ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.
In Greece, as everywhere else, education[524] commenced in the
nursery; and though time has very much obscured all remaining traces
of the instruction which the children there received, we are not left
on this point wholly without information. From the very day of his
birth man begins to be acted on by those causes that furnish his mind
with ideas. As his intelligence acquires strength, the five sluices
which let in all that flood of knowledge which afterwards overflows
his mind, appear to be enlarged, and education at first, and for some
time, consists in watching over the nature and quality of the ideas
conveyed inward by those channels. It is difficult to say when actual
instruction commenced: but among the earliest formal attempts at
impressing traditionary knowledge on the infant mind was the
repetition by mothers and nurses of fables and stories, not always, if
Plato may be credited, constructed with a religious or ethical
purpose.[525] They, in fact, introduced into the minds of their
children the legends of the mythology, under the forms of which truths
of the greatest importance, such as Bacon has developed in his “Wisdom
of the Ancients,” lay sometimes concealed, though more frequently,
perhaps, they inculcated no useful lesson, but were the mere sportive
creations of fancy, or if they contained any moral kernel the shell in
which it was cased was too hard for the teeth of the vulgar. Such, for
example, as the legend of Zeus in Hesiod mutilating his father Kronos,
which, in Plato’s opinion, was not to be delivered to the empty-headed
multitude or to untaught children; but, having sacrificed, not a hog,
but the most precious victim, in mysterious secrecy to a few.
Footnote 524:
Among the ancient writers on education, of which the greater number
have perished, was Clearchos of Soli, on whom see Voss. de Hist.
Græc. i. Athen. xv. 54. Men. in Diog. Laert. p. 4. b.
Footnote 525:
Rep. ii. t. vi. p. 94.—Cf. Adolph. Cramer, 8, 9.
Wholly different from these, however, were the fables[526] properly so
called, which, invented apparently by Hesiod,[527] (at least his Hawk
and Nightingale is the oldest example extant in Hellenic literature,)
were afterwards sprinkled by the greatest poets, through their
writings, or spontaneously uttered in pressing emergencies to warn
their countrymen against the approaches of tyranny. Archilochos’ Eagle
and Fox[528] was famous throughout antiquity, as was likewise the
Horse and the Stag, related by Stesichoros[529] to the people of
Himera, to put them on their guard against the Machiavellian policy of
Gelon. But the most complete, perhaps, of these ancient compositions
is the fable of the lion, delivered by Eumenes to the Macedonian
generals under his order, when they had been tampered with by
Antigonos, who would have persuaded them to disband.[530]
Footnote 526:
Cf. Suid. v. Καὶ τὸ τοῦ λύκου. i. 1427.
Footnote 527:
Opp. et. Dies, 202–212. Quintil. v. 2.
Footnote 528:
Plat. Rep. l. ii. cap. 8. c. p. 117. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 652.
Philostrat. Imag. i. 3.
Footnote 529:
Phot. Bib. 139. b. 8. Hor. Epist. i. 10. Gyraldi, de Poet. Histor.
p. 462. a. sqq. Aristot. Rhet. ii. 20.
Footnote 530:
Diod. Sic. l. xix. c. 25.
“It is said,” observed the Prince, “that once upon a time a lion
falling in love with a young maiden came to make proposals of marriage
to her father. The old man replied that he was quite ready to bestow
on him his daughter upon one condition, namely, that he should pluck
out his teeth and his claws, for that he feared his majesty might upon
the wedding night forget himself and unwittingly destroy the bride. To
these terms the lion consented, and allowed his teeth and claws to be
pulled out, upon which the father seeing he had lost the only things
which rendered him terrible fell upon him with a club and beat him to
death.” The Æsopic fables[531] which Socrates a few days before his
death amused himself by turning into verse,[532] are known to us
solely by comparatively modern imitations, and of those which were
denominated Sybaritic we know nothing[533] beyond the name; for though
one scholiast informs us that the Sybaritic fables brought men upon
the scene, as the Æsopic did animals, another states the direct
contrary. In the earlier and ruder ages of Greece, however, these
compositions were in great repute, as they are still among the people
of the East. To the infancy of nations as of individuals the wisdom
they contain is, in fact, always palatable; for which reason they were
highly esteemed by Martin Luther as particularly adapted to the spirit
of his times.
Footnote 531:
Aristoph. Pac. 128. Vesp. 1392, sqq. et Scholia.
Footnote 532:
Diog. Laert. ii. 5. 22.
Doubtless we know too little of how the foundation of the republican
character was laid in the ancient commonwealths; but it was laid by
woman, and for centuries cannot have been laid amiss, as the glorious
superstructure of virtue and patriotism erected upon it fully
demonstrates. On this point we must reject the testimony of Plato’s
academic dream. The historic fields of Marathon, Platæa, Thermopylæ,
and a thousand others confute his fanciful theorising, proving
incontestably that the love of glory and independence could, in the
very polities which lie least esteemed, achieve triumphs unknown to
the subjects of other governments.
Footnote 533:
Sch. Aristoph. Av. 471. Sch. Vesp. 1251.
At seven years[534] old boys were removed from the harem and sent
under the care of a governor to a public school, which, from the story
of Bedreddin Hassan, we find to have been formerly the practice among
the Arabs, even for the sons of distinguished men and Wezeers. “When
seven years had passed over him his grandfather, (Shemseddeen, Wezeer
of the Sultan of Egypt,) committed him to a schoolmaster, whom he
charged to educate him with great care.”[535]
Footnote 534:
Aristot. Polit. vii. 15.
Footnote 535:
Arabian Nights, i. 286. Lane’s Translation.
