It is the
deceiving
senses which report multiplicity; reason speaks only
of unity.
of unity.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v10 - Emp to Fro
Title: Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern;
Charles Dudley Warner, editor; Hamilton Wright Mabie, Lucia
Gilbert Runkle, George H. Warner, associate editors . . .
Publisher: New York, R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill [c1896-97]
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Lit 2
VERI
TAS
HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY
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Comp
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B. FRANKLIN.
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C
CALD'S BES
窿
LAR
Te
PEALT
. 1
PODA
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1.
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LIBRARY
OF THE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
Ancient and Modern
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
EDITOR
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE,
GEORGE H. WARNER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
THIRTY VOLUMES
VOL. X
111011
EMP - FROM
NEW YORK
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
PUBLISHERS
## p. 5452 (#12) ############################################
HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
AC?
BY R. S.
COPYRIGHT 1897
PEALE AND J. A.
All rights reserved
THE WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS
AKDON
BINDERS
HILL
## p. 5453 (#13) ############################################
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.
THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.
WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of History and Political Science,
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M. , LL. B. ,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D. .
President of the
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.
WILLARD FISKE, A. M. , PH. D. ,
Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
and Literatures,
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y.
EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.
ALCÉE FORTIER, LIT. D. ,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.
WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A. ,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
PAUL SHOREY, PH. D. ,
Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D. ,
United States Commissioner of Education,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C.
ws. l
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Literature in the
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
## p. 5454 (#14) ############################################
## p. 5455 (#15) ############################################
EMPEDOCLES
ENNIUS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From the Poem on Nature
Other Fragments from the Poem on Nature
From the Poem on Purifications
JOSEF EÖTVÖs
Portrait of a Scholar
Rhea Silvia's Dream
VOL. X
BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
Pyrrhus's Speech
Character of Fabius
Epitaph on Scipio
Epitaph on Ennius
Epitaph on Scipio
EPICTETUS
LIVED
Fifth Century B. C.
BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
239-169 B. C.
Viola in Court (The Village Notary')
1813-1871
First Century A. D. ?
BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
From the Discourses:
The Divine Supervision; Concerning Providence; Con-
cerning Parentage; Concerning Difficulties; Words and
Deeds; Of Tranquillity
From the Enchiridion':
The Basis of Philosophy; Terrors; The Voyage;
Events; Surrender; Integrity; The Test; The Two
Handles
PAGE
5467
5475
5484
5497
## p. 5456 (#16) ############################################
EPICTETUS- Continued:
ERASMUS
From the Fragments':
Sweet and Bitter; Love of Man; Monuments; Civic
Honor; Healing; For Humanity; Inspiration; Divine
Presence
From
From
From the Colloquies':
BY ANDREW D. WHITE
vi
From the 'Adages':
Adages Relating to Monarchy
Adages Showing Erasmus's Political Philosophy
Adages Relating to the Mendicant Friars
The Christian's Manual'
The Praise of Folly'
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
Colloquy of The Shipwreck '
Colloquy of The Religious Pilgrimage'
From Erasmus's Correspondence:
JOSÉ DE ESPRONCEDA
LIVED
Passages Showing his Views of Life and Conduct
Passages Relating to the Monks
Passages Relating to Scholasticism and Theology
Passages Relating to Luther
Letter to Pope Adrian VI.
Passages Showing Various Moods
Passages Showing a Playful Skepticism
Passages Revealing his Feelings towards the End of Life
To Spain: an Elegy
The Song of the Pirate
1465? -1536
1822-
BY MARY J. SERRANO
HENRI ALPHONSE ESQUIROS
BY FRÉDÉRIC LOLIÉE
The Dance in the Village Inn (Friend Fritz')
A Bivouac at Ligny (Waterloo')
1826-1890
1810-1842
1814-1876
PAGE
The Death of Marat (Charlotte Corday')
The Poet's Little Home (The Enchanted Castle')
5509
5538
5549
5556
## p. 5457 (#17) ############################################
vii
EURIPIDES
Choral Song from the 'Bacchæ '
Ion's Song
BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
JOHN EVELYN
Songs from the Hippolytus'
Hippolytus Rails at Womankind
Hippolytus's Disaster
Hecuba Hears the Story of her Daughter's Death
Medea Resolving to Slay her Children
Account of Alcestis's Farewell to her Home
Fragments from Lost Plays:
Professional Athletics; Children a Blessing; Resigna-
tion; "Captive Good Attending Captain Ill"
From Evelyn's Diary
The Great Fire in London (same)
LIVED
480-406 B. C.
JOHANNES EWALD
EDWARD EVERETT
1794-1865
The Emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers (Oration at Ply-
mouth, December 22d, 1824)
The Inevitable March of Improvement
The American Revolution (Lexington Oration, April 20th,
1835)
The Danish National Song
First Love (Life and Opinions')
From The Fishers'
1620-1706
FREDERICK WILLIAM FARRAR
BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE
1743-1781
1831-
Paul before Festus and Agrippa (Life and Work of St.
