THE VITALITY OF

PLATONISM
AND OTHER

ESSAYS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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THE VITALITY OF
PLATONISM
AND OTHER

ESSAYS

BY

JAMES ADAM
LATE FELLOW AND SENIOR TUTOR OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE,

CAMBRIDGE

EDITED BY

HIS

WIFE

ADELA MARION ADAM

Cambridge
at the

University Press
191

6
is

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

4>|ATATOIC

CYN6CTIOIC T

KAI

OY K ACHMOY noAeooc noAiTAic

EMMANOYHA,
roAe TO BiBAiAApiON
<\

MGN

4>lAOCO(})HTeON,

6YM6NOYC

(})lAOCO(})HTeON,

TON, ^lAOCOCjjHTeON

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(ARISTOTLE.)

CONTENTS
PAGE
I.

II.

The

Vitality of Platonism

The Divine

Origin of the Soul

35

77

III.

The Doctrine

IV.

The Hymn

V.

Ancient Greek Views of Suffering and Evil

VI.

The Moral and

of the Logos in Heraclitus

of Cleanthes

Education

104

Intellectual
.

190

Value of Classical
.

213

PREFACE
essays were read by
-*

my

husband as

papers or lectures on various occasions.

The

Divine Origin of the Soul was published in Cam

bridge Praelections, 1906, and The Moral and
Value of Classical Education

Intellectual

Emmanuel

College Magazine, Vol.

vii.

in

the

have to

thank the Syndics of the Cambridge University

Press and the editor of the magazine respectively

kind permission to reprint them.

The
Vitality of Platonism was read to the Classical

for their

Society at Aberdeen University in 1902, and to a

similar society in

The Doctrine of
read

before

Edinburgh

Logos in Heraclitus is a paper

Oxford University Philological

the

the

Society in 1906.

in the following year.

The

essay entitled The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes contains the substance of three lectures

1906 at Westminster College, Cam

The
bridge, before a Summer School of Theology.
remaining essay on Ancient Greek Views of Suffering

delivered in

and Evil was

the author s last public lecture, which

viii

Preface

was given

Newnham

the Vacation

to

Students at

Biblical

College, Cambridge, in 1907, one

month

before his death.

In preparing this volume for the press

has not

it

seemed possible altogether to eliminate overlapping

between the essays among themselves or with

Adam s book on The Religious

When ideas and illustrations
Greece.

James

usually in a different setting,

purpose

Dr
proofs,

in the

recur,

fulfil

it

is

a special

separate essays.

been kind enough to read the

Leonard Whibley to give advice

Giles has

and

Mr

concerning the
I

and they

Teachers of

have

MS

and

its

prefixed to the

arrangement.

book the dedication and

motto originally set before the

fitting that the

expression of

my

last

essay.

husband

It

is

love for

the college where he worked should introduce these

echoes of his teaching.

A.
May,

1911.

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 philo
It might
sophies, imperfectly understood."
be said in reply that no philosophic system

fairly

which

has ever been perfectly

understood, except, perhaps, by its inventor and
is

worth studying at

all

some have

actually doubted whether Hegel was

But it is a
always intelligible even to himself.
much more disputable assertion to say that Platonism

dead, and

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
is

might
But I

if

say, otos

am

irlirvvra.i

TO!

Se

cnaai

atcrcrovcrt.

from making any such reflection upon

other philosophic systems, and will content myself
far

with trying to show that the announcement of the

death of Platonism is a little premature.
A. E.

The

Vitality of Platonism

events a curious and significant sign

continued vitality that we often find

It is at all

of

Plato

modern philosophers displaying an almost pathetic

Take
anxiety to father their doctrines upon him.
who after explaining his
for example Lotze,

own

metaphysical principles, proceeds to identify

them with the Platonic Ideas, which he interprets,
as philosophers are apt to do, in the light of his
own theory. The truth which Plato intended to
teach, says Lotze,

is

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
2
I have elsewhere
tried to
not 1
.

mode
show

of being or
that Lotze s

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

successive generations of idealists are so apt to

And if the
shelter themselves beneath his wing.
influence of Plato s teaching is still alive in modern
philosophy, and affects, as in point of fact it does
affect, nearly every revival of idealism, it is hardly
Some of
less dominant in theology and religion.
the early apologists for Christianity, such as Justin
Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, show
that they recognised and acknowledged the connec
tion

between Platonism and the Christian

1

Logic, E. T.

p. 210.

Adam, Republic of Plato,

vol.

ii.

169

f.

faith

when

Influence of Plato

they speak of Greek philosophy as a preparation for

Christianity, and assert, as Clement does, that Plato

wrote by the inspiration of God eVwri/oia

eov
had
in
Few writers have
more influence
shaping the
1

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

thinkers were derived from a study of Platonism,
which was uncritical indeed, and often mistaken,

but always apprehended with the firmest grasp the

central doctrine of Plato s religious teaching, the
essential divinity of the

human

In a later

soul.

generation Ackerman and Baur, in their treatises on

the Christian elements in Plato, and on Socrates

and

Christianity, discussed the relationship

Platonism and

and a surer

between

Christianity with a keener insight

and pointed out many striking

coincidences between the two systems. And to take
a

criticism,

more recent example, Bishop Westcott, nearly

of whose theological writings are coloured by

still

all

Platonism,

has declared that the myths of Plato

in the first place to Revelation, as an

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

"Plato,"

"points

The

us to St

John-."

stimulus exerted by Platonism on poets and

1

"

ad Gent. 180 A, Migne.

Contemporary Review, n. p. 480

Coh.

f.

The

Vitality

of Platonism

In spite
has been hardly less remarkable.
of the severe and almost puritanical regulations by
artists

which Plato

the Republic tries to clip the wings

in

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
of an

Plato, every word." The Platonic conception

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 greatest
painters and sculptors in the most flourishing and
creative period of Italian art.
Perhaps the most
of
the
influence
of Plato s ideal
noteworthy example

ism on the

artistic

Angelo, who was

at Florence,
vitalises

all

imagination

is

member of the

that of Michael

Platonic

Academy

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

Heaven-born, the Soul a heaven-ward course must hold

Beyond the visible world she soars to seek

(For what delights the sense is false and weak)

Ideal Form 2 the universal mould.
,

The

affirm,

Cf.

Man

Cf.

Platonic Ideas.

90

wise man,
is

<f>vrbv

A.
2

can find no

OVK lyyctov,

aXXa

rest

ovpdviov.

Plato, Tim.

Hostility to Greek ideas

In that which perishes

nor

will

he lend

His heart to aught which doth on time depend 1

The
word

fact is that Platonism, if

broad and

we understand

the

and not in a narrow or

pedantic sense,
yet dead, and cannot die,
because its roots are struck deep in universal human
It is true that in the popular language of
nature.
in a

is

literal,

not

his time Plato

speaks of the barbarian as the natural

enemy of Greece it is true that he calls his own
ideal republic emphatically a Greek city
but the
;

animating spirit of his teaching, as we shall see, is

the enthusiasm of humanity, and leaves no room
for the artificial distinctions of barbarian 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,
do good to your friends, and evil to your foes is
attacked by him in the Republic and elsewhere 2 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
than to do

evil to

any,"

wrong,"

"that

it

is

better to suffer

have justly been held to fore

Ye have heard

shadow the Sermon on the Mount.

"

hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,

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

it

opposed to ovo-m, and time as opposed to

See Plato, Rep. 509 B et passim.
Rep. 335 A ff., Crito 49 c, Gorg. 472 D
Cf. yeVco-ts as

eternity.
2

fif.

The

6
to

them

Vitality

of Platonism

that hate you, and pray for

them which

despitefully use you and persecute you." Plato does

not go so far as this, but he is following the same

On

road.

women,

questions like the training and work of

the true functions of statesmanship, the

theory and practice of education, and many others

which might be named, Plato is equally hostile to
prevalent Greek ideas.

But

in

nothing does he

marked an antagonism to contemporary

thought and feeling as in his attitude to Greek
Starting from the funda
theology and religion.
display so

mental principles that the divine nature is good,

immutable, and cannot lie, he attempts to show,
with more refinement perhaps, but hardly less
vigour, than Tertullian, that the Olympjan theology
His diatribes
violates these canons at every point.

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

and may fairly be considered as preparing and

for a higher form of
paving the way (77/30080770
religious belief. In the words of Clement of Alexan
era,

ieu>)

dria, TTpoirapao-Kevd&i

TOV

77

<t,Xocro<ia,

TrpooSoTTOLovcra

15

XpKTTOV

TekeiOVjJieVOV

These considerations make it clear that the

genius of Plato 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
1

Str.

his
i.

political

717 D, Migne.

sympathies are

Appeal

to

universal aspirations

Panhellenic rather than Athenian, and his philo

sophy, though reared on the soil of Attica, appeals,

have already hinted, to certain universal ele

ments in human nature, and not to Hellenic human
nature only.
For this reason he is careful to place

as

under the protection, not of Athena,

the patron goddess of Athens, or any other divinity
peculiarly associated with one particular branch of
his ideal city

he commits it to Apollo, the

Hellenic race
of
the
god
symbol of Greek unity, aye, and
Delphi,
something more, the God of the whole human race,
the

so far as antiquity recognised such a God of all, the

commune humani generis oracuhtm, the ancestral in
terpreter, who seated on the holy stone in the centre
of the earth expounds the Father

kind

(TTOLO-LV aV#/30J7roi5,

Rep. 427

human

instincts

these universal

s will to all

man

And what are

and aspirations to

c).

which Platonism makes appeal ?

It is said that
when Anaxagoras was asked for what purpose he
was born, he replied
In order that I may look
upon the heavens and the sun," and some of Plato s
"

contemporaries were fond of deriving the word

avOpuTTos from 6 ra ava) dOpuv, the creature whose
eyes are directed on the heavenly places, in distinc
tion from the lower animals, whose eyes are bent

downwards on the earth

1
.

In a deeper sense

it

is

perhaps true that Nature has implanted in all man

kind an unquenchable longing for the things that are
above ret avw (frpovelre, /IT) ra CTTI y^s. So Plato
:

at least believes, in
1

Cf.

common

with an innumerable

Lactantius, Div. Instit.

11.

c.

I.

The

Vitality

of Platonism

greatest and noblest in every age,

to this inborn passion for perfection that he

company of the
and

it is

though often unconscious yearn

this innate

appeals

ing after the ideally true and beautiful and good,

which finds its highest embodiment in lives devoted

Knowledge, Art, Humanity, and

God. The philosophy of Plato furnishes the most
poetical and perhaps the truest answer to
to the service of

"those

Of

obstinate questionings

sense and outward things

"

which are the heritage of human nature

most inspiring philosophical expression of

it

is

the

first affections,

"those

Those shadowy 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

To
Which

truths that

make,

perish never;

mad

neither listlessness, nor

endeavour,

Nor Man nor Boy,

Nor
Can

all

that

is

at

enmity with

utterly abolish or destroy

joy,
"

because Plato has attempted, and attempted

with more success than others, to satisfy these
per
It is

manent

aspirations of

still lives,
"While

and

is

humanity that

philosophy

likely to live

water flows and

COT* av vSoy) T

his

pfrj

tall

trees

Kal 8ev8/ja

bloom

in

spring"

Plato

The

view of Nature

ancients were in the habit of saying that

if

Greek, they must have spoken

But it is not only in his
with the tongue of Plato.

the

Muses spoke

in

and language that Plato is poetical his philo

sophy itself is steeped in poetry, and we shall
:

style

altogether
history of

to understand his significance in the

human thought unless we realise this in
fail

On this account I shall have

disputable fact.
frequent recourse to modern poetry in seeking to
explain and illustrate the vitality of Platonism, and
to the poetry of Wordsworth and
whose
Tennyson,
writings are often tinged by philo
method which I propose to
The
sophic thought.
in

particular

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

follow

Wordsworth, as opportunity occurs.

within the time at

my

It is

disposal to touch

impossible
on all the

leading doctrines of a writer who ranges with almost

equal authority over the entire domain of human
life

and thought, but

if

that Plato s philosophy of

human
prove

nature

is

succeed in showing you

Nature and especially of

not yet dead,

my

discourse

at least a finger post to point the

way

may
an

TOLVTOV [AtTiovTi, which is Plato s ideal of

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

tX^os

ro>

The central idea of that great dia

the
logue
analogy between the Macrocosm and
the microcosm, the Universe and man.
Let us
the Timaeus.
is

The

lo

Vitality

consider the Universe

we

of Platonism

The world

first.

in

which

is the product of two causes,

says Plato
and
Perfect
Reason.
Necessity
Necessity performs

live,

the function of the passive or material cause, and is

nothing but the personification of the original,

in fact

inchoate, indeterminate material substratum, like the

7rpo)Trj v\rj

of Aristotle.

Ideal Reason, in the person

of the S^/xioupyos or Creator, plays the part of the

efficient or creative cause, and evolves order out of

chaos of blind

the

stamping formless
matter with mathematical forms,
which are them
selves copies of the Eternal Essences or Ideas,
moulded from them in a mysterious and wonderful
necessity,

"

way

It is

."

thus that the body of the Universe is

in man there is soul as well as

But as

framed.

The Soul
God
himself
compounded by

body, so also in the Universe.

of the

World

out of

first

is

the changeless and the changeful, and then

midst of the Universe," as Plato tells us,

drew

Soul, and

"in

the

he

set

"

through the whole framework, yea

and wrapped the whole body of the Universe with
a covering of Soul, and made it a sphere for
it

revolving in a circle, one only Universe in lonely

splendour, but able by reason of its excellence to be
its

own companion, and needing no

this

way he begat

Now
poetical,

other,

being
In
acquaintance and friend.

sufficient to itself for

happy God, the Universe

I
will ask you to believe that this halfhalf-religious idea of a World-Soul, which
that

Ibid.

50

c.

Tim. 47 E

."

ff.

Ibid.

34

B.

The Soul of

the

World

I i

according to Plato is as it 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 is in reality Plato s conception of
I
Nature.
think a careful study of the Timaeus

will

And

convince you that the identification is sound.

if the Soul of the World which God creates in

the Timaeus

what follows.
Dante somewhere says, is
the child of God, that she is a spiritual and not a
material creature, good and not evil for God, ac
cording to Plato, is the author only of good, and
evil cometh not from him.
In Plato s way of
thinking God and Nature are not two mutually
opposing forces, but an omnipotent Father and a
is

It follows that

in reality Nature, see

Nature, as

loyal son,

working harmoniously together toward

"that

To which

far-off divine

the whole Creation

bow

event
moves,"

and Good
The fact is that it is Plato, and not
prevail.
Aristotle, 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.
may add that from another point of view Nature is
in Plato at once the revelation of God to man and

when Necessity

shall

the

knee,

God s

vice-gerent, ever indwelling in the world of

space and time.
So much at present for Plato s idea of Nature.

Other important points

will

come

to light of

them-

The

selves,

which

when I describe his view

now proceed to do.
was profoundly

Plato

he

felt

is

of

human

nature,

by Nature, but
In this
in man.

attracted

an even deeper interest

respect he

The

of Ptatonism

Vitality

the true successor of his master Socrates.

and history of humanity, with

and
enthusiasms, with all its infinite
hopes
possibilities for good and evil, is the dominant theme
of nearly all his greatest dialogues.
It would seem
that his conception of the Universe itself is in reality
suggested and conditioned by his view of man.
The Universe is a "magnus homo," and has a Soul,
purer indeed and grander than the soul of man, but
and just as the truest
essentially the same in kind
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.

all

essential nature

its

What then, according

man? As he appears in
pound of the

words of
1

this

life,

is

the nature of

man

"is

com

mortal and the immortal, standing

midway between
in the

to Plato,

corruptibility

and

incorruptibility

Philo, Ovrjrfjs KOL aOavaTOV

<f)vcrea)s

The

mortal part is the body, and its

fjieOopiov
affections and lusts, which Plato in the Timaeus calls
."

the

"mortal

kind of soul

immortal part

is

"

(6vr\TQv etSos V^X*? 9 )

Reason, the eye of

soul, the

le

lamp

human

life, the representative of God in man,

the candle of the Lord.
The mythical creation

of

of the rational part of our souls by God is thus

De Mund. Opif. 46. See Adam, Republic of Plato, 588 B.
1

Plato

man

view of

13

described by Plato. After the Creator had com

pounded the Universal Soul
again into the same
"

cup, in which he blended 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

two degrees

or

less

pure

."

In other words the

rational or immortal part of soul, for

it

is

that alone

which comes immediately from God himself, is made

same elements as the Soul of the Universe.
Now we have already seen that Plato thinks of the

of the

World-Soul as Nature, and I would have you ob

serve what follows as to the relationship existing
between Nature and man. Every vestige of hos
and antagonism disappears
and Nature,
tility
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

and

our

for

lot

man

of

7roXe/x,os

in the struggle against evil

allies.

The

iravTw

Trartjp

we have

the gods
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

and gods
1

"immortal

Tim. 41

men are but mortal gods,"

men
and Pindar was only

that

<c

,"

D.

These words are put into Heraclitus mouth by Lucian,

Auct. 14.

Vit.

The

14

Vitality of Platonism

expressing a common belief when he sang "one is

the race of men and gods and from one mother we
:

both inherit the breath of

life

There

1
."

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

The unity between

was
an
nature, again,
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
even before the days of Stoicism. But Plato is the
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
and

Pythagorean

teaching.

man and

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
The subject of Words
poems of Wordsworth.
worth

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
s

observe that a

critic in

the Times of to-day

20, 1903) pronounces Wordsworth

the most daring Platonist in English

"the

(March

profoundest,

literature."

Mr

Shorthouse lays stress upon a remarkable passage

from the Excursion and finds in it "the key not
1

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
1

objects
"

."

The

may be won by

the help of material

lines of Wordsworth are
:

While yet a child and long before his time

he perceived the presence and the power

Had

Of greatness and deep feelings had impressed

Great objects on his mind, with portraiture
And colour so distinct, that on his mind
:

They

To

lay like substances,

and almost seem d

haunt the bodily sense 2

."

The presence and the power of greatness,

this is that principle of excel
Shorthouse
says
lence in which Plato believed."
The poet seems
"

"

by the help of the vast objects of

nature, perceived in silence and in solitude, we are
enabled to understand and to conceive the great
realities of abstract thought, and to
to affirm that

"breathe

To

in worlds

which the Heaven of Heavens

but a

is

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

myself to
relation to

Wordsworth
man.

It

line

of thought, confining

view of Nature and her

seems to me that the philo
s

sophical idea which underlies nearly all the finest

poetry of Wordsworth is no other than that which

we have

already

found

English poet develops

1

p. 12.

it

in

in

Plato, although the

a somewhat different
8

Book

i.

The

way from

Greek philosopher. To Wordsworth

Nature is a Soul or Spirit, and divine

the

as to Plato,

"

of Platonism

Vitality

Soul of Nature

by laws divine

that

Sustained and governed,

With an impassioned

And
is

just as in Plato

created by Perfect

Nature

"

Nature imitates God, and

Wordsworth

so in

Wisdom,

is

Power

"a

That

And
Her

To

No

the visible quality and shape

image of Right Reason that matures
is

processes by stedfast laws ; gives birth

no impatient or fallacious hopes,
vain conceits

provokes to no quick turns

but trains
;

Of

self-applauding intellect

To

meekness, and exalts by humble

faith

2
."

more than one passage Wordsworth appears

In

to conceive

Plato

dost overflow

still

life

of Nature as an indwelling soul, like

Soul of the Universe

"To

An

every form of Being

active Principle
.

In

all

is

assigned

it

subsists

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

waters, and the invisible

The moving
Spirit that

No
It
1

knows no insulated

rocks,
air.

spot,

chasm, no solitude; from link to link

3
circulates, the Soul of all the Worlds

Prelude,

."

Book xn.
Book ix. ad init.

Excursion,

Ibid.

Book xm.

and Wordsworth

Plato

Wordsworth

It is in this spirit that

and

finds the true

essential unity of Nature,

as one essence of pervading light
Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars
And the mute moon that feeds the lonely lamp

"Even

Couched

With

in the

this

dewy

grass

."

may be compared the passage from

few miles above Tintern Abbey

the Lines composed a

beginning
have

felt

presence that disturbs

me

"I

Of elevated thoughts 2

And

it

is

the

with the joy

."

same idea

magnificent expression
scenery of Switzerland

in

to
his

which the poet gives

of

description

the

"The

immeasurable height

Of woods decaying, never to be decayed,

The stationary blasts of waterfalls,

And

in the

narrow rent at every turn

Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and

The
The

forlorn,

torrents shooting from the clear blue sky,

rocks that muttered close upon our ears,

Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside

As if a voice were in them, the sick sight

And

giddy prospect of the raving streams,

unfettered clouds and region of the Heavens,
Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light

The

Were all the workings of one mind, the features

Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree;
Characters of the great Apocalypse,
The types and symbols of Eternity,

Of

first,

Prelude^

Book

Quoted

infra,

Prelude,

Book

and

A. E.

last,

and midst, and without end 3

."

xiv.

The Divine Origin of

the Sou/, p. 48.

vi.

The

And

how kind, and

What lessons of moderation
us
What strength and con

her relations with man,

in

beneficent

Vitality of Platonism

is

Nature

and calm she teaches

kin
solation we derive from communion with the
dred spectacles and sounds" of nature, "the noise of
wood and water," the starry heavens, the sea, the
Of these and similar ideas the
everlasting hills
poetry of Wordsworth is full, and quotations would
I will
be superfluous.
only add that Wordsworth,
like Plato, is never forgetful of man when he writes
of Nature. As Shorthouse says, if Nature elevates
"man and Nature
man," "man consecrates Nature"
And thus it is that no one who is
act and re-act
!

"

"

"

"

."

not a friend of

man

can hope to understand the voice

of Nature.
"

But

this

And

we from

the mountains learn

this the valleys

That never

show,

they deign to hold

where the heart is cold

will

Communion
To human weal and woe 2

."

It is
"the

still

sad music of

humanity"

that Nature sings,

"Not

harsh nor grating, though of ample power

chasten and subdue 3

To

These
multiplied,

there
1

is

quotations,

which

may seem perhaps

might
to

be

greatly
that

show you

a strong vein of Platonism in Wordsworth.

6 of paper quoted above.

Lines composed at Cora Linn.
Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.
p.

."

Celestial origin of

Mr

19

unwilling to assert that Words

consciously Platonized on the contrary, it

Shorthouse

worth

man

"

is

I
not likely that he ever read the Dialogues."
do not feel sure of this, but all that I wish at present

is

to maintain

Nature has

is

Wordsworth

interpretation of
basis whether con

that

its

philosophical
sciously or unconsciously in Platonism.
return to Plato himself.

Let us now

The famous words in which Plato proclaims that

man is a celestial and not a terrestrial plant
sum up a whole school
ovpaviov fyvroVy OVK
of theological and religious thought. You remember
1

"

"

eyyeioi>

the passage in which St Paul addresses the Stoic

and Epicurean philosophers on the Areopagus at
God hath made of one blood all nations
Athens
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
"

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
as
the Lord,

if

certain also of your

own

poets have said, For we

TOV yap KOL yez/os eV/ieV (Acts
sentences are full of Stoic moral
"

are also his offspring

xvii.

and

26-28).

These

and the sentiment with which

they conclude, though it may have been derived by
Paul from the Phaenomena of Aratus, who uses the
religious teaching,

same quotation

the second century before Christ

or possibly from Aristobulus of Alexandria
this
conviction
of
the
universal
brotherhood
of
profound
in

Tim. 90

A.

The

?o

Vitality of Platonism

men and their relationship to God the Father reaches

back through the hymn of Cleanthes the Stoic to the
It is
great Platonic doctrine which I have named.
the

same

man

belief in the celestial origin of

that

inspires the teaching of some of the early fathers

of the Church, such as Justin Martyr, Clement of

Alexandria, and Origen, nor has it lost

move the minds and sway the hearts of

Perhaps

it

not too

is

much

its

power

men

to say that the

of Cleanthes

to

to-day.
e/c

o-ov

the highest expres

yap yeVos ecr/x-eV
sion of the religious sentiment in the whole range
of Greek literature and not unworthy to rank with
is

Our Father which art in

the Christian equivalent
In the presence of this spiritual affinity
Heaven."
"

Pagan and Christian seems

fade away, and we have a momentary vision of

the distinction between

to

a TrapaSety/xa ev
whereof all
earthly religions are but shadows pointing to the

an ideal

faith,

ov/)cu><y,

perfect day.
Plato s position

on

he believes
it to be just the presence of this divine element
in man which renders his nature most distinctively
The colour and
and most specifically human
this subject is that

"

manhood/ says Plato

likeness to the God-head

likeness of true
2

public
is

is its

nothing but

in

/
/ceXo*>

tfeoei/ceXoy.

Man

is

when he most resembles God, and

Re

the

cu>8/oei

most manlike
(as

Tennyson

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,
says)

"then

See Adam, notes on Rep. 501

B,

589

D.

501

B.

Essential divinity of

whereas

which

man

is

is

the

man

a child of Heaven.

2t

It is

the higher

human nature, and according to this

man must be defined and placed. The

higher nature
noble lines of George Herbert, which

have

else

express the
teaching of Plato better than anything that I can say,
and may at the same time serve to show you that

where quoted

to illustrate this subject,

whether Platonism is a dead philosophy or

may sometimes be a living faith.
"

To this life
Make their

And makes them one

With tK one hand touching heatfn, with th other
In soul he mounts and flies,
In

flesh

he

it

things of sense

pretence
In th other Angels have a right by birth
Man tries them both alone,

He

not,

earth>

dies,

wears a stuffe whose thread

is

But trimm d with curious lace

coarse and round,

,

And

should take place

After the trimming, not the

Of

stuffe

and ground

1
."

this doctrine of the essential divinity of

man

the sure and

in another place that
a divine ele
of
the
of
conviction
presence
abiding
ment within us, rendering our nature essentially and
I

have said

"

human, makes

truly

dialogues of Plato.

nearly all the

the ultimate source of all

itself

It is

felt

in

and metaphysical, no less than

moral and political, and may well be considered the
most precious and enduring inheritance which he
2
To me this doctrine
has bequeathed to posterity

his idealism, religious

."

Man s

Medley.

Note en Rep. 501

B.

The

22

Vitality of Platonism

appears to be more fundamental than anything else

in Plato, except perhaps the theory of Ideas, with

and it is
stands in close relationship
the
and
most
assuredly
life-giving of all
living, aye
Platonic doctrines.
Let us endeavour for a moment
which

it

to understand

how

it

is

connected with other parts

such as his theory of knowledge,

the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, and
the aim and scope of education.
of Plato

teaching

The

only true objects of knowledge, according

Plato, are the transcendent, self-existing Ideas,

to

which are poetically described in the myth of the

These Ideas, which are themselves the
Phaedrus.
true
realities, on the model of which the
only
visible

Universe and

depend

in turn

Idea, that

is

all its parts are fashioned,

the
one supreme or sovereign
upon
the Good, so that the whole Universe

of thought and things is, if we may adopt a phrase

of Aristotle, attached to dirfpnqTai IK the Idea of
Good or God. Or to change the figure, we may say
that the totality of existences is one long altar-stair,
ascending step by step from the lowest to the highest,
"

Through the mighty commonwealth of

Up

things,

from the creeping plant to sovereign

and higher

man

1
,"

the infinite gradations

of the spiritual world, whose lamp or sun is God
himself.
Both conceptions are Platonic, and both
still

through

are also Tennysonian

"For

so the whole round earth

Bound by gold
1

all

is every way
2
chains about the feet of God

Wordsworth, Excursion, Book

iv.

Morte

."

cT Arthur,

Human
And

again

soul akin to the Ideas

23

"the

great world s altar-stairs

to God
1

That slope through darkness up

."

To

these transcendent Ideas, and especially to the

Idea of Good, the human soul, in virtue of its

inherent divinity, is akin, and by reason of its kin

ship with the ideally true and beautiful, it 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
In the words of Nathanael Culverwel^
on high.

perhaps the most truly eloquent of that

illustrious

The Candle of the

band of writers and thinkers
Lord it came from him, and twould faine return to
"

him,... the face of the soul naturally looks

up

to

God,

coelumque tueri jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere

All
vultus, tis as true of the soul as of the body.
light

loves to dwell at

home

with the Father of

atria luminum, God has

Heaven tis
Lights.
there fixt a tabernacle for the Sun, for tis good to
be there, tis a condescension in a Sunne-beam that
twill

stoop as low as earth, and that twill guild this

tis the humility of light

inferiour part of the world
that twill incarnate and incorporate it self unto
;

sublunary bodies yet even there tis not forgetful

of its noble birth and original, but twill still look
2
upwards to the Father of Lights
;

."

In Memoriam, 55.

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

The

24

It is in this

human

of the

Vitality of Platonism

that the doctrine of the divinity

soul is connected with the Platonic

way

How is it related to the

theory of knowledge.
teaching of Plato on pre-existence and immortality ?
Throughout the whole of Greek literature, from
Homer downwards,

immortality

to be an attribute of that

which

is

universally held

is

divine,

and

it

is

a wide-spread principle of Greek philosophy that

the afyOoipTov is also dyeisrjTov the immortal is also
the uncreated.

Each

of these principles is fully

accepted by Plato, and although in the Timaeus he
speaks of the creation of the human soul by God,

only an allegorical way of

saying that the soul of man is an efflux or fragment
as the Stoics said
of the divine Soul.
a7ro<T7racr/xa,
that

in all probability

is

does not imply that Soul as such had a

In this way the divinity of Soul
beginning in time.
at
once
its
implies
pre-existence and its immortality.
It certainly

To

tell

the

story of the

Soul as

Plato

tells

it,

mingling poetic fancy with moral and religious

truth, and
erlaying all with the Muses charm"
"o

musaeo contingens cuncta lepore

would require

the genius of another Plato.

Each particular soul
has an endless history behind it, and an infinite

Incarnation is only an episode

prospect before.
in a life that stretches through both eternities, a
Nay
halting-place, or shall we say a quiet haven ?
rather a troubled

house

in

and storm-tossed

which the soul

is

chained

sea, a
till

prison-

Death, the
which soul

great deliverer, sets her free, a tomb in

lies dead, until death s resurrection morn shall bid

and immortality

Pre-existence

We

the shadows flee away.

St Paul
deliver

"

man

wretched

me from

are again reminded of

that I am, who shall

body of death

this

25

"

(Rom. vii. 24).

do groan, being
burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up
of
Or in the words of St Peter,
(2 Cor. v. 4).
"

For we

that are in this tabernacle

:

life"

both of whose epistles furnish many analogies to the

doctrine of Plato, OavarwOeis p,v crapKi, 000770177 #eis
Se TTvevpaTi
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

alive.

and showed her the nature of the whole,"

and
in harmony with which it is her duty to live
in the interval between each successive incarnation,
the soul that has strenuously followed truth and
righteousness on earth, renews her faded fires and
plumes her wings afresh by gazing on the perfect
forms of Beauty and Truth in the realms of the
in a chariot

And when

she returns to earth again, if she

have drunk not too deeply of that
daughter of
Ideas.

"

Lethe,"

to state

slipping through from state

often happen that a stray sunbeam

that awaits
"

it

may

"the

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

41

E,

42

B.

The

26
often

meet

in

Vitality

English poetry.

inspires the lines of

"

of Ptatonism

Tennyson

It

is

this

which

Moreover, something is or seems,

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

Of something felt, like something here;

Of something done, I know not where;
Such as no language may declare
1

."

The same thought

for a

"Who

Who
How

is

2
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?

Or 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,
the one whole she cleaveth fast;
Whence he who yearns the truth to
Is neither sound of sight nor blind.

To

11

For neither does he know

Nor

is

he

reft

But, holding

He

And

in full,

of knowledge quite,

still

to

what

is

gropes in the uncertain

And by
To win

the past that

back

find

all

still

left,

light,

survives

he bravely

strives."

same idea which was in the

mind of Wordsworth when he wrote the Ode on the
essentially the

it is

Intimations of Immortality.
1

The Two

Voices.

Consolation of Philosophy,

v. 3,

tr.

James.

Doctrine of Reminiscence
"

Hence

in a season of

inland far

calm weather

we be

Though
Our Souls have sight of that immortal
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,

And
And

27

sea

see the Children sport upon the shore,

hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."

In the prefatory note with which he introduces

this poem, Wordsworth is careful to indicate that he

not committed to the doctrine of the pre-existence

of the soul
he merely regards the notion
as

is

"

sufficient

having

foundation in humanity

"

to justify

in using it for poetical purposes.

The doctrine
almost disappears from Greek philosophy, properly
so-called, between the time of Plato and the Neopla-

him

tonists

but

its

influence

is

traceable in the apocryphal

literature of the

Old Testament, and

the book of the

Wisdom

child of goodly

parts,"

especially in

of Solomon.

"

was a

says the author of that work,

soul
or rather, being good, I

and received a good

came into a body undefiled"- aya#os &v rj\6ov ets
It has not been accepted
o-to//,a dpiavTov
by the
Christian Church, and now survives in Western
"

literature chiefly as a

poetic

fancy.

In the East,
was to Plato

still what it
and to Origen, and in later times to Henry Moore
an integral and essential part of the belief in the

on the other hand,

eternity of Soul.
has fared better

system

it

The
;

is

other half of Plato

but there

at the present

doctrine

is
no philosophical
which
can
be compared
day

vin. 20.

The

28

Vitality

of Platonism

with Platonism in the extent to which

it is

moulded

and inspired by the ever-present consciousness of

immortality.

remains for us to see

It

in

what way Plato

doctrine of the divinity of the human soul affects

his conception of the scope and method of education.

In our essential nature, the soul is divine but when

incarnate in a mortal body, she is clogged and en
;

cumbered by the

evils inseparable from her tenement

In these circumstances, what is the duty
Is it, as some of Plato s contem
of the teacher ?

of flesh.

nor

poraries held
is it

blind

to

endeavour

or rather,

the opinion even

to put sight as

now

"

it

extinct

were into

other words to fill the soul with

and dogma, imperfectly understood,
as Plato would say, not understood at all ?

eyes"

moribund

is

in

facts

view of education Plato urges unrelent

ing 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
Against

this

many men and women,

is

never blind

although

its

only too often directed on the false and

The leaden
fleeting, the hollow and impure.
of
tradition, prejudice, passion and desire,
weights

gaze

is

"

"

drag the soul

eye downwards to that which

is

of

Who

the earth earthy.

then, according to Plato, is
He is one who
the true and heaven-born teacher ?
aim, not to multiply, but to remove
those leaden weights, that the soul may thus obey

makes

it

his

her native impulse and soar upwards. Or to change

the figure, and avail myself of what I have ventured

Transformation of the soul by education

29

Michael Angelo used to say

contained a statue, and
marble
that every block of
to write elsewhere,

"

that the sculptor brings it to light by cutting away

the encumbrances by which the human face divine
is
is

In like manner, according to Plato, it

the business of the teacher to prune the soul of

concealed.

his pupil of those unnatural excrescences and incrus

tations which hide its true nature, until the human

soul divine stands out in

all

its

pristine grace

and

Or

yet again, the teacher is a kind of

revolutionist, seeking to turn round the soul of his
In this process of
pupil from darkness into light.
revolution or circumversion
Trepiaywyr; is the Greek
purity

."

word

the moral as well as the intellectual part of

Plato is most careful to point
our nature shares.

and he would have refused to admit that

possible for the intellect to be transformed

this out
it

is

without a corresponding transformation of the moral

nature. But the transformation is effected, according
to Plato, through the Reason, which is the element
of God within us, rather than through the will, and
the development of the reason and the reasoning
faculties which his curriculum of studies in the

it is

Republic

is

What

is

primarily intended to produce.

that curriculum ?
Theory of Number,

Plane Geometry, Stereometry, Astronomy, Har

monics and Dialectic. We need not suppose that
Plato was irrevocably committed to these particular
studies he did what every great educational reformer
:

must always
1

clo,

adopted the leading scientific studies

Note on Rep. 518

c.

Ibid.

The Vitality of Platonism

30

of his day, and infused new life 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 Mathe
for inasmuch as Nature is
matics to Dialectic
:

God

according to mathematical laws

ael yewfter/oei
he who would apprehend the

constructed by
ffebg

Nature must travel through Mathematics

I have elsewhere drawn attention to an
to his goal
interesting and, as I 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 con
sist of a quadrivium and a trivium, the quadrivium
being Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy.
These four studies you will observe correspond to
truths of

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

Plane

Now the Platonic

only a branch of Geometry.
Academy had a continuous history till Justinian
is

closed the philosophic schools, and we can hardly

in supposing that the adoption of these

be wrong
studies

into

the

medieval

curriculum

was

directly or indirectly to the value attached to

by the Platonic school. But there is a still

due
them
more

striking link cementing our Universities with the

Academy of Plato and even with the fourth century
B.C.
1

In the medieval Universities those

See Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece^

of PlatO)

vol.

ii.,

p.

168.

p.

who were

419^; Republic

Educational curriculum

31

duly qualified in the quadrivium and trivium received

the title of bachelors or masters of Arts, because
Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music, to
gether with the studies of the trivium, were techni
notice

is

Now

the interesting point to

that this use of the word Arts in what I

Arts.

called

cally

the academic sense,

may
who speaks of Number or
call

Astronomy

actually occurs in Plato,

Arithmetic, Geometry,
and Music as the so-called Arts. When

the mystic cap is placed upon your heads, making

you magistros or magistras artium as the case may

ask you to remember that you are indebted

to Plato, or the age in which he lived, for part at
be,

of this

least

deserved

So

sounding and

doubtless

well-

title.

far,

theory as

high

have spoken of Plato

if it

affected our present

life

educational

on earth and

But inasmuch as the faculty of

which
tries to cherish and foster,
the
teacher
reason,
is immortal and divine, the horizon of the teacher is

nothing more.

not limited by this transitory life.

The soul, says
Plato, takes nothing with it into the unseen world

except

education 1

its

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 may still advance

from knowledge to more knowledge throughout un

numbered lives and phases of existence" still to

If the seed appears for the moment to fall
come
2

Phaed. 107 D.
2

Adam, Rep. of Plato,

vol.

ii.,

p. 168.

The

32

on barren

soil,

perchance

it

"

We will

the teacher
u

may

not,"

of Platonism

Vitality

may

bloom

still

be comforted

to profit, otherwhere."

yet
says the Platonic Socrates,

"relinquish

our endeavour, until we either persuade Thrasymachus and the others, or make some progress in
view of the life which is to come, when in another
existence
Ko,Xoz>

we may chance on

TO a6\ov

/ecu

rj

topics such as these

l\7rls /zeyaA.7?

1
."

think you will

agree with me that such a theory of education upholds

to us a larger prospect than the usual application of the

modern times. According

to the familiar saying, some of us are born Platonists,
and the rest Aristotelians and the Aristotelian will
term either

in ancient or in

probably think that here, as elsewhere, Plato soars

In reply to this objection, Plato would
too high.

probably say, and say with truth, that even

if

the

goal appears to some impossible to reach, the

stimulus of a great though unattainable ideal may
enable them to reach the limits of that to which they
can 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.
between
the teacher and
the
of
conceive
relationship
the taught

comrades

They

are

in the search for

1

intellectual

knowledge.

Rep. 498 D.

partners or
teacher

The

The goal and means of education

is

himself a learner, and the pupil a teacher

33
for

it is

from the contact of the two minds that truth or

knowledge springs

Another lesson

to light.

that

is

once an intellectual and a moral

education

is

revelation,

the TrepiayuyTj of the whole nature of

out of darkness into
K CTKOTOVS ecs

the pupil

at

<o>9

The

ultimate goal of intellectual education,

light.
according to Plato, is the knowledge of God, and
moral training culminates in assimilation to His
glorious
1
.

image
This

/caret

o/xoiwcrts

Plato

is

6t<p

version of

dv0pa>7Ta>

end.

Hardly

less valuable

and

TO

bwarov

man

significant

is

chief

Plato s

and unconstrained
view of education
development of the individual soul, and his concep
tion of the means whereby this end can be attained
stimulus, the shock of surprise and contradiction,
as the

free

the pleasure of discovery, generalisations prematurely

formed and gladly discarded in favour of new and

destined themselves to suffer

later generalisations,

the same

fate as the intellectual horizon

widens and

These and many other kindred principles

expands.
of educational theory are frequently heralded as new
discoveries of the present day, as for example by
Professor Armstrong, who is never weary of extol
ling

of

what he

fact,

calls the

they are

all

"heuristic"

of

employment
abundantly

illustrated

element

shall
in

throughout his dialogues.

miss the most distinctive and essential

Plato s theory of education

1

A. E,

In point

them found in Plato, and their

and practice of education is

in the art

But we

method.

Theaet. 176

if

we seek

B.

to

The

34

of Platonism

Vitality

range or isolate it from the rest of his

Plato never loses sight of the whole
philosophy.

narrow

its

when
is

treating of the part, and education in his view

but a part of life as life itself is of eternity. The
;

genius of Plato is always reaching forth after rou

hlS gaZC is
oXoU Kal 7TCWTOS 0ZLOV T KOL O,v6ptoTTLVOV
*

fixed
p,ev

upon
xPvov,

Goethe,
eternal

time and

"all

Se

Tracr^s

existence

all

outrun?

