{ {
Astrology
Saturn Powers.
Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals by Thomas Davidson
He now no longer
tries to escape from the visible world into the emptiness of an abstract
first principle; but, in the service of a First Principle who is the
most concrete of realities, and who numbers the very hairs of his head,
he goes down into the most loathsome depths of the material world to
elevate and redeem the meanest of the sons of men. There is no question
of bond or free, ruler or ruled, now. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are
no such relations. The only greatness recognized there is greatness in
service; the only law, the Law of Love. Love! yes, the whole secret is
in that one word. By adding love to the conception of the God of his
people, by exemplifying it in his own life, and demanding it of his
followers, Jesus accomplished what had baffled all the wisdom of the
Greek sages. He restored the moral unity of man, abolished the old
world, and made a new heaven and a new earth. In vain have the advocates
of an indeterminate, self-evolving first principle, whether calling
themselves Neoplatonists, mystics, materialists, evolutionists,
Hegelians, or Theosophists, striven to bring back the old world with its
class distinctions and institutional ethics; in vain have they sought to
sink the individual God and man of reality in the universal ideas of
thought. The Law of Love, which is the ground of individuality, as well
as of true society, has bidden, and will bid them, defiance.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
The Greeks originally recognized two branches of liberal education[6]
(1) Gymnastics, for the body, and (2) Music, for the soul. Out of music
grew, in process of time, not only the so-called Liberal Arts, that is,
the arts that go to constitute the education of every freeman, but also
what was regarded as a superfluous luxury (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), Philosophy. It is
the purpose of this appendix to trace, as far as possible, this gradual
development.
In doing so, one must bear in mind that originally the term "Music"
covered, not only what we call music, but also poetry, and that poetry
was the vehicle of all the science that then was. The Homeric _aoidos_
knows the "works of gods and men. " Strictly speaking, therefore, it was
out of music and poetry that all the arts and sciences grew. The first
step in this direction was taken when Letters were introduced, that is,
about the first Olympiad. [7] But it was long before Letters were
regarded as a separate branch of education; they were simply a means of
recording poetry. Even as late as the time of Plato, Letters are still
usually included under Music. In Aristotle, they are recognized as a
separate branch. It follows from this that, when we find Greek writers
confining soul-education to Music, or Music and Letters, we must not
conclude that these signify only playing and singing, reading and
writing. Socrates was saying nothing new or paradoxical, when he
affirmed that Philosophy was the "highest music. " The Pythagoreans had
said the same thing before him, and there can be no doubt that
Pythagoras himself included under Music (1) Letters, (2) Arithmetic, (3)
Geometry, (4) Astronomy, (5) Music, in our sense, and (6) Philosophy (a
term invented by him). Plato did the same thing. He speaks of "the true
Muse that is accompanied with truth (? ? ? ? ? ) and philosophy. " But in his
time "Music" was used in two senses, a broad one, in which it included
the whole of intellectual education, and a narrow one, in which it is
confined to music in the modern sense. It is in this latter sense that
it is used by Aristotle, when he makes the intellectual branches of
school education (1) Letters, (2) Music, and (3) Drawing. Philosophy he
places in a higher grade. Having distinguished Letters from Music, it is
natural enough that he should assign to the former the branches which
Pythagoras had included under the latter. His literary scheme appears to
be (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Arithmetic, (5)
Geometry, (6) Astronomy. Add Music, and we have exactly the Seven
Liberal Arts; but, as Drawing must also be added, it is clear that there
was, as yet, no thought of fixing definitely the number seven. That
Drawing was for a long time part of the school curriculum, is rendered
clear by a passage in a work of Teles (B. C. 260) quoted by Stobaeus
(xcviii, 72), in which it is said that boys study (1) Letters, (2)
Music, (3) Drawing; young men, (4) Arithmetic, and (5) Geometry. The
last two branches are here already distinguished from Letters; but we
cannot be sure that the list is intended to be exhaustive. What is
especially noticeable in the list of Teles is, that it draws a clear
distinction between the lower and higher studies, a distinction which
foreshadows the _Trivium_ and _Quadrivium_ of later times. [8]
Philosophy, or the highest education, Aristotle divided into (1) Theory
and (2) Practice. Theory he subdivided into (a) Theology, First
Philosophy, or Wisdom, called later Metaphysics, the science of the
Unchangeable, and (b) Physics, the science of the Changeable; Practice
into (a) Ethics, including Politics and OEconomics, and (b) Poetics or
AEsthetics.
