Little journeys to Parnassus

Front matter

Book_

M7

GopightN

Preface

The adoption of this work for use by the Teachers' Reading Circle of the State of Missouri has made necessary a second edition. The author has seized the opportunity thus afforded to enlarge and improve a number of the essays. It is believed that the usefulness of the volume to students, teachers and literary workers has been greatly increased.

At the end of this volume the publishers have appended a number of excerpts from the opinions of literary critics, indicating the generous reception accorded the first edition.

T. S. M.

Jefferson City, Missouri, September 1, 1922.

Copyright, 1922, T. S. Mosby.

Part One Great Greek Authors

I. Aeschylus.

II. Aristotle.

III. Euripides.

IV. Homer.

V. Plato.

VI. Plutarch.

VII. Menander.

VIII. Pindar.

XI. Anacreon.

X. Theocritus.

Land of the Muse! within thy bowers

Her soul-entrancing echoes rung, While on their course the rapid hours

Paused at the melody she sung — Till every grove and every hill.

And every stream that flowed along From morn to night repeated still

The winning harmony of song.

— From "Greece," by James G. Brooks.

I. Aeschylus

Aeschylus, the ''father of Greek tragedy," was a native of Eleusis, in Attica, where he was born B. C. 525. When thirty-five years of age he took a distinguished part in the battle of Marathon. In a painting portraying this battle, the likeness of Aeschylus appears in the foregound, thus sharing the honors with Miltiades, the general commanding the Greek forces in that memorable conflict. Six years later, at the age of forty-one (in B. C. 484, the year in which Herodotus the historian was born), Aeschylus attained his first dramatic success by winning the prize for tragedy — a feat which he accomplished thirteen times in the following sixteen years.

The literary style of Aeschylus, though turgid at times, is distinguished for its grandeur, fire and force. He has little of tenderness, but his theme is lofty, his thought is noble, his manner elevated, and his grasp is bold and strong. Finely expressive of his genius, and among the most beautiful creations of their kind, are the songs of the Furies in the "Eumenides," in "Agamemnon" the inspiration of Cassandra, and the ghost of Darius in "The Persians."

Aeschylus was invited to Sicily by King Hiero, a distinguished patron of the learned, who had induced Pindar and Simonides to reside at his court. One of his plays, "The Aetneans," was composed at the request of King Hiero. At another time he came from Athens to have his play, "The Persians," presented by invitation of the same King.

In the course of forty years of active work in the drama Aeschylus is believed to have written ninety plays, of which the titles of only seventy-nine are known today. Only seven of his tragedies remain. The rest are lost. The seven tragedies extant are "The Suppliants," "The Persians," "The Seven Against Thebes," "Prometheus Bound," and the trilogy,

"Agamemnon," "Choephori," and "Eumenides." Of the latter work Prof. Clifford Herschel Moore, a distinguished critic, remarks: "This trilogy represents the maturest work of Aeschylus, and we may well doubt whether a greater was ever written." Mark Pattison declares it to be "the grandest work of creative genius in the whole range of literature."

In its highest form, Aeschylus was undoubtedly the creator of the Greek drama. Not only did he introduce action to supersede the perpetual chorus, and dramatic dialogue in place of long narrations, but he was the first to introduce masks, costumes and scenic effects. He bodies forth the creations of his genius in language of sublimity and power, and his place is secure among the master spirits of the race.

From the "Prometheus Bound" are taken the beautiful and familiar lines:

"Ye waves That o'er the interminable ocean wreathe Your crisped smiles."

And here is a pretty fragment (Plumptre's translation) : "So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, 'With our own feathers, not by other's hands, Are we now smitten.' "

Hear, also, his tribute to justice: "But justice shines in smoky cottages, and honors the pious. Leaving with averted eyes the gorgeous glare of gold obtained by polluted hands, she is wont to draw nigh to holiness, not reverencing wealth when falsely stamped with praise, and assigning to each deed its righteous doom."

And this, on tyranny, is as true today as when Aeschylus wrote it twenty-four hundred years ago:

ARISTOTLE 11

"For, somehow, there is this disease in tryanny, not to put confidence in friends."

