TABLE-TALK 



451 



and clarified by sound scientific ideas. If I publish my 

 criticism on Comte, I should have to re-write it as a sum- 

 mary of philosophical ideas from the earliest times. The 

 thread of philosophical development is not on the lines 

 usually laid down for it. It goes from Democritus and the 

 rest to the Epicureans, and then the Stoics, who tried to 

 reconcile it with popular theological ideas, just as was 

 done by the Christian Fathers. In the Middle Ages it was 

 entirely lost under the theological theories of the time ; 

 but reappeared with Spinoza, who, however, muddled it 

 up with a lot of metaphysics which made him almost un- 

 intelligible. 



" Plato was the founder of all the vague and unsound 

 thinking that has burdened philosophy, deserting facts for 

 possibilities, and then, after long and beautiful stories of 

 what might be, telling you he doesn't quite believe them 

 himself. 



" A certain time since it was heresy to breathe a word 

 against Plato ; but I have a nice story of Sir Henry Holland. 

 He used to have all the rising young men to breakfast, and 

 turn out their latest ideas. One morning I went to break- 

 fast with him, and we got into very intimate conversation, 

 when he wound up by saying, ' In my opinion Plato was 

 an ass! But don't tell any one I said so.' " 



We talked on geographical teaching; he began by in- 

 sisting on the need of a map of the earth (on the true scale) 

 showing the insignificance of all elevations and depressions 

 on the surface. Secondly, one should take any place as 

 centre, and draw about it circles of 50 or 100 miles radius, 

 and see what lies within them ; and note the extent of the 

 influence exerted by the central point. At the same time, 

 one should always compare the British Isles to scale. For 

 instance, the yEgean is about as big as Britain ; while the 

 smallness of Judaea is remarkable. After the Exile, the Jew- 

 ish part was about as big as the county of Gloucester. How 

 few boys realise this, though they are taught classical 

 geography. 



" The real chosen people were the Greeks. One of the 

 most remarkable things about them is not only the small- 