After Teles we hear little of the Greek school-curriculum until about
the Christian era. Meanwhile, the Romans, having acquired a smattering
of Greek learning, began to draw up a scheme of studies suitable for
themselves. It is noticeable that in this scheme there is no such
distinction as the Greeks drew between liberal (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) and illiberal (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) arts. [9] As early as the first half of
the second century B. C. , Cato the Censor wrote a series of manuals for
his son on (1) Ethics, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Medicine, (4) Military Science,
(5) Farming, (6) Law. It is very significant that the only Greek
school-study which appears here is Rhetoric; this the Romans, and
notably Cato himself, always studied with great care for practical
purposes. It seems that Cato, in order to resist the inroads of Greek
education and manners, which he felt to be demoralizing, tried to draw
up a characteristically Roman curriculum. Greece, however, in great
measure, prevailed, and half a century later we find Varro writing upon
most of the subjects in the Greek curriculum: Grammar, Rhetoric,
Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Philosophy, besides
many others. He wrote a treatise in nine books, called _Disciplinarum
Libri_. Ritschl, in his _Quaestiones Varronianae_,[10] tried to show that
these "Disciplinae" were the Seven Liberal Arts, _plus_ Architecture and
Medicine, and Mommsen, in his _Roman History_, has followed him; but
Ritschl himself later changed his opinion. There seems no doubt that (1)
Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Music, (5) Geometry, and (6)
Architecture were treated in the work: what the rest were we can only
guess. [11] There is no ground for the assertion that the Seven Liberal
Arts were obtained by dropping Architecture and Medicine from Varro's
list. It must have been about the time of Varro, if not earlier, that
Roman education came to be divided into three grades, called
respectively (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, and (3) Philosophy, the last
falling to the lot of but few persons. Of course "Grammar" now came to
have a very extensive meaning, as we can see from the definition of it
given by Dionysius Thrax, in his grammar, prepared apparently for Roman
use (B. C. 90). In the Scholia to that work (I am unable to fix their
date), we find the Liberal Arts enumerated as (1) Astronomy, (2)
Geometry, (3) Music, (4) Philosophy, (5) Medicine, (6) Grammar, (7)
Rhetoric. [12]
But to return to the Greeks. In the works of Philo Judaeus, a
contemporary of Jesus, we find the Encyclic Arts frequently referred to,
and distinguished from Philosophy. The former, he says, are represented
by the Egyptian slave Hagar, the latter by Sarah, the lawful wife. One
must associate with the Arts before he can find Philosophy fruitful. In
no one passage does Philo give a list of the Encyclic Arts. In one place
we find enumerated (1) Grammar, (2) Geometry, (3) Music, (4) Rhetoric
(_De Cherub. _, ? 30); in another (1) Grammar, (2) Geometry, (3) "the
entire music of encyclic instruction" (_De Agricult. _, ? 4); in another
(1) Grammar, (2) Music, (3) Geometry, (4) Rhetoric, (5) Dialectic (_De
Congressu Quaer. Erud. Grat. _, ? 5); in another, (1) Grammar, (2)
Arithmetic, (3) Geometry, (4) Music, (5) Rhetoric (_De Somniis_, ? 35),
etc.
It would seem that the Encyclic Arts, according to Philo, were (1)
Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Geometry, (6)
Music. Astronomy appears in none of the lists. Philosophy is divided
into (1) Physics, (2) Logic, (3) Ethics (_De Mutat. Nom. _, ? 10), a
division that was long current.
From what has been adduced, I think we may fairly conclude that at the
Christian era no definite number had been fixed for the liberal arts
either at Athens, Alexandria, or Rome. The list apparently differed in
different places. Clearly the Roman programme was quite different from
the Greek. Shortly after this era, we find Seneca (who died A. D. 65)
giving the liberal arts, _liberalia studia_, as (1) Grammar, (2) Music,
(3) Geometry, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Astronomy (_Epist. _, 88). He divides
Philosophy into (1) Moral, (2) Natural, (3) Rational, and the last he
subdivides into (a) Dialectic and (b) Rhetoric. Above all he places
Wisdom, "_Sapientia perfectum bonum est mentis humanae_" (_Epist. _, 89).
Here we see that two of the Seven Liberal Arts are classed under
Philosophy. A little later, Quintilian divides all education into (1)
Grammar, and (2) Rhetoric, but condescends to allow his young orator to
study a little Music, Geometry, and Astronomy.
Turning to the Greeks, we find Sextus Empiricus, who seems to have
flourished in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the second
century, writing a great work against the dogmatists or
"mathematicians," of whom he finds nine classes, corresponding to six
arts, and three sciences of philosophy. The arts are (1) Grammar, (2)
Rhetoric, (3) Geometry, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Astronomy, (6) Music: the
sciences, (1) Logic, (2) Physics, (3) Ethics. We are now not far from
the Seven Liberal Arts; still we have not reached them.
There is not, I think, any noteworthy list of the liberal arts to be
found in any ancient author after Sextus, till we come to St. Augustine.
In his _Retractiones_, written about 425, he tells us (I, 6) that in his
youth he undertook to write _Disciplinarum Libri_ (the exact title of
Varro's work! ), that he finished the book on (1) Grammar, wrote six
volumes on (2) Music, and made a beginning with _other five_
disciplines, (3) Dialectic, (4) Rhetoric, (5) Geometry, (6) Arithmetic,
(7) Philosophy. It has frequently been assumed that we have here, for
the first time, the Seven Liberal Arts definitely fixed; but there is
nothing whatever in the passage to justify this assumption. The author
does not say "_the_ other five disciplines," but merely "other five. "
Among these five, moreover, is named Philosophy, which, though certainly
a "discipline," was never, so far as I can discover, called an art,
liberal or otherwise. There is not the smallest reason for tracing back
the Seven Liberal Arts to St. Augustine, who surely was incapable of any
such playing with numbers. He does not, indeed, recognize the "Seven. "
It is in the fantastic and superficial work of Martianus Capella, a
heathen contemporary of Augustine's, that they first make their
appearance, and even there no stress is laid upon their number. They are
(1) Grammar, (2) Dialectic, (3) Rhetoric, (4) Geometry, (5) Arithmetic,
(6) Astronomy, (7) Music. These, no doubt, were the branches taught in
the better schools of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth
centuries, when, on the whole, the Greek liberal curriculum had
supplanted the Roman rhetorical one. There is not the slightest ground
for supposing that Capella had anything to do with fixing the curriculum
which he celebrates. His work is a wretched production, sufficiently
characterized by its title, _The Wedding of Mercury and Philology_. He
wrote about seven arts because he found seven to write about. Attention
was first called to the _number_ of the arts, and a mystical meaning
attached to it, by the Christian senator, Cassiodorus (480-575) in his
_De Artibus et Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum_. He finds it written
in Prov. ix, 1, that "Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out
her seven pillars. " He concludes that the Seven Liberal Arts are the
seven pillars of the house of Wisdom. They correspond also to the days
of the week, which are also seven. It is to be observed that he
distinguishes the "Arts" from the "Disciplines," or, as they said later,
the _Trivium_ from the _Quadrivium_. The pious notion of Cassiodorus was
worked out by Isidore of Seville (died 636) in his _Etymologiae_, and by
Alcuin (died 804) in his _Grammatica_. Of course, as soon as the number
of the arts came to be regarded as fixed by Scripture authority, it
became as familiar a fact as the number of the planets or of the days of
the week, or indeed, as the number of the elements. About A. D. 820
Hrabanus Maurus (776-856), a pupil of Alcuin's, wrote a work, _De
Clericorum Institutione_, in which the phrase _Septem Liberales Artes_
is said to occur for the first time. About the same date Theodulfus
wrote his allegorical poem _De Septem Liberalibus in quadam Pictura
Descriptis_. [13]
The Liberal Studies after St. Augustine did not include Philosophy,
which rested upon the Seven Arts, as upon "seven pillars," and was
usually divided into (1) Physical, (2) Logical, (3) Ethical. [14] After a
time Philosophy came to be an all-embracing term. In a commentary on the
_Timaeus_ of Plato, assigned by Cousin to the twelfth century, we find
the following scheme:--
{ Ethics.
