No More Learning

It would be impossible, in a work of this compass, to enter into a
minute description of all the exercises of the Athenian palaestra. We
must be content with a general statement, which may be prefaced with the
remark that these exercises were at first light, increasing gradually in
rigor and difficulty as the strength and skill of the growing child
permitted.

The chief gymnastic exercises were five, named in this order in a famous
line of Simonides: (1) leaping, (2) running, (3) discus-throwing, (4)
javelin-casting, (5) wrestling (? ? ? ? ), which last gave the name to the
palaestra. We shall not strictly follow this order, but begin with

(1) _Running. _--This was the simplest, lightest, most natural, and,
therefore, the most easily taught of exercises. It was probably also the
oldest. We find even Homer making his ideal Phaeacians begin their games
with it, and this practice seems to have been general throughout
antiquity. In taking this exercise, the boys divested themselves of all
clothing and had their bodies rubbed with oil. The running appears to
have been of the simplest kind. Hurdle-races, sack-races, etc. , were
apparently excluded from education. At the same time, the running was
rendered difficult by the soft sand with which the course was covered to
the depth of several inches. The races were distinguished according to
their length in furlongs or stadia: (1) the furlong-race, (2) the
double-furlong race, (3) the horse (four-furlong) race, (4) the long
race, whose length seems to have been twenty-four furlongs, or about
three miles. The stadion was = 2021/4 yards English. The shorter races
called for brief concentration of energy, the longer for persistence and
endurance; all were exercises in agility; all tended to develop
lung-power.

(2) _Leaping or Jumping. _--This exercise seems, in the main, to have
confined itself to the long leap. Though the high leap and the pole-jump
can hardly have been unknown, we have no evidence that they were ever
employed in the gymnastic training of boys. There may have been hygienic
reasons which forbade their use. On the other hand, boys were taught to
lengthen their leap by means of weights, somewhat similar to our
dumb-bells, carried in their hands, and swung forward in the act of
leaping. Such leaping would be an exercise for the arms, as well as for
the legs and the rest of the body. But, just as there were two exercises
intended chiefly for the legs, so there were two intended chiefly for
the arms--discus-throwing and javelin-casting.

(3) _Discus-throwing. _--The modern world has been rendered very familiar
with the method of this exercise by the copies of the _discobolus_ of
Myron, preserved in Rome and extensively engraved and photographed, and
that of the _discobolus_ of Alcamenes which now stands in the Vatican
(see Overbeck, _Griech. Plastik_ vol. i, p. 276). The discus was
generally a flat, round piece of stone or metal, a sort of large quoit
with no hole in the middle, which the user sought to throw as far as he
could. The discobolus of Alcamenes shows us a youth balancing the discus
in his left hand, and taking the measure of his throw with his eye; that
of Myron shows us another in the act of throwing. He swings the discus
backward in his right hand, and bends his body forward to balance it.
His right foot, the toes contracted with effort, rests firmly on the
ground; the left is slightly lifted; the whole body is like a bent bow.
In the next instant the left foot will advance, the left hand, now
resting on the right knee, will swing backwards, the body will resume
its erect position, and the discus will be shot forward from the right
hand like an arrow. Nothing could show more clearly than does this
statue the perfect organization, symmetry, and balance which were the
aim of Greek gymnastics. Not one limb could be moved without affecting
all the rest,--which shows that the exercise extended to the whole body.

(4) _Javelin-casting. _--The aim of this exercise was to develop skill
and precision of eye and hand, rather than strength of muscle. The
instrument employed was a short dagger or lance, which was aimed at a
mark. He who could hit the mark from the greatest distance was the most
proficient scholar. The spear, before being thrown, was balanced in the
right hand at the height of the ear.

(5) _Wrestling. _--This very complicated exercise was evidently the
principal one in the gymnastic course, the one to which the others were
merely preparatory. It was the only one which a boy could not practice
by himself. It exercised not only the whole body, but the patience and
temper as well. The aim of the wrestler was to throw (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) his
antagonist. Those who took part in this exercise had their bodies rubbed
with oil and strewn with fine sand. It seems that the wrestler was
allowed to do anything he chose to his antagonist except to bite,
strike, or kick him. Before he could claim the victory he had to throw
him three times. After the contest the wrestlers scraped from their
bodies, with a strigil, the oil and dust,[2] bathed, were again rubbed
with oil, exposed their bodies to the sun, in order to dry and tan them,
and dressed. The bathing was done in cold water, and both the bathing
and the sunning were in part intended to inure the body to sudden cold
and heat, which inurement was considered a very essential part of
physical training.

