NA TURK 



345 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1901. 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN 

 CULTURE. 

 Greek Thinkers; a History of Ancient Philosophy. By 

 Theodor Gomperz, Professor at the University of 

 \'ienna. Vol. i. Translated by Laurie Magnus, M.A. 

 Pp. XV + 610. (London : John Murray, igoi.) Price 

 14^. net. 



THE study of the history of Greek philosophy re- 

 quires no defence and, fortunately, little encourage- 

 ment. Confessedly our intellectual culture can be traced 

 to Greek origin. The subject is so engrossing, and the 

 full comprehension so indispensable, that able minds will 

 be ever ready to consider the problem and give it fuller 

 illustration. How far the questions that provoked dis- 

 cussion in the Greek colonies on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean were intuitive, how far they were acquired, 

 is of sn;all importance in comparison with the manner in 

 which they affect us. In these days, when the spirit of 

 inquiry is active, we may doubt whether we tap the true 

 source of originality by questioning Greek texts and 

 obscure fragments. The spade of the archasologist is 

 proving itself an equally potent factor. The sand- 

 hills and tombs of Egypt have been made to reveal the 

 secrets they have kept so well. Explorations among the 

 ruins of ancient Babylonian or Assyrian cities have un- 

 earthed the traces of a highly developed civilisation on 

 the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates which may have 

 operated not less powerfully on the Greek colonists than 

 the Greek philosophy has affected us. It may be that 

 the student of the future, in his anxiety to trace the earliest 

 effects on the human mind, will have to begin his 

 criticism still farther back, but in the absence of any 

 considerable literature we must at present be content to 

 regard our culture as a Greek product. 



Among those who have laboured diligently and with 

 effect upon the many problems that exercised the ancient 

 Greek, the researches of Prof. Gomperz will occupy a 

 high place. His book entitled " Greek Thinkers," which 

 appeared in 1896 and is now translated by Mr. Laurie 

 Magnus, is an exceedingly welcome contribution to this 

 subject. This work not only exhibits accuracy of scholar- 

 ship and critical acumen, but is equally distinguished by 

 lucidity of expression. Perhaps, too, we may say that 

 Prof. Gomperz has been fortunate in his translator. It 

 seems to us that Mr. Magnus has accomplished his part 

 of the work with admirable skill, and that to an English 

 reader the charm of the work is greatly increased by the 

 ease and brightness with which the original thoughts 

 of the German writer are expressed. Prof. Gomperz 

 deserved a good translator. He has done much useful 

 work himself in making his countrymen acquainted with 

 the thoughts and philosophy of J. S. Mill through trans- 

 lations, and it is only fitting that a similar service should 

 be rendered to his monograph. 



The main object of Prof. Gomperz's work is, it may be 



assumed, to show how greatly, and in what particular 



directions, we are indebted to Greek thought and Greek 



methods. Of course, as a general principle the effect is 



NO. 1658, VOL. 64] 



admitted, but to trace the connection with any degree of 

 completeness is a matter of no small difficulty. It re- 

 quires a survey as a whole of the developed intelligence 

 of the Greek mind, an appreciation of the different 

 tendencies of ancient thought, and a very complete 

 knowledge of modern culture. The author thinks it not 

 impossible that in the future we may see an exhaustive 

 universal history of the mind of antiquity. Pending the 

 appearance of such a monumental work, we welcome with 

 gratitude the worthy contribution that is here made to 

 the more general scheme to which it forms an adequate 

 introduction. 



In an introductory chapter the author unfolds, as a 

 panorama, the theatre in which all future development 

 was generated. He dwells appreciatively on the effect 

 colonial life and experience exercised on the intelligence 

 and vigour of the nation, fostering, on the one hand, the 

 hardy and courageous disposition of the emigrant ; and, 

 on the other, enlarging his horizon and stimulating his 

 ambition by travel and contact with foreign civilisation. 

 It was in the colonies, doubtless from the introduction 

 of the foreign element referred to above, that the greatest 

 intellectual vigour was afterwards found. To them more 

 than to the parent state it was given to steep themselves 

 in intellectual pursuits, and with whom the riddles of the 

 world and of human life were to find a permanent home 

 and to provoke an enduring curiosity. 



The author divides his book into three sections — The 

 Beginnings, From Metaphysics to Positive Science, 

 The Age of Enlightenment. Such a division must of 

 necessity be a little arbitrary, suggesting greater breaches 

 of continuity than really existed. .Also, at times, it may 

 lead to a little confusion in chronological arrangement, 

 but that is of small importance, since progress never 

 exhibits the uniform onward movement we connect with 

 time. Historical or biographical references when intro- 

 duced simply play a secondary part as a background, Xo 

 give effect to the ordered development. As earliest in 

 history, but perhaps more advanced in scientific accuracy, 

 containing, as it did, the accumulated information of the 

 priests of Chaldea and Egypt, the Ionian school comes 

 first under review, and well exhibits the author's general 

 method of treatment. He endeavours to find the prin- 

 ciple underlying the original expression, to think as 

 these old philosophers thought, to determine the amount 

 of truth at which each arrived, to give him credit for it, 

 and to compare and contrast it with modern views. In 

 the Ionian school, for instance, we have hitherto, per- 

 haps, too much considered the astronomical teaching, a 

 result of the companding importance which Thales has 

 acquired, owing to the part the famous eclipse connected 

 with his name has played in scientific chronology. This- 

 has introduced a disproportion which is fatal to a general 

 survey. We have forgotten that he also taught that 

 water was the primary element. To have the true 

 measure of the time we have to remember him as a 

 chemist as well as an astronomer. Prof. Gomperz finds 

 in the teaching of this school, underlying the vagueness, 

 two of the corner-stones of modern chemistry — the 

 existence of elements and the indestructibility of matter. 

 At another point the " physiologists " of Ionia actually 

 outstripped the results of modern knowledge. The bold 

 flight of their imagination never rested "till it reached 



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