ever make the ordinary man live better But there are two reasons in particular why Stoicism failed to become a religion for the mass of mankind; and to these I will now draw your attention, both on other grounds, and also because, amid much Stoicism
that resembles Christianity, they bring vividly before

"

us some of the great and fundamental differences between Stoic philosophy and the Christian faith.
^

ApoL 461

A, B,

Migne.

Against Celsus, 1505

off.,

Migne.

Immortality
In the
first place,

left

an open question

179

the belief in immortality, which

some

writers have held to be essential to any religion that is to secure the adhesion of ordinary men, plays It is true that, accordlittle or no part in Stoicism.
ing-

to Cleanthes, all

human

souls survive

till

the

universal conflagration that separates one aeon from

another

but the Stoics were not unanimous on this point, and Chrysippus for his part believed only in a kind of conditional immortality: the souls of the
;

good, he thought, endure

those
of

till

the conflagration, but

the

wicked perish sooner.

Chrysippus
to differentiate

appears to have

made some attempt

between the condition of the wicked and the condition of the good after death'; but in general we may say that the notion of a future life had no practical
significance in earlier Stoicism.

At

a later period,

when

the austerity of Stoic teaching began to be

tempered by Platonism, considerable stress was sometimes laid on the doctrine of purgator}^ and We have an illustraa place of reward hereafter. tion of this tendency in the sixth book of Virgil's

Aeneid\ and still more in Seneca, who in his eschaBut the question of tology owes much to Plato. immortality was to the last an open one in Stoicism.
example, reserves his assent and death is either extinction or transmutation Epictetus would seem to have definitely disbelieved

Marcus Aurelius,

for

in the
*^

continuance of individuality beyond the grave. You will not exist, Shall I then no longer exist ?
will

but you
1

be something
I.e.

else,

of which the world

^

See von Arnim,

n. 812-814.

724-75^12

i8o

The
;

Hymn

of Cleanthes

now has need for you also came into existence not when you chose, but when the world had need of
you\

The
or worse

truth

is

that from the lofty standpoint of

is

Stoicism the question of immortality

:

irrelevant

virtue

must be pursued
if

for its

own sake

inspired in any measure, it would cease to be virtue however slight, by the hope of future bliss or the
fear of future misery.

We

need not enquire whether

in

Stoicism was right or wrong

such a view:

all

wish to point out

is

that Stoicism

offered no real

satisfaction to the craving of the

immortality, and for this reason,

human heart for among others, could

its

never become the universal religion of which

noblest prophets

dreamed.

Life and

immortality

had yet

to be brought to light through the Gospel.

this leads us to the

And
reasons

second of the two great

why

Stoicism failed to penetrate the hearts

and consciences of ordinary human beings. It lacks above all things the motive principle of personality. *E)(et9 \oyovy says Marcus Aurelius, rt ovv ov ^pa ; TOVTOV yap to iavTOv 7roLovvTo<s rC aWo OeXeus " thou
;

hast reason,

why

then not use

it ?

If

reason does
?

its

work, what else dost thou require^ " We might imagine a Christian subject of the Emperor replying, " Yes, but we need some driving power to ma^e
the

Logos

Christ,
1

we find in the incarnation of the Logos, the God-man,

in us

do

its

work I

And

this

3.

24,

tr.

Long.

jy^

^^
iii.

Cf.

Lactantius,

Divm.

Inst.

27,

"Sed

nihil

ponderis

habent

ilia

praecepta, quia sunt humana," etc.

Logos not personified by Stoics

with

whom we

die to sin that

we may

rise to the
it

Hfe of virtue and hoHness."

In other words,

is

the doctrine of the incarnate

the

fundamental
I

difference

Logos that constitutes between Christianity

as a

and Stoicism.

have already said that the early

Christian fathers spoke of

Greek philosophy

"preparation" for the Gospel.

remark,
is

In the spirit of this

let

us enquire, in conclusion, whether there

in

anything

Greek philosophy

that can fairly be

considered to pave the

way

for the
''

beginning of the fourth Gospel:

flesh,

the

words near the Logos became

to personify

and dwelt among us " ? The tendency of Greek philosophers

is

the ethical ideal

as old as Plato.

The

^tXocro(^o9

whose ideal portrait he paints for us in the Republic^ and the Theaetetus'-. is Plato's conception of the perfect man and we have already
or lover of wisdom,
;

seen that the

human
in

in Plato,

understood

in its truest

meaning,
he was

is

also the divine.

In each of these pic-

tures, Plato

has

in life,

master Socrates, not as but idealised for Socrates no sooner

his
;

view

died than he
spiration,

became

to his followers an idea,

an

in-

an ever-living example of how the righteous

die.

man
work

should live and

The same tendency

is

at

in Aristotle's description of the \j.^yo.\6y\ivyo% or

high-minded man, the embodiment of every virtue, as Aristotle understood the word a kind of deo% Iv
;

and entitled to the same kind of reverence and honour as the gods. In post- Aristotelian philosophy the personification of the moral standard
a,vBpdiTToi%
1

475

Bff->

485 Aff.

jy2 Dff.

82

The

Hymn

of

Cleantkes
Wise Man, a
is

appears

in the doctrine of the

doctrine

the true significance of which

seldom understood,

because superficial observers

Lucian, are always turning

in antiquity, genial

men

of the world like Horace, or professional scoffers like

and modern The writers only too often follow in their wake. is simply Wise Man of Stoicism and Epicureanism an attempt to give a kind of quasi-visible form and
it

into ridicule,

substance to their conception of the ultimate good.

He
at

is

the cro^o^, the

man who

has attained: others

most are only

(l)ik6cro^oi,

on the road that leads

to attainment.

But, apart altogether from the ethical

divergence of the two schools, there

is a profound and essential contrast between them on the question whether the Perfect Man has ever actually appeared on earth. The Epicureans thought he had, and identified him with Epicurus. They even went further, and after their master's death, if they did not actually deify him, they nevertheless spoke of him as a God, and found in a kind of positivist worship of Epicurus a certain satisfaction for those

religious instincts,

which neither the gods of Greece

Epicurean intermundia
It is

nor the phantoms of the

could awaken or appease.

more than a mere metaphor when Lucretius exclaims: "a God was
he, a

God, who first discussed the way of life which now is called wisdom, and who by his skill rescued human life from such great waves and darkness and set it in so calm a haven and in a light so clear \"

The

Stoics took a different, and, in reality, perhaps

1

V.

8-12.

Stoic

Wise

Man

not personified
in

183

a truer view.

The Good Man,

:

Stoicism,

was

always an ideal
other of them

neither Socrates nor Zeno, nor any-

whom

they sometimes named as types,

was allowed to be more than an approximation. " Ubi enijn istum {sapie7iteni) invenies, quern tot saeculis quaerimus ? " Where will you find the
''

Wise Man we
" ?

are

looking

for

throughout
:

the

ages^ And in Epictetus we read Let any of you show me a human soul ready to think as God does, and not to blame either God or man, ready not to be disappointed about anything, not to consider himself damaged by anything, not to be angry, not to be envious, not to be jealous and why should I not say it direct ? desirous from a man to become a God, and in this poor mortal body thinking of his fellowship with Zeus. Show me the man. But you cannotl" Now I will ask you to dismiss from your minds for a moment the gibes of Horace, and re"
;

membering only the one

anthropology, that
of the perfect
is,

essential doctrine of Stoic

the unity of man's spirit with

necessarily be.

the spirit of God, to consider what the Stoic ideal

must needs be one whose soul is attuned to perfect and unbroken harmony with him "in whom we live and move and have our being," one who, in the words of Epictetus, always "thinks as God does," and is the embodiment of perfect ;;/^;zhood just because in him
"dwells
all

man must

He

the fulness of the 6^6'^ead bodily"

for

in Stoicism, as

we have
God.

seen,

when most
^

like to

most manlike The perfect man, said the

is
7. 4.
'
11.

man

Seneca,

De

Traiiquillitate Afiimi,

19-

184
Stoics,
eli'ai
is

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

divine, because
crTTOuSatous*

God
e^iz^

dwells in him

Oeiovs

T0U9

yap

iv

iavTol^ olovel

eeovK
It
Is

from

this point of

fication of the ethical ideal,

view that the personias expressed in the Stoic

doctrine of the croc^o? or o-ttovSolo'^, appears in the light of a " preparation " for the Christian identification

of the

Logos with Jesus

''

Christ.

To
find

the

pathetic cry of Seneca,

tot saeculis

udz

isttiiJi

mvejiies quern

qtiaerimus ?

''

"where
ages
6
:

will

you

him

we

look for through

the

? "

the

author of

the fourth Gospel replies

iaKT]vo)crv iv
r)fxlv.

\6yo% aap^ iyevero kol

Stoic doctrine of the Logos as God immaNature and in man, was Inherited by Phllo, who under Platonic and possibly also Jewish Influence

The
in

nent

Logos and the supreme God, and so replaces pantheism by theism. At the same time he frequently describes the Logos In
terms which, as
of Christ^"

distinguishes between the

Mr

Purves remarks, "often bear

striking resemblance to

New Testament

descriptions

To

quote a few

among many such

characterisations, the Logos, In Philo,

Word, the

first-born son of
in

God's vice-gerent

Is the Divine God, the image of God, the world, his prophet and

interpreter, the high-priest

who

Intercedes with

for the whole world, the intermediary and Man, himself neither God nor man, but partaking of the nature of both. Then came the great and de^

God between God

Diog. Laert.

vii.

119.
s.v.

Hastings, Dictio7iary of the Bible^

Logos.

Christian doctrine of incarnate Logos

cisive step, for which, as
I

185

have

tried to

show you the

teaching of post-AristoteHan philosophy, or rather of

the whole of Greek philosophy from Plato onward,

had prepared the way, by

to personify the

its

ever-growing tendency

ethical ideal. The link between Greek philosophy and Christianity was once for all established when St John proclaimed that the Logos had become incarnate in the founder of our faith. It has been truly said that " the doctrine of the Logos in the post-Apostolic age was the natural meeting-

point

of

Christianity
It

with

the

best

elements

in

the old religions. proofs that the

new

religion

seemed to many to furnish was in reality the full

In his

expression of truths taught by philosophy^"

Ch'istian Mysticis??i,

Dr

Inge, on the strength of a

in

passage of Aurelius quoted

Eusebius, hazards the

suggestion that "the Apostle, writing at Ephesus,

refers deliberately in his prologue to the doctrine of

the great Ephesian idealist"

as

"

Heraclitus, from

whom,
is

we have

seen,

the

doctrine in question

ulti-

mately derived.
to the

We

can never be sure of

this

but without touching on the disputed question as

we may
the
first

immediate sources of the Johannine Logos, say with confidence that no one can read

^\^ verses of St John's Gospel in the light of the great ideas I have placed before you without acquiring a new and deeper apprehension of the meaning of the words iyo) elfiL to (f)a}<; tov Kocrfxov, " I am " In the beginning was the the light of the world." Word... In him was life; and the life was the light
^

PurveSj

/.c.

p.

47

n.

86

The

Hymn
is,

of Cleanthes
lighteth
in

of men.

That was the true Hght, which

every

man "

that

believe, every

man,

every

age and country, both before and after the incarnation of the Word "that cometh into the world'." Before the birth of Christ men spoke of Jew and Gentile, barbarian and Greek. The Light of the

''

World
tian

"
:

has risen, and, well

formula

have changed our we speak of Christian and heathen. Chris-

we

and pagan. If ever we fully understand the message entrusted to St John, we shall rather say, '' with Justin Martyr They that lived in company with Logos /xera \6yov are Christians, even if they were accounted atheists. And such among the Greeks, were Socrates and Heraclitus-." It has often seemed to me that this famous sentence, which is sometimes treated as embodying an uncritical and merely sentimental opinion, indicates the road which Christian theology will in future follow, nay is even
:

now, I think, beginning to follow. The comparative study of religion, which has never been so ardently pursued as in the present day, is revealing more and

amid diversity of all religion. We are gradually apprehending the truth which the poet expresses in the words
essential unity
:

more the

" Children of

Men the unseen Power, whose age For ever doth accompany mankind.
!

Hath looked on no

religion scornfully,
find.

That men did ever

^

The Authorised Version seems

Apol. 397
c,

to

me

right here as against

the Revised.
-

Migne.

