BOOK VIII

Treatise on Government

by Aristotle

BOOK VIII, TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT by Aristotle




CHAPTER I


No one can doubt that the maigstrate ought greatly to interest himself
in the care of youth; for where it is neglected it is hurtful to the
city, for every state ought to be governed according to its particular
nature; for the form and manners of each government are peculiar to
itself; and these, as they originally established it, so they usually
still preserve it. For instance, democratic forms and manners a
democracy; oligarchic, an oligarchy: but, universally, the best
manners produce the best government. Besides, as in every business and
art there are some things which men are to learn first and be made
accustomed to, which are necessary to perform their several works; so
it is evident that the same thing is necessary in the practice of
virtue. As there is one end in view in every city, it is evident that
education ought to be one and the same in each; and that this should
be a common care, and not the individual's, as it now is, when every
one takes care of his own children separately; and their instructions
are particular also, each person teaching them as they please; but
what ought to be engaged in ought to be common to all. Besides, no one
ought to think that any citizen belongs to him in particular, but to
the state in general; for each one is a part of the state, and it is
the natural duty of each part to regard the good of the whole: and for
this the Lacedaemonians may be praised; for they give the greatest
attention to education, and make it public. It is evident, then, that
there should be laws concerning education, and that it should be
public.




CHAPTER II


What education is, and how children ought to be instructed, is what
should be well known; for there are doubts concerning the business of
it, as all people do not agree in those things they would have a child
taught, both with respect to their improvement in virtue and a happy
life: nor is it clear whether the object of it should be to improve
the reason or rectify the morals. From the present mode of education
we cannot determine with certainty to which men incline, whether to
instruct a child in what will be useful to him in life; or what tends
to virtue, and what is excellent: for all these things have their
separate defenders. As to virtue, there is no particular [1337b] in
which they all agree: for as all do not equally esteem all virtues, it
reasonably follows that they will not cultivate the same. It is
evident that what is necessary ought to be taught to all: but that
which is necessary for one is not necessary for all; for there ought
to be a distinction between the employment of a freeman and a slave.
The first of these should be taught everything useful which will not
make those who know it mean. Every work is to be esteemed mean, and
every art and every discipline which renders the body, the mind, or
the understanding of freemen unfit for the habit and practice of
virtue: for which reason all those arts which tend to deform the body
are called mean, and all those employments which are exercised for
gain; for they take off from the freedom of the mind and render it
sordid. There are also some liberal arts which are not improper for
freemen to apply to in a certain degree; but to endeavour to acquire a
perfect skill in them is exposed to the faults I have just mentioned;
for there is a great deal of difference in the reason for which any
one does or learns anything: for it is not illiberal to engage in it
for one's self, one's friend, or in the cause of virtue; while, at the
same time, to do it for the sake of another may seem to be acting the
part of a servant and a slave. The mode of instruction which now
prevails seems to partake of both parts.




CHAPTER III


There are four things which it is usual to teach children--reading,
gymnastic exercises, and music, to which (in the fourth place) some
add painting. Reading and painting are both of them of singular use
in life, and gymnastic exercises, as productive of courage. As to
music, some persons may doubt, as most persons now use it for the sake
of pleasure: but those who originally made it part of education did
it because, as has been already said, nature requires that we should
not only be properly employed, but to be able to enjoy leisure
honourably: for this (to repeat what I have already said) is of all
things the principal. But, though both labour and rest are
necessary, yet the latter is preferable to the first; and by all means
we ought to learn what we should do when at rest: for we ought not to
employ that time at play; for then play would be the necessary
business of our lives. But if this cannot be, play is more necessary
for those who labour than those who are at rest: for he who labours
requires relaxation; which play will supply: for as labour is attended
with pain and continued exertion, it is necessary that play
should be introduced, under proper regulations, as a medicine: for
such an employment of the mind is a relaxation to it, and eases with
pleasure. [1338a] Now rest itself seems to partake of pleasure, of
happiness, and an agreeable life: but this cannot be theirs who
labour, but theirs who are at rest; for he who labours, labours for
the sake of some end which he has not: but happiness is an end which
all persons think is attended with pleasure and not with pain: but
all persons do not agree in making this pleasure consist in the same
thing; for each one has his particular standard, correspondent to his
own habits; but the best man proposes the best pleasure, and that
which arises from the noblest actions. But it is evident, that to live
a life of rest there are some things which a man must learn and be
instructed in; and that the object of this learning and this
instruction centres in their acquisition: but the learning and
instruction which is given for labour has for its object other things;
for which reason the ancients made music a part of education; not as a
thing necessary, for it is not of that nature, nor as a thing useful,
as reading, in the common course of life, or for managing of a family,
or for learning anything as useful in public life. Painting also seems
useful to enable a man to judge more accurately of the productions of
the finer arts: nor is it like the gymnastic exercises, which
contribute to health and strength; for neither of these things do we
see produced by music; there remains for it then to be the employment
of our rest, which they had in view who introduced it; and, thinking
it a proper employment for freemen, to them they allotted it; as Homer
sings:

"How right to call Thalia to the feast:" and of some others he
says:

"The bard was call'd, to ravish every ear: "

and, in another place, he makes Ulysses say the happiest part of man's
life is

"When at the festal board, in order plac'd, They hear the song."

It is evident, then, that there is a certain education in which a
child may be instructed, not as useful nor as necessary, but as noble
and liberal: but whether this is one or more than one, and of what
sort they are, and how to be taught, shall be considered hereafter: we
are now got so far on our way as to show that we have the testimony of
the ancients in our favour, by what they have delivered down upon
education--for music makes this plain. Moreover, it is necessary to
instruct children in what is useful, not only on account of its being
useful in itself, as, for instance, to learn to read, but also as the
means of acquiring other different sorts of instruction: thus they
should be instructed in painting, not only to prevent their being
mistaken in purchasing pictures, or in buying or selling of vases, but
rather as it makes [1338b] them judges of the beauties of the human
form; for to be always hunting after the profitable ill agrees with
great and freeborn souls. As it is evident whether a boy should be
first taught morals or reasoning, and whether his body or his
understanding should be first cultivated, it is plain that boys should
be first put under the care of the different masters of the gymnastic
arts, both to form their bodies and teach them their exercises.




CHAPTER IV


Now those states which seem to take the greatest care of their
children's education, bestow their chief attention on wrestling,
though it both prevents the increase of the body and hurts the form of
it. This fault the Lacedaemonians did not fall into, for they made
their children fierce by painful labour, as chiefly useful to inspire
them with courage: though, as we have already often said, this is
neither the only thing nor the principal thing necessary to attend to;
and even with respect to this they may not thus attain their end; for
we do not find either in other animals, or other nations, that courage
necessarily attends the most cruel, but rather the milder, and those
who have the dispositions of lions: for there are many people who are
eager both to kill men and to devour human flesh, as the Achaeans and
Heniochi in Pontus, and many others in Asia, some of whom are as bad,
others worse than these, who indeed live by tyranny, but are men of no
courage. Nay, we know that the Lacedaemonians themselves, while they
continued those painful labours, and were superior to all others
(though now they are inferior to many, both in war and gymnastic
exercises), did not acquire their superiority by training their youth
to these exercises, but because those who were disciplined opposed
those who were not disciplined at all. What is fair and honourable
ought then to take place in education of what is fierce and cruel: for
it is not a wolf, nor any other wild beast, which will brave any noble
danger, but rather a good man. So that those who permit boys to engage
too earnestly in these exercises, while they do not take care to
instruct them in what is necessary to do, to speak the real truth,
render them mean and vile, accomplished only in one duty of a citizen,
and in every other respect, as reason evinces, good for nothing. Nor
should we form our judgments from past events, but from what we see at
present: for now they have rivals in their mode of education, whereas
formerly they had not. That gymnastic exercises are useful, and in
what manner, is admitted; for during youth it is very proper to go
through a course of those which are most gentle, omitting that violent
diet and those painful exercises which are prescribed as necessary;
that they may not prevent the growth of the body: and it is no small
proof that they have this effect, that amongst the Olympic candidates
we can scarce find two or three who have gained a victory both when
boys and men: because the necessary exercises they went through when
young deprived them of their strength. When they have allotted three
years from the time of puberty to other parts of education, they are
then of a proper age to submit to labour and a regulated diet; for it
is impossible for the mind and body both to labour at the same time,
as they are productive of contrary evils to each other; the labour of
the body preventing the progress of the mind, and the mind of the
body.