In

1
.

"-

TTCU/TOS

words of

the

every utterance of Plato points to the

ein ewig
to an eternal Unity or Whole"

"

eternal principle of Goodness, Truth

Ganzes
and Beauty which he strives to quicken and promote
"an

in

2
every bosom

In Plato

."

s description

no

momentous scene

in

a scene to which there

Athens

the prison-house of
is

of that

parallel, save only one,

in

human

history

occur the touching and memorable words aXX* oZ//,ai

oS Sw
spares, ert rjXiov elmi CTTL rots opecrt Kal
eyajye,
:

OVTTOJ

SeSv/ceWi

"

Nay, Socrates,

think the sun

is

In
still upon the mountains, and has not yet set."
the considerations which I have put before you, I

have hardly touched the fringe of a great and noble

have at
subject, but I hope that some of you may
least

begun

to realise that

upon the everlasting

1

Rep. 486

Plato s sun

A.

Farbenlehre,
3

still

hills.

Phaed. 116

E.

iii.

p.

141,

Weimar, 1893.

shines

THE DOCTRINE OF THE

CELESTIAL ORIGIN OF THE SOUL
FROM PINDAR TO PLATO
II.

KCll

CK

/X>

en

8*

CTTercU ^ttVCtTO)

TTttVTOrt/

0-W/ACt

1061

0ewv

XetTTcrat attoi/os

eiSwAov TO yap eari

cvSti 8c TrpacrtroiTO)!/ /xtA-ccoy,

drap

cv TroAXots oi/ipois

StlKVWl TCpTTVWV

^)p7TOt(raV ^aXcTTWV T

KpLdLV.

PINDAR, fragment 131 Bergk.

7%^
but

^</v

men

all
^/"

alive

there

man
the gods.

from
it

revealeth

propose
to

for that alone

It sleeps

all-powerful death,

an image of

when

the

living

is

the

limbs are active,

many a dream
an award of joy or sorroiv drawing near.
but

attention

subject to

is

yet remains

to

them that

sleep in

the present lecture to invite your

part of a remarkable fragment of
in

Pindar

so latio

ad Apollonium

dirges, preserved
It

by Plutarch in his Conhas long been recognised

that the Pindaric dirges introduce us to a circle of

ideas to which Greek poetry is hitherto a stranger,
although parallels are to be found in Orphic eschato-

logy and to a certain extent also in the fragments

1

c.

35-

32

The Divine Origin of the Soul

36

From whatever

of Heraclitus.

source Pindar

may

have derived his conception of the future world, and

he certainly did not evolve it out of his inner
consciousness and nothing else, the power of poetry
to refine and purify religious sentiment has never
been better illustrated than by the poet who
throughout his whole career believed himself the
chosen servant of Apollo, the god of religious and

My

prophetical as well as of poetical inspiration.

object, however, is not to discuss the origin of these
beliefs

it is

rather to trace from Pindar to Plato the

gradual development and progressive intellectualisation of one of the beliefs contained in the particular

have put into your hands, and

perhaps, to remark upon its significance

fragment which
incidentally,
in

connexion with later developments

in

Poetry,
Philosophy, and Religion.
word or two is necessary with reference to

the translation.

aia)v

which

living man," means simply

abstract for the concrete.

have taken as the

Pindar is using the
"

"life."

opinion W. Christ
he explains the word by
In

my

is
grievously wrong when
al&v is never so used
aevi sempiterni,
eternity
by Pindar. In the last line Kpicriv means adjudica
tion," as
Kpivo) in a passage of the Pythians means
"

"

"

"adjudge

":

TOtS OUT

"To

to

l/O(TTOS

them, at the Pythian

home was adjudged

festival,

"

6/XOJS

8- 83.

no such glad return

Homeric notion of soul

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
of the dead.
Pindar recognises such a judgment in
1

the second Olympian

and implicitly also in other
of
his
fragments
Optyoc describing the bliss that
,

awaits the pious, and the torments in store for the

wicked.
Anyone who reads the fragments of the
Op-fjisoL side by side will agree, I think, that Kpicrw is
to be understood in this
way.
Let us now turn our attention to the ideas which

Pindar

words embody.

the survival of the old

as

shadow of the

the

Patroclus,

We

note to begin with

Homeric notion of the

living

The

self.

you remember, appeared

soul

soul

of

to Achilles in a

vision of the night, "in all things like to the man

himself, in stature and fair eyes and voice, and the

raiment on his body was the same 3

So

."

far,

there

we

are entirely on Homeric ground.

But the
fore,
rest of the passage
to
a
stratum
ideas
of
belongs

which

unlike anything to be found in the Iliad or

In the first place, the soul is said to be of
Odyssey.
divine descent secondly, this kinship with the gods
is

is

TO

cited as a

yap

IO-TL

believe, in

ground
ILOVOV

Greek

for believing in immortality

0a>v,

the

first

indication,

literature of a definite

for this belief, such as Plato afterwards

argument
developed

Phaedo and thirdly, the fundamental idea in

the last two lines, the idea of which the premonitory

in the

vision
2.

of the

day of judgment
2

59.

is

one particular
3

130, 132, 133 Bergk.

//.

23. 66.

38

The Divine Origin of

the Soul

that during

so long as

application,

is

awake and conscious, the

lift,

soul

we are
when

asleep, but

is

the body is laid to rest, the soul awakes and reveals

us in visions of the night that which in our

to

waking moments we cannot

see.

It

is

the

first

of

these conceptions, that of the celestial origin of the

soul, with whose development in Greek literature

down

to Plato

wish at present to deal

we

but

two ideas are closely bound

and sometimes make their appearance in

shall find that the other

up with
writers

it,

by

In

whom

the soul
as

Pindar,

in

s divinity is affirmed.

Heraclitus,

thinker with

whom

the poet has other points in common besides

obscurity, the celestial origin of the soul is still,

what

it

belief;

primarily was, a predominantly religious

but the germs of a philosophical inter

pretation

are

when

discernible

already

deliberately founds
doctrine, and also when

the

poet

his faith in

the

of

possibility

immortality upon this

means
of it he explains
by

divination

The

during sleep.

particular idea involved in the latter part of the

passage before us, reappears not only in the Republic
of Plato but also in an Aristotelian fragment, where
1

we

are told that

itself in sleep,

of course,

its

"

whenever the soul

recovers

it

its

proper
"

celestial

nature,

is

alone and by
that

nature,"

and the same idea

prophesies the future
the root of the Stoic philosophy of divination.
"

is

it,

indeed,

thought.

unknown

Pindar
1

ix.

572

in

lies at

Nor

modern psychological

description of the soul

A.

is,

and divines and

Fr. 12.

in

this

Pindar and modern psychology

39

passage bears an obvious and striking resemblance

to Mr Myers theory of the subconscious or sub
which, according to the hypothesis of
Professor James, is the medium of communication

liminal

self,

between the soul and that higher or transcendental

nor did the analogy
region which he calls God
the Pindaric
Mr
he
chooses
escape
Myers, for
fragment as the heading of his chapter on Sleep
:

In

his

lecture,

Ingersoll

makes the existence of

again,

Professor James

this subliminal self the basis

of an argument for immortality, precisely as Pindar

The
says: "for this alone is from the gods."
of a

possibility

Pindaric notion

passage of Pindar.
simply

i\t\)yri

development of the

philosophical
is also,

You

think, involved in another

will

soul in the old

observe that here

it is

Homeric

sense, or not
In the
gods.

much more that comes from the

sixth Nemean, however, after emphatically pro
claiming the original unity of men and gods

2
Pindar suggests that
v
avSp&v,
yeVos
resemble the im
the
in
which
we
perhaps
point
And it
mortals is in mind or reason (/xeya*> voov)
is on the
that
of
of
rather
than
vovs,
\fjv\yj,
divinity

eV

0a>v

Greek philosophy, as we shall presently see, chiefly

s
This, and not simply the soul or i/^x 7?

insists.

the philosophical version of that Sioo-Soros

that god-given seed or germ of life which Pindar
dpx<*->

Human
6.

i.

these words.
3

Ibid. 5.

Personality, vol.

I.

p. 121.

agree with Professor Bury in his explanation of

The Divine Origin of

4O
mentions

the Soul

It would be
yet another fragment
absurd, of course, to attribute to a poet any rigid
psychological nomenclature but no one denies that
1

in

Pindar

in

1/01)5

an

clusively,

is

predominantly, though not ex

2

intellectual

faculty

and

in

Greek

Stoicism, you?
believe,
philosophy itself, even,
is never the
merely siccum lumen, the clear, cold
in

light,

which we are sometimes

reason.
avrj
it

The

dry

rjpr) I//V^T)

was made of
is

soul, says Heraclitus,

cro^wrar^

but,

is

the wisest

we must remember,

fire.

Greek

In classical

there

in the habit of calling

lyric poetry,

other than Pindar,

no certain trace of the ideas we are now

considering.

The younger

Melanippides, who died

has left a striking fragment

perhaps about 413 B.C.,

3
of a prayer, addressed presumably to Dionysus
K\vOi

/AOI,

(3

Hear me, O Father, honoured of mortal men,

thou that art lord of the ever-living soul."
"

poem had survived, it is possible

further light would be thrown on the
subject of this lecture.
Aeschylus has one or two
definite suggestions of the divine affinity of the
If

the whole of this

that

some

soul,

notably in the passage where he speaks of the

137 Bergk.
Aios TOI vo os

vdo), ibid. 3-

u,

29.

Aesch. p. 24.
3
Fr, 6 Bergk.

/xe ya?

KV/Jcpi/a, etc.,

See Buchholz,

Pyth.

Sittliche

5.

122

iravro. laavTi

Weltanschauung

d.

Find.

The soul

mind

and tragedy

in lyric poets

41

eye as seeing clearly during sleep, whereas

day men see not the future

in the

yap

e{5Sov<ra

6V

notion underlying this passage, and I think

also a passage in the Agamemnon*, is the same

The
as

we have

already

found

Pindar and Aristotle.

extent released

certain

in

the

of

fragments

In sleep the soul is to a

from the shackles of the

body, and foresees the future by virtue of her

In harmony with
natural affinity with the gods.
this conception,

Aeschylus attaches great weight to

and even when the

by means of dreams

revelation

awake, in moments of ecstatic elevation,

body
such as he portrays in the person of Cassandra, and
is

those dim forebodings of futurity that so often

haunt the mind of the Chorus in the Oresteia, the
in

soul appears to give proof of her connexion with

the divine. Nowhere in Aeschylus, however, is this

doctrine brought into relationship with the belief

in immortality, as it is by Pindar
nor, indeed,
;

except
judgment and punishments
never, I believe, rewards
hereafter, and in one
or two further details, do the eschatological pictures
recognising a

in

of Aeschylus differ very much from those in Homer,

except that the all-pervacling gloom is deeper and

more

intense.

only say that

1

Eum. 104
189

<rraei

1903, p. 241.

will

called

f.

ff.

With regard to Sophocles,

although Dronke has rightly
8 lv tf VTTVU KT\.

See Headlam

in Cl.

Rw.

for

42

The Divine Origin of

attention

to

*A V X*? I

exquisite touches of religious

in his plays, for

mysticism
1

certain

the Soul

example

tne particular subject

we

CU>TI

piav

/AV/HCUJ/

now discussing
With Euripides

are

cannot be illustrated from him.

is different, and we shall find that the form

which he expresses the idea of the soul s divinity
of the highest interest and importance in con

the case
in
is

nexion with later philosophical thought

Greece.

in

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 Nous or Reason had been made
familiar to

making
vovs

Greek thought by Anaxagoras epoch-

declaration,

l\6a>v

aura

*%P yllJLaTa

TTOLVTOL
2

together, Reason came and

things were

them

set

etra

v op.ov-

"when all

Ste/cocr/xr/cre

^\

in

order."

the creative vovs of Anaxagoras was a

purely incorporeal or as we should say spiritual
but
substance or not, is a question still debated

Whether

this

much

at least

is

much from every

it was corporeal,
was composed differed so

clear, that if

the material of which

it

other kind of matter that

not deserve to be called matter at

all.

To

call

it
it

did

by
"

the question-begging epithet of

thought-matter
or "thought-stuff," as Windelband does, throws no
light upon its nature, besides being in my judgment
"

a forced and unnatural translation of the Greek

1

O. C. 498.

ap. Diog. Laert. n. 6.

The Noiis of Anaxagoras

word

Gornperz talks vaguely of

z/ous.

fluid or

aether,"

curious reasoning

"

43
"a

fluid,"

kind of
"of

an

Every
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

announcing that Mind is the cause of everything,

he made little or no use of this great principle in
had
explaining the constitution of the Universe, but
recourse to

"airs

and aethers and waters and many

such absurdities 2

other

passage between

and

Nous

The

opposition in this
on the one hand, and the

."

on the

tells

other,

strongly
against the identification of Nous with any substance
of the kind and, indeed, according to Anaxagoras
"airs

aethers"

and aether are among the substances

originally separated off from the

himself, air

which

Notes

3
primeval mixture or chaos
to discuss the matter here

Heinze

agree with

It is

impossible fully

only say that

will

and Arleth

holding that
Anaxagoras probably intended us to understand by
Nous an incorporeal essence, although in the absence
in

of an accepted philosophical terminology he failed

to make the new idea absolutely clear.
There are
still

two

points
which
of
theory

in

my

connexion

with

subject requires

Greek Thinkers (E.T.), 1216, 1217.

Phaedo 98

:<

4
3

Fr.

Ueber

Anaxagoras
to remind

me

c.

Diels (Fragmente der Vorsokratiker).

d.

Now

d.

Archiv f. Gesch.

Anaxagoras
d. Philos.

(Leipzig, 1890).

vm. 461

ft".

The Divine Origin of the Soul

44

The world-ordering Reason which he describes

transcendent rather than immanent, although its
immanence in certain things is not denied
you.
is

earii>

Se

olcri

/cat

And

vovs evi\

Nous

finally,

although this

and dis
possesses many
charges many of the functions which later philo
sophy ascribed to the Deity, Anaxagoras in his
of the

attributes

extant fragments nowhere calls it God.

Turn now for a little to the fragments

of

Diogenes of Apollonia, who lived in Athens during

the latter part of the fifth century B.C., and whose
philosophy is in effect little more than a revision
of the physical theory of Anaximenes in the light

The primary
theory of Mind.
substance, says Diogenes, of which all other things
are only particular forms or differentiations, is
and strong and eternal and immortal and
"great
of

Anaxagoras

possessed of

much knowledge

"

(TroAAa eiSo s ecrri)",

able
to
the
measures
of all things,
preserve
being
winter and summer, night and day, rains and winds
and sunny weather 3
By means of Air," he says
"

"

."

another fragment,
are steered and over all
Air has power.
For this very thing seems to me
4
God"
"and
(avrb yap JJLOL TOVTO #eos So/cei
I believe that it reaches to
everything and disposes
in

"all

cu>ai)

everything andjs present in everything.... There are

many forms of living creatures many in number,

resembling one another neither in appearance nor

in way of life nor in intelligence
owing to the
1

Fr.

0os

1 1

is

Diels.

Usener

Fr. 8 Diels.

certain

emendation

for

#05.

Fr. 3 Diels.

Diogenes of Apollonia

45

but yet they all live

and see and hear by virtue of the same element,
and all of them too derive their intelligence from
multitude of differentiations

the

same source

The Air

TOV #ov) 2

fjiopiov

will see in

the

."

Diogenes called a

reason,
(p.iKpbi>

the

our

part of God"
these extracts you

"little

From

is,

place that Diogenes materializes

Anaxagoras in the element of Air

of

i>o>9

within us, that

first

secondly, that he expressly identifies this noetic Air

with

and

God

avTo

yap

that

thirdly,

/XCH

this

TOVTO #eos SoAcet elpcu

divine

noetic

Air

is

not

an all-pervading
transcendent, but only immanent
cosmic Deity, like the Xoyos of the Stoics.
I
have treated thus briefly of Anaxagoras and

Diogenes not so much on their own account, as

because of the light which they throw on certain

The
highly characteristic passages of Euripides.
ancients were fond of calling Euripides the philo
sopher upon the stage."
Browning, I think, shews
"

truer insight

when he makes him

"I

say,

incline to poetize philosophy";

and

it
is with
this poetical interpretation of the
doctrine of Diogenes that I now proceed to deal.
In discussing poetry, more especially dramatic

poetry,

we must

of course be mindful of
Browning

indignant protest,
of you did I enable

"Which

Once
There

&

my

breast,

and label
least, what love best?

to catalogue

What
1

to slip inside

like

5-

Diels -p. 331.

3.

The Divine Origin of the Soul

46

No

ancient poet has suffered so much as Euripides

in his own lifetime and afterwards from the

both

vulgar species of gallery criticism that hisses the

I
may nevertheless be allowed to
stage-villain.

express my personal belief that the passages about

to be discussed reflect a tone of feeling peculiarly
congenial to the great poet of humanity,
reason which will afterwards appear.

for

Let us now consider some of the passages in

We have seen that Diogenes identifies
question.
the all-pervading Air with God.
To this theory
Euripides has an allusion
Hecabe in the Troades

the famous prayer of

in

o^^/x,a, Karri y-js

yrj<s

oaris TTOT
fLT

Zcvs,

ct

Earth

IT

TrdWa yap

(T*

7rpo(rir)vd[Ji7)v

<vVeos,

yK>7

/JaiWy KtXevOov
"

SwroTraoros

av,

aVu

Kara, SiKiqv

81
d{f/6<j>ov

ra

ayts

Ovrfr

upholder, throned upon the

Earth,"

etc.

Anaximenes, the philosophical master of Dio

genes, taught that the earth "rides upon the
(eVo^etrat
ae/u), and also that "just as our Soul,
which is Air, holds us together, so also breath and
Air encompass the whole Universe
You will
for

air"

rq>

."

remember

that

Plato,

too,

in

of

speaking

this

theory, compares the Air to a ftdOpov or pedestal

3
For the most part, however,
supporting the earth
.

when Euripides

writes in this vein,

not Air which he calls Zeus.

1

884 ff.
Phaedo 99

B.

it

is

Aether and

In a poet, of course,

Diels p. 22

6,

25

2.

The Aether

we ought

47

not to expect a clear distinction between

two

these

in Euribides

Anaxagoras had
Euripides, no doubt,

although

concepts,

already differentiated them.

word

"

Aether
partly as having a
greater wealth of poetical and religious associations
than "Air.
Thus in one fragment we read
the

prefers

"

ycua
"

KOU AIDS KlOrjp

/Ayio"T77

Mightiest Earth and Aether of Zeus

"

home of Zeus,"
Aether
though Euripides sometimes describes the element
in that way, but just
Zeus s Aether," the Aether in
which Zeus consists, the Aether of which Zeus is
made, in no respect different from Zeus himself.
The remainder of the fragment clearly shews that
Zeus is here identified with Aether.
Aether,"
continues the poet,
is the father of men and gods
and Earth receives into her womb the falling rain
of dewy drops, and bears mortal men, aye, and
But the most
food, and the tribes of wild beasts."
that

is,

not

believe,

"

"

"

"

characteristic
tion

is

example

in

Euripides of this identifica

contained in the well-known lines

bpas TOV

v\j/ov

KOL yrjv 7repi

TOVTOV

v6fj.i,

thus translated by
"Seest

That

Toi/8

tt7Tipoi/

fyovO

vypats

Zrjva,

TOV&

Mr Way

aWcpa
et/

ayKuAcus

iqyov Ocov

2
:

thou the boundless ether there on high

around with dewy arms ?

folds the earth

This deem thou Zeus,

1

839 Nauck

Fr.

941.

this

reckon one with

God."

2
.

Cf.

877

ttXV

CU0T/p

TtKTt

<T,

KOptt,

ZVS

O5

The Divine Origin of

48

There
called

is

Soul

the

more than a touch of what W. K.

"cosmic emotion"

does

however,

ancient

in these verses.

literature

Clifford

Nowhere,
a more

furnish

expression of cosmic feeling or a finer

example of the poetical treatment of a philosophical
perfect

we meet with

than

conception

a less

in

known

fragment of Euripides descriptive of the aetherial

creative reason indwelling in the world
:

ere

TOV

pv/A/?a>

O^
vv

TOV

avTO<va,

TravTwi/

TTf.pl

fJ.V

<}>vcriv

TTCpl

aKpiTo s

<a>S,

cuoXoxpws,

ei>

o^Xos
"Thee,

ei/ScXe^ws a/xc^t^opcvei

who

self-begotten,

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

compares the familiar lines of

spirit,

setting suns,

and the

the round ocean,

All thinking things,

We

interfused,

living air,

the blue sky, and in the mind of

motion and a spirit that impels

And

rolls

objects of

all

man

thought,

things."

think, that in this all-pervading

soul of all the worlds," as he sometimes

may

"the

all

all

through

felt

me

Of elevated thoughts
Of something far more deeply
Whose dwelling is the light of

have

with the joy

a sense sublime

presence that disturbs

And
And

due, justly

Wordsworth
"I

is

say,

2
593 Nauck

Euripides and Wordsworth

calls

Wordsworth

it,

49

the true and essential

finds

it embraces, as
Euripides would
unity of Nature
nature of all things,"
have said, the
"

as one essence of pervading light

Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars
And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp

"Even

Couched

The

parallel

in the

grass."

between Euripides and Wordsworth is

and in Virgil, too, we have exactly

here complete
the

dewy

same conception

deum namque

ire per omnes

maris
caelumque
profundum
terrasque tractusque
1

Some may be

disposed

to

call

this

philosophy,

and others, perhaps,

in
but
truth
it is
only one particular way
religion
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
others

will

call

it

poetry,

Plato, at least,
goal of a philosophy of the sciences
believed it was to demonstrate and apprehend.

But to

return.

think

it is

deserving of particular

in each of the three poets

I
have
kind
of
named,
poetical pantheism, or Natureas
it
may more appropriately be called,
mysticism,
is
accompanied not only by a deeper sense of

notice

that

this

the unity between

man and

nature, but also

by a

profounder sympathy with "human weal and woe"

than we readily find elsewhere.
It was a true
instinct that

prompted Tennyson

Georgics
A. E.

4.

221

f.:

also in

to put together in

Aeneid

6.

724

ff.

The Divine Origin of

50

the

Soul

a single stanza these two characteristics of Virgil s

poetry

"Thou

that seest Universal

Nature moved by Universal Mind

Thou
At

majestic in thy sadness

the doubtful doom of human

kind."

The power inherent in Nature dwells also

the
mind of man," so that the link which binds us to
"in

the one

unites

us

also

to

the

other.

You

will

remember that the later Stoics expressly founded

their doctrine of human brotherhood on the presence

men

in all

that

of the KOU/OS Xoyos, or universal reason

through all things, mingling with the

"moves

and lesser lights

Marcus Aurelius, for
reminds
us
that
s brotherhood with
man
example,
all mankind depends not on blood, or the
generative
seed, but on community in mind (vov Kowwia)
each man s mind, he says, is God and an efflux
and God is els Sta
from God
/cat oucrta
"one God,
one
essence
fjiia,
stretching through all
in
Nature
as
well as in man.
The
present
things
humanism of Euripides is not an intellectual dogma,
but the language of the heart yet it is more than a
mere accident I 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
great

."

7rcu>7a>i>

,"

greatest

nature-drama

of

antiquity,

mean,

of

course, the Bacchae.

So

far,

have spoken only of the peculiar kind

1

Hymn

xn. 26.

of Cleanthes

2
3

f.

vii. 9.

Nature-mysticism of Euripides
of poetical theology which

sometimes found

is

in

That which Pindar calls the gods

IK de&v
has become, under the
"

"-

Euripides.

TO -yap ecrri /xoVoi

perhaps, of Diogenes, an immanent,

influence,

all-

substance designated by the

Let us now turn from the divine

aetherial

embracingname of Zeus.

the human, and consider one or two of those

to

passages
of man s

which the poet has in view the doctrine

The fragment most
affinity to God.

in

cited

commonly
is

by the ancients

this

in

connexion

the line
6

i>ovs

"The

yap

ly/xwv

eoTiv tv

Kacrra)

reason in each one of us

is

God."

impression is that we have here the same

Mind is that culmi
sentiment as that of Dante,
nating and most precious part of the soul, which is

Our

first

"

Deity

If

."

we

look closer, however,

we

shall see

on vov$ and not on 0edg

emphasis
Euripides means there is no God but reason and
This is
so the line was explained by Nemesius.
the

that

is

not mysticism, but rationalism, in the sense in which

In
the word is used in
Euripides the rationalist."
"

the prayer of Hecabe

the words Zevs, eir

the

man"-

rationalistic

haps the
seeing
1

is

meant

are

or in

that
1

8.

Hecabe
t

whether

etre

the

has

mystical

i/ous

law or

c.

ii,

in

Per

sense.

more probable,

already

Convito in.

be understood

to

latter interpretation is the

Fr. 10

to say

difficult

avayKTj c^ucreos,
Zeus, whether thou art Nature

"

ftpoTwv
mind of

it

tr.

spoken
K. Hillard.

42

of

The Divine Origin of the Soul

52

Zeus

in

the

theory of
Diogenes, according to which the mind of man is
a form of that universally diffused aerial substance

language

suggested

by

which Diogenes holds to be God.

I
do not think
the two alternatives avdyKrj c^vcreos and
fiporwv
are intended to be rigidly construed
if Zeus, as
&>ous

Hecabe

omnipresent Air or Aether, he is

implies,
an allusion, I think, to
at once the law of Nature
is

Democritus and the Atomists and the mind of

man. The real emphasis is on the last line Kara
whatever Zeus may be, the
SiKtjv TO, OVTJT ayeis
"

sceptre of his

kingdom,"

Hecabe means,

"is

justice."

passage as we may, the doctrine

of the kinship between the mind of man and the

But interpret

this

cosmic mind or aether

whose

character, as

of mysticism

is

is

clearly involved in

The speaker

Helena.

lines of the

Mr

is

Pearson says,

two

Theonoe, to
"an
element

appropriate."

vovs

dOdvarov,

ts

dOdvarov aiOtp
"Albeit

Of"

the

mind

the dead live not, deathless consciousness

Still

hath

it,

when

in deathless aether

merged

."

we have nothing

but a highly
of
the
idea
philosophised interpretation
underlying
the well-known fifth-century epitaph on the Athenians

Here, of course,

who

fell

at

and earth
1

Potidaea

their bodies

Hel 1014

Way s

Aether received

"

their souls,

by the gates of Potidaea

ff.

translation (substituting

"

mind

"

for

"

soul
").

Phenomena of
they were slain

1
."

and deatk

life

53

In the background there

is

the

that
theory, derived, no doubt, from Anaxagoras,
have
no
destruction
absolute
and
absolute creation

place in the

economy of nature

the

phenomena we

call life and death are only the temporary union

and subsequent dissolution of pre-existing and

The

imperishable elements.

bearing of this theory

on anthropology is thus expressed by Euripides in a

All
fragment to which I have already referred
which
was
that
came
back
whence
they
things go
"

born of Earth to Earth, and that which sprang from

the seed of Aether returns to the firmament of

Heaven
it

is

You

2
."

as

not,

returns

to

in

the

will further notice that in

the epitaph, x/^x 1?

aetherial element.

Euripides
but vovs, that

Elsewhere, in

agreement with Epicharmus (if the fragments are

3
really by Epicharmus ), he calls the divine element
in man
the element that rejoins the aether by the

name

of
TO

(roj/xa

ts

yfjv

4
.

interesting in this connexion to observe that

each of these two terms, vovs and Trvevpa, occupies
It

is

somewhat analogous

position not only in the

psychology of Stoicism, but also in the writings of
St Paul, according to whom the highest part of us,

the TT^eu^a,

God

"

is

what

5
,"

"an

element,"

C.I.A.

by virtue of
as Dr Swete has

it

is

a
i.

442.

its affinity

said,

"corre-

Fr. 839.

245, 265 Kaibel.

Sanday and Headlam, Romans,

Siippl.
p. 196.

533

to

f-

The Divine Origin of

54

Soul

the

spending to the Divine Spirit and fitted to be the

while 1/01)5, in the words
sphere of His operations
of another theologian, is in St Paul just
the irvevpa
1

,"

"

operative as a faculty of knowledge directed toward

Divine things 2
In Euripides, perhaps, it may be
."

doubted whether

TTV^V^OL

means much more

really

but vovs certainly does, and in this

"breath";
respect there seems to me a real analogy between
more
the Greek and Christian thinker.
Still

than

characteristically

the

is

philosophical

which the poet here draws between

sciousness.

The

mind,

life

when reabsorbed

distinction

and con
in aether,

no longer lives, that is to say, it has no personal

or individual existence, but it nevertheless shares in
the consciousness belonging to the universal spirit.

The passage we

are

now

discussing is, I believe,

the earliest explicit affirmation in Greek literature
of the kind of cosmic immortality which Aristotle
ascribes to his vovs Troc^rt/cds, and which Marcus
Aurelius also had in view when he wrote the words
:

him who gave you being;

disappear
or rather you will be changed and reabsorbed into
"You

will

in

"

his generative reason

(/xaXXo^ Se

ava\r}<f)0rj(rr}

ets

TOV \6yov avTov rov cnr^p^arLKov Kara p.Ta/3oXrji>y.

The ethical and religious value of this conception

depends on the extent

to

which

emphasises the
the divine, rather than
it

prospect of reunion with

To
the consequent extinction of our individuality.
what heights of almost ecstatic enthusiasm it could
1

Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible u.

Findlay in Hastings, Lc. in. p.

720

b.

p.

409

a.
3

iv.

14.

Cosmic immortality

55

may be seen from an

would probably have
which
extraordinary fragment
been denounced as a Neoplatonic forgery, if it had
not been referred to by Plutarch as well as quoted
Upon my back sprout golden wings
by Clement
sometimes

the

lift

poet

"

my feet are fitted with the winged sandals of the

Sirens and I shall soar to the aetherial firmament
:

Zeus
Zeus
that
probable

"

to unite with

Zyjvl Trpoo-^i^cov

think

it

fragment stands for the

which Euripides elsewhere

in this

aWijp with

aOavaros

identifies the god.

In an exhaustive discussion of Euripides treat

us, we should have to

ment of the subject before

many other passages, and particularly

which
he alludes to the Orphic and
of those
Pythagorean view that the body is the prison-house
2
But it is prefer
or tomb of the soul
croJ/xa
able, I think, in what remains of my allotted time,
to draw your attention, first, to one or two traces of
take account of
in

<r^/xa

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

what he desired above all

things to establish was the rule of Reason alike in
In like manner,
the individual and in the state.
according to Xenophon, he sometimes represented
been called Noocracy

the
in

Godhead
the world

as the reason or
eV

(17

Fr. 911.

Mem.

i.

Travrl

(^po^crts)
a

4.

17.

wisdom indwelling
.

Fr. 638, 833.

No

doubt

The Divine Origin of

56

the

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

cosmic intelligence consults the

interests of man
for his teleology is almost pain
but there is none the less a
fully anthropocentric
this

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 human mind is

itself only a portion of the world-informing Reason,

according to
identified with God.

which,

Xenophon, he

Xenophon

is

occasionally
relating a con

versation between Socrates and Aristodemus, and

has reached the point at which the young man,

though originally disposed to

gods,

is

ridicule the belief in

constrained to allow that there

is

some

little

argument from design. "Well now,"

"do
you suppose that you have a
little wisdom
yourself, and yet that there is no
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 little
portion of the great waters, and of the other ele
ments, extending far and wide, you received, I

force in the

says Socrates,

suppose, a

little bit

of each towards the framing of

your body? Mind alone, forsooth" vovv Se dpa

adds Socrates, sarcastically, "which is no
JJLOVOV
where to be found, you seem by some lucky chance
In
or other to have snatched up from nowhere
1

."

Mem.

i.

4. 8.

Socrates

and

the divinity of the soul

57

in this
significance, the implication contained
concluding sentence is that the soul or rather the
its

full

mind

(1/01)5)

of

man

is,

as the Stoics said, a fragment

but
or a7rocT7raoyx,a of the universal mind or God
the doctrine is not elsewhere touched upon by the
;

Socrates

of

the

at

Memorabilia,

in

least

this

particular form, although there is one other passage

where he pronounces the soul to be divine
1

The speech of the dying Cyrus in the Cyropaedia

Xenophon supplies some additional examples of
the type of thought which \ am trying to illustrate,

of

makes the doctrine of the divinity

of soul into an argument for immortality and divina
In words that irresistibly recall the Phaedo of
tion.

and

in particular

Plato,

the

Cyrus expresses a disposition

or

soul,

moment

rather

the

vovs

or

to believe that

reason,

survives

of death, and

being then pure and

uncontaminated by communion with the body
aKparos KCU KaOapos attains a measure of intelli

the

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
it as it
passes, but neither do we see it while it

gence

far

When

the

this

we

the soul likewise, in virtue of

its

animates the body.

are

left

to infer

Presumably therefore

divinity, returns to the divine.

Yet another reason

given by Cyrus
supposing that our intelligence
is heightened after death.
In sleep, which is the
and
of
death, the soul most
image
counterpart
for

is

See Mem.

iv. 3.

14.

The Divine Origin of the Soul

58

realises

fully

its

Godhead, and
that usually hides from us the

kinship with

penetrates the veil

future
and the explanation

the

that during sleep

other
time
the
soul is freed from
any
the dominion of the body
For the origin of these
;

more than

is

at

and similar views, which only make explicit what is

already implicit in the fragment of Pindar, we must
doubtless look to the Pythagorean doctrine of the
body as the sepulchre of the soul but what I wish
;

to suggest

is

that

own

think

part

historical

is

it

Socrates

it

for

my

probable
conversed

that

the

in

this

highly

sometimes

The Cyropaedia

way.

perfectly possible

is

permeated, of course, by
this instance the parallel

and in
Socratic ideas
between Xenophon and Plato
;

is

in

favour, so far

goes, of the presence in their common master

Nor
of a similar strain or tendency of thought.
are such ideas otherwise than in harmony with the
as

it

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"
His susceptibility to the influence
pure and simple.
of dreams, attested both by Xenophon and Plato

his

faith

in

immobility,"

oracles;

those

"

frequent

during which he would stand

pauses of
for hours

together, as Gellius says, "inconnivens, immobilis,

eisdem in vestigiis, tanqiiam quodam secessu mentis
atqite

"

animi facto a

corpore"

and, above

all,

the

the pledge and symbol of

divine sign or
voice,"
for these and
his intimate relationship to God
"

Cyrop. vin.

7.

19

f.

Noctes Att.

11.

i.

Religious rationalism of Socrates

other features

we must seek

59

analogies in the history,

not of rationalism, but of religion.

It is impossible,
I 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

Reason

divine

is itself

From

Socrates

contained in the doctrine that

is

TO

we now

yap

ecrrt /xoVo*

pass to Plato.

e/c

#eo>i>.

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

and

can hardly even attempt to

shew you how, beyond all other Platonic doctrines,
it has made Platonism live
throughout the ages, not
his long career,

only

in poetry,

is

to

philosophy, and theology, but also,

human

perhaps, in

lives.

The most

that

mention one or two different ways

can do

in

which

Plato expresses his belief in man s affinity with the

divine, and to indicate a few of the principal
implications of the theory in Platonism, with

remarks on

its

connexion with

philosophical thought.
The nearest analogy in

some

later religious

and

Plato to the kind of

cosmic deity of earlier and later Greek philosophy

is of course the soul of the world in the Philebus

and Ttmacus*

but in Plato, I need hardly say, the

world-soul differs from the immanent Godhead of
:

Diogenes and the

inasmuch as it is a purely
immaterial or spiritual essence.
In the Philebus
Plato derives the human soul from the soul of the
1

28 c

ff.

Stoics,

34 c

ff.

The Divine Origin of

60
world

and the

the

Soul

of reasoning by which he
is
only a more developed

train

supports this derivation

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 Timaeus the human soul,
or rather the rational and noetic part of it, is not, as
1

in the Philebus,

dependent

soul of the world,

As

us,"

upon the

the world-soul

itself,

from the supreme God or Demiurgus.

concerning the sovereign part of soul within
says Plato, "that which we say, and say truly,

comes
u

for its origin

like

but,

directly

dwells at the top of the body and raises us from

earth towards our heavenly kindred, forasmuch as

we
OVK

are a heavenly and not an earthly plant

$\)TQV
aXX
we
that
to
believe
ovpaviov
ought
eyyetoz/,

God

has given it to each of us as a daemon*" that

a
is,
genius or guardian angel to direct our lives, in
the beautiful phrase of Menander, as it were our
TOT)

It

is

in

this

passage, I
believe, that we should seek the origin of the view
so much insisted upon by the later Stoics, that the

/Avcrro/ywyos

fiiov

faculty of reason,

Aurelius,

is

to

quote the words of Marcus

just the 8aip,Q)v, ov e/cacrrw Trpoo-TaTrjv

KCU ^ye/xoj/a 6 Zev?

eSw/cez^, aTrdcrTracr/ia IOLVTOV,

"the

has bestowed on every man, to

genius, which Zeus
1

29 A

2
ff.

Tim. 90

A.

airavri Scu /xwv avSpt

yevofJLcvtt),

yuvfrrayooyos TOV fliov.

Meineke

iv. p.

238.

Fusion of religion and metaphysics in Plato

61
1

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,

to the characteristically Platonic

owing

too,

fusion

of theology and metaphysics, there is still

colouring of theology, or perhaps I had better say,
In the Republic the soul in its essential,
religion.
a certain

that

is,

rational nature,

its

is

said to be

divine and immortal and ever-existent

"

akin to the

2
,

that

is

to

the changeless and eternal essence which Plato calls

and in the Phaedo we read that when
the Ideas
;

ever the soul

and by the soul in this dialogue he

whenever the soul makes use of the

means vovs
body and its senses

in

any investigation,

she

is

dragged by the body into the region of the change

able, 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,

to

join

soars into the realm beyond,

and eternal and immortal and

away she

the

pure

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 now been intellectualised, its religious meaning

For the nearest parallel to such

passages of Plato, and they are very numerous,
Thou
we must look to the Paradise of Dante.
is

not yet

lost.

"

v. 27.

611

E.

79 c

ff.

62

The Divine Origin of

shouldest

know/ says

Beatrice,

the

Soul

"that

all

have their

delight in proportion as their sight sinks deep into

that Truth wherein every intellect finds rest
1

."

say no more at present about the manifold

which the infinite variety of Plato s genius
ways
gives expression to the old Pindaric sentiment, TO
I

in

Before, however, touching on

the applications of the doctrine in Platonism, let me
call your attention to a new and historically fruitful

yap

ecTTi JJLOVOV e/c

#a>*>.

idea with which Plato enriches this ancient belief.

The

question as to the essential meaning of the

word man what it is in virtue of which we are said

be human

had hardly as yet been raised by

Greek philosophy. In the view of Plato, it is just
the presence of this divine element that makes us
Man is most truly man when
specifically human.
This suggestion is clearly
he most resembles God.
intended in two passages of the Republic. The first
to

where Plato is describing how the true legislative

artist will endeavour to model the character and
is

lives of

now

at

men

after the

natural,

that

image of the
is,

ideal

divine.

observe

Looking

how

the

Beauty and
and
now
at
the actual
Justice and Temperance,
picture he is painting, he will, says Plato, blend and
natural in

Plato

is

always the ideal

mingle institutions, like so many colours, until he

has obtained TO di/8/oet/ccXo^, the colour and com
plexion of true manhood and he will found his idea
of the di/S/>eiKXoi> on that which, when it appears
;

among men, Homer

1

himself called 0eoetSe s re

Canto

28.

106

ff.

KOLI

Manlike equivalent

Godlike

to

63

0eoeiK\ov\ The Manlike, in short, is the Godlike.

The second passage occurs in the elaborate com

human

parison of

chimaera

or

nature as

now

it

to a kind of

is

creature,

triple-headed

the

wearing

vesture of humanity, and comprising within its folds

a 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

inward man" (6 eWos a^/owTro?) 2 in
be the
or Reason.
What account,
other words the
"

to

*>ov5

we give

then, Plato asks, shall

say that
elements

virtue

the

the human,

to

we

to

say,

consists

lion
"or

rather,"

We

the

bringing

and the ape

Divine

the

into

will

bestial

subjection

he continues,

"shall

"

(TOJ

av0pa>7rcp,

/xa\Xoi>

Se

The

0Lco)\
suggestion that man is truly
just in proportion as he is divine was after

TO)

ura>s

in

of virtue

human

wards taken up by Aristotle and the Stoics 4 and

no one can fail to see its hitherto unexhausted,
;

ever

for

perhaps
religion.

"It

seem,"

meaning the divine or

this"

the

actually

"is

self"

significance
Aristotle,

says

and

(Sdfeie

av

/ecu

eu/cu

"

re

di/8ptKA.ov,
rots

air

KCU

KtpavvvvTts

CKCII/OV TCK/xaipo /xei/ot,

av^pwVots

eyyiyyo/xei ov

TOW

CK

6*coct8cs

Br)

re

KO.I

Kai

B.