Such were the chief exercises employed in the gymnastic training of the
Athenians. Thus far, we have considered the two branches of education as
conducted separately, and as not coming at any point in contact with
each other. But it would have been very unlike the Greek, and especially
the Athenian, to leave the two divisions of education unrelated and
unharmonized. And, indeed, he did not so leave them, but brought them
together in the most admirable way in what he called _orchesis_, a word
for which we have no better equivalent than

(? ) _Dancing_ (? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ).

"Dancers," says Aristotle, "by means of plastic rhythms (rhythms
reproduced in plastic forms) imitate characters, feelings, and
actions. " Xenophon, in his _Anabasis_, describing a banquet that took
place in the wilds of Paphlagonia, says: "After the treaty was ratified
and the paean sung, there first rose up two Thracians and danced in armor
to the flute, leaping high and lightly, and using their swords. Finally
one of them struck the other, so that everybody thought he had wounded
him; but he fell in an artificial way. Then the Paphlagonians raised a
shout; but the assailant, having despoiled the fallen man of his armor,
went out singing the Sitalcas. Then others of the Thracians carried out
the other as if he had been dead; but he was none the worse. Next, some
AEnianes and Magnesians stood up and danced the so-called Carpaea in
armor. The manner of the dance was this: one man, putting his arms
within reach, sows and drives a team, frequently turning round as if
afraid. Then a robber makes his appearance. As soon as the other espies
him, he seizes his arms, advances to him, and fights in front of the
team. And the two did this keeping time to the flute. Finally the
robber, having bound the other, carries off both him and the team;
sometimes, on the contrary, the ploughman binds the robber, in which
case he yokes him, with his hands bound behind his back, to his oxen and
drives off. " Several other dances, performed by persons of different
nationalities, follow; but enough has been quoted to show that the Greek
? ? ? ? ? ? ? was something very different from our dancing. It was, indeed, a
pantomimic ballet, interspersed with _tableaux vivans_.

In the dances here mentioned, the flute is the instrument employed, and
this the player could not accompany with his voice. But in the Athenian
schools, in the old time, the flute, and all music without words, were
tabooed. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in these the orchestic
performances were accompanied by the lyre, the player on which sang in
words what the dancers danced. It is obvious that in such performances
the musical (literary) and gymnastic branches of education came in for
about equal shares. Dancing exercised the whole human being, body and
soul, and exercised them in a completely harmonious way. It is this
harmony, this rhythmic movement of the body in consonance with the
emotions of the soul and the purposes of the intelligence, that is
_grace_ (? ? ? ? ? ). Hence, while the Greeks relied upon gymnastics to
impart strength and firmness to the body, they looked to dancing for
courtliness and grace. Plato places the two on the same footing, as
parts of a single discipline.

The fact that the two divisions of education met in dancing seems to
prove what I surmised above, viz. that they were conducted within the
same precincts; in which case we may suppose that, while the dancing
exercises took place in the palaestra, the music was supplied by the
music master. We know that the chorus-leader was a public officer,
appointed by the demos, and had to be over forty years old. In any case,
it is curious enough to think that Athenian, and, generally, Greek,
education culminated in dancing. But this was a perfectly logical
result; for the chorus is the type of Greek social life, as we see most
clearly in the _Republic_ of Plato. It hardly needs to be pointed out
that the supreme form of Greek art, the drama, was but a development of
the Bacchic or Dionysiac chorus. This development consisted in the
separation of the music from the pantomime, and the assignment of the
former to the chorus, which no longer danced, but walked, and of the
latter to the actors, who added the dialogue to it. Greek life was
divided into three parts--civil, military, religious. Music and letters
were a preparation for the first, gymnastics for the second, and dancing
for the third. Dancing formed a prominent part in Greek worship, and it
may be doubted whether free Athenians ever danced except "before the
gods "--? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , as Xenophon says.