"

Essential tmtty of all

Which has not Which has not Which has not
Tkou must
I

religzo7i

187

taught weak wills

fallen

how much

they can?

on the dry heart

!

like rain ?

cried to sunk, self-weary man,

be born again}

do not think

it

can be denied that the general

is

tendency of thought
the Christian
stci gefieris.

now in the direction of making reHgion prima inter pares, rather than
" It
is

not the interest of the apologist

for Christianity," says

one of the wisest of recent

from
all

divines,

''

to

sever

it

connexion with the

religious

thought and culture of the pre-Christian

ages."

"The argument"
"does not
all
it

(for the divine origin of

Christianity)
force, if

suffer,

but only gains fresh

can be shewn that the highest thought

the races and nations of the ancient
it,

and

life...

of

world constituted a preparation for

order of

that the whole

human
all

history in the pre-Christian ages

pointed to Christ, and that he was, in this sense, 'the

desire of
nations-.'"

And

if

ever this tendency

becomes predominant among Christian thinkers, the Johannine interpretation of the Logos-doctrine the

Johannine philosophy of
it

religion, for such, in effect,

is

will furnish

the Christian with a point of view

from which religion and Christianity, Christianity

and religion will still be seen to be the same and in a deeper sense, perhaps, than ever. If we look upon Christ as the pre-existent, universal and eternal Logos, in accordance with the
^

M. Arnold,

Progress.

Cf. Justin Martyr,

396

a,

Migne

-nrapa

J.

Caird, Philosophy of Religion^ p. 335.

88

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s
it

teaching of St John and Justin Martyr,

true to say with Justin

becomes

Martyr

ocra ovv Trapa iracri

/caXa)9 elprjTaL, rjfxcov roiv XpLCTTLavcoi' Icttl^

"all that
way
is

has been well and truly said by thinkers in any age,

is

part of Christianity."
history will one

that

Perhaps day justify

It

is

in this

justifying

the

nay,

already

claim of Christianity to be in the

profoundest meaning of the word a universal religion.

We
God

shall learn at last to recognise that

it is

the

same

6 avTo<; ^os"

diverse
shall

names

whom
it

all

men worship under

Cleanthes says.

TroXvoj^u/xog, as
is

We

understand that

really a picture of the

Christian religion which Clement sets before us in

"The Father and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things through an innate faculty {ifjL(j)VTco<;) and without teaching, things inanimate sympathizing with the
a noble passage of his Miscellanies^
\

living creation.

Of
;

those

who

are alive,

some
still

are

already immortal, working in the light of day (KaO'

Tjfxipav
ipyat^ojjLeva)

and of those who

are

mortal,

some

are in fear, being carried

still

within

their mother's
free

womb

while others are guided by

(avre^ovcriq) \oyicrixco).
;

and independent reason

divide

We

mankind

into

barbarians and Greeks

tillers

but no race anywhere, either of

or nomads, or those

of the

soil,

who

dwell in
in

cities,

can live

without an inherent faith

themselves.

something higher than

Wherefore every nation of the East, and every nation that touches the Western shores,
^

Apol. 465

c,

Migne.
ff.

Clem. Strom,

vi.

5.

261

b,

Migne.

Strom.

V.

196 B

Universality of Christianity
the nations of the North and
the South, have one and the
(TTp6\y]y\iiv)
all

189

who

dwell towards

same innate conception

of

Him who has

all."

established the
his

Kingdom
extend

for

the

most universal of
It
is

operations
this

equally through
as
It

for

sublime,

and

appears to

me

truly Christian, conception that

the
Is

hymn

of Cleanthes prepares the way: and that

having asked an assembly of Christian teachers to consider for a little what it means.
justification for

my

Books recommended

in

connexion with these lectures

Pearson. Fragments of Zc?io

and

Cleanthes,

London, 1891.

Von Arnim,

Stoicorum veteruni fragmenta, Leipzig, 1905.

London, 1887. Marcus Aurelius, translated by Rendall, London, 1898. E. Caird, The Evolutiofi of Theology in the Greek Philosophers (Chapters on Stoicism), Glasgow, 1904. J. Caird, The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity, Glasgow, 1899. Hoffding, The Philosophy of Religion, tr. Meyer, London, 1906. J. Caird, The Philosophy of Religion, London, 1904.
Epictetus, translated by Long,

V.

ANCIENT GREEK VIEWS OF SUFFERING AND EVIL.

of the Christian fathers

Many
for

Justin

Martyr,
of

example,

and

more

especially

Alexandria

were

Clement

In the habit of

describing Greek

Philosophy as the preparation or propaedeutic

Trponapaa-Kevii] or TrpoiraiSeLa

for Christianity.

The

great conception which runs through the writings of

Clement
of the

in particular is that of

a gradual education

revelation,

human race, culminating in the Christian when the Xoyos or Word, which Greek
:

had dimly apprehended by the light of became flesh, and dwelt among men 6 \6yos crap^ iyevero /cat icFKijvojo-ev iv r]p2v. This is not the place in which to discuss whether such an interpretation of Greek thought Is adequate or not', or whether it is really true that the Christian revelation is the crown and consummation of all religious development, and solves once and for
thinkers
reason,

ever the

difficulties that

perplexed Greek thinkers.

The question whether Christianity provides a final and satisfactory intellectual solution of the mystery
of existence will certainly force
Itself

upon your

minds,

in
^

the course

of

your enquiries Into the

pp. 184
ff.

For such a discussion see supra,

Greek consciousness of

evil

191
its

Christian conception of suffering and

place in
least,
I

the

divine

economy.

But

this

much,

at

think

we may

safely affirm.

short examination

of ancient

Greek ideas about

suffering

and

evil will

particular course of study

form a suitable propaedeutic or introduction to the which you are about to

;

undertake

for

it

is
it

the

characteristic

merit

of

Greek

literature that

raises nearly all the really

later

fundamental questions which

ligious philosophy has
at the

moral

and

re-

endeavoured
in

to answer,

and

same time

offers

a comparatively simple of the solutions at which

and

intelligible form,

many
have

subsequent
Lucidity
writers.
is

thinkers

independently arrived.

They understood what

one of the special virtues of Greek they wished to say,

and said it with precision. Nowhere, perhaps, does one find a deeper or more all-pervading consciousness of the presence
of evil in the world than

among

the Greeks.

The

usual view of the perpetual gaiety of the Greeks, as

exemplified by the remark of the Egyptian priest

to

Solon,

"

cj

'%6\oiv,

SoXojv,

''RXXrji'e^

del

rralSes

icrre,

yepojv Se ^^EWrjv ovk

ecrrtz^," "

Solon, Solon,

you Greeks are always children, and there is not a Greek ihat is old," needs modification. The Greeks were not always children, in the sense of showing continually the gaiety and light-heartedness of little
children.

multitude

of

passages

in

Greek

literature
;

will suffice to

might be quoted by way of illustration but it remind you of the proverbial saying,

192

Sneering and Evil

traceable in the last resort to

that the immortals

Homer,

to the effect

two

evils

for

have dispensed to mortal men good\ Pindar, Euripides, and one

Plato,

many

other authors are apt to dwell on the sadness

lot,

of man's

and even

who
life

is

optimistic as

a rule, thinks that the evils in the good things.

far

outnumber

Not

that

Greek

literature as a

whole can fairly be called pessimistic. On the contrary, though pessimism predominates in Euripides, perhaps, one of its most characteristic notes is that
of
effort,

aspiration, ceaseless struggle against adIt

is

versity.

just because the odds against

him

are

so

great

that

man

has

the

opportunity to

Homer, be a hero: that is The Pindar, Sophocles and other Greek authors. itself an inspiration to certainty of death becomes
a leading thought in

noble endeavour.
cries Pindar,
''

"

Forasmuch

as

we must

die,"

why

should one

sit idly in

the dark,

nursing an old age

or
lot

unknown

to fame, without part

for

in

noble deeds'.^"
is

''Work,

the night

cometh,"

a constant theme in Greek literature.

same time, a profound strain of melancholy makes itself heard in nearly all the reflective passages of Greek writers and frequently the view
But, at the
;

expressed that the happiest lot is not to be born, and the next happiest, having once been born, to
is

pass the gates of

is

Hades

as soon as possible.

Solon

one of the most optimistic of Greek writers, but even he says " No one is happy, but all on whom Hence the the sun looks down are miserable^"
1

//. 24.

527

ff.

'

01. I.

82

ff.

Fr. 14.

Evil ascribed

to

Gods
no man happy

193
till

significance of the saying "Call

he

dies."

Death

is

often represented as the only

physician of
o)

life's ills.
Traiav,
/xr;
/a'

Q6.va.Ti.

ari/j-acr?;?

//.oXciv

\x.6vo%

<yap>
aXyos

cT crv
8'

tcuv avTjKiCTToiv

KaKwv

tarpos,

ovSkv aTrrerai VKpov.

!

"

healing Death

say

me

not nay, but

come

Sole cure art thou of woes incurable;

Sorrow lays not her hands upon the dead^"

What

different explanations, then,

in

suggest of the evil

consider.
fzJL,

question which in this

do the Greeks human life ? That is the lecture I will ask you to
seriously to reflect

At

first,

before

men began

on moral

difficulties,

the tendency was to ascribe

directly to the gods.

evil as well as
is

good

Zeus, in

dyaOwp re KaKojv re the Homer, steward of things evil and things good in Pindar, Zeus rd re Kal rd vefxei Zeus giveth this and that, meaning good and evil. This is the ordinary, conventional, unreflective view, and as such appears in the bulk of non-philosophical Greek literature, sometimes, as in the tragic poets, side by side with more
the
ra/xta?
:

refined suggestions, of

which

will

speak presently.

We

must remember, of course, that the Homeric Zeus is a morally composite being part evil and benevolence and malevolence combined part good in a single personality, a blend of naturalism and

Butcher,

See Fr. 255, Nauck. Some Aspects of the Greek Melancholy of the Greeks.
1

Aesch.

further

on

this

subject,

Genius:

Essay

on the

A. E.

13

194
idealism
well as
:

Suffering and Evil

so that
to
it

is

natural

enough

for evil as

good

be ascribed to him.

But

for the

most

part,

when

the Greeks attributed their mis-

fortunes as well as their prosperity to the Gods, the

moral dualism of the Godhead was not consciously

present to their minds
:

all

they meant was that

we have, evil and good alike, is given us by the almighty powers on whom we depend in all the relations of life. The Gods, being as they are in sole and universal causes, are necessarily Homer the
everything
the cause of evil rather than of good.
religion there
is

no devil to and simplest view, that evil as well as good comes from the Gods. Against this view that evil comes from the 2.

Homeric bear the blame. So

In the

much then

for the first

Gods we
time of

find a dramatic protest,

as

early as the
cries

Homer

himself.

"

Do

you know,"

Zeus, revolving in his

mind the

fate of Aegisthus,

"how vainly do mortal men blame the Gods! For of us they say conies evil, whereas they eve7i of
themselves through their ozun
dracr6a\irj(Tiv)

infattiation

(cr(f)fjcrLv

have sor^^ows beyond that which

is

is

ordained'^ y

This

the earliest suggestion of the

second theory of evil with which

we meet

in

literature, viz. that evil is the result of folly,

Greek wrong-

doing or sin for which

man

is

himself responsible.

We

are here reminded of the view expressed in

the book of the

Wisdom

of

Solomon

"God made
the living

not death

neither delighteth he

when

perish... but
^

ungodly men by their hands and their

I.

Od.

12^

ff.

(after

Butcher and Lang).

Evil as pu7tishment for

words called death unto them\" was thinking of the Homeric
the verses
Through
:

sin

195

Cleanthes the Stoic

line

when he wrote

ceaseless ages,

"O King of Kings God, whose purpose brings

or in the sea

To

birth, whate'er

on land

Is wrought,

or in high heavens' immensity,

Save what the sinner works infatuated

And
is

the cause of

throughout Greek tragedy this view that God all except what wicked men do of
repeatedly insisted upon, not
as

their

so

own free will, is much by Sophocles

"For

invariably tries to

by Aeschylus, who almost represent suffering as due to sin.

Delusion, ripeneth

bursting into blossom, Insolence (vppts)

Its harvest-ear.

And

reaps a tearful fruit-."

But the theory that suffering always presupposes sin on the part of the sufferer himself, although it has the merit of simplicity, can hardly be said to square with facts, and many, if not most, of the objections to which it is liable are frequently urged
in

Greek

literature.
in

Thus

the frsl place

it

is

pointed out that

in

point of fact the wicked constantly enjoy prosperity,

while adversity

falls

to the

lot

of the righteous.

