The next piece of evidence (h) which we find tendered is another passage out of the Eudemian Ethica. It will be seen that this passage is strained with even greater violence than the preceding. Hamilton writes as follows, first translating the words of Aristotle, then commenting on them:— “The problem is this — What is the beginning or principle of motion in the soul? Now it is evident, as God is in the universe, and the universe in God, that [I read κινεῖν καί â€” W. H.] the divinity in us is also, in a certain sort, the universal mover of the mind. For the principle of Reason is not Reason but something better. Now what can we say is better than even Science, except God?â€�[10] So far Hamilton’s translation; now follows his comment:— “The import of this singular passage is very obscure. It has excited, I see, the attention, and exercised the ingenuity, of Pomponatius, J. C. Scaliger, De Raei, Leibnitz, Leidenfrost, Jacobi, &c. But without viewing it as of pantheistic tendency, as Leibnitz is inclined to do, it may be interpreted as a declaration, that Intellect, which Aristotle elsewhere allows to be pre-existent and immortal, is a spark of the Divinity; whilst its data (from which as principles more certain than their deductions, Reason, Demonstration, Science, must depart) are to be reverenced as the revelation of truths which would otherwise lie hid from man: That, in short,
| “‘The voice of Nature is the voice of God.’ |
By the bye, it is remarkable that this text was not employed by any of those Aristotelian philosophers who endeavoured to identify the Active Intellect with the Deity.�
[10] Ethic. Eud. VII. xiv. p. 1248, a. 24: τὸ δὲ ζητούμενον τοῦτ’ ἐστί, τίς ἡ τῆς κινήσεως ἀρχὴ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ; δῆλον δή, ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ ὅλῳ θεός, καὶ πᾶν (Fritzsche reads ἐν) ἐκείνῳ. κινεῖ γάρ πως πάντα τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν θεῖον. λόγου δ’ ἀρχὴ οὐ λόγος ἀλλὰ τι κρεῖττον. τί οὖν ἂν κρεῖττον καὶ ἐπιστήμης εἴποι πλὴν θεός; Instead of εἴποι (the last word but two) Fritzsche reads εἴη καὶ νοῦ.
This is the passage translated by Sir W. Hamilton. The words of the original immediately following are these: ἡ γὰρ ἀρετὴ τοῦ νοῦ ὄργανον· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οἱ πάλαι ἔλεγον — “εὐτυχεῖς καλοῦνται, οἱ ἂν ὁρήσωσι κατοπθοῦσιν ἄλογοι ὄντες, καὶ βουλεύεσθαι οὐ συμφέρει αὐτοῖςâ€� — ἔχουσι γὰρ ἀρχὴν τοιούτην ἡ κρείττων τοῦ νοῦ καὶ βουλεύσεως. οἱ δὲ τὸν λόγον· τοῦτο δ’ οὐκ ἔχουσι. καὶ ἐνθουσισμοί· τοῦτο δ’ οὐ δύνανται· ἄλογοι γὰρ ὄντες ἐπιτυγχάνουσι (so Fritzsche reads in place of ἀποτυγχάνουσι).
I maintain that this passage noway justifies the interpretation whereby Sir W. Hamilton ascribes to Aristotle a doctrine so large and important. The acknowledged obscurity of the passage might have rendered any interpreter cautious of building much upon it: but this is not all: Sir W. Hamilton has translated it separately, without any allusion to the chapter of which it forms part. This is a sure way of misunderstanding it; for it cannot be fairly construed except as bearing on the problem enunciated and discussed in that chapter. Aristotle (or Eudemus) propounds for discussion explicitly in this chapter a question which had been adverted to briefly in the earlier part of the Eudemian Ethica (I. i. p. 1214, a. 24) — What is the relation between good fortune and happiness? Upon what does good fortune depend? Is it produced by special grace or inspiration from the Gods? This question is taken up and debated at length in the chapter from which Sir W. Hamilton has made his extract. It is averred, as a matter of notoriety, that some men are fortunate. Though fools, they are constantly successful — more so than wiser men; and this characteristic is so steady, that men count upon it and denominate them accordingly. (See this general belief illustrated in the debate at Athens recorded by Thukydides, vi. 17, the good fortune of Nikias being admitted even by his opponents.) Upon what does this good fortune depend? Upon nature? Upon intelligence? Upon fortune herself as a special agent? Upon the grace and favour of the gods to the fortunate individual? Aristotle (or Eudemus) discusses the problem in a long and perplexed chapter, stating each hypothesis, together with the difficulties and objections attaching to it. As far as we can make out from an obscure style and a corrupt text, the following is the result arrived at. There are two varieties of the fortunate man: one is, he who succeeds through a rightly directed impulse, under special inspiration of the divine element within him and within all men; the other is, he who succeeds without any such impulse, through the agency of Fortune proper. The good fortune of the first is more constant than that of the second; but both are alike irrational or extra-rational.[11] Now the divine element in the soul is the beginning or principle of motion for all the manifestations in the soul — for reason as well as feeling: that which calls reason into operation, is something more powerful than reason. But in the intelligent man this divine mover only calls reason into operation, leaving reason, when once in operation, to its own force and guidance, of course liable to err; whereas in the fortunate man (first variety) the divine element inspires all his feelings and volitions, without any rational deliberation, so that he executes exactly the right thing at the right time and place, and accordingly succeeds.[12]
[11] Eth. Eudem. VII. xiv. p. 1248, b. 3: φανερὸν δὲ ὅτι δύο εἴδη εὐτυχίας, ἡ μὲν θεία, διὸ καὶ δοκεῖ ὁ εὐτυχὴς διὰ θεὸν κατορθοῦν· οὗτος δ’ ἐστὶν ὁ κατὰ τὴν ὁρμὴν διορθωτικός, ὁ δ’ ἕτερος ὁ παρὰ τὴν ὁρμὴν· ἄλογοι δ’ ἀμφότεροι. καὶ ἡ μὲν συνεχὴς εὐτυχία μᾶλλον, αὕτη δ’ οὐ συνεχής.
The variety ὁ παρὰ τὴν ὁρμὴν διορθωτικός is exemplified in the Physica (II. iv. p. 196, a. 4), where Aristotle again discusses τύχη: the case of a man who comes to the market-place on his ordinary business, and there by accident meets a friend whom he particularly wished to see, but whom he never dreamt of seeing there and then.
[12] Eth. Eud. VII. xiv. p. 1248, a. 27-32: εὐτυχεῖς καλοῦνται, &c. Compare also ib. p. 1247, b. 18.
Aristotle (or Eudemus) thus obtains a psychological explanation (good or bad) of the fact, that there are fools who constantly succeed in their purposes, and wise men who frequently fail. He tells us that there is in the soul a divine principle of motion, which calls every thing — reason as well as appetite or feeling — into operation. But he says nothing of what Sir W. Hamilton ascribes to him — about Intellect as a spark of the Divinity, or about data of Intellect to be reverenced as the revelation of hidden truths. His drift is quite different and even opposite: to account for the success of individuals without intellect or reason — to bring forward a divine element in the soul, which dispenses with intellect, and which conducts these unintelligent men to success, solely by infusing the most opportune feelings and impulses. Sir W. Hamilton has misunderstood this passage, by taking no notice of the context and general argument to which it belongs.