Chapter 31

214Plato, Legg. vi. pp. 778-779.

Mode of life prescribed to new-married couples They are to take the best care about good procreation for the city.

Plato next proceeds to regulate the mode of life proper for all his new-married couples. He proclaims broadly that large interference with private and individual life is unavoidable; and that no great public reform can be accomplished without it.215He points out that thisprinciple was nowhere sufficiently admitted: not even at Sparta, where it was carried farther than anywhere else. Even the Spartans and Kretans adopted the public mess-table only for males, and not for females.216In Plato’s view, it is essential for both. He would greatly prefer (as announced already in his Republic) that it should be one and the same for both — males and females taking their meals together.

215Plato, Legg. vi. p. 780 A, vii. p. 790 A.

216Plato. Legg. vi. p. 781 A.

Board of superintending matrons.

The newly-married couples are enjoined to bestow their best attention upon the production of handsome and well-constituted children: this being their primary duty to the city for ten years after their marriage. Their conduct will be watched by a Board of Matrons, chosen for the purpose by the Nomophylakes, and assembling every day in the temple of Eileithuia. In case of any dispute, or unfaithful or unseemly conduct, these Matrons will visit them to admonish or threaten, if they see reason. Should such interference fail of effect, the Matrons will apprise the Nomophylakes, who will on their parts admonish and censure, and will at last denounce the delinquents, if still refractory, to the public authority. The delinquents will then be disgraced, and debarred from the public ceremonies, unless they can clear themselves by indicting and convicting their accusers before the public tribunal.217

217Plato, Legg. vi. p. 784.

Age fixed for marriage. During the first ten years the couple are under obligation to procreate for the city — Restrictions during these ten years.

The age of marriage is fixed at from thirty to thirty-five for males, from sixteen to twenty for females. The first ten years after marriage are considered as appropriated to the production of childrenfor the city, and are subject to the strict supervision above mentioned. If any couple have no offspring for ten years, the marriage shall be dissolved by authority. After ten years the supervision is suspended, and the couple are left to themselves. If either of them shall commit an infidelity with another person still under the decennial restriction, the party so offending is liable to the same penalty as if he were still himself also under it.218But if the person with whom infidelity is committed be not under that restriction, no penalty will be incurred beyond a certain generaldiscredit, as compared with others whose conduct is blameless, and who will receive greater honour. However, Plato advises that nothing shall be said in the law respecting the conduct of married couples after the period of decennial restriction has elapsed, unless there be some grave scandal to call attention to the subject.219

218Plato, Legg. vi. pp. 784-785.

219Plato, Legg. vi. p. 785 A. καὶ μετριαζόντων μὲν περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν πλειόνων ἀνομοθέτητα σιγῇ κείσθω, ἀκοσμούντων δὲ νομοθετηθέντα ταύτῃ πραττέσθω, &c.

How infants are to be brought up — Nurses — Perpetual regulated movements — useful for toning down violent emotions.

Plato now proceeds to treat about the children just born. The principle of separate family being admitted in the Treatise De Legibus, he refrains from promulgating any peremptory laws on this subject, because it is impossible for the lawgiver or the magistrate to enter into each private house, and to enforce obedience on such minute and numerous details: while it would be discreditable for him to command what he could not enforce, and it would moreover accustom citizens to disobey the law with impunity. Still, however, Plato220thinks it useful to deliver some general advice, which he hopes that fathers and mothers will spontaneously follow. He begins with the infant as soon as born, and even before birth. The mother during pregnancy is admonished to take regular exercise; the infant when born must be carried about constantly in the nurse’s arms. The invigorating effects of such gestation are illustrated by the practice of Athenian cock-fighters, who cause the cocks while under training to be carried about under the arms of attendants in long walks.221Besides that the nurses (slaves) must be strong women, there must also be more than one to each infant, in order that he may be sufficiently carried about. He must be kept in swaddling-clothes for the first two years, and must not be allowed to walk until he is three years of age.222The perpetual movement and dandling, in the arms of the nurse, produces a good effect not only on the health and bodily force of the infant, but also upon his emotions.223The infant ought to bekept (if it were possible) in movement as constant and unceasing as if he were on shipboard. Nurses know this by experience, when they lull to sleep an insomnious child, not by holding him still, but by swinging him about in their arms, and by singing a ditty. So likewise the insane and furious emotions inspired by Dionysus (also by Zeus, by the mother of the Gods, &c.) are appeased by the regulated movement, dance and music, solemnly performed at the ceremonial worship of the God who excited the emotions. These are different varieties of fear and perturbation: they are morbid internal movements, which we overpower and heal by muscular and rhythmical movements impressed from without, with appropriate music and religious solemnities.224

220Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 788-790 A.

221Plato, Legg. vii. p. 789.

222Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 789 E, 790 A.

223Plato, Legg. vii. p. 790 C-D. λάβωμεν τοίνυν τοῦτο οἷον στοιχεῖον ἐπ’ ἀμφότερα σώματός τε καὶ ψυχῆς τῶν πάνυ νέων, τὴν τιθήνησιν καὶ κίνησιν, γιγνομένην ὅτι μάλιστα διὰ πάσης νυκτός τε καὶ ἡμέρας, ὡς ἔστι ξύμφορος ἅπασι μέν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ τοῖς ὅ, τι νεωτάτοισι, καὶ οἰκεῖν, εἰ δυνατὸν ἦν, οἷον ἀεὶ πλέοντας· νῦν δ’ ὡς ἐγγύτατα τούτου ποιεῖν δεῖ περὶ τὰ νεογενῆ παίδων θρέμματα.

224Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 790 E-791 A. δειμαίνειν ἐστί που ταῦτ’ ἀμφότερα τὰ πάθη, καὶ ἔστι δείματα δι’ ἕξιν φαύλην τῆς ψυχῆς τινά. ὅταν οὖν ἔξωθέν τις προσφέρη τοῖς τοιούτοις πάθεσι σεισμόν, ἡ τῶν ἔξωθεν κρατεῖ κίνησις προσφερομένη τὴν ἐντὸς φοβερὰν οὖσαν καὶ μανικὴν κίνησιν, κρατήσασα δὲ γαλήνην ἡσυχίαν τῆς περὶ τὰ τῆς καρδίας χαλεπῆς γενομένης ἑκάστων πηδήσεως.About the effect of the movement, bustle, noise, and solemn exhibitions, &c., of a Grecian festival, in appeasing the over-wrought internal excitement of those who took part in it, see Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 689.Compare Euripid. Hippolyt. 141, where the Chorus addresses the love-sick Phædra:—σὺ τἄρ’ ἔνθεος, ὦ κούρα,εἴτ’ ἐκ Πανὸς εἴθ’ Ἑκάτας,ἢ σεμνῶν Κορυβάντων,ἢ ματρὸς ὀρείας φοιτᾷς.Also Eurip. Medea, 1172 about Πανὸς ὀργάς.

About the effect of the movement, bustle, noise, and solemn exhibitions, &c., of a Grecian festival, in appeasing the over-wrought internal excitement of those who took part in it, see Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 689.

Compare Euripid. Hippolyt. 141, where the Chorus addresses the love-sick Phædra:—

σὺ τἄρ’ ἔνθεος, ὦ κούρα,εἴτ’ ἐκ Πανὸς εἴθ’ Ἑκάτας,ἢ σεμνῶν Κορυβάντων,ἢ ματρὸς ὀρείας φοιτᾷς.

Also Eurip. Medea, 1172 about Πανὸς ὀργάς.

To guard the child, during the first three years of his life, against disturbing fears, or at least to teach him to conquer them when they may spring up, is to lay the best foundation of a fearless character for the future.225By extreme indulgence he would be rendered wayward: by extreme harshness his spirit would be broken.226A middle course ought to be pursued, guarding him against pains as far as may be, yet at the same time keeping pleasures out of his reach, especially the stronger pleasures: thus shall we form in him a gentle and propitious disposition, such as that which we ascribe to the Gods.227

225Plato, Legg. vii. p. 791 C.