"Many
many

wicked

virtuous

men are rich," says Solon, "and men poorl" We meet with similar
is

complaints in Theognis, who, more than any other

of the elegiac poets,
^

perplexed and troubled by

7
ff.

I.

13

ff.

See also Job

f.,

iv.

Pers. 823

tr.

A. Swanwick.

J^r.

15, Bergk.

132

196

Sufie7nng and Evil

"

the moral chaos of the universe.

writes in one passage,
art
''

Dear Zeus," he
at

wonder

thee

thou

the lord

of

all

thou

hast great

power and

honour,
think
to

and knowest well the thoughts of each

man's heart.
fit

How

then, son of Cronus, dost thou

to deal
alike,

the

same measure
or
to

to sinful

and
are

just

careless

whether their
insolence

hearts

turned to moderation

{v/3pL<^y?''

Elsewhere he expostulates with the Almighty

for

bestowing wealth* and honour on the wicked, in language that reminds us of the words of Jeremiah
:

''Righteous art thou,

:

Lord, ...yet would

reason

he cause with thee wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? Wherefore are all they at ease
that deal very treacherously'?"

Also
life

it

is

often

pointed out that the innocent in this

suffer along with the guilty,

constantly

and even

in place

of

the guilty.

Greek elegy and Pindar in particular, and most of the Greek writers who touch upon moral problems at all, recognise the indubitable
the sins of the fathers are visited upon
children.

fact that

their

Thus,
at

for

example,

Solon, while

affirming that the guilty are generally punished in

their
''

own persons
fall

the

last,

nevertheless adds

If the guilty

escape,

and the doom ordained of

it

Heaven
their

not upon themselves,

perhaps,

will surely fall

hereafter; the innocent will

children,

suffer
later

for

the guilty,

or

generations'."
justice of this
tT.

Theognis emphatically questions the

'

373

ff-

'

ler. xii. i.

Cf.

Theog. 743

'

12. 17

ff.

Suffering of the ijinocent

197
of an
in

arrangement:
father,"

"When

the

children

unjust

he exclaims, ''follow after justice

thought

and dreading thy wrath, O son of Cronus, love righteousness from the first among their fellow-citizens, let them not pay for the transgresand
act,

sions of their sire

As

it

is,"

complains the poet,

"the doer escapes, and another

again

is punished\" Here we are reminded of the way in which the Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, fall foul

of the doctrine that children are punished for the

sins

of

their

parents.
shall

"

In

those

days,"

writes
fathers

Jeremiah,

''they

say

no more,

the

have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth But every one shall die for his are set on edge. own iniquity-." Still the fact remains that the innocent do suffer for the guilty, and this is enough to show that the theory which imputes suffering invariably to sin does not represent the facts of
the case.

There
regards
all

is

a further difficulty in the view which

ment

for

and calamity as only the punishsins committed by the sufferer himself.

suffering

Granted that the sufferer has sinned, are we sure In other that he is himself responsible for his sins ? and vice words, is man a free agent, so far as virtue
Unless we are free to choose, is it just that we should be rewarded for our virtue, or punished for our sin ? This is a question which is constantly raised by Greek thinkers. Popular Greek
are concerned
?

theology ascribed everything to the Gods, including

1

737

tt.

Jer. xxxi.

29

f.

Cf. Ezekiel xviii.

198
the origin of

ermg Stiff
sin.

and Evil

or Infatuation, the

Thus in Homer, Ate, Blindness Power that prompts to Evil, is

the daughter of Zeus.

at last his criminal folly,

When Agamemnon
he exclaims
''
:

realises

What

could

Eldest do ? It is God who accomplisheth all. I daughter of Zeus is Ate who blindeth all, a power delicate are her feet, for not upon earth of bane
:

she

goeth,

but walketh over the heads of men,

to
fall
:

making men
that'."

and entangleth
the

this

one or
in

And

to

much

same

effect

we read

a fragment of Aeschylus "that

God engenders

guilt

in mortal men, when he purposes utterly to destroy This fragment is quoted by Plato their housed" in the Republic 380 a, and gives him occasion for an

emphatic protest against ascribing evil to the Gods, except as a chastening visitation for the good of the
sufferer.
It
is

a wide-spread

notion

throughout Greek

literature that

men

are led astray into sin against

their

own free will by a daemon or divine spirit, which makes evil appear to them good, and good Aeschylus speaks of an evil daemo7i or Alastor evil. confounding men's senses and hounding them on to
ruin
:

and

in

his

most powerful tragedies, dealing

it

with the history of sin as

successive

reveals itself in the

generations

of

crime-stained
is

family,

the inherited

tendency to sin

personified as a

kind of congenital daemo7i, taking vengeance for

the sins of the fathers by driving the children into
sin.
^

"

In the hearts of evil men," he says, ''sooner

19.

//.

90

ff.,

tr.

Myers.

Fr. 156, Nauck.

Men
or
later,

led astray by a dae^non

199

when

the appointed hour arrives, the old

Insolence or Sin (y^pi%) begets a young Insolence

an avenging spirit working in darkness, irresistible, unor daemon, conquerable, unholy recklessness {6pdcro<;), bringing This doctrine black destruction upon the housed" of a heaven-sent daemon or spirit leading men astray is obviously inconsistent with the theory of which I have been speaking, viz. that those who suffer have always sinned deliberately. An attempt is sometimes made to effect a kind of compromise between the two views. Thus, for example, Aeschylus, as it would seem, endeavours to distingruish two moments or stages in the career of the sinner one when he commits the first transgression, and the other when he persists in his wickedness. Aeschylus appears to hold that it is in the power of the indibut vidual to refrain from taking the initial step as soon as he has transgressed, infatuation follows This is from the Gods, and his doom is sealed. the meaning of the well-known line in which the ghost of Darius moralises on the Persian downin the likeness of its progenitors,
:

fall

aXX* QTO.V cnrevSrj rt? avTos,

x^

^^^ ^vvdiTTeTaL

"

when

of our

own

free will w^e rush into sin,

ally-."

God
find

himself becomes our

In the

Old Testament, and

in Aristotle ^

we

parallels to this idea.

is

In the Old Testament

evil,

not the primary author of

but incites

God men
19.

to evil as a
1

punishment
ff.

for evil already

8

committed^
III

Ag. 760

p^j.^

y^^f

^/i

^T^^
p.

7
f.

1114a

See Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece,

147

200
Aristotle holds

Suffermg
that a

ajid

Evil
to

man had power

''
:

refrain

from the original acts which produced a vicious True, you cancareer, and consequently he says
not alter your character

you

at

first

not to

was open to become wicked, and you are

;

now

but

it

therefore voluntarily wicked."

It

cannot, of course,
:

be argued that this

is

a satisfactory solution
lies

for

the real kernel of the difficulty

tion that the original acts

in the

conten-

which

laid the

foundation

of the habit were themselves not free, but the result

And, so far as the Greek poets are concerned, I have already said that they constantly attempt to represent even the initial impulse to sin as coming from the Gods. Hybris, Insolence or Sin," Theognis says, "is the \" and God is its author first and greatest evil A third suggestion with which we frequently 3. meet in Greek writers is that suffering is a discipline intended by Providence to educate and improve the The ordinary Greek view was perhaps that sufferer. affliction makes the character deteriorate, as Is shewn by the use of such words as nov-qpos and iioxOrjpo^;, which passed from their original meanings, ''painful"
of circumstance, heredity and so forth.
''
;

or ''grievous," to a signification of moral depravity".

[See however R. E. Macnaghten in C/. Rev. for 1907, p. 12,

attributes the

who
and

degraded meaning of such words as

*'

7rovr}p6<:

fxoxOr]p6<; to an instinctive aversion to labour

on the part of
in the national

the Athenians.

This

radical

and permanent flaw"

character he regards as leading to the downfall of Athens.

this

On

view

toil

would appear a calamity and would be

as effective

an agent of moral deterioration as sickness or other

afflictions.]


This doctrine

S2iffermg as a discipline
is

201

expressed by Simonides\ when he

declares that " a

man cannot
"

but be bad,
S'

if

hopeless
fxr]

calamity overtake him

avSpa

ovk

ea-TL

ov

KaKov
first

ififiepaL,

ov dixd-)(avo^ crvficl)Opd KaOekrj.

The

on the other hand, in whom the view that suffering is an education appears to any extent is Aeschylus, whom we saw also to have been the
writer,
first

to insist repeatedly

on the error of ascribing

learn by suffering" (ttol^o?
constraint'
"

evil to the
1x6.00^)
''
:

Gods.

"We

Wisdom cometh by

such

is

the language in which the poet expresses this idea,

developing the old story

iraOcov

Se re vtJttlo^ eyvoj.

"It

is

Zeus," he says,

the road to wisdom,

"who guideth mortals on who hath appointed the sure

In sleep
suffering

ordinance
the

dy suffering thoti shall learn.

anguish of remembered

breaks out

before the heart

in

wisdom cometh to mortals You may remember that we have exactly the same sentiments in the Book
their

and

own
"

despite^''

of Job.

God

speaketh once, yea twice, though

it

man

regardeth

not.

In a dream, in a vision of
sleep
;

the night,

when deep

falleth

upon men,

in

slumberings upon the bed

then he openeth the

purpose,

ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he

may withdraw man from

pride from m.an\"
It
is

his

and hide

highly characteristic that

Aeschylus should ascribe the law of nddos fxd6o<; we learn by suffering to Zeus, the God of all

others

whom
1

he
f.

most

reveres.
'^

The
523
f.

stern

old

10

i/;;i.

Ag. 186

ff.

33. 14.

202
principle
''the

Suffering
of

and Evil
Spda-avTi
naOeivy

simple

retribution,

doer must suffer"

insists

principle on which he

also

with tremendous force

belongs

appa-

rently to the older dynasty of

Zeus

with Zeus a

Gods who preceded milder and humaner discipline

begins.

The dramas

of Sophocles sometimes illustrate

is

the doctrine that suffering

a divinely-appointed

means of education.
is

He

is

quite clear that there

in the

such a thing as unmerited suffering

world

and he frequently represents such suffering

light of a discipline.

in the

In the Oedipus at Colonus,

Oedipus claims to have been taught by suffering and time.

(TTpyLV

yap

at irdOai fxe

x^ XP^^ ivvwv

fjLaKpo? SlSdcTKCL^.

He
is

is

no longer the old Oedipus of Thebes,

for,

as Sophocles says in

one of

his fragments, "

Much

revealed to the soul that

iv

is

cradled in calamity":

TToW

KaKolci

6vixo<;

evvqOei^ 6pa~.

The same

conception of suffering meets us also

in

from time to time

example, Plato,
to
in

Greek philosophy.
^

Thus,

for
it

the Republic

will

not allow

be said that God sends evil to mankind, unless by way of discipline, to improve and benefit the
sufferer^

So

also in respect of suffering hereafter,

Plato almost
or remedial
^

invariably

represents
is

it

as curative

the
f.

after-life

a kind of purgatory,

6>.

C. 7

Fr. 600, Nauck.

See Adam, R. T. G.,

p.

172

f.

380

B.

Mystery of suffering
though It punished
is

203
evil-doers are

true that

some incurable

in

order to serve as examples for the rest

of mankind, as for instance the tyrant Ardiaeus\ and one of the numerous suggestions made by Stoic writers as to the significance of suffering was that it
is

a yvfxvdcTLov

kind of training-ground for the

development of character.

Here again, of course, we find plenty of parallels in the Old Testament and Apocrypha, for example in the Wisdom of Solomon

"And having borne

receive great
;

little

chastening, they shall

good because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, and as a whole burnt offering he accepted them^" But the Greek writers do not,
of course, pretend that such a theory offers a
solution of the mystery of suffering;
it is

full

merely one
has been

suggestion

among many, and open to almost as serious

It

intellectual difficulties as the others.

argued that a Power

ultimate

at

once omnipotent and omni-

benevolent could have bestowed on mankind the

good which suffering is supposed to bring, and yet have dispensed with the suffering and, from the purely rational point of view, it is diffi;

cult to discover

an effective reply

to the

argument.

On

this

account

many

thinkers, feeling themselves

bound

benevolence of the

omnipotence or omnihave maintained the existence of two independent principles or powers the one responsible for all that there is of evil This in the world, and the other for the good.
to surrender either the

Deity,

Jiep.

615

c.

iii.