The conclusions of modern criticism are summarized by Lord Macaulay, with his customary precision and force, in the following quotation from his essay on John Milton:

"Aeschylus was, head and heart, a lyric poet. * * * At this period, accordingly, it was natural that the literature of Greece should be tinctured with the Oriental style. And that style, we think, is clearly discernible in the works of Pindar and Aeschylus. The latter often reminds us of the Hebrew writers. The Book of Job, indeed, in conduct and diction, bears a considerable resemblance to some of his dramas. Considered as plays, his works are absurd; considered as choruses, they are above all praise. If, for instance, we examine the address of Clytemnestra to Agamemnon on his return, or the description of the seven Argive Chiefs, by principles of dramatic writing, we shall instantly condemn them as monstrous. But if we forget the characters, and think only of the poetry, we shall admit that it has never been surpassed in energy and magnificence."

II. Aristotle

The most versatile intellect that mankind has ever known, the master mind of all antiquity and the great mental phenomenon in the history of human thought, that mighty prodigy of learning known to the world as Aristotle, still gleams adown the ages like a distant sun, a beacon-light of learning that casts its burning rays upon the farthest shores of time. Aristotle was born at Stagira, B. C. 384, eight years after the death of Socrates. He was one year older than his personal friend, King Philip of Macedon, and was three years older than Demosthenes.

The son of a physician and naturalist of repute, deriving his descent through a long line of medical ancestors dating back to the immortal Aesculapius, born to wealth and position, and reared in an atmosphere of learning, the influence of heredity and environment were united to create in the brain of Aristotle the most colossal mind that ever found abode within the frame of man. At the age of seventeen he proceeded to Athens, to become a pupil of Plato, with whom he remained for twenty years.

When Alexander the Great was born, King Philip announced the fact, to Aristotle in this letter: "Know that a son is born to us. We thank the gods for their gift, but especially for bestowing it at the time when Aristotle lives; assuring ourselves that, educated by you, he will be worthy of us, and worthy of inheriting our kingdom." In due time the philosopher accepted the trust, and thus became the mentor of one of the greatest characters of history, and the pupil was never wanting in proper respect for his distinguished tutor. Years later, when he had defeated Darius in battle and was in hot pursuit of the fleeing Persians, Alexander paused to write his old teacher: "Alexander, wishing all happiness to Aristotle. You have not done right in publishing your acroatic works. W 7 herein shall we be distinguished above others, if the learning, in which we were instructed, be communicated to the public? I would rather surpass other men in knowledge than in power."

Aristotle at the age of fifty set up his school in Athens near the temple of the Lycian Apollo, whence we derive our word ' Lyceum," the name applied to his school. Aristotle and his followers were called "Peripatetics," from the peripaton, or walk, which adorned the temple. Here he wrote and taught, and lived the life he loved, until jealous-hearted rivals, exasperated at his vast superiority, as mediocrity is so often angered at the sight of excellence, caused false charges of "impiety" to be preferred against him. He would have

ARISTOTLE 13

met the fate of Socrates had he not saved himself by a timely flight to Chalcis where, in the sixty-third year of his age, he died of a broken heart.

According to credible report, Aristotle was the author of four hundred books, but forty-six of which have survived to us. More than ten thousand commentators have sought to elucidate and illustrate his works. His influence has been enormous in every field of thought. He was the first to perfect a method of reasoning, and formal logic has made little improvement since his day. He raised to the status of independent disciplines the subjects of Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Literary Criticism, Politics, Psychology. He first discovered the law of the Association of Ideas. He collected 158 constitutions of various states, and was the first to essay a scientific treatise on government. He was the first great master of literary criticism. He was, as Dr. Gillies says, "not only the best critic in poetry, but himself a poet of the first eminence. Few of his verses indeed have reached modern times; but the few which remain prove him worthy of the sounding lyre of Pindar."

"Aristotle," as Hegel says, "penetrated into the whole universe of things, and subjected to the comprehension its scattered wealth ; and the greatest number of the philosophical sciences owe to him their separation and commencement."