Paul')
Roman Civilization under Nero (Early Days of Christ-
ianity')
Christ and Pilate (Life of Christ')
PAGE
5569
5591
5605
5614
5627
## p. 5458 (#18) ############################################
FÉNELON
SUSAN EDMONSTONE FERRIER
BY THOMAS J. SHAHAN
To One in Perplexity (Spiritual Letters')
Dangers of a Questioning Mind (same)
The Goddess Calypso (Telemachus')
The Weakness of Kings (same)
The Internal Dissensions of Christians ('A Sermon for St.
Bernard's Day')
OCTAVE FEUILLET
viii
A Highland Better Half (The Inheritance')
The Reverend Mr. M'Dow: and his Courtship (Destiny')
JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE
1821-1890
A Leap in the Dark (Romance of a Poor Young Man')
1762-1814
EUGENE FIELD
LIVED
1651-1715
Morality and Religion (same)
Elevating Power of Religion (same)
Spiritual Light and Truth (same)
Peroration of the 'Addresses to the German Nation'
Characteristics of the Age ('Characteristics of the Present
Age')
HENRY FIELDING
1782-1854
BY EDWARD FRANKLIN BUCHNER
To the Passing Saint: Christmas
Dutch Lullaby
Ipswich
BY LESLIE STEPHEN
1850-1895
1707-1754
Parson Adams's Short Memory (Joseph Andrews')
A Discourse from Parson Adams (same)
Tom Jones Appears in the Story with Bad Omens (Tom
Jones')
The Characters of Mr. Square the Philosopher and of
Mr. Thwackum the Divine (same)
Partridge at the Playhouse (same)
The Farewell ((Amelia')
A Scene of the Tender Kind (same)
PAGE
5641
5649
5663
5673
5687
5693
## p. 5459 (#19) ############################################
ix
VINCENZO DA FILICAIA
Time
FIRDAUSI
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
KUNO FISCHER
BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON
The Beautiful Rudabah Discloses her Love to Zal ('Shāh-
Namah')
The Death of Dara (same)
The Warrior Sam Describes his Victory over a Dragon
LIVED
1642-1707
Of Providence
To Italy
(same)
Firdausi's Satire on Mahmud (same)
Prince Sohrab Learns of his Birth, and Resolves to Find
Rustem (same)
JOHN FISKE ·
935-1020
In the Garden (Of the Beauty of Women')
Of the Forehead and Temples (same)
Of the Hand (same)
EDWARD FITZGERALD
1493-1545
BY RICHARD JONES
The Motive to Philosophy (History of Modern Phi-
losophy')
1824-
From 'Goethe's Faust: The Methods of Exposition':
The Age when the Poem was Written
The Philosophical Method of Interpretation
The Extreme Positions Taken by Both Schools
The Religious Idea of the Poem
1842-
Ferdinand Magellan (The Discovery of America')
1809-1883
BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
Chivalry (Euphranor')
Apologues Translated from the 'Bird Parliament of
Farīd-uddin Attar: The Fortune of the Great; The
Miser; The Dread; The Proof; Compulsory Repent-
ance; Clogs to the Soul; Mortality; The Welcome
Chronomoros
›
PAGE
5732
5735
5755
5766
5777
5797
## p. 5460 (#20) ############################################
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
X
BY PAUL BOURGET
The Sacred Parrot (Un Coeur Simple')
Salammbô Prepares for her Journey (Salammbô')
The Sacrifice to Moloch (same)
PAUL FLEMING
To Myself
On a Long and Perilous Journey
To My Ring
JEAN PIERRE CLARIS DE FLORIAN
The Connoisseur
The Courtiers
The Dying Rose-Tree
Serenade
Song
FOLK-SONG
SAMUEL FOOTE
BY F. B. GUMMERE
LIVED
1821-1880
How to be a Lawyer (The Lame Lover')
A Misfortune in Orthography (same)
From the 'Memoirs':
1609-1640
1755-1794
1720-1777
A Cure for Bad Poetry; The Retort Courteous; On
Garrick's Stature; Cape Wine; The Graces; The
Debtor; Affectation; Arithmetical Criticism; The Dear
Wife; Garrick and the Guinea; Dr. Paul Hifferman;
Foote and Macklin; Baron Newman; Mrs. Abington;
Garlic-Eaters; Mode of Burying Attorneys in Lon-
don; Dining Badly; Dibble Davis; An Extraordinary
Case; Mutability of the World; An Appropriate Motto;
Real Friendship; Anecdote of an Author; Dr. Blair;
Advice to a Dramatic Writer; The Grafton Ministry
JOHN FORD
From
Perkin Warbeck'
Penthea's Dying Song (The Broken Heart')
From The Lover's Melancholy': Amethus and Menaphon
1586-?
