Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals Part 13

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 cla.s.sed 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 s.e.xtus 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 cla.s.ses, 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 s.e.xtus, 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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.sumed that we have here, for the first time, the Seven Liberal Arts definitely fixed; but there is nothing whatever in the pa.s.sage to justify this a.s.sumption. 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 Martia.n.u.s 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 t.i.tle, _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, Ca.s.siodorus (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 Ca.s.siodorus 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 Hraba.n.u.s Maurus (776-856), a pupil of Alcuin's, wrote a work, _De Clericorum Inst.i.tutione_, 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, a.s.signed 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 { conomics--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 G.o.d.

{ { Grammar Moon Angels.

{ Trivium { Dialectic Mercury Archangels.

{ { Rhetoric Venus Thrones.

LIBERAL ARTS { { { Arithmetic Sun Dominions.

{ Quadrivium { Music Mars Virtues.

{ { Geometry Jupiter Princ.i.p.alities.

{ { Astrology Saturn Powers.

{ Physics and } Starry Heaven Cherubim.

{ Metaphysics } { { Moral Science { Crystalline } Seraphim.[15]

PHILOSOPHY { { Heaven } { { Theology Empyrean G.o.d.

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 h.e.l.lenic 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_, _conomics_, and _Const.i.tution 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 _Const.i.tution of Athens_.

For the h.e.l.lenistic Period, our information is derived chiefly from inscriptions, from the writings of Philo Judaeus, s.e.xtus Empiricus, Plutarch (_On the Nurture of Children_), aelian (_Miscellanies_), Lucian (_Anacharsis_ chiefly), Stobaeus, Plotinus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian (_Education of the Orator_), Martia.n.u.s Capella (_Nuptials of Mercury and Philology_), and Ca.s.siodorus, 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 Mitch.e.l.l, 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 kla.s.sischen 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 (?f???). 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 h.e.l.lenen, 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 h.e.l.lenen 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 _h.e.l.lenica_ is an essay, by R.S.

Nettles.h.i.+p, 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).