No More Learning

It is undeniable, too, that this progress of time has influenced
the mode of thinking of the human species. Bid a man now
invent, now sing, an Iliad; bid him write like Eschylus, like
Sophocles, like Plato: it is impossible. The childish simplicity,
the unprejudiced mode of seeing things,-in short, the youthful
period of the Greeks, is gone by. It is the same with the
Hebrews and the Romans; while on the other hand, we are
acquainted with a number of things of which both the Romans
and the Hebrews were ignorant. One day teaches another, one
century instructs another century; tradition is enriched; the muse
of Time, History, herself sings with a hundred voices, speaks
with a hundred tongues. Be there as much filth, as much con-
fusion, as there will, in the vast snowball rolled up by Time, yet
this very confusion is the offspring of ages, which could have
arisen only from the unwearied rolling on of one and the same
thing. Thus every return to the ancient times, even the cele-
brated Year of Plato, is a fiction; is, from the ideas of the world
and of time, an impossibility. We float onward; but the stream
that has once flowed returns no more to its source.


## p. 7273 (#59) ############################################

JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
7273
Where are the times when people dwelt as troglodytes, dis-
persed about in caves behind their walls, and every stranger was
an enemy? Merely from the course of time, no cave, no wall,
afforded security. Men must learn to know one another; for
collectively they are but one family, on one planet of no great
extent. It is a melancholy reflection that everywhere they first
learned to know one another as enemies, and beheld each other
with astonishment as so many wolves; but such was the order of
nature. The weak feared the strong; the deceived, the deceiver;
he who had been expelled, him who could again expel him; the
inexperienced child, every stranger. This infantile fear, however,
and all its abuses, could not alter the course of nature; the bond
of union between nations was knit, though in a rough manner
owing to the rude state of man. Growing reason may burst the
knots, but cannot untwist the band, and still less undo the dis-
coveries that have once been made. What are the geologies of
Moses and Orpheus, Homer and Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny,
compared with ours? What was the commerce of the Phoenicians,
Greeks, and Romans, to the trade of Europe? Thus, with what
has hitherto been effected, the clue to the labyrinth of what is to
be done is given us. Man, while he continues man, will not
cease from wandering over his planet till it is completely known
to him: from this neither storms nor shipwreck, nor those vast
mountains of ice, nor all the perils of either Pole, will deter him;
no more than they have deterred him from the first most diffi-
cult attempts, even when navigation was very defective. The
incentive to all these enterprises lies in his own breast, lies in
man's nature. Curiosity, and the insatiable desire of wealth,
fame, discovery, and increase of strength, and even new wants
and discontents, inseparable from the present course of things,
will impel him; and they by whom dangers have been sur-
mounted in former times, his celebrated and successful predeces-
sors, will animate him. Thus the will of Providence will be
promoted both by good and bad incentives, till man knows and
acts upon the whole of his species. To him the earth is given;
and he will not desist till it is wholly his own, at least as far as
regards knowledge and use. Are we not already ashamed that
one hemisphere of our planet remained for so long a time as
unknown to us as if it had been the other side of the moon?
How vast the progress from the first raft that floated on the
water, to an European ship! Neither the inventor of the former,


## p. 7274 (#60) ############################################

7274
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
nor the many inventors of the various arts and sciences that
contribute to navigation, ever formed the least conception of
what would arise from the combination of their discoveries; each
obeyed his particular impulse of want or curiosity: but it is
inherent in the nature of the human intellect, and of the general
connection of all things, that no attempt, no discovery, can be
made in vain. Those islanders who had never seen a European
vessel beheld the monster with astonishment, as some prodigy of
another world; and were still more astonished when they found
that men like themselves could guide it at pleasure over the
trackless ocean. Could their astonishment have been converted
into rational reflection on every great purpose and every little
mean of this floating world of art, how much higher would their
admiration of the human mind have arisen! Whither do not the
hands of Europeans at present reach, by means of this single
implement? Whither may they not reach hereafter?
Besides this art, others innumerable have been invented within
the space of a few years by mankind, that extend their sway
over air and water, over earth and heaven. And when we
reflect that but few nations were engaged in this contest of men-
tal activity, while the greater part of the rest slumbered in the
lap of ancient custom; when we reflect that almost all our inven-
tions were made at very early periods, and scarcely any trace,
scarcely any ruin of an ancient structure or an ancient institu-
tion exists, that is not connected with our early history,— what
a prospect does this historically demonstrated activity of the
human mind give us for the infinity of future ages! In the few
centuries during which Greece flourished, in the few centuries
of modern improvement, how much has been perceived, invented,
done, reduced to order, and preserved for future ages, in Eu-
rope, the least quarter of the globe, and almost in its smallest
parts! How prolific the seeds that art and science have copiously
shed, while one nourishes, one animates and excites, the other!
As when a string is touched, not only everything that has music
resounds to it, but all its harmonious tones re-echo the sound till
it becomes imperceptible, so the human mind has invented and
created when a harmonious point of its interior has been hit.
When a new concord was struck in a creation where everything
is connected, innumerable new concatenations followed of course.
But it may be asked, How have all these arts and inventions
been applied? have practical reason and justice, and consequently


