In the middle ages 175

order to justify its claim that man's good consists

in the development of his intelligence;"' it takes as

its authority Gilbert de la Porree, "magister sex

princi'pioru7n" \ it constructs "polysyllogisms in the

second figure";"" it sets forth at length the theory

of liberty for which it employs a definition which

expresses the feudal mentality {suimet et non cd-

terius est) ; it observes that it is easier to teach phi-

losophy to one who is utterly innocent of knowledge

about it than to those who are replete with erron-

eous opinions; it rests at one point, on the precept

which expresses so admirably the unifying tendency

of the time : "quod potest fieri per unum melius est

fieri per unum quam per plura" f^ it likens the rela-

tion of petty prince and monarch to that of the

practical and the speculative intellect, inasmuch as

directions for conduct pass to the former from the

latter. As for the Divine Comedy, it is full of phi-

losophy, notwithstanding the poetical transforma-

tion which suffuses the thought with its magical

charm. While Dante is no systematic philosopher,

nevertheless he is eclectic and the influence of

philosophical systems is everywhere evident in his

thought ; in hands so expert the work of art receives

every doctrinal impression like soft and pliable wax.

One could show how the statues of the cathedral

churches of Chartres or of Laon or of Paris, for ex-

25 Pars Prima.

26 "Iste polysyllogismus currit per secundam figuram."

27 See above, p. 110,

176 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

ample, and the frescoes and miniatures of the thir-

teenth century generally, reflect in design and in

color the philosophical thought of the period; how

the great painters from the fourteenth century to

the seventeenth century owe much of their artistic

inspiration to scholastic themes; how the termin-

ology of that same philosophy makes no small con-

tribution to the ever increasing modern vocabulary,

especially in philosophy f^ how scholastic definitions

have entered into English literature and French

literature ; how some of the thirteenth century hagi-

ographers make use of the methods of division and

the technical terms of scholasticism; and how en-

tire doctrines drawn from scholasticism are con-

28 The scholastic terms become "current coin," as Saintsbury ob-

serves; and he adds: "Even the logical fribble, even the logical

jargonist was bound to be exact. Now exactness was the very thing

which languages, mostly young in actual age . . . wanted most of

all." Periods of European Literature, vol. II (The Flourishing of

Romance and the Rise of Allegory), p. 16, cf. pp. 20, 21. Cf. Brune-

ti^re: "Les definitions de la scholastique n'ont rien de scientifique

au sens veritable du mot; mais elles n'en ont pas moins discipline

I'esprit fran^ais en lui imposant ce besoin de clarte, de precision et

de justesse qui ne laissera pas de contribuer pour sa part k la

fortune de notre prose ... A coup sur, nous ne pourrons pas ne pas

lui etre reconnaissants de nous avoir appris a composer; et 1^,

comme on sait, dans cet 6quilibre de la composition, dans cette

subordination du detail k I'id^e de I'ensemble, dans celte juste pro-

portion de parties, \k sera I'un des traits 6minents et caract^ris-

tiques de la litt6rature fran^aise." Manuel de I'histoire de la lit-

tirature franqaise, Paris, 1898, pp. 24-25,

Sliakespeare is acquainted with scholastic doctrines. For example,

the "quiddities" of Hamlet (Act V, sc. 1, "Where be his quiddities