501

man

rational part of

in

"that

inasmuch as it is the supreme

rouro)
better part of man."
The implication in the

e/cacrros

eV

inexhaustible,

would

5 8 9 A.

See

Eth. Nic. x.

:{

(for the Stoics) e.g.

7. 9.

589 D.
Marc. Aur. xn.

3.

fleoeuccXoi/

Rep.

The Divine Origin of

64
epithet

"better,"

is

existent,

not

that the

</>

good alone

the truly

is

than the pregnant and

which the pupil of Plato points
all

ocrov eVSexercu, a^a^ari^e^,

Consider

Sou/

less Platonic

powerful phrase in
the moral lesson of this and
as far as in thee

tJie

his

master

"put

teaching

on the immortal,

lies."

now some

of the implications of this

Since man is by nature akin

theory in Platonism.
to the divine, the end and object of his existence

must of necessity be
to

God":

mortal
truly

life

"

o/xouwcris TC?

0ea>,

assimilation

the fullest possible realisation in this

of that immortal nature which alone can

The

be called our own.

doctrine of

6/x,oio>cns

TW Bey plays a conspicuous part in the teaching of

is God," he says in the Laws
Plato.
"and
not, as some have asserted, man, who ought to be
This is
to us the universal measure or standard."
the dominating motive throughout nearly the whole
1

"It

s polemic against Homer in the second and

books of the Republic the Homeric gods are
to be discarded because they do not provide a moral
ideal for mankind
Euripides, you remember, had
the same idea, and so had Xenophanes before him

of Plato

third

and

this

is

also

theology which
in

the

principle

Plato

his ideal state.

of

the

reformed

desirous of inaugurating
In its political application, the
is

oftoiWis #ew means the establishment of a kingdom

for SIKCUOCTWT? in the
of righteousness upon earth
:

Republic
ness,

is

the

not really a specific virtue, but righteous

root and source of all the individual
1

716

c.

The kingdom of righteousness

65

about which Aristotle

virtues, the virtue

quoting
2
that
neither
the
a fragment of Euripides
says
morning nor the evening star is so beautiful."
,

"

Plato in the Republic is looking for a civitas dei

new heavens and a new earth, eV 015 Si/ccuocruz/r;
KaroiKtl

and

we behold

itself,

as

indeed,
the

the

argument unfolds
"

Hellenic

"

originally

city

gradually changing into a celestial commonwealth,

a TrapaSeiy/jta eV ovpavco, as Plato himself at last
confesses
If

it

we

be 4

to

perfection

the

of

individual

man

and

Plato

in

always founded upon private virtue

political

is

we may

say,

individual

our survey to the progress towards

limit

of

think,
his

that the

and

true

realisation

immortal

by the

nature

is

described by Plato from three main points of view.

In the Phaedo it appears as the /zeXenj Bavdrov, the
or rather "rehearsal of death," the mortifi
"study"
cation of our lower nature for the sake of reviving
the higher, dying, in short, that we may live.
The
this conception is of course
than Plato, as he himself points out.
a single illustration from Heraclitus.

germ of

much

older

will

quote

I
"

Both living

and in our death

for when we live our souls are dead and buried 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

in

life

."

3
5

Eth. Nic.
2 Pet.

iii.

ap. Sext.
A. E.

v. i. 15.

13.

Emp. Pyrrh.

490 Dindorf
Rep. 470

E,

cf.

592

Nauck 2

486.

B.

in. 230.
c

The Divine Origin of

66

Soul

the

Platonic precept.
You will observe,
however, that in the fragment of Heraclitus

of the

tion

"we"

means rather the body than the

we have

Plato, as

vovs

and

the

in

it

body

is

the

whereas

soul,

seen, the true personality

life

of vovs while

still

in

the

is

imprisoned

that the Platonic meditatio mortis

intended to resuscitate.

The

is

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

add

released

knows

that every

new indulgence

from which she longs to be

must fly away yonder, far from the

to the chains

We

1
.

world of sense and sensual things

e /ceure

like

favyew

observe

The

God

unto

the

and the way of

yjpi)

flight

is

e^eVSe
to

grow

righteousness, holiness, and

2
in wisdom
characteristic addition
in

Platonic ^eXeV?? OOLVOLTOV or

"rehearsal

of death

"

has often been compared with the Pauline doctrine

of Necrosis, but the parallel deserves, I think, an

even closer examination than

There

it

has yet received.

hardly any subject of investigation which

invites and permits one to turn so clear a light
is

upon the points of contrast as well as similarity

between Platonic and Pauline thought. One such
contrast

in

lies

the

predominantly

intellectual

or

rather noetic character of the aspiration expressed

rehearsal of death." I say predominantly

in Plato s

"

intellectual,

What Mr
in

general
1

by no means exclusively so.

Nettleship has said of Greek philosophy
for

is

it

is

pre-eminently true of Plato.

Phaedo 82 c

2
ff.

Theaet. 176

B.

"

We

Doctrine of rehearsal of death

67

say that Greek moral philosophy, as compared with

modern, lays great stress on knowledge and gives

That impression
excessive importance to intellect.
arises mainly from the fact that we are struck by the
constant recurrence of intellectual terminology, and
omit to notice that reason or intellect is always

conceived of as having to do with the good.

Reason

Greek thinkers the very condition of man s

having a moral being.... Their words for reason and

is

to

rational cover to a great extent the ground which is

covered by words like spirit, spiritual, and ideal
in
is

our philosophy.
They would have said that man
a rational being, where we should say that he is
1

a spiritual being
In this way, I believe, the life
of Reason, in Plato, becomes not only intellectual,
."

but also something akin to what is afterwards called

for in Platonism, as the Cambridge
spiritual life
Platonists were fond of saying, it is always Reason
:

which

is

the

of the

"candle

At

Lord."

the

same

time the contrast holds good, with the qualification

I
second and closely
have mentioned.

that

related

point

of

Necrosis and Plato

difference
s juteXer^

between

Oavdrov

is

St
to

Paul

be found

in the strain of asceticism in the Phaedo, though

here again the exercise of
brings pleasures of
its
own, the truest and purest pleasures, Plato
z>oi)s

says

and Gomperz

Weltflucht

enchained

touched
it.

right in saying that although

the soul of Plato, it never

is

But the
Lectures

really

and Remains,

fundamental contrast
n. p. 221.

52

The Divine Origin of

68

Soul

the

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
1

at

alchemy

once transforms a philosophy into a

auroOaveiv

religion:

<rvv

\6yov cx a $,
X^icrreu.
ovv ov XP$ ; TOVTOV yap

says Marcus Aurelius, rt

TO eavTov TTOIOWTOS, rt dXXo

reason

why

then not use

work, what else dost

<rvv

X/HO-TOJ supplies the

#e Xeis

"

thou hast

If reason does

it ?

thou

"

require

something

St

its

Paul

the driving

else

power which has made the Platonic

/icXen? Oavdrov
an inexhaustible source of moral inspiration through

out the ages.

The second

of the two aspects in which Plato

represents this great idea is that which is developed
The object of
in the Symposium and elsewhere.

adoration in that dialogue is not so much the primal

Goodness, as the primal Beauty, the divine Beauty
of which

Plato says that

it

is

ever-existent, alike

uncreated and imperishable, knowing neither increase

nor decay, beautiful always and everywhere and in
all

relations

which we

and respects

and

all

other

things

beautiful are beautiful because they

in it, yet in such a way that although
participate
beautiful particulars come into being and perish, the
call

Ideal Beauty nevertheless suffers no diminution nor

3
The path
increase nor change of any kind at all
.

of the soul in the

Symposium

leads

upwards from

the lovely things of earth to those of heaven

1

St Paul and Protestantism, p. 53, ed. 1889.

*
211 A f.
13.

iv.

we

Doctrine of Ideal Beauty

should use the former as
stones, passing

first

69
or stepping-

eVai>aa#/x,oi

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
Beautiful in its true and essential nature
"Suppose,"
concludes Diotima, "suppose it were granted to one
to behold the Beautiful itself, pure and clear and
1

unadulterated, not tainted by human flesh or colours

which man has made, or any other of the countless

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
vanities of mortal

life,

thereon and ever contemplate that Beauty and hold

communion with it ? Or rather do you not think

communion only is it possible for a man,

the
Beautiful with the organ wherewith
beholding
alone it can be seen, to beget, not images of virtue
but realities, for that with which he holds com
that in this

munion

not an image, but the truth, and having

begotten and nourished true virtue to become the
friend of God and be immortal, if ever mortal has
is

attained

immortality

the Ideal Beauty

"eternal

PLMTOV

The

to

life"

."

Plato

in

is

eWautfa TOV

avOptoTrqj,

0ea>/zeVa>

life

/3iov,

avro TO

contemplation of
nay more, it is
etTrc/o

TTOV a\\o0L,

This

KaXov".

is

the side of Platonism which has appealed in all ages

to the religious mystic, the poet, and the artist.
Of
its

influence in

lectures
1

of
1 1

Mr

religious mysticism,

Inge
2

f.

will
2

I I

the

Bampton
many

supply you with

2

2 A,

I I

D.

70

The Divine Origin of

examples

in

the

Soul

its

greatest exponent,
Michael Angelo, whose sonnets also
perhaps,
bear witness to the fervour of his Platonism and
sculpture,

is

the

central idea of the Symposium,

of the Cambridge Platonists in
one
expressed by
in

poetry,

the lines
"All

streams of Beauty here below

Do from that immense Ocean flow,

And thither they should lead again
in poetry,

whole

of

The

good

say, this great conception inspires the

s Divine Comedy, and finds fit

many
with

leaves

single passages of the Paradise.

which all the garden of the

Gardener blooms,

eternal

":

Dante

utterance in
"

transmitted

to

love in measure of the

them from him

2
."

And

in

Behold now the height and ampli

tude of the Eternal Worth, seeing it hath made
itself so many mirrors in which it breaks, while

another canto

"

more perfect
of
of
the
essential
content
Platonism is
expression
not to be found in the writings of Plato himself.
remaining one

in itself, as before

."

Thirdly, the ascent of the soul towards the

fountain of her being is represented by Plato as
an educational process the pursuit of knowledge.

This

unquestionably the most characteristic and

point of view from which he regards the

is

fruitful

matter
1

indeed

it

is

the point of view which

John Norris (quoted by Harrison, Platonism

in

Poetry, p. 86).
2
1

Par. 26. 64 ff. Cf. especially // Convito,

Par, 29. 142 if.

iv. c.

12.

ulti-

English

Doctrine of education

71

In
mately includes and embraces all the others.
every human creature, he holds, there is present

an organ whose preservation is of

more importance than a thousand eyes since by it
This faculty, "the vision and
alone Truth is seen

from the

first

the faculty divine," it is the business of the educator

to nurture and develop, not to instil into his pupils

from without

for
"to

Rather consists

know

opening out a way

in

By which the imprisoned splendour may escape

Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed

The

to

be

without."

principle enunciated in these lines determines

the whole of Plato

educational

method and cur

In earlier years the object is to bring the

into unconscious harmony with the beauty of

riculum.

mind

reason through the influence of Poetry and Art, the

proper function of which, in Plato s way of thinking,
is to
track out the beautiful
iyyzvtiv TJ\V TOV
"

"

KaXov

as

it

is

manifested

<f>v<rt,v*

in nature,

in the

human

form, and in the works and characters of

men, and embody this and this alone in the material
with which they deal.
Later, when the reasoning

awaken, the discipline becomes

severely intellectual, only such studies being ad
mitted as are able, in Platonic phrase, to purge and

powers begin

to

is

ava&Trvpelv*) the eye

careful to insist that the

rational faculty can never

be turned from darkness

revivify

re

(&aca0UpUf

of the soul

Rep. 527 E.

but Plato

KOLI

Rep. 401

c.

Rep. 527 D.

The Divine Origin of

72
to

unless

light

the whole

Soul

the

nature

of the

man

is

and one of the incidental

turned along with it
results of the higher curriculum is to strengthen the
moral discipline of youth by disclosing the bed-rock
;

of reason on which
nature,

philosophic

amor

intellectitalis,

it

was founded.

In the truly
Plato, it is the

according to
the passion for truth, not this or

that portion of truth, but all truth, everywhere and

always, that is the source of all the moral virtues

courage and high-mindedness, temperance,

In the last analysis,
justice, kindness and the rest
too

morality, in Plato, is the love of Truth.

By the
ladder of the mathematical sciences, or as Plato is
"

"

arts
in this
beginning to call them,
I have elsewhere tried to shew, our
as
originating,
modern academic usage of the word the mind

already

slowly

and

kingdom of
above

realities

if

the word
rise

for

climbs

upward into the

we must get behind and

behind

every other single

are really to attain to knowledge, as
understood by Plato. To this elevation

mathematics,

science,

we

laboriously

we

is

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

may

try to

interpret

Plato

dream

in

something

language of to-day, and it is a dream which

a little nearer to fulfilment now than in his time,

like the
is

we may

say,

knowledge

is

perhaps, that the ultimate goal of

not even then attained when each
1

Rep. 485 A

ff.

Platos

dialectic

73

particular science has at last combined and correlated

its several classes of phenomena under
adequate

generalisations and these again under one supreme

generalisation which will constitute the apxn or fi rst
principle of the science.
is

Something more than

this

needed, something like the ideal which a recent

view when he suggested that

another age, all the branches of knowledge, whether

writer

had

relating to

in

"in

God

or

man

or nature, will

become the

knowledge of
and

all

the revelation of a single science,

things, like the stars in heaven, will shed

The first principles

upon one another
of the several sciences must in their turn be corre
lated with one another and themselves subsumed
under the first principle of all, which in Plato is
the Good.
It is only then that the
philosopher
becomes
of
all
time
and
all
existence,"
spectator
1

their light

."

"a

only then that he recognises the essential unity of

knowledge and understands in the fullest sense-

observe
science

how poetry again

understands how

comes

to

the

aid

of

whole round world

"The

Bound by gold

is every way
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
1

and everywhere found

Jowett, Plato

ii.

p. 25.

rest.

The Divine Origin of

74

The

dialectic

the

Soul

of Plato, like his conception of

Good, is an ideal, and as such unattainable, perhaps,

ov irpOLKTov ovSe KTTjTov avOpwTTO), Aristotle might
have said. Well, it is Plato s way to make us
"breathe

To which

And

if

it is,

the heaven of heavens

in worlds

is

but a

veil."

we consider his dialectic simply as an ideal,

venture to think, the kind of ideal for which,
apart from idiosyncrasies of thought and language,
philosophy is looking still, towards the realisation
of which,

we

if

believe in the unity of knowledge,

every investigator does his part, in however humble

a sphere, whether he studies man or nature, and

whether he succeeds or

by the love of
ideal

truth.

fails, if

is

actuated

say that such an

beyond our present

It is false to

useless because

is

only he

it

lies

Some men are so constituted that they

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

And

attain.

knew

an Ideal, as Plato well

to be the meaning of the one

in point of fact,

believe

it

an Ideal is from
great paradox of the Ideal theory
its very nature immanent as well as transcendent,
always being realised in the progress we make
towards it. Already we "know in part": e/c /xe/oous
The higher we climb the hill of
yLva)crKoiJ,v\

knowledge

in this

life,

the nearer

we come

to that

transcendent Unity call it by what name you will,

the Absolute, or God, or Nature for all our names
;

Cor.

xiii. 9.

Plato

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
are but a

The Platonic doctrine of

stage upon our journey.
holds
out
the
hope of a continuous
immortality
advance throughout a

series of lives until at last

perfect know
assimilation
ledge, too, comes perfect goodness or
to God
in
for knowledge
Plato transforms the

knowledge

is

made

With

perfect.

"

"

moral as well as the intellectual nature, and the

Form of Good, which is the source of knowledge,
is

And

also the fountain of virtue.

in

Plato as in

the proof

Pindar, the ultimate proof of immortality

that lies deeper than

all

heard throughout them

human

arguments and yet

his
all

is

soul with the divine

is

the kinship of the

TO

yap

ecrri

Oecov.

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
of Greek and Christian thought is just the doctrine

which

have

and illustrate through

him we live and move and

tried to explain

out this lecture.

"

In

have our being as certain even of your own poets

have said, For we are also his offspring
rov yap
/cat
I
have endeavoured to shew you
yeVos ecr/AeV.
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
;

"

"

believe the doctrine really

means

and

all-embracing

in

Philosophy.

The

alike in

Poetry

and yet

The Divine Origin of

76

the

Soul

we live and move

and have our being" is just that ultimate reality
which Religion, Philosophy and Poetry, each in
all-transcending unity, in which

its

own language

remember,

SvcrroVaoTos etSeVat
doctrine of

man

TOV yap

yeVos

"dead

/ecu

TTOT

oo-ris

et

crv,

now and always

are trying

human

interpret to the

"

intellect or heart

to

and the

relationship to that great unity

philosophy":

it

not the fading echo of a

still, what Plato made it,

is

ecr/xeV
is

the ever-living watchword of idealism.

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

God above

time-travelling generations,

nostrils,

heart-blood of his heart,

all

gods worshipped by all nations,

Light above light, law beyond law thou art.

Thy

face

is

as a sword smiting in sunder

iron things

Shadows and chains and dreams and

The

dumb

******
sea

before thy face, the thunder

Silent, the skies are narrower than thy wings.
is

All old gray histories hiding thy clear features,

secret spirit and sovereign, all men s tales,

Creeds woven of

They have woven

men

thy children and thy creatures

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 1
."

Swinburne, Mater triumphalis.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE

III.

LOGOS IN HERACLITUS

There are few questions appertaining to the

history of ancient philosophy which have been
more widely and warmly debated than the meaning
of the word Xoyos in Heraclitus.
By the ancients
cosmic reason
it was understood to mean reason
in
both
nature and in
universally diffused, present
man, not of course one incorporeal entity, but
identical with

nvp
less
this

(f>p6vip,ov

the ever-living, ever-thinking fire

which constitutes the change

aeto)oi>

because ever-changing reality of things

and
KOU/OS Xoyos or universal reason was held to
:

In other words, if the

be synonymous with God.
ancients are to be trusted, the Heraclitean concept

Logos does not

of

fire,

nition,
1

on

really differ

from the Stoic, ex

material side, Logos is in Heraclitus

whereas, according to the strictest Stoic defi

cept that
it

is

its

The

aether.

[The references

to Professor

ancient interpretation has

Burnet

Early Greek Philosophy

are given according to the pages of the second edition except

where otherwise stated but his translations are quoted from the
;

which alone was published in the lifetime of James

Adam, and the variations in the second edition are noted.]
first

edition,

The Logos

78

in Heracl^t^ls

been followed by many exponents of Heracliteanism

modern

times, such as Bernays, Patin, Teichmuller,

with
certain reservations, Zeller
but others
and,
have taken a different view. Thus, for example,
Heinze denies that the attribute of intelligence or
in

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 analo

gous to consciousness or personality and Professor
Burnet goes so far as to maintain, if I understand
:

him

rightly,

the

that

Logos-doctrine

is

entirely

word Logos, in the relevant passages

of Heraclitus, meaning only "argument" or
It is unnecessary to say more
course."
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
Stoic,

the

"dis

hope of convincing others, as with the desire of

being

fortified in

my own

opinion

by the discussion which

trust

or the reverse

my

paper

will

provoke.
It will

that,

conduce to clearness

as at present advised,

were right

say at the outset

believe the ancients
if I

regarding the Heraclitean Logos as

virtually identical with the Stoic, although the Stoic
theory was of course far more fully developed and
in

elaborated in

detail.

Logos mean in
be settled only by an exami
Other evidence is adnation of the fragments.

The

question
Heraclitus?" can

"What

does

Meaning of Heraclitean Logos

79

but only by way of supplementing and

confirming the results to which the fragments point
and I will therefore confine myself, in the first in
missible,

own

stance, to Heraclitus

The word

words.

Xoyos occurs in six of the fragments.

it is used in the
ordinary

In at least one of these

untechnical sense
TTTorjcr6aL c^iXeei

excited

at

every

/3Xaf az/0pw7ros eVt

word

technical or not

is

to be

another much-

In

."

whether the

to say

is difficult

it

disputed fragment

wont

foolish person is

"a

discourse

Xo yw

TTCU>T!

OdXacrcra

Sta^eerat

TOV avrov \6yov OKOIOS Trpoordzv

2
the sea is poured out and
tyyjt
es

/xerpeerai

j]v

sured es TQV avrov \6yov

earth,"

came

or

if

(with

6/cotos r)v

before

Eusebius) we omit

it
"

yr),

77

mea

<4

yi>ecr0ai

/ecu

became

before

it

Leaving
fragment on
us
consider the remaining four, in
one side, let
three of which at least Logos appears to have a
into

special meaning.

The

Mr By water

first

this

existence."

first is

the fragment placed

it was the

in all probability

by
3
opening sentence of the book
:

OVK

e/xeu

aXXa TOV

ecrri,

ev TrdvTa

\6yov d/covcra^ras 6/u,o\oye

"

eti>at

Logos,
one."

117
2

23.

on

eu>

cro(oz>

having hearkened not to me, but to the

It

wise to confess

is

it

that

all

things
true that Hippolytus writes

is

By water.
A summary

of

some of the

different views entertained

passage will be found in Patrick s Heraclitus

Burnet s view see Early Greek Philosophy-\ p. 148.
this

There

is

nothing in Arist. Rhet. in. 1407

this supposition

need not mean

"

for the

words

in the first

p.

1 1

6.

For

14 to contradict

cr rf} ap^f} avrov TOV

sentence."

are

8o

The Logos

instead

of

in Heraclitus

but

Bernays emendation has

been accepted by all subsequent commentators,
and the word 8oy//,a does not occur till at least a
\oyov

On

century after Heraclitus.

this

fragment I will
at present only add that Professor Burnet s trans
It is wise to hearken not to me but
lation,
my
involves an antithesis which, though
argument
"

,"

only partial, and scarcely

adequate, I think, to the prophetic fervour of the
sentence, particularly if these words began the
book.
Hearken not unto me, but to the Logos"

enough,

intelligible

is

"

that

is,

it

not

is

I,

Heraclitus,

who

speak, nor any

thing that has to do with me, such as my argument,

but the Logos that speaks through me I am the
:

mouthpiece of the Logos, and that is why I call on

Here, as elsewhere,
you to hear, not me, but it.
Heraclitus speaks as if he believed himself to be

The

you remember, with fren

zied mouth, uttering words unsmiling, unadorned,
and unanointed, reaches with her voice throughout
a thousand years by reason of the god
The second fragment seems to have followed
immediately on the first. roG Se \6yov rouS eoV
"

inspired.

"

Sibyl,"

."

ros cue! afuz/erot yivovrai cLvO^punoL

a/coucrat /cat a/coucra^res TO Trpcorov.

TOP

KOLTCL

TTOLVTCDV

\6yOV
CTTeW KOi

/Cat

ya)

SuupeW

Si7?yei)/Acu ;

o/cocra

eyp0VTS

[Ined.

"to

my

ToVSe

/cat

yivQ^iiv^v

direipOLCTL

pyO)V

eWoTOi>

Troteoucrt,

TOLOVTtOJV

Kara

rj

yap

COt/CaCTt

OKOitoV
/cat

<f>vcrLV

o/cwcrTrep
*

Word."]

irpocrOtv

12.

o/coo"a

to the

Fragments relating
"

eViXaz/#aVoi>Tcu.

men

existent, but

This

Logos

to understand

fail

81

Logos

it

is

always
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

it,

expound, dividing each thing according to

and explaining how

nature,

of mankind

"

that

who

Heraclitus,

is

it
really is.
to say, presumably,

The
all

its

rest

except

have read the riddle

unconscious of what they do

professes to

of the Universe

"are

when they are awake,

do when asleep

just as they forget

what they

."

The first sentence TOV Sc Xoyov roOS e oVros

cue! dvvTOL
yivovroLi, av6ptoiroi Kal Trpoa-dev fj a/coucrai

is thus translated
a/covo-a^res TO Trpurov
2
Burnet.
Though this discourse is true ever

/cat

"

by

more, yet
they hear

heard
true

":

are as unable to understand

for the first time as before

it

at

it

men

all."

but

No

it

when

they have

doubt eoVros can mean

"is

submit that the expression

is true
evermore
means anything, would
"

"

"

evermore,"

if

suggest that it is possible for truth to be some

times true and sometimes false.
In point of fact,
to
Professor
Burnet
s
view, the adverb
according
adds nothing to eoVros if a discourse is true, it is
:

ipso facto
1

always

true.

It

is

not like

[In ed. 2 "Word."]

c*
[Burnet
p. 146, says that in Ionic
when coupled with words like
2.

/.

A. E.

Heraclitus

iw means

"true"

The Logos

82
to waste

in Heraclitus

The

his words.

interpretation which I
and proper meaning to atet.
The Being or Entity which Heraclitus calls Xo yos
is ever-exis
the Logos that speaks through him
uncreated
and
is what the
that
tent,
imperishable
philosopher means and we may compare not only
what he says himself about the nvp aet ^ojoj the
ever-living" Fire that "was and is and shall be
but also the manifest echo of eoj/ros atet
always

advocate gives

its full

"

,"

in the

of Cleanthes

hymn

tva yiyveo-Bai Trdvthat all things form

dicrO

so
TMv \6yov aiev eo^ra
one Logos ever-existent." Consider next what is
involved in the words afwerot yivovTai av0pa)TroL
"

irpocrOev TJ a/covcrat /cat a/covora^res ro

Professor Burnet translates: "men are
it when
they hear
time as before they have heard it at

as unable to understand

the

first

it

for
"

all

but the two members of the clause Kal 7rpoo-0v

77

a/coucrat

and

a/coua-a^res TO Trpurov are equally

/cat

important in the Greek, and there is no indication

that the first should be subordinated to the second

the natural translation

"

is

men

to

fail

understand

Logos both before they have heard it, and when

It is clear
they have heard it for the first time."
the

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

"

experience of the

men seem

Logos

they make acquaintance

1

20.

as

if

oVet/ootcrt

with
2

my
line 21.

they had no

eot/cacrt

when

account of

it."

Discussion of fragments

And

such a censure

is

unjustified

unless Heraclitus believed

apprehend the Logos

to

ear.

and meaningless

possible for his readers

otherwise than through the
it

The lesson, Heraclitus seems to say, is one

who runs may read it is present in our
life and conversation
but men are altogether

that he
daily

83

sunk

and intellectual slumber: "they

know as little of what they are doing when awake
as they remember what they do in sleep."
As he
if they
complains elsewhere, they speak and act
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
which they live in most continual intercourse being
in

spiritual

"as

":

."

unable, in short, to interpret their

own

experience,

and ears are bad witnesses to those who

"eyes
have barbarian souls 4
Now what is that with
which men live in most continual intercourse" (w
This fragment is
/xaXicrra Si^z/e/cews 6/uXe oucn,) ?
6
Marcus
whose words are
Aurelius
preserved by
for

"

."

as follows

<5

/xaXtcrra St^^e/cais djouXoucn,

r<w

Xdya>

ra oXa StoiKotWi TOVTO) Sia^epovrai.

Bywater at
rw
tributes to Marcus the whole expression
Xoyo>

ra oXa Sioi/coujm.

Diels,

on the other hand, while

Marcus responsible for

ra oXa
believes that Xdyw is due to Heraclitus

rightly holding
,

Cf. 94,

ro>

95 (sleepers turn aside into a world of their own,

v sc.
KOCT/XOV).
a

93.

93-

53

4-

iv. 46.

62

The Logos

84
c5

/ActXiorra
1

81,77

For

i>c/c

Heradit us

in

o/uXe ovcri

ecus

my own

rovrco

Xoya>,

am

disposed to agree
but, in any case, that Heraclitus was
thinking of the Logos may be in part inferred from
what has been already said, and will appear more
povTai
with Diels
.

part,

clearly in the sequel.

It

would

seem then

Logos, whose

the

that

prophet Heraclitus claims to be, is something of

which we already have experience, even before we
read

its

universal

in

message

the book.

It

is,

moreover,

"

in

its

operation

everything happens

"

Logos
yap TTOLVTW
Kara TOV \6yov rdi Se. Are we to suppose then that
the Logos is only as it were the universal law pre
vailing throughout the realm of nature and humanity,
what Heinze calls objective reason, devoid of active
according to this

yi*>o//,eVo>i/

rationality or thought ?
to exclude such a view
"in

accordance with

to favour

this

Nothing has yet been said

and /caret TOV \6yov rdz Se
seem at first
Logos" might

The phrase

it.

/car

epii/,

however, occur

irdvra /car tpiv

ring in other fragments of Heraclitus
2
in
that
shews
/caret,
Heraclitus, may very
ytVeo-0at

well

mean

"

by way

without implying

"

of,"

through,"

the negation of activity in the noun

Strife, in

governs

for

is
admittedly something active.
consider one of the other fragments

Heraclitus,

And when we
in

it

which the Logos

is

named, we

shall find reason

for believing that the Heraclitean Logos is possessed

of intelligence.
The fragment I refer to runs thus
TOV \6yov S eoi>ros vvov, wovcn 01 TroXXot
tSt
:

o>5

72 Diels.

46

cf.

62.

Universality of the Logos

85

although the Logos is universal,

live as if they had a private intelligence
"

(j>p6vY)G-iv

most men
of their

own

1
."

If

we remember

Heraclitus inveterate

we cannot escape
the conclusion that the KOLVOS Xdyos, which he here
opposes to a fictitious tSta ^poi/ycns, is itself (frpovrjcris
tendency to antithesis and balance

so that the KOWOS Xoyos in Heraclitus, or among

the Stoics, is rational, and thinks. Professor Burnet,
too

indeed, pronounces TOV Xoyov to be corrupt, and

substitutes TOV cfrpoveeiv on the strength of another

fragment to which
that

"the
2

change

":

will presently refer

alleging
for the
Stoics
accounts
the
of
Xoyos
has
followed him in
but no one, I think,
:

/cotyos

this petitio principii.

With one

exception, which will shortly be men

all the
fragments in which Xoyos has

tioned, these are

an apparently technical sense. The provisional con

clusion we have reached is that the Logos, according
to

Heraclitus,

alike in nature

is

with the attribute

is

fragment

ment

and universal immanent

and that it is endowed
of thought.
The one remaining
which Heraclitus pays a compli

eternal

and

that in

man

in

to Bias of Priene.

of Teutamas, ov
does not mean,

"

In Priene lived Bias, son

3

This
Xoyos ^ TUV
is of more account than the
aXXo>z/

7rXeo>i>

"who

."

92.
8

I.e.

with Sto

p.

140.

[In ed.

Set eTrecrflai TO)

attributes TOU A.oyov Se OVTOS

interpreter
8

112.

whom

Sextus

2, p.

vv(u

is

153 Burnet begins the fragment

from Sex. Adv. Math.

vi/ov

(which he

following.]

now

vii.

133 and

reads) to the Stoic

The Logos

86

as Burnet takes

rest,"

"whose

in HeracltiHS

Dr

word was worth more

Patrick right:
than that of others 2

we

Diels

nor yet should

dem mehr

it

less is

still

translate

Rede

":

(with

fr.

59)

von den anderen."

Heraclitus means simply that Bias had more of the
Logos the universal and eternal Logos in him
"von

die

ist als

3
than the other teachers of the Greeks, Pythagoras,
for instance, who eTroi^o-e ecovrov cro^t^^, 7roA.v/j,a#np,

"made a wisdom
of his own, a heap of
4
a
mischief
and
of
It is natural
heap
learning
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
same
the
inspiration to the man who forestalled him

KOLKoreyviyv

."

"

"

in the characteristically

TroXXot KaKoi

Heraclitean sentiment

ot

5
.

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

eTrioracr^cu
$
through all": tv TO
<ro<oV,

yz>w//,7?i/,

The words ez/ TO

Kv/Bepvarai Trdvra Sta iraiVTtov*.
as I understand them, are directed against
<To</>6V,

the multiplicity of private and particular "wisdoms,"

put forward by Heraclitus predecessors, such as

Hesiod,

Pythagoras, Xenophanes and

2

p.
8

154.

Patin,

HerakHfs

I.e.

p.

17.

Cf.

no.

Einheitslehre>

suggestion, without exactly making

in,

Hecataeus,

p.

56,

comes near

to this

it.

TToXXoi KttKoi, 6\Lyoi 3e dya^oi.

19.

Fragments illustrating the Logos

whom

87

he vituperates in fragment 1 6 but it is with

the second part of the sentence that we are chiefly
concerned. What is the yv^f] by which all things
;

"

are steered through all" ?

Remembering that "all
yivopivuv
things come to pass by way of the Logos
"

Kara rov \6yov roVSe we can hardly be

identifying with the Logos the yvto\vi) by
wrong
which all things are steered from which, of course,

yap

TravTtov
in

it

follows that the

Logos yiyixwcr/cei "knows."

omniscience of the Logos would also seem

The
to

be

implied
impressive sentence "Who can escape
from that which never sets ?
TO /X-T) Sui/oV TTOTC
in the

"

Trctis

av

TIS

\a0oi

for

it

can hardly be doubted

here thinking of the never-dying

have seen moreover, that the
(deio>oz ) Logos.
in
is
Heraclitus
common or universal fuz/oV
Logos
TOV \6yov
eoz Tos fuz/ou, etc.
Now in another
that Heraclitus

is

We

well-known fragment thought is expressly said to

be common to all things
gvvov ecrrt Tracri TO
:

In strict logic, of course, this would

(f>poveeLv
not establish the identity of the two conceptions
but Heraclitus is not a logician, and if we remember
.

that

vv6v

is

one of

his favourite catch-words

we may

believe that fypovteiv and Xoyos, to each of which he

assigns the property of ^UZ/OT^?, were in point of fact

inseparably connected in his mind.

I will
now invite you to consider one or two of
the fragments in which the philosopher speaks of
the world-forming fire.
If fire in Heraclitus is only
as

it

were the material embodiment of Logos, we

*

27-

91-

The Logos

88

supposing we are right so

shall expect to find

that he attributes

in Heraclitus
far

element.

rationality also to this

The fragments which may

fairly be held to justify

us in identifying the Logos with fire are two in
In fragment 20 we read of the "evernumber.

living fire," that "was and is and shall be

identical with the world-order or cosmos.

always,"

Presum

ably this is the same as the Xoyos which always is

TOV Se Xoyov rovS* eoVros cuei
The second frag

ment speaks of the thunderbolt

TO,

Se TrdvTa

as steering

The
Ktpavvos*.
an oracular name for

all

things

oia/aet

thunderbolt,
of course, is only
fire
and we
have an exact parallel to this fragment in the sentence
already quoted eV TO crcx^oV, eVicrracr#ai yv^^v y
;

is but one wis

which
all things are
by
steered through
Now we have seen that this
is the
so
that the fire which steers all
yvatjji Y)
Logos,
And the metaphor in
things is itself the Logos.

KvftepvaTaL TrdvTOi Sui TrdvTtov

dom, to know the knowledge

"

there

all."

cua/aei clearly presupposes the rationality of that

which steers the world. The connexion of intelli

gence with the warm dry element of fire appears

moreover in the psychological fragments of Hera
clitus.
"The
dry parched soul is wisest and best"avrj

i/o^ cro^amrn;
souls to become wet

Kal

r)pr}

apicrTrj

"it

is

"

with the implication

better to be dry
when a man
is drunk, he is led
a
beardless
by
boy, stumbling, not
8
knowing the way he goes, because his soul is wet

joy to
of course that

it

"

is

."

2.
4

28.

72.

73-

"

74, 75-

Rationality of the Logos

On

these grounds, then,

ments of Heraclitus are

89

believe that the frag

themselves sufficient to

in

the rationality of the fwos Xoyos about

which he speaks. By way of confirmation, I will
remind you of the well-known passage in which
Sextus Empiricus, or rather Aenesidemus for it
is Aenesidemus he is
seems to be
following here
establish

paraphrasing the account of the Logos contained in

Heraclitus own book.
is the
opinion of the
"It

that what encompasses

and possessed of intelli
"

philosopher,"

says Sextus,
"

us

is

rational

gence

(Xoyi/coV)

(<^pe^7}pe5)....This

divine reason (Oeiov

Xoyo*>),

Heraclitus, we draw in by means of

respiration, and so we become actively intelligent
In sleep we are sunk in forget(votpol yiyz/o/xe#a).

according to

fulness,

but our intelligence returns

For during
closed,

the

when we awake.

sleep, when the sensory avenues are

mind within us is separated from its

connexion with the encompassing element, except

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 pre
But when we are awake, the mind
viously had.
out
peeps
again through the avenues of sense, as if
that the union

through windows, and, coming into contact with the

1

Sextus thinks of

air,

but the element of air does not appear

If Heraclitus used TO TT^L^OV

to be recognised by Heraclitus.
at

we

all,

he can only have meant by

it fire,

breathe, according to Heraclitus,

is

atmosphere which
nothing but fire in one of
for the

manifold transmutations.
This passage helps to bring vividly
before our minds the general character of Heraclitus conception,
with its curious intermixture of spirituality and materialism.
its

The Logos

$o

in Heraclitus

encompassing element, puts on the power of reason

(XoyLKyv eVSuercu Swa/up).
Accordingly, just as
embers, when they are placed near the fire, change

and become

red-hot, so in like manner the portion

of the encompassing element which is quartered in
our body becomes all but irrational when it is

separated, while on the other hand it is rendered

homogeneous with the whole by being connected
1
It is
therewith through the majority of avenues
."

no doubt, that the phraseology of this extract,

and some of the ideas which it contains, are postHeraclitean: in particular, as Professor Burnet has
pointed out, "the distinction between mind and
body is far too sharply drawn" for Heraclitus. But
true,

words of the same authority,

can hardly
doubt that the striking simile of the embers which
2
glow when they are brought near the fire is genuine
in the

"we

"

and

that the pervading idea of the whole

which
is that our intellectual life is nourished
passage,
and sustained by physical communion with the element
that surrounds us on every side, is only the material
ised form of the doctrine which is the foundation of
Heraclitean ethics Sei errecr&u rw vva) "follow the
3
And if we admit that
universal," i.e. the Logos
the simile is Heraclitean, we must equally admit that

may add

meaningless and absurd, unless the surrounding

it is

Adv. Math. vn. 127

I.e.

p.

170

ff.

f.

I agree with Patin, Gomperz and others in

to Heraclitus.
words
these
Bywater takes a different
attributing

view

Fr. 2 Diels.

see/r. 92.

The Logos as divine law

element

The

rational.

is

91

we breathe must be

fire

permanently maintained at a level of actual thought

which enables it to kindle our smouldering reason

As

into a flame,
Tracri

TO

d>povltiv

Heraclitus himself says,

"thought is

770X19 /cat

common

to

vvov

ICTTL

all things":

"

TTO\V Icr^yporlpo)^

they
with the reason should strongly cleave to
that which is common to all things, as a city cleaves
vop,a>

who speak
to law,

and much more

Trdvres

ol

avOpMirtioi

strongly":

vnb

VOJJLQI

KpOLTL jap TOGOVTOV

rpefyovrai yap
rov 9eiov

e^o?

I0\i

OKOCTOV

/CCU

^apK^L

Kal Ttepiyivtrai
for all human laws are nur
tured by the one divine law for it prevails as much
"

TTOLCTL

as

it

will

and

suffices for all

This divine law

and has something over

1
."

manifestly just the ^etos Xoyos in

to
the testimony of the ancients,
which, according
Heraclitus believed.
It

is

would accordingly seem that the

Heraclitus

a unity,

is

Logos of
omnipresent, rational, and

divine, the guiding and controlling cause of every

thing that comes to pass whether by the agency of

man

or of nature.

Clement,

"

Heraclitus

From

the visible

we may perchance

sible to hide

never sets

"

from the

how

hide, but

(TO

shall
/AT)

says

is

impos
words of
a man hide from that which

intellectual, or in the

"

light,"

it

ovvov TTOTC TTWS av

n?

Xa#oi;)

Against the view which I am now defending it is

sometimes urged that the word Xdyo9 did not mean
"

918

27.

Clem. Paedag. 516

c,

Migne.

The Logos in Heraclitus

92

Reason

In my opinion this is
days
hardly a correct statement of the point at issue the
at all in early

."

not whether Xcyos in Heraclitus is exactly

question
synonymous with Reason it is whether his Logos
is

possesses the attribute of Reason, and this can be

determined only by such a comparative study of the

fragments as

have attempted above.

It is

a mere

petitio principii to assert that Logos in early Greek

has nothing to do with reason if what Heraclitus

says of Logos cannot be otherwise correctly under

stood.
Heraclitus may quite well have been the
first

to use the

in point

of

Logos and

word with such an

fact,

as Teichmiiller has

implication.