## p. 7275 (#61) ############################################

JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
7275
the true improvement and happiness of the human species, been
promoted by them? In reply, I refer to what has recently been
urged respecting the progress of disorder throughout the whole
creation: that according to an intrinsic law of nature, nothing
can attain durability, which is the essential aim of all things,
without order. A keen knife in the hand of a child may wound
it; yet the art that invented and sharpened the knife is one of
the most indispensable of arts. All that use such a knife are
not children; and even the child will be taught by pain to use it
better. Artificial power in the hand of a despot, foreign luxury
in a nation without controlling laws, are such pernicious imple-
ments; but the very mischief they do will render men wiser, and
soon or late the art that created luxury as well as despotism
will first confine both within due bonds, and then convert them
into real benefits. The heavy plowshare wears itself out by long
use; the slight teeth of new watch-work gain, merely by their
revolution, the more suitable and artful form of the epicycloid.
Thus, in human powers, abuses carried to excess wear themselves
down to good practices, extreme oscillations from side to side.
necessarily settle in the desirable mean of lasting fitness in a
regular movement Whatever is to take place among mankind
will be effected by men; we suffer under our faults till we learn
of ourselves the better use of our faculties, without the assist-
ance of miracles from Heaven.
We have not the least reason, therefore, to doubt that every
good employment of the human understanding necessarily must
and will, at some time or other, promote humanity. Since agri-
culture has prevailed, men and acorns have ceased to be food
Man found that he could live better, more decently, and more
humanely, on the pleasing gifts of Ceres, than on the flesh of his
fellows or the fruits of the oak; and was compelled so to live by
the laws of men wiser than himself. After men had learned to
build houses and towns they ceased to dwell in caves; under the
laws of a commonweal, the poor stranger was no longer liable to
death. Thus trade brought nations together; and the more its
advantages were generally understood, the less murders, oppres
sions, and deceptions, which are always signs of ignorance in
commerce, would necessarily be practiced. Every addition to
the useful arts secures men's property, diminishes their labor,
extends their sphere of activity, and necessarily lays therewith the
foundations of further cultivation and humanity What labor was


## p. 7276 (#62) ############################################

7276
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
saved, for example, by the single invention of printing! what
an extensive circulation of men's ideas, arts, and sciences, did it
promote! Were a European Kang-Ti now to attempt to eradi-
cate the literature of this quarter of the globe, he would find it
impossible. Had the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Greeks
and Romans, possessed this art, the destruction of their literature
would not have been so easy to their spoilers, if it could by any
means have been accomplished. Let savage nations burst in
upon Europe, they could not withstand our tactics; and no Attila
will again extend his march from the shores of the Black Sea
and the Caspian to the plains of Catalonia. Let monks, sybarites,
fanatics, and tyrants arise as they will, it is no longer in their
power to bring back the night of the Middle Ages. Now, as no
greater benefit can be conceived to arise from any art, Divine or
human, than not merely to bestow on us light and order but
from its very nature to extend and secure them, let us thank the
Creator that he conferred understanding on mankind, and made
art essential to it. In them we possess the secret and the means
of securing order in the world.
Neither need we any way repine that many excellently con-
ceived theories, of morals not excepted, have remained so long
without being carried into practice among mankind. The child
learns much which the man alone can apply; but he has not
therefore learned in vain. The youth heedlessly forgets what at
some future period he must take pains to recollect, or learn a
second time. So, no truth that is treasured up, nay, no truth
that is discovered, among a race continually renovating, is wholly
in vain: future circumstances will render necessary what is now
despised; and in the infinity of things, every case must occur that
can in any way exercise the human species. As in the creation
we first conceive the power that formed chaos, and then disposing
wisdom, and harmonious goodness, so the natural order of man-
kind first develops rude powers; disorder itself must guide them
into the path of understanding: and the further the understanding
pursues its work, the more it perceives that goodness alone can
bestow on it durability, perfection, and beauty.


## p. 7277 (#63) ############################################

7277
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
(1842-)
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
T
Is generally supposed that the sonnet had its origin in
Sicily. Sainte-Beuve, who himself wrote sonnets, admits
that the sonnet was Italian first: "Du Bellay, le premierque
l'apporta de Florence. " But before Petrarch was Thibaut, King of
Navarre. Some Italian writers claim for Ludovico della Vernaccia
(1200) the honor of having written the first sonnet in their language.
The secretary of Frederick the Second of Sicily wrote the celebrated
'Pero' ch' amore. ' The Provençals say that
the rhymes of the sonnet are imitations of
the recurring tinkling of the sheep-bells;
hence the name sonnette. At any rate, the
French have loved the sonnet almost as
well as the Italians, although they see it
from a somewhat different point of view.
When the famous Madame De Longueville
needed excitement, after the turmoil of a
furious life, she made a party for Voiture,
a sonneteer of the seventeenth century,
against another, Benserade. The rivalry

was fierce; all Paris was divided. The
interest in the rivals was as intense as,
later, between the Classicists and Roman-
ticists when Victor Hugo wrote 'Hernani. ' But for two centuries
France had not announced the possession of a great sonnet-writer,
when suddenly the Academy admitted José de Hérédia to a seat
among the Immortals. He was elected on February 22d, 1894, in
place of M. Mazade, receiving nineteen votes out of thirty-two; and
he was welcomed by M. François Coppée.
HÉRÉDIA
José-Maria de Hérédia was born on November 22d, 1842, at Fortuna-
Cafeyere, near Santiago de Cuba. He began his studies at the college
of St. Vincent at Senlis, in France, and continued them at the Uni-
versity of Havana, and in Paris at the École des Chartes. He trans-
lated and edited Bernal Diaz's 'Conquests in New Spain,' with notes
which gave him a reputation for acute and scrupulous research and