226Plato, Legg. vii. p. 791 D.

227Plato, Legg. vii. p. 792 C-D.

Choric and orchestic movements, their effect in discharging strong emotions.

The comparison made here by Plato between the effect produced by these various religious ceremonies upon the mind of the votary, and that produced by the dandling of the nurse upon the perturbed child in her arms, is remarkable. In both, the evil is the same — unfounded and irrational fear — an emotional disturbance within: in both, the remedy is the same — regulated muscular movementand excitement from without: more gentle in the case of the infant, more violent in the case of the adult. Emotion is a complex fact, physical as well as mental; and the physical aspect and basis of it (known to Aristotle228as well as to Plato) is here brought to view. To speak the language of modern science (with which their views here harmonise, in spite of their imperfect acquaintance with human anatomy), if the energies of the nervous system are overwrought within, they may be diverted into a new channel by bodily movements at once strenuous and measured, and may thus be discharged in a way tranquillising to the emotions. This is Plato’s theory about the healing effects of the choric and orchestic religious ceremonies of his day. The God was believed first to produce the distressing excitement within — then to suggest and enjoin (even to share in) the ceremonial movements for the purpose of relieving it. The votary is brought back from the condition of comparative madness to that of sober reason.229Strong emotion of any kind is, in Plato’s view, a state of distemper. The observances here prescribed respecting wise regulation of the emotions, especially in young children, are considered by Plato as not being laws in the proper and positive sense, but as the unwritten customs, habits, rules, discipline, &c., upon which all positive laws repose and depend. Though they appear to go into excessive and petty details, yet unless they be well understood and efficaciously realised, the laws enacted will fail to attain their purpose.230

228Aristot. De Animâ, i. 1.

229Plato, Legg. vii. p. 791 B. κατειργάσατο ἀντὶ μανικῶν ἡμῖν διαθέσεων ἕξεις ἔμφρονας ἔχειν.Servius observes (Not. ad Virgil. Bucol. v. 73):— “Sane, ut in religionibus saltaretur, hæc ratio est, quod nullam majores nostri partem corporis esse voluerunt, quæ non sentiret religionem. Nam cantus ad animam, saltatio ad mobilitatem pertinet corporis.”

229Plato, Legg. vii. p. 791 B. κατειργάσατο ἀντὶ μανικῶν ἡμῖν διαθέσεων ἕξεις ἔμφρονας ἔχειν.

Servius observes (Not. ad Virgil. Bucol. v. 73):— “Sane, ut in religionibus saltaretur, hæc ratio est, quod nullam majores nostri partem corporis esse voluerunt, quæ non sentiret religionem. Nam cantus ad animam, saltatio ad mobilitatem pertinet corporis.”

230Plato, Legg. vii. p. 793 C-D.

Training of boys and girls.

Pursuant to this view of the essential dependence oflegesuponmores, Plato continues his directions about the training of children. From the age of three to six, the child must be supplied with amusements, under a gentle but sufficient controul. The children of both sexes will meet daily at the various temples near at hand, with discreet matrons to preside over them, and will find amusement for each other. At six years of age the boys and girls will be separated, and will be consigned to different male and female tutors. The boys shalllearn riding, military exercise, and the use of the various weapons of war. The girls shall learn these very same things also, if it be possible. Plato is most anxious that they should learn, but he fears that the feelings of the community will not tolerate the practice.231All the teaching will be conducted under the superintendence of teachers, female as well as male: competent individuals, of both sexes, being appointed to the functions of command without distinction.232The children will be taught to use their left hands as effectively as their right.233Wrestling shall be taught up to a certain point, to improve the strength and flexibility of the limbs; but elaborate wrestling and pugilism is disapproved. Imitative dancing, choric movements, and procession, shall also be taught, but always in arms, to familiarise the youth with military details.234

231Plato, Legg. vii. p. 794 B-D.

232Plato, Legg. vii. p. 795 D. ἀρχούσαις τε καὶ ἄρχουσι. Also p. 806 E.

233Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 794-795, 804 D.

234Plato, Legg. vii. p. 796 C-D.

Musical and literary teaching for youth — Poetry, songs, music, dances, must all be fixed by authority, and never changed — Mischief done by poets aiming to please.

Plato now enters upon the musical and literary teaching proper for the youthful portion of his community. Poetry, music, and dancing, as connected with the service and propitiation of the Gods, are in the first instance recreative and amusing; but they also involve serious consequences.235It is most important to the community that these exercises should not only be well arranged, but that when arranged they should be fixed by authority, so as to prevent all innovations or deviations by individual taste. Plato here repeats, with emphasis, his commendation of the Egyptian practice to consecrate all the songs, dances, and festive ceremonies, and to tolerate no others whatever.236Change is in itself a most serious evil, and change in one department provokes an appetite for change in all. Plato forbids all innovation, even in matters of detail, such as the shape of vessels or articles of furniture.237He allows no poet to circulate any ode except such as is in full harmony with the declaration of the lawgiver respecting good and evil. All the old poems must be sifted and weeded. All new hymns and prayers to the Gods, even before they are shown to a single individual, must beexamined by Censors above fifty years of age, in order that it may be seen whether the poet knows what he ought to praise or blame, and what he ought to pray for. In general, the poets do not know what is good and what is evil. By mistaken prayers — especially for wealth, which the lawgiver discountenances as prejudicial — they may bring down great mischief upon the city.238Different songs must be composed for the two sexes: songs of a bold and martial character for males — of a sober and quiet character for females.239But the poet must on no account cultivate “the sweet Muse,” or make it his direct aim to produce emotions delightful to the audience. The sound and useful music will always in the end become agreeable, provided the pupils hear it from their earliest childhood, and hear nothing else.240Plato censures the tragic representations exhibited in the Grecian cities (at Athens, more than anywhere else) as being unseemly, and even impious, because, close to the altar where sacrifice was offered to the Gods, choric and dramatic performances of the most touching and pathetic character were exhibited. The poet who gained the prize was he who touched most deeply the tender emotions of the audience, and caused the greatest flow of tears among them. Now, in the opinion of Plato, the exhibition of so much human misery, and the communication of so much sorrowful sympathy, was most unsuitable to the festival day, and offensive to the Gods. It was tolerable only on the inauspicious days of the year, and when exhibited by hired Karian mourners, such as those who wailed loudly at funerals. The music at the festivals ought to have no emotional character, except that of gentle, kindly, auspicious cheerfulness.241

235Plato, Legg. vii. p. 803 C-E.

236Plato, Legg. vii. p. 799.

237Plato, Legg. vii. p. 797.

238Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 800 A, 801 B, 802 B.

239Plato, Legg. vii. p. 802 D-E.

240Plato, Legg. vii. p. 802 C. καὶ μὴ παρατιθεμένης τῆς γλυκείας Μούσης.

241Plato, Legg. vii. p. 800 B-E. 801 A: εὐφημία, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸ τῆς ᾠδῆς γένος εὔφημον ἡμῖν πάντῃ πάντως ὑπαρχέτω.This is a remarkable declaration of Plato, condemning the tragic representations at Athens. Compare Gorgias, p. 501; Republic, x. p. 605; also about the effect on the spectators, Ion, p. 535 E.The idea of εὐφημία is more negative than positive; it is often shown by silence. The δυσφήμιαι (Soph. Phil. 10), or βλασφημία, as Plato calls it, are the positive act or ill-omened manifestation. Plato, Phædon, p. 117: ἐν εὐφημίᾳ χρὴ τελευτᾷν.

241Plato, Legg. vii. p. 800 B-E. 801 A: εὐφημία, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸ τῆς ᾠδῆς γένος εὔφημον ἡμῖν πάντῃ πάντως ὑπαρχέτω.

This is a remarkable declaration of Plato, condemning the tragic representations at Athens. Compare Gorgias, p. 501; Republic, x. p. 605; also about the effect on the spectators, Ion, p. 535 E.

The idea of εὐφημία is more negative than positive; it is often shown by silence. The δυσφήμιαι (Soph. Phil. 10), or βλασφημία, as Plato calls it, are the positive act or ill-omened manifestation. Plato, Phædon, p. 117: ἐν εὐφημίᾳ χρὴ τελευτᾷν.

Boys and girls to learn letters and the lyre, from ten to thirteen years of age. Masters will teach the laws and homilies of the lawgiver, and licensed extracts from the poets.

At ten years old, the boys and girls (who have hitherto been exercised in recitation, singing, dancing, &c.) are to learn their letters, or reading and writing. They willcontinue this process until thirteen years old. They will learn the use of the lyre, for three years. The same period and duration is fixed for all of them, not depending at all upon the judgment or preference of the parents.242It is sufficient if they learn to read and and write tolerably, without aiming to do it either quickly or very well. The boys will be marched to school at daybreak every morning, under the care of a tutor, who is chosen by the magistrate for the purpose of keeping them under constant supervision and discipline.243The masters for teaching will be special persons paid for the duty, usually foreigners.244They will be allowed to teach nothing except the laws and homilies of the lawgiver, together with any selections from existing poets which may be in full harmony with these.245Plato here proclaims how highly he is himself delighted with his own string of homilies: which are not merely exhortations useful to be heard, but also have the charm of poetry, and have been aided by inspirations from the Gods.246As for the poets themselves, whether serious or comic, whose works were commonly employed in teaching, being committed wholly or partially to memory — Plato repudiates them as embodying a large proportion of mischievous doctrine which his pupils ought never to hear. Much reading, or much learning, he discountenances as dangerous to youths.247

242Plato, Legg. vii. p. 810 A.

243Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 808 C, 809 B.

244Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 804 D, 813 E.

245Plato, Legg. vii. p. 811 E. Any new poet who wishes to exhibit must submit his compositions to the Censors. P. 817 C-D.

246Plato, Legg. vii. p. 811 C-D. οὐκ ἄνευ τινὸς ἐπιπνοίας θεῶν … μάλα ἡσθῆναι. Stallbaum in his note (p. 337) treats this as said in jest (facetédicit). To me it seems sober earnest, and quite in character with the didactic solemnity of the whole treatise. Plato himself would have been astonished (I think) at the note of his commentator.

247Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 810-811. κίνδυνόν φημι εἶναι φέρουσαν τοῖς παισὶ τὴν πολυμαθίαν (811 B). Compare p. 819 A.

The teaching is to be simple, and common to both sexes.

The teaching of the harp and of music (occupying the three years from thirteen to sixteen, after the three preceding years of teaching letters) will not be suffered to extend to any elaborate or complicated combinations. The melody will be simple: the measure grave and dignified. The imitative movement or dancing will exhibit only the gestures and demeanour suitable to the virtuousman in the various situations of life, whether warlike or pacific:248the subject-matter of the songs or hymns will be regulated (as above described) by censorial authority. The practice will be consecrated and unchangeable, under the supervision of a magistrate for education.249

248Plato, Legg. vii. p. 812 C-D. Still Plato allows the exhibition, under certain conditions, of low, comic, ludicrous dances; yet not by any freemen or citizens, but by slaves and hired persons of mean character. He even considers it necessary that the citizens should see such low exhibitions occasionally, in order to appreciate by contrast the excellence of their own dignified exhibitions. Of two opposites you cannot know the one unless you also learn to know the other — ἄνευ γὰρ γελοίων τὰ σπουδαῖα καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐναντίων τὰ ἐναντία μαθεῖν μὲν οὐ δυνατόν, εἰ μέλλει τις φρόνιμος ἔσεσθαι, ποιεῖν δὲ οὐκ ἂν δυνατὸν ἀμφότερα, &c. (p. 816 E).

249Plato, Legg. vii. p. 813 A.