But

shown the word

,

8taXe yeo-#cu, for instance,

its

congeners
dXXd rfy /.AOL raura
SieXe^aro
before
the
time
of
even
Heraclitus, fre
Ovp.6s ;
quently imply reflection or thought and soon after
Heraclitus we meet with Xo yog in Parmenides with

Homer s

in

<iXos

the meaning of reason or ratiocination, as opposed

to sense-perception
Kpivai Se Xoyw TroXvftrjpw
:

eXeyxoi e e^lOev pyOevTa*. To Heraclitus, however,

I
I do not think that Xo yos meant simply reason.

think he conceives of

it

rather as the rational prin

power, or being which speaks to man both

from without and from within the universal Word,
which for those who have ears to hear is audible

ciple,

is

Burnet,

l.c? p.

133

modified as follows

n.

13
.

"The

[In ed. 2, p. 146 n. this statement

Stoic interpretation given by Marc.

46 (R. P. 32 b) must be rejected altogether. The word

that till post-Aristotelian times."]
Xoyos was never used like
3
9
Farm. i. 36 f. Diels.
Neue Studien, i. 167 ff.

Aur.

iv.

Fragments of Epicharmus
Nature and
interpretation seems
both

in

in their

to

suit

own
all

93

Such an

hearts.

the fragments

in

which he speaks of the Logos, more especially the

first,
having hearkened not unto me, but to the
"

it is

Logos,

wise to confess that

somewhat

In his

things are one."

of the different

all

hurried review

connotations of Xdyos in

Greek

literature,

Teich-

nothing about Epicharmus and as the

which
bear the name of this philosopherfragments
poet furnish some confirmation of the view which I
have ventured to put before you, it may be worth
while to examine what they have to say upon the
nuiller says

subject.

The
you

principal fragments ascribed to Epicharmus,

may remember, belong to one or other of three

classes.

First

come

the

dramatic

remains,

the

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

authenticity of which
all.

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
1

flute-player,
B.C.

who wrote

Aristoxenus,

assigned some of the

1

as

in the

we

end of the fifth century

from Athenaeus,

learn

i//vSe7rt)(ap/Aei,a to this

See Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum fraginenta^

i.

source.

p.

33

ff.

The Logos

94

Now
tions

and

in the first

we have

in Heraclitus

third of these three collec

Let

several traces of Heracliteanism.

us take the admittedly genuine fragments first.

In
the
takes
the
Heraclitean
poet
fragment 170 (Kaibel)
doctrine of universal flux, and applies it for the first
time in Greek literature to the question of the per
manence of human personality. If you increase or

diminish
before.

number,

no longer the same as

is

it

human beings

Similarly with

<5Se

KOL ros avOpwTrovs

ci/

/xeraAAaya Se TTOLVTCS

vvv

yap avc$

(Ji.lv

ei/Tt

oprj,
,

6 Se

ya

Travra rov \povov

/xav

<^>du/t,

from which the inference is drawn that you and I are

different persons to-day from what we were yesterday,

and from what we

be again to-morrow. This

interesting fragment has been admirably discussed
by Bernays who shews that it originated the problem
shall

known among

the Stoics as the avav6p.vos Xoyos

not
bear directly on our subject, and
does
but it
I mention it 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 in detail reveals
fragment 172, which deals with the univer
of thought and is little more than an elaboration

itself in

sality

the

of

Heraclitus

saying of

The

first

Ev/xutc, TO

two

117.

ecrrt

<rrw

ov Koff

TTOLCTC

TO

ev

cro<f>6v

wdv

lines are as follows

TTCtl/Ttt

KCU

Epicharmus und der A^ai/o /xcvos Xo yos.

Ges.

Abh.

I.

109-

the

Fragments of

has

that

Everything

not confined to

The

has

life,

also

95
In

yvd>pa.

would seem that the Logos

living objects, any more than in

Heraclitus however
is

Carmen Physicum

it

of the

fragment of pseudoEpicharmus seems to mean that although eggs have

no yv&iLa when they are laid, yet the hen by sitting
Stoicism.

rest

on them makes them live, and then they have

The two last verses are
:

TO Sc
/noVcr
i.e.

cro<j>ov

TTCTrai SevTai

1
yap avravras

knows the

think) Nature alone

(I

wisdom (how

this

VTTO

wisdom

is),

secret of this

for she

own

her

is

not (as Cobet) et huius norunt principem

sapientiae natiiram solarn, qiiae magistra ipsis fuit.
teacher

We

may compare
2

KpvTTTecrOai

of the

<iXet

the saying of Heraclitus Averts

The

But to return.

fragments

Carmen Physicum contain nothing

that

is

suggestive of Heraclitus, except an allusion to the

3
In the third collection,
circulation of the elements
.

however, we have what is, I think, the most explicit

statement of the Logos-doctrine to be found between
the time of Heraclitus and that of the Stoics.
co*Tt

/cat

6 Se yc TcU/0/30J7rov TTC^VKCV euro ye TOV

1

So Person

@iov Xoyou 4

for av ravras.

Since writing the above, I observe that Diels interprets the

fragment in the same way (Frag. d. Vorsokratiker*, \. p. 91). With
the general sentiment
io-0i

yap
3

<f>povr)(TLV

cf.

Empedocles,

fyciv KOL i/w/xaros

See fr. 239, 240 Kaibel.

Diels,

I.e.

p.

98

(fr. 57. 2,3).

fr.

no. 10

Diels,

The Logos in Heraclitus

96

The

human soul from the gods had

in
affirmed
been
already
by Pindar and others
Euripides and Plato we meet with the doctrine that
the human z/ov? is in its origin and nature divine but
derivation of the

so far as

am

aware, this is the only

we come

until

literature,

Greek

in

passage
which ap

to the Stoics,

pears to be definitely and immediately inspired by the

Heraclitean doctrine of Logos.
It seems to me
clear that the author of these lines written, as I have
said,

end of the

in the

not only had

the Logos as

fifth

century before Christ,

mind, but interpreted

Heraclitus in his

have done.
Up to this point we have considered the Logos
merely as immanent immanent in nature and in man.
I

But the Stoics regarded it in yet another aspect it

was also the concors discordia rerum the harmony
in which all mutually antagonistic tendencies or forces,
both in the moral and in the physical world, are recon
ciled. I need only remind you of the lines of Cleanthes
:

dAA.a (TV Kai ra irtpiorvd

KCU
a>8

KO(T/jiti>

yap

(o<r$

"

is

va

eTrtVrao-at aprta Bclvau,

Aa

(rot

eoriV.

(friXa

Travra trvi/^p/zoKas ecr0A.a KaKOuriv,

ci>

yL-yvtcrOcu

to thee

The unloved
Things

TTCIVTCOV

evil

is

is

order;

\6yov auv

eoi/ra

1
.

lovely,

in thine eyes

who

didst harmonise

with things good, that there should be

One Word through

1

<i

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight

Chaos

<T>

TaKOoyAa KCU ou

all

things everlastingly

."

18-21.

For other

illustrations of this characteristically Stoic doctrine

see the passages in von

u68ff.

Arnim Stoicontm fragmenta veterum

n.

Harmony of

97

opposites

There can be no doubt that the general concep

tion of a supreme and ultimate unity or harmony of
opposites goes back to
Burnet has remarked,
that rules the world
is

co-operation

fairest

which
"

Opposition,

TO

<{

fire

l
."

in

"opposites,"

but the two faces of the

"are

As

Heraclitus.

Heraclitus,
the thought

is

H eraclitus says,
and the
were

avri^ovv crv^epci
from differences 2

"

results

harmony

Professor

":

there no higher and lower notes in music, there

3
"As with the
bow
could be no harmony at all
."

and the

lyre, so

with the world

opposing forces

it

the tension of

is

structure

OKaxnrep
of the whole matter

appovir)

The sum

makes the

that

/coor/xov

one

"

rofou Kal
is contained

together that which is whole

and that which is not whole, that which agrees and
that which disagrees, the concordant and the dis
in

the fragment

cordant

from

"Join

all comes one

IK TrdvTwv ev Kal cf

ei

andfrom

os irdvra.

one comes

all*"

But the particular

question which concerns the student of the Logos

doctrine is whether Heraclitus, like the Stoics, con
sidered this ultimate unity to be the Logos. I think
For in the
there is every reason to suppose he did.
place he complains, as we have seen, that the
multitude are ignorant of the Logos
they are at
variance with that with which they live in most

first

"

continual

intercourse":

"they

seem

as

if

they had

no experience of the Logos both before they hear

and when they have heard it for the first time
1

p.

44

;i

46.

f.

43-

56.

E.

597

it
"

The Logos

98

although the Logos

in Heraclitus

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
than the visible
"how

says,

with

"hidden
":

It is

."

harmony"

do not

"they

that which

itself

is

is

fair

which

is "better

understand,"

discordant

is

he

concordant

inference that this hidden

In the second place, it is

the Logos.
of which Heraclitus at the very outset of

is

harmony
the Logos
"

book

proclaims himself to be the prophet.

Listen not to me but to the Logos."
And the

his

doctrine in which his preaching actually culminates

is not
the last word of Heraclitus, so to speak

the universal flux or warfare, but

of

harmony
the

the

underlying

the opposing forces that make up

This was well understood in
life.

all

universal

antiquity, and is now generally recognised by modern

writers on Heraclitus, among others by Professor

Burnet.
the

first

In a passage of Philo, to which Patin 3 was

to assign its due importance in the history

of Heraclitean criticism,

which

we

read as follows

"

That

made up

of both the opposites is one, and

when this one is dissected, the opposites are brought
Is not this what the Greeks say their
to light.
is

great and celebrated Heraclitus put in the forefront

of his philosophy as its sum and substance, and
boasted of as a new discovery ?
"

We

are consequently bound to suppose that in

the Logos whose prophet Heraclitus declared him2

478

I.e.

45.
p. 60.

Philo, Quis rer. div. haer, 43.

Logos as reconciler of oppo sites

The Logos

self to be, all opposites are reconciled.

reveals itself through him, and

is, the Logos itself, is unity.

what

it

reveals, that

"

to me, but to the Logos,

things are

one."

Having

listened not

wise to confess that

it is

Thirdly,

99

we may

arrive,

think,

same conclusion by yet another way.

at the

tolerably clear that Xoyos in Heraclitus

identified with #eos.
Various indications

The

this direction.

It is

be

to

is

all

point in

"

"

divine

is

epithet
applied by
which we have already interpreted
as the Logos, the VOJJLOS which
prevails as much as
it will and suffices for all and has
something over
We are told by Clement of Alexandria that Hera
2
clitus the Ephesian believed fire to be God
and

him

to the els i/o/xos

"

."

"

,"

the

identification

M. Bovet
Metaphor

is

generally admitted, although

sees nothing in it beyond a metaphor
or no metaphor, it does not matter much
.

for in Heraclitus

metaphor

fragments without

his

is

truth:

no one can read

realising this fact.

And

if fire

God, the Logos must be God for

we have seen that the Xoyos on its material side is
There is also at least one fragment of the
fire.
philosopher himself which appears to deify the
There is but one Wisdom
it wills not
Logos.
and yet wills to be called by the name of Zeus 4
The one Wisdom is manifestly the Logos, or
thought by which all things are steered through
Heraclitus

in

is

"

."

"

"

"

all

":

it

willing to be called Zeus, because

2

91.
:!

is

Co/i.

Le Dieu de Plalon,

ad

p. 102.

Gent.

p.

165

A,

it

Migne.
5

65.

19.

72

is

The Logos

ioo

in Heraclitus

which men ignorantly

on the other hand, it re
jects the appellation for the reasons which prompted
Heraclitus to declare that Homer and Archilochus
the

true

objective

reality

worship under that name

The
should be scourged and cast out of the arena.
other
none
of
the
or
has
anthropomorphic
Logos
degrading attributes and passions belonging to the

And

Homeric Zeus.

equivalent to 0eos, the

Logos in Heraclitus is
Logos must certainly be that
if

ultimate reality in which all opposites are reconciled

God is day and
for Heraclitus expressly says that
night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety
:

"

and

hunger":

#eos

evfypovr),

r^p.cprj

TToXe/xos elprfvT), /copos Xt/*dr

and

God all
but men

we have

the idea that to

and good and right,

3
wrong and others right

God

in

yjEi^tov

Oepos,

another fragment

things are beautiful

think some things

when Cudworth

In short,

the variety and

reconciling
contrariety of things in the universe into one most

speaks of

as

"

all

he exactly expresses
lovely and admirable harmony
one of the principal ideas which I think Heraclitus
,"

connected with his doctrine of the Logos.

If the view which I have put before you
correct,

we must suppose

that Heraclitus

was

is

first

and foremost a prophet and a theologian rather than

man of science and it is as a theologian that he is

regarded by many
1

Cf. Zeller, Phil, der

G.\
3

36.
4

scholars, notably

Intellectual

i.

2, p.

by Tannery

670,

n. 3.

61.

System of the Universe,

p.

207.

in

101

Divinity of the Logos

The hierophantic and oracular

nature of Heraclitus style points to the same con
clusion; he himself says that "the lord, whose oracle
his Science Hellene.

at Delphi, neither utters plainly nor yet conceals

1
his meaning, but speaks by signs" (aXXa (rtyfuupci)
and he seems to have deliberately modelled his style
is

upon Apollo s.
e8i>?cra/A77i>

e/AewuroV,

as equivalent

which

also that the fragment

sometimes understood

is

merely to avroStSa/cros

"I

self-taught,"

when

may add

enquired of

by the

interpreted

"

etjiu,

am

think,
ought,
of the fragments

myself,"

light

already discussed, to be understood in the deeper

I
and more mystical sense
investigated myself,"
i.e.
it
was by self-study, by looking within and
"

without that

not

Universe:

for

the

the secret of the

discovered

fwos Xo yos

is

present in us as

well as without.
"

The beauty thou

dost worship dwells in thee

Within thy soul divine it harboureth
This also bids my spirit soar, and saith

Words

that unsphere for

me Heaven

harmony

3
."

of course a favourite idea in every age with

thinkers of the school to which Heraclitus seems to

This

is

have belonged.
homine habitat

"

In

te

veritas"

ipsum redi: in interiore

as

Augustine says.
have endeavoured to shew that the Heraclitean
Logos is at once the Divine Reason immanent both
in Nature and in man, and also the unity in which all
I

ii.

Campanella, Sonnets,

80.
tr.

Symonds,

The Logos

102

in Heraclitus

are reconciled.

opposites

conceptions

mean

the

The

of these two

first

doctrine

of

divine

the

again and again in Greek

philosophy between the time of Heraclitus and the
rise of Stoicism
but the second the notion of a

immanence

appears

world-unity

or

harmony of

differences

com

is

Greek literature until

paratively rare, I think,
Cleanthes.
Some have thought that this is the
"Un
leading idea in the drama of Sophocles.
in

deserved
it

is

says Professor Butcher,

exhibited in Sophocles under various
suffering,"

"

while

lights,

always appears as part of the permitted evil which is

a condition of a just and harmoniously ordered
universe
Nestle has endeavoured to show, not,
1

."

think, successfully, that Euripides held the same

belief, and borrowed it from Heraclitus.
According
I

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

Dike, so that in the view of both this

Euripides,
Dike is not simply a moral but a cosmic force 2
call

."

There are traces of the belief in Plato, particularly in

the Laws, 903 B ff. TW TOV TTCLVTOS eVi^eXov/xeVa) Trpos rrjv
(T<Jt)Tr)plOiV

.../CCU

KGLi

dpT Y)V TOV

TO (TOV fJLOpLOV

19

oXoV
TO

COT I

^v eVe/ca

Some Aspects of the Gr. Genius,

Euripides, p. 151.

a"WTeTCLy^Va

TTOLV ^WTU>1

Kairrep TrdvcrynKpov ov...^4po^

1

TTOLVT

p.

ft\7TOV

oXov
127,

/cat

ttCt,

Heraclitus founder of Logos doctrine

/xepous eW/ca aTrepya^erai.
essential characteristics of the

omnipresent and

that

it

103

In Stoicism the two

Logos are

reconciles

the

that

it

is

seeming

contrariety of things into a perfect harmony; and

since each of these characteristics belongs to the

Heraclitean Xoyos, we are justified in holding that

Heraclitus, and not the Stoics, was the founder of
the doctrine, which has played so great a part in
later religious

and philosophical thought.

KAEAN0OYS YMNO2

IV.

KvSicrr* dOavdruv, TroXv&W^e, Tray/cpares aiei,

Zev,
dp^ye, vo^ov ju,e ra TrdVra
<vcre6>9

X a ^P

y^p TraVrecrcri #e//,i9 0vr)Tot(Ti 7rpocrav8av.

yap ye^o/xecr^a, ^eou /xi/x^/jta Xa^o^re?
"c

IK crou

ocra ^ojet re

ftovi/ot,

TOJ

ere

crot

KaOvjJiVTJa-o)

Tras oSe

ST)

7rei0erai,

17

fcei/

/cat

/cat

epTrei #K)fr

ay?/?, Kai

eXtcrcrojLLei

rou yap VTTO

crv

<f>OLTa,

a>s

OS Trept

ez/l

ytpcriv
10

TrvpozvT*, aleL^coovra

dfjL(j>yJKrj,

Kepavvov
7rdVr epya
J

TrXTyyi^s (^vcrews

KaTv6vveiS KOWOV \6yov, 09 Sta

piyvviJLtvos fieyaXots piKpols re

Tocrcro?

yeyaa>5

<

reXetrat

4.

ytvofJLfffOa,

yetW

p.

eo-TiV.

6cov

90 Hense

The

<^aecrcrii/.

for

o"(f)TprjcrLP

the corrupt yeVos

due
Supplied by von Arnim.

conjecture yevo /xeo-tfa

TeAeiTcu.

14.

ws roVo-os yeyaco?.

is

Von Arnim

others suppose a lacuna

yaw? KT\.
seems incurable.

15

d^otat?.

ecr/xeV,

avOpu-rros ^.L^^o. ptv ^eov /xoVov

ii.

uTraros ^acrtXevs Sia Traz/rd?-

OTrocra pe^oucrt /ca/cot

Musonius,

>

TrdvTcov

ouSe rt yiyi^erat epyov eV! yOovl crov i)(a, 8a?/xo^,

ovre /car aWepiov Oelov TTO\OV OVT eVl 7rd^ra>,
77X7)1^

VTTO creto

e/ca>z/

TOIOV e^eis VTToepyov a^tfc^rois

aj

yatai

/cparos ateV

croi/

/COCTJLLO?,

CTTI

to

T<UI/

cVi-

Meineke.

reads w

after ^aco-o-i,

o-^

TOO-O?

y-

but the error

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

O God

most glorious, called by many a name,

Nature s great King, through endless years the

same

Omnipotence, who by thy just decree

Controllest all, hail, Zeus, for unto thee
Behoves thy creatures in all lands to call.

We
On

are thy children, we alone, of all

earth s broad ways that wander to

and

Bearing thine image wheresoe er we go.

Wherefore with songs of praise thy power

fro,

will

forth shew.

Lo!

Heaven,

yonder

wheeled,
Follows thy guidance,

that

round

the

earth

is

10
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

Of

all,

and

in

stars both great

the light celestial glows

and small.
King of Kings

Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings

20
To birth, whate er on land or in the sea
Is

wrought, or

in

high heaven

Save what the sinner works

immensity;

infatuate.

io6

The

aXXa
/cat

Hymn

KOL ra Tre/ncrcra

(TV

ei?

ei>

<

>

ov

/cat

ra/cocr^ta,

Kocrjjieiv

wSc yap

of Cleanthes
eTTicrracrai

apria

crol

<iXa

0U>cu,

karriv.

<iXa

TrdVra crvvrippoKas ecr#Xa KaKolcriv, 20

eVa yiyvzcrOai TTOLVTUV Xoyoz/

a>cr#

oz^

(^>vyoi/T5

eo^ra.

atei/

eaKriv ocroi OVTJTOHS /ca/cot

etcrt,

SvcrfJiopoi, oiV ayaQwv fjitv aei KTr)<TW

ovr* ecropwcrt ^eov KOIVQV v6jj,ov ovre
GJ

crvv

/cez^

j\$TreiOoptvot,
avroi o avc/ opfJLO)cnv

vu>

>

/)>

/3iov IcrdXov ej(ote^.

v
*\\
v\
>

avoi KOLKOV aXXo?

CTT

25
\

aXXo,

Ot
Ot

C7TI

aXXot

8*

TTpap,fJiVOl,

Kp8oO"UVaS

6i5

Ove^t

KOCT/XO),

avecrw KCU crwjuaros i^Sea epya.

CTT
dXXore 8* aXXa <^eyooi/rat,

......

30

ivavria

aXXa Zcv TrdvSupe, K

<

dv0pa>7Tov$

r}v

orv,

p,ev

7rar/>,

17

ai/

>

pvou

(TKeBacrov

TTicrwo? crv

^v^s

era

SI/CT^? /xera Traz/ra

epya

7Ti OVT

St^z/e/ce ?,

^8/ooTots

\vyprjs,

a?ro, 805 Se

rt/x^^eVre? a/ietySoj/xecr^a crc

ra

dwo

direLpocrvvrjs

a)?

Kvprj(rou,

/ci>)8e/>i>as,

35

rt/xij,

e7rebt/c

ye/>a?

aXXo

rt /Lcet^o^

KOIVOV Ctl

30.

Von Arnim

have been

dAAo.

of the

conjectures

KOIKOIS

MS)

is

that

the

missing words

or

the

like.

firtKvparav,

due to Meineke.

<t>fpovrai

may
(for

The

Hymn

of

Cleanthes

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
that
there
be
should
with
evil
things good,
Things
:

One Word through

One Word whose
Insatiate for the

all things everlastingly.

voice alas! the wicked spurn;

good

their spirits yearn

Yet seeing see

God

not, neither hearing hear

universal law, which those revere,

30

By reason guided, happiness who win.

The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of sin
Self-prompted follow

for

an

idle

name

Vainly they wrestle in the lists of fame

Others inordinately riches woo,

Or

35

dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.

Now

here,

now

there they wander, fruitless

still,

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

45

things rulest righteously.

So by thee honoured, we

will honour thee,

works
Praising thy
continually with songs,

As

mortals should

nor higher

meed belongs

E en

to the gods, than justly to

The

universal law for evermore.

adore

50

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES

Athenagoras, Leg. pro Christianis, 7. 904
cTre/JaAov <rro^a(TTiKa)5,
yap KCU
<ru/A7ra$eiav

CKaoTO?

rrjs

irapa TOV Oeov

^rjrr)<rat

ei

Swaro?

Clement, Strom,

i.

7.

TTI/O^S

VTTO

Migne

B,

TTOLTJTOL /xev

KivrjOfVTCs

<J>L\6a-o<f>oi

rfjs

avro?

/xev

Kara

avroi)

evpctv re Kat vo^crai T^V

732 D, Migne

<WTO<;

oT/xai,

Travra

My

object in these lectures is to expound and

the religious significance of Stoicism, in
connexion more especially with the hymn of
illustrate

But before we can profitably enter on

the subject before us, it is necessary to say a word
or two about the development of religious thought
in Greece before Stoicism began.
Leaving out of
Cleanthes.

account everything of merely secondary importance,

we can distinguish in Greek literature and it is
with literature alone that

two main

we

are

now concerned

development, the one

represented by the poets from Homer to Sophocles,
and the other by the philosophers from Thales down
lines of religious

The

poets for the most part accepted

the leading features of the old Homeric theodicy,
but a
with its polytheism and anthropomorphism
to the Stoics.

tolerably continuous progress can be traced in the

growing emphasis which was

laid

upon the higher

Religious thought in poets

and more

idealistic

to the suppression

elements

109

Homer s

in

theology,
or comparative neglect of the

grosser anthropomorphic features, and more par

ticularly in the gradual spiritualisation of Zeus. The
father of

Gods and men

in

Aeschylus and Sophocles

infinitely more capable of inspiring

and faith than the Homeric Zeus,
devotion
religious
who combines in a single personality the two opposing

is

Being

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,
principles of Naturalism

Homeric

for instance, to find a true

beautiful

hymn

to

Zeus that occurs

parallel to the

in the Sitppliant

Maidens of Aeschylus I quote it according

Mr Morshead s admirable rendering
"

the deep will of Zeus be hard to track

Yet doth it flame and glance

Though

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 wind,

beacon

marvel to

man

s eye.

Smitten by him from towering hopes degraded

Mortals lie low and still
:

and effortless works

The arm divine

Tireless

forth

its

will

God from

his holy seat, in calm of unarmed power,

1
Brings forth the deed at the appointed hour
"

88

ff.

to

no

The

And

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

or nothing in Homer to corre

spond to the sentiment of entire dependence on the
justice of the Supreme God to which the Chorus in

there

is

little

Sophocles Electra give expression when they thus

console the maiden
OdpareL /xot,

Odpcrei

TCKVOV

CTI fieyas

ovpavw

Zevs, 05 tyopa TraVra KCU Kparvvi.

"

Courage,
heaven,

At

who

my

child,

courage

oversees and governs

same

great
all

even

Zeus

still

reigns

in

1
."

Sophocles, with
whom the purely poetical development of Greek
religious thought reaches its highest point, the
the

time,

inherent dualism of the

in

Homeric theology has by

no means disappeared altogether. Like most of

countrymen, Sophocles is still content to speak
of the omnipotent Gods as the authors of evil not
he does not ascribe to them
less than of good
his

we find
purity, any more than Homer
passages in his plays which seem to endorse such
moral

envy of the Gods and

the infatuation or Ate by which they drive men
and above all, there is hardly a suggestion
into sin
in Sophocles of the view that did more, perhaps,
than anything else to purify the theology of Greece
the view that the divine nature must be such
traditional doctrines as the

as to furnish a moral standard or ideal to humanity,

so that the supreme rule of conduct for man be

comes

One
8eq) "assimilation to God."
ofUHwcris
is to be found in the Oedipus at Colonus
TO>

such trace

174

f.

Religious thought in philosophers

1267

ff.,

where Polynices makes

to his father

this

1 1 !

touching appeal

dAX eon yap

Ai8u>s

CTT

/ecu

epyois

Zyvl

Tratrt,

Kat Trpos

(rot,

Trapacrra^Tto.
"But

forasmuch as Zeus himself hath mercy

of his throne, shall

she

not

also

find

for the partner

by thee,

place

my

father?"

This

is

the motive which

makes

nature-religions into

ethical religions.
If

we

turn on the other hand from the poets to

we find ourselves at once in a

the philosophers,
totally different

atmosphere.

Greek philosophy raised

against the authority of
taining to religion

At a very
the

early period,
revolt

standard of

Homer

and theology.

in

matters apper
of

The attempt

the early Ionic philosophers to discover a single

creative cause of the Universe, itself uncreated and

and I
imperishable, was, however unconsciously
am not sure that they were all of them wholly un
conscious of the goal to which they were travelling
was a step, I say, in the direction of monotheism
;

and when Xenophanes of Colophon

the

in

sixth

century before Christ explicitly affirmed the existence

of "one God, supreme in heaven and earth, neither

mind resembling man it became

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

body nor

"

in

H2

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 odium theologicum was one of the
salient features in the history of Greek literature

down

to the early part of the fourth century before

If we look at it from a somewhat wider
Christ.

point of view, we may say, I think, that it is one of

the most significant and pregnant phenomena in the
history not only of literature, but of religion, and not
of Greek religion merely, but of the religious develop

ment of the human

German

On

race.

the one hand, as a

we have

immor
poetry,
talising in imperishable creations the traditional faith,
and on the other hand, we find philosophy, just on
writer has said,

account of that

faith,

"

condemning those

creations,"

I think we
may add, furnishing
new and deeper conception of the
Godhead and his relation both to man and nature.

and

at the

same

time,

materials for a

Positively, as well

as negatively, therefore,

Greek

philosophies of Xenophanes, of
to a
Heraclitus, above all of Plato and the Stoics
certain extent points the way to Christianity and

philosophy

the

Christian thought, whether we express the connexion

by the favourite Clementine formula of a divinely-

appointed education of mankind,

which philosophy

is

as

it

in

the scheme of

were the propaedeutic

Career of Cleanthes
or

preparation

or

TrpoTrcuSeia

npoTrapacrKCvyj

13

or

whether we say that there

is a real
continuity,
as
well
as
historical perhaps
philosophical, between
the theoretical ideals of Greek thinkers and their

more or

less

for

imperfect

as yet they are only

more or less im

I
say their
imperfectly realised
perfect realisation in Christianity

It is

from

of a kind of

2
.

this point of view, then, as expressive

movement

in the direction of Christian

and post-Christian ways of thought and feeling

that I
philosophical thought and religious feeling
of
to
consider
the
Cleanthes.
would ask you
hymn
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 Minor, eight years before the death of Alex
ander the Great.
Nothing is known to us of the
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, Strom,

i.

2.

709

B,

Migne, Philosophy a

iKoVa fvapyrj, Btiav Sajpcav "EAXr/ai SeSo/ze v^v ; ibid. 5. 7 1 7 D

6 vo/xos TOVS E/?paiou9,
7Tttt8aywyt yap KOL avrrj TO EAArptKoV,
o>s

Elsewhere he speaks of philosophy as a lamp,

XpioTdV
Cf. also vi. 392 c louSat oi?
Christ as the sun, and so forth.
et al.

cts

I/O/AOS,

/oti/

"EAAijo i

8c

<tAo(ro<ia

^XP

Trapowrtas.

There may be a historical connexion, on the one hand

through Stoicism, which flourished at Tarsus, and on the other
Much remains to be done in this
through Jewish Hellenism.
At present there are mainly dogmatic asser
field of enquiry.
tions, on the one side and on the other, with regard to the
existence or non-existence of such a connexion.
A. E.

1 1

The

cated

story that

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

he used to earn

"

his

living

by

drawing water at night, in order to devote the day

In course of time he succeeded
time to study
1

."

Zeno

presidency of the Stoic school or

what
college for by this time Athens had become
she continued to be until Justinian closed the philo
the

in
;

a kind of
sophical schools in the sixth century A.D.
and
the
town
different
schools, Academic,
University
;

Peripatetic, Stoic and Epicurean, were in reality so

many independent colleges, each with a tradition,

He continued
organisation and discipline of its own
head of the school for thirty-two years, from 264 till
2

Of his work as a teacher a

232 B.C.
single anecdote is preserved illustrating the slow and
his death in

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
tedious arguments of his master, and

the long and

Give me
impatiently exclaimed on one occasion:
4
But,
your conclusions, and I will find the proofs
in spite of this anecdote, Cleanthes was assuredly
."

none of your
1

"

dry-as-dust,"

Pearson, Fragments of /.eno

mechanical pedants.

and

In

Cleanthes, p. 35.

See von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, Phil. Untersuch. iv, Antigonos von Karystos, 263 ff. The Academy and Lyceum were origin
ally half-religious foundations,

organised like religious associations

See also supra, p. 31, for the history of the word arts."
Diog. Laert. vn. 183, reports that it was commonly said of
"

or diWoi.
3

him

ei

fjLVj

yap yv

Perhaps
at all times

XpixriTTTros,

OVK

ai>

rjv

Sroa.

this is a little characteristic of

moral philosophers

proofs are excogitated to establish theories.

Heraclitus and Cleanthes

none of the

115

earlier Stoics is there so rich a vein of

religious as well as philosophical inspiration

a kind

of suppressed enthusiasm for whatever is adorable

and great in nature and in man, breaking out from
in strongly emotional, sometimes halforacular utterances such as recall to us the fragments

time to time

of the great teacher to whom, as it seems to me,

Cleanthes owed more than to all other writers put
I
mean Heraclitus of Ephesus. As to
together
the influence of Heraclitus upon Cleanthes, there is

no room

doubt

for

we

shall find, indeed, that the

surviving fragments of the Ephesian sage are incom

parably the best commentary on the hymn which it
is

the object of these lectures to interpret.

The further question, whether Cleanthes concep

tion of God and Nature may not have owed something
to Semitic theology, is not so easy to determine.
The
conquests and statesmanship of Alexander had pre
pared 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
all of them came
was a native of Greece proper
from the East, many of them from Semitic towns
and colonies
He even goes so far as to say that
;

":

"

."

the

"

essence of Stoicism consists

in

the introduction

of the Semitic temperament and a Semitic spirit into

Greek philosophy 3
In his essay on St Paul and
."

The Ethics of Aristotle,

Ibid.

vol.
3

i.

p.

308.

Ibid. p. 309.

82

1 1

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Bishop Lightfoot has further elaborated

to Eastern
view of Stoicism, holding that

Seneca,

"

this

Stoicism was without doubt largely indebted

features which distinguished it from other
the
schools of Greek philosophy / in particular
affinities

for the

intense

moral

honourable

earnestness
2

"

which
the

characteristic /

was

its

most
pro

distinctively

phetic rather than dialectical character of Stoic teach

3
recognition of the claims of the individual
ing its
"

soul, the sense of personal responsibility, the habit

of judicial introspection, in short the subjective view
4
all of which features, he asserts, now
of ethics
"

for the first time "presented

themselves at the doors

demanded admission

of Western civilisation and

5
."

A still more striking resemblance between Stoicism

and Judaism

is

to

be found

in the firm belief,

which

the greatest of the Stoic teachers had in the essential

unity of the divine nature, and here it might be
possible to quote by way of illustration the remark
able parallel afforded by the philosophy of Spinoza,
between which and Stoicism the affinity is very great.

Pollock has pointed out that the

6
of
Spinoza himself by birth a Jew, was
pantheism
to a large extent a philosophical development of
Sir

Frederick

Hebrew monotheism; and

manner

in like

it

might be

conjectured that Stoic pantheism arose in somewhat

the same way. But in point of fact, as will be partially
1

4
6

Dissertations on the Apostolic Age, pp. 252

3

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 253.

Spinoza^ his Life

Ibid.

and Philosophy chap.

,

ff.

Ibid. p. 255.

in. p. 82.

Semitic influence on Stoicism

117

hope, from the illustrations I shall put

before you, nearly all of these so-called Semitic ideas
are already to be found somewhere or other in Greek

evident,

philosophy of Plato

literature, especially in the

and

the question rather is, whether and to what extent

the Semitic element in Stoicism, if it was really
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, I conceive,
be any doubt; but it is an entire mistake to separate
the history of Stoicism from that of Greek philosophy
in 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

I
have already

to nearly all his greatest ideas, as

said, is to be found in Heraclitus.

With these preliminary remarks,

to a consideration of the

know,
with

it

the

to

in his

do much more

of Cleanthes

side

on
:

it

So

turn

far as

Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes,

goes, but it hardly professes

than explain the text. The

excellent so far as

alike

itself.

now

us

has not yet been discussed and illustrated

Mr Pearson s
care which it deserves.

commentary,
is

hymn

let

its
is

it

Hymn

demands the

fullest possible

treatment

and its philosophical

the Timaeus of Plato, which

poetical, its religious

in fact, like

one of the ancients described as a

"hymn

of the

Universe," a blend of poetry, religion, and philo

sophy, summing up not only most of the best and

most inspiring ideas of Stoicism, without any of the

1 1

The

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Stoic aridity and trivialities, but also

much

of the

Greek thought on God and man and nature

from Heraclitus down to Aristotle, and foreshadow
ing, in no obscure fashion, what we sometimes
erroneously suppose to be the religious and philo
sophical discoveries of Christendom
A glance at the Hymn will show you that it falls
noblest

naturally into four divisions.

A.

We

have first the prelude (lines 1-6), the

burden of which is let us praise Zeus for we are
of his family, and made in his image."
Here it is
"

apparently the religious motive which

is

predomi

nant.
B.

The second

extending from

division,

to line 21, speaks of the operation of the

line 7

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

merged

in

universe 2

hymn.

The

a yet wider

religion of humanity is
the religion of the
ideal

In the third section, comprising from line 23

to line 35, the poet describes how human creatures
C.

Clement speaks of Cleanthes as having written

Coh. ad Gentes, 180 B, Migne.

See Hoffding, Philos. of Religion, p. 290. This passage
illustrates what Hoffding calls the sympathetic type of the religious

6fov,
2

disposition.

Cf. St Paul,

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
within ourselves":
Spirit, even we ourselves groan
conception of the Xoyos in St John and in St Paul.

cf.

also the

Divisions of the

Hymn

1 1

away through ignorance, and prays

fall

The

their

for

ethical

and

in

this

enlightenment and restoration.

religious motive comes to the front again
section.

D.

Finally, the note

is

prelude

which was struck

in the

resumed at the conclusion of the hymn

So shall we praise the universal law, and

(36-39).
thus fulfil the highest privilege accorded to

men and

gods.
I

each of these four sections

will discuss
*

Zev,

a ^avdVoov,

<v

TroXtiwvv/xe, Tray/cpares cue* ,

(Ttos dpx^yc,

ae yap

vd/xov /txcra TraVra

TrttWeertrt

T<3

"

(re

Nature

most
s

/u,i)u,^/xa

Xa^ovre?

re Kat epTrct OvrfT

a)ei

Ka.6vfJivri<T(j>

O God

Ku/?epi/<ov,

0e/ais Ovrjrol(TL TrpocravSaV.

aov yap yvo/x,(70a, Otov

o<ra

in order.

7rt
yatav.
Kat aoi/ Kparos atev detVw.

glorious, called

by many a name,

great King, through endless years the

same

Omnipotence, who by
Controllest

all,

hail,

thy just decree

Zeus, for unto thee

Behoves thy creatures

We
On

in all lands to call.

are thy children, we alone, of all

earth s broad ways that wander to

and

Bearing thine image wheresoe er we go.

Wherefore with songs of praise thy power

fro,

I will forth

shew."

Let us begin by considering the

called by many a name." Cleanthes, like the Stoics
in general, was a believer, of course, in one God,
whom he identified, as will afterwards be seen, with
"

the soul of the world, or rather with Reason imma

nent in the universe and TroAvoW/^e signifies that
;

all

the different gods of polytheism are only so

many

The

I2O

Hymn

Cleanthe s

of

names, or perhaps embodiments of the uni

different

versal Spirit, according to the different spheres in

which that Spirit works, or which amounts to the

same thing

which he is
We meet with the same idea in an im
regarded
God is day and
pressive fragment of Heraclitus":
the

different aspects

in

"

summer and

night,

and hunger
incense

winter,

he

but

is

war and peace,

changed, just

mingled with incense,

is

it

is

satiety

when

as,

named accord

It is highly probable,
ing to the flavour of each."
I think, that this
fragment actually suggested to the

method by which they contrived

Stoics the

to recon

philosophic pantheism with the religious

polytheism of the Greeks but the important point
for us to notice is that the epithet 7roXvoW//,e implies
cile their

more than a mere

accommodation

"

on the part
of a philosopher to the popular religion.
It ought
not to be limited in its application to the gods of the
far

the

Cf.

Max

Veda,

for

Miiller

"

says

Varuna, Agni; that which

diverse

the

2000

manners."

Cf.

p.

311.

One

"They

call

him

Indra,

and

one, the wise

Hibbert Lectures

instance,

is

also the

is

poet in
Mitra,

name

Monotheistic tendency

in

among

In one inscription, dating perhaps from

Babylonians.
B.C. 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

and so

trading, etc.,
,,

the illumination of the night,

forth.
See Pinches, The Religion of Babylonia and
This tendency to a reconciliation with poly
Assyria, p. 118.
theism is of course characteristic of pantheism in every age.
*
Fr. 36 (following Bywater s text).

God

Universality of

Greek pantheon

rather

121

implies that

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

it

all

in

sicut

nomina,

In

according to the Latin saying.

other words, the epithet TroXvwz/v/Ae strikes at the

very outset of the hymn a note of universalism the
;

God whom
Greek

Cleanthes invokes

not the

is

alone, or of the barbarian

the whole

human

The

race.

he

is

of the

god

God

the

of

old exclusiveness of

century Hellenism has disappeared; and in its

place we have the wider and more comprehensive
fifth

ideal of a religion coextensive with

It

is

humanity

God by

true that Cleanthes calls his

itself.

the dis

Hellenic name of Zeus

but, owing in
measure
to
the
of
Greek
drama, the
large
teaching
concept of Zeus had already been universalised, more
tinctively

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
especially

prior obligation to the ordinances made by man

and the Zeus of Cleanthes is free from every vestige
;

of exclusiveness or particularism.

The same

conception, that God is god of all

mankind, and not merely of one particular race or
is

people,

yap
1

Mem.

again emphasized in the third line:

Tra^recrcrt

ftrryrjTijs

06/u? OVTJTOLCTL wpocravSav

Socrates

Cf.
i.

"

3.

i,

and

of Zeus,

advice

to

worship

Plato, Rep. 427 c,

is

the universal father,

said to

vo/xw

for

Tro Aews,

where Apollo, as the

expound

TTUO-IV avOpuTroi.*;

God

at

Delphi the

"to

will

all mankind."

ere
it

is

Xen.

irdrpio*;

of Zeus,

The

122

Hymn

of Cleanthes

meet all mortal men should call upon thy name."

Observe now what is the foundation on which
Cleanthes builds his dream of a universal, world
for we
wide, religion. CK crov yap yevopecrOa
that is all human creatures
"are
thine offspring,
"

"

made

the likeness of God, alone of

in

mortal that live

and move upon the

all

things
In

earth."