5.

Cf.

Job

xxiii.

10.

^04
leads

Suffering and Evil

us to the fourth

explanation of evil which

viz.

appears in Greek literature,

4.

That

evil

comes, not from the Godhead, but

power, coeval with the
completely subject to

from some
in

rival principle or

Deity, for the most part working against him, and

any case not

yet, at least,

his control.
is

In other words, the existence of evil

explained on the hypothesis of dualism.

I have already said that we seldom, if ever, meet with this view in Greek poetry but it occurs from time to time in Greek philosophy. At first, indeed, the philosophers endeavoured to explain the universe by postulating a single uncreated and imperishable substance, water, it might be, or air or fire but in course of time these two principles began to be recognised and the tendency grows up to regard one of them as the cause of good, the other as the cause of evil. Empedocles derives the Universe from the four elements, Fire, Air, Water and Earth, together with the two efficient or moving causes Love and Hatred, the former of which combines the elements into things, while by the
;

latter things are resolved again into the elements.

upon Love as the beneficent, and Hatred as the maleficent power; and in the judgment of Aristotle, the conception at which he is really driving, though he fails to give it adequate expression, is that Love is the cause of good, and Hatred of evil so that in a sense Empedocles was the first to recognise the Good and the Evil as two distinct and independent principles for of course
clearly looks
;

He


Dtialist view of evil

205

that which causes

good is the Good, and that which causes evil the Evil. Anaxagoras was a much more consistent and thorough-going dualist. He derives
the world from the action of

Mind
-qv

or Reason,

vo\)%,

upon primeval chaos

gether
oy.o\)

all

things, he says,

TTavra xpVf^oLTa

then

were toReason came

and formed them into a cosmos elra vov<; ekOcov hi^Koa-^-qa-ev, But he did not, so far as we know, ascribe the evil in the world to the one principle I mean to pre-existent chaos and the good to Reason, although the position which the worldforming vovq occupies in his system is analogous to that which later theology assigns to the Deity, even if, as is probable, he did not call vov^ the Deity. Reason, in Anaxagoras, is uncreated and imperishable, at once omniscient and omnipotent, apparently a spiritual and not a corporeal essence, a power that, in virtue of its absolute freedom it creates the cosmos. is, as he says, avTOKpaTe<; It

is

not until

we come

to Plato that

we seem

to find

evil

expressly attributed to a principle apparently

I

coeval with, and clearly,

the Good.
In
as
his

think, distinguished from

^

Timaeus, Plato declares that

the

World
is

product of
subject

we see it is a mixed creation the Mind or Reason and Necessity.! The

one on which different views have been held, but to me it seems clear that Necessity, to which Plato attributes whatever there is of evil in
is

the world,
or chaos,
universe.

a personification of the original matter

out of which the

In any case,

Deity constructs the

Plato

makes

it

clear that

2o6

Suffering and Evil

the Creator had not quite a free hand.

stantly repeats that
beautiful

He

con-

God, desiring all things to be and good, made them beautiful and good,

as

far

as possible.

The

qualifying phrase " as far

as possible " clearly implies the presence of

some
=

impediment, some power or principle extraneous to For the Deity, which he cannot wholly overcome.
the most part, Plato connects this rival principle with

what
in evil

is

material and not with the spiritual./

Theaetettis

Thus

the

he writes

''Nay, Theodorus,

can neither perish (for there must always be

something opposed to the Good), nor yet can it be but of necessity e^ dvcLyK'iq<; it situated in heaven haunts our mortal nature and this present worlds"
;

But,

in

a well-known
is

passage of the Laws,

evil

he

afhrm.s that there

an

world-soul as well as

good

two

cosmic

souls, the

one beneficent, and

This
is

the other maleficent, contending against each other

throughout the whole domain of nature.

per-

haps the nearest parallel

conception of a devil
soul
;

in

Greek

literature to the

only in Plato the evil world-

would appear

to

be altogether independent of
its origin.

the good, so far as concerns

The
as

Stoic philosophers occasionally explain the

in a

presence of evil

somewhat

similar way, although,

consistent Stoic solution

most characteristic and was of quite a different kind. Thus Chrysippus declared that there was a large admixture of Necessity in the world and Necessity, in Greek thought, is always something evil as opshall presently see, the

we

176

A.


Simplicity of dualist theory

207
;

something good while at other times he suggested that perhaps God is not omnipotent ov iravra hvvo,7(xi the divine nature is not altogether free from weakness (acr^eVeta), and
is

posed to Nature, which

good things which he makes, a certain amount of evil is bound up per sequellas quasdarn necessarias, as Gellius says\ by a sort of necessary or inevitable law which the Deity himself
hence, along with the

cannot escape.

This dualistic explanation of the origin of evil of course the simplest and it is worth our while to observe that it provides a solid foundation for
is
;

morality.

The

notion

is

that

God
at

is

the
in
;

alto-

gether

beneficent

power always
that

work
his

the

world against the forces that make for

it

evil

and
is

is

further

implied

man

for

part

composite creature, with an element of the divine

in

him, and at the

the Titanic or devilish

mortality

and

same time with something of standing midway between immortality, With th' one hand

*'

touching heav'n, with

with

th'

other earthl"

The duty of man is thus to become a co-worker God (Tvuepyos rw 6ea, as St Paul says in

the attempt to establish a

within himself and In the

kingdom of heaven both worldl/ To this thought

Plato gives a characteristically religious expression

'

Aul. Gell. JVoa. Atl.

vii.

i.

9.

See the lines of George Herbert, quoted supra^ The

p. 21.

Vitality

of Platonism^
^

From

the Euthyphro
-q

we gather
for the

that piety

is

the art of

serving God,
pyoi/,

Oidls

v-rr-qpcrLKr],

promotion of a TrayKaXov

namely

virtue^

13

e.

2o8
in a striking

e7'ing Stiff

and Evil

passage of the Laws, thus translated

by Jowett
be
full

*'
:

For

as

we acknowledge
is,

the world to

and of as we affirm, an immortal conflict going on among us, which requires marvellous watchfulness and in that conflict the Gods and demigods are our allies " ^u/A/Aa^ot Se
also of evils,

of

many goods and

more

evils

than goods, there

riiCiv

eot re a/xa koX Sat/xoj^e?

"andwe
is

are their

property\"
presents

The
is

guise under which humanity here

that of warfare
;

itself

warfare
may

as

the

condition of progress

and

it

just the presence

possible.

of evil which

makes the warfare

But, although

In this
afford a

way
for

a dualistic theory of the world

basis for morality.

Manicheanism
is
it

such

in effect this

explanation of evil really

to

may be
fails

satisfactory

the

intellect,

somehow
of course,

to satisfy man's spiritual

and emotional nature

sacrifices,

we

long for unity

and

it

the omnipotence of the Godhead.

On

this

account

the most religious characters, especially those of a

mystical tendency in ancient as well as in

times,

modern

have seldom been able to acquiesce in such a theory and it only remains for me to touch on
;

the kind of solution which, though not, perhaps,

intellectually invulnerable, has

commended

itself to

not a few of the religious teachers of mankind.

5.

In a certain line of the Iliad the

to

Gods

are

said

pledge one another

in

golden goblets as
the

they look upon the batde of Greeks and Trojans

round Troyl
'

On

this

line a scholiast writes

p.

906

A.

See also supra,

163.

^4.

4.

Suffermg as part of universal harmony

following note
:

209

"

Men

say

it

Is

sight of wars should please the Gods.

unseemly that the But it Is not

Besides,
to
tis,

unseemly wars and

all

for noble
battles

deeds give pleasure.

appear terrible
view
is

but to

God
the

even these are not terrible.

things

For God
to

accomplishes

with a
says

the

harmony of
all

whole, dispensing

what

expedient theretmto, even

to

as

Heraclitns
a^td

that

God

things

are

beautiful

good and

right,

but

men

consider
fifth

some things wrong and others right^!' theory of suffering and evil is contained
tract,

The

In this ex-

Briefly stated,

and goes back, as you will see, to Heraclitus. Man's point of view is it Is this.
:

limited
evil
if

Hence to us the he sees only a part. and suffering in the world appear a blot but
;

we

could see the whole,

if

we

could attain to the

universal point of view, the point from which

God

himself regards the universe,

we should

see that

evil and suffering contribute to the universal har-

mony.

For

this

universal
:

harmony

results

from
the
"
;

the play of opposites

lyre," says

"as with the bow and the

;

Heraclitus, " so with the world

it

is

tension of opposing forces that

one."
"

makes the
is

structure

Opposition,"

we

are told, "

cooperation
;

"the

fairest

harmony

results

from differences "

"

were

there no higher and lower notes in music, there could

It is the same kind of view be no harmony at all." Browning adumbrates in Francis Furini"^. which

Plato in antiquity occasionally gives expression

to a similar view, as
^

when he
-

says that

God
p.

created
166.

Her. Fr. 61, By water.

Quoted supra,

A. E.

14

2IO

Suffering

and Evil

the part for the sake of the whole, and not the whole
for the

sake of the part a sentiment that looks like

an echo of the words of Heraclitus "God accomplishes all things with a view to the harmony of the
whole."

Traces of
in

this

idea are
It

perhaps to be
be that the poet

found also

Aeschylus.

may
we

intends us to believe that the spirits of cursing in

the Eumenides are, really,
spirits
if

could only see

too,

it,

of

blessing\
lift

Sophocles,

"seems

to

invite us to

our eyes from the suffering oi the

thereby seeking to
to

individual to a consideration of the ulterior purpose

which Providence
it is

is

fulfil....

But

not only the

life

of the individual that the poet

thus regards.

He

seems

have extended
of the

his out-

look to the whole

movement

human

destiny,

and to have seen therein the fulfilment of a single harmonious purpose, which is none other than the will of Zeusl" But the Stoics were the chief representatives of this view in ancient times^ Man's true and essential
individuality,
in the service

according to this school,

Is

realised

of that universal being which they

identified with

God

and, further,

it

is

God who

is

himself the ultimate unity in

whom
is

all

the opposition

and variety of the Universe

If,

reconciled*.

in conclusion,

we
p.

try to estimate the ethical

See Verrall's edition,

xxxv.

'

Adam, R.
See supra,
See

T. G., pp. 173, 175.

Hymn

Hymn

of Cleanthes, pp. 166 of Cleajiihes, 1. 18 ff., and Keble's lines quoted

fif.

supra, p. 169.

Problem of moral

evil

and religious value of this attempted explanation of the problem of suffering and evil an explanation which appears again and again in nearly every form of pantheistic thought, and more especially in Spinoza we must distinguish, I think, between physical evil on the one hand, and moral evil on

the other.

So

far

as physical evil

is

concerned,

the suggestion that pain and suffering do in

some
the

mysterious way,
the whole,
it

if

we could only

see

it,

fulfil

divine purposes and contribute to the

harmony of

may

not be satisfactory to the intellect

seems, indeed, to shelve the intellectual difficulty

altogether

but

experience shows that

it is

a source

of consolation and resignation to the sufferer.

But the explanation of the existence of moral evil on

the

same theory does not

satisfy either our intellect

or our religious feeling.

The

Stoics indeed someis

times maintain that moral

evil

needed

in

the

universe to give a meaning to moral good, because

temperance,
justice

for

instance,

implies

intemperance,
forth ^ but

injustice, truth falsehood

and so

we

feel that

moral good and moral evil are funda:

mentally opposed to one another

so that there can

be no real harmony or unification of the two. These, then, would seem to be the principal views expressed in Greek literature on the subject
of suffering and
first,

evil.

Let
it

me
is

briefly

sum

up.

At

suffering

is

ascribed directly to the operation

of the
sin
;

Gods
^

secondly,

represented as due to

in

the third place,

it

appears as a divinely
ff.

See supra, Hyitm of Cleanthes, pp. 169

142

2 12

Suffering
discipline
;

and Evil
the

ordained
character

for

improvement of the
both physical and

in
is

the fourth place, a frankly dualistic

explanation

attempted,

evil,

moral, being attributed to a malevolent, and

to a

good

benevolent being
a
disposition

and
hold

finally,

a few thinkers

show

to

that

the

distinction

between good and evil is one of merely human making, and that from the highest standpoint all is
good.

We

cannot

in this

world see the true harmony

the Greeks there are
its

of the universe, but

among

many
shall

signs of a firm belief in

existence

and

of the hope of a hereafter in which

the mystery

be solved, for
"Death is the veil which those who Uve They sleep and it is lifted \"
^

call life;

Shelley, Prometheus Unbound.