Mischievous no doubt the boys of Hellas were, as boys will everywhere
be, and many pranks would they play in spite of the crabbed old slaves
set over them by their parents; on which account, probably, it is that
Plato considers boys, of all wild beasts the most audacious, plotting,
fierce and intractable.[536] But the urchins now found that it was one
thing to nestle under mamma’s wing at home, and another to delve under
the direction of a didaskalos, and at school-hours, after the bitter
roots of knowledge. For the school-boys of Greece tasted very little
of the sweets of bed after dawn. “They rose with the light,” says
Lucian, “and with pure water washed away the remains of sleep, which
still lingered on their eyelids.”[537] Having breakfasted on bread and
fruit, to which through the allurements of their pædagogues they
sometimes added wine,[538] they sallied forth to the didaskaleion, or
schoolmaster’s lair as the comic poets jocularly termed it,[539]
summer and winter, whether the morning smelt of balm, or was deformed
by sleet or snow, drifting like meal from a sieve down the rocks of
the Acropolis.
Footnote 536:
De Legg. vi. t. viii. p. 41. Creuzer. de Civ. Athen. p. 556.
Footnote 537:
Amor. § 44.
Footnote 538:
Athen. xiii. 61. sqq.
Footnote 539:
Poll. iv. 19.
Aristophanes has left us a picture, dashed off with his usual
grotesque vigour, of a troop of Attic lads marching on a winter’s
morning to school.[540]
“Now will I sketch the ancient plan of training,
When justice was in vogue and wisdom flourished.
First, modesty restrained the youthful voice
So that no brawl was heard. In order ranged,
The boys from all the neighbourhood appeared,
Marching to school, naked, though down the sky
Tumbled the flaky snow like flour from sieve.
Arrived, and seated wide apart, the master
First taught them how to chaunt Athena’s praise,
‘Pallas unconquered, stormer of cities!’ or
‘Shout far resounding’ in the self-same notes
Their fathers learned. And if through mere conceit
Some innovation-hunter strained his throat
With scurril lays mincing and quavering,
Like any Siphnian or Chian fop—
As is too much the fashion since that Phrynis[541]
Brought o’er Ionian airs—quickly the scourge
Rained on his shoulders blows like hail as one
Plotting the Muses’ downfal. In the Palæstra
Custom required them decently to sit,
Decent to rise, smoothing the sandy floor
Lest any traces of their form should linger
Unsightly on the dust. When in the bath
Grave was their manner, their behaviour chaste.
At table, too, no stimulating dishes,
Snatched from their elders, such as fish or anis,
Parsley or radishes or thrushes, roused
The slumbering passions.”[542]
Footnote 540:
Cf. Plato, de Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 41. seq.
Footnote 541:
For an account of this musician, see Pollux iv. 66. with the notes
of Kühn and Iungermann, t. iv. p. 709. sqq.
Footnote 542:
Aristoph. Nub. 961. sqq. Cf. Plaut. Bacchid. iii. 3.
The object of sending boys to school was twofold: first to cultivate
and harmonise their minds by arts and literature; secondly, so to
occupy them that no time could be allowed for evil thoughts and
habits. On this account, Aristotle enumerating Archytas’ rattle among
the principal toys of children, denominates education the rattle of
boys.[543] In order, too, that its effect might be the more sure and
permanent, no holidays[544], or vacations appear to have been allowed,
while irregularity or lateness of attendance was severely
punished.[545] The theories broached by Montagne, Locke, and others,
that boys are to be kept in order by reason and persuasion were not
anticipated by the Athenians.[546] They believed that to reduce the
stubborn will to obedience, and enforce the wholesome laws of
discipline, masters must be armed with the power of correction, and
accordingly their teachers and gymnasiarchs checked with stripes[547]
the slightest exhibition of stubbornness or indocility.[548]
Footnote 543:
Polit. viii. 6. 268. Gœttl.
Footnote 544:
Casaub. ap. Theoph. Char. p. 273.
Footnote 545:
Plaut. Bacchid. iii. 3. 22.
Footnote 546:
Plato, indeed, at one time entertained a similar fancy.—De Rep. t.
vi. p. 385. (Cf. Muret. in Aristot. Ethic. 71.) But, afterwards, in
his old age, adopted the general conviction of mankind, that he who
spares the rod spoils the child.—De Legg. t. viii. p. 12. seq.
Varro, however, who wrote much on education, observes, that
“remotissimum ad discendum formido, ac nimius timor, et omnis
perturbatio animi. Contra delectatio pro telo ad discendum.” Victor.
Var. Lect. l. xv. c. 2. Theodoric, the Gothic king of Italy, had
another reason for sparing the rod in education. The child, he said,
who had trembled at a rod would never dare to look upon a
sword.—Gibbon vii. 19. This Gothic prince was not, therefore,
acquainted with the Spartan system of education.
Footnote 547:
Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 959.
Footnote 548:
Cf. Cressoll. Theat. Rhet. v. 6. p. 471. seq.
Nor did their pædagogues[549] or governors behave towards them with
less strictness. These were persons,—slaves for the most part,—who at
Athens as in the rest of Greece, Sparta not excepted, were from the
earliest ages intrusted with the care of boys, and whose ministry
could on no account be dispensed with. By Plato[550] even these
precautions were deemed insufficient. In his ideal state he would have
the pædagogues themselves, as at Sparta, under the strictest
inspection, making it the duty of every citizen to have an eye upon
them, and arming him with the power to correct their delinquencies as
well as those of the boys under their charge. There was to be,
moreover, a general inspector intrusted with authority to punish
neglect, by whichsoever of the parties committed. Upon these points
the views of the Athenians were unquestionably judicious, for since
boys did not amongst them pass at once from the hands of their mothers
and domestic guardianship into those of the state as at Sparta, such
governors were necessary to preserve their manners from defilement and
contamination.[551] Their principal duty consisted in leading the lad
to and from school, in attending him to the theatre, to the public
games, to the forum, and wherever else it was thought fit he should
go.[552] It has been by some conjectured that while the boys continued
under the care of the schoolmaster the governors remained in the
house, or in a building adjoining denominated the pædagogeion, to
await their return; but the inference, drawn chiefly from the name of
the edifice, is erroneous; pædagogeion was employed to signify the
school itself,[553] and we have the testimony of Plato to prove that
the pædagogue having delivered the boy to the didaskalos, usually
returned to his master’s house.
