Greek thinkers: a history of ancient philosophy

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Author's Preface

My design in the present undertaking is to compose a comprehensive picture of the department of knowledge in which, during several decades past, I have been at pains to increase the material and to sift the problems. The work, which summarizes the labours of a lifetime, will be complete in three volumes, and will, it is hoped, be accessible to wide circles of cultivated readers. The point of view from which I have written is not that of any one-sided and exclusive school. I endeavour to do equal justice to the different tendencies of ancient thought, every one of which has contributed its part to the complete structure of modem intellectual civilization, to consider them all impartially, and to judge them fairly. The historical relief in which the narrative is set will not be unduly contracted, and its subjective features will be confined to emphasizing what is essential as sharply as possible, and to sundering as thoroughly as possible what is enduring and significant from what is indifferent and transient. Portions of the story of religion, of literature, and of the special sciences, indispensable to an understanding of the speculative movement, its causes and effects, will be incorporated in the work. The boundaries dividing these provinces appear to me in all cases to be floating. The ideal I have in view could only completely be realized in an exhaustive universal history of the mind of antiquity. When so monumental an undertaking has been successfully

X AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

effected I shall be the first to admit that the present far more modest attempt is superseded and antiquated.

The second volume and the third or concluding volume will comprise the remaining six books, entitled respectively, (4) "Socrates and the Socratics," (5) "Plato and the Academy," (6) "Aristotle and his Successors," (7) "The Older Stoa," (8) "The Garden of Epicurus," and (9) "Mystics, Sceptics, and Syncretists." In order not unduly to increase the compass of the work, the evidence of authorities has had to be reduced to the smallest dimensions, and, with regard to references to the later literature of the subject, economy has had to be practised in all cases excepting those where my own exposition may claim the greatest originality and those, again, where it can claim the least. In the latter instance the obligation has arisen of acknowledging my close dependence on predecessors, and, in the former, of advancing grounds for my radical divergence from traditional views.

Finally, I may be permitted, not to palliate, but to apologize for, the shortcomings of my work in the phrase employed in a letter of Gustave Flaubert to Georges Sand : "Je fais tout ce que je peux continuellement pour dlargir ma cervelle, et je travaille dans la sinc^ritd de mon coeur ; le reste ne depend pas de moi."

TH. GOMPERZ.

Vienna.

GORGIAS OF LEONTINI.

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CHAPTER VIIL

THE ADVANCE OF HISTORICAL SCIENCE.

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Book I. The Beginnings

> "9 "To one small people ... it was given to create the principle hi Progress. That people was the Greek. Except the blind forces of

/Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin."— Sir Henry Sumner Maine.

GREEK THINKERS.

INTRODUCTION.

All beginnings are obscure, whether owing to their minuteness or their apparent insignificance. Where they do not escape perception, they are liable to elude observation. The sources of history, too, can only be tracked at a foot-pace. They must be followed to their fount, like the current of a stream which springs in a mountain fastness. Such steps or paces are called inferences. They are of two kinds, according as they proceed from causes or from effects. In the second case, we try to infer the existence and the nature of causes from the existence and the nature of effects. Inferences of that type are indispensable, but frequently fallacious. For though every cause, taken by itself, produces the same invariable effect, yet the converse proposition does not by any means hold good. Each effect is not invariably the product of one and the same cause. The condition known as ** plurality of causes" plays an important part in the intellectual no less than in the physical universe. The contrary process yields more trustworthy results. It starts from the causes, from the series of great and tangible factors, plainly manifest or readily to be found, which must have influenced the events to be accounted for, and in which the degree of such influence is the sole object of doubt. In the present instance, where we are dealing with the higher intellectual life of a nation, the first place is

VOL L B 2 claimed by its geographical conditions and the peculiar character of its homes.