Stoicism, indeed, not man alone, but universal nature

the creation
in a certain sense the offspring of
God but man is the only creature who can properly

is

be said to be made

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

to

it

creature to call

in the

be the privilege of every human

upon his name. We have here in

the words IK crov yap yevopecrda what is perhaps

the most famous expression in Greek literature of
the

profoundly religious as

doctrine

of

man s

celestial

well

as

philosophical
nature, a

origin and

doctrine that appears in nearly

all

the best

Greek

thought about religion from Pindar down to Epictetus,

and is in an especial sense the property of Stoicism.

There

remember, the authority of

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

you

will

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
>

where

kindred, and

salvation as the recovery of sonship.

Cf., with
of
the
use
in
ZW
vioOecriav
a7roAa7?(i>/u,ev,
ryv
Findlay,
aVoXa/xySaVo)
Gal. iv. 5, and aTroKaraXXacro-a), Col. i. 21, 22, Eph. ii. 16 et al.

between

man and God

delivered before the council of the

Athens we

123

Areopagus

at

hardly a single idea, except the

bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, which cannot be
abundantly illustrated from Greek sources but the
find

sentiment on which the great prophet of Christianity

as the divinely-appointed universal religion rightly
lays most stress, is just this Stoic doctrine of the

God hath made

kinship between man and God.
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

and have our being
:

for in
"

him we

and move,

live,

a Stoic would rather have

As certain also
of your own poets have said, For we are also his
rou yap KOL yeVos e oyxeV. The poet whom
offspring
said, perhaps,

St Paul has

Aratus

in

lives in

mind

in his

and

"God

all

is

us."

not indeed Cleanthes, but

probability,

as

Norden

in

his

Antike Kunstprosa* has pointed out, the quotation

is taken not
directly from Aratus, but from Aristobulus, a hellenizing Jew who flourished about 1 50 B.C.,
and was the first to maintain what afterwards became

a favourite patristic theory, that Plato derived

all his

wisdom from Moses, being in fact only M&wcrrJ?

ciTTi/awj>
Moses speaking in Attic Greek." We
"

know from

Eusebius 3

that

Aristobulus

cited

in

support of his audacious theory that part of Aratus

1

Acts

xvii.

26-28.

Praep. Ev.

xiii.

12. 6.

p.

475.

The

124

of

Cleanthes

quotation occurs, and there

evidence to shew that the apostle was not unac

poem
is

Hymn

in

which St Paul

quainted with the literature of Jewish Hellenism,

whether he had read any pure Greek literature or

But although it is Aratus who is responsible

the particular words in which St Paul here gives

not 1
for

expression to the idea, the conception itself that of

the affinity between God and man
is, as I have said,
not only of Stoicism, but of earlier
religious thought, indeed there is perhaps no

characteristic

Greek

more deeply rooted in Greek thought

and in order that we may understand its

idea which

than this

is

precise significance in the hymn of Cleanthes, as well

as on account of the intrinsic importance of the

doctrine

itself,

will

now

your attention to some

call

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

question was by no means alien to the ordinary

religious consciousness of Greece, as reflected, for
Not only in
example, in the Homeric poems.

Homer

Zeus the

is

"father

of

Gods and

men,"

but

involved in the very nature of anthropomorphic

theology that since God resembles man, man in his

it is

turn resembles

God.

From

the religious point of

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

view, this
that

it

See Hastings,

Lc. s.v.

Paul.

Mortal Gods and immortal men

125

between the Homeric god and the Homeric

man, except the attribute of immortality whereas

difference

the blessed gods live for ever /xa/capes 0eot

we are but children of a day. Hence it is
e cWes
not otherwise than in harmony with the spirit of
atez>

what we may

orthodox Greek theology when

call

Lucian makes Heraclitus say:

1

0ol
"

TL

OvrjTOi.

What

are

Immortal
stress

men

men."

laid

is

rather than

Sat
?

ot

Oeoi

rt Sat ot avdponroi,

Mortal Gods.

But

in

a$dVarot

avOpwiroi

What

are

Gods

Homer

human

upon the
upon the divine

the preponderating
attribute of the Gods

affinities

man

of

and

same may be said of Hesiod, in spite of occasional

hints of the original unity of the divine and human,
Gods and
as for example when he declares that
the

"

men

same stock

and again
in a fragment preserved by Origen, which tells of
common feasts and common assemblies" of
the
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 poetry
down to Pindar there is little or no suggestion of a
man re
spiritual affinity between man and God
sembles God, and God is conceived in the image 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
mortal

are sprung of the

by degrees that the notion of the soul as constituting

the true and essential nature of the man came to the
1

;!

Vit.

Auct. 14.

Fr. 187, Goettling.

O.D.

08.

The

126

Hymn

Greek thought.
principle holds good

of Cleanthes
Here, as everywhere, the

front in

"

first

the natural, and after

wards the spiritual."

In Pindar s view, as shewn above

it

is

only
the spiritual nature of man, the ^vxtf or sou ^ which
is declared to be of divine descent.
The history of
Christian religious thought

is

enough

to

prove that

Poetry is a most powerful agent in refining and

I need
only refer
purifying the religious sentiment
:

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

inspiration.

Although Pindar has not yet shaken himself

free

from the old Homeric conception of the ^VXTJ 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:
:

yap eo-Ti povov IK 6ta)v. Furthermore, according

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.
TO

the theory underlying this conception

1

Divine Origin of the Soul.

Clearly

it is

Soul and body

127

nothing but the idea familiar to most of us from the

Phaedo of

Plato,

that the

prison-house or tomb of the soul

cnj/Jta

crai/Aa

deliverer Death, although sleep,

sometimes

it

were the

croj/xa Secr/xwrif/Dto^,

from which we are

as

is

body

by the
image and

set free

Death

a partial resuscitation,
twin-sister,
a kind of temporary reunion of the soul with the
In somewhat the same way
fountain of her being.
effects

the Republic that when we

retire to rest after having feasted the rational part
it

by Plato

said

is

in

of our nature with lofty thoughts, we may, perhaps,

in visions of the night apprehend truths greater than

we know the natural divinity of the

itself, when temporarily freed from
2

the flesh and

sixth

and

its

fifth

soul reasserting
the tyranny of

In the literature of the

desires.

centuries before Christ, there are not

a few traces of this profoundly religious view of the

relationship between the soul and the body.
meet with it in the Pythagorean school, in Heraclitus,

We

Empedocles, and Euripides gives expression

to the same thought in the well-known lines

and

in

Tt?

oT8V

TO

TO Ko,T0avetv 8e
"Who

Life

knows
is

if

rjv

rv

CCTTl

/AV

KaT@CLVC.1v,

K<XT<O

world beneath the ground,

in the

accounted death, death

who

life?

knows?"

The general theory of human life and destiny

involved in this conception, which is closely allied to
1

Cf. St Paul s doctrine of pcKpuorts.

out of the body of this death

2

57*

D-

"

Rom.

"

vii.

Who

shall deliver

24.
*

&.

638,

Nauck

J
.

me

The

128

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Buddhism, appears to have been elaborated during

the great religious revival, usually
Orphic revival, that spread over a

known

as

large

part

the
of

Greece during the sixth century B.C. The notion

was that life in the body is a penance which the

God

or a portion of the divine

essence, has to pay in consequence of ante-natal sin
so that the end of our endeavours is, by the practice
soul, itself originally a

of abstinence, by religious ceremonies, and by the

cultivation of righteousness and holiness, to keep the
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 Soul, and in the Orphic
religious discipline by which that fragment is almost
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
I
am a child of earth and starry
alone is divine,
exiled

"

heaven

"

yrjs TTCUS

ci/u

KCU

ovpavov

acrre/)oei>T09,

says the soul in one of the Orphic tablets found in

2
that is, my body is of the earth, my soul
S. Italy
:

from heaven.
conception

may

The

religious potentialities of this

be seen from the beautiful lines of

the Christian poet George Herbert; quoted in the

1

See G. Murray in Miss Harrison

660-674.
2
Miss Harrison,

Lc. p. 660.

Proleg. to Gk. Religion,

Human mind

little

part of God

129

essay on the Vitality of Platonism, p. 21.

passage the words
"In

soul he

In flesh he

mounts and

tomb

the

it is crai/Aa

In

flies,

dies,"

correspond to the doctrine of

is

o-wju,a

Pindar,

by

the body

a^a,
same

yet flesh is not quite the

tainted

In this

as

croi/xa

sin.

therefore,

the

doctrine

of

man s

essential divinity is to a certain extent spiritualised

by being restricted to what he calls the soul or
\fjvxn

ne seems

t)Ut

still

to conceive of the soul in

Homeric way, and he does

the old

not, at least in

an intellectual interpretation to
is
it
the doctrine
i/^X 7^ anc^ not Y et v vs, which
he declares to be descended from the gods.
There
this fragment, give
:

is,

however, a

Nemean where
1

remarkable passage in the sixth

an emphatic assertion of the

after

men and gods

dvSpwv, ez/ Oewv
that
the
poet suggests
yeVos
perhaps the point in
which we resemble the immortals is in reality the
original unity of

more

ei>

intellectual or spiritual part of

our nature

mind

or reason, ptyav voov, 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 Christ, declared
reason within us is a little part of
TOV deov)
1

A.

that

God

the

vovs

or

(piKpov popiov

and Euripides, influenced no doubt by

See supra, Divine Origin of the Soul,

Diels, Frag. d.

Vorsokratiker",

i.

p.

p. 39.

331, 28.

The

130

this philosopher,

human mind

Hymn

of Cleanthes

speaks of the

or spirit

z>ovs

akin

as

or irvtviia the
the aetherial

to

in more than one passage he identifies

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

element which

which it came
But the thinker who more than any other of the
Greeks intellectualised the doctrine of man s divine
.

descent was Plato.

reason which

In Plato

divine

is

always vovs or

we must beware

only

is

it

of

supposing that he conceived of vovs merely as the

kind of siccum lumen, the clear cold light, the un im
passioned analytic and discursive intellect which we
it is a
are sometimes in the habit of calling reason
:

religious or spiritual as well as

in Plato, the link that binds

an intellectual faculty

us to the godhead,
apprehending the truth not only by means of ratioci
nation, but also intuitively, in virtue of its affinity

Him who

Mr

Nettleship s observa
tions on Greek philosophy in general are specially

with

is

the truth.

We

say that Greek moral

philosophy, as compared with modern, lays great
applicable

to

Plato.

"

on knowledge, and gives importance to the

That impression arises mainly from the
intellect.

stress

fact that

we

intellectual

are struck by the constant recurrence of

terminology, and omit to notice that

reason or intellect
to

is

do with the good.

very condition of
1

Eur.

Fr. 941,

of the Soul. pp.

47,

always conceived of as having

Reason

is

to

man s having

He
52.

I.

1014

ff.

Greek thinkers the

a moral being

quoted supra, Divine Origin

Reason and
Their words

and

for reason

extent the ground which

spirit,
spiritual, and

They would have

where we should
Understood

in

131

rational cover to a great

covered by words like

in our philosophy.
ideal
is

said that a

man

say that he
this

man

spirit in

the

way,

is

a rational being,

a spiritual being

is

doctrine

of

man

."

relationship to the divine is perhaps the most funda

As I have elsewhere
mental of Plato s doctrines.

ventured to say,

"

it

is

the ultimate source of

all

his

and metaphysical, no less than

and
may well be considered the
political,
most precious and enduring inheritance which he
It would lead us too
has bequeathed to posterity
far from our immediate subject to justify this state
ment in detail but before returning to my exposition
of Cleanthes, I will quote to you one or two passages
in 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
idealism,

religious

moral and

."

this great doctrine.

You

remember

will

that Plato has

two ways of
Sometimes

representing that which he calls divine.

he speaks of the divine in a half-impersonal way, as
the Idea or Form, transcendent at once and im

manent, eternal, changeless and invisible, the para

digm or type to which the world of generation and
1

Lectures

and Remains,

ii.

p. 221.

Republic of Plato,

ii.

p.

42.

92

The

132

Hymn

of Cleanthes

decay imperfectly conforms

The

1
.

totality of Ideas

Forms

constitutes a perfectly graduated hierarchy,

comparable to the spiritual or angelic hierarchies of

or

and medieval theology 2 and supreme over

all stands the one great unity, which Plato calls the
At other times, again, he uses more
Idea of Good.
patristic

obviously religious language, representing the divine

as what we should call a personal being, and desig
From Plato s point
nating it by the name of God.
of view there

is not, I
believe, any essential or
fundamental difference between these two modes of

in other words, the Idea of Good in

presentation
Plato is God, and God is the Idea of Good for to
:

Plato philosophy and religion are one and the same

thing, and could not be otherwise, inasmuch as God

the supreme truth, and we apprehend him through

the divine faculty of reason.
Similarly in Dante-

is

God

once the good, the object of universal

desire, the final goal of all particular and immediate
striving, and yet at the same time a personal being,
is

at

the creative cause of

1

Cf.

writer

home

di/TtVu7ra

of the

TWV

that

all

in

aA.r7$u/un>

Hebrews

is

an

"

is.

the

idealist

Now

whichever of

Hebrews, ix. 24. The

whose heaven is the

transcendental realities, whose earth is full of their

and
these are most abundant where earth is most
symbols,
sacred in the temple (or tabernacle) and worship of his people."

He

of

is

all

Alexandrian too

his frequent contrasts

"in

between the

imperishable, archetypal world, and the

invisible,
visible, perish
able world of appearance, the imperfect copy (vTroScty/xa) of the
former."
2

Massie

in Hastings,

See Lightfoot on Col.

Paradiso,

xxvm. 98

ff.

i.

I.e.

s.v.

16

and

Allegory.
cf.

Dante, Convito, n,

c.

Human mind

essentially divine

the two forms of expression

we

133

personal or impersonal

numerous passages
in Plato, where the affinity of the human mind or
Such
spirit to the divine is emphatically affirmed.
passages are to be found in Timaeus 90 ff., Phaedo
79 c ff., and especially Republic 501 B, 589 A, where
prefer,

possible to find

it is

Plato implies that we are truly human just in pro

This teaching was after
portion as we are divine.
wards worked out by Aristotle and the Stoics and
;

when

Nicomachean Ethics, x. 7, 9,
says that it would seem that the divine or rational
part of man is actually the self, inasmuch as it is the
Aristotle in the

supreme or better part of man,

self-realisation, in the true

it

follows

that

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
o&ov
far as in thee lies, put on
eVSexerai, aOavar i^w.
consist in the cultivation

e</>

"so

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
the

immortal."

follow a

life

that

is

not our

own

our true and proper individuality

"Move

And

the
is

way

to attain

to

upward, working out the beast

let

the ape and tiger die 1

."

On the deeper religious and philosophical sig

nificance of this great doctrine of man s ideal and
essential unity with God, the history of which I have
1

For a

fuller

discussion of this subject see supra. Divine

Origin of the Soul, pp.

62

ff.

The

134

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

thus briefly traced from Pindar down to Aristotle, I

not on this occasion dwell.
It is admirably

will

brought out by Principal Caird in his Gifford lectures

on The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity, a book

which

would ask you to read as a sequel to these

lectures.
It may however be noted that
according
to St Paul the highest element in man, which he
I

Tr^ev/xa, is the part of our nature by which we

are allied to God, and that he sometimes denotes this

terms

by the Platonic term z/ovs, which means the

What
irvevpa seeking to apprehend divine things
principle

concerns us chiefly at present is to understand its

and on this subject I will
significance in Stoicism
;

now say

a few words, at the

you

translated
in

same time recommending

Marcus Aurelius,

to study the meditations of

by Kendall, and the discourses of Epictetus,

translation.
After what has hitherto

Mr Long s

been

nouncing man

readily understand that in pro

to be the offspring of God
e/c crov

yap yevopeo-Oa
intellectual and

Cleanthes means simply that the

spiritual part of our nature, that is to

said,

you

will

say, our vovs or reason,

is

in the fullest

sense of the

term divine, a fragment or efflux, as the Stoics fre

This is a cardinal
quently maintained, of God.
doctrine of Stoic anthropology, from Zeno 2 down to
Marcus Aurelius but it is much more prominent in
;

later than in earlier

most of
1

Stoicism, and for that reason

my illustrations

will

be drawn from Epictetus

See Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece, p. 381 f.

e.g. Fragment 95 in Pearson s Fragments of Zeno and

See

Cleanthes.

Divinity of

and

his pupil the

man

in Stoicism

135

Roman Emperor. Marcus

Aurelius

never wearies of ringing the changes on this idea.

God sees men s Inner Selves stripped of their

"

Mind to
material shells and husks and impurities.
mind, his mental being touches only the like elements
and immanent from him

in us derivative

where he speaks of the

"divine element"

God

"

within us 2

"

Else

."

daemon or
God and daemon
"

or

"

"my

,"

the spirit which is "mind and God," whereas the

4
and identifies the spirit
body is but "refuse clay
,"

with the true

the inner

self,

man

or ego, that part of

own

our nature which alone can truly be called our

"

That which

the

5
.

the

remember,
the mandate, the
Never confound
life, there, one may say, the man.
it with the mere
and
the various
containing shell,
appended organs. They may be compared to tools,
with this difference, that the connexion is organic.
Indeed, apart from the inner cause which dictates
action or inaction, the parts are of no more use than
the weaver s shuttle, the writer s pen, or the coach
pulls

power concealed within

man s whip

is

strings,

there

is

6
,"

Let us now consider some of the implications

which this doctrine carries with it in Stoicism. What

man

and
kinship upon his conception, first of the duty he owes
to himself, and secondly of the duty he owes to his
fellow-men ? I will take these two points separately.
bearing has the belief in

xii. 2,
3

v.

tr.

10.

x. 38,

tr.

Kendall.
in. 3,

Kendall.

tr.

s celestial origin

n. 13, in.

Kendall.

5, xi.

19
5

al.,

xn.

xn.
3.

i.

The

136

Hymn

Cleanthe s

of

First then, as to the duty we owe to ourselves.

of Stoic morality, so far as concerns

The keynote

the individual in his relation to himself,

in the
following passages of Epictetus.

contained

is
"

If a

man

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

that we are all sprung from God in one especial

manner, and that

God

is

the father both of

men and

suppose that he would never have any

But if
ignoble or mean thoughts about himself.
Caesar (the emperor) should adopt you, no one
of gods,

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
;

generation of man, body in common with the

animals, and reason and intelligence in common with
in the

gods, many incline to this kinship, which is

miserable and mortal and some few to that which

the

divine and happy.

Since then it is of necessity
man uses everything according to the
opinion which he has about it, those, the few, who
is

that every

think that they are formed for fidelity and modesty

and a sure use of appearances have no mean or

ignoble thoughts

many

am
bit

it is

about themselves

quite the contrary.

but with the

For they

say,

What

poor, miserable man, with my wretched

of flesh.
but you possess
Wretched, indeed
I ?

something better than your bit of flesh.

Why then
do you neglect that which is better, and why do you
"Nevertheless he"
attach yourselves to this^?^
M has
placed by every man a guardian,
(that is, Zeus)
1

i.

3, tr.

Long.

Mans
every

to

duty

man s Daemon,

to

himself

whom

137

he has committed

the care of the man, a guardian who never sleeps, is

never deceived.
For to what better and more care
ful
could he have Intrusted each of us ?

guardian
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

When

Daemon

within, and what need have they of light

To this God you ought
to see what you are doing?
to swear an oath just as the soldiers do to Caesar.
But they who are hired for pay swear to regard the
safety of Caesar before all things; and you who have
is

received so many and such great favours, will you

not swear, or when you have sworn, will you not
And what shall you swear ?
abide by your oath ?

be disobedient, never to make any charges,

never to find fault with anything that he has given,

Never

to

and never unwillingly

that

is

necessary.

oath

The

soldiers

Caesar: in this oath

before

all

1
."

Is

to

do or

to suffer anything
oath like the soldier s

this

swear not to prefer any man to

to honour themselves

men swear

Side by side with these two passages set

"Live with the

the following from Marcus Aurelius:

gods (o-v^rjv #eots). 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
for his controller and governor
to wit, his mind and

reason 2
the

You

."

God

will see that

within us, that

14, tr.

from one point of view

spirit, appears

our mind or
2

i.

is,

Long.

v.

27,

tr.

Kendall.

The

138

Hymn

Cleanthes

of

as an internal oracle, a
guide whom
"walk with God"
(aKokovOycrov

we

are to follow

says Marcus
be compared Heraclitus
0eo>),

Aurelius

With

this

may

and the Brahmanism of the

e/xecuvroV,

eSi&jo-diJLrjv

Upanishads, as exemplified
"Whoso

shall find

in the following lines

him the awaken d

Self,

that lodgeth in this darkling patch d-up house,

builder of all is he, the All he maketh ;
his is the world, the

world in sooth

is

he.

When

straightway he beholdeth god in Self

sovran of what hath been and is to be,
his

thought no more shall waver in

its

way

8
."

From another point of view this divine faculty

may be regarded as conscience: God is near
we read in Seneca, "with thee, within thee... there
thee,"

dwells in us a holy spirit (sacer intra nos spiritus

sedet\ to keep watch and ward over our
evil

deeds

servator et
writes

(malorum
custosf."

bonorumque

To

the

good and

nostrorum

same

ob-

effect Epictetus

When we

are children our parents deliver

us to a paedagogue to take care on all occasions that
we suffer no harm. But when we are become men,

God

"

delivers us to our innate conscience

crweiS^crei,) to

take care of us.

(epura>

This guardianship

we must in no way despise, for we shall both

displease God and be enemies to our own conscience
Or again the divine particle within us is repre
then

."

sented as a treasure or talent committed to our

1

2
5

vii. 31, tr.

Fr. 80.

Kendall.
3

Cf.

TT<rOai

0eoi5,

Barnett, Hinduism,

xn. 27.

p. 16.

Ep.

41.

2.

Fr. 97, tr. Long.

Doubts have been held as to the authen
of
this
but
in sentiment, at least, it is Stoic.
ticity
fragment ;

man

Aspects of the divine faculty in

39

Keep the deity within inviolate and free

charge.
from scathe 1
Keep your God within pure and
"

"

."

any moment liable to be re

keep the god implanted
duty is
in his breast unsoiled, not perturbed by any tumult
of impressions, keeping his watch serene, a seemly
as

erect,

called

though

at

Man s

."

"to

follower of god, not false to truth in utterance or to

3
justice in act
Passages such as these have often
."

been compared with the words of St Paul

Know
ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the
"

God

4
"Know ye not
dwelleth in you
that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which

of

spirit

?"

and it is
you, which ye have from God
certain, not only that a Stoic might quite well have
is

in

?"

used this language, but also that the ethical motive

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

"and

ye are not your own;

for

ye were

6
he adds a new and far more
bought with a price
powerful motive, a motive which, as will afterwards
"

be pointed out, is the one great and fundamental

difference between Christianity on the one hand, and

Greek philosophy upon the

other, the stimulus of a

human

whose death we

divine yet

by dying unto

personality, in

live

sin,

Finally, the divine element within us

is

sometimes

conceived of by the Stoics as a kind of God-given

1

ii.
3
5

HI.

17,
1

Ibid.

Kendall.

tr.

6, tr.

Kendall.

4
6

vi.

19.

in. 12, after Kendall.

i

Cor.

Ibid.

iii.

16.

The

140

Hymn

seed or germ, which

Aurelius

it is

and develop.

cultivate
1
,

Cleanthes

of

our privilege and duty to

attend only to

"to

the

says Marcus
daemon within

The

Stoics were no

It suffices/

oneself and truly cultivate

believers in pre-existence,

it."

as

pre-existence

was

understood by Plato but if Epictetus and others may

be trusted, neither did they hold that the mind is at
birth 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 who regarded the human mind

as from the first a portion of the divine.
On the
contrary,

to

according

the

express statement of
innate notions" on such

Epictetus, we have certain

subjects as 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
Tr/soX^x/ieis
and they were strictly limited to the domain of
thus, for example,
morality, aesthetics and religion
of
a right-angled
we have no
7r/odX^i//is
2

"

I/A</>VTOI

e/x<^i/ro9

God s

triangle, but the notion of

existence, on the

3
At first, however, these ideas
other hand, is innate
are undeveloped and obscure
obscurae, adumbratae
.

them, notitiae parvae rerum

maximarum tanquam elementa virtutis* and it is
only after they have been articulated (Si7?/>0pa>/xeVai
intellegentiae, Cicero calls

by
1

3
4

self-conscious, reflective thought that

2

n. 13.
Ibid,

and

Laws,

i.

ii.

ii.

N. D. n. 12 and
26 and 59 De Fin. v.
Cic.

45.
59.

Duty of

141

self-realisation
1

In this way
they begin to have a positive value
the moral progress of the individual becomes a
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,

also

is

that

divine.

is

the

human

nature

Self-realisation

is

in

so far as

one of

cardinal principles of Stoic ethics.

Up to this point, I have spoken only of the

the

way

in

which the Stoic teachers conception of man s affinity

with God affected their view of what may be called
be asked, was
morality, then, in Stoicism, only self-regarding? This
is a reproach which has often been
brought against
the system and we must allow that there is reason

personal morality.

But,

it

may

fairly

reproach in the somewhat academic

the
pictures which they often draw of the wise man
of
ideal type
perfect virtue, perfect apathy (in the
such

for

classic

meaning of the word), and

sufficiency.

If

we

perfect selfturn, however, to the works of

Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius

and the

spirit

which

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- regard ing, just because the self which the Stoic

endeavours to realise
not what we should
1

187

is

essentially the universal,

the individual self at

call

See on the whole subject Bonhoffer, Epictet

ff.

u.

and
all.

die Stoa,

The

142

The

Hymn

Cleant he s

of

divine faculty of reason

man

the wise

is

not the monopoly of

human being, the

exists in every

it

pledge of our common brotherhood, the proof of the

universal fatherhood of God.
Marcus Aurelius is

always reiterating the doctrine that man s brotherhood

with all mankind depends not on
blood or the
"

generative seed, but on community in mind

1

Kowtovia)

for

"each

man s

he

mind,"

says,

"

(vov

"is

god,

an efflux of deity 2
It follows that the ideal man
never forgets his bond of brotherhood with every
."

"

rational creature

"for it is the distinctive

property
of a rational being to love his neighbours 4
"We
are made for co-operation," says Marcus Aurelius 5
":

."

"

like the feet, the hands, the eyelids, the

the lower rows of

upper and

You

"

are part of a social

whole, a factor necessary to complete the sum there
fore your every action should help to complete the
teeth."

social

Any

life.

action of yours that does not tend,

directly or remotely, to this social end, dislocates life

and infringes its unity. It is an act of sedition, and

some

like

what he can

separatist doing

away from

civic

accord 6

Hence

."

to break

the Stoic con

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

can only be attained through the service of others.

No one
Mr Dill,

the pale of Christianity," says

perhaps ever insisted so powerfully on

outside

"

"has

the obligation to
1

:J

for

others... as
*

xii. 26.

in. 4,

tr.

i8iov
rrj<s

live

ii.

i,

tr.

Ibid.

tr.

Seneca has

Kendall.

Rendall.
AoyiK^s i/w^s, TO
Rendall.

<f>i\iv

TOUS

ix. 23,

TrAr/cnoi/.
tr.

XI.

Rendall.

I.

social service

DtUy of

143

And in this respect Seneca is but the repre

Man is made for kind
sentative of later Stoicism.

done

."

"

ness,"

we

read in Marcus Aurelius,

"and

whenever

he does an act of kindness or otherwise helps forward

the common good, he thereby fulfils the law of his
2
And in another
being and comes by his own
Do that which reason, your king and
passage
."

"

lawgiver suggests for the help of

It

dvOpdmtovY"

summed up

all

of Marcus

text

pregnant

is

Aurelius:

dvOpcoTTivov yeVos* aKoXovOrjcrov

walk with

God

You

4
."

men

$e<u:

(CTT*

in

w^eXeta
a single

faXrja-ov

"love

TO

mankind:

cannot walk with God, unless

you love mankind.

The highest expression of what may be called

the social side of Stoicism is the doctrine of worldwhich the teaching of Socrates and
Plato had already prepared the way. It is a favourite
Stoic idea that the world is a p,eyd\rj 770X15, a great
men being
city, whose citizens are men and gods
as it were the children, and God the universal
5
Est enim mundus" says Cicero, "quasi
father

citizenship, for

"

communis deorum atque hominum domus aut urbs

Within this great community the
utrorumque*
earlier Stoics, it is true, recognised a narrower and
more exclusive commonwealth, analogous in some
."

4
5

Roman

Society

ix. 42, tr.

from Nero

vn. 31, tr. Kendall.

are as it were TrcuSes

We

to

Marcus Aurelius,
3

Kendall.

iv. 12, tr.

326.

the World-City.
fragmenta, in. 334.

o-vv dvSpda-L in

Von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum

6
De Nat. Deor. n. 154.

p.

Kendall.

See

The

144

Hymn

of Cleanthes

respects to the conception of a church, and em

Only good men,"
bracing only the good or wise.
said Zeno,
tions
is

and

"

are fellow-citizens and friends and rela

free

men

"

between

nothing but enmity

fools or sinners there

But,

owing

in

some degree

man always remained

an unrealisable aspiration or ideal, the common
wealth of the wise plays a comparatively small
part in practical as opposed to theoretical Stoicism
and in Epictetus and his pupil it is nearly always
to the fact that the Stoic wise

the wider and

vails.
"

my

city

being,

more comprehensive

In so far as

"

it

am

and fatherland
is

ideal that pre

Antoninus," said Marcus,

the world

is

Rome, but

as a

"

(770X15

/ecu

TTCIT/HS,

human
w

^v

oe dvOpajno), o /cocr/xos 3 ).
In Epictetus, again, we read "If the things are
true which are said by the philosophers about the
AvTCDVivo), p,OL

rj

Pcojjirjj

a>s

kinship between God and man, what else remains

Never in
for men to do than what Socrates did ?
reply to the question, to what country you belong,
say that you are an Athenian or a Corinthian, but
that you are a citizen of the world (jco<r/uo?)....

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
1

to rational beings

Fr. 149, Pearson.

vi. 44.

for these only

Ibid. 154.

Universal brotherhood

145

by their nature formed to have communion

with God, being by means of reason conjoined
with him why should not such a man call himself
are

a citizen of the world,

In

this

great

why

not a son of

commonwealth,

freemen

participate,

Writing

against

sinners

slaves
as

as

well

well

1
?"

as

saints.

treatment

inconsiderate

the

as

God

of

Slave yourself, will

slaves, Epictetus observes
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

rule

are,

whom

and

you

that they are kinsmen, that they are brethren

2
nature, that they are the offspring of Zeus ?
?

"

by

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 3
they err un
4
he
teach them
says, through ignorance
willingly,
":

"

then, or bear with

With

pardonner.

them

Tout savoir, cest tout

."

we may compare

this

the

fol

pirate had been cast on the

lowing fragment.
land and was perishing through the tempest.
man took clothing and gave it to him, and brought
"A

the pirate into his house, and supplied him with

everything else that was necessary. When the man

was reproached by a person for doing kindness to

the bad, he replied, I have shown this regard not
1
i.

3
6

n.

9, tr.
i,

tr.

Long.
Rendall.

viii. 59, tr.

A.

E.

i.

13,

tr.

Long.

Cf. Dill,
4

I.e.

p.

iv. 3.

Rendall.

IO

328.

The

146

Hymn

of Cleanthes
1

man, but to mankind /

to the

If

we would under

stand the true historical significance of the Stoic

we must above

things remember
that it is essentially a religious ideal, since the bond
of citizenship is man s unity with man in virtue of

cosmopolitanism,

his

unity with God.

It

is

all

the prototype, and so

far as Greek thought is concerned, in part at least

the progenitor of the Christian civitas dei or "city
In Marcus Aurelius we have the very
of God."

Dear

"

phrase:

city

of Cecrops!

saith the poet,

We
and wilt thou not say Dear city of God 2
in
kind
unconscious
a
of
noble
have a
prophecy
?"

fragment of Cicero
spired

by what

is

de republica, a fragment in
best and most enduring in the
s

philosophy of Plato and the Stoics "And there will

not be one law at 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

And he
arbitrator, and the proposer of this law.
who will not obey it will be an exile from himself,
naturam hominum
and, despising the nature of man
aspernatus will, by virtue of that very act, suffer
the greatest of all penalties, even though he shall

have escaped
3

imagined
1

2
3

p.

."

other punishments which can be

Christianity has done something to
all

Pseudo-Epictetus, Fr. 109,

iv. 23, tr. Kendall.
in.

127).

c.

22,

tr.

tr.

Long.

Churton Collins

(Studies

in

Shakespeare,

Cosmopolitanism a religious ideal

but
bring this ideal nearer
realised when the prayer is
;

dom

come.

heaven

Thy

147

can only be

it

"

fulfilled

Thy

be done on earth, as

will

fully

king
is

it

in

1
."

Enough has now been

and

pounding

the

illustrating

by way of ex

said

doctrine

man

of

appears not only in Stoicism

Let us now
earlier Greek literature.

divine descent as

but also in

it

proceed to discuss the second division of the hymn.

We

shall find

and importance
<ro!

to the

first.

Tras oSc KOCT/XOS, eXioxro/xevos Trepi yaiav,

&rj

7rei 0Tai,

],

rot)

think, equal in point of interest

it,

yap

KCV ay$s, KCU CKWV VTTO

r)

Trvpoeia

atei^coorra

Kepavvov
rrdvr

VTTO
7r\.r)yfj<;

(mo

<f>vo"(i)<s

epya

KarevOvvtis KOLVOV Xoyov, os 8ia

^oira, /xiyvv/xvo? ^tcyaXots /xtKpots re
<S

crv

TO(T(ros

<os

<rov

TrX^v

O7roo"a

proven

dAAa

o*v

ra

/cai

KO.KOL

7rpto~o"a

<T

<uo"^

"Lo!

li^a

is

Stxa, Sat/xov,

evi TTOVTO),

ox/>Tepr?o-u>

>

at ov

yap

<aecr<riv.

yeyaws VTraro? ^acrtXcvs Sia Travro?.

ovSe rt ytyverat cpyov CTTI ^ovt

ovre Kar* aWepiov 6clov TroXov OUT

<f

<TcXtTat>.

rrai/Tcov

tTTi o Tao
<>iXa

afoiais.

at apria 0ivai,

o*ol

<>iAa

icrriv.

TTO.VTOL

yi yveo-0at TTOLVTUV

Xoyov

aiev eovra.

yonder Heaven, that round the earth is wheeled,

still to thee doth yield

Follows thy guidance,

Glad homage; thine unconquerable hand

Such flaming minister, the levin-brand
1

Cf. Dill, U. p. 328: "The Stoic school has the glory of

anticipating the diviner dream, yet far from realised, of a human
brotherhood under the light from the Cross."

10

The

148

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might

Pulsates through all that Nature brings to light;

Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows

all, and in the light celestial glows
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

Through

Of

stars

heaven s immensity;
Save what the sinner works infatuate.

Is wrought, or in high

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight:

Chaos

to thee

The unloved

order: in thine eyes

lovely,

One Word through

The

who

didst harmonise

with things good, that there should be

evil

Things

is

is

all

things

everlastingly."

general idea running through these lines

that the whole of external Nature, organic and

inorganic, yields implicit obedience to the law of
is

God

and

we

if

look at them in connexion with the

next division of the

poem (extending from

line 22

one of the objects of

to line 35), we
Cleanthes is to contrast Nature s obedience with
shall see that

man s

may

For a Christian

disobedience.

compare the lines of

"Sometimes

An

sit

Henry Vaughan

with Thee, and tarry

hour or two, then vary.

Thy

other creatures in this scene

Thee only

Some

aim,

rise to seek

and mean;
Thee, and with heads

peep from their beds;

Others, whose birth is in the tomb,
And cannot quit the womb,
Erect,

Sigh there, and groan for Thee,

Their liberty.
I

parallel

would

Or

were a stone, or

flower by pedigree,

tree,

we

Nature s

obedience to

Or some poor highway

To

All day expect

But

am

my

one sure

tied to

149

herb, or spring

flow, or bird to sing

Then should

Goa

state

date;

sadly loose,

and

stray

A
O

giddy blast each way;

let me not thus range
Thou canst not change 1
!

."

But the verses of Cleanthes need elucidation in

I will first endeavour to ex
nearly every detail.
in such a way as to disentangle
which
the principal ideas
they express and after
wards I will discuss and illustrate these ideas at

plain their

meaning

greater length.
"Then

all

this

universe,

circling

around the

earth, obeys,

such a
following thy guidance, and willingly accepts thy rule
minister hast thou in thine unconquered hands, two-edged, fire:

fraught, the ever-living thunderbolt

the universal Word, that

the great and lesser

We

pulsations

all

all things,

mingling with

lights."

have here, you

who

its

Therewith thou directest

moves through
will

rently distinct conceptions

or Zeus,

under

for

the works of nature are accomplished.

is

observe, three appa

the supreme God

first

addressed throughout
his

minister

ever-living thunderbolt,
the KOIZ/OS Xo yos or universal

Word

second the

and

thirdly,

or

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

Sacred Song,

waiting for Deliverance (Palgrave,

p. 91).

Treasury of

The

150

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 system
to the

is

Stoic

who

outside God,

there

the universe or

is

we

matter and what

call

a monistic and not a

call spirit

is

all

nothing

what we

are a unity in

What

then does the poet mean by the everThis oracular phrase is taken
living thunderbolt ?
from Heraclitus, who in one fragment speaks of the
him.

"

"

"

ever-living

fire

thunderbolt steers
8

another says that "the

Se rrdvTa oia/aei
things" (TO,

all

Now in

/cepawos)
only a poetical
.

and

,"

in

Heraclitus

synonym

"the

thunderbolt" is

for the material aspect of

the yvupT] or Xoyos, the thought that interpenetrates

rules the world
and similarly in Cleanthes,

and

means the immanent,

Godhead
omnipresent
regarded on what may be
the

"

ever-living

thunderbolt"

called his

material or physical side.

sometimes go so far as to

indeed,
Deity with a species of

appears to have done

God
the
1

The

Stoics,

identify the
as
Heraclitus
fire, exactly
one of their definitions of

"

creative fore, proceeding systematically to

4
that is to say,
generation of the world
is

";

Just so in the Timaeus of Plato, the Sr?/xiovpyo is not to

distinct from the Idea on the model of which he

be viewed as

frames the world

movent
2

he

is

that Idea, regarded in

its

creative or

aspect.
8

Fr. 20.

TTVp TCXyiKOV,

p. 306, Diels.

68<J

ftaStfrv

7Tt

Fr. 28.

yCVCCTCl KoV/AOV

AetiuS

I.

7.

33,

The ever-living thunderbolt

151

evolving the world from himself according to the

unalterable law of his own being
although, when
use the word
to
more
exactly, they prefer
speaking
;

"aether"

of the

divine

substance

a curious an

ticipation, by the way, of recent theories of the

further point deserving of
structure of matter.

everconnexion with the expression

is this.
We have seen that the
living thunderbolt
Stoics spared no effort to reinterpret the popular
religion in terms of their own philosophy, by the
notice

"

in

"

extensive use of allegory and you will remember

that the thunderbolt is always in Greek poetry
and art the emblem of Zeus nay more, Zeus was
;

worshipped as God of the thunderbolt (Zeu? KCand sometimes as the thunderbolt itself
Thus, while following his master
at the same time contrives to
Cleanthes
Heraclitus,
give a philosophical interpretation, as philosophers
.

are

wont

to do, to a familiar article of the popular

creed.

The

beneath whose pulsations all the

works of Nature are accomplished," is an allusion to
"

phrase

the characteristically Stoic doctrine of rdi/os, that is, a

certain intrinsic tension or strain present in the

which the universe

is formed, a doctrine about which I will
only say
now that it is another curious foreshadowing of

original divine substance out of

certain

modern

theories of the constitution of the

atom.

Passing over this subject, let us consider

what Cleanthes wishes us to understand by the KOIVOS
1

In Mantinea.

See Farnell, Cults of the Greek

States,

i.

p. 45.

The

152

Hymn

Xoyo5, the universal

Cleanthes

of

word or reason

that

"

moves

through
things, mingling with the great and lesser
As
the "thunderbolt" expresses the material,
lights."
all

"universal word"
expresses what we should
the spiritual aspect of the immanent, omnipresent
are told by Tertullian that Cleanthes
Godhead.

so the
call

We

conceived of the Xoyos as a spiritus permeator zt,nia spirit permeating the universe
versitatis
and
another authority informs us that he considered God
1

be the soul of the world (r^z/ TOU KOCT/AOU tyvyrpf*

Here, then, we have the great doctrine of the Logos

to

Greek form

a doctrine which, as I hope to

show you presently, reaches back to Heraclitus, and
forward to St John, although in the fourth Gospel it
in its

Hebrew

doubtless owes something to

influence,

and

undoubtedly transformed and transfigured by the

introduction of an element which is neither Greek

is

nor Hebrew, but

in the true

and etymological mean

ing of the word, exclusively Christian.