All this teaching is imparted to the youth of both sexes: to boys, by male teachers — to girls, by female teachers, both of them paid. The training in gymnastic and military exercises and in arms, is also common to girls and boys.250Plato deems it disgraceful that the females shall be brought up timorous and helpless — unable to aid in defending the city when it is menaced, and even unmanning the male citizens by demonstrations of terror.251

250Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 813 C-E, 814-815. πολεμικὴ ὄρχησις — εἰρηνική or ἀπόλεμος ὄρχησις.

251Plato, Legg. vii. p. 814 B. See Æschylus, Sept. adv. Thebas, 172-220.

Rudiments of arithmetic and geometry to be taught.

We next come to arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Plato directs that all his citizens shall learn the rudiments of these sciences — not for the reason urged by most persons, because of the necessities of practical life (which reason he discards as extravagantly silly, though his master Sokrates was among those who urged it) — but because these are endowments belonging to the divine nature, and because without them no man can become a God, Dæmon, or Hero, capable of watching over mankind.252In Egypt elementary arithmetic and geometry were extensively taught to boys — but very little in Greece:253though he intimates that both in Egypt, and in the Phenician towns, they wereturned only to purposes of traffic, and were joined with sordid dispositions which a good lawgiver ought to correct by other provisions. In the Platonic city, both arithmetic and geometry will be taught, so far as to guard the youth against absurd blunders about measurement, and against confusion of incommensurable lines and spaces with commensurable. Such blunders are now often made by Greeks.254By a good method, the teaching of these sciences may be made attractive and interesting; so that no force will be required to compel youth to learn.255

252Plato. Legg. vii. p. 812 B-C. οὗτος πάντως τῶν λόγων εὐηθέστατός ἐστι μακρῷ. In interpreting this curious passage we must remember that regularity, symmetry, exact numerical proportion, &c., are the primary characteristics of the divine agents in Plato’s view: of Uranus and the Stars, as the first of them, compare Æschyl. Prometh. 460.

253Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 818 E, 819 B-D. ᾐσχύνθην … ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων τῶν Ἑλλήνων. Compare Legg. v. p. 747 C, and Republic, iv. p. 436 A.Respecting the distinction between θεοί, δαίμονες, ἥρωες, see Nägelsbach, Nach-Homerische Theologie, pp. 104-115.

253Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 818 E, 819 B-D. ᾐσχύνθην … ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων τῶν Ἑλλήνων. Compare Legg. v. p. 747 C, and Republic, iv. p. 436 A.

Respecting the distinction between θεοί, δαίμονες, ἥρωες, see Nägelsbach, Nach-Homerische Theologie, pp. 104-115.

254Plato, Legg. vii. pp. 819 E, 820 A-C.