Hellas is a sea-girt momitain-land. The poverty of her soil corresponds to the narrowness of her river-valleys. And here we find the first clue to some of the essential features of Hellenic evolution proper. It is clear, for instance, that a permanent home and a steady and manifold care and attention were offered to any seeds of civilization which might be deposited in her soil. Her mountain-barriers served her in the office of stone walls, breaking the force of the storm of conquest which sweeps unchecked across the plains. Each hilly canton was a potential seat of culture. Each could develop a separate type of that strongly marked individualism, which was ultimately to prove so fjtvourable to the rich and many-sided civilization of Greece, so fatal to the political concentration of her powers. The country was full of piquant contrasts. Her Arcadia — an inland canton, sunk in torpid provincialism — was matched at the opposite extreme by the extent and curvature of the coast. Her sea-board was larger than Spain's, her mainland smaller than Portugal's. Other conditions, too, fostered this variety of natural gifts. The most diverse trades and professions were practised in the closest proximity. Seamen and shepherds, hunters and husbandmen, flourished side by side, and the fusion of their families produced in ater generations a sum of talents and aptitudes complementary to each other. Again, the good fairies who presided at the birth of Greece could have laid no more salutary blessing in her cradle than the "poverty which was ever her familiar friend." It worked powerfully in three ways for the advancement of her civilization. It acted as a spur to compel her to exert all her powers ; it served as a further defence against invasion, for the comparatively poor country must have seemed but indifferent booty — a fact noted in connection with Attica by the most philosophical historian of antiquity ; and last, and chiefly, it lent a forcible impulse to commerce, navigation, emigration, and the foundation of colonies.

The bays that offer the best harbourage on the Greek

COUNTRY AND COLONIES. 5

peninsula open towards the east, and the islands and islets, with which that region is thickly sown, afford, as it were, a series of stepping-stones to the ancient seats of Asiatic civilization. Greece may be said to look east and south. Her back is turned to the north and west, with their semi-barbaric conditions. Another circumstance of quite exceptional good fortune may be ranged with these natural advantages. There was Greece in her infancy on the one side, and the immemorial civilizations on the other : who was to ply between them ? The link was found — as it were by deliberate selection — in those hardy adventurers of the sea, the merchant-people of Phoenicia, a nation politically of no account, but full of daring and eager for gain. Thus it happened that the Greeks acquired the elements of culture from Babylon and Egypt without paying the forfeit of independence. The benefits of this ordinance are obvious. The favoured country enjoyed a steadier rate of progress, a more unbroken evolution, a comparative immunity from the sacrifice of her national resources. And if further proof be required, take the fate of the Celts and Germans, whom Rome enslaved at the moment that she civilized ; or take the sad lot of the savage tribes of to-day, who receive the blessing of civilization at the hands of almighty Europe, and wear it too often as a curse.

Still, the determining influence in the intellectual life of Greece must be sought in her colonial system. Colonies were founded at all times, and under every form of government. The Monarchy, a period of perpetual conflict, frequently witnessed the spectacle of settled inhabitants giving way to immigrating tribes, and seeking a new home beyond the seas. The Oligarchy, which rested entirely on the permanent alliance between noble birth and territorial possession, was often constrained to expel the "pauvre gentilhomme," the type and symbol of disorder, and to furnish him with fresh estates in foreign parts, whither he would speedily be followed by further victims of the incessant party strife Meantime, the growth of the maritime trade of Greece, the flourishing condition of her industries, and

• her increasing population, soon made it necessary to establish fixed commercial stations, an uninterrupted supply of raw material, and safe channels for the importation of food. The same outlets were utilized, chiefly under the Democracy, to relieve the indigent poor and to draft off the surplus population. Thus, at an early period, there arose that vast circle of Greek plantations which stretched from the homes of the Cossacks on the Don to the oases of the Sahara, and from the eastern shore of the Black Sea to the coast-line of Spain. Great Greece and Greater Greece, — if the first name belong to the Hellenic portion of Southern Italy, the second might well be given to the sum of these settlements outside. The mere number and diversity of the colonies practically ensured the prospect that any seeds of civilization would happen on suitable soil, and this prospect was widened and brightened to an incalculable degree by the nature of the settlements and the manner of their foundation. Their sites were selected at those points of the coast which offered the best facilities for successful commercial enterprise. The emigrants themselves were chiefly young men of a hardy and courageous disposition, who would bequeath their superior qualities to their numerous issue. Men of duller parts, who lived by rule and rote, were not likely to turn their backs on their homes except under stress of necessity. Again, though a single citystate took the lead in the foundation of each colony, it would frequently be reinforced by a considerable foreign contingent, and this cross-breeding of Hellenic tribes would be further extended by an admixture of non-Hellenic blood, owing to the preponderance of the men over the women among the original emigrants. Thus, every colony served the purpose of experiment. Greek and non- Greek racial elements were mixed in varying proportions, and the test was applied to their resulting powers of resistance and endurance. Local customs, tribal superstitions, and national prejudices swiftly disappeared before the better sense of the settlers. Contact with foreign civilizations, however imperfectly developed, could not but enlarge their