PAGE
5815
5844
5849
5853
5878
5889
## p. 5461 (#21) ############################################
xi
FRIEDRICH, BARON DE LA MOTTE FOUQUÉ
The Marriage of Undine (Undine')
The Last Appearance of Undine (same)
Song from Minstrel Lore ›
ANATOLE FRANCE
1844-
In the Gardens (The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard')
Child-Life (The Book of my Friend')
From the Garden of Epicurus '
ST. FRANCIS D'ASSISI
Order
The Canticle of the Sun
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
LIVED
1777-1843
1182-1225
BY JOHN BIGELOW
Of Franklin's Family and Early Life (Autobiography")
Franklin's Journey to Philadelphia: His Arrival There
(same)
LOUIS HONORÉ FRÉCHETTE
Franklin as a Printer (same)
Rules of Health ('Poor Richard's Almanack')
The Way to Wealth (same)
1706-1790
Speech in the Federal Convention, in Favor of Opening
Its Sessions with Prayer
On War
Revenge: Letter to Madame Helvétius
The Ephemera: an Emblem of Human Life
A Prophecy (Letter to Lord Kames)
Early Marriages (Letter to John Alleyne)
The Art of Virtue (Autobiography")
Our History (Le Légende d'un Peuple')
Caughnawaga
Louisiana (Les Feuilles Volantes')
The Dream of Life (same)
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
1839-
PAGE
5895
5909
5919
5925
5964
## p. 5462 (#22) ############################################
HAROLD FREDERIC
1856-
The Last Rite (The Damnation of Theron Ware')
1823-1892
EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN
xii
BY JOHN BACH MCMASTER
The Altered Aspects of Rome (Historical Essays')
The Continuity of English History (same)
Race and Language (same)
The Norman Council and the Assembly of Lillebonne
(The History of the Norman Conquest of England')
FERDINAND FREILIGRATH
The Emigrants
The Lion's Ride
Rest in the Beloved
Oh, Love so Long as Love Thou Canst
GUSTAV FREYTAG
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
LIVED
1810-1876
The German Professor (The Lost Manuscript')
FROISSART
1816-1895
1782-1852
BY NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH
The Right of the Child (Reminiscences of Friedrich
Froebel')
Evolution (The Mottoes and Commentaries of Mother
Play')
The Laws of the Mind (The Letters of Froebel')
For the Children (same)
Motives (The Education of Man')
Aphorisms
1337-1410?
BY GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER
From the
Chronicles':
The Invasion of France by King Edward III. , and the
Battle of Crécy
How the King of England Rode through Normandy
Of the Great Assembly that the French King Made to
Resist the King of England
PAGE
5971
5977
6002
6011
6022
6035
## p. 5463 (#23) ############################################
xiii
FROISSART
Continued:
Of the Battle of Caen, and How the Englishmen Took
the Town
―
LIVED
How the French King Followed the King of England
in Beauvoisinois
Of the Battle of Blanche-Taque
Of the Order of the Englishmen at Cressy
The Order of the Frenchmen at Cressy, and How They
Beheld the Demeanor of the Englishmen
Of the Battle of Cressy, August 26th, 1346
PAGE
## p. 5464 (#24) ############################################
## p. 5465 (#25) ############################################
LIST OF PORTRAITS
Josef Eötvös
Erasmus
IN VOL. X
Erckmann-Chatrian
Euripides
John Evelyn
Edward Everett
Johannes Ewald
Frederick William Farrar
Fénelon
Octave Feuillet
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Eugene Field
Henry Fielding
Vincenzo da Filicaia
Kuno Fischer
John Fiske
Edward Fitzgerald
Gustave Flaubert
Paul Fleming
Jean Pierre Claris de Florian
Friedrich La Motte Fouqué
Anatole France
Benjamin Franklin
Harold Frederic
Edward Augustus Freeman
Ferdinand Freiligrath
Gustav Freytag
Friedrich Froebel
Froissart
Vignette
Full page
Vignettes
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
## p. 5466 (#26) ############################################
## p. 5467 (#27) ############################################
5467
EMPEDOCLES
(Fifth Century B. C. )
BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
MPEDOCLES the Sicilian was born at Agrigentum, early in the
fifth century B. C. The dates of his birth and death are
uncertain, but his life probably covered nearly the whole of
the first three-quarters of that century. His family was rich and
influential, and in politics allied with the popular or democratic side.
He himself rose to a commanding position as a statesman, and was
sufficiently versatile to become no less eminent as an orator, poet,
religious teacher, and physician. Of his two long poems- the one
cosmological, the other religious-four hundred and fifty fragmentary
verses have come down to us, the exceptionally large number prob-
ably showing the wide-spread character of his popularity. In certain
political overturnings he fell into disfavor with his fellow-citizens, and
was apparently banished. At any rate, many years of his life were
passed in wandering over the Greek countries. Travel in those days
took the place of the modern university, and whatever results travel
could yield he obtained. A long life was spent in forming and pro-
claiming philosophic doctrine, in preaching, and in healing the sick.