## p. 7278 (#64) ############################################

7278
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
intelligent application of it. From the year 1862 he had, beginning
with the Revue de Paris, contributed to the leading Parisian period-
icals, including the Temps, the Journal des Débats, and the Revue des
Deux Mondes. He disappointed the hopes of admirers who thirsted
for the results of his studies in the École des Chartes and wanted
more light on South-American history; but he delighted the literary
circles by his poems 'Les Trophées' and 'Les Conquérants. ' The
volume containing these poems has already reached its fifteenth edi-
tion.
Such a demand for verse of no "popular" quality is remarkable.
In truth, Hérédia despises what is called "popularity. " He makes
no concessions to it, and keeps himself as much as possible in the
mood of Maurice de Guérin, who disliked to have a poem read out-
side of his intimate circle. He seems to rejoice in overcoming dif-
ficulties in form for the sake of overcoming them, and at the same
time making his thought or mood permeate the form. The divisions
of 'Les Trophées' show the specially literary quality of the mind of
Hérédia. It opens with 'Greece and Sicily'; this series of sonnets
including 'Hercules and the Centaurs,' 'Artemis and the Nymphs,'
and 'Perseus and Andromeda. ' The series that follows is called
'Rome and the Barbarians,' including the sonnets suggested by Catul-
lus in the group 'Hortorum Deus. ' Then come The Middle Age and
the Renaissance,' 'The Orient and the Tropics,' and 'Les Conqué-
rants. ' 'The Conquerors of Gold' and 'Romancero' are not in the
sonnet form. Some of the most exquisite sonnets written in France
are to be found in 'Les Trophées. ' It was no surprise to the readers
of Hérédia when he was elected to the Academy,-which, although
Daudet may parody it and outsiders revile it, cares more for quality
than quantity. But to most of the English-speaking world it was
a matter of amazement. The London critics, anxious to celebrate the
new Academician, were at first in doubt as to who he was. They
were equally amazed to find that this slim book, 'Les Trophées,'
had gone through at least ten editions; but since his election Hérédia
is better known, and his poems are appreciated by those who love
to see human knowledge and human feeling preserved like roses
in a block of imperishable crystal, carved in a thousand forms of
beauty.
Hérédia's impression of the sonnet is somewhat different from
the Italian, but not less difficult. In form it is Petrarcan as to the
octave, and it has no affinity with that English sonnet which closes
with the snappy couplet. The Italian sonnet is a syllogism, more or
less carefully concealed in a mist of sentiment. The French form,
while it holds to the quatrain followed by the two tercets, demands
a veiled climax in the second tercet. It must have a certain element


## p. 7279 (#65) ############################################

JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
7279
of surprise. The tercet adds a glow to the stately quatrain. In Ital-
ian, the sextet draws the conclusion or applies the principle suggested
by the quatrain. Henri Taine loved the music of Hérédia, who has
the Miltonic quality of so mingling sonorous proper names in his
sonnets that they make the chords to the lighter treble of the more
melodious phrases of his music. This is evident in 'Epiphany,' where
the names of the Magi are used both in the first line of the quatrain
and the last of the sextet.
"C'est ainsi qu'autrefois, sous Augustus Cæsar,
Sont venus, presentant l'or, l'encens et la myrrhe,
Les Rois Mages Gaspar, Melchior et Balthazar. »
(In other days under Augustus Cæsar
Came, presenting gold, incense, and myrrh,
The magi Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. )
His management of the climax. which must, in the French form,
have an element of surprise, yet not be abrupt is admirable. The
sonnet to Rossi is a good example of this. Here, having dwelt in
the quatrains on the physical aspect of Rossi as Hamlet, Othello, and
Macbeth, he turns in the sextet to the spiritual effect of the actor's
recitation of parts of the 'Inferno,' and cries out that, trembling to
the depth of his soul, he has seen
"Alighieri, living, chant of hell. »
Hérédia varies the sextet by rhyming the first two lines, the third
and the fifth and the fourth and the sixth; and sometimes the third
with the sixth, couplets intervening. In the translation of the sonnet
'On an Antique Medal,' the Petrarcan sextet has been used. In the
'Setting Sun' one of Hérédia's forms has been followed. The other
sonnets, too, are of the mold of the originals.
manne Francis Eggan
-
-