COLONIAL LIFE, 7

mental horizon to a very appreciable degree. The average of capacity rose by leaps and bounds, and the average of intellect was heightened by its constant engagement in new and difficult tasks. Merit counted for more than descent. A man there was a man ; good work could command a good W£^e, and poor work meant a hard bed and indifferent protection. The whole system of economic, political, and social life cried out to be reorganized and reformed, and in these circumstances the force of mere tradition and the reign of unintelligent routine were involved in rapid decline. True, some of the settlements succumbed to the attacks of hostile residents ; others, again, were so far outnumbered by the natives that their individuality was gradually absorbed. But from first to last the communication of the colonies with their mother-city and mother-country — a communication fostered by religious ties and frequently strengthened by later arrivals — was sufficiently intimate to preserve in all its parts the reciprocal benefits which proved so eminently fruitful. Greece found in her colonies the great playground of her \ intellect. There she proved her talents in every variety I of circumstances, and there she was able to train them to the height of their latent powers. Her colonial life retained for centuries its fresh and buoyant spirit. The daughtercities in most respects outstripped their mother in the race. ' To them can be traced nearly all the great innovations, and the time was to come when they would steep themselves in intellectual pursuits as well, when the riddles of the world and of human life were to find a permanent home and enduring curiosity in their midst

2. There is a period in Greek history which bears a most striking resemblance to the close of our own Middle Ages, when the repetition of similar causes produced similar effects.

On the threshold of modem Europe stands the era of the great discoverers, and the geographical limits of the Greek horizon at this time were likewise wonderfully extended. On the far east and west of the world, as it was then known, the outline emerged from the mist

Precise and definite knowledge replaced the obscurity of legend. Shortly after 800 B.C., the eastern shore of the Black Sea began to be colonized by Milesians ; Sinope was founded in 785, and Trapezunt about thirty years later. Soon after the middle of the same century, Euboea and Corinth sent out the first Greek settlers to Sicily, where Syracuse was founded in 734 B.C., and before the century's end the ambition and enterprise of Miletus had taken fast foothold at the mouths of the Nile. Three conclusions are involved in the fact of this impulse to expansion. It points to a rapid growth of population on the Greek peninsula and in the older colonies. It presumes a considerable development of Greek industry and commerce ; and, finally, it serves to measure the progress in ship-building and in kindred arts. Take navigation, for instance. Where vessels formerly had hugged the shore, and had not ventured in deep waters, now they boldly crossed the sea. The mercantile marine was protected by men-of-war. Seaworthy battleships came into use with raised decks and three rows of oars, the first of them being built for the Samians in 705 B.C. Naval engagements were fought as early as 664 B.C., so that the sea acquired the utmost significance in the civilization of Hellas for the commerce of peace and war. At the same time, the progress of industry was fostered by a notable innovation. A current coinage was created. The " bullocks " of hoary antiquity and the copper "kettles" and "tripods" of a later date successively passed into desuetude, and the precious metals replaced these rougher makeshifts as measures of value and tokens of exchange. Babylonian and Egyptian merchants had long since familiarized the market with silver and gold in the form of bars and rings, and the Babylonians had even introduced the official stamp as a guarantee of standard and weight. A convenient shape was now added to the qualities of worth and durability which make gold and silver the most practical symbols of exchange, and the metals were coined for current use. This invention, borrowed from Lydia about 700 B.C. by the Phocsans of Ionia, conferred remarkable