A man of imposing personality, he was popularly believed to work
miracles and to possess divine power,- beliefs which he took no
pains to discourage. The suspicion of charlatanry which attaches to
him appears in the probably baseless story that he secretly threw
himself into the crater of Etna, in order not to be thought to have
died as a man, but to have disappeared as a god. His character and
teachings have deeply affected two notable poems, Lucretius's 'De
Rerum Natura,' and Matthew Arnold's 'Empedocles on Etna. '
At the beginning of the fifth century B. C. there was great intel-
lectual activity throughout the Greek world, especially along the
coast land of Asia Minor, among the islands of the Egean Sea, in
Sicily and Southern Italy,—the Greek America,- where comfortable
conditions had been attained in freedom, wealth, and ease of com-
munication. Here men were becoming conscious of themselves and
of an environing world, and had begun to seek a more exact expla-
nation of the universe than the traditional mythologies could supply.
The ancient beliefs accepted gods of all degrees and ranges of power.
The arrangements of the world were due to them, and all events
## p. 5468 (#28) ############################################
5468
EMPEDOCLES
were under their control; but they were imagined as having their
birth and exerting their activity in an already existing universe. Of
this, or of themselves, they did not lay the foundations. Multitudi-
nous they were as the physical forces of our scientific men, and as
little capable of accounting for their own origin. In the preceding
century men had already begun to wonder about this origin, and to
distrust mythological explanations of it. They questioned what was
the ultimate ground of things, what was the universal Nature (púois)
from which gods and men alike proceeded, of what was the world
made. These questions mark the first stirrings of a philosophic spirit
among the Greeks.
The Ionians or Eastern Greeks suggested in reply that some one
of the many elements now existing might be the primordial element,
and from this all else be derived. Water or even air might be the
primordial stuff (4px), which processes of thickening and thinning then
turned into all that we see. Nature would thus consist of a single
real substance, and of it the many objects we perceive would be but
the modifications.
Acute minds, however, at Elea in Southern Italy,- Xenophanes,
Parmenides, Zeno,- pressed this hypothesis farther.
If the many
objects we see are but modifications of a single being or substance,
then objects themselves, and the whole changing world which they
involve, become illusory. For how could water be changed into
anything other than itself, without ceasing in the same degree to be
water at all? And if one primordial element is all that ultimately
constitutes Being, will not every change of this Being or Substance
move in the direction of Not-Being or Insubstantiality? It is useless
to suggest that change might arise through the transition from one
kind of being to another. If there are kinds of Being, diversity is
planted in the frame of things, rational unity disappears, and anything
like a universe becomes impossible. The one and the many are so
inherently opposed that each must exclude the other from existence.
To the Eleatic eye, or to any other capable of distinguishing reality
and appearance, all Being is one, changeless, undifferentiated, eternal.
It is the deceiving senses which report multiplicity; reason speaks only
of unity. The transformations suggested and seemingly warranted
by sensuous experience cannot even be thought of with precision,
but will on reflection everywhere disclose hidden contradictions.
Only one method of preserving the reality of change accordingly
remains, and that is to imbed it in the nature of the primordial ele-
ment itself. This method was adopted by Heraclitus of Ephesus.
Fire, said he, presents a case of existence where nothing like fixed
Being is to found. Of fire it is not true that it first exists and after-
wards changes. At no moment of its existence, even the earliest, is
## p. 5469 (#29) ############################################
EMPEDOCLES
5469
it unchanging. Into its nature change is so essentially inwrought
that we are obliged to describe it as always becoming, rather than
as at any time being. And what is true of fire is true of the uni-
verse in general. Ceaseless change characterizes it. All things flow,
nothing stands. You cannot bathe twice in the same stream. The
Eleatics were right in declaring that Being cannot change except into
its opposite, Not-Being; but that is precisely what it perpetually does
change into. Nature is made by the union of these opposites. Strife
is the father of all, the unceasing strife of Being and Not-Being. The
two are inseparable. The original element contains them both, and
Nature arises from their conflict.
These, then, were the explanations of the universe offered to Em-
pedocles: the mythological notion of personal divine agency, the pri-
mary transformable element of the Ionians, the one fixed substance of
the Eleatics, the ceaseless change of Heraclitus. Perhaps we should
add the teachings of Pythagoras about number, immortality, and a
renovated social order. All these widely divergent cosmologic notions
Empedocles accepted, and in his eclectic and compromising fashion
sought to adjust them into harmony with one another.