Footnote 549:
On these and the other persons engaged in the education of youth,
see Bergmann, ad Isoc. Areop. § 14.
Footnote 550:
De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 42. See p. 11 of Cramer’s excellent little
pamphlet, which I have frequently found extremely useful.
Footnote 551:
Xenoph. de Rep. Laced. ii. 1. 2.
Footnote 552:
Plat. Lysis. t. i. p. 118. De Legg. iv. t. viii. p. 325. De Rep.
iii. t. vi. p. 128.
Footnote 553:
Poll. iv. 19. Ulp. ad Demosth. de Cor. § 78. Orat. Att. t. x. p.
113. Plat. Lysis. t. i. p. 145.
On the character of these governors[554] antiquity appears to have
transmitted us more satire than information. If we may credit some
writers, it was not merely slaves who were intrusted with the care of
boys, but often the meanest and vilest of slaves,—base in mind,
depraved in manners,—whose guardianship, when they chanced to be
crabbed and morose, could be no other than disgusting to their
charges; and, when inclined to indulgence, most pernicious. Nay, were
they themselves corrupt, what could be of more evil tendency than
their own example? They who take this view of the matter appear to me
illogical and inconsistent.[555] Though aware that these men were
chosen by the parents to preserve their children from bad example,
from the infection of corrupt manners, from the allurements of vicious
companions, these writers persuade themselves that they voluntarily
gave them as companions and guardians men worse than whom could not be
found. It is more reasonable to conclude that when these pædagogues
proved unworthy of the trust reposed in them they were sufficient
masters of hypocrisy to conceal their vices at home, and only revealed
themselves to their young masters gradually as their lessons produced
their evil fruits. Thus, it is clear, that the father whom the comic
writer Plato, in his Fellow Deceiver,[556] introduced reproaching the
pædagogue who had corrupted his son, knew nothing of his evil ways
when he delivered the lad to his keeping.
“The youth, O wretch, whom I intrusted to thee
Thou hast perverted, teaching him vile habits
Once stranger to his mind; for now he drinks
Even in the morning, which was not his wont.”
Footnote 554:
Plut. de Lib. Educ. § 7. The Athenians sought to create a high idea
of this class of persons by annually offering sacrifice to Connidas,
the reputed pædagogue of Theseus.—Plut. Thes. § 4.
Footnote 555:
Cram. de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. p. 12.
With the greatest reason we may suppose, that of all the domestics in
the family the most staid and sober, the most attached, the most
faithful, were chosen to fulfil this important duty, such as Plautus
describes an honest pædagogue,—
Eademque erat hæc disciplina olim, cum tu adolescens eras?
Nego tibi hoc annis viginti fuisse primis copiæ,
Digitum longe a pædagogo pedem ut efferres ædibus,
Ante solem exorientem nisi in palæstram veneras,
Gymnasii præfecto haud mediocres pœnas penderes.
Idque ubi obtigerat, hoc etiam ad malum arcessabatur malum
Et discipulus et magister perhibebantur improbi.
Ubi cursu, luctando, hasta, disco, pugillatu, pila,
Saliendo sese exercebant magis, quam, scorto aut saviis:
Ibi suam ætatem extendebant, non in latebrosis locis.
Inde de hippodromo et palæstra ubi revenisses domum,
Cincticulo præcinctus in sella apud magistrum assideres:
Cum librum legeres. Si unam peccavisses syllabam,
Fieret corium tam maculosum quam est nutricis pallium
* * * * * Id equidem ego certo scio.
Nam olim populi prius honorem capiebat suffragio,
Quam magistri desinebat esse dicto obediens.[557]
Footnote 556:
Athen. xiii. 61. 63.
Footnote 557:
Plaut. Bacchid. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Lucian, too, speaking of the attendants of youths in the better times
of the republic, describes them as an honourable company who followed
their young masters to the schools, not with combs and looking-glasses
like the attendants of ladies, but with the venerable instruments of
wisdom in their hands, many-leaved tablets or books recording the
glorious deeds of their ancestors, or if proceeding to the music
master bearing, instead of these, the melodious lyre.[558]
Footnote 558:
Amor. §. 44.
In fact the fortunes of war often in those days reduced men of virtue
and ability to the condition of slaves, when they would naturally be
chosen as the governors of youth. Thus we find Diogenes the Cynic
purchased by a rich Corinthian, who intrusted to him the education of
his sons. The account which antiquity has left us of his sale,
reception by his master, and manner of teaching, being extremely
brief, we shall here give it entire. Hermippos[559] who wrote a small
treatise called the Sale of Diogenes, observes that when the
philosopher was exposed in the slave-market and interrogated
respecting his qualifications, he replied that “He could command men;”
and then addressing himself to the herald, bade him inquire whether
there was any one present who wanted a master. Being forbidden to sit
down, he said “This matters nothing, for fish are bought in whatever
way they may lie.” He remarked also, that he wondered that when people
were buying a pot or a dish they examined it on all sides, whereas
when they purchased a man they were contented with simply looking at
him. Afterwards, when he had become the slave of Xeniades, he informed
his owner that he expected the same obedience to be paid to him as men
yield to a pilot or a physician.
Footnote 559:
Diog. Laert. Vit. Diog. vi. ii. 4. sqq. with the observation of
Menage, t. ii. p. 138.