{ Practical { Economics.
{ { Politics.
{
{ { Theology.
PHILOSOPHY { { { Arithmetic }
{ { Mathematics. { Music }
{ Theoretical { { Geometry } = Quadrivium.
{ { { Astronomy }
{ { Physics.
The author expressly says that "Mathematica quadrivium continet"; but he
plainly does not include the _Trivium_ under Philosophy. This, however,
was done the following century. In the _Itinerarium Mentis in Deum_ of
St. Bonaventura (1221-74) we find the following arrangements:--
{ { Metaphysics--essence: leads to First
{ { Principle = Father.
{ Natural { Mathematics--numbers, figures: leads
{ { to Image = Son.
{ { Physics--natures, powers, diffusions:
{ { leads to Gift of Holy Spirit.
{
PHILOSOPHY { { Grammar--power of expression = Father.
{ Rational { Logic--perspicuity in argument = Son.
{ { Rhetoric--skill in persuading = Holy
{ { Spirit.
{
{ { Monastics--innascibility of Father.
{ Moral { OEconomics--familiarity of Son.
{ { Politics--liberality of Holy Spirit.
Here we have the _Trivium_, under the division "Rational," while the
_Quadrivium_ must still be included under "Mathematics. " In both cases
we get nine sciences or disciplines, and the number was apparently
chosen, because it is the square of three, the number of the Holy
Trinity. In the latter case this was certainly true. Speaking of the
primary divisions of Philosophy, the Saint says: "The first treats of
the cause of being, and therefore leads to the Power of the Father; the
second of the ground of understanding, and therefore leads to the Wisdom
of the Word; the third of the order of living, and therefore leads to
the goodness of the Holy Spirit. "
Dante, in his _Convivio_ (II, 14, 15), gives the following scheme, based
upon the "ten heavens," nine of which are moved by angels or
intelligences, while the last rests in God.
{ { Grammar Moon Angels.
{ Trivium { Dialectic Mercury Archangels.
{ { Rhetoric Venus Thrones.
LIBERAL ARTS {
{ { Arithmetic Sun Dominions.
{ Quadrivium { Music Mars Virtues.
{ { Geometry Jupiter Principalities.
{ { Astrology Saturn Powers.
{ Physics and } Starry Heaven Cherubim.
{ Metaphysics }
{
{ Moral Science { Crystalline } Seraphim. [15]
PHILOSOPHY { { Heaven }
{
{ Theology Empyrean God.
In Dante are summed up the ancient and mediaeval systems of education.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
It is not intended here to give a complete Bibliography of Greek
Education, but merely to point the readers of this book, who may desire
to pursue the subject further, to the chief sources of information.
1. ANCIENT WORKS
For the first part of the Hellenic Period, that of the "Old Education,"
our authorities are fragmentary, and often vague. They are the _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_ of Homer, the _Works and Days_ of Hesiod, the fragments of
the pre-Socratic philosophers (collected by Mullach, in his _Fragmenta
Philosophorum Graecorum_, Paris, Didot, 1860-81, 3 vols. 4to), and the
comedies of Aristophanes, especially the _Clouds_. For the second part
of the same period, that of the "New Education," the chief authorities
are the tragedies of Euripides, the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes, the
dialogues of Plato, especially the _Protagoras_, _Lysis_, _Republic_,
and _Laws_, and the _Cyropaedia_, _OEconomics_, and _Constitution of
Lacedaemon_ of Xenophon.
For Aristotle's educational doctrines, we are confined for information
to his own works, and, among these, to the _Ethics_ and _Politics_. Of
the latter, the closing chapters of the seventh, and the whole of the
eighth, book deal professedly with education. Some information may also
be gleaned from the recently discovered _Constitution of Athens_.
For the Hellenistic Period, our information is derived chiefly from
inscriptions, from the writings of Philo Judaeus, Sextus Empiricus,
Plutarch (_On the Nurture of Children_), AElian (_Miscellanies_), Lucian
(_Anacharsis_ chiefly), Stobaeus, Plotinus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca,
Quintilian (_Education of the Orator_), Martianus Capella (_Nuptials of
Mercury and Philology_), and Cassiodorus, and from stray notices in
other poets, historians, and philosophers.
Of the works referred to, these deserve special mention:--
1. Aristophanes, _Clouds_. Translations by John Hookham Frere,
Thomas Mitchell, and W. J. Hickie (in Bohn's Library).
2. Xenophon, _Cyropaedia_. Translation, in _Whole Works translated by
Ashley Cooper and Others_, Philadelphia, 1842, and by J. S. Watson
and H. Dale (in Bohn's Library).
