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第8节

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as the root of Oligarchy; when in nearly all true oligarchies

money…making is forbidden by law。  And finally the Platonic theory

neglects the different kinds of democracies and of tyrannies。



Now nothing can be more important than this passage in Aristotle's

POLITICS (v。 12。); which may he said to mark an era in the

evolution of historical criticism。  For there is nothing on which

Aristotle insists so strongly as that the generalisations from

facts ought to be added to the data of the A PRIORI method … a

principle which we know to be true not merely of deductive

speculative politics but of physics also:  for are not the residual

phenomena of chemists a valuable source of improvement in theory?



His own method is essentially historical though by no means

empirical。  On the contrary; this far…seeing thinker; rightly

styled IL MAESTRO DI COLOR CHE SANNO; may be said to have

apprehended clearly that the true method is neither exclusively

empirical nor exclusively speculative; but rather a union of both

in the process called Analysis or the Interpretation of Facts;

which has been defined as the application to facts of such general

conceptions as may fix the important characteristics of the

phenomena; and present them permanently in their true relations。

He too was the first to point out; what even in our own day is

incompletely appreciated; that nature; including the development of

man; is not full of incoherent episodes like a bad tragedy; that

inconsistency and anomaly are as impossible in the moral as they

are in the physical world; and that where the superficial observer

thinks he sees a revolution the philosophical critic discerns

merely the gradual and rational evolution of the inevitable results

of certain antecedents。



And while admitting the necessity of a psychological basis for the

philosophy of history; he added to it the important truth that man;

to be apprehended in his proper position in the universe as well as

in his natural powers; must be studied from below in the

hierarchical progression of higher function from the lower forms of

life。  The important maxim; that to obtain a clear conception of

anything we must 'study it in its growth from the very beginning;'

is formally set down in the opening of the POLITICS; where; indeed;

we shall find the other characteristic features of the modern

Evolutionary theory; such as the 'Differentiation of Function' and

the 'Survival of the Fittest' explicitly set forth。



What a valuable step this was in the improvement of the method of

historical criticism it is needless to point out。  By it; one may

say; the true thread was given to guide one's steps through the

bewildering labyrinth of facts。  For history (to use terms with

which Aristotle has made us familiar) may be looked at from two

essentially different standpoints; either as a work of art whose

'Greek text which cannot be reproduced' or final cause is external

to it and imposed on it from without; or as an organism containing

the law of its own development in itself; and working out its

perfection merely by the fact of being what it is。  Now; if we

adopt the former; which we may style the theological view; we shall

be in continual danger of tripping into the pitfall of some A

PRIORI conclusion … that bourne from which; it has been truly said;

no traveller ever returns。



The latter is the only scientific theory and was apprehended in its

fulness by Aristotle; whose application of the inductive method to

history; and whose employment of the evolutionary theory of

humanity; show that he was conscious that the philosophy of history

is nothing separate from the facts of history but is contained in

them; and that the rational law of the complex phenomena of life;

like the ideal in the world of thought; is to be reached through

the facts; not superimposed on them … 'Greek text which cannot be

reproduced'。



And finally; in estimating the enormous debt which the science of

historical criticism owes to Aristotle; we must not pass over his

attitude towards those two great difficulties in the formation of a

philosophy of history on which I have touched above。  I mean the

assertion of extra…natural interference with the normal development

of the world and of the incalculable influence exercised by the

power of free will。



Now; as regards the former; he may be said to have neglected it

entirely。  The special acts of providence proceeding from God's

immediate government of the world; which Herodotus saw as mighty

landmarks in history; would have been to him essentially disturbing

elements in that universal reign of law; the extent of whose

limitless empire he of all the great thinkers of antiquity was the

first explicitly to recognise。



Standing aloof from the popular religion as well as from the deeper

conceptions of Herodotus and the Tragic School; he no longer

thought of God as of one with fair limbs and treacherous face

haunting wood and glade; nor would he see in him a jealous judge

continually interfering in the world's history to bring the wicked

to punishment and the proud to a fall。  God to him was the

incarnation of the pure Intellect; a being whose activity was the

contemplation of his own perfection; one whom Philosophy might

imitate but whom prayers could never move; to the sublime

indifference of whose passionless wisdom what were the sons of men;

their desires or their sins?  While; as regards the other

difficulty and the formation of a philosophy of history; the

conflict of free will with general laws appears first in Greek

thought in the usual theological form in which all great ideas seem

to be cradled at their birth。



It was such legends as those of OEdipus and Adrastus; exemplifying

the struggles of individual humanity against the overpowering force

of circumstances and necessity; which gave to the early Greeks

those same lessons which we of modern days draw; in somewhat less

artistic fashion; from the study of statistics and the laws of

physiology。



In Aristotle; of course; there is no trace of supernatural

influence。  The Furies; which drive their victim into sin first and

then punishment; are no longer 'viper…tressed goddesses with eyes

and mouth aflame;' but those evil thoughts which harbour within the

impure soul。  In this; as in all other points; to arrive at

Aristotle is to reach the pure atmosphere of scientific and modern

thought。



But while he rejected pure necessitarianism in its crude form as

essentially a REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM of life; he was fully conscious

of the fact that the will is not a mysterious and ultimate unit of

force beyond which we cannot go and whose special characteristic is

inconsistency; but a certain creative attitude of the mind which

is; from the first; continually influenced by habits; education and

circumstance; so absolutely modifiable; in a word; that the good

and the bad man alike seem to lose the power of free will; for the

one is morally unable to sin; the other physically incapacitated

for reformation。



And of the influence of climate and temperature in forming the

nature of man (a conception perhaps pressed too far in modern days

when the 'race theory' is supposed to be a sufficient explanation

of the Hindoo; and the latitude and longitude of a country the best

guide to its morals(6)) Aristotle is completely unaware。  I do not

allude to such smaller points as the oligarchical tendencies of a

horse…breeding country and the democratic influence of the

proximity of the sea (important though they are for the

consideration of Greek history); but rather to those wider views in

the seventh book of his POLITICS; where he attributes the happy

union in the Greek character of intellectual attainments with the

spirit of progress to the temperate climate they enjoyed; and

points out how the extreme cold of the north dulls the mental

faculties of its inhabitants and renders them incapable of social

organisation or extended empire; while to the enervating heat of

eastern countries was due that want of spirit and bravery which

then; as now; was the characteristic of the population in that

quarter of the globe。



Thucydides has shown the causal connection between political

revolutions and the fertility of the soil; but goes a step farther

and points out the psychological influences on a people's character

exercised by the various extremes of climate … in both cases the

first appearance of a most valuable form of historical criticism。



To the development of Dialectic; as to God; intervals of time are

of no account。  From Plato and Aristotle we pass direct to

Polybius。



The progress of thought from the philosopher of the Academe to the

Arcadian historian may be best illustrated by a comparison of the

method by which each of the three writers; whom I have selected as

the highest expression of the rationalism of his respective age;

attaine

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