It is further related by Eubulos, who likewise wrote a treatise on
this incident, that Diogenes conducted with the utmost care the
education of the children under his charge. In addition to the
ordinary studies, he taught them to ride, to draw the bow, to use the
sling, and to throw the javelin. In the palæstra, moreover, where,
contrary to the Athenian practice he remained to watch over the boys,
Diogenes would not permit the master of the Gymnasium to exercise them
after the manner of the athletæ; but in those parts only of
gymnastics, which had a tendency to animate them and strengthen their
constitutions. They learned also by heart,[560] under his direction,
numerous sentences from the poets and historians, as well as from his
own writings. It was his practice likewise very greatly to abridge his
explanations in order that they might the more easily be committed to
memory. At home he habituated them to wait on themselves, to be
content with frugal fare, and drink water, from which it may be
inferred that others drank wine. He accustomed them to cut their hair
close, not to be fastidious in dress, and to walk abroad with him
barefoot and without a chiton, silent and with downcast eyes.[561] He
also went out with them to hunt. On their part they took great care of
him, and pleaded his cause with their parents. He therefore grew old
in the family, and they performed for him the rites of sepulture.
Footnote 560:
I may say with Herault de Sechelle “Apprendre _par cœur_; ce mot me
plait. Il n’y a guère en effet que le cœur, qui retienne bien, et
qui retienne vîte.”—Voyage à Montbar, &c. p. 77.
Footnote 561:
Cf. Luc. Amor. § 44. Καὶ χλανίδα ταῖς ἐπωμίαις περόναις συῤῥάψας ἀπὸ
τῆς πατρῴας ἑστίας ἐξέρχεται κάτω κεκυφὼς, καὶ μηδένα τῶν ἀπαντών
τῶν ἐξ ἐναντίου προσβλέπων. In his exhortation to Demonicos,
Isocrates has thrown together numerous precepts which almost
constitute a code of morals and politeness. They are far superior to
Lord Chesterfield’s even where the Graces only are recommended; and
have the advantage of almost always subjoining the reason to the
rule.
Now what Diogenes was in the house of Xeniades numerous pædagogues
were doubtless found to be in other parts of Greece. But the majority
it is thought were open to blame; and so they are everywhere, and so
they would be, though taken from the best classes of mankind. That is,
they were men with many failings, far from what could be wished; but
that their character upon the whole was respectable seems to me
demonstrated by the powers delegated to them by the parents. For not
only could they use upon occasion, as we have said, menace and harsh
language,—they were even permitted to have recourse to blows, in order
to preserve their pupils from vices which none would have sooner
taught than they, had their characters been such as is commonly
believed. For example, would they have made a drunkard the guardian of
a boy’s sobriety? a thief the guardian of his honesty? a libertine of
his chastity? a coarse and ribald jester the inculcator of modesty and
purity of language?[562]
Footnote 562:
Cf. Dion. Chrysost. ii. p. 261; i. 299.
At home, of course, the influence and example of the parents surpassed
all other influences, of the mother more especially, who up to their
manhood retained over her sons the greatest authority. Of this a
playful illustration occurs in the Lysis of Plato.[563] Socrates,
interrogating the youth respecting the course of his studies, inquires
archly whether when in the harem he was not as a matter of course
permitted to play with his mother’s wool basket, and loom, and spathe,
and shuttle?
Footnote 563:
Opp. t. i. p. 118. The influence of imitation over the gesture,
voice, and thoughts of youth is forcibly pointed out in the
Republic.—t. vi. p. 124.
“If I touched them,” replied Lysis, laughing, “I should soon feel the
weight of the shuttle upon my fingers.”
“But,” proceeds the philosopher, “if your mother or father require
anything to be read or written for them, they, probably, prefer your
services to those of any other person?”
“No doubt.”
“And in this case, as you have been instructed in reading and
spelling, they allow you to proceed according to your own knowledge.
So likewise, when you play to them on the lyre, they suffer you, as
you please, to relax or tighten the chords, to touch them with the
fingers, or strike them with the plectron,—do they not?”
“Certainly.”
From this it would appear that the authority of the parents was equal;
though generally at Athens, as Plato[564] elsewhere complains, greater
reverence was paid to the commands of the mother even than to those of
the father. Indeed to be wanting in respect to her was there deemed
the _ne plus ultra_ of depravity.[565] The father, however, of
necessity took a considerable share in the instruction and moral
training of his son,[566] who at home profited by his conversation,
and, arrived at the proper age, accompanied him abroad.[567] When
reduced to the state of orphanhood the republic took children under
its own protection, not considering it safe to intrust them to the
sole guidance of masters or pædagogues.
Footnote 564:
Repub. viii. 5. t. ii. p. 182. Stallb.
Footnote 565:
Aristoph. Nub. 1443. Δυοῖν δ᾽ ὀνομάτοιν σεβασμίοιν πᾶσαι τιμαι
μένουσιν, ἐξίσου παρτὶ μητέρα προσκυνούντων.—Luc. Amor. § 19.
Footnote 566:
On the force of example and imitation see Plato, de Rep. t. vi. p.
124.
Footnote 567:
Plat. Lach. t. i. p. 269.—Among the public places to which a father
might take his sons the courts of law were not included, though we
find Demosthenes, when a boy, contriving to introduce himself, where
unseen of the judges he might listen to the eloquence of
Callistratos.—Victor. Var. Lect. l. xxx. c. 20.
Care, too, was taken lest those public schools, established for the
advancement of virtue and morals, should themselves be converted into
nurseries of vice. They were by law[568] forbidden to be opened before
sunrise, and were closed at sunset; nor during the day could any other
men be introduced besides the teachers,[569] though it appears from
some of Plato’s dialogues that this enactment was not very strictly
observed.[570] To prevent habits of brawling, boys were forbidden to
assemble in crowds in the streets on their way to school. Nor were
these laws deemed sufficient; but still further to protect their
morals ten annual magistrates called Sophronistæ, one from each tribe,
were elected by show of hands,[571] whose sole business it was to
watch over the manners of youth. This magistracy, dated as far back as
the age of Solon,[572] and continued in force to the latest time. The
Gymnasiarch, another magistrate,[573] was intrusted with the
superintendence of the Gymnasia, which, like the public games and
festivals, appeared to require peculiar care; and, if we can receive
the testimony of Plautus[574] for the classical ages of the
commonwealth, transgressors received severe chastisement.
Footnote 568:
Æsch. cont. Timarch. § 5, 6.
Footnote 569:
See Theoph. Char. c. 5. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 180.
Footnote 570:
Lysis. t. i. p. 145. Theætet. t. iii. p. 179.
Footnote 571:
Etym. Mag. 742. 38.
Footnote 572:
Cramer de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. p. 13.
Footnote 573:
Vandale Dissert. pp. 584–727.
Footnote 574:
Bacchid. iii. 3.
It has sometimes been imagined that in Greece separate edifices were
not erected as with us expressly for school-houses, but that both the
didaskalos and the philosopher taught their pupils in fields, gardens
or shady groves.[575] But this was not the common practice, though
many schoolmasters appear to have had no other place wherein to
assemble their pupils than the portico of a temple[576] or some
sheltered corner in the street, where in spite of the din of business
and the throng of passengers the worship of learning was publicly
performed. Here, too, the music-masters frequently gave their lessons,
whether in singing or on the lyre, which practice explains the
anecdote of the musician, who, hearing the crowd applaud one of his
scholars, gave him a box on the ear, observing, “Had you played well
these blockheads would not have praised you.” A custom very similar
prevails in the East, where, in recesses open to the street, we often
see the turbaned schoolmaster with a crowd of little Moslems about
him, tracing letters on their large wooden tablets or engaged in
recitations of the Koran.
Footnote 575:
See Coray, Disc. Prelim. sur Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. § 41. t. i. p.
46. seq.
Footnote 576:
In the Antichita di Ercolano (t. iii. p. 213.) we find a
representation of one of these schools during the infliction of
corporal chastisement. Numerous boys are seated on forms reading,
while a delinquent is horsed on the back of another in the true
Etonian style. One of the carnifices holds his legs, while another
applies the birch to his naked back. Occasionally in Greece we find
that free boys were flogged with a leek in lieu of a birch. Sch.
Aristoph. Ran. 622. Schneid. ad Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 10. p.
574.
But these were the schools of the humbler classes. For the children of
the noble and the opulent spacious structures were raised, and
furnished with tables, desks,—for that peculiar species of
grammateion[577] which resembled the plate cupboard, can have been
nothing but a desk,—forms, and whatsoever else their studies required.
Mention is made of a school at Chios[578] which contained one hundred
and twenty boys, all of whom save one were killed by the falling in of
the roof. From another tragical story we learn that in Astypalæa,[579]
one of the Cyclades, there was a school which contained sixty boys.
The incidents connected with their death are narrated in the romantic
style of the ancients. Cleomedes, a native of this island, having in
boxing slain Iccos the Epidaurian, was accused of unfairness and
refused the prize, upon which he became mad and returned to his own
country. There, entering into the public school, he approached the
pillar that supported the roof, and like another Sampson seized it in
an access of frenzy, and wresting it from its basis brought down the
whole building upon the children. He himself however escaped, but,
being pursued with stones by the inhabitants, took sanctuary in the
temple of Athena, where he concealed himself in the sacred chest. The
people paying no respect to the holy place still pursued him and
attempted to force open the lid, which he held down with gigantic
strength. At length when the coffer was broken in pieces Cleomedes was
nowhere to be found, dead or alive. Terrified at this prodigy they
sent to consult the oracle of Delphi, by which they were commanded to
pay divine honours to the athlete as the last of the heroes.[580]
Footnote 577:
Poll. iv. 18, 19. x. 57. seq.
Footnote 578:
Herod. vi. 27.
Footnote 579:
Called the Table of the Gods, from its beauty and amenity.—Steph. de
Urb. in v. p. 189. b.
Footnote 580:
Paus. vi. 9. 6. seq. Plut. Rom. § 28.
In the interior of the school there was commonly an oratory[581]
adorned with statues of the Muses, where, probably in a kind of font,
was kept a supply of pure water for the boys. Pretending often, when
they were not, to be thirsty, they would steal in knots to this
oratory, and there amuse themselves by splashing the water over each
other; on which account the legislator ordained that strict watch
should be kept over it. Every morning the forms were spunged,[582] the
schoolroom was cleanly swept, the ink ground ready for use, and all
things were put in order for the business of the day.
Footnote 581:
Sch. Æsch. cont. Tim. in Orator. Att. t. xii. p. 376 a.
Footnote 582:
Dem. de Cor. § 78. seq.
The apparatus[583] of an ancient school was somewhat complicated:
there were mathematical instruments, globes, maps, and charts of the
heavens, together with boards whereon to trace geometrical figures,
tablets, large and small, of box-wood, fir, or ivory[584] triangular
in form, some folding with two, and others with many leaves; books too
and paper, skins of parchment, wax for covering the tablets, which, if
we may believe Aristophanes,[585] people sometimes ate when they were
hungry.[586]
Footnote 583:
Pollux, iv. 19. Cf. Herod. vii. 239. ii. 21. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp.
529.
Footnote 584:
Poll. i. 234. Lucian. Ner. § 9. Amor. § 44. Antich. di Ercol. t. ii.
p. 55. t. iii. p. 237.
Footnote 585:
Poll. x. 58, 59.
Footnote 586:
On this subject Isidorus Hispal. vi. 9. has a curious passage: “Ceræ
literarum materies, parvulorum nutrices. Ipsæ dant ingenium pueris
primordia sensus, quarum studium primi Græci tradidisse produntur.
Græci enim et Thusci primum ferro in ceris scripserunt. Postea
Romani jusserunt, ne graphium ferreum quis haberet. Undè et apud
scribas dicebatur, Ceram ferro ne lædito. Postea institutum est, ut
in cerâ ossibus scriberent, sicut indicat Alsa in Satyrâ dicens:
Vertamus vomerem in ceram, mucroneque aremus osseo.” Cf. Pfeiffer,
Antiq. Græc. p. 413.