With the Eleatics he agrees in holding that whatever ultimately
exists must be perpetual, incapable of changing its qualities, of com-
ing into being or ceasing to be. But he conciliates this with the
Heraclitan recognition of the universality of change, by a peculiar
adaptation of Ionic doctrine. It is true that not all the elements
of the world are equally primordial; but why assume that there is
but one such primordial element ? —may there not be several? The
Pythagoreans taught that the number four entered deeply into the
structure of the world. Might there not, then, be four original ele-
ments say, earth, air, fire, and water? Three of these had already
figured separately in Ionic speculation. These primordial roots, as
Empedocles calls them, in themselves always unchanged, might by
mingling with one another, or by separation, produce the appearances
which we know as birth, death, and changeable phenomena. Yet to
effect such combinations, something is needed which the Ionians over-
looked — forces, to operate change and to adjust the elements to one
another. These Empedoclean forces are two,- Love and Strife, or
(stripping off that mythological and personified character which this
poetizing philosopher attributes to them, as also to his four elements)
we may call them by the modern names of affinity and repulsion.
In the beginning all the four elements were compacted by Love into
a harmonious universe, which may be symbolized by a sphere. Into
this spherical concord crept Strife, gradually, through disturbing the
normal degrees of mixture, breaking up the primeval whole into indi-
vidual existences. These individual existences appeared at first in
## p. 5470 (#30) ############################################
5470
EMPEDOCLES
fragmentary and imperfect forms, heads and arms and eyes coming
into life, yet missing their congruous parts. Such monstrosities soon
perished. But when one happened to be joined to another in natural
fitness, it survived. So there was a progression from the imperfect to
the more perfect. Moreover, although in the world which now exists,
differentiating and individualizing Strife is in the ascendant, Love will
one day have its way again and draw all once more back to the
sphere-shaped fourfold harmony. Yet this Love-ruled harmony will
not persist, but out of it new mixtures will still proceed, a Strife-
cycle forever alternating with a Love-cycle. Out of this same Love
our perceptions and desires spring, the elements which form us seek-
ing their similars elsewhere. Only like can be known by like. With
these physical doctrines Empedocles combined, for no obvious reason,
the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
To sum up, the teaching of Empedocles is a composite, and in-
. cludes fragments of all the theories current in his time. His own
contributions are 1, the doctrine of the four elements; 2, the percep-
tion that for the fashioning of a world, forces are as needful as
material; 3, the notion of alternating world-cycles; 4, vague hints of
evolution and even of natural selection; and 5, cognition by similars.
To have four or five original ideas is to be a wealthy man indeed.
Those of Empedocles were all taken up into subsequent philosophy,
and have ever since enriched the blood of the world.
―――
The Greek text of the fragments of Empedocles, with Latin trans-
lation, may be found in Mullach's 'Fragmenta Philosophorum Græco-
rum,' Vol. i. ; selections, with Latin comment, arranged so as best to
exhibit the philosophy, in Ritter and Preller's 'Historia Philosophiæ ';
an English translation, in the fifth chapter of Burnet's 'Early Greek
Philosophy; the life, in the eighth Book of Diogenes Laertius; dis-
cussions of the philosophy, in all the histories of Greek Philosophy –
especially in Burnet, in Zeller's 'Pre-Socratic Philosophy,' Vol. ii. , in
Zeller's small 'Greek Philosophy,' and in Windelband's 'Geschichte
der alten Philosophie. '
-
Set Salmer
[The mere fact that some four hundred and eighty verses of Empedocles
have been preserved is doubtless a tribute to his high rank as a poet. Cer-
tainly no other among the early philosophers has had so happy a fate.
Enough remains to indicate his lofty creative imagination, as well as the
splendid march of his verse. A few of the chief fragments are therefore pre-
sented here in a metrical version, by W. C. Lawton.
The other passages,
needed to illustrate Professor Palmer's study, follow in the prose form given
them by John Burnet, M. A. , in his history of early Greek philosophy. ]
## p. 5471 (#31) ############################################
EMPEDOCLES
5471
FROM THE POEM ON NATURE
E
MPEDOCLES was without doubt a leader of mystics, and one who
claimed for himself superhuman nature and wisdom; but it
seems equally true, as true as of Plato, of Swedenborg, or of
Emerson, that he was his own first and sincerest believer.
In par-
ticular, the lines in which he declares his recollections of immortality
and of a more blest divine existence, are as earnest as anything in
Plato or in Wordsworth.
-
THERE is a doom of fate, an ancient decree of immortals,
Never to be unmade, by amplest pledges attested:
That, if a spirit divine, who shares in the life everlasting,
Through transgression defile his glorious body by bloodshed,
Or if he perjure himself by swearing unto a falsehood,
Thrice ten thousand seasons he wanders apart from the Blessèd
Passing from birth unto birth through every species of mortal,
Changing ever the paths of life, yet ever unresting:
Even as I now roam, from gods far-wandered, an exile,
Yielding to maddening strife.
These, as Plutarch and others testify, are the opening lines in the
Prelude of Empedocles's great poem on Nature. Other and briefer
fragments continue the same train of thought.
ONCE already have I as a youth been born, as a maiden,
Bush, and wingèd bird, and silent fish in the waters.