Two things still remain to be considered with regard to Athenian
schools, (1) grading, (2) holidays. With respect to the former, the
practice probably differed at different times; but we seem to be
justified in assuming that, at the time of which I am speaking, there
were but two grades, boys (? ? ? ? ? ? ) and youths (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ). These are
mentioned by Plato, in the _Lysis_, as celebrating the Hermaea together
in a palaestra. The first grade would include the boys from seven to
eleven years of age; the second, those from eleven to fifteen. As to
holidays, they seem to have been simply the feast-days of the greater
gods, when business of every sort was suspended. Such days amounted to
about ninety annually.


(3) COLLEGE EDUCATION.

About the time when he was blossoming into manhood, that is, some time
between his fourteenth and his sixteenth year, the Athenian boy of the
olden time was transferred from the private school and palaestra, which
belonged to the family side of life, to the gymnasium, which belonged to
the State, and in which he received the education calculated to fit him
for the duties of a citizen. Having, in the family and the school, been
trained to be a gentleman (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), he must now be trained to be a
citizen, capable of exercising legislative, judicial, and military
functions. The State saw to it that he received this training, if his
parents chose and could afford it.

In the time of Solon, about B. C. 590, two great gymnasia, the Academy
and Cynosarges, were erected in the midst of extensive groves outside
the city walls. These groves were afterwards surrounded with high walls,
furnished with seats and other conveniences, and turned into city parks.
The Academy, which lay to the northwest of the city, in the valley of
the Cephisus, and was under the patronage of Athena, was the resort of
the full-blooded citizens, while Cynosarges, situated to the east of the
city, near the foot of Lycabettus, was assigned to those who had foreign
blood in their veins, that is, who had only one parent of pure Athenian
stock. This gymnasium was under the patronage of Heracles, whose worship
always implies the presence of a foreign and vanquished element. These
were the only two gymnasia belonging to Athens before the time of
Pericles. They were, probably, destroyed by the Persians in 480, and had
afterwards to be rebuilt, and the groves replanted.

While the children of nearly all the free citizens of Athens attended
the school and the palaestra, it is clear that only the youth of the
wealthier classes attended the gymnasium. One result of this was that
the government and offices of the State fell exclusively into the hands
of those classes; and it was perhaps just in order to make this
division, without introducing any class-law, that the shrewd Solon
established the gymnasia, which thus became a bulwark against democracy.

As soon as the Athenian youth was transferred to the gymnasium, he
passed from under the charge of the pedagogue, who represented the
family, and came under the direct surveillance of the State. He was now
free to go where he would, to frequent the agora and the street, to
attend the theatre, in which he had his appointed place, and to make
himself directly acquainted with all the details of public life. In the
gymnasium he passed into the hands of a gymnast or scientific trainer,
and for the next two or three years was subjected to the severer
exercises, wrestling, boxing, etc.
No special provision, beyond the fact
that he had to learn the laws, was made for his intellectual and moral
instruction. He was expected to acquire this from contact with the older
citizens whom he met in the agora, the street, or the public park. Thus,
at what is justly regarded as the most critical age, he was almost
compelled to live a free, breezy, outdoor life, full of activity and
stirring incident, his thoughts and feelings directed outwards into acts
of will, and not turned back upon himself or his own states. At the same
time he was acquiring just that practical knowledge of ethical laws and
of real life which could best fit him for active citizenship. He now
learnt to ride, to drive, to row, to swim, to attend banquets, to
sustain a conversation, to discuss the weightiest questions of
statesmanship, to sing and dance in public choruses, and to ride or walk
in public processions. If he abused his liberty and behaved in a lawless
or unseemly way, he was called to account by the severe Court of the
Areopagus, which attended to public morals. He saw little of girls of
his own age, except his sisters, unless it was at public festivals, when
there was little opportunity of becoming acquainted with them. His
affectionate nature therefore expressed itself mostly in the form of
devoted friendships to other youths of his own, or nearly his own, age,
a fact which enables us to understand why friendship fills so large a
space, not only in the life, but also in the ethical treatises of the
Greeks,--Plato, Aristotle, etc. ,--and why love, in the modern sense,
plays so insignificant a part. The truth is that, even in Athens, the
State encroached upon the family. Plato's _Republic_ was only the
logical carrying out of principles that were latent long before in the
social life of the Athenian people.