To the above were added rulers, reed-pens,[587] pen-cases, pen-knives,
pencils, and last, though not least, the rod which kept them to the
steady use of all these things.
Footnote 587:
It was as the instrument of literature that the reed subdued half
the world, though Pliny only celebrates its conquest as an arrow.
“Ac si quis Æthiopas, Ægyptum, Arabas, Indos, Scythas, Bactros,
Sarmatarum tot gentes et Orientis, omniaque Parthorum regna
diligentiùs computet, æqua fermè pars hominum in toto mundo calamis
superata degit.”—Hist. Nat. xvi. 65.
At Athens these schools were not provided by the state. They were
private speculations, and each master was regulated in his charges by
the reputation he had acquired and the fortunes of his pupils. Some
appear to have been extremely moderate in their demands.[588]
Footnote 588:
Which was the case even among the sophists, as we find Proclos
granting a perpetual admission to his lectures for a hundred
drachmæ.—Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 21. § 3. This he was the better
enabled to do from his carrying on the business of a merchant.—§ 2.
Professors’ charges appear to have been often disputed, as we find
mention, in many authors, of law-suits between them and their
pupils.—Lucian. Icaromenip. § 16. “The wages of industry are just
and honourable, yet Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a
stipend.”—Gibbon, vii. 146.
There was for example a school-master named Hippomachos, upon entering
whose establishment boys were required to pay down a mina, after which
they might remain as long and benefit by his instructions as much as
they pleased. Didaskaloi were not however held in sufficient respect,
though as their scholars were sometimes very numerous,[589] as many
for example as a hundred and twenty, it must often have happened that
they became wealthy. From the life of Homer, attributed to
Herodotus,[590] we glean some few particulars respecting the condition
of a schoolmaster in remoter ages.
Footnote 589:
Athen. xiii. 47.
Footnote 590:
Vit. Hom. §§ 5. seq. 25. seq.
Phemios it is there related kept a school at Smyrna, where he taught
boys their letters and all those other parts of education then
comprehended under the term music. His slave Chritheis, the mother of
the poet, spun and wove the wool which Phemios received in payment
from his scholars. She likewise introduced into his house great
elegance and frugality, which so pleased the school-master that it
induced him to marry her. Under this man, according to the tradition
received in Greece, Homer studied, and made so great a proficiency in
knowledge that he was soon enabled to commence instructor himself. He
therefore proceeded to Chios,[591] and opened a school where he
initiated the youth in the beauties of epic poetry, and, performing
his duties with great wisdom, obtained many admirers among the Chians,
became wealthy, and took a wife, by whom he had two sons.
Footnote 591:
Speaking of the antiquities of this island Chandler remarks: “The
most curious remain is that which has been named, without reason,
_The School of Homer_. It is on the coast at some distance from the
city, northward, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele,
formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is
the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She is
represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each
side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim or seat, and
about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is
rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity.” i. 61.
The earliest task to be performed at school was to gain a knowledge of
the Greek characters, large and small, to spell next, next to read.
Herodes the Sophist experienced much vexation from the stupidity
exhibited in achieving this enterprise by his son Atticus, whose
memory was so sluggish that he could not even recollect the
Christ-cross-row. To overcome this extraordinary dulness he educated
along with him twenty-four little slaves of his own age, upon whom he
bestowed the names of the letters, so that young Atticus might be
compelled to learn his alphabet as he played with his companions, now
calling out for Omicron now for Psi.[592] In teaching the art of
writing their practice nearly resembled our own; the master traced
with what we must call a pencil (γραφὶς), a number of characters on a
tablet, and the pupil following with the pen the guidance of the faint
lines[593] before him, accustomed his fingers to perform the requisite
movements with adroitness.[594] These things were necessarily the
first step in the first class of studies, which were denominated
_music_,[595] and comprehended everything connected with the
developement of the mind; and they were carried to a certain extent
before the second division called gymnastics was commenced. They
reversed the plan commonly adopted among ourselves, for with them
poetry[596] preceded prose, a practice which coöperating with their
susceptible temperament, impressed upon the national mind that
imaginative character for which it was preëminently distinguished. And
the poets in whose works they were first initiated were of all the
most poetical, the authors of lyrical and dithyrambic pieces,
selections from whose verses they committed to memory, thus acquiring
early a rich store of sentences and imagery ready to be adduced in
argument or illustration, to furnish familiar allusions or to be woven
into the texture of their style.[597]
Footnote 592:
Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 10.
Footnote 593:
Quint. i. 1. Poll. vii. 128. Aristoph. Thesm. 778.
Footnote 594:
Plat. Protag. t. i. p. 181.
Footnote 595:
See Plat. de Rep. ii. t. vi. p. 93. seq. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 188.
seq.
Footnote 596:
In the Homeric age men, we are told, received their mental
instruction from the bards, and their physical at the
gymnasium.—Athen. i. 16.
Footnote 597:
Cf. Plat. de Rep. t. i. p. 149. Stallb.
Considerable difference however existed in the practice of different
teachers. Some imagining that by the variety of their acquirements
they would be rendered eloquent, recommended the indiscriminate study
of the poets,[598] whether they wrote in hexameter, in trimeter, or
any other kind of verse, on ludicrous or on serious subjects. Certain
poets there were who like Fenelon and the pretended Ossian, wrote
their works in prose,[599] respecting the use of whose compositions
Plato was in some doubt.
Footnote 598:
Cf. Plato de Legg. t. viii. p. 44. sqq. On the style of declamation
used in the Greek and Roman schools, see Schömann, de Comit. p. 187.
Footnote 599:
There were likewise poems written in the language of the common
people.—Athen. xiv. 43.