3. Plato, _Republic_. Translations by J. Ll. Davies and D. J.
Vaughan, by B. Jowett, and by Henry Davis (in Bohn's Library).
4. Plato, _Laws_. Translations by B. Jowett, and by G. Burges (in
Bohn's Library).
5. Aristotle, _Politics_ (Books VII, VIII). Translations by B.
Jowett, J. E. C. Weldon, and E. Walford (in Bohn's Library).
6. Plutarch, _On the Nurture of Children_. Translation in _Morals_,
translated from the Greek by several hands, corrected and revised by
W. W. Goodwin, Boston, 1878.
7. Quintilian, _Education of an Orator_. Translation by J. S. Watson
(in Bohn's Library).
2. MODERN WORKS
These are very numerous; but the most comprehensive is Lorenz
Grasberger's _Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen Alterthum, mit
besonderer Rucksicht auf die Bedurfnisse der Gegenwart_, Wurzburg,
1864-81, 3 vols. The first volume deals with the physical training of
boys, the second with their intellectual training, and the third with
the education imparted by the State to young men (? ? ? ? ? ? ). A volume of
plates is promised. The work is badly constructed, but is a mine of
information and of references.
Along with this may be named O. H. Jager, _Die Gymnastik der Hellenen, in
ihrem Einfluss auf's gesammte Alterthum und ihrer Bedeutung fur die
deutsche Gegenwart_, Esslingen, 1850; Fournier, _Sur l'Education et
l'Instruction Publiques chez les Grecs_, Berlin, 1833; Becq de
Fouquiere, _Les Jeux des Anciens_, Paris, 1869; De Pauw, _Recherches
Philosophiques sur les Grecs_; Fr. Jacobs, _Ueber die Erziehung der
Hellenen zur Sittlichkeit_, Vermischte Schr. Pt. III. ; Albert Dumont,
_Essai sur l'Ephebie Attique_, Paris, 1876-6; Dittenberger, _De Ephebis
Atticis_; Chr. Petersen, _Das Gymnasium der Griechen nach seiner
baulichen Einrichtung beschrieben_, Hamburg, 1858; Alexander Kapp,
_Platon's Erziehungslehre_, Minden, 1833, and _Aristotle's
Staatspaedagogik_, Hamm, 1837; J. H. Krause, _Geschichte der Erziehung des
Unterrichts und der Bildung bei den Griechen, Etruskern und Romern_,
Halle, 1851.
Chapters on Greek Education may be found in W. A. Becker's _Charicles_
and _Gallus_; in Guhl and Koner's _Life of the Greeks and Romans_--all
three translated into English. In _Hellenica_ is an essay, by R. S.
Nettleship, on the _Theory of Education in the Republic of Plato_,
Rivington, 1880, and in Edwin Hatch's _Influence of Greek Ideas upon the
Christian Church_ (Hibbert Lectures) is a chapter on Greek Education
(Lecture II).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is worth while to note that it was a passage from Philolaus that
suggested to Copernicus the revolution of the earth round a centre.
[2] This is represented in the charming Apoxyomenos of the Vatican.
[3] So says Aristotle, who tells us further that in his time on this
occasion they were presented with spear and shield _by the people_ (see
p. 97).
[4] I am here using the terms "objective" and "subjective" in their
modern acceptation, which almost exactly inverts the ancient usage. See
Martineau, _Study of Religion_, vol. i, p. 385, n. 2.
[5] Like "Peter Piper," etc. , and the German "Messwechsel Wachsmaske. "
[6] It must be borne in mind that the Greek ? ? ? ? ? , art, corresponds
almost exactly to what we mean by "science. " It is defined by Aristotle,
_Metaph. _, A. 1; 981 a 5 sqq. Schwegler, in his translation of the
_Metaphysics_, renders it by _Wissenschaft_. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? is our
"philosophy. "
[7] See Jebb, _Homer_, pp. 110 sqq.
[8] It is a pity that we cannot fix the date of the so-called _Picture_
of Cebes (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ). In this we find enumerated the votaries of
False Learning, (1) Poets, (2) Rhetoricians, (3) Dialecticians, (4)
Musicians, (5) Arithmeticians, (6) Geometricians, (7) Astrologers (if we
count Poets = Grammarians, we have exactly the Seven Liberal Arts), (8)
Hedonists, (9) Peripatetics, (10) Critics, "and such others as are like
to these. " The "Hedonists" (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) are the Cyrenaics; the "Critics"
(? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) can hardly be the grammarians, though that is usually the
meaning of the term in later times. Should we not read ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
[9] "Liberal" means fit, "illiberal" unfit, for freemen. The sum of the
liberal arts was called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , which we have corrupted into
_Encyclopaedia_.
[10] Bonn, 1845.
[11] See Boissier, _Etude sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. T. Varron_,
pp. 332, sqq.
[12] See Bekker's _Anecdota Graeca_, ii. , 655.
[13] I am indebted for a number of these facts to an article by
Professor A. F. West, in the _Princeton College Bulletin_, November,
1890.
[14] These terms, which we still find in Isidore and Hrabanus Maurus,
are afterwards, in the thirteenth century, replaced by their Latin
equivalents: Natural, Rational, and Moral. In the case of the second,
this caused considerable confusion, inasmuch as when it ceased to be
used as "rational," it took the place of "dialectic. "
[15] In the XXVIIIth Canto of the Paradise, these angelic powers are
arranged somewhat differently, in deference to Dionysius Areopagita and
St. Bernard.
INDEX
A
Academics, 112, 210.
Academy, 86, 112.
Achilles, 6.
AEolian Education, 38 _sqq. _
AEolians, 35.
AEschylus, 104 _sqq. _
AEsop's _Fables_, 146, 223.
? ? ? ? ? , 47.