## p. 7280 (#66) ############################################

7280
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
THE CONQUERORS
F
ALCONS fierce they are from charnel nest,
Weary of flight and burdens of their woe;
From Palos of Moguer they spell-bound go,
Heroic dreams and coarse their minds invest.
Far in deep mines the precious gold-veins rest
Waiting for them; and as the trade-winds blow
Filling their sails, they drive them all too slow
To that mysterious shore,-world of the West.
The phosphorescent blue of tropic seas
Colored their dreams when in the languid breeze
They slept each eve in hope of morrows bright,—
Of epic morrows; or in unknown skies,
Leaning entranced, they saw from carvels white
From out the ocean, strange new stars arise.
THE SAMURAI
"It was a man with two swords »
HE bîva in her hand claims thought no more;
THE
Some sounds she thrums, as through the lattice
light
Of twist' bamboo, she sees, where all is bright
On the flat plain, her love and conqueror.
Swords at his sides comes he,- her eyes adore,—
His fan held high, red girdle: splendid sight!
Deep scarlet on dark armor; and unite
Great blazons on his shoulder, feared in war.
Like huge crustacean, shining black and red,
Lacquer and silk and bronze from feet to head,
Plated and brilliant is this loved one.
He sees her, smiles beneath his bearded masque;
And as he hastens, glitter in the sun
The gold antennæ trembling on his casque.


## p. 7281 (#67) ############################################

JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
7281
ON PIERRE RONSARD'S BOOK OF LOVE
IN
N BOURGUEIL'S pleasaunce many a lover's hand
Wrote many a name in letters big and bold
On bark of shady tree; beneath the gold
Of Louvre's ceiling, love by smiles was fanned.
What matters it? Gone all the maddened band!
Four planks of wood their bodies did enfold;
None now disputes their love, or longs to hold
Their dried-up dust,- part of the grassy land.
All dead. Marie, Hélène, Cassandra proud,
Your bodies would be nothing in their shroud,—
Lilies and roses were not made to last,-
If Ronsard, on the yellow Loire or Seine,
Had not upon your brows his garlands cast
Of myrtle and of laurel not in vain.
ON AN ANTIQUE MEDAL
THE
HE wine which gave the antique ecstasy
To great Theocritus, in purple gold
Still ripens on Mount Etna;
The gracious girls he sang in Sicily!
Greek Arethusa, slave or mistress free,
- none can hold
SUNSET
-
Lost the pure profile of ancestral mold,
Mixed in her veins of Angevin, proud and bold,
And Saracenic, burning furiously.
Time goes; all dies; marble itself decays;
A shadow Agrigentum! Syracuse
Sleeps, still in death, beneath her kind sky's shades; -
But the hard metal guards through all the days-
Silver grown docile unto love's own use
The immortal beauty of Sicilian maids.
THE
HE sunlit brush light to the dark rock lends,
And gilds the summit of the mountain dome
Where sets the sun; beyond - a bar of foam
The endless sea begins where the earth ends:
XIII-456


## p. 7282 (#68) ############################################

7282
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
Beneath me, night and silence; tired man wends
To where the smoking chimney marks his home.
The Angelus, deadened by the mists that roam,
In the vast murmur of the ocean blends.
As from the depth of an abyss, the sound
Of far-off voices in the space around
Comes from belated herdsmen with their clan.
The western sky is clothed in shadows gray;
The sun on rich dark clouds sinks slow away
And shuts the gold sticks of his crimson fan.
TO THE TRAGEDIAN ROSSI
TRAIL
RAILING thy mantle black, I've seen thee break,
O Rossi, weak Ophelia's saddened heart,
And, as the love-mad Moorish tiger, start
Strangling the sobs thy victim could not wake;
I Lear, Macbeth have seen, and seen thee take
The last cold kiss in love's supremest part
Of older Italy; -high flights of art! -
Yet greater triumphs have I seen thee make:
For I did taste of joy and woe sublime
When I did hear thee speak the triple rhyme,-
In voice of gold you rang its iron knell;
And red, in reflex of the infernal fire,
My very soul moved by deep horror dire
Saw Alighieri, living, chant of hell!
MICHELANGELO
YES,
ES, he was darkly haunted, we may say,
When in the Sixtine, far from festal Rome,
Alone he painted wall or floating dome
With sibyls, prophets, and the Judgment Day.
He heard within him, weeping hard alway,
The Titan he would chain 'bove eagles' home,-
Love, country, glory and defeat,-like foam
In face of conquering death; his marble-falsest clay!
As well those heavy giants languid with strength,
Those slaves imprisoned in a stone vein's length,
As if he twisted them in their strange birth;