Education was his whole thought, the key-note of his life, the undying passion of his soul, and we may fittingly close this sketch with one of his sage admonitions upon the subject dearest to his heart:

"It would therefore be best that the state should pay attention to education, and on right principles, and that it should have the power to enforce it; but if it be neglected as a public measure, then it would seem to be the duty of every individual to contribute to the virtue of his children and his friends, or at least to make this his deliberate purpose."

III. Euripides

Of the three great tragic poets of ancient Greece — Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides — the last named was the latest. While Sophocles is considered the most masterly of the three, Aeschylus was the first, and Euripides exceeded either in tenderness and in richness of moral sentiment. However, as Dr. Blair says, "Both Euripides and Sophocles have very high merit as tragic poets. They are elegant and beautiful in their style; just, for the most part, in their thoughts; they speak with the voice of nature; and, making allowance for the difference of ancient and modern ideas, in the midst of all their simplicity, they are touching and interesting."

Euripides was born in Salamis while the great battle was in progress there between the Greeks and Persians. He grew up in Athens without any of the advantages of wealth, but was well educated. He was the pupil of Anaxagoras — that philosopher who said "philosophy has been my worldly ruin and my soul's prosperity" — and was a warm personal friend of Socrates. He was fifteen years younger than his great contemporary, Sophocles, who frequently praised his work with the utmost magnanimity. Aristophanes, the comic writer, was his bitter enemy, and attacked him with satire and ridicule in a manner so cutting and galling to his sensitive nature that this circumstance is offered as one of the reasons for his quitting Athens. Aristotle, however, has placed the seal of his own approval upon the literary excellence of Euripides, and this alone, if other proofs were wanting, would firmly fix his exalted position among the classics of ancient Greece. Plutarch tells us that after the disastrous defeat of the Athenians before Syracuse, the Sicilians spared those who could repeat any of the poetry of Euripides. "Some there were," says he, "who owed their preservation to

EURIPIDES 15

Euripides. Of all the Grecians, his was the muse with whom the Sicilians were most in love. It is said that upon this occasion a number of Athenians on their return home went to Euripides, and thanked him in the most grateful manner for their obligations to his pen."

Unlike the greater number of the brilliant minds of that day, Euripides kept himself aloof from politics, and spent the greater part of his life in his library, immersed in the pursuits of literature. The king of Macedonia, Archelaus, a patron of letters, invited the poet to his court at Pella, and there he spent the remainder of his days. Upon his death, the highest honors were paid to his memory, by order of the king. Archelaus erected a monument to him, bearing the inscription: "Never, O Euripides, will thy memory be forgotten!" The Athenians were anxious to remove his remains to Athens, but their request was denied. They then erected to his memory at Athens a ceno'aph bearing this inscription: "All Greece is the monument of Euripides; Macedonian earth covers but his bones." Lycurgus, the orator, erected a statue to him in the theatre. Sophocles, still surviving, publicly lamented his death, and all Athens made tardy amends for the neglect of the great dramatist during his life.

Tradition accredits Euripides with the authorship of ninety plays, but eighteen of which survive. He has found imitators and admirers in both ancient and modern times, and his work has profoundly influenced the drama in England, Germany and France. None of the ancient dramatists has been more extensively honored by modern editions, such as those in Germany by KirckhofT, Nauck, Prinz and Wecklein, Nestle, and Schwartz; in England, by Terrell, Verrall, Jerram, Way, Mahaffy and Coleridge; and in France by Decharme and others.

Following are some of his best known sayings :

"To be modest and pay reverence to the gods; this I think to be the most honorable and the wisest thing for mortals."

"The worst of all diseases among men is impudence."

"Courage profits men naught if God denies His aid."

"That is the noble man who is full of confident hopes; the abject soul despairs."

"Silence and modesty are the best ornaments of a woman, and to remain quietly within the house."

"The woman who, in her husband's absence, seeks to set her beauty forth, mark her as a wanton; she would not adorn her person to appear abroad unless she was inclined to ill."

