174 SHORT PAPERS 



tangled from the first; but it may to some extent be treated separately. Many 

 people in all ages treat life as an art; and make the end of life a dexterous oppor- 

 tunism; but this is especially Athenian; 'connoisseurs of life, ever hankering 

 after novelties and contemptuous of the trite/ as Cleon calls them (Thucydides, 

 3, 30); impressionists, in a word. In many dialogues of Plato in the Ion, e.g., 

 or in the last book of the Republic this assumption is so radical that it is an axiom 

 that the poet, if he is to be any good, must be able to throw some light on some 

 art or science; on medicine or government or war; and it is triumphantly shown 

 that he cannot do this, and therefore is an impostor; unless indeed he be an in- 

 spired idiot; for sometimes the poet can throw light even on these things, but he 

 does not understand the light he throws; he is a mouthpiece only for the truth 

 which utters itself by him; he is inspired, but he does not understand the truths 

 with which he is inspired; but the highest knowledge is conscious knowledge, 

 not unconscious instinct, or inspiration, or whatever we call that sort of know- 

 ledge. The secret of virtue and life lies in knowledge and conscious art; the poet 

 is therefore on this, as on other grounds, inferior even to the carpenter. 



" This comparison of life to an art is surely striking and characteristic, and 

 involves consequences already noticed. The artist works, at least largely, for his 

 own hand and for some definite and brilliant result associated with his own name; 

 the soldier, on the contrary, so far as he is a good soldier, does not fight for his own 

 hand; he is only a small part of a large machine, and though the result depends 

 partly on his fidelity, it is not conducive necessarily to his glory or promotion; 

 he may easily die, as he has fought, unknown and unrewarded. 



" It follows from the proposition that virtue is knowledge and is art, that Hell- 

 enism represents broadly reflection and thought versus action; the life of the 

 student versus the man of affairs; the theorist against the practical man. And 

 this can be illustrated by the language of Hellas and Hellenism; the third head 

 of my subject; vpayna is action, it is also a weariness of the flesh, a bore and 

 a nuisance; itdvos is labor and sorrow; conversely, TOMJT^J, the creator, maker, 

 and man of action, is the poet; <neai(fe is left-handed figuratively, that is, in the 

 sphere of the intellect and of art; the stupid man or the awkward man, the 

 "gauche" man, as the modern Greeks of France say; with races less artistic 

 and less intellectual, "sinister" means morally rather than intellectually left- 

 handed. 



" Hellenism in language shows a deficiency in the Hellenic mind on the side of 

 personal character, of the emotional and moral nature, and of will: 6vfj.6s is used 

 for spirit, courage, the whole element of will and character; apparently it really 

 means 'anger' rather; and the inference is legitimate that Greek courage is 

 apt to be of this illegitimate kind; this inference is supported by Aristotle's 

 analysis of courage in the Ethics ; the ordinary courage of high spirits and love 

 of adventure seems absent; in the same way this 0t>/xoeiSt's, or element of anger, 

 or moral element of the soul, though it appears to cover for Plato all that we 

 mean by personal character, is at bottom, it seems, provisional and temporary; 

 it may survive this life and may animate a god even, such as Ares, but it is not the 

 true soul, and it is not immortal." 