VI.

THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL VALUE OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

A
who
former student of Classics at the University,
is

now earning an honourable

in

if

somewhat
Latin

scanty livelihood

by teaching Greek and

somewhere
classical
I

the provinces, once remarked to the

writer of this essay, a propos of the curriculum of

study

in

Cambridge, ''Cui bono?

When
inquiry,

die,

should like to have the words Cut bono f

engraved
expressed

upon

my

coffin."

The same
playfully

perhaps

with

less

pathetic
to

exaggeration,

must

occasionally

be addressed
It
is

every teacher of the Classics.

question

which ought not to be evaded, whether it comes from the advocate of some rival scheme of education,

or from the dejected pupil vainly struggling

to descry the

wood among

the trees.

variety of

answers has often been returned\ and not without good reason, because the answer necessarily differs
^

Several

of

them

are

discussed

(and somewhat severely

handled) by Professor Sidgwick in Farrar's Essays on a Liberal

Education, pp. 8i

143.

214

^'^^

Value of Classical Edtication

It

according to the status of the questioner.

would

be inappropriate,

for example, to offer the same answer to a Senior Wrangler who is urging the rival claims of mathematics, to a boy who is learning Latin for the purposes of an apothecary, and to We a classical student at Oxford or Cambridge.

are therefore at liberty to attempt a partial reply,

addressed
with the

in

the main to those

classical

who
is

are familiar
it

routine of

study as
It

is

purthat
;

sued

in

the

Universities.
is

In

these

classical

education

carried to

Its

highest pitch

and consequently any theory of classical study at the Universities, If even approximately true, will be at once more fundamental and more final than one whose scope Is limited to an earlier stage in the intellectual and moral training of the student. If classical education is to retain its hold upon the Universities, and the recent development of other studies has but strengthened Its position\ It must be prepared to invite the student into more spacious and more fruitful fields of inquiry than can profitably be worked at school. The present Essay is only an attempt to sketch In outline what seems

The

following passage from

Mark

Pattison's Essays (vol.

i.,

p.
if is

440) only

will

as

show that such a result might have been anticipated, we shall endeavour to show the study of the classics

essentially a liberal education.

"It

is

a well-established fact

in the history of liberal education, that the periods in

which the and the practice of it have made the greatest improvement, have been periods immediately succeeding some of the great discoveries in science, or some of the great impulses to
history

the study of facts."

Liberal and professional education

to

215

the author a true

apology and theory of the

place and proper function of classical study in a

University.

Let us begin by availing ourselves of a distinction of long standing a distinction at once popular and scientific the distinction between what is called a liberal and what is called a professional

education.

The
in

distinction

was

familiar

to

the

ancients

Plato's

day,

the

teachers

of liberal

education were the philosophers and dramatists and

artists,

whereas professional training was supplied

by the sophists. Speaking generally, we may say that the primary

object of a professional education,
tiquity,
is

now

as

in

an-

not to develop the

for

mental and moral

qualities of the pupil

their

own

sakes, but to
in

enable him

to

make

his

living to convert,

other

words, his brains into money.

Training of
in
its

this

kind

may

or

may

not incidentally advance the liberal

education of the learner, but

essence

it

is

altogether distinct from liberal education, because

its

end and aim are

different.

To

give an exhaustive definition of liberal edu-

beyond our present scope, but we will mention two points in which the man of liberal
cation lies

education
the

TrcTratSev/xeVos,

in

the strict sense of

the

word
In the

TraiSeta
is

differs

from

man whose

education
powder

otherwise.
place, liberal education implies the

first

of

intellectual

sympathy.

The

faculty of

entering

into

another man's

thoughts,

of

appre-

The Value of Classical Education

his

dating
inherent

point

of

view,

and
is

recognising the

necessity of his creed

and conduct, beliberally educated.

longs only to the

man who

In dealing with their fellow-men, others are tyrants

and persecutors he alone is intellectual sympathy confined

;

tolerant.

Nor

is

his

which He can enter into the thoughts and he moves. feelings which prevail or have prevailed in another nation and another age. and move among the mighty minds of every generation as if they were
to the circle in
his kindred.

Liberal education communicates this

intellectual

faculty
itself

of

sympathy

because,

being

rather the
it

Form

than the Matter of know-

ledge,

enables us in dealing with the thoughts

to

of

others

them with the

this

make them our own by clothing form which we already know. From
liberal

point of view

education

is

to
is

every
to the

other kind of learning just what Logic

Sciences.

In the second place, liberal education involves

the training of the character no less than of the

intellect.
It

aims
Tov

at

the Treptaywyy] of the entire

i.K

soul
19

\ljv)(rj<;

nepLayojyT],
6vto<^

vvKTpLvrj<; tlpo<; 7)fxpa<;

CTrai^oSo?

6X-r)0Lvr]v

ovcra

spiritual

revolution, in which the soul ascends from twilight

to

the

noonday of

reality \

True,

the

educator
first

addresses himself to the intellect of his pupil

and foremost, but he does not desire, nor is it, from his point of view^ even possible, to influence the intellect without affecting the will and character.
^

Plato,

J^eJ>. VII.

521

c.

Characteristics of a liberal education

He

addresses himself in short, not to the intellect

alone, but to the

whole man through the intellect. His attitude may be described in the words of
^
:

Plato

8e

ye

vvv

\6yo^

arj^atvei

ravTiqv
'^^

ttjv

ivovcrav eKacTTOV hvvayLLV iv

Tjj

^vxf)
el

'^^^

opya-

vov
TjV

CO

KarafxavOdveL eKaaros, olov

Tj

Ojuxa

fxr)

SvvaTOv
77/309

aWw?

^VV oXo)

TO)

(TCOfJiaTL

CrTp(f)eLP
rrj

TO

(fjavop

Ik tov otkotcoSov^, ovtoj ^vv 6\rj

ecu?

^VXV
to

^^

Tov
/cat

yiyvoyiivov irepiaKTeov eivai,

av

19

ov

TOV

ovTo^

TO
:

(^avoTaTOV

BvvaTrj

yivqTaL

dva-

ax^cr9aL

6eajfjLi/r)

"Our

present reasoning indicates

vov<;

that this faculty"

in the soul

(meaning

or reason) ''dwelling

of each individual, this organ wherewith

each one learns, cannot be turned round from gazing

on the
part

false

and

fleeting,

and rendered able

the

to en-

dure the contemplation of truth and the brightest

thereof,

except
as
if
it

by turning

whole soul
to turn the

round

even

were impossible
it."

bodily eye from darkness to light except by turning the whole body round along with

Confining ourselves then for the present to these

two features of a liberal education its power to produce intellectual sympathy, and its effect in moulding the character through the intellect let us inquire whether the study of the Classics can justly be regarded as a liberal education, when judged by these two canons. What is Classical Education ? We may say briefly that it is the transportation of the mind into the ways of thought and feeling which pre-

'

J^eJ>. VII.

518

c.

2i8
vailed

The Vahie of Classical Education

in

ancient Greece
;

and

Rome.
this

This
will

is

high ideal
manists
in

but

nothing short of

do

nothing short of this has been aimed at by

Huto

every generation.

Macaulay used
but that

define a scholar as the

man who

could read his

;

Plato with his feet upon the fender

is

was said of Dr Kennedy that when he took a class in Demosthenes he did not It is teach Demosthenes, he was Demosthenes. in the same sense that the true scholar always
not enough.
It

identifies himself

with the author

full

whom

he reads.

meaning of the Greek, he transcends the limitations of time and place, and is carried back into the world wherein The soul of Homer, his author lived and moved. of Plato, of Sophocles, of Virgil passes into him he looks out with other eyes upon another world and the very music of their language seems to him
In proportion as he grasps the
theirs,

the spontaneous utterance of thoughts that are not

but

his.

Nor

is

it

only

in

the reading of
is

authors that such a transportation of the soul

necessary in order to derive the
classical training.
full

benefit of a

The
is

writing of

Greek and Latin

prose and verse

it

truly valuable only in so far as

enables us to see with the eyes, hear with the

ears,

and think with the minds, of the

ancients.

No man
within

ever wrote like Plato or like Cicero unless

at the time.

the spirit of ancient philosophy or oratory dwelt

him
is

The same

is

true of the

study of classical syntax and grammar.

The Gramif

marian

of

little

value to the Humanist

he does

Aim
not

of

classical study

219

show him what particular habit of mind or prompted the ancients to express themselves in such and such a way. It has often been
feeling

observed that language stands to thought as form

does to matter.
characteristic of

Now
Greek
its
it

if

there

is

one thing more

than any other,

civilisation

whether we consider
art,

religion, its philosophy, its

or

its

politics,

is

the intimate union which

In everywhere existed between matter and form. dealing with the relation of language to thought, Plato expressed his consciousness of this union by describing language as the image (etScuXoi/) of thought, and thought as nothing but the inner language of the soul conversing with herself. This
is

the justification of that laborious study of words,

and syntax, and idiom, which no serious student of

the Classics can afford to neglect.
recreate the world of Plato

We

desire to

and Sophocles, to see saw it, think what they what they saw, as they thought, as they thought it and in the wonderful
;

language which they spoke, there is no shade of expression, however delicate, no particle, however
trivial, in

which there may not lurk a subtle

is

force,

to miss
full

which

to

fall

short of apprehending the

life

significance of ancient

and thought.
educational

We
value

need hardly add that History and Archaeolog)^ lose

half their

charm and

all

their

unless they teach us

felt.

how

the ancients lived and

Modern
is is

historians

sometimes
:

forget

that

History
did.
It

one of the Muses not every archaeologist who can

the ancients seldom

see,

220
like

The Value of Classical Education

Keats, the whole soul of Greek antiquity in
:

a Grecian urn
"

Attic shape

Fair attitude

with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed
Thou,
silent

form
!

dost tease us out of thought

As doth

eternity

Cold Pastoral
in

When
Thou Than

old age shall this generation waste,

shalt remain,

midst of other woe

ours, a friend to
is

man,

to

whom
is

thou

say'st,

Beauty

truth, truth beauty, that

all

Ye know on

Earth, and

all

ye need to know."

Set 8e iTov TeXevTOLP ttjv ixovaiK-qv k^ to. tov

ipcjTLKoi,

KaXov

says

Plato \

If

the love of beauty and

all

truth

is

the ultimate goal of

education

and

if

the
it

outward beauty of form and shape, whether appeals to us through language or through
is

sculpture,

but the

expression

of

the of

spiritual

loveliness

within,

then
it

our

study

antiquity

should be psychological.
of
fact,

Classical study, in point

is

so far as

is

an educative discipline,

department of Psychology, the crown of sciences,

according to Professor Bain.

We
Classics

may

take

it

then

that

education
the
in

in

the

involves,

or

should
into

involve,

trans-

portation of the

mind

the

sphere
felt.

which
fulfil

the ancients lived and thought and

It

remains to ask. Does such a transportation

the two conditions of liberal education which

laid

we have
?

down ? Does it promote intellectual sympathy Does it refine and strengthen the character ?
^

Rep.

III.

403

c.

Stimulus of classical

sttidy

22

Before describing his curriculum of education,

down, in the seventh book of the Republic^, that whatever presents us with two opposite sensations at one and the same time is
Plato
lays
it

calculated to stimulate the intellect.

sion of this principle

By an

exten-

we may say

that

any department
which we
live

of study which continually presents us with ideas and

emotions antagonistic to the age

in

tends forcibly to awaken our intellectual activities

and

foster intellectual

sympathy.

Now

this is precisely

what the study of

classical,

and especially of Greek, antiquity preeminently does. The literatures of Greece and Rome are the only great and easily accessible literatures which remain to us before the foundation of Christianity and modern civilisation. In reading Greek and Latin authors, if only we read them intelligently, we stumble throughout almost every page upon some mode of expression, upon some idea, foreign to the The effect is, or should be, what fashion of to-day. Socrates described as an intellectual torpedo-shock, similar to that produced upon the body by contact
with the torpedo or cramp-fish.
at
first

You
;

are stunned

or,

as

Plato might say, dazed, and ren-

dered giddy, by the contradiction

but the paralysis

begins to resolve

soon disappears, and your

broader,

intellect

the contradiction into a higher unity, involving a

more

charitable,

and

for that reason

more

profound, conception of
life.
*'

human
''

nature and
in

human
Essays

The main
'

object," says

on a Liberal Education'^,
524
D.