By other philosophers wandering unrestrained over the vast fields of
literature was condemned. They desired to separate the gold from the
dross, contending that persons accustomed from their infancy to the
loftier and purer inspirations of the muse will regard with contempt
every thing mean or illiberal, whereas they who have learned to
delight in low and vulgar compositions will consider all other
literature tame and insipid. For so great is the force of imitation,
that habits commenced from the earliest years pass into the manners
and character of a man, affecting even his voice and corporeal
developement, nay, modifying the very nature of the thoughts
themselves.
Among the other branches of knowledge[600] most necessary to be
studied, and to which they applied themselves nearly from the outset,
was arithmetic, without some inkling of which, a man, in Plato’s
opinion, could scarcely be a citizen at all. For, as he observes,
there is no art or science which does not stand in some need of it,
especially the art of war, where many combinations depend entirely on
numbers. And yet Agamemnon in some of the old tragic poets was
represented by Palamedes as wholly ignorant of calculation, so that
possibly, as Socrates jocularly observes, he could not reckon his own
feet.[601] The importance attached to this branch of education,
nowhere more apparent than in the dialogues of Plato, furnishes one
proof that the Athenians were preëminently men of business, who in all
their admiration for the good and beautiful never lost sight of those
things which promote the comfort of life, and enable a man effectually
to perform his ordinary duties. With the same views were geometry and
astronomy pursued. For, in the Republic, Glaucon,[602] who may be
supposed to represent the popular opinion, confesses at once, upon the
mention of geometry, that as it is applicable to the business of war
it would be most useful. He could discover the superiority of the
geometrician[603] over the ignorant man in pitching a camp, in the
taking of places, in contracting or expanding the ranks of an army,
and all those other military movements practised in battles, marches
or sieges. To Plato however this was its least recommendation. He
conceived that in the search after goodness and truth the study of
this science was especially beneficial to the mind, both because it
deals in positive verities, and thus begets a love of them, and
likewise superinduces the habit of seeking them through lengthened
investigation and of being satisfied with nothing less.
Footnote 600:
Cf. Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 62. where he describes the Egyptian
method of teaching arithmetic by rewards and allurements. Locke,
however, condemned the practice. “He that will give to his son
apples or sugar-plums, or what else of this kind he is most
delighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorise his
love of pleasure, and cocker up that dangerous propensity, which he
ought by all means to subdue and stifle in him.” Education § 52.
Vid. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 340. seq. Muret. Orat. iv. 43. Sir
Josiah Child has some good remarks on the value of arithmetic as a
branch of education: “It hath been observed in the nature of
arithmetic, that, like other parts of the mathematics, it doth not
only improve the natural faculties, but it inclines those that are
expert in it to thriftiness and good husbandry, and prevents both
husbands and wives in some measure from running out of their
estates, when they have it always ready in their heads what their
expenses do amount to, and how soon by that course their ruin must
overtake them.”—Discourse of Trade, p. 5.
Footnote 601:
Plat. de Rep. vii. t. vi. p. 340. sqq.
Footnote 602:
Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 349. seq. De Legg. t. viii. p. 371. Sch.
Aristoph. Nub. 180. Cf. Cicero de Orat. iii. 32. t. ii. 319. ed.
Lallemand.
Footnote 603:
See in Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 181. an anecdote of Thales cutting a new
channel for the river Halys.
In the study of astronomy[604] itself a coarse and obvious utility was
almost of necessity the first thing aimed at, and even in the age of
Socrates, when philosophical wants were keenly felt in addition to
those of the animal and civil life, there were evidently teachers who
considered it necessary to justify such pursuits, by showing their
bearing on the system of loss and profit. For when Socrates comes in
his ideal scheme of education to touch on this science, Glaucon, the
practical man, at once recognises its usefulness, not only in
husbandry and navigation, but in affairs military. Nor are such fruits
of it to be despised. But philosophy proposes a higher aim, insisting,
in opposition to popular belief, that by means of such pursuits the
soul may be purified, and its powers of discovering truth, overlaid
and nearly extinguished by other studies, rekindled and fanned into
activity like a flame.
Footnote 604:
Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 357. seq.; de Legg. t. viii. p. 370. Sch.
Aristoph. Nub. 860. 208.
The importance of music,[605] in the education of the Greeks, is
generally understood. It was employed to effect several purposes.
First, to soothe and mollify the fierceness of the national character,
and prepare the way for the lessons of the poets, which, delivered
amid the sounding of melodious strings, when the soul was rapt and
elevated by harmony, by the excitement of numbers, by the magic of the
sweetest associations, took a firm hold upon the mind, and generally
retained it during life. Secondly, it enabled the citizens gracefully
to perform their part in the amusements of social life, every person
being in his turn called upon at entertainments to sing or play upon
the lyre. Thirdly, it was necessary to enable them to join in the
sacred choruses, rendered frequent by the piety of the state, and for
the due performance in old age of many offices of religion, the
sacerdotal character belonging more or less to all the citizens of
Athens. Fourthly, as much of the learning of a Greek was martial and
designed to fit him for defending his country, he required some
knowledge of music that on the field of battle his voice might
harmoniously mingle with those of his countrymen, in chaunting those
stirring, impetuous, and terrible melodies, called pæans, which
preceded the first shock of fight.
Footnote 605:
Vid. Ilgen. de Scol. Poes. xiv.—“Post Persica demum bella musicæ
assidue operatos Græcos dicit. Et præmia diebus festis nonnullis
constituta iis pueris adolescentibusque, qui lyrica carmina Solonis
aliorumque optime cecinissent.”—Creuzer. de Civ. Athen. Omn. Hum.
Par. p. 55. seq.