SOCIAL CHANGES. 9

benefits on commerce. It facilitated intercourse and extended its bounds, and its effects may be compared with those of the bill of exchange, introduced in Europe by Jewish and Lombardy merchants at the close of the Middle Ages. Similar, if not greater, in effect was the change in the methods of warfare. The old exclusive service of the cavalry, which had flourished in the dearth of pastoral and corn-land as the privilege of wealthy landowners, was now reinforced by the hoplites, or heavy-armed infantry, who far exceeded the cavalry in numbers. The change was analogous — and its consequences were equal in importance — to that which enabled the armed peasantry of Switzerland to disperse the chivalry of Burgundy and Austria. New orders of the population achieved prosperity and culture, and were filled with a strong sense of self-esteem. A sturdy middle class asserted itself by the side of the old squirearchy, and bore with increasing impatience the yoke of the masterful nobles. But here, as elsewhere, the contradiction between actual conditions of strength and legal dues of prerogative became the cause of civil strife. A battle of classes broke out. It spread to the peasants, where persistent ill-usage and by no means infrequent serfdom had sown the seeds of revolt, and out of the rents and ruins of society there was hatched a brood of usurpers, who partly destroyed and partly set aside the existing order of things. They constructed in its place a form of government which, though commonly short-lived, was not without notable results. The Orthagorides, the Cypselides, the Pisistratides, a Polycrates, and many another, may be compared with the Italian tyrants of the late Middle Ages — ^the Medici, the Sforza, or the Visconti — precisely as the party feuds of the one epoch recall in the other the conflict between the lords and the guilds. The obscure origin and questionable title of these newly founded dynasties were discreetly veiled in the glitter of warlike undertakings, of alliances with foreign potentates, public works on a lavish scale, splendid buildings, and munificent benefactions, combined with an enhanced regard for the safety of the national sanctuaries and for the lO GREEK THINKERS.

encouragement of the fine arts. But we must look deeper for the most lasting result of this entr'acte in history. It tran- "quiUized party feeling ; it overthrew the rule of the nobles without breaking the foundations of social welfare ; it poured new wine in the old vessels, revealing unsuspected possibilities in the extant forms of the constitution. The " tyranny " served as a bridge to the system of democracy, first in a moderate, and at last in its fully developed shape. Meantime, the stream of intellectual culture found broader and deeper channels. The ballads of the heroes, which had been sung for centuries in the halls of Ionian nobles to the accompaniment of the lyre, slowly fell into desuetude. New forms of poetry began to emerge, and with them, in some instances, the poet's personality emerged from the material of his song. Subjective poetry came into existence, as was bound to happen, when, as now, men escaped in ever-increasing numbers from the groove of hereditary conventions. The State was involved in change and vicissitude, society was governed by uncertain conditions, and individual life accordingly acquired a more adventurous complexion. Men's talents would be more sharply defined, their independent activity stimulated, their self-reliance encouraged. In civic and party business a man would play his own part, advising and blaming as counsellor or critic, and boldly giving vent among his fellows to his sentiments of expectation or disappointment, his joy, his sorrow, his anger, and his scorn. He became a unit in society, self-made for the most part, and entirely selfdependent, and would deem his private concerns of sufficient importance to display them in the light of publicity. He poured out his heart to his fellow-citizens, making them the arbiters in his love-suits and law-suits, and appealing to their sympathy in the injuries he suffered, the successes he achieved, the pleasures he enjoyed. A new spirit, too, was breathed in the older poetical forms. Myth and legend were refashioned by the masters of choric song in differing, if not in contradictory, modes. The didactic poets still aimed at system, order, and harmony in their treatment of the material, but side by side with

TRAVEL AND OBSERVATION. II

those endeavours a manifold diversity was to be remarked, and a licence in criticism, expressing itself in a prejudice or preference in respect to this or that hero or heroine of holy tradition. Thus, the neutral tints of the background were ever more and more relieved by strong, self-conscious figures standing out from the uniform mass. Habits of free-will and feeling were created, and with them there grew the faculty of independent thought, which was constantly engaged and exercised in wider fields of speculation.