CHAPTER V


With respect to music we have already spoken a little in a doubtful
manner upon this subject. It will be proper to go over again more
particularly what we then said, which may serve as an introduction to
what any other person may choose to offer thereon; for it is no easy
matter to distinctly point out what power it has, nor on what accounts
one should apply it, whether as an amusement and refreshment, as sleep
or wine; as these are nothing serious, but pleasing, and the killers
of care, as Euripides says; for which reason they class in the same
order and use for the same purpose all these, namely, sleep, wine, and
music, to which some add dancing; or shall we rather suppose that
music tends to be productive of virtue, having a power, as the
gymnastic exercises have to form the body in a certain way, to
influence the manners so as to accustom its professors to rejoice
rightly? or shall we say, that it is of any service in the conduct of
life, and an assistant to prudence? for this also is a third property
which has been attributed to it. Now that boys are not to be
instructed in it as play is evident; for those who learn don't play,
for to learn is rather troublesome; neither is it proper to permit
boys at their age to enjoy perfect leisure; for to cease to improve is
by no means fit for what is as yet imperfect; but it may be thought
that the earnest attention of boys in this art is for the sake of that
amusement they will enjoy when they come to be men and completely
formed; but, if this is the case, why are they themselves to learn it,
and not follow the practice of the kings of the Medes and Persians,
who enjoy the pleasure of music by hearing others play, and being
shown its beauties by them; for of necessity those must be better
skilled therein who make this science their particular study and
business, than those who have only spent so much time at it as was
sufficient just to learn the principles of it. But if this is a reason
for a child's being taught anything, they ought also to learn the art
of cookery, but this is absurd. The same doubt occurs if music has a
power of improving the manners; for why should they on this account
themselves learn it, and not reap every advantage of regulating the
passions or forming a judgment [1339b] on the merits of the
performance by hearing others, as the Lacedaemonians; for they,
without having ever learnt music, are yet able to judge accurately
what is good and what is bad; the same reasoning may be applied if
music is supposed to be the amusement of those who live an elegant and
easy life, why should they learn themselves, and not rather enjoy the
benefit of others' skill. Let us here consider what is our belief of
the immortal gods in this particular. Now we find the poets never
represent Jupiter himself as singing and playing; nay, we ourselves
treat the professors of these arts as mean people, and say that no one
would practise them but a drunkard or a buffoon. But probably we may
consider this subject more at large hereafter. The first question is,
whether music is or is not to make a part of education? and of those
three things which have been assigned as its proper employment, which
is the right? Is it to instruct, to amuse, or to employ the vacant
hours of those who live at rest? or may not all three be properly
allotted to it? for it appears to partake of them all; for play is
necessary for relaxation, and relaxation pleasant, as it is a medicine
for that uneasiness which arises from labour. It is admitted also that
a happy life must be an honourable one, and a pleasant one too, since
happiness consists in both these; and we all agree that music is one
of the most pleasing things, whether alone or accompanied with a
voice; as Musseus says, "Music's the sweetest joy of man;" for which
reason it is justly admitted into every company and every happy life,
as having the power of inspiring joy. So that from this any one may
suppose that it is necessary to instruct young persons in it; for all
those pleasures which are harmless are not only conducive to the final
end of life, but serve also as relaxations; and, as men are but rarely
in the attainment of that final end, they often cease from their
labour and apply to amusement, with no further view than to acquire
the pleasure attending it. It is therefore useful to enjoy such
pleasures as these. There are some persons who make play and amusement
their end, and probably that end has some pleasure annexed to it, but