Here is a particularly fine passage on the marks of true nobility :

"There is no outward mark to note the noble, for the inward qualities of man are never clearly to be distinguished. I have often seen a man of no worth spring from a noble sire, and worthy children arise from vile parents, meanness grovelling in the rich man's mind and generous feelings in the poor. How, then, shall we discern and judge aright? By wealth? we shall make use of a bad criterion. Shall it be by arms? But who, by looking to the spear, could thereby discern the dauntless heart? Will ye not learn to judge the man by manners and by deeds? For such men as these discharge their duties with honor to the state and to their house. Mere flesh without a spirit is nothing more than statues in the forum. For the strong arm does not abide the shock of battle better than the weak; this depends on nature and an intrepid mind."

HOMER 17

IV. Homer

Seven cities vied for Homer's birth with emulation pious; Salamis, Samos, Calaphon, Rhodes, Argos, Athens, Chios.

— Greek Anthology.

The preponderance of legendary history, however, indicates that Smyrna was the birthplace of Homer. There are tales, also, that he was blind; and that he was a roving minstrel, singing ballads and begging as he wandered from place to place. There are no positive biographical facts. Even his very existence has been doubted by a formidable school of German critics, headed by Professor Frederick Wolf, of Halle. But the Iliad exists. So does the Odyssey. They constitute Homer, and are all that we really know of Homer, at this hour. The work is there. It speaks for itself. Whether it is but a skillful compilation of still older ballads, it boots us not to inquire. Homer today is just as we found him at the dawn of Grecian civilization. If we except the Bible and the Veddas, he is the most ancient book in the world. He has supplied for all ages the one grand model of the epic poem, and his work is the common heritage of the human race.

Translations of Homer exist in all the great modern languages. Among the most admired have been those of Cesarotti and Monti in Italian, that of Montbel in French, that of Voss in German, and those of Pope, Chapman and Bryant in English. But the sonorous fluency and vehement fire of Homer have never been adequately portrayed in any other tongue. As Prof. Blair of Edinburgh declared: "I know indeed no author to whom it is more difficult to do justice in a translation than Homer. As the plainness of his diction, were it literally rendered, would often appear flat in any modern language, so, in the midst of that plainness, and not a little heightened by it, there are everywhere breaking forth upon us flashes of native fire, of sublimity and beauty, which hardly any language, except his own, could preserve. His versification has been universally acknowledged to be uncommonly melodious; and to carry, beyond that of any poet, a resemblance in the sound to the sense and meaning."

As Lord Bacon said, "The best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express," just so true is it that the celestial fire of Homer defies the translator's art. Thus, the nod of Jupiter, extolled by all critics as one of the noblest examples of the sublime in writing, is literally translated: "He spoke, and bending his sable brows, gave the awful nod; while he shook the celestial locks of his immortal head, all Olympus was shaken." Pope translates the passage as follows:

"He spoke: and awful bends his sable brows, Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate, and sanction of a god. High heaven with trembling the dread signal took, And all Olympus to its center shook."

Literally translated the majesty of the Homeric concept is preserved, but its exquisite euphony is marred; while Pope clogs the image in order to make an English rhyme.

These difficulties and these differences, although they may dismay, will not surprise us if we but bear in mind that Homer, when he plumed himself for his matchless eagle flight to the golden peaks of song, garbed his glowing thoughts in the most musical language that ever rippled from the human tongue or dropped its fructifying sweetness from the lips of man. Yet, these translations often do contain the living flame of genuine Homeric fire. Thus, in the twentieth book of the Iliad, where all the gods take part, we read again from Pope:

HOMER 19

"But when the powers descending swelled the fight, Then tumult rose, fierce rage, and pale affright: Xow through the trembling shores Minerva calls, And now she thunders from the Grecian walls. Mars, hov'ring o'er his Troy, his terror shrouds In gloomy tempests, and a night of clouds: Xow through each Trojan heart he fury pours, With voice divine, from Illion's topmost towers — Above, the sire of gods his thunder rolls, And peals on peals redoubled rend the polls; Beneath, stern Xeptune shakes the solid ground, The forests wave, the mountains nod around; Through all her summits tremble Ida's woods, And from their sources boil her hundred floods: Troy's turrets totter on the rocking plain, And the toss'd waves beat the heaving main. Deep in the dismal region of the dead, Th' infernal monarch rear'd his horrid head, Leapt from his throne, lest Xeptune's arm should lay His dark dominions open to the day And pour in light on Pluto's drear abodes, Abhorr'd by men, and dreadful e'en to gods. Such wars th' immortals wage; such horrors rend The world's vast concave when the gods contend."