3. The Greeks were naturally keen-sighted. The faithful representation of sensible objects and occurrences constitutes one of the chief charms of the Homeric poems, and the imitation of figures and gestures by a hand that waxed in cunning now began to succeed to the arts of language and speech. Greece became the apprentice of older civilized countries, turning to Egypt above all for the paramount example of artistic instinct, natural joy, and engaging humour. But even in the limited sphere of the observation of men's ways and manners, fresh material was constantly collected. As travelling grew easier, its occasions would be multiplied. Not merely the merchant^ ever intent on new gain, but the fugitive murderer, the exiled loser in the civil strife, the restless emigrant wandering on the face of the earth, the adventurer whose spear was at the service of the highest bidder, who would eat the bread of an Assyrian monarch to-day and to-morrow would pour down his burning throat the bariey-water of Egypt, who was equally at home in the fruit-laden valley of the Euphrates and in the sands of the Nubian desert, — all of these would add to the sum of knowledge about places, peoples, and mankind. The frequent meeting or regular congregation in certain centres of Greeks of all cities and tribes served the purpose of huge reservoirs, in which the observations of individuals and the reports they made to their fellow-townsmen were collected and stored. The shrine of the oracle at Delphi was a chief example of the first, while the second condition was fulfilled by the recurring festivals of the Games, among which those at

I'

Olympia held the foremost rank. The sanctuary at Delphi, sacred to Pythian Apollo, was situated in the shadow of steep, beetling crags. Thither would come, and there would meet, an endless line of pilgrims from all parts of Greece and her colonies — private citizens, representatives of whole states, and, since the middle of the seventh century at least, occasional envoys from foreign courts. They all came to consult the god ; but the answers they received were mostly the result of the priest's ingenious manipulation of the stock of useful knowledge deposited by former clients. And few indeed can have departed from that romantic mountain glen without finding their imagination quickened and their experience augmented by contact with their companions on the road. The Games which we have mentioned were celebrated in the broad river-valley of the Alpheius, and the attractiveness of that brilliant spectacle increased with each generation. The programme was constantly extended by the inclusion of new kinds of competitions, and the spectators, who at first were drawn merely from the surrounding country, gradually began to arrive — as is shown by the winners* lists, extant since yjS b.C. — from all points in the circumference of the wide Hellenic world. Nor would their intercourse be confined to the exchange of news and information. Men would take one another's measure ; opinions would be freely canvassed ; the merits of the different institutions in that land of many subdivisions — their customs, habits, and beliefs — would form topics of general discussion. Comparison engendered judgment, and judgment brought reflection in its train to bear on the causes of the diflTerences and on the permanent element in change. It induced, that is to say, an inquiry for the common canons which obtained in the commerce and dogma of daily life. The observation of common things, growing keener and richer by experience, led to comparative discussion and estimation, and, finally, to reflective criticism. Many a proud stream was nourished by that source. To it we refer sententious poetry, the invention of types of human character, and the proverbial wisdom which thoughtful

THE ART OF WRITING. 1 3

citizens and philosophic statesmen have sown broadcast in the world.

The art of writing, the main vehicle for the exchange of thought, helped to distribute the fresh acquisitions of knowledge. Writing, it is true, was no novelty in Greece. When we read in the Homeric poems of the intimate intercourse with Phoenicia, we readily conceive that the sharp-witted Greek would have borrowed that wonderful aid to the preservation and communication of thought from the Canaanitish dealers, for the customer must often have surprised the merchant making entries in his account-book. Nay, the art of writing would appear to have been familiar, to some of the Greeks at least, even before that date. It is no more possible that the syllabic writing on the recently discovered Cypric monuments, with its awkward and qlumsy devices, could have been later than the use of the simple Semitic letters, than that the invention of the battle-axe could have followed that of the musket. All that was wanted was a convenient and easily fashioned material. The want took some time to supply. The remedy was not found till soon after 660 B.C., when Greek trade with Egypt under Psammetich I. received a notable impulse. Then a writing-material of a kind which can hardly be improved was afforded by the pulp of the papyrus shrub, split into slender and flexible strips. From city to city, from land to land, from century to centuiy, the sheets of written symbols now began to fly. The circulation of thought was accelerated, the commerce of intellect enlarged, and the continuity of culture guaranteed, in a degree which can well-nigh be compared with that which marked the invention of the printing-press at the dawn of modem history. To the oral delivery of poems, designed to captivate the hearer, there was presently to be added their silent appeal to the solitary enjoyment of the reader, who could weigh, compare, and discriminate to the top of his critical bent. Yet a little while, and literary communication was to break the last of its bonds, and the beginnings of prose composition were to supersede the era of metric language.