not what should be; but while men seek the one they accept the other
for it; because there is some likeness in human actions to the end;
for the end is pursued for the sake of nothing else that attends it;
but for itself only; and pleasures like these are sought for, not on
account of what follows them, but on account of what has gone before
them, as labour and grief; for which reason they seek for happiness in
these sort of pleasures; and that this is the reason any one may
easily perceive. That music should be pursued, not on this account
only, but also as it is very serviceable during the hours of
relaxation from labour, probably no [1340a] one doubts; we should also
inquire whether besides this use it may not also have another of
nobler nature--and we ought not only to partake of the common pleasure
arising from it (which all have the sensation of, for music naturally
gives pleasure, therefore the use of it is agreeable to all ages and
all dispositions); but also to examine if it tends anything to improve
our manners and our souls. And this will be easily known if we feel
our dispositions any way influenced thereby; and that they are so is
evident from many other instances, as well as the music at the Olympic
games; and this confessedly fills the soul with enthusiasm; but
enthusiasm is an affection of the soul which strongly agitates the
disposition. Besides, all those who hear any imitations sympathise
therewith; and this when they are conveyed even without rhythm or
verse. Moreover, as music is one of those things which are pleasant,
and as virtue itself consists in rightly enjoying, loving, and hating,
it is evident that we ought not to learn or accustom ourselves to
anything so much as to judge right and rejoice in honourable manners
and noble actions. But anger and mildness, courage and modesty, and
their contraries, as well as all other dispositions of the mind, are
most naturally imitated by music and poetry; which is plain by
experience, for when we hear these our very soul is altered; and he
who is affected either with joy or grief by the imitation of any
objects, is in very nearly the same situation as if he was affected by
the objects themselves; thus, if any person is pleased with seeing a
statue of any one on no other account but its beauty, it is evident
that the sight of the original from whence it was taken would also be
pleasing; now it happens in the other senses there is no imitation of
manners; that is to say, in the touch and the taste; in the objects of
sight, a very little; for these are merely representations of things,
and the perceptions which they excite are in a manner common to all.
Besides, statues and paintings are not properly imitations of manners,
but rather signs and marks which show the body is affected by some
passion. However, the difference is not great, yet young men ought not
to view the paintings of Pauso, but of Polygnotus, or any other
painter or statuary who expresses manners. But in poetry and music
there are imitations of manners; and this is evident, for different
harmonies differ from each other so much by nature, that those who
hear them are differently affected, and are not in the same
disposition of mind when one is performed as when another is; the one,
for instance, occasions grief 13406 and contracts the soul, as the
mixed Lydian: others soften the mind, and as it were dissolve the
heart: others fix it in a firm and settled state, such is the power of
the Doric music only; while the Phrygian fills the soul with
enthusiasm, as has been well described by those who have written
philosophically upon this part of education; for they bring examples
of what they advance from the things themselves. The same holds true
with respect to rhythm; some fix the disposition, others occasion a
change in it; some act more violently, others more liberally. From
what has been said it is evident what an influence music has over the
disposition of the mind, and how variously it can fascinate it: and if
it can do this, most certainly it is what youth ought to be instructed
in. And indeed the learning of music is particularly adapted to their
disposition; for at their time of life they do not willingly attend to
anything which is not agreeable; but music is naturally one of the
most agreeable things; and there seems to be a certain connection
between harmony and rhythm; for which reason some wise men held the
soul itself to be harmony; others, that it contains it.




