Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/261

LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 239 view of the early Greek philosophers as will illustrate the literary pro- gress of the Greek nation. Philosophy occupies a peculiar province of the human mind ; and it has its origin in habits of thought which are confined to a few. It is necessary not only to possess these habits of thought, but also to be singularly free from the shackles of any parti- cular system, in order fully to comprehend the speculations of the an- cient Greek philosophers, as preserved in the fragments and accounts of their writings. Even if a history of physical and metaphysical spe- culation among the early Greek philosophers were likely to interest the reader, yet it would be foreign to the object of the present work, which is intended to illustrate the intellectual progress and character of the entire Greek nation. Philosophy, for some time after its origin in Greece, was as far removed from the ordinary thoughts, occupations, and amusements of the people, as poetry was intimately connected with them. Poetry ennobles and elevates all that is most characteristic of a nation; its religion, mythology, political and social institutions, and manners. Philosophy, on the other hand, begins by detaching the mind from the opinions and habits in which it has been bred up ; from the national conceptions of the gods and the universe ; and from the traditionary maxims of ethics and politics. The philosopher attempts as far as possible to think for himself; and hence he is led to disparage all that is handed down from antiquity. Hence, too, the Greek philo- sophers from the beginning renounced the ornaments of verse; that is, of the vehicle which had previously been used for the expression of every elevated feeling. Philosophical writings were nearly the earliest compositions in the unadorned language of common life. It is not probable that they would have been composed in this form, if they had been intended for recital to a multitude assembled at games and festi- vals. It would have required great courage to break in upon the rhyth- mical flow of the euphonious hexameter and lyric measures, with a discourse uttered in the language of ordinary conversation. The most ancient writings of Greek philosophers were however only brief records of their principal doctrines, designed to be imparted to a few persons. There was no reason why the form of common speech should not be used for these, as it had been long before used for laws, treaties, and the like. In fact, prose composition and writing are so intimately con- nected, that we may venture to assert that, if writing had become com- mon among the Greeks at an earlier period, poetry would not have so long retained its ascendancy. We shall indeed find that philosophy, as it advanced, sought the aid of poetry, in order to strike the mind more forcibly. And if we had aimed at minute precision in the division of our subject, we should have passed from theological to philosophical poetry. But it is more convenient to observe, as far as possible, the chronological order of the different branches of literature, and the de- pendence of one upon another; and we shall therefore classify this phi-