. 4. The west coast of Asia Minor is the cradle of the intellectual civilization of Greece. Its line stretches fn north to south, but the heart of the movement must be sought in the country enclosing the centre of the line, and in the adjacent islands. There nature poured her gifts with lavish profusion, and those on whom they fell belonged to the Ionian tribe, at all times the most talented among Hellenes. The birthplace of the lonians is obscure. We know that their blood was mixed with elements from central Greece, if, indeed, they were not a mere product of such fusion, and their diverse origin is doubtless mainly

• accountable for the complexity of their natural gifts. At least, it was not till they were settled in their new Asiatic home that their individuality reached its full powers. As

^ bold seafarers and energetic traders, they enjoyed every benefit of the keen and fertilizing influence to be derived from intercourse with foreign nations in a more advanced state of civilization. They had the further advantage of

• intermarrying with other fine races, such as the Carians and Phoenicians, a fact which indisputably increased their original diversity of talent. The lonians were the furthest removed of all Greeks from that fatal stagnation to which dwellers in isolated countries succumb so readily. It must be added that they lacked the sense of security which friendly mountain-barriers and an infertile soil bestow. The proximity of civilized nations, highly developed and united in a State, was as prejudicial to the political independence of the lonians as it was beneficial to their intellectual progress. The yoke of foreign dominion which was laid on one part of the people, the compulsory e^cile in which another part was driven, the slow but Sure corrosion of its manhood by the inroad of Oriental luxury, — ^these were among the consequences of the devastating attacks by barbarians from Cimmeria, followed by the victories of the Lydians and Persians. The nett result of this cross-series of good influences and bad was the rapid rise and swift decline of a period of prosperity. The ripe fruit fell all too soon, and the seeds it dropped were bome by fugitives from the foreigner's

RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

yoke, who would return now and agaii^ to the safe protection of Attica's fertile soil.

The evolution we have been describing took its course in but a few centuries ; its splendid results included the full bloom of heroic minstrelsy, the triumph of the new forms of verse we have mentioned as the heirs of epic poetry, and, lastly, the rise of scientific pursuits and philosophical speculation. New answers were given to the eternal question of mankind — What is the meaning of self, God, and the world ? and these new answers gradually replaced or reshaped the former acceptations of religious belief.

5. Greek religion is a vessel which has been replenished j |J from the treasury of enlightened minds. Poets and artists I have combined to idealize its gods as types of perfect beauty. Still, its ultimate springs are those from which mankind has derived an infinite variety of figures and forms, partly beautiful and wholesome, partly hurtful and ugly.

Human thought follows twin channels. It obeys the I law of likeness, and it obeys the law of contiguity. \ While similar ideas suggest one another, yet the same result is evolved by ideas which occur simultaneously or in immediate succession. An absent friend, for instance, may be recalled to our thoughts not merely by the sight of his portrait ; the rooms in which he dwelt, the tools which he handled, serve the purpose just as well. These laws are summarily known as the laws of the association of ideas, and the conception of natural phenomena, which \ . may be called the personification of nature, is directly and [mevitaBIyJ due to their action. Whenever the savage Sa motion or some other effect, which, whether by its rarity or by its intimate connection with his interests, strikes his mind strongly enough to set his associative faculties at work, he will infallibly conclude that the occurrence is the outcome of an exercise of will The reason is extremely simple. A savage or civilized man perceives the connection of wjll-jv^w^r with mnvrmrnt - nr indeed, with effects of any kind — every day and hour of his life ;