It would be impossible to treat in detail the exercises to which the
Athenian youth was subjected during the years in which he attended the
public gymnasium as a pupil. The old exercises of the palaestra were
continued, running and wrestling especially; but the former was now done
in armor, and the latter became more violent, and was supplemented by
boxing. In fact, the physical exercises were now systematized into the
_pentathlon_--running, leaping, discus-throwing, wrestling,
boxing--which formed the programme of nearly all gymnastic exhibitions.
During these years, the youth was still regarded as a minor, and his
father or guardian was responsible for his good behavior. But when he
reached the age of eighteen, a change took place, and he passed under
the direct control of the State. His father now brought him before the
reeve of his _demos_ (ward or village), as a candidate for independent
citizenship. If he proved to be the lawful child of free citizens, and
came up to the moral and physical requirements of the law, his name was
entered upon the register of the demos, and he became a member of it. He
was now prepared to be presented to the whole people, and to pass the
State examination. He shore his long hair for the first time, and donned
the black garment of the citizen. In this guise he presented himself to
the king-archon of the State, who, at a public assembly, introduced him,
along with others, to the whole people. He was then and there armed with
spear and shield (supplied by the State if his father had fallen in
war), and thence proceeded to the shrine of Aglauros, where, looking
down on the agora, the city, and the Attic plain, he took the Solonian
oath of citizenship (see p. 61). He was now technically an _eph? bos_,
cadet, or citizen-novice, ready to undergo those two years of severe
discipline which at once formed his introduction to practical affairs,
and constituted the State examination. During the first year he remained
in the neighborhood of Athens, drilling in arms, and acquiring a
knowledge of military tactics. His life was now the hard life of a
soldier. He slept in the open air, or in the guard-houses (? ? ? ? ? ? ? )
that surrounded the city, and was liable to be called upon at any time
by the government to give aid in an emergency. He also took part in the
public festivals. At the end of the year, all the _eph? boi_ of one
year's standing passed an examination in military drill before the
assembled people (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [3]), after which
they were employed as militia to man the frontier guard-houses, and as
rural _gendarmerie_ (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), scouring the country in all directions.
They now lived like soldiers in war-time, and learnt two important
things, (1) the topography of Attica, its roads, passes, brooks,
springs, etc. , (2) the art of enforcing law and order. Their life,
indeed, closely resembled that of the Alpine corps (_Alpini_) of the
Italian army at the present day. These spend the summer in making
themselves acquainted with every height, valley, pass, stream, and
covert in the Italian Alps, often bivouacking for days together at great
heights. That during this time the _eph? boi_ should have taken any part
in the legislative or judicial duties of citizens, seems in the highest
degree improbable. At the end of their second year, however, they passed
a second examination, called the citizenship or manhood examination
(? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), after which they were full members of the State.


(4) UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

The Greek university was the State, and the Greek State was a
university--a _Cultur-Staat_, as the Germans say. That the State is a
school of virtue, was a view generally entertained in the ancient world,
which, until it began to decay, completely identified the man with the
citizen. The influence of this view upon the attitude of the individual
to the State, and of the State to the individual, can hardly be
overestimated. The State claimed, and the individual accorded to it, a
disciplinary right which extended to every sphere and action of life.
Thus the sphere of morality coincided exactly with the sphere of
legality, or, to put it the other way, the sphere of legality extended
to the whole sphere of morality, and this was considered true, whatever
form the State or government might assume--monarchy, aristocracy,
democracy, etc.

To give a full account of the university education of old Athens would
be to write her social and political history up to the time of the
Persian Wars. This is, of course, out of the question. All I can do is
to point out those elements in the State which enabled it to produce
that splendid array of noble men, and accomplish those great deeds and
works, which make her brief career seem the brightest spot in the
world's history.

The chief of these elements, and the one which included all the rest,
was the Greek ideal of harmony. Athens was great as a State and as a
school so long as she embodied that ideal, so long as she distributed
power and honor in accordance with worth (? ? ? ? ? ) intellectual, moral,
practical; in a word, so long as the State was governed by the best
citizens (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ), and the rest acknowledged their right to do so.
Notwithstanding the contention of Grote and others, it is strictly true
that Athens was great because, and so long as, she was aristocratic (in
the ancient sense), and perished when she abandoned her fundamental
ideal by becoming democratic. This assertion must not be construed as
any slur upon democracy as such, or as denying that Athens in perishing
paved the way for a higher ideal than her own. It simply states a fact,
which may be easily generalized without losing its truth: An institution
perishes when it abandons the principle on which it was founded and
built up. Unless we bear this in mind, we shall utterly fail to
understand the lesson of Athenian history. If it be maintained that some
of Athens' noblest work was done under the democracy, the sufficient
answer is, that it was nearly all done by men who retained the spirit of
the old aristocracy, and bitterly opposed the democracy. We need name
only AEschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes.