The lines that follow touch incidentally on the

question of free-will and moral responsibility "Nor is

Lord, on earth, or in
aught done without thy will,
the aetherial firmament divine, or in the sea, except
:

and
men do through their own folly
thereafter we have a profoundly religious characteri
sation of the Godhead as the Harmony in whom all

what

"

evil

discord,

both

physical

and

moral,

reconciled.

is

but thou knowest also how to make odd even,

"Nay,
and bring order out of chaos and the unloved is
For thou hast joined together into
loved by thee.
;

Cleanthes, Fr. 12, Pearson.

tr. 14.

The Logos and cosmic harmony

one whole

things good with all things evil, in

that all make up one universal Word,

all

such a way
existent

153

evermore."

The topics which have emerged in this some

what 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 con
the
ception of God as the discors concordia rerum
cosmic harmony in which all partial discords are
comprehended and conciliated and finally, we have
:

the question of free-will, with all that it involves

about the origin of moral evil in the world.
The
last of these topics

can best be dealt with as an

appendix or epilogue to the other two

first

the

are only

Logos

of which

somewhat

doctrine, the

and the two

slightly different phases of

full

meaning and

significance

now endeavour to expound.

formerly, we must begin with Heraclitus.

will

Here, as

We

are expressly told by

that Heraclitus declared

Clement of Alexandria
and
to be God
fire
1

although none of the extant fragments affirms the

identity in so many words, it can be shown, I think,
that this omnipresent rational fire which he calls
\oyos

is

in point of fact Heraclitus

It

Godhead".

would lead us too

conception of the
far to

trace the

history of the doctrine of the divine immanence in

Greek literature from Heraclitus down to the Stoics;

and
1

must content myself with saying that

Coh.

For a

ad

Gent. 5. 165 A, Migne.

discussion of the steps

full

reached, see supra,

it

under-

by which this conclusion

The Doctrine of the Logos in Heraclitus, pp.

is

The

154

Hymn

of

Cleant he s

first the
went the usual process of spiritualisation
natural and afterwards the spiritual"
through the
until we meet
influence of poetry and philosophy
"

an altogether dematerialised or spiritual

form in the Platonic theory of the cosmic or world
It should also be remarked that whereas in
soul.

with

it

in

Heraclitus

God

is

conceived of only as immanent

in conformity with the

and not as transcendent,

usual trend of pantheistic theology, Plato on the

other hand represents the world-soul as distinct from

the Creator or supreme God, as it were his vice

gerent in the world of space and time, an emanation,

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 we have seen, reverted

as

it

to Heraclitus in both particulars, affirming only the

immanence of God in their doctrine of the omni

present Logos, and denying the duality of matter

spirit through their identification of the Logos
warm breath" or "aether."
with TTvevjjia IvQtpiJiov,

and

"

me endeavour

more
detail how this conception of the divine immanence
and omnipresence was worked out by Stoicism,
Let

to

show you

in

little

1
See especially the fragments of Epicharmus, ed. Kaibel.
In Euripides, too, we have a kindred conception see Adam,
:

and something of the

Religious Teachers of Greece, pp. 299 ff.
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

proceed to remark upon

its

155

religious

mean

ing and value.

The

all-pervading Deity or world-soul or Logos

for these different designations, together with
many others, such as Justice, Providence and Fate,
are practically synonymous, or at most express but
different ways in which the human mind conceives of
this all-pervading Godhead was
the divine unity
regarded by the Stoics as a spirit or irvevfjia a kind
"

present in every form of

but the degree
matter, whether organic or inorganic
of tension or strain persisting in the Tn/eu/ia the
of

"

atmospheric current

as

TTvevpaTiKos roi/os

the

same throughout.

it

was

called, is

Where

by no means

the tension

is

least,

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

pieces of earth, wood and so forth, the irvevpa

appears as a kind of current (TTVCVPCLTLKOV TL) stream

ing from the centre to the extremities of the object

and back again

to the centre, with

power

to hold the

thing together, but with no power to make it move.

This, which is the lowest grade of 7n>v/u,a, though
of course, a revelation of the Godhead, the
Stoics called l^s or
cohesion," because it possesses
still,

"

object from

by means of which it prevents the

We must not call it
falling to pieces.

soul, but

is

(TvveKTLKr) Svi/a/u?,

things.

it

"

Nature,"

the word

the substitute for soul in inorganic

in the scale comes
or

Next higher
which

is

"

Nature"

<j>vcri,s

so to speak the soul of plants,

being used in a highly technical

or scientific sense, with a play of course on

Here the tension of the 7n/ev/xa is greater,
plant."

<f>vTov

"

The

156
involving the

Hymn

of

Cleanthes

power of movement, upward and

downward movement

together with such

other attributes or qualities as belong to the life of
It is not until we reach the third stage in
plants.
the ascent that

at least,

we meet

with ^fv^q or soul, which

is

the form in which the Trvevpa reveals itself in the

lower animals.
Finally, when man is reached, we
have rational soul or vovs, the form of Trvev^a in

which the tension

seen,

man s

we have already
a peculiar and distinctive sense

highest, for, as

is

i/ous is in

a portion of God.

Now in this ascending

scale of existences

would

have you particularly observe that each higher grade

includes and embraces all the lower minerals have
the lower animals efts,
efts, plants efts and Averts
and man eft?, cherts, ^v^y and
Averts and ^V^TJ
:

vov<$

so

that

through

stretching
things,"

there

or unity
the mighty commonwealth of

all

real

solidarity

Wordsworth

not merely, as

"Up

is

says,

from the creeping plant to sovereign

man 1

"

but from the lowest creations of even inorganic nature

up to sovereign man for God according to the
:

Stoics

is

matter.

present even in the most ignoble forms of

In this way God is the true IWjcris TOV
"

or
unification of the world,"
unity
in the language of Cleanthes, the universal Word or
/cdcr/Ltov,

the

"

"

Reason
"that

Through all, and

Of stars both great and

flows

in the light celestial glows

small";

Excursion,

iv.

God
even

the unification

to quote again

as"

existences

of

157

from Wordsworth,

"one essence of pervading light

Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars
And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp

Couch d

From

in the

dewy

grass

."

which

considerations

the

have

now

placed before you, it will be evident to you all that

the Stoics found a revelation of God in nature as

Anyone who wishes

man.

well as in the heart of

to

follow out their treatment of this subject in detail

cannot do better than read the de natura deorum of

Cicero in

Professor

edition

Mayor s

one of the

most interesting and suggestive treatises on natural

It would be a fascinating
theology ever written.
enquiry to trace the parallels between the Stoic and
the early Christian conceptions of the divine imman
ence, more especially the Johannine interpretation of
timeless life, of which the tem
the Logos as the
"

poral world

a manifestation 2

is

,"

but on the present

will rather call

occasion
your attention to the way
in which the Stoic deification of Nature reappears
I

types of modern half-religious and halfphilosophical poetry, making mention, however, by

the way, of what seems to me a really striking
in certain

eTyai

I.e.

II.

459:

fia.Kpa.L(i)va

\)\<J)V

TYJV

(rv/A</>aw

[JLCV

KCU

See also especially Critolaus in von

xiv.

TI

/AOCTTWV, rrjv
TT]V

Book

Prelude,

Arnim,

av

ST/TTOT

Taiv

OV\L KOI rrjv TOV Kooyzov

TOJV

draKToov, Trjv

?lV,

CTTrapTOJI/

av$pw7ra>i/

Se

Inge, Christian Mysticism, p. 46.

Xe/creov

TWV dvap-

Wcrii/ TWV Stco

TWI/ do-u/x^coi/wv, rrjv

\i8toV

<J>V<TLV

apjj.oviav

Kttt

StvSptoV

vovv KCU Aoyov,

ap^rrjv

The

158

Hymn

Cleanthes

of

example of the influence exerted by Stoicism on

In the fifth of the
primitive Christian thought.
in
of
discovered
1897 we read
Jesus
Jesus
sayings
saith, wherever there are [two], they are not without
"

God, and wherever there

Raise the

with him.

me ;

anyone who

and

stone,

wood and

cleave the

sible for

is

one alone,

is

there

say,

am

there thou shalt find

am

/."

It is

impos

familiar with Stoicism to read

Logion without thinking at once of the Stoic

conception of the omnipresent Logos, although in
Christianity of course the Logos has become incar
I would venture also
nate in the person of Christ.
this

to suggest that the second of the five additional

sayings discovered at Oxyrhynchus in 1903 cannot

fully understood, except in connexion with the

be

doctrines

Stoic

which

have described.

will

quote the Logion according to Professor Swete s

restoration, except in one passage, where I follow

Hunt

Grenfell and

draw you
heaven.

to

the

They

who are those that

The kingdom is in

"

Jesus saith,

kingdom
are upon the earth and the
?

that

fowls of the air and every creature that is under the

earth and in Hades and the fishes of the sea
these

they which draw you.

are

heaven

is

self shall find

selves,

ye

For

it.

will also

almighty Father
within

And

the

city,

if

know

and
and

ye shall truly

Reading

kingdom of
know him

know your

that ye are sons of the

ye shall know that ye are
ye are the city." Without

pursuing the subject into details,

1

the

within you, and whoever shall

KCU et&Jo^Te OTI

wot

TT

it

will suffice to

v /xeis TOV Trarpog, etc.

say

Nature

Deification of

we have

that

here,

as

seems

it

to

159

me, an early

the
Christian version of two great Stoic doctrines
presence of God in every species of living creature

throughout the world, pointing us to the Father divine

from whom we also come, and the presence of God

more intimate sense within

in a yet

still

that to

know

ourselves

is

know

to

ourselves, so

the Father and

our relationship to Him.

Premising

that

Deity of the Stoics

identical with Nature

the

indwelling, omnipresent,
from one point of view
and indeed they sometimes

is
1

God and Nature in exactly the same terms

let us now turn our attention for a little to the poetry
of Wordsworth, in order that we may see how the
2

defined

doctrine of the
I

still

Logos

modern thought.
Wordsworth owes

lives in

do not of course suggest that

anything to Stoicism happily this is one of those

fundamental truths which religion and poetry and
:

philosophy are always rediscovering and reinter

To Wordsworth, as to the
preting in every age.
3
and divine
Stoics, Nature is a soul or spirit
:

"O

Soul of Nature! that by laws divine

still dost overflow

Sustained and governed,

With an impassioned
1

The natura naturans

life

of scholastic philosophy.

See Zeno, Fr. 46, with Pearson

I

Nature

do not mean
is

"

s note.

imply, of course, that Wordsworth s

a wiv^a. in the full Stoic sense of the word.
Pre
to

sumably he would have conceived of

"Nature"

as aVw/xaro?,

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

never reflected on the subject at all.
*

Prelude,

Book xn.

The

160

Hymn

of Cleanthes

In more than one passage he represents Nature

as an immanent indwelling soul, like the Stoic
world-soul.
every form of being

"To

An

is

assigned

it

subsists

active Principle

In

in all natures;

all things,

in the stars

Of azure heaven 1 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

No
It

And

knows no insulated

spot,

charm, nor solitude ; from link to link

2
circulates, the Soul of all the worlds
."

well-known passages from Lines

composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey and the
also in the

description of the
s
Prelude, Book vi

of

scenery of Switzerland, in the

.

The

central idea in these extracts

the

Stoic

Logos

but in

is
suggestive
last-mentioned

the

"the
types and symbols
passage there is one line
that lifts us to a still higher level of
of eternity
"

idealism,

recalling

to

the

Platonist

the

world of

invisible realities, whereof things seen and temporal

avTiTwrra TMV akrjOivwv.
are only types and shadows
In the following passage of Browning s Paracelsus

we have
1

2
3

a splendid elaboration on the theme of the

Cleanthes
Excursion^

line, /xiyi/v/tevos /xeyaAot?

Book

/x,i/c/>ots

Quoted supra, The Divine Origin of the

of Platonism,

p.

17.

re

<a<r<rti/.

ix.

Soul, p.

48

Vitality

Presence of

God

Nature

in

161

presence of God in Nature, without anything that

exceeds the range of Stoic thought:
heaves underneath the earth,

centre-fire

"The

the earth changes like a human face;

molten ore bursts up among the rocks,

And
The

Winds

into the stone

outbranches bright

heart,

In hidden mines, spots barren river-beds,

Crumbles into

God

fine

joys therein.

sand where sunbeams bask

The wroth

With foam, white as the bitten

When, in the solitary waste,

Of young volcanos come up,

sea
lip

waves are edged

of hate,

strange groups
cyclops-like,

on flame

Staring together with their eyes

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 waken it, rare verdure

Buds tenderly upon rough banks, between

withered tree-roots and the cracks of

The

Like a smile striving with a wrinkled

Above, birds

fly

in

merry

flocks,

frost,

face.

the lark

Soars up and up, shivering for very joy;

Afar the ocean sleeps
white fishing gulls
;

Flit

where the strand

Of nested

is purple with its tribe

savage creatures seek

limpets;

and God renews

Their loves in woods and plain

Thus He

His ancient rapture.

dwells in

all,

From life s minute beginnings, up at last

To man the consummation of this scheme
Of being, the completion of this sphere of life

One

1
."

of the consequences that follow from the

Logos is that man and Nature

Stoic doctrine of the

are

bound

in

the

closest
1

A. E.

possible

sympathy and

Paracelsus.
II

The

62

Hymn

of

Cleanthes

Marcus Aurelius "are

intertwined with one another in a holy bond
for
all
make
one
and
one
one
world,
God,
up
they
union:

"

all

says

things,"

No poet dwells
through all
more frequently or fondly on this topic than Words
worth and to him, as to the Stoics, the bond of
1

essence stretches

."

union between nature and humanity

"something

Whose

dwelling

dwells also in

"the

the reason

is

far

more deeply

the light of setting

that the

interfused,
suns"

mind of man." And that is just

Wordsworth no one who is not a

why in
man can hope

friend of

is

to

understand the voice of

nature.
this

"But

And

we from

the mountains learn

this the valleys

That never

show

Communion
To human weal and woe 2
It is

the

still

they deign to hold

where the heart is cold

will

."

sad music of humanity that Nature

sings,"
"Not

To

harsh nor grating, though of ample power

chasten and

subdue."

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 Philo
;

sophical Teacher.
It is time,

have seen that the Stoic doctrine of the Logos

1

vii. 9.

We

however, to return to Cleanthes.

a

is

Lines composed at Cora Linn.

not

Godhead as harmoniser

163

only an attempt to express the immanence of God in

the world, but also represents the Godhead as the
in

being who,

the words of Cudworth, reconciles

the variety and contrariety of things in the

universe into one most lovely and admirable har
"

all

mony

1
."

but thou knowest to

"Nay,

Chaos

make crooked

to thee is order, hatred love

Evil with

in

good

one great harmony

Accordant, interfused through

One

straight,

all

the world

Word."

universal, ever-living

This conception also goes back to Heraclitus

it

indeed, as Alois Patin has pointed out, the Alpha

and Omega of his whole philosophy.
are in the
is

We

habit,
rightly, of associating with the name of
Heraclitus the doctrine of the never-ceasing flux of

and

things

The

ncivTa pel

world, in his view,

one

is

gigantic battle-field of opposing forces for ever

waging internecine warfare. "Thou shouldest know,"

he says,

happens by
the king

Homer

war

"that

strife

of

all

is

"

"

4
."

universal

war

On

is

this

"

";

everything

the father of

and

all,

account he censures

strife might perish from

for
were there no strife, the
and
men
among gods
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

for

praying that
;

"

to confess that all things are

one."

In a passage of

Intellectual System of the Universe, p. 207.

Fr. 62.

Fr. 46.

Fr. 44.

Fr. 43
II

n.

The

164

Hymn

Jew we read

Philo the

of Cleanthes

as follows

made up

"

That which is
and when this

of both the opposites is one,

one
dissected, the opposites are brought to light.
Is not this what the Greeks say their great and
is

Heraclitus put in the forefront of his

philosophy as its sum and substance, and boasted of
This then is the revelation of
as a new discovery ?
celebrated

"

which Heraclitus believes himself to be the prophet.

The hidden harmony," he says, is better than the
It is just because men do not perceive
visible
this hidden harmony that they have gone astray.
"

"

."

"

They do

which

is

not

how that
he says,
concordant with itself as with
"

understand,"

discordant

is

bow and

the lyre, so with the world it is the

tension of opposing forces that makes the structure
the

one 3

Were

there no higher and lower notes in

4
The fact
music, there could be no harmony at all
"

."

."

that opposites are always passing into one another

shows, according to Heraclitus, that they are only

The living
two different sides of the same thing.
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
of
is contained in the
the
whole
matter
following
gist
that
which
is
and
whole
fragment: "Join together
that which is not whole, that which agrees and that
which disagrees, the concordant and the discordant:
"

."

2
4

Quoted by
Fr. 47Fr. 43-

Patin, Heraklits Einheitslehre, p. 60.

3
5

Fr. 45Fr. 78.

The hidden harmony

and from one comes

all comes one

from

iravTuv

KOL

Iv,

One which
which

is

ef

at the

TrdvTa)

ej>o9

Now

same time One

all"

what

same time Many,

at the

is

165

What

is

Many

this
is

(e*
this

the Unity
Heraclitus

in which all opposites are harmonised ?

himself gives the answer quite plainly in two frag
is
ments, one of which I have already quoted.
"It

God who

day and night, winter and summer, war

And again "To
and peace, satiety and hunger
God all things are beautiful and good and right, but
man believes that some things are wrong and others
is

."

right

."

we

If

try to estimate the ethical

and

religious

value of this great idea, which appears again and

again, I need hardly say, in nearly every form of
pantheistic thought, and has also left its
Christian theism, we must distinguish,

between physical
evil on the other.
as

of Stoic

think,

on the one hand, and moral

evil

ethics

mark on

The
is

practical rule of Heraclitean

we should

that

follow

the

conform to the divine Logos Set errecr&u

And inasmuch as the Logos is a harmony
that inevitably involves what from our finite and
partial point of view we call discord, it may be
rightly said that we conform to the universal, when
we recognize that pain and evil are necessary and
universal,

TW

gvva>.

inevitable concomitants of
state of
"

They

mind
also

human

in

life

and resignation.
serve who only stand and wait."
It is

not good for

1

good

Fr. 59.

that induces patience

"

"

men,"

says Heraclitus,
2

Fr. 36.

to get all that

a

Fr. 61.

The

66

Hymn

of Cleanthes

Sickness makes health pleasant and

In the
hunger satiety; weariness rest

they desire.

good,

words of Robert Browning, a poet who frequently

reminds us of Heraclitus,
Type needs antitype
As night needs day, as shine needs shade,
Needs evil; how were pity understood
"

Unless by pain

But there

is

so good

2
."

something more to be said than

this.

Greek philosophy

the philosophy of Heraclitus, of

Stoics
the
holds with not less emphasis
of
Plato,
than Christianity that there is something of the

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
infinite in

part of our nature.

or school in which

is

Suffering

we should

in fact a

yv^vdviov

learn to look at our

from the higher standpoint, the

of
the
infinite or whole
for "to God all
standpoint
things are beautiful and good and right," though men
individual

lives

think otherwise.

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
3

the sentiment attributed to Heraclitus, that

God
all
with
a
view to the harmony
accomplishes
things
"

4
of the whole

."

It

is

a fundamental article of the

Stoic creed that nothing can befall the individual

which is not for the

not sorrow, nor pain, nor death
must therefore study to
good of the whole.

We

Fr. 104.

Laws, 9030.

Francis Furini.

Fr. 61.

The

infinite in the individual

167

and not in the part, to em

brace in our regard, as Marcus Aurelius expresses it,
time and all being, and see that by the side of
in the

live

universal,

"all

being, all individual things are but a grain of millet,

1
Later
by that of time as the turn of a screw
."

is permeated by this idea.

Marcus
man, says
Aurelius, is convinced
for his apportioned destiny
that destiny is good
vaster sweep of things
man
with
the
on
sweeps
He welcomes gladly all that in the web of
3
I am in
harmony with all
destiny befalls him

Stoicism, in particular,

The

"

ideal

."

"

"

."

that

is

Universe.

a part of thy harmony, great

me nothing is early and nothing late, that is

All is fruit for me, which thy
season for thee.

For
in

Seasons bear,
unto thee are

Nature

all

From

things"
4

Trcura, eis ere Traz/ra)

(c/c

thee, in thee,

and

Iv

crot

crov

It is this

iravTa,

constant effort to

above the narrow individual standpoint and

rise

survey our individual life as part of the universal

order sub specie aeternitatis as it were that lends
to

Stoicism

tion

peculiar moral dignity and eleva

must beware of supposing that from

its

but we

the Stoic point of view our essential individuality

would be obliterated or enslaved by the realisa
tion of such

an

ideal.

On

the contrary, the true

emancipated from the

would be emancipated
tyranny of the lower and unessential
self

self,

which

is

perpetually striving, by the gratification of the sensual

and selfish impulses, to break loose from the whole
1

:;

x. 17,

Ibid.

tr.

Kendall.

in. 4,

tr.

iv. 23, tr.

Kendall.

Kendall.

The

68

Hymn

of Cleanthes

we are a part and become no more than

dismembered hand, or foot, or decapitated head,

of which
"a

lying severed from the body to which it belonged

It is 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
:

what does freedom mean

for
is

This

right.

the

is

that only the wise

whole matter
is

name

Freedom

meaning of the Stoic paradox

man

is

Epictetus puts the

free.

when he says Freedom

You
slavery a name for vice

a nutshell,

in

for virtue,

do what

to

"

."

conception of moral freedom

is like the Christian, with the difference, of course,
that the Logos whereby the Christian becomes free
will see that the Stoic

is

free,

Lord

"

in
s

free, is

free

the

freedman
s

who

is

attempts

"

."

make you

shall

For he

that

Lord, being a bondservant,

Christ

to

son

If the

ye shall be free indeed

called

is

Man.

the son of

likewise he that

bondservant 4

was

is

called,

was
the

being

In St Paul he alone

."

the SovXos Xpurrov.

Anyone who
the
express
philosophical meaning of

must inevitably do
so in terms of Stoicism, as may be seen from the
following extract from Principal Caird s Funda
It is the freedom
mental Ideas of Christianity
and fulfilment of our spiritual being to breathe in
this

article

of Christian

faith

"

the atmosphere of the universal

organ of the infinite reason.
perfection of our spiritual
1

M. Aur.
St

John

vin. 34,
viii.

tr.

life

Kendall.

life,

become the
the goal and

to

And

would be reached,
2
4

36.

Fr.
i

8.

Cor.

vii.

22.

if

Essential freedom of

man

69

every movement of our mind, every pulsation of

our intellectual and moral life were identified with
so that in isolation from

it,

could

own

our

call

it

There

we had no

life

is

in

we
this

nothing
sentence that a Stoic might not have written. And
to the Stoic not less than to the Christian, as I
."

have already indicated, the road to spiritual freedom

may sometimes be the via dolorosa.
44

By many a stern and fiery blast

The world s rude furnace must thy blood refine,

And many

a gale of keenest woe be passed,

Till every pulse beat true to airs divine 2

above

stated

that,

in

."

endeavouring to

esti

mate the value of the Stoic conception of the

Logos as the unity in which all opposites are har
monised, it is important to draw a distinction between
the evils which we call physical and those which we
moral.
So far as physical evil is concerned,
the solution which the Stoics offer, that pain and
suffering are part of the divine dispensation and

call

contribute

perhaps

to

the universal

harmony, though not

is one

entirely satisfactory to the intellect,

that in nearly every age has powerfully appealed

3
to the religious sentiment
But when we proceed,
.

the

as
1

Vol.

Stoics
i.,

Keble.

p.

sometimes do, to apply the same

153.

s Treasury of Sacred Song, p. 215.

however, not a few traces of other solutions in
Stoicism pointing to a kind of qualified dualism.
We hear, for

There

example, of

Palgrave

are,

Sai/xdi/ta

<av\a,

of

di/ay/o;,

of a certain weakness or

deficiency in God (do-foVta, cXAet^ts) and

Arnim, I.e. n. 1171, 1174, 1178, 1183 al.

so

forth.

See von

The

70

Hymn

of Cleanthes

solution to the existence of moral evil, neither the

intellectual nor the religious part of

our nature

is

It is of little avail to assure us

likely to acquiesce.
that moral evil fulfils a useful part in the economy
of the whole for without it there would be no such
:

Continence, for example, has

thing as moral good.
a meaning only in relation to incontinence, justice to

and so

injustice, truth to falsehood

These and

on.

other such considerations were frequently brought

forward by Chrysippus, who takes refuge, as usual,

a similitude.

in

"Just

as

in

comedies,"

he says,

some

ludicrous jests, which regarded in

themselves are bad, but which nevertheless add a
"

there are

so
it

if
is

charm

considered as a whole,
you consider wickedness alone and by itself,
deserving of censure but wickedness is not

certain

to the

poem

without

its

use in the whole

To

1
."

which Marcus

Aurelius very properly replies

Take care that
not
become
coarse
do
the
you
cheap
jest of which
"

Chrysippus speaks
and place of moral

."

The

question as to the origin

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
may
continually in the history of pantheism.

We

take Spinoza as an example.

"

Man,"

according to

Spinoza I quote from Mr Picton s Pantheism*

But what are we to say
is in God, and of God.
of bad men, the vile, the base, the liar, the mur
"

derer
1

Are they

von Arnim,

also in

n. 1181.

God and
2

See

of

God

vi. 42.

Spinoza
J

p. 69.

Pantheistic view of evil

does not blench.

Yes, they are.

in his doctrine of

adequate and

171

But here comes

inadequate ideas.

Thus,
you see the colour red, it completely ex
It cannot be defined and needs no
presses itself.
As
is in the Infinite
it
explanation.
Thought so
if

We

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
True, you
begun, it gives you no adequate idea.
have an adequate idea of each several colour, but
it

is

in ours.

not of their relations to the work conceived.

To

you would have to enter into the mind of

the artist and see as he sees.
Then the splotch of
colour would take its place as part of a harmonious
w hole and would give you an adequate idea just
get that

as

it

does to the

to Spinoza,

In this way, according

that if we could see

artist."

we must presume

things with the eye of Infinite Thought we should

have an adequate idea as he calls it, that is to
"

"

we

say,

how moral evil

which
he identifies
harmony

should fully comprehend

promotes the universal

with God.

Such a

solution, while

it

shelves the intellectual

difficulty by administering as it were a sedative to

the enquiring mind, leaves our moral sense unsatis
fied.

We

feel

that virtue

and vice are

essentially

antagonistic and irreconcilable so that it is 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

The

172

Hymn

of Cleanthes

occasion to cast about for a different solution.

It

is, of course, a favourite device of pantheism to cut

the knot by denying the reality of moral evil alto

phantom
negative of good, a
that dissolves before the light."
The Stoics, how
ever, could not possibly take refuge in a view so
gether

evil is the

"

entirely alien to the high moral earnestness which

Between virtue and vice,
distinguishes their creed.

Stoicism, the gulf is infinite

according to the
the
of
school, indeed, moral good
teaching

in

strictest

and moral

evil are the only things that really count

other things, riches and poverty, sickness and
The solu
indifferent."
health, even life itself, are

all

"

which the Stoics tended to adopt is contained

words of Cleanthes God is the author of all
things, "except what wicked men do through their

tion

in the

own

It

folly."

is

and moral

free-will

simply the popular doctrine of

responsibility, the

doctrine on

which the institutions of civilised society are founded,

praise and blame, reward and punishment, and so
forth.

In

its

Homer, who

theoretical expression
in the

it

as old as

is

Odyssey makes Zeus exclaim

Men

say that their evils are from us, but they

themselves through their own infatuation, have
These
sorrows beyond that which is ordained
"

."

words

were constantly
2
and Cleanthes

in

the

mouth of

Stoic

probably thinking of
The theory which they embody is
them here.
doubtless of considerable practical value, but it is

teachers

Od. i. 32-34See the passages

in

is

von Arnim,

11.

999

f.

Freewill and predestination

73

and

it

hardly consonant with theoretical

monism

comes

conflict with the

and immediate

into direct

If every effect, as
Stoic belief in predestination.
the Stoics believed, is the result of an unalterable
chain of causes, it is difficult to see 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 Stoicorum veterwn fragmenta^.

although

in

myself with saying that

the course of their discussions on the

will

content

subject they succeeded in bringing to light some

precepts of the highest ethical value, and anticipated
nearly all the principal attempts of later philosophy
to deal with the

problem of

ation on

and predestin
they were unable to

free-will

its speculative side,

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,
so also was
ready
:

We

the punishment.
are told that Zeno was once
a
whipping slave for theft, and the slave who may

perhaps have overheard one of his master

tations
"Yes,

ii.

dispu

was fated for me to steal.

be whipped," said Zeno
This is the

protested

and

to

It

Stoic counterpart of the old Aeschylean

1

"

974

ff.

Apophthegmata of

Zeno>

doctrine

54, Pearson.

The

174
that even

Hymn

Cleanthes

of

the responsibility rests with Fate, it is

who must suffer. It is in vain that

if

the doer

still

from the avenging

Clytemnestra, as she shrinks

sword, exclaims
:

"Not

The

I,

but Fate,

is

guilty of these

sins."

reply of Orestes leaves no loophole of escape

"This

We

doom

fatal

it

then,

Fate that sends

is

1
."

have now considered the principal ideas

contained in the second of the four divisions into

which we have divided the

The two remaining

hymn

of Cleanthes.

sections will not detain us long.

Cleanthes proceeds to describe how the wicked turn

aside from the universal law, each pursuing his own

and missing

individual good,

not seek

it

in the universal

it,

just because he does

after

which he prays

their illumination.

OVT
<S

<ropo>cri

KV

ayaOutv //.ev
Otov KOWOV vo/xov ovrc K\VOV(TLV,
orvv

TreiOofJicvoi

op(ji(j)(nv

ot /aev VTTtp

8o^

Ot 8*

7Tl

8*

vw

/?tov

e<rO\ov

e^otev.

avot KO.KOV aXXos

CTT*

a\Xo,

cnrovSrjv 8v(Tpiarrov e^ovrc?,

KpSo<TVVa<S

15

cwri,

act KTrj&iv 7ro0eoi/Tes

avrot 8 av0

aAAot

KCLKOL

OCTOL Ovrjrwv

ewcrii/

otr*

avriv

TTpa/JifJiVOl OvSeVl KOO-/XO),

/cat

o-oj/xaros ^8ca epya.

aXXore 8 aXXa ^cpovrat,
/xaXa 7ra/x7rav ei/avrt a rcovSe yevtvOai.

trf

(TTTCvSoi/res
"

One Word

whose voice

Insatiate for the

Yet seeing see

God s

good

alas

the wicked spurn

their spirits yearn

not, neither hearing hear

universal law, which those revere,

Choephori) 909

f.

for

Man

oblivious

God

of

175

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

Others inordinately riches woo,

Or

dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.

Now

here,

now

there they wander, fruitless

For ever seeking good and finding

still,

ill."

Here again there are reminiscences of

Heraclitus.

In one fragment, for example, we read: "The Logos

is universal
but most men live as if they had a
:

and in another
private intelligence of their own
at
variance
with
that
with
which they
They are
1

"

"

live in

most continual intercourse

2
."

The general
we read it in

idea in this part of the hymn, if

connexion with what precedes, is, as I have said
already, that man alone is oblivious of his Maker

both inanimate and animate,

For a Christian parallel
obeys the law of God.
the

rest

of Nature,

we may perhaps compare the

Henry Vaughan from the poem
waiting for Revelation*.
The prayer with which

the

beautiful
entitled

hymn

lines

concludes

begins with supplication, and ends in praise

dXXa Zev

3
4

</xei/>

Trarep,

<ru,

TTUTWOS

rj

aTrcLpofrvvrjS ctTro

pvov

<TKeSa<rov

<rv

^^X1? 5 a^o,

SI K^S

Fr. 92.

Quoted

TravScope,

ai/$pu)7rovs
v
77

Xvyp^s,

Sos Se

Kvprj<rai

/ura Trarra

Fr. 93.

supra, p. 148
with reference to the aut^wovra Kcpawop of

dpyiKcpawe

of

Creation

f.

(see supra, p. 151).

v.

10

The

176

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

aiv

TO.

vfj.vovvT<s

era

^V^/TOV

ovre 0eoTs,

cpya

Si^vc/ccs,

7Tt OVTC

OVT\

Whose

77

yepttS ttXXo Tt

whom

darkness shrouds,

lightning lightens in the thunder-clouds

children save from error

Thy

eTre

KOIVOV dei vo/xov ev StKrj vf

the all-bountiful,

"Zeus

/?/>OTOl9

<os

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,
mortals should; nor higher meed belongs

As

E en
The

to the gods, than justly to adore

universal law for evermore."

Side by side with these lines

two

will

ask you to set

one

characteristic utterances of later Stoicism,

and one by his pupil Marcus

Emperor of Rome. The first is as
I am a lame old man, and can do
follows
nothing
If I were a
else, but I can sing praise to God.
nightingale, I should do the part of a nightingale,
by Epictetus the

slave,

Aurelius, the
"

if

a swan,

should act like a swan.

As

it is,

am

must sing praise to God. This

a rational being
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
words of the slave hear now the words of the
:

."

Serenely you await the

be annihilation or change. And while

"What

Emperor.
end, whether

it

then?

i.

16.

Practical

and bless

of Stoic ideas

177

what sufficeth ? Reverence

the gods, do good to men, endure and

hour yet

the

effect

tarries,

"

refrain

KCU eu^/^e
dve^ecrOai avrajv KOI

#eou9 \L\V

Se eS iroielv,

The

/cat

ere/Set^

object of these lectures, as

said at the

beginning, has been to explain and illustrate the

But there is another
religious ideas of Stoicism.

from which the religion of Stoicism

side

Read the

studied.

Empire, and you

of

effect

these

history

of the

early

may be
Roman

begin to realise the practical

ideas in ennobling the lives of
will

men and women, and keeping them faithful unto

death. There are few more heroic figures in history
The
than the Stoic martyrs of the time of Nero.
words
of
as
she
took
the
from
Arria,
dying
dagger
her breast and gave
"

dolet"

Paetus,

it

it

to her husband,

does not hurt

"

Paete, non
were not as
"

have sometimes insinuated, a histrionic

no one who realises what death means
will for a moment cherish such an unworthy thought
they were the spontaneous utterance of a noble

lesser natures

exclamation

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.
But on the mass of the people Stoicism,

must be confessed, made but little impression.

Many reasons might be alleged in explanation.

it

Contrasting Christ with Socrates, Justin Martyr says

1

v. 33, after

A. E.

Kendall.

Pliny,

Ep.

in. 16.

12

The

178
"

In Christ

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

who was known

in part

by Socrates

was and is the Logos present in every

(for Christ
not philosophers alone and scholars
in
Christ
man...)
working men, the ignorant as well
were taught by Him to despise
and
as the learned,
To much the same
glory and fear and death
2
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
believed, but also

."

masses of mankind.

Greek philosophy was

far

more

touch with

in

ordinary uneducated human nature than modern

but even Greek philosophy was
philosophy is
Plato in one passage says pathe
never popular."
;

"

I do not expect that the majority of men will

and in another
ever believe in the theory of Ideas
passage we have the significant words TCHS Se TroXXoi?
"

tically

"

You may remember that even the

more liberally-minded among the early Christian

ovSe SiaXeyo/xcu.
fathers

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.
1

ApoL 461

A, B,

Migne.

Against Celsus, 150505*., Migne.

Immortality

some

179

first place,

to secure the adhesion of ordinary

is

little

an open question

the belief in immortality, which

writers have held to be essential to any religion

In the
that

left

or no part in Stoicism.

ing to Cleanthes,

all

It is

human

men, plays
true that, accord

souls survive

the

till

universal conflagration that separates one aeon from

another but the Stoics were not unanimous on this
;

and Chrysippus

for his part believed only in

a kind of conditional immortality: the souls of the
good, he thought, endure till the conflagration, but

point,

wicked perish sooner.

Chrysippus
made
to
to
have
some
differentiate
appears
attempt
between the condition of the wicked and the condi
those

of the

tion of the

good

after death

1
;

but in general

say that the notion of a future

life

significance in earlier Stoicism.

had no

At a

we may
practical

later period,

when

the austerity of Stoic teaching began to be

tempered by Platonism, considerable stress was

sometimes

laid

on the doctrine of purgatory and

We

a place of reward hereafter.

have an illustra
tion of this tendency in the sixth book of .Virgil s
still more in Seneca, who in his eschaowes
much to Plato. But the question of
tology
immortality was to the last an open one in Stoicism.
Marcus Aurelius, for example, reserves his assent
death is either extinction or transmutation
and
would
seem
to
disbelieved
have
Epictetus
definitely

Aeneid?, and

in the

Shall

continuance of individuality beyond the grave.

I then no
longer exist? You will not exist,

but you will be something

1

See von Arnim,

Lc.

else,

n. 812-814.

of which the world

*

724-75 1
12

The

180

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 truth is that from the lofty standpoint of

Stoicism the question of immortality is irrelevant
or worse virtue must be pursued for its own sake
:

would cease to be virtue if inspired in any measure,

however slight, by the hope of future bliss or the
fear of future misery. We need not enquire whether
Stoicism was right or wrong in such a view: all I
wish to point out is that Stoicism offered no real
it

satisfaction to the craving of the human heart for

immortality, and for this reason, among others, could

never become the universal religion of which its

Life and immortality
noblest prophets dreamed.

had yet

to be

And
reasons

brought to light through the Gospel.

second of the two great

this leads us to the

why

Stoicism failed to penetrate the hearts

and consciences of ordinary human beings. It lacks

above all things the motive principle of personality.
Marcus Aurelius, ri ovv ov \pa ;
"EX^S \6yov, says
thou
TOVTOV yap TO eavrov TTOLOVVTOS TL aXXo #e Xeis ;
hast reason, why then not use it ? If reason does its
2
work, what else dost thou require ?
might
"

We

"

imagine a Christian subject of the Emperor replying,

Yes, but we need some driving power to make
"

the

Logos

in us

do

its

work

8
.

And

this

Christ, the incarnation of the Logos, the

1

24,

3.
3

Cf.

habent

tr.

Long.

iv.

Lactantius, Divin. Inst.

ilia

praecepta, quia sunt

we

find in

God-man,

13.

in.

27,

humana,"

"Sed

etc.

nihil

ponderis

181

Logos not personified by Stoics

whom we

with

die to sin that

life

of virtue and

the

fundamental

we may

rise to the

In other words, it is
the doctrine of the incarnate Logos that constitutes

and Stoicism.

holiness."

between Christianity

difference

have already said that the early

Christian fathers spoke of Greek philosophy as a

In the spirit of this
preparation for the Gospel.
"

us enquire, in conclusion, whether there

anything in Greek philosophy that can fairly be

remark,
is

let

considered to pave the way for the words near the

the Logos became
beginning of the fourth Gospel
"

and dwelt among us

The tendency of Greek

flesh,

the ethical ideal

is

"

philosophers to personify

as old as Plato.

The

<iXocro</>o<

or lover of wisdom, whose ideal portrait he paints

for us in the Republic^ and the Theaetctus*, is Plato s

conception of the perfect man and we have already

seen that the human in Plato, understood in its truest
;

meaning,

is

In each of these pic

also the divine.

tures, Plato has in view his master Socrates, not as

he was in life, but idealised for Socrates no sooner
;

died than he became to his followers an idea, an in

spiration, an ever-living example of how the righteous

man
work

should live and

die.

The same tendency

in Aristotle s description

is

at

of the /xeya\oi//v^o5 or

embodiment of every virtue,

as Aristotle understood the word
a kind of 0eog eV
and entitled to the same kind of reverence
dvO
high-minded man, the

pa>TroL<$

and honour as the gods. In post- Aristotelian philo

sophy the personification of the moral standard
1

475

Bff.,

485 Aff.

172 Dff.

The

82

Hymn

of Cleanthes

appears in the doctrine of the Wise Man, a doctrine

the true significance of which is seldom understood,
because superficial observers in antiquity, genial men
of the world like Horace, or professional scoffers like
Lucian, are always turning it into ridicule, and modern,
writers only too often follow in their wake.

The

Wise Man of Stoicism and Epicureanism is simply

an attempt to give a kind of quasi-visible form and
substance to their conception of the ultimate good.
He is the cro^os, the man who has attained others
,

most are only

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
at

<iXo<ro<oi,

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
nor the phantoms of the
could awaken or appease.

Epicurean intermundia
It is more than a mere

God was
metaphor when Lucretius exclaims:
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
"a

."

The

Stoics took a different, and, in reality, perhaps

V.

8-12.

