OUTLINE

I. General introduction. Poetry renders philosophy attractive to young men; therefore, even though it embraces things bad as well as good, it is to be studied, and the youth is to exercise his judgment in discriminating between true and false ideas.

II. Introductory principle. Poets deceive, sometimes wittingly, sometimes unwittingly; wittingly, by the use of invented plots, dramatic devices, and characters who live or speak untruthfully; unwittingly, by giving expression to erroneous, though sincere, ideas.

III. Again, poetry is an imitative art, and the imitation. is good or bad according as the object is faithfully or unfaithfully reproduced.

IV. The young man is to observe whether the poet indicates his own attitude toward the words and acts of his characters; the poet may do this by embodying his own explanations in the context, or he may make his characters pass judgment upon one another, or he may teach his lessons by the fate which attends his characters. Further, disgusting speeches which for any reason are not refuted in the context may be canceled by contradictory sentiments from the same author; if this cannot be done, then by contradictory sentiments from other authors.

V. The youth is to study the phrasing in order to get the exact meaning of a passage.

VI. He is to study a word which admits of more than one interpretation, as ἀρετή, εὐδαιμονία, in order to discover in just what sense it is used.

VII. Certain principles from Aristotle. The effectiveness of poetry as an imitative art lies in probability, and in likeness to reality. Consequently, to secure variety and

complication, reversals of fortune are employed, and these necessitate characters capable of error.

VIII. Therefore the youth must not accept unchallenged the words of a character, nor put his stamp of approval on all, but must boldly and confidently distinguish between the good and bad acts of a man.

IX. It is most important to inquire the poet's reason for every utterance; if this is not done, the young man will be victimized by absurd and vicious declarations.

X. He should not overlook the half-hidden excellencies in a poem, such as the difference between the actions of a gentleman and of a boor in similar situations, or between the conduct of Greeks and of barbarians.

XI. While one reads poetry to cull the flowers of history, and another to enjoy the beauty of the diction, the lover of honor and virtue should read it to dwell upon examples of manliness, temperance, and justice.

XII. Passages which look very suspicious from one point of view, may contain good lessons if viewed from another; but if they allow of no good interpretation, what hinders us from so altering the thought that it may conform to our ideas?

XIII. Generalizations are not to be confined to the one specific thing to which they are at first applied by the poet, but should be transferred to other things of a like character; this will help young men to become familiar with truth, and so teach them self-control and generosity.

XIV. The refined and helpful sentiments found in poetry should be strengthened by comparison with the teachings of philosophy. Indeed, if we wed poetry to philosophy we rob it of its fictitious element and lend it seriousness.

Conclusion. Young men need to be guided in their reading, in order that their study of poetry may serve as the natural and pleasing introduction to philosophy.

HOW A YOUNG MAN SHOULD STUDY POETRY

I

Whether or not, Marcus Sedatus, the saying of Philoxenus1 the poet be true, that the most savory meat and fish are those which are not meat and fish at all, we would leave to the judgment of those to whom Cato said that their palates were more sensitive than their hearts. But a statement that strikes me as admitting of no controversy is, that very young men enjoy the most those philosophical precepts which are not delivered in philosophical and serious form, and that such they accept and adopt. For not only the fables of Aesop and the fictions of poets, but the Abaris of Heraclides and Ariston's Lyco, and, if they are embodied in fiction, the doctrines relating to the soul, are read with keen zest from cover to cover. Wherefore not only are they to observe due moderation in the pleasures of eating and drinking, but still further in their hearing and reading must they become accustomed to indulge in pleasure merely as a relish, and to seek for the useful and the wholesome. For barred gates do not secure a city if a single entrance is open to the enemy, nor does continence in the pleasures of the other senses save a youth if he unwittingly betrays himself through the ear. And the

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1 Dithyrambic poet (435-380 B.C.) of Cythera. The Banquet, fragments of which survive, gives an account of the luxury of the Sicilian table.

9 Learned author, born probably 378 B.C., who studied under Plato and Aristotle, accepted the Pythagorean philosophy, and wrote on philosophy, natural science, mathematics, music, grammar, history and poetry.

3 Stoic philosopher, about 275 B.C., who taught at Athens. Ariston maintained that the chief good consists in indifference to everything except virtue and vice.

* See Introduction, pp. 29–31 and notes.

better his grasp of the products of thought and reason, the more, if care be not taken, is he injured and corrupted.1

Since now it is not possible, nor perhaps desirable, to prevent young men of the size of my Soclarus and your Cleandrus from reading the poets, let us keep a very careful watch over them, as they have more need of guidance in their reading than in their walks. Accordingly it occurred to me to send you in writing the discourse concerning poetry which I had occasion to deliver recently. Please run through it yourself; and if you find it worth at least as much as the so-called amethyst-plant, which some men wear in their drinking-bouts as a charm against drunkenness, then hand it to Cleandrus, and thus charm him betimes, making sure of his tastes and affections; they will prove the more tractable to such an appeal, since the boy is no dunce, but thoroughly observant and quick to learn.

'In the head of the polypus dwell both good and ill;” the plant is very good to eat, but, they say, disturbs one's sleep with confused and unnatural dreams. Likewise in poetry there is much good and nutritious food for a young man's mind, which becomes no less a source of confusion and distraction to him if his study of poetry is not guided aright. For of poetry as of Egypt it may be said, that, for those using its products, it yields 'herbs in greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup and many baneful." "Therein are love, and desire, and loving enticement, that steals the wits even of the wise.'4 Indeed the charms of poetry do not appeal to those who are altogether stupid and void of understanding. Wherefore to one who asked Simonides,"

1 See Plutarch, Symposiacs vii. 5; That we ought to Preserve Ourselves from Pleasure arising from Bad Music; where, though at greater length, the same ideas are expressed and even the same illustrations are employed. Schlemm, 8-13, argues that Plutarch is here influenced by the ideas of the Peripatetics, and quotes at length from Aristotle. See Plato, Repub. iii. 387. 2 See Plutarch, Symposiacs viii. 10. 1. 4 Il. xiv. 216.

3 Odys. iv. 230.

5 One of the great lyric poets (556?-468? B.C.); noted for the tenderness and sympathy of his poems. 'His sunny temper and his easy philosophy of life made him welcome wherever his vocation called him.'