But Homer, despite "the surge and thunder of the Odyssey." and of the Iliad as well, is not all a clash of arms and din of steel. He not only runs the gamut of all the passions known to man, but in sylvan scenes he reflects X'ature's rare artistic power, and paints with most entrancing skill the sunset and the dawn, the calm of midnight and the glory of the stars. Thus, in book 7 of the Iliad:

"Xow from the smooth, deep ocean-stream the sun Began to climb the heavens, and with new rays Smote the surrounding: fields."

Or in book 8 :

"Now deep in Ocean sunk the lamp of light And drew behind the cloudy veil of night."

And in book 3 of the Odyssey:

"But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn, With rosy lustre purpled o'er the lawn."

Again, there is the storm scene, from book 15 of the Iliad:

"Bursts as a wave that from the clouds impends, And swell'd with tempests on the ship descends. White are the decks with foam ; the winds aloud Howl o'er the masts and sing through ev'ry shroud : Pale, trembling, tir'd, the sailors freeze with fears; And instant death on every wave appears."

Now let us contrast the tempest with this peaceful scene of lovely night and all its sylvan beauty and pastoral calm: "As when in heaven the stars around the glittering moon beam loveliest amid the breathless air, and in clear outline appear every hill, sharp peak and woody dell; deep upon deep the sky breaks open, and each star shines forth while joy fills the shepherd's heart."

"The multitude of things in Homer is wonderful," says Hazlett — "the splendor, the truth, the power, the variety." As Matthew Arnold said, "the Homeric poems are the most important poetical monument existing." To the ancient Greek, another critic says, "Homer was Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, and Domesday Book in one." All poets since his time have been indebted to Homer. As Pope observes, even "the periphrases and circumlocutions by which Homer expresses the single act of dying have supplied succeeding poets with all their manners of phrasing it."

In Prof. James Anthony Froude's essay on "The Science of History" it is observed: "The Tliad' is from two to three thousand years older than 'Macbeth,' and yet it is as fresh

HOMER 21

as if it had been written yesterday. We have there no lessons save in the emotions which rise in us as we read. Homer had no philosophy; he never struggles to press upon us his views about this or that; you can scarcely tell, indeed, whether his sympathies are Greek or Trojan; but he represents to us faithfully the men and women among whom he lived. He sang the tale of Troy, he touched his lyre, he drained the golden beaker in the halls of men like those on whom he was conferring immortality. And thus, although no Agamemnon, king of men, ever led a Grecian fleet to Ilium; though no Priam sought the midnight tent of Achilles; though Ulysses and Diomed and Nestor were but names, and Helen but a dream, yet, through Homer's power of representing men and women, those old Greeks will still stand out from amidst the darkness of the ancient world with a sharpness of outline which belongs to no period of history except the most recent. For the mere hard purposes of history, the Tliad' and 'Odyssey' are the most effective books which ever were written."

Says Addison (Spectator No. 417): "Homer is in his province when he is describing a battle or a multitude, a hero or a god. Virgil is never better pleased than when he is in his elysium, or copying out an entertaining picture. Homer's epithets generally mark out what is great; Virgil's, what is agreeable. Nothing can be more magnificent than the figure Jupiter makes in the first Iliad, nor more charming than that of Venus in the first Aeneid." But Virgil boldly translated whole passages from Homer and placed them in the Aeneid as his own. Homer's work is original in execution, theme and concept. Virgil, Tasso, Milton and the rest have had their models by which to work; but Homer's model was Nature alone, and without human pattern, guide or compass, he produced the greatest epic work the world has ever known.