Mr Bowen,
2

the main object of seeing

p. 194.

222

The Value of Classical Education

distinctly

what Plato and Cicero thought, is that one may be able to look on all questions, not only on the side which they now present, but on that also which they turned to observers long ago to gain, as it were, a kind of intellectual parallax in contem;

plating the problems of life\"

Let us give one or two examples of the kind shall of contradictions which we have in view. not attempt to resolve them to do so would be to

We

stray into the deepest questions of philosophy, and

an integral part of classical education that every one should sooner or later later rather than sooner devise a solution of his own. The examples
it

is

which we shall select are from Greece more often than from Rome. If one were to endeavour to express in a single word the fundamental difference between ancient and modern ways of thinking, one might say that
the keynote of the former
latter analysis.
is

synthesis, that of the

;

The

ancients delighted in wholes

moderns delight in resolving a whole into its component parts. It is only another way of expressing the same essential difference to say that Greek antiquity was on the whole imaginative, Now while modern life is scientific in the main. which it is possible to conceive the greatest whole is the totality of things, composed of the ego and the non-ego, of internal and external nature, of the As regards the relation Individual and the World.
the
*

See Tyrrell, Latin Poetr}\ pp. 85, 96, as to the value of

contrasts.

Ancient and modern ways of thought

223

between these two, the Greeks regarded Man and Nature as united in a far closer union than we do now. Nature was to them no step-mother, no tigress, "red in tooth and claw," no inhuman force
to

power with
forces that

be fought against, but a mother, a beneficent whom we should cooperate against the

make

for

misery and

sin.

It

we may

well believe, to pray to his goddess

was not, mother

only that Achilles turned to the sea for comfort

avrap A\LWiv<;
SaKp-vcra^ Irdpiov a.(^ap

i^tro

v6<T<f)L

XtacrOeU

07v

l<fi

a/\o9 TToXiTJ^,

6p6(DV eVt otvoTra novrov^:

the

dvTJpiOfjLoi'

yikao-fxa

of

the

infinite

waters

soothed and consoled his troubled heart.

could
illustrate

Nothing

more

finely

the

Greek sentiment

we may say so with the sea than Simonides' picture of Danae and her babe cast adrift upon the stormy waves. The words of Danae are full of peace and quiet faith fear is the least of her emotions. Hear what she says,
of kinship
if
:

addressing her child

aA//av
8'

VTrepOcv

nav

KOfxav /SaOitav
ov5' dvefioiv

TraptoiTOS Kv/xaTO<s ovk dAcycts,

(pOoyyov, 7rop<l>vpaiaLV
KLiXvo<s

iv xXavicnv,

Kokov

TrpoVcuTrov.

KcXo/xat
CvScTCu

8'
8*

cvSc

(3p<f)0<;,

cvSero) 8c ttovtos,

a.fXTpOV
ri<i

KaKOV
(f)avLi]y

p.TaLf3o\La 8c

Zcv Trdrep, iK

creOiv.

OTTL Se BapcraXiov Ittos

eo\op.ai
^

v6(r<f>Lv

8i'Ka9,

oryy^w^t

pLor.
"^

Homer,

//.

i.

348

350.

Simonides, 37.

224
"

^^^^

Value of Classical Education

babe, and sleep, the sea
"
!

Sleep,

my

The symnever
shall

pathy of human

with

external

nature was

more touchingly expressed. say of Earth, the Mother ?

one of the noblest passages
feeling of love

And what The elder

in the

we

Pliny \ in

whole range of

Latin literature, has interpreted for us the ancient

and
''
:

affection for the

life,

mother who
recalls us to

feeds and sustains us during

and

her arms at death

Sequitur terra, cui uni rerurn

Sic

naturae partiurn eximia propter merita cognomen

indidinius 7naternae venerationis.

hominum

ilia,

ut caelum dei, quae nos nascentes excipit, natos alit

semelqtie editos sustinet sefnper, novissime complexa

gremio iam a reliqua natiira abdicatos, tum 7naxi7ne ut mater operiens, nullo magis sacra iuerito quam quo nos quoque sacros facit, etiam monumenta ac titulos gerens nomenque prorogans nostrum et

memoriam extendens numen ultimum iam

irascatur homini.

conti^a

brevitatem aevi, cuius

nullis

precamur

irati grave,

tanquam nesciamus hanc

esse

solam quae nunquam

in imbres, riges,

Aquae subeunt

cunt ingrandines, tumescunt in fluctus praecipitantur

in tor7^entes
:

aer densatur nubibus,

fur it

procellis

at haec benigna, mitis, indulgens, ususque mortalium

semper
ftmdit,
tactus,

ancilla,

quae

coacta

generat,

quae
sucos,
tit

sponte

quos
qtios

o do res

sapores que,
''

quos

quos

colores!''

Tmn maxime
like a

mater
d 8e

operiens,''

"then most of
loiv

all

mother covering
aTTOz/curaros tcov

us

"

do not these words remove Death's sting?

em
'

/jtera yrj/aw?

reko^ Kara
Hist. Nat.
II.

(f)}j(TLv

63.

Greek feeling about death

225

death

in the course of nature is accompanied rather by pleasure than by pain. The wearied child returns to his mother's arms at evening
:

EcTTTcpe, Trdvra <^epei9,

(^pet9 OLV,

(f>epL^

aiya, ^c/aets /xarepi TratSa^.

But such a picture of Death, beautiful as it is, was rare among the Greeks. We may welcome the God when he comes as the natural evening of a happy day the miserable may pray for him
;

to

come
w

" with

healing

in

his

wings," as in the

touching lines of Aeschylus^

$dvar. Tratav,
fxiq
/x'

dTLfid(Ti]<;

fioXeiV.

fj.6vo<5

yap

et

av twv
8'

dvrjKea-TUiv

KaKcuv

larpo's,

aXyo5

ovSlv aTrrcrat veKpov.

But how seldom does Death delay the natural bourn

!

his

advent

till

modo

pueros,

modo

adulescentes in cursu a tergo insequens

necopinantes adsecuta est^

Nor
life.

could the Hellenic joy of living always look

forward with resio^nation even to the natural term of

The well-known

lines attributed to

Moschus
:

represent the usual Greek feeling about death

atat Tat /xaXaxat P-^v iirdv Kara kclttov oAojvrat,
T/Se
TO,

^Xoipd a-eXiva to t
cis

evOaXlq ovAov avrjdov,

Itos olAXo cfivovTf
ol

varepov av ^ojovti Kai

dp.p.e<i
8'

ot fXydkoL

Kal KapTepol

aocjiol aj/Opcs,

OTTTTOTC irpara

6'avco/x9,

dvdKooL kv -^BovX kolXo.

vBop.^ v pidXa p.aKpov (XTep/xova vrjypcrov vttvov.

^

Plato, Timaeus, 8i e.
ap. Cicero, Tusc. Disp.
i.

'

^ Fr. Sappho, 95. 255, Nauck. See also Tyrrell, Latin Poetry 94.

76

ff.,

117, 159

ff.

A. E.

15

26

The Value of Classical Edtication

at

The Greeks murmured

leaf dies, but the soul

death because

it

seemed

to involve a breach with the order of nature.

still

The
itself

lives,
;

and clothes
but

in another body in the spring

man
it

perishes,
is

or

if

his
in

soul

survives

in

Hades,
prisoner

but

a
for

shadow

shadow-land,

sighing

freedom and the light of day\ The dead Achilles was but the mouthpiece of Greek feeling when
he said"
1X7]

Stj

fxoL

OdvuTov y TrapavSa, ^atSi/x

iirdpovpo^ cwv Or]Tevfxv

^Oovcro'ev.
aA,A.o)
elrj,

(3ov\oLfx^]v K
ai'Spi Trap
i]

a.K\ijp<s),

fxr)

^t'oros '7roXv<;

rracny vKve(T(TL Kara(^6ip.ivoi(TLV avacrcrctv.

But do not
this

let
;

us call the Greeks melancholy on

is

account

it

easy to exaggerate what

is

called

their

Their repugnance at death is melancholy. measure of their optimism and love of life. the A Greek could hardly have written the exquisite lines of Keats, in the Ode to a Nightingale
:

" Darkling I listen

I

and

for

many
a

a time

have been half

in love with easeful in

Death,

Call'd

him

soft

names

many
it

mused rhyme,

To

take into the air

my

quiet breath
rich to die,

Now more
'

than ever seems

here to note
life

It is interesting

how

the theory of transmigraearth, the soul clothing

tion (involving a return to

itself in a

upon the

new body

as the tree puts forth

new

leaves)

the

form

in

which the doctrine of immortality impressed

itself

upon the

deeper religious and philosophical feeling of the Greeks

implies
life

a reconciliation with the order of Nature as seen in the

plants.
2

of

Od.

XI.

48S 491.

Nature
To
Still

deified by Greeks

227

cease

upon
art

the midnight with

no

pain,

While thou

pouring forth thy soul in ecstasy

I

would'st thou sing, and

have ears in vain.

a sod."

To
Si

thy high requiem

^oXcoj/,

become

'%ok(iiv,

'^E\\7]ve<;

del

TraiSe?

ecrre,

yepcop

It Egyptian priest'. was the eternal boyhood of the Greeks that made them shrink from death as something almost con-

Se ^'EWrjv ovK ecTTiv, said the

trary to Nature.

Up
Greek

to the present point,

we have

dealt with the

conception of Nature and natural forces as

alike,

personified, perhaps, but not as deified.

common

people and the philosophers was divine. The popular imagination peopled earth and sea and sky with multitudinous gods and goddesses, the personification of natural forces, but did

But to the Nature

not unify them in the conception of a single

all-

embracing Deity.

Throughout Greek
all

literature,

on

the other hand, or at

events in the best Greek

literature which survives, there runs an undercurrent of monotheism, and the philosophers loved to represent the totality of Nature's forces as the one and

only God.

And
d

as

God
/cat
17

is

good, so
says

likewise

is

Nature
ovhkv
natural

Se

^eo?

<^vcri9,
is

Aristotle',

fjLarrjv
:

ttolovo-lv.

Evil

not natural, but unIt

is

ovSev TOiv irapa (^vaiv koKov^.

the

background of Necessity or Fate which throws into And what the relief the smiling face of Nature'.
1

Plato, Ti7n. 22 b.

'

Be

Caelo, 21 \^

n.

Ar. Pol. 1325b 9f. Cf. Ibid. 1255b 3.

<f}V(TLV

De

Caelo.,

286^ 19

CKO-Tacris T19 ecrriv Iv rfj

yvi(TL TO Trapa

rov Kara

<l>vcrLV.

152

2 28

The Value of Classical Education

Greeks believed of Nature as a whole, they beMan's nature is not lieved of Human Nature. corrupt, not fallen, not degraded there is no such thing as ''Original Sin": there is no cleft between the human and the divine, no aching sense of sin, no need of a reconciliation with God tv avSpcjp,
:

ev Oeo)v yevo^'

Ik fxia^ Se TTi^eofxev fxarpo^ dfX(f)6TepoL^.

it':
;

Or, as Heraclitus put

0P7)TOL.
Tl

tl

Sal ol avOpojTroi

deol

Sat

01

0eoL

avOpojiroi

dOdvaroi.

The

most genuinely Greek expression of the ethical end is ''the life according to Nature": the highest
practical expression

well

expressed

of

God
It
is

that

by which

"to Zeller
is

of Greek rehgion

is

as
the

it

is

do

to
to

glory

according

our

own

nature."

unnecessary to dwell at length upon the

contrast between such views

influence

and those under whose

lyco dvOpoiiroq,
(Kxijxaro^

we
;

live.

raXatVwpo?
eK tov

cries

St PauP,

719 /^e pvcrerai

rov Oavd-

Tov TovTov
religion
in

We

can hear the birth-cry of a

Christianity
irdcra
rj

new
them

these words.

Nature and man have

will
ktl(tl<;

strayed
back.
Kal

from
olhaiiev

God

lead

yap on
d^pL
tov

cvaTevd^ei
tjp

crvvo)SivL

vvv^

but
eavTco^.

0eo9

iv

^piCTTa)
trast

KocTfxov

KaTaWdcTCTOiv

The

con-

between Paganism and Christianity could not be more strikingly expressed than in the words of
St
^

PauP
'
^

ivSr)iJL0VPT<;
vi.
i.

i.v

toj

crcJ/iart
^
*

iKSiq^iovp^ev diro

Pind. Akfn.

Fr. 67, Bywater.

Rom.
2

vii. V.

24.
19.

Rom.
Cor.

viii.

22.

Cor.

^2

v. 6.


Contrast between Paganism

and
Christianity
(jjiXia

229
tov

Tov Kvpiov, or in those of St James^

KooTfjLov

17

exdpa tov 0eou icmv. on earth, but in the heavens 'y)ixo}v yap TO TTokiTevfJia kv ovpavol^ vTrdp^ei^ a city wherein
for a city, not
: :

Christianity looks

Justice dwells: Kaivov<; Se ovpavovs kol yrjv

TTpoSoKcjjxei/,

Kauvrji/...

kv ofs

hiKaiocrvvrj

KaToiKeV.

In order
Ty)v

to
TTjv

become

a citizen of this

Ideal City

ttoXlv

aylav ^lepovcraXrjix Kaivr)v which the author of

Revelation^ saw KaTa^aivovaav ano tov
-qTOLfiacrfxemrji/

the

^eov

Ik tov ovpavov,
jxevrjv
TO)

dvSpl

avTrj<;

w?

vvix^tjv KeKocrix-q-

it

is

necessary to enslave
:

the body and

make

free the soul

dXX'

vTrcoTTidt^o)
ixijiroj^

fxov TO aajfia, says

avTos

St PauP, kol SovXaycoyco,

yvo)fjLaL.
is

d8oVt/xo9

What
!

contrast

to

the Hellenic attitude

Orjcravpovs

here

[jltj

Oiqcravpil^eTe

vfuv
6y]-

knl

Trj^

yrjs...07]o-avpLCeTe

8e

v/xti^

cravpov^

kv

ovpav(o\

What meaning would

?

this

sublime exhortation have conveyed to an ordinary

Athenian
vista

in

the time of Pericles

The

Hellenic

uytaiVciv fikv apicnov av8pl 6vr]TWj

Sevrepov Sk

cfjvav

KaXbv ycviaOaL,

TO TpiTOV 8e TrXovTetv aSoXws,

KOL TO TerapTov y/iav
/xeTo.

twi/ ^tXwi/',

ends where the

full

fruition of the Christian begins

at death.

The

correct appreciation of this funda-

mental contrast
^

is

one of the most potent factors

iv. 4.

230

The Value of Classical Education

which can be conceived in the promotion of intellectual life and sympathy^ Let us take another illustration from the sphere of man's duty to his fellows. The traditional morality of Greece laid it down as a rule of conduct to do good to friends, and evil to foes. We except for
the present the protests raised by Plato and one or

two others^ against

in this, as in
is

this

precept of Greek morality

many

other matters, Plato's teaching

the morning twilight of a brighter day.

Solon ^
bitter

prays that he
to foes"
:

may be "sweet
is

to friends,

and

Pindar' kydpo^

fain " to love a friend," but -nori

^ydpov
aXXore

(XT

eajv

Xvkolo Slktjp VTTo6ev<Jo fxai, dXX'

cr/coXtaL?
:

iraTeoiv oSols

and Socrates,

in the

Memorabilia\ represents
vailing

this principle as the pre-

morality of Greece.

Set against this the

It is of course easy to find in Socrates, Plato, and Euripides, and sporadically elsewhere, anticipations of the Pauline doctrine of Man and Nature. The movement that began with Socrates
^

in so far as

prepared
contrast
is

the

any great movement can be said to have a beginning way for the new^ era. But even in Plato the

conspicuous.
is

The
is

fxcXerr)

OavaTov,

for

example, of

the Phaedo
Plato's

less of

a religious than an intellectual aspiration.

inspired

"study of death"

by the consciousness of

ignorance,
of sin
tion

and the

desire of knowledge, St Paul's

and the

desire of holiness.

by the sense With Plato the moral exalta;

was a

result of the intellectual

with St Paul

it

was the

primary and immediate aim.

^

Pittacus, according to Diog.

KttKcus,

Laert.

i.

4.

78, said <^i\ov

is

\x.r\

Xiyuv
Rep.
^
'
I.

aXXa
foil,
5,

fxrjSk

k^Opov.

Plato's protest

contained in

335 B
14-

in the Gorgias,

and elsewhere.
^

Fr. 13.
II.

Bergk.

Pyth.

11.

Zt^

ff.

3-

Pagafi and Christian morality

231

Sermon
vfjLcjv,

on

the

Mount
7019
vfxlv,
:

dyaTrare
fJucrovcTLv

tov%
vjjLOLS,

kydpov%
evXoyetTe

KaXcos

TTOLeiTe

Tovs KaTapcofjLevov^
iTTVfpealoPTOJi' u/xa?^

kol irpocrev^ecrOe vnep tojv

or
in

compare
kol
fxr)

it

with the picture

tov<;
Slcj-

of Christian ethics

St Paul-: evkoyeire

Kovras vfxas'

evXoyeLTe,

KarapdcrOe' }(aipeiv

fxera ^aipovrcov, Kat Kkaieiv /xera KkaL6vT0iv...iav ovv

7TLva 6 )(^9p6s crov,
i/zoj/xt^e

avTov iav
VIKO) VTTO

Sti//a,

Trdrt^e

avrov TOVTO yap

ilTL

ttolcov

dv6paKas
fJLTj

7rvp6<;

crajpevcreLS

TTjV

K(f)a\r)V

aVTOV.

TOV

KaKOV,

No contrast dXXa PLKa iv toj dyaOo) to KaKov, It is imcould be more emphatic or significant.
possible to realise the contradiction at
all

without

receiving an intellectual stimulus

fully to appreciate its

it

is

impossible

meaning without a quickening

selected belong to
it

of intellectual sympathy.

The examples which we have

easy to find
antiquity in

the sphere of religion and ethics, but

would be instances in which the study of Greek its psychology, its political theory and
its

practice, its literature,

art,

presents us with sug-

gestive and stimulating contrasts to

modern fashions

and

beliefs.

In their psychological attitude, for ex-

ample, the Greeks, true to their unifying instinct,

recoiled

from the habit of analysing the human

mind with which

day.
fied

we

are

familiar

in

the

present
uni-

Intellect, Will,

and Emotion were often

in

by the Greeks

this unification, morality,

^

As a result Intellect. which we now regard

of
as,

St

Luke vi. Rom. xii. 9

27.

21, tsp. vv. 14, 15, 20, 21.

232

TJie

Value of Classical Education

all

primarily at

events, a condition of the will,

was

apt to be identified with an intellectual state.

inevitable consequence of this

An
life

was the exaltation

side

of the rational or

intellectual

of

human

over the emotional and moral. In modern Teutonic We need not races the tendency is the other way. differences between the dwell upon the striking political ideals and institutions of the ancients and Their conception of the City State with our own.
all

that

it

involved, and, in particular, the influence

of this ideal in determining the relation between

the individual and the State, these, and
less

many

other

fundamental contrasts, readily suggest them-

selves.

Nor
It

is

it

otherwise with ancient literature

would be an excellent educative disa comparison between the institute cipline to Classical and Romantic drama, or between Greek and English lyric poetry, or between ancient and The study of modern ways of writing history. ancient art and archaeology is not a liberal education unless it is pursued with the ulterior object of apprehending the spirit of Antiquity in its likeThe ness and unlikeness to that of Christendom. Parthenon should be interpreted by shall we say ? Niobe w^eeping for her children Lincoln Cathedral by the Pieta of Michael Angelo. Enough has been said to indicate generally the way in which the study of classical literature and
and
art.

life

fulfils

the

first

requisite of a liberal education

spirit of intellectual

by creating and fostering the

sympathy.
It

remains for us to show

how

the

Discipline of classical study

discipline of ancient civilisation should

233

mould and
likeness

fashion the character.

To

analyse

the ideal
to

man -the
o
8r)

true

of Humanity,
eKaXecrev
r
/cat
:

avSpeiKeXov,
dvOpconoL^

koI "Ofxrjpos

iv

toi<;

eyyiyv6p.evov
rj

^toetSe?
Trapovcrav

OeoeLKekov^

is

rrXiov

Kara
in

r-qv

opfjiijv^

but

we can
it

all

recognise two elements of

character, the blending of

is

which

as rare as

is

splendid.

due proportion The one we call by

self-

such names as steadiness, strength, sobriety,

control, the habit of
intellectual

obeying law

the other

is

called

acuteness,

originality,

independence of

mind, the capacity of making law.

These are the

which unite to form the characters Among Englishmen it is perhaps the of us all. steady element which predominates. This element

two great

factors

is

magnificent in action, after

it

has been told what

idea,
it

to do, but, to
it

when confronted with an

its

is

apt

yawn, or to look at

watch, being, to

put

somewhat bluntly, in the judgment at least of Frenchmen, a trifle stupid. In its noblest forms

this virtue of character will

make

a school-boy lead

and meet a glorious death with the cry of Floreat Etona still ringing on his lips. In its degenerate forms it causes men to prize the body above the soul, and "esteem gymnastic more than music^" The second factor in character, that which we have called originality, is less plentiful in the
a forlorn
battlefield,
^

hope upon the

Plato, Rep. VI. 501

Plato, Rep. VIII.

E.

Ibid.

506

e.

548

55

234
majority

'^^^^

Value of Classical Education

found in inverse proportion to the element of steadiness, and that

It
is

of

men.

often

is

why

genius

-so

we

are

wont

to

say

is

often

erratic

and unstable.

It is in

virtue of this element

limits of
is

that discoveries are made,

and the
this

human

knowledge extended
of the
highest

it

is

that
;

the parent

of poetry it is this that founds religions and sways mankind, as the moon regulates the tides, with the magic force of an
flights

idea. But in its degraded forms, and when it is wrongly educated, it sinks into petty sophistry, makes havoc of great names, and convinces itself and others that the w^orse cause is the better, and

so

becomes a curse
i^iKo(TO(\)Civ

to the society

wherein

it

appears.

Corrtiptio optimi pessinia.

/xaXa/cta? this is indeed the In the Politictis^ Plato wished to secure the presence of these two sides of character in children by Intermarriages between men and women in whom

avev

end.

the opposing elements predominated.

character as

It is

wholly

in the spirit of Plato's teaching to regard the ideal

itself the product of the spiritual union of these two elements within the soul and it is such
;

a spiritual union that every attempt to educate the character should endeavour to effect.

have still to show that the study of classical antiquity tends to cherish and to unify these two sides of the ideal man.

We

To know
term,
is

a thing,

in

the fullest sense of the

to

become

like the thing

'

we know.

Know-

310.

Genius of Greece and

ledge
is
is

Rome

235

the assimilation of subject and object.

This
:

the teaching of Christianity and Platonism alike

tells

the one
lated

us that to know God is to be assimiHis glorious image, the other that the knowledge of the Idea of Good or God, which is
to

the ultimate end,

SvvaTov^.

involves

o/Aotojcrt?

Seco

Kara to

To know
is

the best and highest in Greece

and

Rome

therefore to

make

the virtues of an-

For the purpose of educating the character by means of classical study, whatever is not best in ancient life and thought should, in the
tiquity our

own.

first

instance at least, be ignored.

What
best of

then

is
?

the best of Greece, what

is

the the

Rome

To

put

the

matter

briefly,

genius of Greece was

speculative,

that of

Rome

was

practical.

The

desire of knowledge, scepticism

and noble sense of searching after truth, is the dowry of ancient Greece strength and selfcontrol, obedience and law belong to Rome. Full
in its true
;

well did Virgil say

excudent
alii

spirantia

moUius

aera,

credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus

orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus

describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent
tu regere imperio populos,

Romane, memento;

hae

tibi

erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem,

parcere subiectis, et debellare superbosl

Greece

is

in

very truth the Mother of Ideas

How

many

seeds has she sown whose flowers and

fruit delight
1

and sustain us now

176
b.
^

But the Greeks

T/ieaet.

Aeneid w. 848854.

236

The Value of Classical Education

relatively

were
not

weak

in action,
it

how

to combine, since

because they knew is of the essence of

could not translate
;

genius to be individual.
into

They

practice

the

ideas

honour was reserved

for

which they created this Christianity and Rome.

The
ethics,

lofty

ideals

of

morality

which
in

the

Greek

philosophers

constructed
it

reappear

Christian

and intertwined more and the will, but easy to closely with the affections recognise, and in this profoundly human form swayintensified,
is

true,

\6yo%

koX 6 more powerfully the hearts of men. aap^ iyivero, /cat icrKijvojcreu iv r)jxiv^. In Rome, thanks to the national virtues of courage, and patience, and submission to authority, the ideas of law and government enunciated by Greek thinkers were translated into action, losing, perhaps, somewhat in the process, since practice is everywhere
still

less perfect than theory, but

keeping alive the sacred

flame of civilisation, and spreading the

pax Romana

over the face of the

Roman
sum
up.

world.

And now
literature

let

us

The

study of classical
it

and
our

life

is

a liberal education because

horizon,

enlarges

intellectual

intellectual

tradiction
liberal

sympathy by the electric and the activity thus set

will

and promotes shock of conup.

It
is

a
it

education, in the second place,

because

moulds the
intellect.
life

and character no

less

than the

As the student learns more of Greek and thought, he should become more independent and more manly, not driven to and fro
^

St

John

i.

14.


Love of Truth and
by every wind of
love

237

of

Law

doctrine, but honestly striving to

think things out for himself, and building his faith on the sure ground of knowledge. In one word, he will love TriitJi more. As his knowledo^e of

and language of Rome advances, he will become more patient and more courageous, he will learn "to scorn delights and live laborious days," he will become more loyal to himself, his country, and his faith, and become both a better citizen and a better man. In one word, he will love
the
life

Law

more.

The
so,

writer has spoken seriously, perhaps unduly

this subject of classical study,

upon

because he

feels that the issue is

fxeyas,

a great one
It

/xeyas 6 ojymv,

ov^

ocros

So/cet.

seems

to

him a grave

misfortune that any one should study classics without trying sooner or later to form

some notion of
his

what the study means.

himself, otherwise
its
is

Every student and extheory

is

ponent of antiquity should frame

for

educational value

but
ro)

little.

The
lxyo<^

present essay
fxeTL6vTL\

only a

vnofjLvrjixa

ravTov

The beginner
first

in

classical
Set

study

should be content at

yap tticFTeveLv Tovs jJiauOdvovTas, as Aristotle remarks that there zs a "beatific vision." Such a faith will animate and inspire the daily routine, and make He will the meanest particle breathe and live. begin by studying the body, if we may say so,
to

believe

Plato, Phaedr. 276 d.

238

The Value of Classical Education

is

of Greek thought, the beautiful language which

but the outward

spiritual
Tcxiv.

expression of inward and more

apfJiovLrj

beauty

yap d^avr)s

(fyaveprj^ Kpeir-

From
rise

the contemplation of bodily beauty he

and the soul of anhim in the thoughts of ancient poets and philosophers and men of science, in ancient laws and institutions, in the immortal creations of ancient art and architecture. He will then recognise in the words of Plato^ on Trap TO KdX\o<; avTo avTw ^vyyepes Icttiv, and " facing the full Sea of Beauty and looking thereon, he will
will

to that of spiritual,

tiquity will

reveal

herself to

beget out of bountiful Philosophy

and lofty conceptions Beauty stretches wide, Its waves unharvested as ever. We have merely stood upon the shore he who scales the still snow citadels around It will see farther, but even he will not see all.
;

many beautiful and thoughts." The Sea of

"Nay, come up hither... Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me; Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown'd. Miles and miles distant though the last line be, And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond, Still leagues beyond those leagues there is more sea."
*

Symp. 210 c

D.

: :

INDEX
Aeschylus 40
301, 210
f.,

109,

195,

198

f-,

Cleanthes,
195:
life

Hymn of 20,
of ii3ff.

82, 104

ff.,

Aether, doctrine of in Euripides

47
f.,

Clement of Alexandria
55,91,99, 112, 153, 188 Cohesion, Stoic 155

2 f,
f.,

20,

53

ff-,

130

190

Anaxagoras 42 ff., 53, 205 Anaximenes 44 Anthropomorphism and morphism 124 ff.
Aratus
19,
i,

CosmopoHtanism 143
theo-

ff.

Dante
63

11,

51, 61

f.,

70,

132
ff.,

123
11,

f.

Aristotle
74, 118,

22, 41,

54,
f-,

f.,

Death, rehearsal of 65 Greek view of 225 ff.

Dialectic, Plato's 29
f.,

230:

133

f.,

181, 199

204,

72

ff.

227, 237

Diogenes of Apollonia 44

ff.,

59

Assimilation of

man
235

to

God

S3

f-^

129

64

ff.,

75^

iio>

Divinity of
127
ff

human

soul

3,

35

ff.,

Beauty, Ideal 68 ff. Bias of Priene 85 f.

Dualism,

in

disguise
of
evil

171

f.:

as
as

explanation

204:

Body

as

tomb

of soul 55, 58, 127

basis for morality 208

Boethius 26

Brotherhood, universal 5, 142 ff. Bro^\ning, Robert 45, 160 f., 166,
209

Education, Plato's theory of 28

ff.,

70

ff.

liberal

and professional
204 93
ff.

215

ff

Cambridge
70,

Platonists

3,

23,

67,

Empedocles Epicharmus
Epictetus
176,
179)

127,
53,

100,

163
f.

122,

134,

136
182

ff.,

168,

Christ as Logos 158, 180 f., 187 Christianity: and pre-Christian

religion

183
19,
f.,

Epicureans
Euripides 42
Evil,

114,

184

ff.,
ff.

228

ff.

and

45

Stoicism 178

physical
f.,
:

64 f., 129, 192 and moral 165,

ff.,

Chrysippus 114, 170, i79> 206 Cicero 140, I43, M^, I57, 222
City of

169

211

pantheistic view of

i7off.

Greek consciousness of
ascribed to

God

65, 229

191

ff.

Gods

i93f.
ff.

Classical

education,

value

of

213

ff.:

as discipline of charff.

as punishment for sin 194 explained by dualism 204

acter 233

Ezekiel 197

240
Fate, vStoic 155, 173
Fire,
f.

Index
Logos,
'j'j^

in

Heraclitus

'j'j

ff.

as
ff.

Logos
ff.
:

identified with,
in

harmony of opposites 97
Stoic

88 150

creative,

Stoicism

149

ff.

as

Christ

158,

f.

180
f.,

f,

184

ff.:

in Philo

184 f

Free

will 152

173

ff.

Lotze, metaphysical doctrines of,

applied to Plato 2

God:
48
of

and
ff.,

Nature
ff.,

10
ff.
:

f.,

13

f.,

148

227

kinship
51,
:

Man,
38

essential divinity of
ff, sofif., 6off.,

19

ff.,

man
ff.,

60

with 19 ff, 38 ff,, 122 ff. as Air 44 ff.

:

122

ff.

as
ff.,

Marcus Aurelius
83, 134
ff.

50,

54,

60, 68,

Reason

23,

29,

44,

48,

50

56 ff., 60 ff., 77 ff., 119, 156: as Idea of Good 22 f 132 gradual

,
:

Meditatio inortis 65 ff, 230 Michael Angelo and Platonism

4,

spiritualisation of 108

ff.

uni-

29,

versality of 119

ff.

as unifica-

Morality,

70 dualism

as

basis

for

tion of the world 156 f

208: Stoic 136 ff:

Christian 230 f

pagan and

Gods

as authors of evil 193 f

f.

Greek genius 235

Greeks, unifying instinct of 231 f

Nature,
148
ff.

life
:

in

harmony with
of

14,

soul

plants

in

Harmony
164
ff.,

of

opposites
ff.

96

ff.,

Stoicism 155 f

209

Nature-mysticism 49

ff.

See also
10,

Heraclitus 38, 40, 65, 77 ff., 112, 115, ii7f, 120, 125, 138, i5off.,
163
ff.,

God and Nature

Necessity and Reason
205
f.

185 f, 209

f.

Necrosis 66

ff

Herbert, George 21, 128^ 207

Noocracy 55

Hesiod
124

86,

125
^j^ 39, 64, 108
ff.,
ff.,

Nous 39
233

f,

53,

56 f, 66: Anaxaff.
:

Homeric poems
ff.,

goras' doctrine of 42

and
154
f.

163, 172, 192

pneuma

53

f,

130,

134,

See also Reason and God

Ideal Beauty 68
ff.

Ideas, theory of 10, 22

ff,

131 f

Immortality: see Soul

Infinite in the individual

Origen 2, 20, 27, 178 Orphics 14, 35, 55, 128

Pantheism, poetical
also

166

ff

Innate notions 140

see NatureMysticism: Stoic 116 and see

:

Jeremiah 196
Job,

i.

God and Nature 2in^ Stoics

evil

Jesus, sayings of 158

moral
177 f, 186,

denied

in

172, 211:

Book
190

of 201, 203
2,

replaced by theism 184

Personality,

Justin
188,

Martyr

20,

motive principle of

180

Inde:
Philo 98, 164, 1S4
St
poetry,

241
John
122
ff.,

152,

157, 184
f.,

ff.

Philosophy

and
ff.
:

feud

St Paul 19, 25, 53

63, 66

ff.,
ff.
f.

75,

between 108
Pindar 13
Plato

as preparation
185
ff.,
ft.

139, 168, 207,

228
141

for Christianity
f.,

Self-realisation, Stoic

35

122,

125 f,

Seneca

138,

142

f.,

179,

184

129, 134, 192,

:

196,

his influence
:

230 on poets and

Shorthouse

on

Wordsworth's

artists 3 f

his hostility to

Greek

ideas

appeals to universal
:

Platonism 14 ff. Simonides 201, 223 Socrates 12, 34, 55

ff.,

1S6,

221,

human
of

instincts 7 f

his view

Nature
10,

ff.

his

theory
:

64 ff., 131 f founds theological view of uni22,

of Ideas

230 Solon 191 ff., 195, 230 Sophocles 41, 108 ff., 192, 202, 210, 218 f.
Soul
38
:

195,

verse II
19,

his view of

man

12

ff.,

of the World, see IVorld:

and Wordsworth 9, I4ff. his teaching on pre-existence and immortality

59
ff.,

130

ff.:

Soul

immortality
75,
:

of
:

24

ff.,

ff.,

179

f.

notion of y]

in lyric
:

Homeric poets and

origin
55,

24
28

ff.

his theory of education

tragedy 40
of 19 57
f-,
ff.,

ff.

celestial
:

ff.,

70

ff.,

220

ff.

his doctrine

35

ff.

and body
f.,

of assimilation

to

God

^2)

f-5

127 f

64

ff.,

75

his
8,

hope of ultimate
74
f.

Spinoza 116, 170

Stoicism
:

211
ff.

perfection

Pliny, the elder 224

and Christianity 178 and Judaism 115 ff.

63, 78,
ff.,

Pneuma and Nous

154 f. Predestination 173

53 f, 130, 134,

Stoics 14, 19, 24, 40, so, 53, 60,

85,

94
ff.,

ff,

102
f.

f.,

108,

f.

112
55,

133

210

Pythagoreans
127

14,

58,

86,

Subliminal self as argument for immortality 39

Suffering:

and
200

evil
ff.
:

190
as

ff.

as of

Reason

and Necessity
in

10,

205

discipline

part
ff.

as eye of soul 28, 217: as ele-

universal

harmony 209

ment of God
50
ff.,

man
ff.,

12

ff.,

29,

Swinburne 76

56

ff.,

60
:

129

ff.:

as

spiritual life 67

as attribute of

Tennyson
Tertullian

9,

20, 22, 26,

49

f.

Logos
in

Heraclitus jy ff., 92 Stoicism 149 ff. See also

in

Tension, Stoic 155 f

6,

152

Nous and God

Rehearsal of death 65
Religion, unity of 186
ff.,
ff. ff.

Theism
230

154,

184

Theognis

195,

200
I49ff.

Thunderbolt, the ever-living

Universal brotherhood

Reminiscence, doctrine of 25 Roman genius 235 f.

5,

142

ff.

242
Universe,

Index
Soul
of,

see

World-

Soul
Vaughan, Henry 148, 175 Virtue and vice, gulf between 172

Wordsworth: and Plato and Euripides 48 f. 27 Logos 1 59

:

14
:

ff.,

and

flf.

World-citizenship 143

ff.

World-Soul 206

10 f,

59 f,

154,

Wisdom
182
fif.

of

Wise Man,

Solomon 27, 194, 203 Stoic and Epicurean

Xenophanes 64, Xenophon 55 ff.

Zeno 113
f,

86,

in

f.

Word, Universal, see Logos and

Reason
134,

144,

173

f.

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