After what horrors, and after how long and blissful existence,
Thus am I wretchedly doomed to abide in the meadows of mor-
tals!
Loudly I wept and wailed at beholding the place unfamiliar.
Joyless the place, where
Murder abides, and Strife, with the other races of Troubles.
―――
The belief in transmigration, which we are wont to associate
especially with the Pythagorean teachings, is nowhere more earnestly
and vividly expressed than by Empedocles. The conviction that
Man's soul is a fallen exile from a higher diviner sphere, to which he
may hope to return only after long purgatorial atonement in earthly
incarnations, all this has been even more magnificently elaborated
in Platonic dialogues like the Phædrus and the Phædo; but Plato
himself may well owe much of his loftiest inspiration to this Sicilian
seer.
The theory of the four elements is clearly stated in a three-line
fragment of the same Prelude:-
## p. 5472 (#32) ############################################
EMPEDOCLES
5472
HEARKEN and learn that four, at the first, are the sources of all
things:
Fire, and water, and earth, and lofty ether unbounded.
Thence springs all that is, that shall be, or hath been aforetime.
Empedocles seems to have rivaled Lucretius himself in the pict-
uresque vividness of his similes. Here, for instance, is an attempt
to illustrate how the manifold forms of the visible world might well
arise from the mingling of these few elements:-
JUST as men who the painter's craft have thoroughly mastered
Fashion in many a tint their picture, an offering sacred;
When they have taken in hand their paints of various colors,
Mingling skillfully more of the one and less of another,
Out of these they render the figures like unto all things;
Trees they cause to appear, and the semblance of men and of
women,
Beasts of the field, and birds, and fish that inhabit the waters,
Even the gods, whose honors are greatest, whose life is unending:-
Be not deceived, for such, and nowise other, the fountain
Whence all mortals spring, whatever their races unnumbered.
Incidentally we see clearly that while the painter's art has made
many a stride from Homer's time to Empedocles's day, yet "Art is
still religion"; the masterpiece is as a matter of course an anathema,
an altar-piece.
Among the other fragments of the Proem is the singular invoca-
tion of the Muse. The poetic quality is rather disappointing. Despite
his hatred of Strife, Empedocles has evidently just indulged in rather
strong polemic; perhaps against those who profess to teach more
than man may know, for the invocation begins thus:
-
ONLY do ye, O gods, remove from my tongue their madness;
Make ye to flow from a mouth that is holy a fountain unsullied.
Thou, O white-armed Virgin, the Muse who rememberest all things,
Whatsoe'er it is lawful to utter to men that are mortal
Bring me, from Piety driving a chariot easily guided.
It is clear from many such passages, that Empedocles claimed for
himself not merely a poetic inspiration but an absolutely super-
human nature. It is not easy to find anywhere a more magnificent
and sublime egotism than his. The most famous passage of this
character is not from his great work on Nature (or Creation), but is
found in the 'Katharmoi' (Poem of Purifications): —
## p. 5473 (#33) ############################################
EMPEDOCLES
5473
O My friends, whoso in Acragas's beautiful city
Have your dwelling aloft; whose hearts are set upon virtue;
Reverent harbors of guests, who have no share in dishonor,-
Greeting! But I as a god divine, no longer a mortal,
Dwell with you, by all in reverence held, as is fitting,
Girt with fillets about, and crowned with wreaths of rejoicing.
Whatsoever the folk whose prosperous cities I enter,
There I of women and men am revered. By thousands they follow,
Questioning where they may seek for the path that leadeth to profit.
These are in need of prophetic words, and others, in illness,
Since they have long been racked with the grievous pangs of
diseases,
Crave that I utter the charm whose power is sovran in all things.
Yet pray why lay stress upon this, as were it a marvel
If I surpass mankind, who are mortal and utterly wretched?
OTHER FRAGMENTS FROM THE POEM ON NATURE
A
ND thou shalt learn all the drugs that are a defense against
ills and old age, since for thee alone shall I accomplish all
this. Thou shalt arrest the violence of the weariless winds
that arise and sweep the earth, laying waste the cornfields with
their breath; and again, when thou so desirest, thou shalt bring
their blasts back again with a rush. Thou shalt cause for men
a seasonable drought after the dark rains, and again after the
summer drought thou shalt produce the streams that feed the
trees as they pour down from the sky. Thou shalt bring back
from Hades the life of a dead man.
Fools! for they have no far-reaching thoughts who deem that
what before was not comes into being, or that aught can perish
and be utterly destroyed. For it cannot be that aught can arise
from what in no way is, and it is impossible and unheard-of that
what is should perish; for it will always be, wherever one may
keep putting it.
I shall tell thee a twofold tale. At one time things grew to
be one only out of many; at another, that divided up to be many
instead of one. There is a double becoming of perishable things,
and a double passing away. The coming together of all things
brings one generation into being and destroys it; the other grows
X-343
## p. 5474 (#34) ############################################
5474
EMPEDOCLES
up and is scattered as things become divided. And these things
never cease, continually changing places, at one time all uniting
in one through Love, at another each borne in different direc-
tions by the repulsions of Strife.