## p. 7283 (#69) ############################################

JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
7283
And in the marble cold had thrust his soul,
Making a fearful shiver through it roll,—
The anger of a god down-borne by earth.
AFTER PETRARCH
L
EAVING the church, with gesture tender, sweet,
Your noble hands throw gold unto the poor;
Your beauty brightens all the porch obscure,
And fills with Heaven's gold the dazzled street.
Saluting you, I humbly at your feet
Throw down my heart: yet you so proud and pure
Turn quick away; your veil you fast secure
In anger o'er your eyes, mine not to meet!
But love, which conquers hearts that most rebel,
Will not permit me in the gloom to dwell,—
The source of light to me refusing day;
You were so slow to draw the graceful shade
Of tremulous eyelash, which deep shadows made
That from the darkness shot a star's long ray.
EPITAPH
After the Verses of Henri III.
ERE sleeps, O passer, Hyacinth the Lord
Of Maugiron, dead, gone, at rest:
May God absolve and keep him near his breast;
Fallen to earth, he lies in holy sward.
None-even Quélus-wore the pearly cord,
Η
The plumèd cap, or ruff more meetly prest;
Behold by a new Myron well exprest
A spray of hyacinth in marble scored.
And having kissed him and most tenderly
Placed him in coffin, Henry willed that he
At Saint-Germain be laid;- fair, wan, he lies.
And wishing that such grief should never die,
He made in church, all changes to defy,
This sweet, sad symbol of Apollo's sighs.
-


## p. 7284 (#70) ############################################

7284
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
"TIS NOON; THE LIGHT IS FIERCE »
'T¹5
Is noon; the light is fierce; the air is fire;
The ancient river rolls its waves of lead;
Direct from Heaven day falls overhead,—
Phra covers Egypt in relentless ire.
The eyes of the great sphinx that never tire-
The sphinx that bathes in dust of golden-red-
Follow with mystic looks the unmeasurèd
And needle-pointed pyramidal spire.
A darkened spot is on the sky of white,-
An endless flight of circling vulture wings;
A flame immense makes drowsy all earth's things.
The ardent soil is sparkling; full in sight
A brass Anubis, silent, still, and stark,
Turns to the sun its never-ending bark.
All the above translations are by Maurice Francis Egan, for 'A Library of the
World's Best Literature ›


## p. 7284 (#71) ############################################



## p. 7284 (#72) ############################################


YYYY
W
HERODOTUS.
20


## p. 7284 (#73) ############################################

7. 85
T
1.
ash
mest de Tetul storya fer bears, star gɔ to say the tive
f the "thor of a', tory,” The aft ཙཱུ ' story de 15. first
d in the ace of epic poetry, pased into the hangs
hets of the sixth ad with cent es, to whom must
the plan. cly a and rather starting discov ry that
b) a meirim of ht katue of their works we have little
The borderlad's of the Orient, vei in materials of fam-
6. tradition, of mythology, gen slogy, theogany, of diverse
Ps. 12 at a cistom, fumed them the natural straks to
The material hal o, grown the staid restramt of the
C and hurting the traditional akes, it read its i abroad
Ist fag
ik.
』ཟླ
at.
II
10
:
(.
PT
tre's of plebeian proe, Herein both the historical prose
cph'sophieal fund their source.
tus sted on the berer-line betw log orpay and b
Athriselt in to the logogr phers, art locked back
ther to I'mer as the head of his spild. In entitling his
*sed the word hi toria in the sense of story-teing, "tathi
Chvat r of s comp siten loto signe once es bi tory.
to de tie
Cicero,
v uren the fact that he was the first to shope solve-
its 10 we portrayal of a great historical pro ru 11g, 80
plot. The proccd. gwch h chose as his
: s proved to be one of pre itoportan e n the total pistory
les cydiza lor. It was the confiet betyren Grecoɛ a… 2 P 1.
father of history," fi: tawar I bi
w it w
1:1
Nog'r
of the 7th century B (--a great crisis and
ng history of that strange between Orientalis:n
which ever since bun. nr cord began, as been
progress by the shores of the Egean The
Ins therefore, wh the Eastern Question
is. "
meta y
!
HERODOTUS
600 ? 425 ? B. C. ,
BY BENJAMIN IDE WAFFLEP
7
T
६८
outs's par",
born in 1 ad
me was such as to sugest to him his then e
aruussus, a Doze city on the sontlig torn e ast
abort 450 B. C. , and died, probably at Tour in italy,
tau bet ve 428 and 426. It's life covers thas the pered
1. .
s.
11 wars to the Peloponnesian War, ard is ero *. -
period of Athers's bloom. He was born, vi 15


## p. 7284 (#74) ############################################

HEROLOT!
* J


## p. 7285 (#75) ############################################

7285
HERODOTUS
(490-426? B. C. )
BY BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER
HIS most delightful story-teller bears, strange to say, the title
of the "father of history. " The art of story-telling, first
fashioned in the usage of epic poetry, passed into the hands
of the logographers of the sixth and fifth centuries, to whom must
be accredited the relatively late and rather startling discovery that
prose could be a medium of literature. Of their works we have little
or nothing. The borderlands of the Orient, rich in materials of fam-
ily and city tradition, of mythology, genealogy, theogony, of diverse
national usage and custom, furnished them the natural stimulus to
their work. The material had outgrown the staid restraint of the
genteel epic, and bursting the traditional dikes, it spread itself abroad
in great levels of plebeian prose. Herein both the historical prose
style and the philosophical found their source.
Herodotus stood on the border-line between logography and his-
tory. He felt himself akin to the logographers, and looked back
through them to Homer as the head of his guild. In entitling his
work, he used the word historia in the sense of story-telling; but lifted
it by the character of his composition into its significance as history.
His claim to the title "father of history," first awarded him by Cicero,
rests primarily upon the fact that he was the first to shape a collec-
tion of stories into the portrayal of a great historical proceeding, so
as to endow it with a plot. The proceeding which he chose as his
subject has proved to be one of prime importance in the total history
of human civilization. It was the conflict between Greece and Per-
sia in the beginning of the fifth century B. C. ,—a great crisis and
turning-point in the long history of that struggle between Orientalism
and Occidentalism, which, ever since human record began, has been
almost perpetually in progress by the shores of the Ægean.
writing of history begins, therefore, with the Eastern Question.
The
Herodotus's early home was such as to suggest to him his theme.
He was born in Halicarnassus, a Doric city on the southwestern coast
of Asia Minor, about 490 B. C. , and died, probably at Thurii in Italy,
at some time between 428 and 426. His life covers thus the period
from the Persian wars to the Peloponnesian War, and is commen-
surate with the period of Athens's bloom. He was born, if we may