Alexander the Great, 40, 156 _sq. _, 178.
tries to escape from the visible world into the emptiness of an abstract
first principle; but, in the service of a First Principle who is the
most concrete of realities, and who numbers the very hairs of his head,
he goes down into the most loathsome depths of the material world to
elevate and redeem the meanest of the sons of men. There is no question
of bond or free, ruler or ruled, now. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are
no such relations. The only greatness recognized there is greatness in
service; the only law, the Law of Love. Love! yes, the whole secret is
in that one word. By adding love to the conception of the God of his
people, by exemplifying it in his own life, and demanding it of his
followers, Jesus accomplished what had baffled all the wisdom of the
Greek sages. He restored the moral unity of man, abolished the old
world, and made a new heaven and a new earth. In vain have the advocates
of an indeterminate, self-evolving first principle, whether calling
themselves Neoplatonists, mystics, materialists, evolutionists,
Hegelians, or Theosophists, striven to bring back the old world with its
class distinctions and institutional ethics; in vain have they sought to
sink the individual God and man of reality in the universal ideas of
thought. The Law of Love, which is the ground of individuality, as well
as of true society, has bidden, and will bid them, defiance.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS
The Greeks originally recognized two branches of liberal education[6]
(1) Gymnastics, for the body, and (2) Music, for the soul. Out of music
grew, in process of time, not only the so-called Liberal Arts, that is,
the arts that go to constitute the education of every freeman, but also
what was regarded as a superfluous luxury (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), Philosophy. It is
the purpose of this appendix to trace, as far as possible, this gradual
development.
In doing so, one must bear in mind that originally the term "Music"
covered, not only what we call music, but also poetry, and that poetry
was the vehicle of all the science that then was. The Homeric _aoidos_
knows the "works of gods and men. " Strictly speaking, therefore, it was
out of music and poetry that all the arts and sciences grew. The first
step in this direction was taken when Letters were introduced, that is,
about the first Olympiad. [7] But it was long before Letters were
regarded as a separate branch of education; they were simply a means of
recording poetry. Even as late as the time of Plato, Letters are still
usually included under Music. In Aristotle, they are recognized as a
separate branch. It follows from this that, when we find Greek writers
confining soul-education to Music, or Music and Letters, we must not
conclude that these signify only playing and singing, reading and
writing. Socrates was saying nothing new or paradoxical, when he
affirmed that Philosophy was the "highest music. " The Pythagoreans had
said the same thing before him, and there can be no doubt that
Pythagoras himself included under Music (1) Letters, (2) Arithmetic, (3)
Geometry, (4) Astronomy, (5) Music, in our sense, and (6) Philosophy (a
term invented by him). Plato did the same thing. He speaks of "the true
Muse that is accompanied with truth (? ? ? ? ? ) and philosophy. " But in his
time "Music" was used in two senses, a broad one, in which it included
the whole of intellectual education, and a narrow one, in which it is
confined to music in the modern sense. It is in this latter sense that
it is used by Aristotle, when he makes the intellectual branches of
school education (1) Letters, (2) Music, and (3) Drawing. Philosophy he
places in a higher grade. Having distinguished Letters from Music, it is
natural enough that he should assign to the former the branches which
Pythagoras had included under the latter. His literary scheme appears to
be (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Arithmetic, (5)
Geometry, (6) Astronomy. Add Music, and we have exactly the Seven
Liberal Arts; but, as Drawing must also be added, it is clear that there
was, as yet, no thought of fixing definitely the number seven. That
Drawing was for a long time part of the school curriculum, is rendered
clear by a passage in a work of Teles (B. C. 260) quoted by Stobaeus
(xcviii, 72), in which it is said that boys study (1) Letters, (2)
Music, (3) Drawing; young men, (4) Arithmetic, and (5) Geometry. The
last two branches are here already distinguished from Letters; but we
cannot be sure that the list is intended to be exhaustive. What is
especially noticeable in the list of Teles is, that it draws a clear
distinction between the lower and higher studies, a distinction which
foreshadows the _Trivium_ and _Quadrivium_ of later times. [8]
Philosophy, or the highest education, Aristotle divided into (1) Theory
and (2) Practice. Theory he subdivided into (a) Theology, First
Philosophy, or Wisdom, called later Metaphysics, the science of the
Unchangeable, and (b) Physics, the science of the Changeable; Practice
into (a) Ethics, including Politics and OEconomics, and (b) Poetics or
AEsthetics.