Wise

Stoic

Man

not personified

The Good Man,

a truer view.

always an ideal

in

183

was

Stoicism,

neither Socrates nor Zeno, nor any

whom

they sometimes named as types,

was allowed to be more than an approximation.
Ubi enim istum (sapientem) invenies, quern tot
other of them

"

"

saeculis

quaerimus

Wise Man we

?"

are

Where

will

find the

you

throughout the
Let any of
read:

for

looking

And in Epictetus we
show
me a human soul ready to think as God
you
does, and not to blame either God or man, ready
1

ages

"

?"

not to be disappointed about anything, not to con

sider 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

cannot

Now

2
."

will

ask you to dismiss from your

moment

the gibes of Horace, and re

membering only the one essential doctrine of Stoic
anthropology, that is, the unity of man s spirit with

minds

for a

the spirit of God, to consider what the Stoic ideal

He must
of the perfect man must necessarily be.

needs be one whose soul

is

attuned to perfect and

whom we live and

unbroken harmony with him
move and have our being," one who, in the words of
thinks as God does," and is the
Epictetus, always
embodiment of perfect manhood just because in him
"in

"

we have

seen,

for
GWhead bodily
man is most manlike

God.

The

perfect man, said the

"

."

dwells

all

the fulness of the

in Stoicism, as

when most
1

Seneca,

like to

De

Tranquillitate Animi,

7. 4.

11.

19.

The

184
Stoics,

is

Hymn

of Cleanthes

God

divine, because

dwells in him

Oeiovs
oioi/cl

It is

from

this point of

view that the personi

fication of the ethical ideal, as

in the Stoic

expressed

or o-TrouScuos, appears in the

o-o<os
for the Christian identi
preparation

doctrine of the

"

light of a
fication of the
"

Logos with Jesus

pathetic cry of Seneca,

tot saeculis quaerimus ?

"

where

"

will

you

"

look for through

the

the fourth Gospel replies

the

ubi istum invenies quern

"

we

To

Christ.

ages
6

the

Xoyos

<rapg

find

him

author of
eyeVero

/cat

IcTKTjvaMrev iv rjplv.

The
nent

Nature and

in

Logos as God imma

man, was inherited by Philo,

Stoic doctrine of the

in

who under

Platonic and possibly also Jewish influence

distinguishes between the Logos and the supreme

God, and so replaces pantheism by theism. At the

same time he frequently describes the Logos in
terms which, as Mr Purves remarks,
often bear
New
resemblance
to
Testament
striking
descriptions
of Christ 2
To quote a few among many such
characterisations, the Logos, in Philo, is the Divine
"

."

Word, the

God s

first-born son of

God, the image of God,

the world, his prophet and

vice-gerent in
interpreter, the high-priest

who

God
between God

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 de1

Diog. Laert vn. 119.

Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible

s.v.

Logos.

Christian doctrine of incarnate Logos

cisive step, for which, as

have

tried to

185

show you the

teaching of post-Aristotelian philosophy, or rather of

the whole of Greek philosophy from Plato onward,

had prepared the way, by

its

ever-growing tendency

The

link between
was
once for all
Greek philosophy and Christianity
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-

to personify the ethical

ideal.

"

point of Christianity
the old religions.
It

with

the

seemed

to

best

elements

many

to

in

furnish

proofs that the new religion was in reality the full

1
In his
expression of truths taught by philosophy
."

Christian Mysticism, Dr Inge, on the strength of a

passage of Aurelius quoted in Eusebius, hazards the

suggestion that

"

the Apostle, writing at Ephesus,

refers deliberately in his prologue to the doctrine of

the great Ephesian idealist 2

Heraclitus, from
as we have seen, the doctrine in question
"

whom,
ulti

is

We

can never be sure of this

mately derived.
but without touching on the disputed question as
to the immediate sources of the Johannine Logos,

we may

say with confidence that no one can read

the first five 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
rot) /cocr/xou,
ing of the words eyw ei/xt TO

mean
"

am

^>o>9

the light of the world."

In the beginning was the
Word... In him was life; and the life was the light
"

Purves,

I.e.

p.

47

n.

The

86

Hymn

of Cleanthes

That was the true

of men.

which lighteth
believe, every man, in every
is,
every
age and country, both before and after the incarna
tion of the Word
"that cometh
into the world
Before the birth of Christ men spoke of Jew and
The Light of the
Gentile, barbarian and Greek.

man

that

"-

light,

."

"

World

"

has risen, and, well we have changed our

formula we speak of Christian and heathen, Chris
:

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 /lera Xoyou are Christians, even if
And such among
they were accounted atheists.
the Greeks, were Socrates and HeraclitusV
It has
often seemed to me that this famous sentence, which
is sometimes treated as
embodying an uncritical and
sentimental
merely
opinion, indicates the road which
Christian theology will in future follow, nay is even
tian

"

now,

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
more the essential unity amid diversity of all religion.

We

are gradually apprehending the truth which the

poet expresses in the words
:

of Men! the unseen Power, whose age

For ever doth accompany mankind,
Hath looked on no religion scornfully,

"Children

That men did ever

1

find.

The Authorised Version seems

the Revised.
2

Apol. 397

c,

Migne.

to

me

right here as against

Essential unity of all religion

Which has not
Which has not
Which has not

taught weak wills how much they can?

fallen on the dry heart like rain?
cried to sunk, self-weary

Thou must
I

187

be born again

do not think

man,

"

can be denied that the general

it

tendency of thought

is

now in

the direction of

making

the Christian religion prima inter pares, rather than

sui generis.
It is not the interest of the apologist
"

for

says one of the wisest of recent

to sever it from all connexion with the

Christianity,"
"

divines,

thought and culture of the pre-Christian

religious
"

ages."

The
"

Christianity)

the divine origin of

does not suffer, but only gains fresh
argument" (for

can be shewn that the highest thought

and life... of all the races and nations of the ancient
force, if

it

world constituted a preparation for it, that the whole

order of human history in the pre-Christian ages
pointed to Christ, and that he was, in this sense, the
desire of

nations

all

"

And

becomes predominant among

ever this tendency

Christian thinkers, the
if

Johannine interpretation of the Logos-doctrine the

Johannine philosophy of religion, for such, in effect,
it 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

versal
1

Trcuri

we

look upon Christ as the pre-existent, uni

eternal Logos, in accordance with the

and

M. Arnold,
<nrf.piJ.ct.raL

Progress.

Cf. Justin Martyr,

oAi^eias OOKCI elvai.

J.

Caird, Philosophy of Religion, p. 335.

396

A,

Migne

The

88

Hymn

of

Cleanthe s

teaching of St John and Justin Martyr, it becomes

true to say with Justin Martyr ocra ovv napa Tracrt
1

"

KaXcos eZprjTai, TI^OJV ratv X/otcrrta^a)^ ecrrt

has been well and truly said by thinkers in

Perhaps
part of Christianity."
that history will one day justify
is

is

it

all

that

any age,

in this

way

is

nay,
already
in the
to
the
claim
of
be
Christianity
justifying
word
of
the
a
universal
profoundest meaning
religion.

We

shall learn at last to recognise that

God

6 auros #eos

all

it is

the

same

men worship under

We

names

TroXvoW/xos, as Cleanthes says.

understand that it is really a picture of the

diverse
shall

whom

Christian religion which Clement sets before us in

a noble passage of his Miscellanies*
The Father
"

and Maker of
through an

things is apprehended by all things

and without
innate faculty
all

(e/x</>urws)

teaching, things inanimate sympathizing with the

Of those who are alive, some are
living creation.

already immortal, working in the light of day (/ca#*

and of those who still are
-rtfjiepav
epya^ofjitva)
;

some are in fear, being carried still within

mother s womb while others are guided by

mortal,
their

and independent reason (avr^ovcrio) Xoyicr^w).

We divide mankind into barbarians and Greeks
but no race anywhere, either of tillers of the soil,
free

or nomads, or those

who

themselves.

dwell in

cities,

can live

something higher than

Wherefore every nation of the East,

without an inherent faith

in

and every nation that touches the Western shores,

1

Apol. 465 c, Migne.

Strom, v. 196 B ff.

Clem. Strom,

vi.

5.

261

B,

Migne.

189

Universality of Christianity
the nations of the North and

who

all

dwell towards

the South, have one and the same innate conception

(rrpo^^iv) of Him who has established the Kingdom
for the most universal of his operations extend
;

equally through
as it appears to

all."

It

is

for

this

sublime,

and

me truly Christian, conception that

of
Cleanthes
the hymn
prepares the way: and that
is my justification for having asked an assembly of
Christian teachers to consider

for a

little

what

it

means.
Books recommended

in

connexion with these lectures

Pearson, Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes; London, 1891.

Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, Leipzig, 1905.

Von Arnim,

Epictetus, translated by Long, London, 1887.

Marcus Aurelius, translated by Kendall, London, 1898.

E. Caird, The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers

(Chapters on Stoicism), Glasgow, 1904.

Fundamental Ideas of Christianity, Glasgow, 1899.

The
Philosophy of Religion, tr. Meyer, London, 1906.
Hoffding,
The
J. Caird,
Philosophy of Religion, London, 1904.
J.

Caird, The

V.

ANCIENT GREEK VIEWS OF

SUFFERING AND EVIL.

Many

of the Christian fathers

Justin Martyr,
example, and more especially Clement of
Alexandria were in the habit of describing Greek
for

Philosophy as the preparation or propaedeutic

TrpoTrapacTKevTJ or TrpoircuSeia

for Christianity.

The

great conception which runs through the writings of

Clement in particular is that of a gradual education

human race, culminating in the Christian

revelation, when the Xoyo? or Word, which Greek

of the

had dimly apprehended by the light of

d
reason, became flesh, and dwelt among men
This
eyeVero /ecu ecr/ofzxwcrez iv ypJiv.
Xoyo? crap
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
ever the difficulties that perplexed Greek thinkers.
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
1

For such a discussion see supra,

pp.

184

ff.

Greek consciousness of

evil

Christian conception of suffering and

But this much,
the divine economy.

think

we may

safely affirm.

191
its

place in

at

least,

short examination

of ancient Greek ideas about suffering and evil will

form a suitable propaedeutic or introduction to the
particular course of study
for it is the
undertake
;

Greek

literature that

it

which you are about

to

merit

of

characteristic

raises nearly all the really

which later moral and re

fundamental questions
ligious philosophy has endeavoured to answer, and
at the same time offers in a comparatively simple

and

intelligible form,

many

of the solutions at which

thinkers

have

independently arrived.

subsequent

one of the special virtues of Greek

They understood what they wished to say,

is

Lucidity
writers.

and said

with precision.
Nowhere, perhaps, does one find a deeper or
more all-pervading consciousness of the presence
it

of evil in the world than

among

The

the Greeks.

usual view of the perpetual gaiety of the Greeks, as

exemplified by the remark of the Egyptian priest
to

"

Solon,

(3

core, yepaiv Se

2oXon>,

""EXXr;^

SoXw^,
OVK

"EXXTpes
"

ecrrt^,"

ael

TrcuSe s

Solon, Solon,

you Greeks are always children, and there is not a

Greek that is
needs modification.
The Greeks
were not always children, in the sense of showing
old,"

continually the gaiety and light-heartedness of

little

children.

multitude of

passages

in

Greek

literature

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

will suffice to

192

and Evil

Suffering

traceable in the last resort to

have dispensed

that the immortals

two

one good

for

evils

Homer,

to the effect

to mortal

men

Pindar, Euripides, and

other
authors
are
many
apt to dwell on the sadness
man
s
of
lot, and even Plato, who is optimistic as
a rule, thinks that the evils in life far outnumber

Not

the good things.

whole can
trary,

fairly

that

Greek

literature as a

be called pessimistic.

though pessimism predominates

On

the con

in Euripides,

perhaps, one of its most characteristic notes is that

of effort, aspiration, ceaseless struggle against ad
versity.

are

so

It

is

great

just because the odds against him

that man has the opportunity to

a leading thought in Homer,

The
Pindar, Sophocles and other Greek authors.
an
becomes
itself
of
death
certainty
inspiration to

be a hero

that

is

noble endeavour.
cries Pindar,

"

"

why

Forasmuch as we must

should one

sit idly in

die,"

the dark,

nursing an old age unknown to fame, without part

2
or lot in noble deeds
"Work, for the night
?"

cometh,"

a constant theme in Greek literature.

is

But, at the

same

choly makes

time, a profound strain of melan

heard in nearly all the reflective

itself

passages of Greek writers and frequently the view

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

Solon
pass the gates of Hades as soon as possible.
is one of the most optimistic of Greek writers, but

even he says No one is happy, but

the sun looks down are miserable
"

."

//.

24.

527

ff.

OL

i.

82

ff.

all

on

whom

Hence
*

the

Fr. 14.

Evil ascribed

to

Gods

193

Call no man happy till

significance of the saying
he dies." Death is often represented as the only
"

physician of
u>

Odvarf. Trcuav, /x^

et

/uoi/os

aXyo?

8*

TWV dvrjKcaTwv KO.KWV

crv

<yap>

tarpos,
"

life s ills.

ovSey aTrrerai veKpov.

say me not nay, but

healing Death
Sole cure art thou of woes incurable;
!

come

Sorrow lays not her hands upon the dead 1

What

different explanations, then,

in

human

this

lecture

suggest of the evil

question which

in

life ?
I

."

do the Greeks
That is the
ask you to

will

consider.

men began seriously to reflect

the
difficulties,
tendency was to ascribe
evil as well as good directly to the gods.
Zeus, in
i.

At

before

first,

on moral

Homer,

is

the

OLyaOwv

ra/xta?

re

KOLK&V

the

re

and things good in Pindar,

Zeus giveth this and that,
vejjLet,
meaning good and evil. This is the ordinary, con
ventional, unreflective view, and as such appears in
the bulk of non-philosophical Greek literature, some
times, as in the tragic poets, side by side with more
refined suggestions, of which I 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

steward of things
Zeus ra re /cat ra

Aesch.

Butcher,

Fr.

255,

evil

Nauck.

Some Aspects of

the

See further on
Greek

Genius

this

subject,

Essay on the

Melancholy of the Greeks.

A. E.

13

Suffering and Evil

194
idealism
well as

most

so that

good

natural

is

for evil as

enough

to be ascribed to him.

when

part,

it

But

for the

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

everything

we

they meant was that

all

have, evil and

good

alike, is

given us

by the almighty powers on whom we depend in all

The Gods, being as they are in
the relations of life.

Homer

the sole and universal causes, are necessarily

the cause of evil rather than of good. In the Homeric

So
religion there is no devil to bear the blame.

much then

and simplest view, that evil

as well as good comes from the Gods.
2.
Against this view that evil comes from the

Gods we
time of

for the first

find a dramatic protest, as

Homer himself.
you
"

Zeus, revolving in his

early as the

Do

mind the

know,"

cries

fate of Aegisthus,

vainly do mortal men blame the Gods! For

of us they say comes evil, whereas they even of
themselves through their own infatuation (cn^Ja-iv
"how

have sorrows beyond that which is

This is the earliest suggestion of the
second theory of evil with which we meet in Greek

oLTacrOaXiria iv)
ordained^"

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

wrong

doing or sin for which man is himself responsible.

are here reminded of the view expressed in

We

the book of the

not death

Wisdom

Solomon

neither delighteth he

perish... but ungodly

1

of

Od.

i.

33

ff.

men by
(after

their

"

when

God made
the living

hands and their

Butcher and Lang).

Evil as punishment for

1

words called death unto them

was thinking of the Homeric

."

the verses

sin

195

Cleanthes the Stoic

when he wrote

line

King of Kings
whose
God,
purpose brings
"O

Through

To

ceaseless ages,

whate

birth,

er

on land or

Is wrought, or in high

in the sea

heavens immensity,

Save what the sinner works

infatuate"

throughout Greek tragedy this view that God

the cause of all except what wicked men do of

And
is

own free will, is

much by Sophocles

their

so

repeatedly insisted upon, not

as by Aeschylus, who almost

invariably tries to represent suffering as due to sin.

"For

bursting into blossom, Insolence

Its harvest-ear,

And

(V/?/QIS)

Delusion, ripeneth

2
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.

Thus

in the first place it is pointed out that in

fact
of
the wicked constantly enjoy prosperity,
point
while adversity falls to the lot of the righteous.
"Many wicked men are rich," says Solon, "and

many

virtuous
in

complaints
of the elegiac
1

i.

13

ff.

Pers. 823

men poor

We

meet with similar

more
than any other
Theognis, who,
poets, is perplexed and troubled by
."

See also Job iv. 7 ff.

f., tr. A. Swanwick.

Fr. 15, Bergk.

132

196

Suffering

and Evil

the moral chaos of the universe.

"

Dear

he

Zeus,"

I
wonder at thee thou
writes in one passage,
art the lord of all
thou hast great power and
honour, and knowest well the thoughts of each
"

man

s heart.

think
to

to deal

fit

just

How

alike,

turned to

then, son of Cronus, dost thou

same measure

the

careless

to sinful

whether their

moderation or to insolence

hearts

and
are
1

(v/S/ns)

?"

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, O Lord, ...yet would I reason
he cause with thee wherefore doth the way of the
:

"

wicked prosper

Wherefore are

all

they at ease

Also it is often
that deal very treacherously
pointed out that the innocent in this life constantly
?"

along with the guilty, and even in place of

the guilty.
Greek elegy and Pindar in particular,
suffer

and most of the Greek writers who touch upon

moral problems at all, recognise the indubitable
fact that the sins of the fathers are visited upon
their children.
Thus, for example, Solon, while
affirming that the guilty are generally punished in
own persons at the last, nevertheless adds

their
"If

the guilty escape, and the doom ordained of

fall not upon themselves, it will
surely fall

Heaven

the innocent will surfer for the guilty,

3
children,
perhaps, or later generations

hereafter
their

."

Theognis emphatically questions the justice of this

-

373
3

ff-

12. 17

Jer. xii.
ff.

i.

Cf.

Theog. 743

ff.

Suffering of the innocent

197

arrangement: "When the children of an unjust

follow after justice in thought
father," he exclaims,
and act, and dreading thy wrath, O son of Cronus,
love righteousness from the first among their
"

fellow-citizens, let

them not pay

As

sions of their sire!

it

for the transgres

complains the poet,

is,"

Here
punished
again we are reminded of the way in which the
"the

doer escapes, and another

is

."

Hebrew

prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, fall foul

of the doctrine that children are punished for the
of

sins

"

their

parents.

In

those

days,"

writes

say no more, the fathers

Jeremiah, "they
have eaten sour grapes and the children s teeth
But every one shall die for his
are set on edge.
2
the fact remains that the
Still
own iniquity
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
shall

."

the case.

There
regards

all

a further difficulty in the view which

suffering and calamity as only the punish

is

ment

for sins committed by the sufferer himself.

Granted that the sufferer has sinned, are we sure
that he is himself responsible for his sins ? In other
words, is man a free agent, so far as virtue and vice

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
theology ascribed everything to the Gods, including
are concerned

737

ff.

Jer. xxxi.

29

f.

Cf. Ezekiel xviii.

198

Suffering

and Evil

Thus in Homer, Ate, Blindness

Power that prompts to Evil, is

the origin of sin.

or Infatuation, the

When Agamemnon realises

the daughter of Zeus.
at last his criminal folly, he exclaims
What could
"

do

It

is

God who accomplished

Eldest

all.

daughter of Zeus is Ate who blindeth all, a power

of bane delicate are her feet, for not upon earth
:

she goeth, but walketh over the heads of men,

making men
that

And

1
."

to

to

fall

much

and entangleth
the

same

effect

one or

this

we read

in

a fragment of Aeschylus "that God engenders guilt

in mortal men, when he purposes utterly to destroy

house 2

This fragment is quoted by Plato

in the Republic 380 A, and gives him occasion for an
emphatic protest against ascribing evil to the Gods,

their

."

except as a chastening visitation for the good of the

sufferer.
It

a wide-spread notion throughout Greek

is

literature that

own

their

men

free will

which makes

are led astray into sin against

by a daemon or divine spirit,

appear to them good, and good

evil.
Aeschylus speaks of an evil daemon or Alastor
confounding men s senses and hounding them on to
ruin
and in his most powerful tragedies, dealing
evil

with the history of sin as it reveals itself in the

successive generations of a crime-stained family,
the inherited

tendency to sin is personified as a

kind of congenital daemon, taking vengeance for

the sins of the fathers by driving the children into

In the hearts of evil men," he says, sooner
sin.
"

//.

"

19.

90

ff.,

tr.

Myers.

Fr. 156, Nauck.

Men

led astray by a

daemon

199

when

the appointed hour arrives, the old

Insolence or Sin (vfipis) begets a young Insolence

or

later,

in the likeness

of

its

progenitors, an avenging spirit

working in darkness, irresistible, un

conquerable, unholy recklessness (Opdcros), bringing
This doctrine
black destruction upon the house
or

daemon,

."

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 be
tween the two views. Thus, for example, Aeschylus,
as it would seem, endeavours to distinguish two
moments or stages in the career of the sinner one
when he commits the first transgression, and the
:

when he

persists in his wickedness. Aeschylus

to
hold
that it is in the power of the indi
appears
but
vidual to refrain from taking the initial step

other

as soon as he has transgressed, infatuation follows

from the Gods, and his doom is sealed. This is

the meaning of the well-known line in which the

ghost of Darius moralises on the Persian down

dXV orai/ (nrevSr) ris avrds, x^ ^ e s ^vvairreTai

when of our own free will we rush into sin, God
himself becomes our ally
In the Old Testament, and in Aristotle we find
In the Old Testament God
parallels to this idea.
fall

"

."

not the primary author of evil, but incites men

4
to evil as a punishment for evil already committed
is

2
*
Eth. NIC. in.
Pers. 744 f.
Ag. 760 ff.
Teachers
See Adam, Religious
of Greece p. 147
>

7
f.

1114 a

19.

Suffering and Evil

2oo

Aristotle holds that a man had power to refrain

from the original acts which produced a vicious
career, and consequently he says
True, you can
"

not alter your character now

but it was open to
at
first
not
to
become
wicked, and you are
you
therefore voluntarily wicked."
It cannot, of course,
;

be argued that

a satisfactory solution
for
the real kernel of the difficulty lies in the conten
this

is

tion that the original acts

which

laid the

foundation

of the habit were themselves not free, but the result

of circumstance, heredity and so forth.
And, so far

Greek poets are concerned,

have already
said that they constantly attempt to represent even
the initial impulse to sin as coming from the Gods.
is the
Hybris, Insolence or Sin," Theognis says,
first and greatest evil
and God is its author
A
third
3.
suggestion with which we frequently
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.
makes
the character deteriorate, as is shewn
affliction
by the use of such words as irovrjpos and ^o^O^jpo^,
which passed from their original meanings, painful"
as the

"

"

or

"

grievous,"

."

to a signification of moral depravity

2
.

1512

who
and

[See however R. E. Macnaghten in Cl. Rev. for 1907, p. 12,

attributes the degraded meaning of such words as iron^po?
pox&gpofi to an instinctive aversion to labour on the part of
This radical and permanent flaw" in the national

the Athenians.

"

character he regards as leading to the downfall of Athens.

On
this view toil would appear a calamity and would be as effective

an agent of moral deterioration as sickness or other

afflictions.]

Suffering as a discipline

201

expressed by Simonides when he

declares that a man cannot but be bad, if hopeless
calamity overtake him
av8pa 8* OVK ecrri /IT) ov
1

This doctrine

is

"

"

KOLKOV

p,jjLevaL,

ov dfjid^avo^ crvp,(f)opd KaOeXrj.

The

writer, 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
first to insist repeatedly on the error of ascribing
first

evil to the
/u,a#os)

Gods.

"We

learn by suffering" (irdSos

2
constraint
such is

Wisdom cometh by

"

"

the language in which the poet expresses this idea,

developing the old story iraOtov 8e re I/T/TTIOS eyi/o*.
It is Zeus," he says, "who
guideth mortals on
the road to wisdom, who hath appointed the sure
ordinance by suffering thou shall learn.
In sleep
the anguish of remembered suffering breaks out
"

and wisdom cometh

before the heart

in

their

we have
of Job.

own

to mortals

You may remember that

despite
the
same
sentiments in the Book
exactly
"

."

God

man

speaketh once, yea twice, though

not.
In a dream, in a vision of

it

regardeth
the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in
then he openeth the
slumberings upon the bed
;

ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he

may withdraw man from his purpose, and

It is highly characteristic
pride from man
4

."

hide
that

Aeschylus should ascribe the law of irdOos p,d0os

we learn by suffering to Zeus, the God of all
others whom he most reveres.
The stern old
1

58

I0

f-

Ag. 186

ff.

Eum. 523
33. 14.

f.

202

Suffering

principle
"

of

and Evil

retribution,

simple

the doer must suffer

SpdcravTi

tremendous force

also insists with

a principle on which he

"

belongs appa

Gods who preceded

milder and humaner discipline

rently to the older dynasty of

Zeus

with Zeus a

begins.

The dramas

of Sophocles sometimes illustrate

the doctrine that suffering is a divinely-appointed
means of education. He is quite clear that there

such a thing as unmerited suffering in the world

and he frequently represents such suffering in the
is

light of a discipline.

In the Oedipus at Colonus,

Oedipus claims to have been taught by suffering

and time.
yap

crrepyciv

at irdOai

/xa/cpos SiSacTKei

He

/x

xa5

xpovos

wwv

1
.

no longer the old Oedipus of Thebes,

is

for,

Much
as Sophocles says in one of his fragments,
is revealed to the soul that is cradled in calamity
"

"

TroXX* eV KOLKOICTL 6vp,os evvrjOels

opa

The same

conception of suffering meets us also

from time to time in Greek philosophy. Thus, for

example, Plato,
to be said that

by way of
sufferer

3
.

discipline, to improve and benefit the

So also in respect of suffering hereafter,

Plato almost
or remedial
1

2
3

the Republic, will not allow it

God sends evil to mankind, unless
in

O. C. 7

invariably represents it as curative

the after-life is a kind of purgatory,
f.

Fr. 600, Nauck.

380

B.

See Adam, R. T. G.,

p.

172

f.

203

Mystery of suffering

though it is true that some incurable evil-doers are

punished in order to serve as examples for the rest
1
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
a kind of training-ground for the
yvfjLvdo-Lov
,

Here again, of course,

find plenty of parallels in the Old Testament and
Apocrypha, for example in the Wisdom of Solomon

development of character.

we

having borne a little chastening, they shall

good because God made trial of them,

"And

receive great

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,
2

."

of course, pretend that such a theory offers a full

solution of the mystery of suffering; it is merely one

suggestion

among many, and open to almost as serious

intellectual difficulties as the others.

It

has been

argued that a Power at once omnipotent and omnibenevolent could have bestowed on mankind the

good which suffering is supposed to

and yet have dispensed with the suffering
ultimate

bring,
;

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 to surrender either the omnipotence or omnibenevolence of the Deity, have maintained the
existence of two independent principles or powers
the one responsible for all that there is of evil
in

the world, and the other for the good.

1

Rep. 615

c.

a
iii.

5.

Cf.

Job

xxiii.

10.

This

204

Suffering

and Evil

leads us to the fourth explanation of evil which

appears in Greek literature, viz.

That evil comes, not from the Godhead, but
4.
from some rival principle or power, coeval with the
Deity, for the most part working against him, and

any case not

yet, at least, completely subject to

In
his control.
other words, the existence of evil
is
explained on the hypothesis of dualism.
in

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 im
;

perishable substance, water, it might be, or air or

but in course of time these two principles
fire
;

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

again into the elements.
He clearly looks upon Love as the beneficent, and
Hatred as the maleficent power; and in the judg

latter things are resolved

ment of

Aristotle,

the conception at which he

really driving, though he

is

expression,
Hatred of evil

the

first

distinct

to give

it

is

adequate

the cause of good, and

in
a
sense Empedocles was
so that

that
;

fails

Love

to recognise the

is

Good and

and independent principles

the Evil as two

;

for of course

Dualist view of evil

205

good is the Good, and that which

causes evil the Evil. Anaxagoras was a much more
He derives
consistent and thorough -going dualist.
that which causes

the world from the action of

upon primeval chaos

all

Mind

or Reason, vovs,
he
says, were to
things,

then Reason came

OJJLOV TrdvTa x/077/xara rjv
and formed them into a cosmos etra vovs tXOuv
But he did not, so far as we know,
Sie/cocr/A^cre^.
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 world-

gether

forming vov$ occupies in his system is analogous

to that which later theology assigns to the Deity,

even

if,

Deity.

as

is

probable,

Reason,
at

he did not

call

vov? the

in Anaxagoras, is uncreated and

once omniscient and omnipotent,

imperishable,
apparently a spiritual and not a corporeal essence,
a power that, in virtue of its absolute freedom
it
is,

is

as he says, avTOKparts
creates the cosmos.
It
not until we come to Plato that we seem to find

expressly attributed to a principle apparently

coeval with, and clearly, I think, distinguished from

evil

the Good.

the

World

product of
subject

is

In

his

Ttmaeus, Plato declares that

as 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

the world, is a personification of the original matter

or chaos, out of which the Deity constructs the
In any case, Plato makes it clear that
universe.

2o6

Suffering

and Evil

the Creator had not quite a free hand.

stantly repeats that
beautiful and good,

made them

as

The

God, desiring

as possible.

all

He

con

things to be

beautiful

and good,

as far
qualifying phrase
as possible" clearly implies the presence of some
impediment, some power or principle extraneous to
For
the Deity, which he cannot wholly overcome.

far

"

the most part, Plato connects this rival principle with

what is material and not with the spiritual. Thus
the

in

Theaetetus he writes

"

Nay, Theodorus,
can neither perish (for there must always be
something opposed to the Good), nor yet can it be
:

evil

heaven

but of necessity e cWy/oys it

haunts our mortal nature and this present world
But, in a well-known passage of the Laws, he
situated in

."

affirms that there

an

is

evil world-soul

as well as

a good two cosmic souls, the one beneficent, and

the other maleficent, contending against each other

throughout the whole domain of nature.

This is per
in
to the
nearest
Greek
literature
the
parallel
haps
conception of a devil only in Plato the evil world;

would appear to be altogether independent of

the good, so far as concerns its origin.
The Stoic philosophers occasionally explain the
presence of evil in a somewhat similar way, although,

soul

as

we

shall presently see, the

most characteristic and

was of quite a different kind.

Thus Chrysippus declared that there was a large ad
mixture of Necessity in the world and Necessity,
in Greek thought, is always something evil as op-

consistent Stoic solution

176

A.

Simplicity of dualist theory

207

posed to Nature, which is something good while

he suggested that perhaps God is not
;

at other times

SWOTOU

iraLvra

or;

omnipotent

the divine nature

is

not altogether free from weakness (dcrfeVeia), and

hence, along with the good things which he makes,
a certain

amount of

quasdam

necessarias, as

evil

bound up per sequellas

Gellius says
by a sort of
is

necessary or inevitable law which the Deity himself

cannot escape.
This dualistic explanation of the origin of evil
is of course the simplest
and it is worth our while
;

to observe that

provides a solid foundation for

notion is that God is the alto

it

The

morality.

gether beneficent power always at work in the

world against the forces that make for evil and
is further implied that man for his part is a
it
;

composite creature, with an element of the divine

in him, and at the same time with something of
the Titanic or devilish
mortality and
touching heav

midway between
With th one hand

standing
"

immortality,
with th other earth 2

n,

The duty of man

with God
<Twtpyos

is

."

thus to become a co-worker

as St Paul says
in
the attempt to establish a kingdom of heaven both
within himself and in the world 3
To this thought
TO>

0<,

Plato gives a characteristically religious expression

1

Aul. Cell. Noct. Att. vn.

See the

of Platonism,
3

From

lines of

namely

9.

George Herbert, quoted supra, The

Vitality

p. 21.

the Euthyphro

serving God,

i.

ij

we gather

deoi? frnjpcTunf, for the

virtue,

13

E.

that piety

is

the art of

promotion of a

2o8

Suffering

in a striking

by Jowett
be

"

and Evil

passage of the Laws, thus translated

For as we acknowledge the world to

many goods and

and of
more evils than goods, there is, 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/x,/xaxoi 8e
of

full

also of evils,

"-

and we are their

The guise under which humanity here

eot re d/*,a /cal Satjito^es

T)\LIV

property

."

"

warfare as the
presents itself is that of warfare
condition of progress
and it is just the presence
of evil which makes the warfare possible.
In this
;

a dualistic theory of the world

way

basis for morality.

for

such

But, although

may

afford a

Manicheanism

explanation of evil really is

be satisfactory to the intellect, it somehow
to satisfy man s spiritual and emotional nature

may
fails

in effect this

we long

and it sacrifices, of course,

unity
the omnipotence of the Godhead.
On this account
for

the most religious characters, especially those of a

mystical tendency in ancient as well as in modern

have seldom been able to acquiesce in such

a theory and it only remains for me to touch on

times,

the kind of solution which, though not, perhaps,

intellectually invulnerable, has commended itself to
not a few of the religious teachers of mankind.
In a certain line of the Iliad the Gods are
5.
said to pledge

one another

in

golden goblets as

they look upon the battle of Greeks and Trojans

On this line a scholiast writes the
round Troy
2

906

A.

See also supra,

p.

163.

4. 4.

Suffering as part of universal harmony

209

Men say it is unseemly that the

following note
But it is not
sight of wars should please the Gods.
"

unseemly
wars and

for noble

battles

deeds give pleasure.

appear

things

view

with a

God

For God

even these are not terrible.

all

Besides,

terrible to us, but to

the

to

accomplishes
harmony of the

whole, dispensing what is expedient thereunto, even

as Heraclitus says that to God all things are
beautiful and good and right, but men consider

some things wrong and others right*"

theory of suffering and evil is contained
tract,

and goes back, as you

The

fifth

in this

ex

will see, to Heraclitus.

Man s point of view is

Briefly stated, it is this.
he sees only a part.
limited
Hence to us the
evil and suffering in the world appear a blot
but
:

could see the whole, if we could attain to the

universal point of view, the point from which God
if

we

himself regards the universe, we should see that

and suffering contribute to the universal har

evil

For

mony.

this

universal

the play of opposites

harmony
with the

"as

from

results

bow and

the

so with the world

it is the
says Heraclitus,
tension of opposing forces that makes the structure
"

lyre,"

"

one."
"

Opposition,"

the fairest

harmony

we

are told,

results

"

"

is

cooperation

from differences

"

"

were

there no higher and lower notes in music, there could

be no harmony at
It is the same kind of view
all."

which Browning adumbrates

in

Francis Furini*.

Plato in antiquity occasionally gives expression

to a similar view, as when he says that God created
1

Her. Fr. 61, By water.

A. E.

Quoted supra,

p.

166.

14

2io

and Evil

Suffering

the part for the sake of the whole, and not the whole
a sentiment that looks like
for the sake of the part
God accom
an echo of the words of Heraclitus
"

things with a view to the harmony of the

whole."
Traces of this idea are perhaps to be
found also in Aeschylus.
It may be that the poet
plishes

all

intends us to believe that the spirits of cursing in

the Eumenides are, really, if we could only see it,
spirits

of

Sophocles, too, "seems to

our eyes from the suffering of the

blessing

invite us to

lift

individual to a consideration of the ulterior purpose

which Providence

is

thereby seeking to fulfil.... But

of the individual that the poet

not only the life

He seems to have extended his out
thus regards.
look to the whole movement of the human destiny,
it is

and to have seen therein the fulfilment of a single

harmonious purpose, which is none other than the
will of Zeus
But the Stoics were the chief representatives of
8
Man s true and essential
this view in ancient times
3

."

individuality, according to this school,

in the service of that universal being
identified with

God

and, further,

himself the ultimate unity in

and variety of the Universe
If,

in conclusion,

we

whom
is

it

is

xxxv.

Adam, R. T. ., pp. 173, 175.

See supra> Hymn of Cleanthes, pp. 166 ff.
See Hymn of Cleanthes, 1. 18 ff., and Keble

supra, p. 169.

is

try to estimate the ethical

See Verrall

which they

God who

the opposition
4
reconciled

realised

all

s edition, p.

is

s lines

quoted

Problem of moral
and

21

evil

religious value of this attempted

explanation

of the problem of suffering and evil

an explana

which appears again and again in nearly every

form of pantheistic thought, and more especially in

tion

we must

between
on the one hand, and moral evil on

Spinoza

distinguish,

think,

physical evil
the other.
So far as physical evil is concerned,
the suggestion that pain and suffering do in some

we

could only see it, fulfil the

divine purposes and contribute to the harmony of
the whole, may not be satisfactory to the intellect

mysterious way,

if

seems, indeed, to shelve the intellectual difficulty

but experience shows that it is a source
altogether
it

of consolation and resignation to the sufferer.

But
the explanation of the existence of moral evil on

same theory does not

the

satisfy either

our intellect

The Stoics indeed some

or our religious feeling.
moral
evil is needed in the
that
times maintain
universe to give a meaning to moral good, because
for

instance,
implies intemperance,
truth
and so forth 1 but
falsehood
justice injustice,
we feel that moral good and moral evil are funda

temperance,

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
is

first,

evil.

briefly

sum

up.

At

ascribed directly to the operation

suffering
of the Gods secondly, it
in the third place,
sin
;

me

Let

See supra,

Hymn

is
it

represented as due to

appears as a divinely

of Cleanthes, pp. 169

ff.

142

212

Suffering

ordained
character

for

discipline
;

and Evil
the

improvement of the

the fourth place, a frankly dualistic

in

explanation
attempted, evil, both physical and
moral, being attributed to a malevolent, and good
to a benevolent being
and finally, a few thinkers
is

show a

disposition

to

hold

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
of the universe, but among the Greeks there are
many signs of a firm belief in its existence and
of the hope of a hereafter in which the mystery
shall be solved, for
;

"Death

They

is

the veil which those

sleep

and

it

is

lifted

who

live call life;

1
."

Shelley, Prometheus Unbound.

VI.

THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL

VALUE OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION.
A
who

former student of Classics at the University,

now earning an honourable if somewhat

is

scanty livelihood by teaching Greek and Latin

somewhere in the provinces, once remarked to the
writer of this essay, a propos of the curriculum of
classical
I

die,

study in Cambridge, "Cut bono? When

should like to have the words Cut bono f

engraved
expressed

upon

my

perhaps

coffin."

with

The same

inquiry,

playfully

pathetic

less

exaggeration, must occasionally

every teacher of the Classics.

be addressed
It

is

to

question

which ought not to be evaded, whether it comes

from the advocate of some rival scheme of educa
tion, 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
1

Several

of

them are discussed (and somewhat

handled) by Professor Sidgwick in Farrar

Education, pp. 81
143.

severely

Essays on a Liberal

The Value of Classical Education

214

It would
be inappropriate, for example, to offer the same an
swer 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
a classical student at Oxford or Cambridge.
We

according to the status of the questioner.

are therefore at liberty to attempt a partial reply,

addressed in the main to those who are familiar

with the routine of classical study as it is pur

sued in the Universities.
It
is
in these that
education

classical

is

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

Universities,

hold upon the

and the recent development of other
is

to retain

its

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 profit

The present Essay is
ably be worked at school.
only an attempt to sketch in outline what seems
1

p.

The

440)

following passage from Mark Pattison s Essays (vol. i.,

show that such a result might have been anticipated,

will

we

shall endeavour to show

the study of the classics
a
liberal
education.
"It
is
a well-established fact
essentially
in the history of liberal education, that the periods in which the
history and the practice of it have made the greatest improve
if

only

as

is

ment, have been periods immediately succeeding some of the

great discoveries in science, or some of the great impulses to
the study of facts."

Liberal and professional education

215

the author a true apology and theory of the

place and proper function of classical study in a
to

University.
Let us begin by availing ourselves of a distinc
a distinction at once popular
tion of long standing

and

the

scientific

called a liberal

ancients

and what

The

education.

is

day,

what

is

called a professional
familiar to the

was

distinction

Plato s

in

between

distinction

teachers

the

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, now as in an
tiquity, is not to develop the mental and moral
qualities of the pupil for their own sakes, but to
enable him to make his living to convert, in other

words, his brains into money. Training of this kind

may or may not incidentally advance the liberal
education of the learner, but in
altogether distinct
its

from

liberal

its

essence

it

is

education, because

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

word

TrcuScia

education

is

In the

power

of

entering

TreTrcuSev/ieVos,

differs

in

the strict sense of

from

the

man whose

otherwise.

first

place, liberal education implies the

intellectual

into

another

The

faculty of

thoughts,

of appre-

sympathy.

man

The Value of Classical Education

216

view, and recognising the

his
of
creed and conduct, be
necessity
longs only to the man who is liberally educated.
In dealing with their fellow-men, others are tyrants
his

ciating

of

point

inherent

and persecutors he alone is tolerant. Nor is his

intellectual sympathy confined to the circle in 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
his kindred.
Liberal education communicates this
;

of

faculty
itself

intellectual

Form

rather the

sympathy

because,

than the Matter of

being

know

enables us in dealing with the thoughts

of others to make them our own by clothing
them with the form which we already know. From
ledge,

it

point of view liberal education is to every

other kind of learning just what Logic is to the
Sciences.

this

In the second place, liberal education involves

the training of the character no less than of the
intellect.

soul
ei5

It

aims

at the

irtpiaytoyri

of the entire

^VXTJS irtpiayaryTJ, IK vvKTepusrjs TWOS rjfjiepas

a spiritual
aXr)6ivriv TOV 01/709 ovcra eVai/oSos

which the soul ascends from twilight

True, the educator
noonday of reality

revolution, in
to

the

addresses himself to the intellect of his pupil first

and foremost, but he does not desire, nor is it, from
his point of view, even possible, to influence the
intellect

without

affecting
1

the will

Plato, Rep. vn. 521 c.

and character.