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7286
HERODOTUS
trust Suidas's evidence, of a highly respectable Halicarnassian family;
and among his near relatives, probably his uncle, was Panyasis,—
a collector of myths and folk-lore, and an epic poet of considerable
distinction, whose influence in determining his younger kinsman's
tastes may well have been decisive. A revolution in the government
of the city, probably of the year 468, occasioned the death of Panyasis
and the exile of Herodotus. It is significant for the later attitude of
Herodotus, as shown in his writings, that in this affair he sided with
the democracy. After an exile of several years, part of which at
least he is said to have spent in Samos, he returned to his native
city, where later-at some time prior to 454-he participated in the
overthrowing of the tyrant Lygdamis. Continued political disturb-
ances caused him finally to withdraw permanently from the city. The
Jealousy of the mob, which had now joined itself to the hatred of the
aristocracy, had made his longer stay impossible.
From this time until 443, when he joined in founding the Athenian
colony of Thurii in Italy, he was a homeless, cityless wanderer on
the face of the earth. Athens, ever hospitable to strangers, afforded
him the nearest approach to a home, and here he naturally made his
abode at the end of his successive voyages. There is no good reason
for rejecting the information that in the year 445 he gave a public
reading of some portion of his history, and received therefor a vote
of thanks from the Athenian Council and a reward of ten talents.
The greater part of his travels was accomplished before this date;
for two years later, in search of a home and rest,—and probably too
of the leisure to complete his work,- he withdrew to Thurii. The
most probable order of his travels is that which takes him first along
the coasts of Asia Minor to the northern islands, Thrace, the Sea of
Marmora, Byzantium, and the coasts of the Black Sea; then at some
time after 445 brings him to the south, along the southern shores
of Asia Minor to Cyprus and the Syrian coast, and into the interior
through Syria and Mesopotamia to Babylon. Egypt he visited almost
certainly after 449, and Kyrene in northern Africa may well have
come next in order. The exploration of Greece proper,-where he
visited Dodona, Zakynthos, Delphi, Thebes, Platæa, Thermopylæ, and
various places in the Peloponnesus, including Corinth, Tegea, Sparta,
and probably Olympia,- belongs in the last years before his depart-
ure for Thurii.
There are not lacking those who, on the basis of inaccuracies in
our author's reports, deny that his itinerary ever took him far from
the coast line of the Egean and eastern Mediterranean. Thus Pro-
fessor Sayce, in his Introduction to Books i. -iii. , limits Herodotus's
travels to coasting trips along the shores of Thrace from Athos to
Byzantium, to Palestine and Syria, among the islands of the Ægean,


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HERODOTUS
7287
with visits to Lower Egypt and certain sites in Greece. Though
Herodotus distinctly says he visited Egyptian Thebes, and pushed on
up the Nile as far as Elephantine, Mr. Sayce prefers to brand our
good friend as a deliberate liar, forsooth, because he calls Elephan-
tine a village instead of an island, and does not wax warm enough in
praise of the wonders of Thebes! To those who have read the pages
of Herodotus as they were meant to be read, and have not used them
exclusively as material for seminary criticism, the genial simplicity of
the writer is likely to be too well known to suffer his being made an
arrant rogue on slight evidence. He loved a good story, and surely
would not let it take harm in his hands; but plain lying was not his
forte. There really exists no sufficient reason for supposing he did
not visit the places he actually says he did.
After settling at Thurii, he may on occasion have taken up again
the wander-staff; but direct evidence does not exist. It is not even
certain that he visited Athens again. His mention of the Propylaia
(Book v. , 77) refers by no means certainly to the Propylaia of Mne-
sicles, completed in 432, but more probably to the older structure on
the same site. His allusion to events in Athenian history occurring
after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431) does not necessi-
tate the hypothesis of residence in Athens. His whole attitude, on
the contrary, toward the issues and events involved in that struggle,
betrays the feeling of one observing from a distance, rather than of
an eye-witness and participant.
Pitifully little it is, therefore, that we know about the man him-
self. When after a period of relative neglect his writings sprang
again into attention in the second century B. C. , the facts of his life
had so far been forgotten- fate of a man without a country! - that
even the busy gleaning of the grammarians failed to find materials
sufficient to construct a fair biography. He lives only in his writ-
ings. Whether he wrote anything else than the nine books of history
that have come down to us under his name is not perfectly certain,
though he in two different passages promises to return to a subject
in his 'Assyrian Notes. ' Aristotle in his Animal History' cites a
remark of Herodotus that may well have had a place in such a work,
and certainly is not taken from his existing writings; but there is no
other evidence that any such book existed. The theory that he wrote
it and intended ultimately to incorporate it in his history, much as
he did the Egyptian Notes' which constitute the second book, is
rendered improbable by the evident completeness of plan characteriz-
ing the existing work.
(
The History as we have it is divided into nine books, named from
the nine Muses. This division, not mentioned by any one before Dio-
doros (who lived in the first century B. C. ), and not presupposed by
-