For some, or all of these reasons, the science of music began to be
cultivated among the Hellenes, at a period almost beyond the reach
even of tradition. The Bards, whom we behold wandering on the remotest
edge of the fabulous horizon, have invariably harps or lyres in their
hands; and the greatest of the heroes of poetry, the very acme of Epic
excellence, is represented delighting in the performance of music, and
chaunting on the shores of the Hellespont the deeds of former
warriors. In those ages the music of the whole nation possessed
evidently a grave and lofty character; but as that of the Ionians
became afterwards modified by the influence of a softer climate and
imitation of the Asiatic, while the Dorian measure remained nearly
unchanged, the latter is supposed to have possessed originally the
superiority over the former, which in reality it did not. In process
of time, however, the existence of three distinct measures was
recognised, the Dorian, the Æolian, and the Ionian: the first was
grave, masculine, full of energy, and though somewhat monotonous
peculiarly adapted to inspire martial ardour; the last distinguished
by a totally different character, rich, varied, flexible, breathing
softness and pleasure, adorning the hour of peace and murmuring
plaintively through the groves and temples of Aphrodite, Apollo, and
the Muses; while the second, which was fiery, with a mixture of
gaiety, formed the intermediate step between the two measures,
partaking something of the character of each. The Hypermixolydian and
Hyperphrygian, at one time cultivated among the Ionians, were
comparatively recent inventions.[606]
Footnote 606:
Athen. xiv. 20. sqq. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 984. Clem. Alex. i. 3.
5.
The Phrygian measure distinguished for its exciting and enthusiastic
character,[607] was much employed upon the stage, on which account
Agias the poet used to say that the styrax burned on the altar in the
orchestra had a Phrygian smell, because its odours recalled the wild
Phrygian measures there heard. The national instrument of the
Phrygians was the flute, and it is worthy of remark that up to a very
late period flute-players at Athens were usually distinguished by
Phrygian names. Olympos the greatest musician known to the Greeks, was
probably himself a native of Phrygia, since he is said to have been a
pupil of Marsyas. In fact the barbarians of antiquity appear, though
in a somewhat different way, to have made as much use of music as the
Greeks themselves. They chaunted the songs of their bards in going to
battle, sang funeral dirges at tombs, and even caused their
ambassadors when proceeding on a mission to foreign states to be
accompanied by music.[608] No people, however, appear to have carried
their love for music to so preposterous a length as the Tyrrhenians,
who caused their slaves to be flogged to the sound of the flute.
Footnote 607:
Luc. Nigrin. § 37.
Footnote 608:
Athen. xiv. 24.
The music of the flute[609] was supposed to be peculiarly delightful
to the gods, so that those who died while its sounds were on their
ears were permitted to taste of the gifts of Aphrodite in Hades, as
Philetæros expresses it in his Flute-lover:
“O Zeus! how glorious ’tis to die while piercing flutes are near
Pouring their stirring melodies into the faltering ear;
On these alone doth Eros smile within those realms of night,
Where vulgar ghosts in shivering bands, all strangers to delight,
In leaky tub from Styx’s flood the icy waters bear,
Condemned, for woman’s lovely voice, its moaning sounds to hear.”
Footnote 609:
On the effect of music on the mind, see Magius, Var. Lect. p. 204 b.
The teachers of music were divided into two classes: the Citharistæ,
who simply played on the instrument, and the Citharœdi who accompanied
themselves on the cithara with a song.[610] Of these the humble and
poorer taught, as we have already observed, in the corners of the
streets, while the abler and more fortunate opened schools of music or
gave their lessons in the private dwellings of the great. The Cithara,
however, was not anciently in use at Athens, if we may credit the
tradition which attributes to Phrynis its introduction from
Ionia.[611]
Footnote 610:
Kühn ad Poll. iv. p. 711. Cf. Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 49.
Footnote 611:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 958; Vesp. 574.
Damon the great Athenian musician[612] used to observe, that wherever
the mind is susceptible of powerful emotions there will be the song
and the dance, and that wherever men are free and honourable their
amusements will be liberal and decorous, where men are otherwise the
contrary. A very judicious remark was likewise made by Caphesias the
flute-player. Observing one of his pupils striving to produce loud
sounds, he stamped on the ground and said,—"Boy, that is not always
good which is great; but that is great which is good."[613]
Footnote 612:
Cf. Plat. Repub. t. vi. p. 133.
Footnote 613:
Athen. xiv. 26.
The power of music in assuaging passion and anger is well illustrated
by an anecdote of Cleinias the Pythagorean philosopher, a man
distinguished for his virtue and gentleness. If at any time he felt
himself moved to wrath, taking up his lyre he would touch the chords
and chaunt thereto some ode, and if any questioned why he did so, he
would reply, “I am in search of serenity.”[614]
Footnote 614:
Πραΰνομοι. Cham. Pont. ap. Athen. xiv. 18.
Like the Hebrews, also, the people of Hellas attributed to music still
more marvellous virtues,[615] conceiving it to be able to cure
diseases both of the mind and body. Thus the sounds of the flute were
supposed to remove epilepsy, and sciatica, and faintness, and fear,
and paroxysms of long-established madness,[616] which will probably
remind the reader of David playing before Saul, when his mind was
troubled.
Footnote 615:
Thus demons were expelled by the sound of brass bells.—Magius, Var.
Lect. p. 205. b.
Footnote 616:
Athen. xiv. 18. Apollon. ap. Schweigh. Animad. xii. p. 399. on the
story, and bronze votive offerings on the Tænarian promontory of the
musician Arion.—Herod. i. 23. seq. Dion. Chrysost. Orat. xxxvii. p.
455. Pausan. i. 24. Ælian. de Nat. Animal. xii. 45.
In the later ages of the commonwealth drawing likewise, and the
elements of art entered into the list of studies pursued by youths,
partly with the view of diffusing a correct taste, and the ability to
appreciate and enjoy the noble productions of the pencil and chisel,
and partly, perhaps, from the mere love of novelty, and the desire
which man always feels to enlarge the circle of his acquirements.
Aristotle,[617] indeed, suggests a much humbler motive, observing that
a knowledge of drawing would enable men to appreciate more accurately
the productions of the useful arts; but this perhaps was said more in
deference to that spirit of utilitarianism then beginning to show
itself than from any conviction of its soundness.
Footnote 617:
Polit. viii. 3.