For of a truth, they [i. e. , Love and Strife] were aforetime
and shall be; nor ever, methinks, will boundless time be emptied
of that pair. And they prevail in turn as the circle comes round,
and pass away before one another, and increase in their appointed
turn.
For if thou takest them [trees and plants] to the close recesses
of thy heart and watchest over them kindly with faultless care,
then thou shalt have all these things in abundance throughout
thy life, and thou shalt gain many others from them; for each
grows ever true to its own character, according as its nature is.
But if thou strivest after things of a different kind, as is the
way with men, ten thousand woes await thee to blunt thy care-
ful thoughts. All at once they will cease to live when the time
comes round, desiring each to reach its own kind: for know that
all things have wisdom and a share of thought.
It is not possible for us to set God before our eyes, or to lay
hold of him with our hands, which is the broadest way of per-
suasion that leads into the heart of man. For he is not furnished
with a human head on his body, two branches do not sprout from
his shoulders, he has no feet, no swift knees, nor hairy parts; but
he is only a sacred and unutterable Mind, flashing through the
whole world with rapid thoughts.
FROM THE POEM OF PURIFICATIONS
AN
ND there was among them a man of rare knowledge, most
skilled in all manner of wise works, a man who had won
the utmost wealth of wisdom; for whensoever he strained
with all his mind, he easily saw everything of all the things that
are now [though he lived] ten, yea, twenty generations of men
ago.
But at the last, they appear among mortal men as prophets,
song-writers, physicians, and princes; and thence they rise up as
gods exalted in honor, sharing the hearth of the other gods and
the same table; free from human woes, safe from destiny, and
incapable of hurt.
## p. 5475 (#35) ############################################
5475
ENNIUS
(239-169 B. C. )
BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
D
SOUBTLESS every human race surely every Aryan clan-has
felt, and some measure gratified, the need of lyric utter-
ance, in joy, in grief, and in wrath. The marriage song,
the funeral chant, the banqueters' catch, the warriors' march, the
hymn of petition and of thanksgiving - these must have been heard
even in early Latium. Yet this Latin peasant soldier was surely
as unimaginative a type of man as ever rose to the surface of self-
conscious civilized life. His folk-song, like his folk-lore generally,
must have been heavy, crude, monotonous, clinging close to the soil.
Macaulay's Lays still stir the boyish heart, though Matthew Arnold
did repeat, with uncharacteristic severity, that he who enjoyed the
barbaric clash of their doggerel could never hope to appreciate true
poetry at all!
But good or bad, they are pure Macaulayese. No
audible strain has come down, even of those funeral ballads and fes-
tival lays whose former existence is merely asserted, without illustra-
tion, by Cato and by Varro.
-
At the threshold of Hellenic literature stand the two epics whose
imaginative splendor is still unrivaled. The first figure in Roman
letters, seven centuries later, is a Greek slave, or freedman, Livius
Andronicus, translating into barbarous Saturnian verse the Iliad and
Odyssey, and rendering almost as crudely many a famous tragedy.
Next Nævius sang, in those same rough Saturnians, the victory of
Rome in the Punic wars. Joel Barlow's Columbiad' and "meek
drab-skirted" Ellwood's 'Davideis' might have made room between
them for this martial chant, if it had survived. Then Plautus, fun-
maker for the Roman populace, "turned barbarously" into the vulgar
speech plays good and bad, of the Middle and New Attic Comedy.
The more serious of these dramas, like the 'Captivi,' seem like a char-
coal reproduction upon a barn door of some delicate line engraving,
whose loss we must still regret. Yet much of the real fun in Plau-
tus is Roman, and doubtless his own. Moreover, he or his Greek
masters probably both - knew how to make a comedy go in one
unpausing rush of dramatic action, from the lowering to the rais-
ing of the curtain. But to true creative literature these versions
of Menander and Philemon bear about the same relation as would
## p. 5476 (#36) ############################################
5476
ENNIUS
adaptations of Sardou and Dumas, with local allusions and "gags,"
in Plattdeutsch, for the Hamburg theatre.
The next figure in this picturesque line is Ennius, who like nearly
all the early authors is no Roman gentleman, not even a Latin at
all. Born (239 B. C. ) in the village of Rudiæ of far-off Calabria, he
heard in this cottage home the rough Oscan speech of his peasant
race. This language held for them somewhat the position of Aramaic
among the fisher folk of Galilee two centuries and a half later.
both lands, Greek was the ordinary speech of the market-place;
Latin, at most, the official language of the rulers. The boy Ennius
seems to have been educated in the Hellenic city of Tarentum.
Even there, he may not yet have spoken Latin at all. Cicero appar-
ently confesses in the 'Archias' (62 B. C. ) that his native speech had
even then made no headway "beyond the narrow boundaries" of
Latium. In Magna Græcia, Ennius probably often heard classic
Greek tragedy acted, as Virgil intimates he still did in his time.