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7288
HERODOTUS
the author himself in referring to other parts of his history, may
have been the handiwork of the Alexandrine grammarian; but was
fittingly made, and corresponds to real lines of division which must
have been present to the author's mind and purpose. In spite of the
bewildering variety of the material brought together in the single
books, and in spite of digressions and excursuses, each book will be
found to contribute its distinct and appropriate part to the plan of
the whole, and steadily to lead the subject up to its complete unfold-
ing. Reducing to lowest terms, we may summarize the subject of
each book in its relation to the whole as follows:-I. The rise of
the Persian empire through the downfall of the Lydian. II. Egypt.
III. The establishment of the Persian empire,- Cambyses, Smerdis,
Darius. IV. Persia against Scythia and against Libya. V. Advance
of the Persian power towards a conflict with Athens. VI. The self-
assertion of the Hellenic spirit in Ionia, and the quelling of the
Ionian revolt; its self-assertion in Greece, and the battle of Marathon.
VII. Xerxes's march against Greece. VIII. Salamis. IX. Platæa,
Mycale, and the failure of Persia.
The story is complete in itself. It is fashioned after a plot, and
is set forth in all the stately form of a great drama. There is intro-
duction, assembling of the elements of conflict, conflict, catastrophe,
lesson. The tale begins with the rise of the Persian power, gather-
ing unto itself the strength of the barbarian world. It ends with
Persia's failure and discomfiture. The motif is sounded at the start.
Overweening greatness challenges the envy of the gods, and is smit-
ten with the divine wrath. Hybris meets its Nemesis. The presump-
tion of Croesus received in the first book its rebuke from the Athenian
Solon. The Persian power which rose to greatness on the ruins of
Croesus's power vaunted its pride in Xerxes's host, and received in
the last book its rebuke from the Athenian State.
The last three books stand in marked contrast as well as parallel-
ism to the first three. In the closing section of the work, Hellas is
the scene, Hellenic history is the central interest; in the first section,
barbarian history fills the foreground, and Lydia, Egypt, Mesopotamial
are the scene. In Books vii. , viii. , ix. , we have a single continuous
account, clear and definite in outline and plan; in i. , ii. , iii. , we find a
vast assemblage of various narrative, rich with the varied colorings
and dreamy fancies of the East. These stand in the world of the
known, those issue out of the misty depths of wonderland.
Between these two groups the fourth, fifth, and sixth books play a
mediating part. In geographical location they belong neither to the
civilized Orient nor to the Occident. The fourth reaches far to the
north, then far to the south. The fifth draws near to the frontier,
and deals with Thrace and Ionia. The sixth bestrides the frontier, and


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HERODOTUS
7289
reaches to the shores of Attica. Chronologically they also form the
bridge between the beginning and the end. The first three books
deal with vast stretches of time, quoted not in decades or genera-
tions but in centuries. The three central books limit themselves to
the thirty years prior to the battle of Marathon, as the last three do
to the ten years subsequent thereto. The fourth book is conceived
more after the spirit of its predecessors than its successors, but yet
belongs in scene and purpose to the latter rather than the former.
As Mr. Macan has remarked, the middle books are "intermediate
and transitional in character. They present a dissolving view, or a
series-nay, a large amphitheatre-of dissolving views. " The art
which has fashioned the plan of the whole reveals itself also, on
minuter analysis, in the outline of the separate books. We cannot
be certain that this plan in all its features was outlined by the
author before beginning his work. We are rather inclined to think
that except for some crude vision of the whole, the plan grew upon
him as he wrote and arranged. His first impulse to authorship arose
from his interest in the life and customs of diverse peoples, aroused
perhaps by his uncle's interest, and conditioned and strengthened by
his early residence on the frontier of diverse civilizations, and by his
travels. A suggestion for the classification of his material was pre-
sented by the exhibition of the practical outcome of diverse attitudes
of life, in the conflict joined at Salamis between the two extremes.
The composition was doubtless the work of years. Various at-
tempts to assign certain parts to certain years of his life have proved
vain. He no doubt added from time to time here an anecdote, there
an excursus; and as he inserted and rearranged, the finer details of a
plan emerged. It is not likely that the book was given to the world
before his death; there is indeed a tradition-not all too trustworthy
-that it was published after his death by his friend the poet Plesir-
However that may be, the work was practically complete.
The last revision, which might have removed a few minor inconsist-
encies, had not been made; but as for a purpose to continue the
work so as to cover for instance the age of Pericles, or even some
shorter additional period, it is out of the question. Such work was
not to his mind, nor appropriate to the material he had collected
and which enchained his interest. The deeds of great heroes of the
past, not the political strife of the present, allured him. He was a
child of Homer. The conflict of Asia against Europe was the same
old theme of which Homer had sung. But we are not confined to
negative evidence. The fact that the plan of the work as it stands
is complete, furnishes positive assurance. The closing incident of
the ninth book naturally concludes the story. The hybris of Xerxes
has met its defeat. The expedition to Sestos gave the evidence that
Xerxes's bridge was broken through and Europe rid of the intruder.


