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.
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.
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.
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.
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]]
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.
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;