255Plato, Legg. vii. p. 820 D. μετὰ παιδιᾶς ἅμα μανθανόμενα ὠφελήσει.I transcribe here the curious passage which we read a little before.Plat. Legg. vii. p. 819 A-C. Τοσάδε τοίνυν ἕκαστα χρὴ φάναι μανθάνειν δεῖν τοὺς ἐλευθέρους,ὅσα καὶ πάμπολυςἐν Αἰγύπτῳπαίδων ὄχλος ἅμα γράμμασι μανθάνει. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ περὶ λογισμοὺς ἀτεχνῶς παισὶν ἐξευρημένα μαθήματα, μετὰ παιδιᾶς τε καὶ ἡδονῆς μανθάνειν·μήλων τέ τινῶν διανομαὶ καὶ στεφάνωνπλείοσιν ἅμα καὶ ἐλάττοσιν, ἁρμοττόντων ἀριθμῶν τῶν αὐτῶν … καὶ δὴ καὶ παίζοντες, φιάλας ἅμα χρυσοῦ καὶ χαλκοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ τοιούτων τινῶν ἄλλων κεραννύντες, οἱ δὲ καὶ ὅλας πως διαδιδόντες, ὅπερ εἶπον, εἰςπαιδιὰν ἐναρμόττοντες τὰς τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἀριθμῶν χρήσεις, ὠφελοῦσι τοὺς μανθάνοντας εἰςτε τὰς τῶν στρατοπέδων τάξεις καὶ ἀγωγὰς καὶ στρατείας καὶ εἰς οἰκονομίας αὖ· καὶ πάντωςχρησιμωτέρους αὐτοὺς αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐγρηγορότας μᾶλλον τοὺς ἀνθρώπουςἀπεργάζονται.The information here given is valuable respecting the extensive teaching of elementary arithmetic as well as of letters among Egyptian boys, far more extensive than among Hellenic boys. The priests especially, in Egypt a numerous order, taught these matters to their own sons (Diodor. i. 81), probably to other boys also. The information is valuable too in another point of view, as respects themethodof teaching arithmetic to boys; not by abstract numbers, nor by simple effort of memory in the repetition of a multiplication-table, but by concrete examples and illustrations exhibited to sense in familiar objects. The importance of this concrete method, both in facilitating comprehension and in interesting the youthful learner, are strongly insisted on by Plato, as they have been also by some of the ablest modern teachers of elementary arithmetic: see Professor Leslie’s Philosophy of Arithmetic, and Mr. Horace Grant’s Arithmetic for Young Children and Second Stage of Arithmetic. The following passage from a work of Sir John Herschel (Review of Whewell’s History of Inductive Sciences, in the Quarterly Review, June, 1841) bears a striking and curious analogy to the sentences above transcribed from Plato:— “Numberwe cannot help regarding as an abstraction, and consequently its general properties or its axioms to be of necessity inductively concluded from the consideration of particular cases. And surely this is the way in which children do acquire their knowledge of number, and in which they learn its axioms. The apples and the marbles are put in requisition (μήλων διανομαὶ καὶ στεφάνων,Plato), and through the multitude of gingerbread nuts their ideas acquire clearness, precision, and generality.”I borrow the above references from Mr. John Stuart Mill, System of Logic, Book ii. ch. vi. p. 335, ed. 1. They are annexed as a note to the valuable chapters of his work on Demonstration and Necessary Truths, in which he shows that the truth so-called, both in Geometry and Arithmetic, rest upon inductive evidence.“The fundamental truths of the Science of Number all rest upon the evidence of sense: they are proved by showing to our eyes and to our fingers that any given number of objects, ten balls for example, may by separation and re-arrangement exhibit to our senses all the different sets of numbers, the sum of which is equal to ten. All the improved methods of teaching arithmetic to children proceed upon a knowledge of this fact. All who wish to carry the child’smindalong with them in learning arithmetic — all who (as Dr. Biber in his remarkable Letters on Education expresses it) wish to teach numbers and not mere ciphers — now teach it through the evidence of the senses, in the manner we have described” (p. 335).

255Plato, Legg. vii. p. 820 D. μετὰ παιδιᾶς ἅμα μανθανόμενα ὠφελήσει.

I transcribe here the curious passage which we read a little before.

Plat. Legg. vii. p. 819 A-C. Τοσάδε τοίνυν ἕκαστα χρὴ φάναι μανθάνειν δεῖν τοὺς ἐλευθέρους,ὅσα καὶ πάμπολυςἐν Αἰγύπτῳπαίδων ὄχλος ἅμα γράμμασι μανθάνει. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ περὶ λογισμοὺς ἀτεχνῶς παισὶν ἐξευρημένα μαθήματα, μετὰ παιδιᾶς τε καὶ ἡδονῆς μανθάνειν·μήλων τέ τινῶν διανομαὶ καὶ στεφάνωνπλείοσιν ἅμα καὶ ἐλάττοσιν, ἁρμοττόντων ἀριθμῶν τῶν αὐτῶν … καὶ δὴ καὶ παίζοντες, φιάλας ἅμα χρυσοῦ καὶ χαλκοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ τοιούτων τινῶν ἄλλων κεραννύντες, οἱ δὲ καὶ ὅλας πως διαδιδόντες, ὅπερ εἶπον, εἰςπαιδιὰν ἐναρμόττοντες τὰς τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἀριθμῶν χρήσεις, ὠφελοῦσι τοὺς μανθάνοντας εἰςτε τὰς τῶν στρατοπέδων τάξεις καὶ ἀγωγὰς καὶ στρατείας καὶ εἰς οἰκονομίας αὖ· καὶ πάντωςχρησιμωτέρους αὐτοὺς αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐγρηγορότας μᾶλλον τοὺς ἀνθρώπουςἀπεργάζονται.