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7290
HERODOTUS
The closing words of the last book form an ideal conclusion to the
work. They represent the older policy of the Persians when under
the guidance of Cyrus:-"So the Persians, seeing their error, yielded
to the opinion of Cyrus; for they chose rather to live in a barren
land and rule, than to sow the plain and be the slaves of others. ”
Thus Solon's rebuke of hybris at the beginning of the work is echoed
from the lips of the great Persian at the end.
Herodotus is by no means a trained scientific observer. He sees
with the natural eye. His crocodiles and hippopotamuses are some-
what awry, but he tells what children would like to hear about them.
What is now the every-day cat was then among the marvels of
wonder-land. His contributions to piscatology are not masterly, and
his faith in what is told him concerning the habits of animals he has
not seen is beautifully free from scientific doubt. The description of
Babylon is not that of a Baedeker, but constitutes no evidence that
he had failed to visit it. In regard to geography he thought himself
well in advance of his day, and smiled disdainful smiles at those who
make the earth circular, as if turned out on a lathe. " His remarks
concerning language show that he was innocent of all knowledge of
foreign tongues, and that his capacity for observation was slight.
Thus he presents, as an argument for the connection of the Colchians
and the Egyptians, their similarity of language!
When he is describing the customs of strange peoples he is always
entertaining, and usually instructive. Here his gift as a story-teller
stands him in good stead. When he opens his mouth to tell us a
story, then he is at his best. The ring of Polycrates, the contest for
Thyrea, the boyhood of Cyrus, King Rhampsinitos and his money,
are samples of his tales pitched in every key,- the marvelous, the
genuine, the spirited, the grimly humorous. His descriptions of battles
are full of movement and interest; not precise and strategically clear,
but gossipy and active, and above all things interesting. They were
composed to be heard, and not to be studied out with a map. No
better illustration could be cited than the magnificent story of Sala-
mis. The failure of scholars to agree regarding the plan of this
battle has been in some measure due to their unwillingness to listen
to Herodotus as a naïve story-teller rather than as a naval expert.
There is no general canon by which the credibility of his material
can be tested. Each statement must be weighed by itself. What he
heard, or what he understood, and what he saw or thought he saw,
he reported-so far as it interested him. If he heard two accounts
of an occurrence, he sometimes gave them both and left the reader
to choose. Sometimes he expresses a mild doubt, but generally he
reports the current stories in a delightful miscellany of folk-lore and
history. He does not hesitate on occasion to admit his ignorance,
and carefully distinguishes his inferences from his facts. Neither


## p. 7291 (#81) ############################################

HERODOTUS
7291
infallibility nor dogmatism is his besetting sin. He could not speak
the languages of the foreign countries in which he traveled, and was
therefore often at the mercy of the local dragomans. The statement
concerning the inscription on the great Pyramid, which expressed
the greatness of the work in terms of the onions and garlic con-
sumed by the workmen, savors strongly of dragoman philology. So
soon as he passes the Greek language frontier we mark the effect
upon his material. Books he used relatively little as sources. Heca-
taios is the only logographer he cites. His materials were chiefly
obtained from oral testimony and observation.
Strikingly characteristic of Herodotus is his religious conviction.
History with him was all Providence. The gods rule in the affairs
of men; they declare their will to them in signs and through oracles;
the great events of history and the experiences of individual lives
admit of explanation in terms of Divine purpose. This attitude of
simple faith conditions throughout both the collection of materials
and their use. If we have found in him history still undifferentiated
from folk-lore, quite as much do we find it undifferentiated from
theology. His work is folk-lore, history, theology, and epic all in
one; but history is pushing to the fore. Rich as it is in the materi-
als of history, it cannot be history for the people of to-day. It is
better than that, for it is a picture of what history was to people
then.
Benj. Ide Wheeler.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. -Since the Aldine Editio Princeps (1502),
Herodotus has had many editors. The most helpful recent editions
are those of Stein, one with critical apparatus, another with German
notes. There is a fair annotated edition by Blakesley in the 'Biblio-
theca Classica. ' Much better is the masterly translation into English
by Rawlinson, with copious notes and special essays, in four octavo
volumes, first published in London in 1858. An American reprint
from Rawlinson in two volumes, with abridgment of the expository
material and slight revision of the text, is just announced. There is
also a good translation by G. C. Macaulay (1890). All the citations
which follow are drawn from Rawlinson's original edition, which is
one of the noblest monuments of English classical scholarship.
The best recent English work on Herodotus will be found in the
introduction and appendices of R. W. Macan's 'Herodotus, iv.