We have referred elsewhere to the dramatic incident, that Cato
the Elder brought in his train from Corsica the man who, more than
all others, was to establish in Rome that Hellenic art most dreaded
by the great Censor. Cato was the younger of the two. Ennius was
just
"Midway upon the journey of our life. »
He was then a centurion in rank; that is, he had fought his way, no
doubt with many scars, to the proud place at the head of his com-
pany. (A young Roman gentleman, invited by the general to join
his staff, knew little of such campaigning. ) This was at the close of
Rome's second and decisive struggle with Carthage, so long the
queen of the Western Mediterranean. Ennius lived on, chiefly in
Rome, as many years longer; his death coinciding with the equally
decisive downfall of Macedonia (168 B. C. ). His life, then, spans per-
haps the greatest exploits of Roman arms. This was doubtless also
the age in which the heroic national character reached its culmina-
tion and began to decay.
In
Of this victorious generation the Scipios are probably the best
type. Its chief recorder was their friend and protégé, the Calabrian
peasant and campaigner. Of all the missing works in the Latin
speech, perhaps not even the lost books of Livy would be so eagerly
welcomed-so helpful in restoring essential outlines, now lacking, of
Roman action and character- as the 'Annals of Ennius, in eighteen
books, which followed the whole current of Roman tradition, from
Æneas and Romulus down to the writer's own day. And this work
was, at the same time, the first large experiment in writing Homeric
hexameters in the Latin speech! So true is it, that the Hellenic Muse
was present at the birth of Roman literature. Though no work of
## p. 5477 (#37) ############################################
ENNIUS
5477
Ennius survives save in tantalizing fragments, he is the manliest, the
most vivid figure in the early history of Latin letters.
Gellius preserves a saying of Ennius, that in his three mother
tongues he had three hearts. But his fatherland had accepted in
good faith, long before, the Italian supremacy of Rome. His love for
the imperial city quite equaled that of any native. He became actu-
ally a citizen through the kindness of his noble friend Fulvius, who
as one of the triumvirs appointed to found Potentia, enrolled Ennius
among the "colonists" (184 B. C. ).
"Romans we now are become, who before this day were Rudini! »
is his exultant cry, in a line of the
Annals. '
>
It is not likely that he had any assistance on this occasion from
Cato, who had already discovered his own grievous error.
Some years
earlier one of the Fulvii had taken Ennius with him on a campaign
in Greece (189 B. C. ); but evidently not as a centurion! It is of this
Fulvius that Cicero says in the 'Archias, "He did not hesitate to
consecrate to the Muses memorials of Mars. " The alliteration suggests
a poetic epigram; and Cato is known to have complained in a public
oration that Fulvius "had led poets with him into his province. »
Ennius might have been useful also as an interpreter, as a secretary,
and as a table companion.
One of the longest fragments from the 'Annals' describes such a
friend of another Roman general. Gellius, who preserves the lines,
quotes good early authority for considering them as a self-portraiture
by Ennius.
PORTRAIT OF A SCHOLAR
S°
O HAVING spoken, he called for a man, with whom often and gladly
Table he shared, and talk, and all his burden of duties,
When with debate all day on important affairs he was wearied,
Whether perchance in the forum wide, or the reverend Senate;
One with whom he could frankly speak of his serious matters,—
Trifles also, and jests,- could pour out freely together
Pleasant or bitter words, and know they were uttered in safety.
Many the joys and the griefs he had shared, whether public or
secret!
This was a man in whom no impulse prompted to evil,
Whether of folly or malice. A scholarly man and a loyal,
Graceful, ready of speech, with his own contented and happy;
Tactful, speaking in season, yet courteous, never loquacious.
Vast was the buried and antique lore that was his, for the foretime
Made him master of earlier customs, as well as of newer.
## p. 5478 (#38) ############################################
5478
ENNIUS
Versed in the laws was he of the ancients, men or immortals.
Wisely he knew both when he should talk and when to be silent. -
So unto him Servilius spoke, in the midst of the fighting
The soldier-scholar who could draw this masterly portrait must
have been somewhat worthy to sit for it. Certain touches indeed
were hardly possible without self-consciousness. The rare combina-
tion of antique lore and modern knowledge of the world is one such.
Another is the "content with his own"; for though a friend of the
wealthiest, Ennius, we are told, lived simply in a small house, at-
tended by one servant only. This same handmaid takes part in a
little comedy, which the id waste of Roman gravity may almost
count as funny:-
"When Scipio Nasica once came to call on the poet Ennius, and asked
for him at the door, the maid said Ennius was not at home. Now, Nasica
perceived that this was said at the master's bidding, and that he really was
within. A few days later Ennius came to his friend's house, in his turn,
and called for Nasica, who bawled out that he was not at home. (What!
don't I know your voice?