As old Sir John Denham said so long ago, in his "Progress of Learning:"

"I can no more believe old Homer blind, Than those who say the sun hath never shined ; The age wherein he lived was dark, but he Could not want sight, who taught the world to see."

v.

PLATO.

Aristocles, afterwards known as Plato, "the broadbrowed," was born on the island of Aegina, B. C. 427, and died at Athens in 347 B. C. Through his mother he was a descendant of Solon, one of the "Seven Wise Men of Greece," and on his father's side he traced his lineage from Codrus, one of the early kings of Athens. He enjoyed such early opportunities as a comfortable fortune could provide, and in his youth was accomplished in all the culture of the times.

Intellectually, Plato was the child of Socrates and the parent of Aristotle. At the age of twenty, upon coming under the spell of the master mind of Socrates, he is said to have burned all the poems he had written, and from that time forth, for the remaining sixty years of his life, his capacious mind was wholly occupied with the profound speculations which have since dazzled the world with their brilliancy and wielded a constantly growing influence upon the minds of men.

He remained a pupil of Socrates until B. C. 399, when judicial murder put an end to the pure and noble life of that most majestic character of antiquity and destroyed what George Henry Lewes, in his History of Philosophy, called "the grandest figure in the world's Pantheon: the bravest, truest, simplest, wisest of mankind." We may the better understand the feelings of Plato, upon being thus deprived of his master, when we read the "Phaedo," detailing the events of Socrates' last day on earth, and developing, in the

PLATO 23

course of the dialogue, the beautiful doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Xenophon, also a disciple of Socrates and a companion of Plato, has expressed not less truly the feelings of both upon that most pathetic occasion, in the touching and tender tribute so gracefully set forth in the Memorabilia (iv. 7).

Shocked by the cruelty and crushed by the ingratitude and bigotry of the tyrants who then ruled Athens in the name of democracy, Plato departed into foreign lands. It is believed that he visited every country in which learning flourished in any degree. He delved into the lore of the Egyptians and studied the philosophies of the east. His itinerary is not known with certainty. But it is known that he was absent from Athens a great deal during the ten years following the death of Socrates. In the course of his peregrinations, Plato visited Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse. The tyrant caused him to be sold into slavery. Plato, however, was soon ransomed by his friends.

Returning finally to Athens, in the fortieth year of his age, Plato set up his school in the groves of the Academia and began to expound his dialectics and to teach the immortal doctrines which still encircle his name with a halo of eternal light. To this school flocked the bright minds of the world. Here was fashioned the sinewy intellect of Aristotle and here was moulded the mighty genius of Demosthenes.

"Hither as to a fountain Other suns repair, and in their urns Draw golden light."

Learning of Plato's vast renown, Dionysius of Syracuse wrote to express the hope that the philosopher would not think ill of him and received this august and laconic reply: "Plato hath not leisure to think of Dionysius." For a period of forty years, and until death ended his labors, Plato continued to write and teach. It is believed that all his writings have reached us unimpaired.

"For richness and beauty of imagination," says one of the foremost English critics, "no philosophic writer, ancient or modern, is comparable to Plato. The only fault of hfe imagination is such an excess of fertility as allows it sometimes to obscure his judgment. It frequently carries him into allegory, fiction, enthusiasm, and the airy regions of mystical theology. The philosopher is, at times, lost in the poet. But whether we be edified with the matter or not (and much edification he often affords), we are always entertained with the manner; and left with a strong impression of the sublimity of the author's genius."

Associated with Plato's doctrine of immortality was his doctrine of the soul's reminiscence, a subconscious recollection of beauties contemplated in the pre-earthly existence, a thought most beautifully expressed in Wordsworth's ode on "Intimations of Immortality:"

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home."

The writings of Plato not only exercised great influence upon such minds as those of Cicero and Plutarch, followers of "the vision splendid" in ancient times, but they profoundly affected the Stoics as well as the early Christian Fathers, and cast their mystic spell far into future ages, where we find their indelible impress upon much of the world's best literature. One cannot proceed far, in either literature or philosophy, without encountering the massive intellect and the golden eloquence of Plato. Thus do we find it reflected in Addison's "Cato," Act V., Sc. I: