Principles controlling the use of music in education. other harmony. The dithyramb, for example, is acknowledged to be Phrygian, a fact of which the connoisseurs of music offer many proofs, saying, among other things, that Philoxenus, having attempted to compose his Tales as a dithyramb in the Dorian mode, found it impossible, and fell back into the more appropriate Phrygian. All men agree that the Dorian music is the gravest and manliest. And whereas we say that the extremes should be avoided and the mean followed, and whereas the Dorian is a mean between the other harmonies (the Phrygian and the Lydian), it is evident that our youth should be taught the Dorian music. Two principles have to be kept in view, what is possible, what is becoming: at these every man ought to aim. But even these are relative to age; the old, who have lost their powers, cannot very well sing the severe melodies, and nature herself seems to suggest that their songs should be of the more relaxed kind. Wherefore the musicians likewise blame Socrates, and with justice, for rejecting the relaxed harmonies in education under the idea that they are intoxicating, not in the ordinary sense of intoxication (for wine rather tends to excite men), but because they have no strength in them. And so with a view to a time of life when men begin to grow old, they ought to practise the gentler harmonies and melodies as well as the others. And if there be any harmony, such as the Lydian above all others appears to be, which is suited to children of tender age, and possesses the elements both of order and of education, clearly (we ought to use it, for) education should be based upon three principles-the mean,. the possible, the becoming, these three.i 1 This last selection is the eighth Book complete. Its abrupt termination is further evidence that the treatise on education is fragmentary and incomplete. VII. THE LATER COSMOPOLITAN GREEK EDUCATION The Period. The decline of the national systems of education in Greece was consummated with the loss of political ambition and independent existence at the battle of Chæronea, 338 B.C. Even before this time Greek systems had lost much of their peculiar force. The decay and the attempted revivification of the Spartan system in the third century have been mentioned. The new education at Athens had introduced much greater freedom in Athenian practice, so that the education there was rather cosmopolitan than national. But of this cosmopolitan education Athens remained the centre throughout the Macedonian and Roman periods, though other centres, such as Rhodes, Tarsus, and Alexandria, became strong rivals. Interest now centres in higher education, which has become wholly intellectual in character. The chief characteristics of this period are: first, the organization of the various schools of philosophy finally combined into the University of Athens; second, the systematization of higher education under the control of, and finally with the support of, the state. While there is great emphasis upon the intellectual and philosophical life, education comes to be of minor political and social importance. Comparatively little material is to be found bearing upon the actual organization of Greek education during all this long period, save as its general features are presented in the tendencies of the new education and of the philosophical schools. However, the discussion of Roman education of the Græco-Roman period will supplement the information here given concerning the status of Greek education during much of this period. With the ascendency of the Christian religion a new influential factor is introduced into Greek education, this factor not becoming wholly dominant, however, until the University of Athens is closed by Justinian. The Sources. The first and second selections given consist of a decree of the Athenian Senate and one of the Assembly, relating to the education of the ephebes for some year about a century previous to the beginning of the Christian era. These selections are taken from the collection of inscriptions by Dumont, given in his Essai sur L'Éphébie Attique. The third selection is an extract from the Panegyric of Gregory of Nazianzus on Saint Basil, and dates from the fourth Christian century. Gregory was a student at Athens about 350 to 356 A.D. Among his fellow-students was Basil, with whom he formed an intimate friendship. Both Gregory and Basil were prominent in the conflict with Arianism, and both held prominent places among the early church writers. Both were primarily students, though Basil gave up the student life for one of activity in furthering the practical interests of the church. Basil died in 379, and though Gregory was not present at the funeral, he later delivered the panegyric upon some anniversary of his friend's death. In this panegyric he gives a brief description of student life in Athens as it was during the period of their attendance at the university. The fourth selection consists of the greater part of Plutarch's essay upon the Training of Children. This presents the general views of a cosmopolitan Greek at about the opening of the second Christian century. While cosmopolitan, Plutarch was thoroughly Greek in his education and his sympathies. As giving a scientific though extremely practical exposition of the best Grecian educational ideas and practices, this selection from Plutarch might have been classed with that from Aristotle; but placed here, it will serve the additional purpose of illustrating the persistence of these ideas, four centuries later, at a time when Greece yet retained her intellectual leadership. The Philosophical Schools. The schools of the Sophists were entirely private schools, and for the most part consisted of the group of students gathered around any one instructor. There was no system of beliefs or unity of methods that would lead to the formation of any permanent institution. Socrates did not have any definite place for giving instruction or any definite body of pupils. So long as no fees were exacted, there would be no definite student body. Plato, and very probably Aristotle, followed the example of Socrates in this respect. But Plato's successor, Speusippus, demanded regular fees, as did also the teachers of the other philosophical groups. This gave both definiteness and continuity of administration. A further factor in the development of definite schools was the acquiring of definite locations and The leading gymnasia of Athens were the Academy, the Cynosarges, and the Lyceum. These were in the suburbs, and were somewhat of the nature of public parks, being provided with water and gardens as well as exercise grounds. Plato taught chiefly at the Academy, both in the public gymnasium and in pri names. vate grounds which he acquired near by. This plot of ground, together with the headship of the school, Plato left to his nephew, Speusippus. The small property became the nucleus of a considerable foundation, for it was enriched, not only by fees, but by gifts from wealthy patrons and by the bequests of the heads of the school. In time friends and pupils also made bequests, until a considerable endowment was accumulated. The heads of the school were called scholarchs, and received their positions either through the designation of their predecessor or, later, by election. In a similar way Aristotle settled in the Lyceum and Antisthenes in the Cynosarges. Later the pupils of the latter removed to the frescoed portico in Athens, whence they were called Stoics. Epicurus taught in his own private grounds, which he left as the nucleus of an endowment for his school. As with the successors of Plato, each of these groups became definitely organized into a school with an endowment, and with a recognized head, or scholarch. The attendance on these schools was very large. Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle in the headship of the Lyceum, is said to have had more than two thousand pupils at one time. The scholarchs were assisted by a staff of assistants who collectively constituted the school. At any rate Lycon, the successor of Theophrastus, bequeathed the school to his pupils, or assistants, collectively, leaving to them the selection or election of a scholarch. Later on the scholarchs for some of the schools were elected by the council, usually after some form of examination. Still later, when these positions became salaried imperial offices, disputed elections were settled, or positions filled, by imperial officers, sometimes by the emperor himself. |