After Teles we hear little of the Greek school-curriculum until about
the Christian era. Meanwhile, the Romans, having acquired a smattering
of Greek learning, began to draw up a scheme of studies suitable for
themselves. It is noticeable that in this scheme there is no such
distinction as the Greeks drew between liberal (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) and illiberal (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) arts. [9] As early as the first half of
the second century B. C. , Cato the Censor wrote a series of manuals for
his son on (1) Ethics, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Medicine, (4) Military Science,
(5) Farming, (6) Law. It is very significant that the only Greek
school-study which appears here is Rhetoric; this the Romans, and
notably Cato himself, always studied with great care for practical
purposes. It seems that Cato, in order to resist the inroads of Greek
education and manners, which he felt to be demoralizing, tried to draw
up a characteristically Roman curriculum. Greece, however, in great
measure, prevailed, and half a century later we find Varro writing upon
most of the subjects in the Greek curriculum: Grammar, Rhetoric,
Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Philosophy, besides
many others. He wrote a treatise in nine books, called _Disciplinarum
Libri_. Ritschl, in his _Quaestiones Varronianae_,[10] tried to show that
these "Disciplinae" were the Seven Liberal Arts, _plus_ Architecture and
Medicine, and Mommsen, in his _Roman History_, has followed him; but
Ritschl himself later changed his opinion. There seems no doubt that (1)
Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Music, (5) Geometry, and (6)
Architecture were treated in the work: what the rest were we can only
guess. [11] There is no ground for the assertion that the Seven Liberal
Arts were obtained by dropping Architecture and Medicine from Varro's
list. It must have been about the time of Varro, if not earlier, that
Roman education came to be divided into three grades, called
respectively (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, and (3) Philosophy, the last
falling to the lot of but few persons. Of course "Grammar" now came to
have a very extensive meaning, as we can see from the definition of it
given by Dionysius Thrax, in his grammar, prepared apparently for Roman
use (B. C. 90). In the Scholia to that work (I am unable to fix their
date), we find the Liberal Arts enumerated as (1) Astronomy, (2)
Geometry, (3) Music, (4) Philosophy, (5) Medicine, (6) Grammar, (7)
Rhetoric. [12]
But to return to the Greeks. In the works of Philo Judaeus, a
contemporary of Jesus, we find the Encyclic Arts frequently referred to,
and distinguished from Philosophy. The former, he says, are represented
by the Egyptian slave Hagar, the latter by Sarah, the lawful wife. One
must associate with the Arts before he can find Philosophy fruitful. In
no one passage does Philo give a list of the Encyclic Arts. In one place
we find enumerated (1) Grammar, (2) Geometry, (3) Music, (4) Rhetoric
(_De Cherub. _, ? 30); in another (1) Grammar, (2) Geometry, (3) "the
entire music of encyclic instruction" (_De Agricult. _, ? 4); in another
(1) Grammar, (2) Music, (3) Geometry, (4) Rhetoric, (5) Dialectic (_De
Congressu Quaer. Erud. Grat. _, ? 5); in another, (1) Grammar, (2)
Arithmetic, (3) Geometry, (4) Music, (5) Rhetoric (_De Somniis_, ? 35),
etc.
It would seem that the Encyclic Arts, according to Philo, were (1)
Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Geometry, (6)
Music. Astronomy appears in none of the lists. Philosophy is divided
into (1) Physics, (2) Logic, (3) Ethics (_De Mutat. Nom. _, ? 10), a
division that was long current.
From what has been adduced, I think we may fairly conclude that at the
Christian era no definite number had been fixed for the liberal arts
either at Athens, Alexandria, or Rome. The list apparently differed in
different places. Clearly the Roman programme was quite different from
the Greek. Shortly after this era, we find Seneca (who died A. D. 65)
giving the liberal arts, _liberalia studia_, as (1) Grammar, (2) Music,
(3) Geometry, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Astronomy (_Epist. _, 88). He divides
Philosophy into (1) Moral, (2) Natural, (3) Rational, and the last he
subdivides into (a) Dialectic and (b) Rhetoric. Above all he places
Wisdom, "_Sapientia perfectum bonum est mentis humanae_" (_Epist. _, 89).
Here we see that two of the Seven Liberal Arts are classed under
Philosophy. A little later, Quintilian divides all education into (1)
Grammar, and (2) Rhetoric, but condescends to allow his young orator to
study a little Music, Geometry, and Astronomy.
Turning to the Greeks, we find Sextus Empiricus, who seems to have
flourished in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the second
century, writing a great work against the dogmatists or
"mathematicians," of whom he finds nine classes, corresponding to six
arts, and three sciences of philosophy. The arts are (1) Grammar, (2)
Rhetoric, (3) Geometry, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Astronomy, (6) Music: the
sciences, (1) Logic, (2) Physics, (3) Ethics. We are now not far from
the Seven Liberal Arts; still we have not reached them.
There is not, I think, any noteworthy list of the liberal arts to be
found in any ancient author after Sextus, till we come to St. Augustine.
In his _Retractiones_, written about 425, he tells us (I, 6) that in his
youth he undertook to write _Disciplinarum Libri_ (the exact title of
Varro's work! ), that he finished the book on (1) Grammar, wrote six
volumes on (2) Music, and made a beginning with _other five_
disciplines, (3) Dialectic, (4) Rhetoric, (5) Geometry, (6) Arithmetic,
(7) Philosophy. It has frequently been assumed that we have here, for
the first time, the Seven Liberal Arts definitely fixed; but there is
nothing whatever in the passage to justify this assumption. The author
does not say "_the_ other five disciplines," but merely "other five. "
Among these five, moreover, is named Philosophy, which, though certainly
a "discipline," was never, so far as I can discover, called an art,
liberal or otherwise. There is not the smallest reason for tracing back
the Seven Liberal Arts to St. Augustine, who surely was incapable of any
such playing with numbers. He does not, indeed, recognize the "Seven. "
It is in the fantastic and superficial work of Martianus Capella, a
heathen contemporary of Augustine's, that they first make their
appearance, and even there no stress is laid upon their number. They are
(1) Grammar, (2) Dialectic, (3) Rhetoric, (4) Geometry, (5) Arithmetic,
(6) Astronomy, (7) Music. These, no doubt, were the branches taught in
the better schools of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth
centuries, when, on the whole, the Greek liberal curriculum had
supplanted the Roman rhetorical one. There is not the slightest ground
for supposing that Capella had anything to do with fixing the curriculum
which he celebrates. His work is a wretched production, sufficiently
characterized by its title, _The Wedding of Mercury and Philology_. He
wrote about seven arts because he found seven to write about. Attention
was first called to the _number_ of the arts, and a mystical meaning
attached to it, by the Christian senator, Cassiodorus (480-575) in his
_De Artibus et Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum_. He finds it written
in Prov. ix, 1, that "Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out
her seven pillars. " He concludes that the Seven Liberal Arts are the
seven pillars of the house of Wisdom. They correspond also to the days
of the week, which are also seven. It is to be observed that he
distinguishes the "Arts" from the "Disciplines," or, as they said later,
the _Trivium_ from the _Quadrivium_. The pious notion of Cassiodorus was
worked out by Isidore of Seville (died 636) in his _Etymologiae_, and by
Alcuin (died 804) in his _Grammatica_. Of course, as soon as the number
of the arts came to be regarded as fixed by Scripture authority, it
became as familiar a fact as the number of the planets or of the days of
the week, or indeed, as the number of the elements. About A. D. 820
Hrabanus Maurus (776-856), a pupil of Alcuin's, wrote a work, _De
Clericorum Institutione_, in which the phrase _Septem Liberales Artes_
is said to occur for the first time. About the same date Theodulfus
wrote his allegorical poem _De Septem Liberalibus in quadam Pictura
Descriptis_. [13]
The Liberal Studies after St. Augustine did not include Philosophy,
which rested upon the Seven Arts, as upon "seven pillars," and was
usually divided into (1) Physical, (2) Logical, (3) Ethical. [14] After a
time Philosophy came to be an all-embracing term. In a commentary on the
_Timaeus_ of Plato, assigned by Cousin to the twelfth century, we find
the following scheme:--
{ Ethics.