The information here given is valuable respecting the extensive teaching of elementary arithmetic as well as of letters among Egyptian boys, far more extensive than among Hellenic boys. The priests especially, in Egypt a numerous order, taught these matters to their own sons (Diodor. i. 81), probably to other boys also. The information is valuable too in another point of view, as respects themethodof teaching arithmetic to boys; not by abstract numbers, nor by simple effort of memory in the repetition of a multiplication-table, but by concrete examples and illustrations exhibited to sense in familiar objects. The importance of this concrete method, both in facilitating comprehension and in interesting the youthful learner, are strongly insisted on by Plato, as they have been also by some of the ablest modern teachers of elementary arithmetic: see Professor Leslie’s Philosophy of Arithmetic, and Mr. Horace Grant’s Arithmetic for Young Children and Second Stage of Arithmetic. The following passage from a work of Sir John Herschel (Review of Whewell’s History of Inductive Sciences, in the Quarterly Review, June, 1841) bears a striking and curious analogy to the sentences above transcribed from Plato:— “Numberwe cannot help regarding as an abstraction, and consequently its general properties or its axioms to be of necessity inductively concluded from the consideration of particular cases. And surely this is the way in which children do acquire their knowledge of number, and in which they learn its axioms. The apples and the marbles are put in requisition (μήλων διανομαὶ καὶ στεφάνων,Plato), and through the multitude of gingerbread nuts their ideas acquire clearness, precision, and generality.”

I borrow the above references from Mr. John Stuart Mill, System of Logic, Book ii. ch. vi. p. 335, ed. 1. They are annexed as a note to the valuable chapters of his work on Demonstration and Necessary Truths, in which he shows that the truth so-called, both in Geometry and Arithmetic, rest upon inductive evidence.

“The fundamental truths of the Science of Number all rest upon the evidence of sense: they are proved by showing to our eyes and to our fingers that any given number of objects, ten balls for example, may by separation and re-arrangement exhibit to our senses all the different sets of numbers, the sum of which is equal to ten. All the improved methods of teaching arithmetic to children proceed upon a knowledge of this fact. All who wish to carry the child’smindalong with them in learning arithmetic — all who (as Dr. Biber in his remarkable Letters on Education expresses it) wish to teach numbers and not mere ciphers — now teach it through the evidence of the senses, in the manner we have described” (p. 335).

Astronomy must be taught, in order that the citizens may not assert libellous falsehoods respecting the heavenly bodies.

Astronomy must also be taught up to a certain point, in order that the youth may imbibe correct belief respecting those great Divinities — Hêlios, Selênê, and the Planets — or may at any rate be protected from the danger of unconsciously advancing false affirmations about them, discreditable to their dignity. The general public consider it impious to study the Kosmos and the celestial bodies, with a view to detect the causes of what occurs:256while at the same time they assert that the movements of Hêlios and Selênê are irregular, and they call the planets Wanderers. Regular action is (in Plato’s view) the characteristic mark of what is good and perfect: irregularity is the foremost of all defects, and cannot without blasphemy be imputed to any of the celestial bodies. Moreover, many persons also assert untruly, that among the celestial bodies the one which is really the slowest mover, moves the fastest — and that the one which is really the fastest mover, moves the slowest. How foolish would it appear (continues Plato) if they made the like mistake about the Olympic runners, and if they selected the defeated competitor, instead of the victor, to be crowned and celebrated in panegyrical odes! How offensive is such falsehood, when applied to the great Gods in the heavens! Each of them has in reality one uniform circular movement, though they appear to have many and variable movements. Our youth must be taught enough of astronomy to guard against such heresies. The study of astronomy up to this point, far from being impious, is indispensable as a safeguard against impiety.257Plato intimates that theseastronomical truths were of recent acquisition, even to himself.258

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