CHAPTER VI


We will now determine whether it is proper that children should be
taught to sing, and play upon any instrument, which we have before
made a matter of doubt. Now, it is well known that it makes a great
deal of difference when you would qualify any one in any art, for the
person himself to learn the practical part of it; for it is a thing
very difficult, if not impossible, for a man to be a good judge of
what he himself cannot do. It is also very necessary that children
should have some employment which will amuse them; for which reason
the rattle of Archytas seems well contrived, which they give children
to play with, to prevent their breaking those things which are about
the house; for at their age they cannot sit still: this therefore is
well adapted to infants, as instruction ought to be their rattle as
they grow up; hence it is evident that they should be so taught music
as to be able to practise it. Nor is it difficult to say what is
becoming or unbecoming of their age, or to answer the objections which
some make to this employment as mean and low. In the first place, it
is necessary for them to practise, that they may be judges of the art:
for which reason this should be done when they are young; but when
they are grown older the practical part may be dropped; while they
will still continue judges of what is excellent in the art, and take a
proper pleasure therein, from the knowledge they acquired of it in
their youth. As to the censure which some persons throw upon music, as
something mean and low, it is not difficult to answer that, if we will
but consider how far we propose those who are to be educated so as to
become good citizens should be instructed in this art, [1341a] and
what music and what rhythms they should be acquainted with; and also
what instruments they should play upon; for in these there is probably
a difference. Such then is the proper answer to that censure: for it
must be admitted, that in some cases nothing can prevent music being
attended, to a certain degree, with the bad effects which are ascribed
to it; it is therefore clear that the learning of it should never
prevent the business of riper years; nor render the body effeminate,
and unfit for the business of war or the state; but it should be
practised by the young, judged of by the old. That children may learn
music properly, it is necessary that they should not be employed in
those parts of it which are the objects of dispute between the masters
in that science; nor should they perform such pieces as are wondered
at from the difficulty of their execution; and which, from being first
exhibited in the public games, are now become a part of education; but
let them learn so much of it as to be able to receive proper pleasure
from excellent music and rhythms; and not that only which music must
make all animals feel, and also slaves and boys, but more. It is
therefore plain what instruments they should use; thus, they should
never be taught to play upon the flute, or any other instrument which
requires great skill, as the harp or the like, but on such as will
make them good judges of music, or any other instruction: besides, the
flute is not a moral instrument, but rather one that will inflame the
passions, and is therefore rather to be used when the soul is to be
animated than when instruction is intended. Let me add also, that
there is something therein which is quite contrary to what education
requires; as the player on the flute is prevented from speaking: for
which reason our forefathers very properly forbade the use of it to
youth and freemen, though they themselves at first used it; for when
their riches procured them greater leisure, they grew more animated in
the cause of virtue; and both before and after the Median war their
noble actions so exalted their minds that they attended to every part
of education; selecting no one in particular, but endeavouring to
collect the whole: for which reason they introduced the flute also, as
one of the instruments they were to learn to play on. At Lacedaemon
the choregus himself played on the flute; and it was so common at
Athens that almost every freeman understood it, as is evident from the
tablet which Thrasippus dedicated when he was choregus; but afterwards
they rejected it as dangerous; having become better judges of what
tended to promote virtue and what did not. For the same reason many of
the ancient instruments were thrown aside, as the dulcimer and the
lyre; as also those which were to inspire those who played on them
with pleasure, and which required a nice finger and great skill to
play well on. What the ancients tell us, by way of fable, of the flute
is indeed very rational; namely, that after Minerva had found it, she
threw it away: nor are they wrong who say that the goddess disliked it
for deforming the face of him who played thereon: not but that it is
more probable that she rejected it as the knowledge thereof
contributed nothing to the improvement of the mind. Now, we regard
Minerva as the inventress of arts and sciences. As we disapprove of a
child's being taught to understand instruments, and to play like a
master (which we would have confined to those who are candidates for
the prize in that science; for they play not to improve themselves in
virtue, but to please those who hear them, and gratify their
importunity); therefore we think the practice of it unfit for freemen;
but then it should be confined to those who are paid for doing it; for
it usually gives people sordid notions, for the end they have in view
is bad: for the impertinent spectator is accustomed to make them
change their music; so that the artists who attend to him regulate
their bodies according to his motions.