{ Practical { Economics.
{ { Politics.
{
{ { Theology.
PHILOSOPHY { { { Arithmetic }
{ { Mathematics. { Music }
{ Theoretical { { Geometry } = Quadrivium.
{ { { Astronomy }
{ { Physics.
The author expressly says that "Mathematica quadrivium continet"; but he
plainly does not include the _Trivium_ under Philosophy. This, however,
was done the following century. In the _Itinerarium Mentis in Deum_ of
St. Bonaventura (1221-74) we find the following arrangements:--
{ { Metaphysics--essence: leads to First
{ { Principle = Father.
{ Natural { Mathematics--numbers, figures: leads
{ { to Image = Son.
{ { Physics--natures, powers, diffusions:
{ { leads to Gift of Holy Spirit.
{
PHILOSOPHY { { Grammar--power of expression = Father.
{ Rational { Logic--perspicuity in argument = Son.
{ { Rhetoric--skill in persuading = Holy
{ { Spirit.
{
{ { Monastics--innascibility of Father.
{ Moral { OEconomics--familiarity of Son.
{ { Politics--liberality of Holy Spirit.
Here we have the _Trivium_, under the division "Rational," while the
_Quadrivium_ must still be included under "Mathematics. " In both cases
we get nine sciences or disciplines, and the number was apparently
chosen, because it is the square of three, the number of the Holy
Trinity. In the latter case this was certainly true. Speaking of the
primary divisions of Philosophy, the Saint says: "The first treats of
the cause of being, and therefore leads to the Power of the Father; the
second of the ground of understanding, and therefore leads to the Wisdom
of the Word; the third of the order of living, and therefore leads to
the goodness of the Holy Spirit. "
Dante, in his _Convivio_ (II, 14, 15), gives the following scheme, based
upon the "ten heavens," nine of which are moved by angels or
intelligences, while the last rests in God.
{ { Grammar Moon Angels.
{ Trivium { Dialectic Mercury Archangels.
{ { Rhetoric Venus Thrones.
LIBERAL ARTS {
{ { Arithmetic Sun Dominions.
{ Quadrivium { Music Mars Virtues.
{ { Geometry Jupiter Principalities.
{ { Astrology Saturn Powers.
{ Physics and } Starry Heaven Cherubim.
{ Metaphysics }
{
{ Moral Science { Crystalline } Seraphim. [15]
PHILOSOPHY { { Heaven }
{
{ Theology Empyrean God.
In Dante are summed up the ancient and mediaeval systems of education.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
It is not intended here to give a complete Bibliography of Greek
Education, but merely to point the readers of this book, who may desire
to pursue the subject further, to the chief sources of information.
1. ANCIENT WORKS
For the first part of the Hellenic Period, that of the "Old Education,"
our authorities are fragmentary, and often vague. They are the _Iliad_
and _Odyssey_ of Homer, the _Works and Days_ of Hesiod, the fragments of
the pre-Socratic philosophers (collected by Mullach, in his _Fragmenta
Philosophorum Graecorum_, Paris, Didot, 1860-81, 3 vols. 4to), and the
comedies of Aristophanes, especially the _Clouds_. For the second part
of the same period, that of the "New Education," the chief authorities
are the tragedies of Euripides, the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes, the
dialogues of Plato, especially the _Protagoras_, _Lysis_, _Republic_,
and _Laws_, and the _Cyropaedia_, _OEconomics_, and _Constitution of
Lacedaemon_ of Xenophon.
For Aristotle's educational doctrines, we are confined for information
to his own works, and, among these, to the _Ethics_ and _Politics_. Of
the latter, the closing chapters of the seventh, and the whole of the
eighth, book deal professedly with education. Some information may also
be gleaned from the recently discovered _Constitution of Athens_.
For the Hellenistic Period, our information is derived chiefly from
inscriptions, from the writings of Philo Judaeus, Sextus Empiricus,
Plutarch (_On the Nurture of Children_), AElian (_Miscellanies_), Lucian
(_Anacharsis_ chiefly), Stobaeus, Plotinus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca,
Quintilian (_Education of the Orator_), Martianus Capella (_Nuptials of
Mercury and Philology_), and Cassiodorus, and from stray notices in
other poets, historians, and philosophers.
Of the works referred to, these deserve special mention:--
1. Aristophanes, _Clouds_. Translations by John Hookham Frere,
Thomas Mitchell, and W. J. Hickie (in Bohn's Library).
2. Xenophon, _Cyropaedia_. Translation, in _Whole Works translated by
Ashley Cooper and Others_, Philadelphia, 1842, and by J. S. Watson
and H. Dale (in Bohn's Library).