Characteristics of a liberal education

He

217

addresses himself in short, not to the intellect

whole man through the intellect.

alone, but to the

His attitude may be described

Plato

in

the words

of

vvv

Se

ye
Xoyos cr^/xat^et TavTrjv rrjv
tvovorav e/cacrrou ^vvapiv eV rrj $V)(rj /cai TO 6 py en
voy (5 KOLTapavBavei c/eaoros,
ei o/x/xa //,T) Svvarov
:

ofoz>

vv

crTptytw irpos TO
VV OT^ T7
ti/oxeVov irtiaKreov eivai,
&V t? TO ov
rj

o\a>

rq>

crw/xart

K TOV (TKOTtooVS, OVTO)

TOV

ea>9

TOV

/cat

oi

To?

TO

<j>av6roiTov
4<

cryecrOai Oeconevrj

Bwarrj yeV^Tat dva-

Our present reasoning

indicates

(meaning vovs or reason) dwelling

each individual, this organ wherewith
each one learns, cannot be turned round from gazing
on the false and fleeting, and rendered able to en

that this

"

faculty"

in the soul of

dure the contemplation of truth and the brightest

part

thereof,

except

by turning the whole soul

were impossible to turn the

even as if it
bodily eye from darkness to light except by turning
the whole body round along with
round

it."

Confining ourselves then for the present to these

liberal education
its
power to

two features of a
produce

intellectual

and

sympathy,

its

effect

in

the

character through the intellect

let
moulding
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
briefly

that

into the

it

is

the

We

may

transportation of the

ways of thought and

1

Rep.

vii.

518

c.

feeling

say

mind

which pre-

The Value of Classical Education

218
vailed

ancient Greece

in

and Rome.

This

is

but nothing short of this will do

high
nothing short of this has been aimed at by Hu
manists in every generation.
Macaulay used to
ideal

define a scholar as the

man who

could read his

Plato with his feet upon the fender

but that

is

not enough.
It was said of Dr Kennedy that
when he took a class in Demosthenes he did not
teach
in

the

Demosthenes, he was Demosthenes.

same sense

that

identifies himself with the

the

It

is

true scholar

author

whom

always
he reads.

In proportion as he grasps the full meaning of the

Greek, he transcends the limitations of time and
place, and is carried
his author lived and

back into the world wherein

moved. The soul of Homer,
of Sophocles, of Virgil passes into him

of Plato,
he looks out with other eyes upon another world
and the very music of their language seems to him

the spontaneous utterance of thoughts that are not

Nor is it only in the reading of
theirs, but his.

authors that such a transportation of the soul is

necessary in order to derive the full benefit of a

The

classical training.

prose and verse

is

writing of Greek and Latin

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.
it

No man

ever wrote like Plato or like Cicero unless

the spirit of ancient philosophy or oratory dwelt

The same is true of the
within him at the time.

The Gram
study of classical syntax and grammar.
is
of
little
marian
value to the Humanist if he does

Aim
not show

of

classical study

219

him what

particular habit of mind or

the ancients to express them

feeling prompted
selves in such and such a way. It has often been
observed that language stands to thought as form
does to matter.
if there is one
thing more

Now

characteristic of

Greek

whether we consider
art,

or

its

politics,

civilisation

its

it

than any other,

its

philosophy, its
the intimate union which

religion,

is

everywhere existed between matter and form.

In

dealing with the relation of language to thought,

Plato expressed his consciousness of this union by

language as the image (e?SoAoj>) of

and thought as nothing but the inner

describing

thought,

language of the soul conversing with

is

herself.

This

the justification of that laborious study of words,

and syntax, and idiom, which no serious student of

We

the Classics can afford to neglect.

desire to
recreate the world of Plato and Sophocles, to see

what they saw, as they saw

thought, as they thought

it

think what they

and in the wonderful
it,

language which they spoke, there is no shade of

expression, however delicate, no particle, however
trivial, in which there may not lurk a subtle force,
to miss

which

is

to

fall

short of apprehending the

We

significance of ancient life and thought.

need hardly add that History and Archaeology lose
full

half their

charm and

all

their

educational

value

unless they teach us how the ancients lived and

felt.
Modern historians sometimes forget that

History
did.

It

is

is

one of the Muses

the ancients seldom

not every archaeologist

who can

see,

The Value of Classical Education

22o

Keats, the whole soul of Greek antiquity in

a Grecian urn

like

"

Attic shape

Fair attitude

with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With

forest
silent

Thou,

As doth

When
Thou
Than

branches and the trodden weed;

form
dost tease us out of thought
!

eternity

Cold Pastoral

old age shall this generation waste,

shalt remain, in midst of other woe
ours, a friend to

Beauty

is

whom

man, to

truth, truth beauty, that

Ye know on

Earth,

and

all

is

thou say

ye need to

Sei Se TTOV reXevraz/ rrjv jJLOvcriKrjv es

1

st,

all
know."

ra TOV KCL\OV

the love of beauty and

e/xyri/ca, says
and if
truth is the ultimate goal of all education
of
form
whether
outward
and
the
beauty
shape,
Plato

it

appeals

sculpture,
loveliness

to

us

If

through

or

through
but the expression of the spiritual
then our study of antiquity
within,

language

is

Classical study, in point

should be psychological.
of fact, so far as it is an educative discipline, is a

department of Psychology, the crown of sciences,

according to Professor Bain.
may take it then that education

We

Classics

or

involves,

should

involve,

in

the

the

trans

portation of the mind into the sphere in which

the ancients lived and thought and felt.
It remains to ask, Does such a transportation fulfil

the two conditions of liberal education which

we have

down ? Does it promote intellectual sympathy

Does it refine and strengthen the character ?

laid

Rep. in. 403

c.

221

Stimulus of classical study

Before describing his curriculum of education,

Plato lays it down, in the seventh book of the
presents us with two
opposite sensations at one and the same time is
calculated to stimulate the intellect.
By an exten
Republic^,

whatever

that

sion of this principle we may say that any department

of study which continually presents us with ideas and

emotions antagonistic to the age in which we live

tends forcibly to awaken our intellectual activities

and

foster intellectual

Now

sympathy.

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
this is precisely

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

You are stunned

with the torpedo or cramp-fish.
at first
or, as Plato might say, dazed, and ren
dered giddy, by the contradiction but the paralysis
;

soon disappears, and your

begins to resolve
the contradiction into a higher unity, involving a
broader, more charitable, and for that reason more
profound, conception of
"

life.

The main

object,"

on a Liberal Education
1

5240.

intellect

human

nature and

Mr

"

human

Bowen,
says
Essays
the main object of seeing
in

P 194.
.

The Value of Classical Education

222

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,
distinctly

were, a kind of intellectual parallax in contem

plating the problems of life

as

it

."

Let us give one or two examples of the kind

of contradictions which we have in view.
shall

We

not attempt to resolve them to do so would be to

stray into the deepest questions of philosophy, and
is an
it
integral part of classical education that
;

every one should sooner or later later rather than

sooner devise a solution of his own. The examples

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 is synthesis, that of the
The ancients delighted in wholes
latter analysis.
the moderns delight in resolving a whole into its
;

component

parts.

It

only another

is

way

of ex

pressing the same essential difference to say that

Greek antiquity was on the whole imaginative,
while modern life is scientific in the main.
Now
the greatest whole which it is possible to conceive
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.
1

See Tyrrell, Latin Poetry

contrasts.

pp. 85, 96, as to the value of

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
red in tooth and claw," no inhuman force
tigress,
"

be fought against, but a mother, a beneficent

power with whom we should cooperate against the

to

make

forces that

misery and

for

sin.

It

was

not,

we may

well believe, to pray to his goddess mother

only that Achilles turned to the sea for comfort
:

avrap
Olv

ovOTTOL 7TOI/TOV:

CTTt

ye XacTjua of the infinite waters

soothed and consoled his troubled heart.
Nothing
the

dvyjpiOiJLOv

could

illustrate

of kinship

more

finely

we may

if

the

Greek sentiment
with the sea than

say so

picture of Danae and

upon the stormy waves.

Simonides

her babe cast

adrift

The words

Danae

are

full

of peace and quiet faith

the least of her emotions.

addressing her child

fear

Hear what she

rear Ko/xav /?a#eiai/

Trapidvros Kv/xaros OVK dXeyeis, ovS* ave/xcov
aX/xav

8*

<$66yyov,

Ke Xo/xai 8

evSeVw 8

V7rep0ei/

7rop<

vp eater tv

cvSe /?pe

<os,

eu Scro) 8c TTOVTOS,

afj.erpov KO.KQV

/xerai^oXia 8c Tts

(^aveiiy,

Zev

Trarcp,

CK (rtOev.

OTTL 8e ^aptraXeov CTTOS

2

ev^o/xai vo(r^)iv Sixas, crvyyvw^t ftoi

1

Homer,

//.

i.

348

350.

Simonides, 37.

of
is

says,

The Value of Classical Education

224

The sym

"

Sleep, my babe, and sleep, the sea

pathy of human with external nature
"

was never
And what shall we

more touchingly expressed.

say of Earth, the Mother ?

The

elder Pliny

1
,

in

in the whole range of

has
Latin literature,
interpreted for us the ancient
feeling of love and affection for the mother who

one of the noblest passages

feeds and sustains us during

her arms at death

"

life,

and

recalls us to

Sequitur terra, cui uni

rerum

naturae partium eximia propter merita cognomen

indidimus maternae venerationis. Sic hominum ilia,
ut caelum dei, quae nos nascentes excipit, natos alit
semelque editos sustinet semper, novissime complexa
gremio iam a reliqua natura abdicates, turn maxime

ut mater operiens, nullo magis sacra merito quam

quo nos quoque sacros facit, etiam monumenta
ac titulos gerens nomenque prorogans nostrum et
memoriam extendens contra brevitatem aevi, cuius

numen ultimum iam

nullis

tanquam nesciamus hanc

precamur

esse

irati grave,

solam quae nunquam

Aquae subeunt in imbres, rigescunt ingrandines, tumescunt in fluctus praecipitantur

in torrentes : aer densatur nubibus, furit procellis ;
irascatur homini.

at haec benigna, mitis, indulgens, ususque mortalium

semper ancilla, quae coacta generat, quae sponte

fundit,

quos

odores

us

"Turn

sucos,

maxime

ut

quos

mater

mother covering
do not these words remove Death s sting? 6 Se
e?rl reXos Kara (frvcrw aTro^curaros
"

"

quos

saporesque,

quos co lores!"
then most of
operiens"
tactus,

all

like a

TO>V

ia>z>

Hist. Nat.

ii.

63.

Greek feeling about death

225
1

/ecu

death

in

^ff

/xa\Xoj>

rjSovrjs yiyz/o/Aei/os

the course of nature

Ecrrrepe, Trdvra
</>epeis

otV,

<epis

XuTT^s

accompanied rather

is

The wearied

by pleasure than by pain.

to his mother s arms at evening

17

child returns

</>cpet9,

cuya,

</>epis

/xarepi TratSa

2
.

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
to come
with healing in his
3
touching lines of Aeschylus

may pray

for

him

as in the

"

wings,"

<3

Odvart

fj.ovos

yap

larpos,

Tratav,
el

JJLTJ

av

aXyo? 8

TWI>

/zoAetV.

aTi/xa<n?s

dvr)K<TTO)v

KOLK&V

ov&tv aTTTcrcu vc/cpov.

But how seldom does Death delay

the natural bourn

modo

pueros,

modo

his

advent

till

adulescentes in cursu a tergo insequens

4
necopinantes adsecuta est

Nor

could the Hellenic joy of living always look

forward with resignation even to the natural term of

The well-known

life.

Greek

represent the usual

l*-tv

ITTO.V

Kara

TO r

cv^aAcs ov\ov

ucrrepov av ^wovrt Kai

d/x/Acs

is

ot /xeyaAot Kai

OTTTTOTC Trpara ^avw^te?,

Moschus

feeling about death

0"eA/a

aiat rat /xaXaxai

^Se ra x\a)pa

lines attributed to

eros

KO.TTQV

aAAo

Kaprepoi ot
OLVOLKOOL

<^>voi/

ai

(ro<j>ol

ev yBovi KotAa

v8o/xcs ev /w,aAa /xaKpov drep/xoi/a vrjyperov VTTVOV.

1

76

Plato, Timaeus, 81 E.
ap. Cicero,

ff.,

117, 159

A. E.

7^w.

Z^/JT/.

i.

^r. 255, Nauck.

Sappho, 95.
also
See
94.
Tyrrell, Latin Poetry

ff.

15

The Value of Classical Education

226

The Greeks murmured

at

death because

seemed

it

The

to involve a breach with the order of nature.

leaf dies, but the soul

still

lives,

another body in the spring

in

or

shadow

survives

soul

his

if

in

and clothes

man

but

Hades,

it

itself

perishes,
is

but a

in

shadow-land,
prisoner sighing for
1
freedom and the light of day
The dead Achilles
was but the mouthpiece of Greek feeling when
.

he said 2
fjirj

817

JJLOL

fiovXoijJLrjv

6a.va.Tov

aVSpi Trap* a/cA^ pa),

17

let

account

it

their

the

<^>atSt/x

a>

aXX

/x^ ySioros TroXvs

07,

TrB.o~Lv

But do not
this

ye TrapavSa,

eTrapovpos taw OijTeufficv

us call the Greeks melancholy on

is

easy to exaggerate what

is

called

Their repugnance at death is

melancholy.
measure of their optimism and love of life.

Greek could hardly have written the exquisite

lines of Keats, in the Ode to a Nightingale
:

"

Darkling I listen ; and for many a time

I have been half in love with easeful Death,
CalFd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

To

take into the air

Now more

my

quiet breath

than ever seems

it

rich to die,

It is interesting here to note how the theory of transmigra

tion (involving a return to life upon the earth, the soul clothing
1

the form
a new body as the tree puts forth new leaves)
which the doctrine of immortality impressed itself upon the
deeper religious and philosophical feeling of the Greeks implies
a reconciliation with the order of Nature as seen in the life of
itself in

in

plants.
2

Od. XL

488491.

Nature
To

deified by Greeks

227

cease upon the midnight with no pain,

While thou

would

Still

To

pouring forth thy soul in ecstasy

thou sing, and I have ears in vain,

art
st

thy high requiem

become a

sod."

"

EXX^z/es act TrcuSes core, yepaiv

1
It
ea-Tiv, said the Egyptian priest
"EXX^i/
was the eternal boyhood of the Greeks that made
<3

2oXo>z>,

SoXwz/,

OVK

Se

them shrink from death

as something almost con

trary to Nature.

Up

we have

to the present point,

dealt with the

Greek conception of Nature and natural forces as

But to the
personified, perhaps, but not as deified.
common people and the philosophers alike, Nature
was divine. The popular imagination peopled earth
and sea and sky with multitudinous gods and god
desses, the personification of natural forces, but did

not unify them in the conception of a single

Throughout Greek

embracing Deity.

the other hand, or at

all

all-

on

literature,

events in the best Greek

which survives, there runs an undercurrent

of monotheism, and the philosophers loved to repre

literature

sent the totality of Nature

And as God
only God.

Nature
ov8ev

//,arr?z

natural

Se

#os

KOL

TTOIOUCTI^.

oi5Se>

TUP

forces as the

s
is

rj

Evil

one and

good, so likewise
says

Averts,
is

2
,

not natural, but un

5

TTOipa

is

Aristotle

/caXoV

It

is

<$>V(TLV

the

background of Necessity or Fate which throws into

4
relief the smiling face of Nature
And what the
.

Plato, Tim. 22

Ar. Pol. i325 b Qf.

Ibid.

I255

TO Trapa
yevecrei

b
3.

B.

Cf.

<u<riv

De

De

Caelo, 271* 33.

Caelo, 286* 19 cKO-rcum T

TOV Kara

eVriv

T$

The Value of Classical Education

228

Greeks believed of Nature

Human

of

lieved

whole, they be
nature is not

as a

Man s

Nature.

corrupt, not fallen, not degraded there is no such

thing as
Original Sin": there is no cleft between
:

"

human and

the

the divine, no aching sense of

no need of a reconciliation with

K /Aias Se
Bewv ytvos
Or, as Heraclitus put it

ev

6v7jTOi.

Oeoi

Sal 01

fAarpo
Sat 01 avOpcoiroi
dvOpanroL dSdvaToi.

TTfeo/zei

TL

God

sin,

tv a

TL

6eol

The

most genuinely Greek expression of the ethical

end is the life according to Nature": the highest
"

as it is
practical expression of Greek religion is
to do to the glory
well expressed by Zeller
of God that which is according to our own
(<

nature."

unnecessary to dwell at length upon the

contrast between such views and those under whose
It

is

influence

St Paul

we

live.

rts

//,e

3
,

TOV TOVTOV
religion

these words.

strayed from God

back.
ciSa/AO/ yap
crvva)8ivL

/ecu

eyo>

avflpwiros, cries

rov crw/xaTo? row Oavdcan hear the birth-cry of a new

pvcrerai

We

in

TokaiTrajpos

aXP

Nature and man have

To ^

Trdcra

v^v

rj
*

them

lead

will

Christianity

on
L

e/c

KTICTIS

crvcrrez a^ei

^u^

e S

r)v

ci/

The con
Xptcrro) KOO JJLOV /caraXXacrcro)^ eavrw
trast between Paganism and Christianity could not
5

be more strikingly expressed than

St Paul 6 ei S^/xotWes lv TO) (jo)/iart
1

Find. Nem.

Rom.

Cor.

vii.
v.

vi. i.

words of

e/cSr/jLtou/xei

fr. 67, Bywater.

Rom.

2 Cor. v. 6.

24.
19.

in the

viii.

22.

ctTro

Contrast between Paganism

and

Christianity

229

TOV Kvptov, or in those of St James 17 <iXia TOV

eo ^ com
Koo-fjiov ex@P a TOV
Christianity looks
for a city, not on earth, but in the heavens
rjpvv
3

yap TO

TTo\LTVjjLa iv ovpavols vTrdpyti

Justice dwells

ev 019

TrpoooK&iJiev,

to

Kawous

become a

a city wherein

*
:

oe ovpavovs Kal yr\v Kaivty...

/carot/cel

oiKaioa"uvr)

3
.

In order

citizen of this

Ideal City
rrjv TTO\IV
TT)v ay Cap lepovo-aXrjfJL KCLLV^V which the author of
the Revelation 4 saw Karafialvovcrav airo TOV
IK TOV ovpavov, ^rot^tacrjoieV^^ w?

v\)\L<>f]v

TV avSpl avTys it is necessary to enslave

the body and make free the soul aXX

lLtwr)v

p,ov TO (rw/xa, says

avros

St Paul

5
,

yeWjaat.
the Hellenic attitude is here
dSd/ct/Ao?

Orjo-avpovs
cravpovs tv

7rt

r^5

yij?.
6

ovpavo)

. .

/cat

8ovXay<yya>,

What
!

/AT)

contrast

to

Orjo-avpi&Te vp.lv
Se vplv Orj-

Orjcravpi&Te

What meaning would

this

sublime exhortation have conveyed to an ordinary

Athenian in the time of Pericles ? The Hellenic
vista
uyiaiWii/

apio-rov avSpl

fji.ev

Ka\
Sevrcpov 8c
TO rpirov 8e TrXovretv
<f>vav

KCU TO TCTttpTOV tJ^aV

ends where the

at death.

full

The

mental contrast
1

3
5

i
7

Cor.

T<J)V

fruition of the Christian begins

correct appreciation of this funda

one of the most potent factors

is

iv. 4.

2 Pet.

/XCTO,

iii.

13.

ix.

27.

"

Ath. xv. 694 e

cf.

Phil.

iii.

20.

xxi. 2.

St Matt.

Plato, Gorg. 45

E.

vi. 19.

The Value of Classical Education

230

which can be conceived in the promotion of intel

lectual life and sympathy
Let us take another illustration from the sphere of
1

man s

duty to his fellows.

of Greece laid

good

down

it

to friends,

and

The

traditional morality
as a rule of conduct to do

We

evil to foes.

except for

the present the protests raised by Plato and one or

others"
against this precept of Greek morality

two

in this, as in
is

many other matters, Plato s teaching

the morning twilight of a brighter day.
Solon 3

prays that he may be "sweet to friends, and bitter

to foes"
Pindar 4 is fain to love a friend," but TTOTL
"

e^Opov ar e^Opo^
aXXore TrareW 68015

ea>v

Memorabilia*,
vailing

XVKOLO SiKrjv UTTO^CUCTO/ACU, dXX

and Socrates, in the
cr/coXicus
:

represents this principle as the pre

Set against this the

morality of Greece.

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

any great movement can be said to have a beginning

the
prepared
way for the new era. But even in Plato the
contrast is conspicuous.
The /txeAeT?; Oavdrov, for example, of
in so far as

the Phaedo
Plato

less of

is

"study

of

a religious than an intellectual aspiration.

is inspired
by the consciousness of

death"

ignorance, and the desire of knowledge, St Paul s by the sense

of sin and the desire of holiness.
With Plato the moral exalta
tion

was a

result of the intellectual

with St Paul

was the

it

primary and immediate aim.

2

Pittacus, according to Diog. Laert.

Xe yeiv

Rep.
3
5

i.

Aca/ccus,

335 B

Fr. 13.

aAAa

/u-^Se

foil,

in the Gorgias,

l^Opov.

Plato

i.

n. 3- 14-

Bergk.

78, said
is

<f>t\ov

contained in

and elsewhere.
4

5,

4.

protest

Pyth. n. 83

ff.

Pagan and
Sermon
,

on

Mount

the

/caXws

Christian morality

rots

Trotetre

/cara/oaj/xeVou?

euXoyetre

v/^as,

/ucrou0-tz>

/cat

vjnti/,

rous

dyaTrare

231

Trpocreu^ecr^e

uTre/3

rwi/

or compare it with the picture

vjitas
2
of Christian ethics in St Paul
euXoyetre rows Stw-

Tc^

xas

euXoyetre,

a yaipovrw,

/cat

/cat /cXatetz/

/carapacr^e

/u/r)

jnera /cXatwr&)^...a^

6 fyOpos (7ov, i//w/xt^e OLVTOV ea^

avrov TOVTO yap

7rt

rr)^

K<f>a\r)v

Trotwi/

avrov.

rw aya^w TO
could be more emphatic or

dXXa

e^

i/t/ca

Trvpos

OLv6paiKa<$

p,rj

ti//a,

VLKOJ

VTTO

TOV

No

/ca/coV.

It

significant.

possible to realise the contradiction at

receiving an intellectual stimulus

it

is

/ca/cou,

contrast

all

is

im

without

impossible

fully to appreciate its meaning without a quickening

of intellectual sympathy.

The examples which we have

selected belong to

the sphere of religion and ethics, but it would be

easy to find instances in which the study of Greek

theory and
practice, its literature, its art, presents us with sug
gestive and stimulating contrasts to modern fashions
and beliefs. In their psychological attitude, for ex
antiquity in

its

psychology,

its

political

ample, the Greeks, true to their unifying instinct,

recoiled from the habit of analysing the human
mind with which we are familiar in the present
day.

Intellect, Will,

fied

by the Greeks

and Emotion were often uni

in

this unification, morality,

1

Luke vi.
Rom. xii. 9

St

As a result
which we now regard

Intellect.

27.

21, esp. vv. 14, 15, 20, 21.

of
as,

The Value of Classical Education

232

primarily at

all

events, a condition of the will,

was

An
apt to be identified with an intellectual state.
inevitable consequence of this was the exaltation
of the rational or

intellectual

over the emotional and moral.

side

In

ideals

political

and

institutions

human

life

modern Teutonic

We

need not
between the
of the ancients and

races the tendency is the other way.

dwell upon the striking differences

our own.

of

Their conception of the City State with

that it involved, and, in particular, the influence

of this ideal in determining the relation between
all

the individual and the State, these, and

less

many

other

fundamental contrasts, readily suggest them

Nor is it otherwise with ancient literature

selves.

and

would be an excellent educative dis

a comparison between the
cipline
Classical and Romantic drama, or between Greek
and English lyric poetry, or between ancient and
art.

It

to

institute

modern ways of writing

history.

The

study of

ancient art and archaeology is not a liberal educa

tion unless it is pursued with the ulterior object
of apprehending the spirit of Antiquity in its like

ness and unlikeness to that of Christendom.

The

Parthenon should be interpreted by shall we say ?

Lincoln Cathedral
Niobe weeping for her children
Pieta
of
Michael
the
Angelo.
by
has
said
been
to indicate generally the
Enough
:

way
life

in

which the study of

fulfils

the

It

and

requisite of a liberal education

fostering the spirit of intellectual

first

by creating and
sympathy.

classical literature

remains for us to show

how

the

Discipline of classical study

233

discipline of ancient civilisation should

fashion the character.

mould and

To

Humanity, TO

of

eV

e/caXea-ey

TC

man

analyse the ideal

0OLK\OV

/Cat

az/S/oei/ceXov,

avOptoirois

roi?
l

is

likeness

the true
/ecu

Sr)

"Opypos

0eoeiSe s

iyyiyvo^vQV

TT\tOV

f)

KOLTOL

TTjV

TTOLpOVCTOLV

recognise two elements of

opprfv*
character, the blending of which in due proportion
:

is

we can

but

as rare as

it

is

all

The one we

splendid.

call

by

such names as steadiness, strength, sobriety, selfthe other is called

control, the habit of obeying law
;

intellectual

acuteness,

independence of

originality,

These are the

mind, the capacity of making law.
form
unite
to
the characters
which
two great factors
of us

all.

Among Englishmen

it

is

perhaps the
This element

steady element which predominates.

is magnificent in action, after it has been told what
to do, but,

it

when confronted with an

yawn, or

to

somewhat

to look

at

its

idea,

watch, being,

it is

apt

to

put

the judgment at least of

In its noblest forms
stupid.

bluntly, in

Frenchmen, a

trifle

this virtue of character will

make

a school-boy lead

and meet a
glorious death with the cry of Floreat Etona still
In its degenerate forms it
ringing on his lips.
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

hope upon

the

battlefield,

."

Plato, Rep, vi. 501

Plato, Rep.

viii.

B.

548

Ibid.

506

E.

c.

155

The Value of Classical Education

234
majority

proportion
is

why

men.

of

It is often found in inverse

element of steadiness, and that

to the

genius

so

we

and unstable.

erratic

are

wont

It is in

to say

that discoveries are made, and the limits of

knowledge extended
of the

highest

it

is

human

this that is the parent

of poetry

flights

often

is

virtue of this element

is

it

that

this

founds religions and sways mankind, as the moon

regulates the tides, with the magic force of an
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 worse cause is the better, and
so becomes a curse to the society wherein it appears.
Corruptio optimi pessima.
(friXoa-offreiv avev
//,aXafaas
end.

this

is

indeed the

In the Politicus^ Plato wished to secure the

presence of these two sides of character in children

by intermarriages between men and women

in

whom

the opposing elements predominated.

It is wholly
in the spirit of Plato s teaching to regard the ideal
character as 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.

We

have

show

that the study of classical

antiquity tends to cherish and to unify these two
sides of the ideal man.
still

to

To know
term,

is

a thing, in the fullest sense of the

to become like the thing we know.
Know1

310.

Rome

Genius of Greece and

the assimilation of subject and object.

This
the teaching of Christianity and Platonism alike
is

ledge
is

235

the one

know God

be assimi
His glorious image, the other that the
knowledge of the Idea of Good or God, which is

lated

us that to

tells

to

is

to

the ultimate end, involves o/xcnoxns

/caret TO
SwaroV. To know the best and highest in Greece
6e<o

Rome

and

is

therefore to

make

the virtues of an

For the purpose of educating the

tiquity our own.
character by means of classical study, whatever is
not best in ancient life and thought should, in the
first instance at least, be
ignored.

What
best

of

then

Rome

is

the best of Greece, what

To

put the matter

is

the

briefly,

the

genius of Greece was speculative, that of Rome

was practical. The desire of knowledge, scepticism
in its true and noble sense of searching after truth,
is

dowry of ancient Greece

the

strength and

control, obedience and law belong to Rome.

well did Virgil say

excudent

alii

self-

Full

spirantia mollius 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

erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem,

2
parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos
tibi

Greece

fruit delight
1

in very truth the Mother of Ideas

seeds has she sown whose flowers and

is

How many

and sustain us now

Theaet. 176

B.

Aeneid

But the Greeks

vi.

848854.

The Value of Classical Education

236

relatively weak in action, because they knew

not how to combine, since it is of the essence of

were

They could not translate

genius to be individual.
this
into practice the ideas which they created
honour was reserved for Christianity and Rome.
;

The

morality which the Greek

constructed
reappear in Christian

philosophers
ethics,

of

ideals

lofty

intensified,

is

it

closely with the affections

and

recognise,

in this

and intertwined more

and the will, but easy to

true,

profoundly

human form sway

more powerfully the hearts of men.

still

/ecu

In
/ecu ecr/e^oxrei
eV r)pv
eye*>ero,
to
the
national
virtues
of
thanks
Rome,
courage,
and patience, and submission to authority, the ideas

Xdyo?

crap

of law and government enunciated by Greek thinkers

were translated into action, losing, perhaps, some

what

in

the process, since practice is everywhere

than theory, but keeping alive the sacred

less perfect

flame of civilisation, and spreading the

Roman world.

pax Romana

over the face of the

And now
literature

let

and

us

life

sum
is

The

study of classical
a liberal education because it
up.

and promotes
intellectual sympathy by the electric shock of con
It is a
tradiction and the activity thus set up.
liberal education, in the second place, because it
moulds the will and character no less than the
enlarges

our

As

intellectual

horizon,

more of Greek
he should become more inde
life and thought,
pendent and more manly, not driven to and fro
intellect.

the

student learns

St

John

i.

14.

Love of Truth and

love

of

Law

237

by every wind of

doctrine, but honestly striving to

think things out for himself, and building his faith
In one word,
on the sure ground of knowledge.

he

love

will

Truth more.

As

his

knowledge of

and language of Rome advances, he will

become more patient and more courageous, he will
to scorn delights and live laborious days,"
learn
the

life

"

become more loyal to himself, his country,

and his faith, and become both a better citizen
he

will

and a better man.

Law

In

one word,

he

will

love

more.

The

writer has spoken seriously, perhaps unduly

so, upon this subject of classical study, because he

one /xeyas 6 ayojz/,

seems to him a grave

feels that the issue is a great

fteyas,

ov)(

ocros

It

So/cet.

misfortune that any one should study classics with

out trying sooner or later to form some notion of

what the study means.

Every student and ex

ponent of antiquity should frame

himself, otherwise

The

present essay
fieTioVri

is

theory for
educational value is but little.

only a vTro/x^/Aa

The beginner

Zxvos

its

should be content at

his

first

in

TO.VTOV

TO)

classical

to believe

study

Set

yap TTLcrTtvtiv rovs pavOdvovTOis, as Aristotle remarks

beatific vision."
Such a faith will
that there is a
animate and inspire the daily routine, and make
He will
the meanest particle breathe and live.
"

begin by studying the body,

1

Plato, Phaedr.

if

276

we may
D.

say

so,

The Value of Classical Education

238
of

Greek thought, the

but the outward

spiritual

beauty

beautiful language which is

expression of inward and more

apfAovir)

yap d^av^s

tfravep rjs Kptir-

From

the contemplation of bodily beauty he

will rise to that of spiritual, and the soul of an

TIDV.

him

tiquity will

reveal herself to

of

poets and philosophers

ancient laws and institutions,

ancient
in

science,

in

the thoughts
and men of

the

in

immortal creations of ancient art and architecture.

He

1
then recognise in the words of Plato on
TTav TO /caXXos avro aura) ^uyye^e s eo~rtr, and "facing
the full Sea of Beauty and looking thereon, he will

will

beget out of bountiful Philosophy

and

lofty

conceptions and

many beautiful
The Sea of
thoughts."

Beauty stretches wide, its waves unharvested as

We have merely stood upon the shore he
who scales the still snow citadels around it will see

ever.

farther,

but even he

will

not see

all.

"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
201, 210

109,

f.,

198

195,

f.,

53 #, 130
Anaxagoras 42 ff.,

47

f.,

123

19,

Aristotle

118, 133

74,

54,

199

f-,

63

f.,

204,

man

to

God

33

f.,

Body

132

70,

f.,

Dialectic, Plato s 29

f.,

230:

ff.,

72

ff.

59,

ff,

129
Divinity of

Beauty, Ideal 68 ff.

Bias of Priene 85 f.

tomb

51, 61

11,

Death, rehearsal of 65
Greek view of 225 ff.

127

as

20,

f.,

ff.

Diogenes of Apollonia 44

no, 235

75,

ff.,

181,

theo-

Dante

22, 41,

f.,

227, 237
Assimilation of

64

Cosmopolitanism 143

and

f.

11,

i,

ff,

Cohesion, Stoic 155

205

53,

104

99, 112, 153, i88f., 190

9i>

55>

Anaximenes 44
Anthropomorphism
morphism 1 24 ff.
Aratus

of ii3ff.
Clement of Alexandria
life

195:

Aether, doctrine of in Euripides

Hymn of 20, 82,

Cleanthes,

human

soul

35

3,

as

in

disguise 171 f.:

explanation of evil 204

Dualism,

as

of soul 55, 58, 127

ff.,

ff.

basis for morality 208

Boethius 26

Brotherhood, universal 5, 142 ff.

Browning, Robert 45, 160 f., 166,

Cambridge Platonists
loo,

3,

23, 67,

ff.

184

religion

f.

and pre-Christian
228 ff.
and
ff,

Christianity:

Stoicism 178

ff.

Chrysippus 114, 170, 179, 206

Cicero 140, 143, 146, 157, 222
City of

God

Classical
ff.

65, 229

of
value
education,
as discipline of char

acter 233

ff.

liberal

Empedocles
Epicharmus
176,

theory of 28

ff

and professional

ff.

127,
53,

122,

Epictetus

163

Christ as Logos 158, i8of., 187

213

70

215

209

70,

Education, Plato

179,

204

93

ff.

134,

136

ff,

168,

183

Epicureans 19, 114, 182

Euripides 42 f., 45 ff, 64 f., 129, 192
Evil,

physical and moral 165,

2ii
pantheistic view of

169

f.,

170

ff.

191

ff.

Greek consciousness of
ascribed to

Gods

i93f.

as punishment for sin 194

explained by dualism 204

Ezekiel 197

ff.

Index

240
Fate, Stoic 155, 173

88

ff.

150

77,

Stoicism

in

creative,

f.

Free

172

f.,

of

harmony
Stoic

149

80

184

will 152

Heraclitus

Logos, in

f.

identified with,

Logos

Fire,

f.,

77

ff.

as

opposites 97 ff.
as Christ 158,
:

ff.

in Philo i84f.

ff.:

Lotze, metaphysical doctrines of,

ff.

applied to Plato 2

God: and Nature

48

ff.,

of

man

60

ff,

10

148

13

f.,

f.,

ff.,
227 ff.
kinship
with 19 ff, 38 ff., 51,
122 ff.
as Air 44 ff. as
:

Reason

23,

60

29,

50

48,

44,

ff,

77 ff, 119, 156: as

Idea of Good 22 f., 132 gradual
uni
spiritualisation of 108 ff.
56

ff,

ff,

as unifica
versality of 119 ff.
tion of the world 156 f.
Gods as authors of evil 193 f.
:

Greek genius 235

essential divinity of

Man,

83, i34ff-

Meditatio mortis 65 ff, 230

Michael Angelo and Platonism
4,

70

29,

Morality, dualism as basis

208: Stoic 136 ff.
pagan
:

Christian 230

96

opposites

164 ff, 209 ff.

Heraclitus 38, 40, 65, 77

f.

ff.,

harmony with

life in

Nature,

soul
148 ff.
Stoicism 155 f.

of

112,

ff,

185

f.,

209

ff.,

f.

Herbert, George 21, 128., 207

Hesiod 86, 125
Homeric poems 37, 39, 64, 108
I24ff, 163, 172, 192

ff,

Infinite in the individual

ff,

131

f.

goras

Job,

Book

53, 56 f., 66
doctrine of 42

f.,

53

130,

f.,

88,

190

20, 27,

14, 35,

ff.

134,

154

f.

God

178
128

55,

also

God and Nature and. Stoics

moral

of 201, 203
20,

2,

Anaxaand

Pantheism, poetical see NatureMysticism; Stoic 116 and see

f.

2,

f.

ff.

Jesus, sayings of 158

Justin Martyr

Origen
Orphics

Innate notions 140

Jeremiah 196

205

10,

Noocracy 55

pneuma

166

See also

ff.

Necessity and Reason

Necrosis 66 ff.

Nous 39

233

ff,

in

God and Nature

See also Reason and

Ideal Beauty 68 ff.
Ideas, theory of 10, 22
Immortality: see Soul

14,

plants

Nature-mysticism 49
ff,

115, ii7f., 120, 125, 138, 150

163

for

and

f.

of

ff,

ff,

f.

Greeks, unifying instinct of 231

Harmony

19

50 ff., 60 ff, I22ff.

Marcus Aurelius 50, 54, 60, 68,
38

177

evil

denied

in

172, 211:

replaced by theism 184

f.,

186,

Personality,
1

80

motive principle of

Index
Philo 98, 164, 184

Philosophy
between 108
:

and
ff.

feud

poetry,
as preparation

for Christianity

Pindar 13

35

f.,

129, 134, 192,

Plato

artists 3

ideas

f.
f.

human

122,

230

125

appeals to universal
f.
his view

instincts 7

his theory
64 ff, 131 f
founds theological view of uni

of Ideas

verse

1 1

59

19,

worth

10,

ff.

22,

his view of

ff,

14 ff

9,

man

130 ff: and

12 ff,

Words

his teaching

on

ff,

70

ff,

220

ff.

his doctrine

God

of assimilation to

64

75

ff.,

33 f.,
his hope of ultimate

perfection 8, 74 f.
Pliny, the elder 224

Pneuma and Nous

Pythagoreans

14,

230
Solon 191

f.,

ff,

56

ff,

60

55,

10,

205

i29ff:

ff,

192,

195,

of the World, see Worldimmortality of 24 ff,

:

Homeric
38 ff, 75, 179 f
notion of 37 in lyric poets and
.

tragedy 40
of 19

ff,

57

i27f.

f.,

ff.

35

celestial

ff.

origin

and body

Spinoza 116, I7of., 211

Stoicism and Christianity 178

ff,

f.

ff.

ff.

200

universal

evil
ff.

as
190 ff.
as part of
:

harmony 209

ff.

Swinburne 76

Tennyson

9,

20, 22, 26,

Tension, Stoic 155

Tertullian

6,

152

154,

184

Theognis

230

Religion, unity of 186 ff.

Reminiscence, doctrine of 25

and

discipline

Theism

Rehearsal of death 65

55,

as

as attribute of

in

genius 235

195, 230

ff,

Subliminal self as argument for

immortality 39

Nous and God

Roman

186, 221,

86,

58,

Heraclitus 77 ff, 92
Stoicism 149 ff.
See also

Logos
in

ff,

ff,

Stoics 14, 19, 24, 40, 50, 53, 60,

63, ?8, 85, 94 ff, 102 f., 108,
112 ff, 133 ff, 210 f.

as eye of soul 28, 217: as ele

ment of God in man 12 ff, 29,

50

f.

184

130, 134,

f.

and Necessity

spiritual life 67

75,

ff,
ff.

Wordsworth

on

Sophocles 41, 108

202, 210, 218 f.
Soul

141

179,

f.,

Platonism 14 ff.
Simonides 201, 223
Socrates 12, 34, 55

Suffering
:

142

138,

228

68, 207,

127

Reason

and Judaism 115

53

154 f.
Predestination 173

Seneca

Soul

pre-existence and immortality

24 ff his theory of education

28

i22ff, 139,

Shorthouse

on poets and
hostility to Greek

his

Nature

of

ff.,

196,

f.,

his influence

St John 152, 157, 184 ff

St Paul 19, 25, 53 f., 63, 66
Self-realisation, Stoic

ff.

185

241

195,

49

f.

f.

200

Thunderbolt, the ever-living I49ff

ff.

Universal brotherhood

5,

142

ff.

Index

242
Soul

Universe,

of,

see

World-

Soul

Wordsworth: and Plato

and Euripides 48 f.
27

14

Logos 159
Vaughan, Henry 148, 175
Virtue and vice, gulf between 172

ff.,

and

ff.

World-citizenship 143 ff.

World-Soul 10 f., 59

f.,

154,

206

Wisdom

of

Wise Man,
182

Solomon 27, 194, 203

Stoic and Epicurean

ff.

Xenophanes 64,
Xenophon 55 ff.

86,

in

f.

Word, Universal, see Logos and

Reason

Zeno ii3f,

134,

144,

173

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The vitality of Platonism