CHAPTER VII


We are now to enter into an inquiry concerning harmony and rhythm;
whether all sorts of these are to be employed in education, or whether
some peculiar ones are to be selected; and also whether we should give
the same directions to those who are engaged in music as part of
education, or whether there is something different from these two.
Now, as all music consists in melody and rhythm, we ought not to be
unacquainted with the power which each of these has in education; and
whether we should rather choose music in which melody prevails, or
rhythm: but when I consider how many things have been well written
upon these subjects, not only by some musicians of the present age,
but also by some philosophers who are perfectly skilled in that part
of music which belongs to education; we will refer those who desire a
very particular knowledge therein to those writers, and shall only
treat of it in general terms, without descending to particulars.
Melody is divided by some philosophers, whose notions we approve of,
into moral, practical, and that which fills the mind with enthusiasm:
they also allot to each of these a particular kind of harmony which
naturally corresponds therewith: and we say that music should not be
applied to one purpose only, but many; both for instruction and
purifying the soul (now I use the word purifying at present without
any explanation, but shall speak more at large of it in my Poetics);
and, in the third place, as an agreeable manner of spending the time
and a relaxation from the uneasiness of the mind. [1342a] It is
evident that all harmonies are to be used; but not for all purposes;
but the most moral in education: but to please the ear, when others
play, the most active and enthusiastic; for that passion which is to
be found very strong in some souls is to be met with also in all; but
the difference in different persons consists in its being in a less or
greater degree, as pity, fear, and enthusiasm also; which latter is so
powerful in some as to overpower the soul: and yet we see those
persons, by the application of sacred music to soothe their mind,
rendered as sedate and composed as if they had employed the art of the
physician: and this must necessarily happen to the compassionate, the
fearful, and all those who are subdued by their passions: nay, all
persons, as far as they are affected with those passions, admit of the
same cure, and are restored to tranquillity with pleasure. In the same
manner, all music which has the power of purifying the soul affords a
harmless pleasure to man. Such, therefore, should be the harmony and
such the music which those who contend with each other in the theatre
should exhibit: but as the audience is composed of two sorts of
people, the free and the well-instructed, the rude the mean mechanics,
and hired servants, and a long collection of the like, there must be
some music and some spectacles to please and soothe them; for as their
minds are as it were perverted from their natural habits, so also is
there an unnatural harmony, and overcharged music which is
accommodated to their taste: but what is according to nature gives
pleasure to every one, therefore those who are to contend upon the
theatre should be allowed to use this species of music. But in
education ethic melody and ethic harmony should be used, which is the
Doric, as we have already said, or any other which those philosophers
who are skilful in that music which is to be employed in education
shall approve of. But Socrates, in Plato's Republic, is very wrong
when he [1342b] permits only the Phrygian music to be used as well as
the Doric, particularly as amongst other instruments he banishes the
flute; for the Phrygian music has the same power in harmony as the
flute has amongst the instruments; for they are both pathetic and
raise the mind: and this the practice of the poets proves; for in
their bacchanal songs, or whenever they describe any violent emotions
of the mind, the flute is the instrument they chiefly use: and the
Phrygian harmony is most suitable to these subjects. Now, that the
dithyrambic measure is Phrygian is allowed by general consent; and
those who are conversant in studies of this sort bring many proofs of
it; as, for instance, when Philoxenus endeavoured to compose
dithyrambic music for Doric harmony, he naturally fell back again into
Phrygian, as being fittest for that purpose; as every one indeed
agrees, that the Doric music is most serious, and fittest to inspire
courage: and, as we always commend the middle as being between the two
extremes, and the Doric has this relation with respect to other
harmonies, it is evident that is what the youth ought to be instructed
in. There are two things to be taken into consideration, both what is
possible and what is proper; every one then should chiefly endeavour
to attain those things which contain both these qualities: but this is
to be regulated by different times of life; for instance, it is not
easy for those who are advanced in years to sing such pieces of music
as require very high notes, for nature points out to them those which
are gentle and require little strength of voice (for which reason some
who are skilful in music justly find fault with Socrates for
forbidding the youth to be instructed in gentle harmony; as if, like
wine, it would make them drunk, whereas the effect of that is to
render men bacchanals, and not make them languid): these therefore are
what should employ those who are grown old. Moreover, if there is any
harmony which is proper for a child's age, as being at the same time
elegant and instructive, as the Lydian of all others seems chiefly to
be-These then are as it were the three boundaries of education,
moderation, possibility, and decorum.