3. Plato, _Republic_. Translations by J. Ll. Davies and D. J.
Vaughan, by B. Jowett, and by Henry Davis (in Bohn's Library).
4. Plato, _Laws_. Translations by B. Jowett, and by G. Burges (in
Bohn's Library).
5. Aristotle, _Politics_ (Books VII, VIII). Translations by B.
Jowett, J. E. C. Weldon, and E. Walford (in Bohn's Library).
6. Plutarch, _On the Nurture of Children_. Translation in _Morals_,
translated from the Greek by several hands, corrected and revised by
W. W. Goodwin, Boston, 1878.
7. Quintilian, _Education of an Orator_. Translation by J. S. Watson
(in Bohn's Library).
2. MODERN WORKS
These are very numerous; but the most comprehensive is Lorenz
Grasberger's _Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen Alterthum, mit
besonderer Rucksicht auf die Bedurfnisse der Gegenwart_, Wurzburg,
1864-81, 3 vols. The first volume deals with the physical training of
boys, the second with their intellectual training, and the third with
the education imparted by the State to young men (? ? ? ? ? ? ). A volume of
plates is promised. The work is badly constructed, but is a mine of
information and of references.
Along with this may be named O. H. Jager, _Die Gymnastik der Hellenen, in
ihrem Einfluss auf's gesammte Alterthum und ihrer Bedeutung fur die
deutsche Gegenwart_, Esslingen, 1850; Fournier, _Sur l'Education et
l'Instruction Publiques chez les Grecs_, Berlin, 1833; Becq de
Fouquiere, _Les Jeux des Anciens_, Paris, 1869; De Pauw, _Recherches
Philosophiques sur les Grecs_; Fr. Jacobs, _Ueber die Erziehung der
Hellenen zur Sittlichkeit_, Vermischte Schr. Pt. III. ; Albert Dumont,
_Essai sur l'Ephebie Attique_, Paris, 1876-6; Dittenberger, _De Ephebis
Atticis_; Chr. Petersen, _Das Gymnasium der Griechen nach seiner
baulichen Einrichtung beschrieben_, Hamburg, 1858; Alexander Kapp,
_Platon's Erziehungslehre_, Minden, 1833, and _Aristotle's
Staatspaedagogik_, Hamm, 1837; J. H. Krause, _Geschichte der Erziehung des
Unterrichts und der Bildung bei den Griechen, Etruskern und Romern_,
Halle, 1851.
Chapters on Greek Education may be found in W. A. Becker's _Charicles_
and _Gallus_; in Guhl and Koner's _Life of the Greeks and Romans_--all
three translated into English. In _Hellenica_ is an essay, by R. S.
Nettleship, on the _Theory of Education in the Republic of Plato_,
Rivington, 1880, and in Edwin Hatch's _Influence of Greek Ideas upon the
Christian Church_ (Hibbert Lectures) is a chapter on Greek Education
(Lecture II).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is worth while to note that it was a passage from Philolaus that
suggested to Copernicus the revolution of the earth round a centre.
[2] This is represented in the charming Apoxyomenos of the Vatican.
[3] So says Aristotle, who tells us further that in his time on this
occasion they were presented with spear and shield _by the people_ (see
p. 97).
[4] I am here using the terms "objective" and "subjective" in their
modern acceptation, which almost exactly inverts the ancient usage. See
Martineau, _Study of Religion_, vol. i, p. 385, n. 2.
[5] Like "Peter Piper," etc. , and the German "Messwechsel Wachsmaske. "
[6] It must be borne in mind that the Greek ? ? ? ? ? , art, corresponds
almost exactly to what we mean by "science. " It is defined by Aristotle,
_Metaph. _, A. 1; 981 a 5 sqq. Schwegler, in his translation of the
_Metaphysics_, renders it by _Wissenschaft_. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? is our
"philosophy. "
[7] See Jebb, _Homer_, pp. 110 sqq.
[8] It is a pity that we cannot fix the date of the so-called _Picture_
of Cebes (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ). In this we find enumerated the votaries of
False Learning, (1) Poets, (2) Rhetoricians, (3) Dialecticians, (4)
Musicians, (5) Arithmeticians, (6) Geometricians, (7) Astrologers (if we
count Poets = Grammarians, we have exactly the Seven Liberal Arts), (8)
Hedonists, (9) Peripatetics, (10) Critics, "and such others as are like
to these. " The "Hedonists" (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) are the Cyrenaics; the "Critics"
(? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) can hardly be the grammarians, though that is usually the
meaning of the term in later times. Should we not read ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
[9] "Liberal" means fit, "illiberal" unfit, for freemen. The sum of the
liberal arts was called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , which we have corrupted into
_Encyclopaedia_.
[10] Bonn, 1845.
[11] See Boissier, _Etude sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. T. Varron_,
pp. 332, sqq.
[12] See Bekker's _Anecdota Graeca_, ii. , 655.
[13] I am indebted for a number of these facts to an article by
Professor A. F. West, in the _Princeton College Bulletin_, November,
1890.
[14] These terms, which we still find in Isidore and Hrabanus Maurus,
are afterwards, in the thirteenth century, replaced by their Latin
equivalents: Natural, Rational, and Moral. In the case of the second,
this caused considerable confusion, inasmuch as when it ceased to be
used as "rational," it took the place of "dialectic. "
[15] In the XXVIIIth Canto of the Paradise, these angelic powers are
arranged somewhat differently, in deference to Dionysius Areopagita and
St. Bernard.
INDEX
A
Academics, 112, 210.
Academy, 86, 112.
Achilles, 6.
AEolian Education, 38 _sqq. _
AEolians, 35.
AEschylus, 104 _sqq. _
AEsop's _Fables_, 146, 223.
? ? ? ? ? , 47.
Alexander the Great, 40, 156 _sq. _, 178.