PART II

THE "NEW EDUCATION" (B. C. 480-338)




CHAPTER I

INDIVIDUALISM AND PHILOSOPHY

Homer ought to be driven from the lists and whipt, and Archilochus
likewise. --Heraclitus.

Thou needs must have knowledge of all things,
First of the steadfast core of the Truth that forceth conviction,
Then of the notions of mortals, where true conviction abides not.
--Parmenides.

All things were undistinguished: then Intellect came and brought
them into order. --Anaxagoras.

Man is the measure of all things.

In regard to the Gods, I am unable to know whether they are or are
not. --Protagoras.

STREPSIADES. Don't you see what a good thing it is to have learning?
There isn't any Zeus, Phidippides!

PHIDIPPIDES. Who is there then?

STREPS. Vortex rules, having dethroned Zeus.

PHID. Pshaw! what nonsense!

STREPS. You may count it true, all the same.

PHID. Who says so?

STREPS. Socrates the Melian, and Chaerephon, who knows the footprints
of fleas. --Aristophanes, _Clouds_.

There is an old-fashioned saw, current of yore among mortals, that a
man's happiness, when full-grown, gives birth and dies not
childless, and that from Fortune there springs insatiate woe for all
his race. But I, dissenting from all others, am alone of different
mind. It is the Irreverent Deed that begets after it more of its
kind. For to righteous homes belongs a fair-childrened lot forever;
but old Irreverence is sure to beget Irreverence, springing up fresh
among evil men, when the numbered hour arrives. And the new
Irreverence begets Surfeit of Wealth, and a power beyond all battle,
beyond all war, unholy Daring, twin curses, black to homes, like to
their parents. But Justice shines in smoky homes, and honors the
righteous life, and, leaving, with averted eyes, foundations gilded
with impurity of hands, she draws nigh to holy things, honoring not
the power of wealth, with its counterfeit stamp of praise. And her
will is done. --AEschylus

From the time they are children to the day of their death, we teach
them and admonish them. As soon as the child understands what is
said to him, his nurse and his mother and his pedagogue and even his
father vie with each other in trying to make the best of him that
can be made, at every word and deed instructing him and warning him,
"This is right," "This is wrong," "This is beautiful," "This is
ugly," "This is righteous," "This is sinful," "Do this," "Don't do
that. " And if the child readily obeys, well and good; if he does
not, then they treat him like a bent and twisted stick,
straightening him out with threats and blows. Later on, they send
him to school, and then they lay their injunctions upon the masters
to pay much more attention to the good behavior of their sons than
to their letters and music (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ); and the teachers act upon
these injunctions. Later yet, when they have learnt to read, and are
proceeding to understand the meaning of what is written, just as
formerly they understood what was said to them, they put before them
on the benches to read the works of good poets, and insist upon
their learning them by heart--works which contain many admonitions,
and many narratives, noble deeds, and eulogies of the worthy men of
old--their purpose being to awaken the boy's ambition, so that he
may imitate these men and strive to be worthy likewise. The
music-teachers also, pursuing the same line, try to inculcate
self-control (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) and to prevent the boys from falling into
mischief. In addition to this, when they have learnt to play on the
lyre, their masters teach them other poems, written by great lyric
poets, making them sing them and play the accompaniments to them,
and compelling them to work into their souls the rhythms and
melodies of them, so that they may grow in gentleness, and, having
their natures timed and tuned, may be fitted to speak and act. The
truth is, the whole life of man needs timing and tuning.
Furthermore, in addition to all this, parents send their sons to the
physical trainer, in order that their bodies may be improved and
rendered capable of seconding a noble intent, and they themselves
not be forced, from physical deterioration, to play the coward in
war or other (serious) matters. And those who can best afford to
give this education, give most of it, and these are the richest
people. Their sons go earliest to school and leave it latest. And
when the boys leave school, the State insists that they shall learn
the laws and live according to them, and not according to their own
caprice . . . And if any one transgresses these laws, the State
punishes him . . .