In the final passage of this cutting dialogue, observe the

elevation of tone and the gravity of thought. So Socrates

had marvellous skill in allying enthusiasm with irony.

Here is an extract in which Socrates applies the maieutic

art to the establishment of a moral truth, the belief in God :

" I will mention a conversation he once had in my pres-

ence with Aristodemus, surnamed the Little, concerning the

gods. He knew that Aristodemus neither sacrificed to the

gods, nor consulted the oracles, but ridiculed those who took

part in these religious observances. 'Tell me, Aristodemus,'

said he, 'are there men whose talents you admire?' 'There

are,' he replied. ' Then tell us their names,' said Socrates.

' In epic poetry I especially admire Homer ; in dithyrambic,

Melanippides ; in traged\ T , Sophocles ; in 'statuary, Poly-

cletus ; in painting, Zeuxis.' ' But what artists do you think

most worth} 7 of admiration, those who form images destitute

of sense and movement, or those who produce animated

beings, endowed with the faculty of thinking and acting?'

' Those who form animated beings, for these are the work of

intelligence and not of chance.' ' And which do you regard

1 Memorabilia, I. n.

EDUCATION AMONG THE GREEKS. 27

as the creation of intelligence, and which the product of

chance, those works whose purpose cannot be recognized,

or those whose utility is manifest?' 'It is reasonable to

attribute to an intelligence the works which have some useful

purpose.' " l

Socrates then points out to Aristodemus how admirably

the different organs of the human body are adapted to the

functions of life and to the use of man. And so proceeding

from example to example, from induction to induction,

always keeping the mind of his auditor alert by the questions

he raises, and the answers that he suggests, forcing him to

do his share of the work, and giving him an equal share in

the train of reasoning, he finally brings him to the goal

which is to make him recognize the existence of God.

'O

27. The Republic of Plato. — " "Would you form,"

said J. J. Rousseau, "an idea of public education? read

the Republic of Plato. It is the finest treatise on education

ever written." For truth's sake we must discount the en-

thusiasm of Rousseau. The Republic doubtless contains

some elements of a wise and practical scheme of education ;

but, on the whole, it is but an ideal creation, a compound of

paradoxes and chimeras. In Plato's ideal commonwealth, the

individual and the family itself are sacrificed to the State.

Woman becomes so mu< h like man as to be subjected to

the same gymnastic exercises ; she too must be a soldier as

he is. Children know neither father nor mother. From the

day of their birth they are given in charge of common nurses,

veritable public functionaries. In that common fold, " care

shall be taken that no mother recognize her offspring." We

may guess that in making this pompous eulogy of the Repub-

lic, the paradoxical author of the Emile hoped to prepare

1 Memorabilia, I. iv.

28 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the reader for giving a complaisant welcome to his own

dreams.

28. The Education of Warriors and Magistrates. — .

Plato, by some unexplained recollection of the social con-

stitution of the Hindoos, established three castes in his idea]

State, — laborers and artisans, warriors, and magistrates.

There was no education for laborers and artisans ; it was

sufficient for men of this caste to learn a trade. In politics,

Plato is an aristocrat ; he feels a disdain for the people,

" that robust and indocile animal." It should be observed,

however, that the barriers which he set up between these

three social orders are not insuperable. If a child of the

inferior class gives evidence of exceptional qualities, he must

be admitted to the superior class ; and so if the son of a

warrior or of a magistrate is notably incompetent and un-

worthy of his rank, he must suffer forfeiture, and become

artisan or laborer.

As to the education which he designs for the warriors and

the magistrates, Plato is minutely careful in regulating it.

The education of the warriors comprises two parts, — music

and gymnastics. The education of the magistrates consists

of a training in philosophy of a high grade ; they are ini-

tiated into all the sciences and into metaphysics. Plato's

statesmen must be, not priests, as in the East r but scholars

and philosophers.

29. Music and Gymnastics. — Although Plato attaches a

high value to gymnastics, he gives precedence to music.

Before forming the body, Plato, the idealist, would form

the soul,- because it is the soul, according to him, which, by

its own virtue, gives to the body all the perfection of which

it is capable. Even in physical exercises, the purpose should

be to give increased vigor to the soul : "In the training of

education among the greeks. 29

the body, our young men shall aim, above everything else,

at augmenting moral power." Note this striking picture of

the man who trains only his body : " Let a man apply him-

self to gymnastics, and become trained, and eat much, and

wholly neglect music and philosophy, and at first his body

will become strengthened ; but if he does nothing else, and

holds no converse with the Muses, though his soul have some

natural inclination to learn, yet if it remains uncultivated

by acquiring knowledge, by inquiry, by discourse, in a word,

by some department of music, that is, by intellectual educa-

tion, it will insensibly become weak, deaf, and blind. Like

a wild beast, such a man will live in ignorance and rudeness,

with neither grace nor politeness." However, Plato is far

from despising health and physical strength. On the con-

trary, it is a reproach to him that he has imposed on the

citizens of his Republic the obligation of being physically i

sound, and of having excluded from it all those whose in-

firmities and feeble constitution condemn them to "drag

out a dying life." The right to live, in Plato's city, as in

the most of ancient societies, belonged only to men of robust

health. The weak, the ailing, the wretched, all who are of