The Greek view of life PDF
Preview The Greek view of life
Routledge Revivals The Greek View of Life First published in 1896 (this twenty-third edition in 1957), this book provides a general introduction to Greek literature and thought. Among the subjects dealt with are the Greek view of religion, the state and its relation to the citizen, law, artisans and slaves, manual labour, trade and art. This page intentionally left blank The Greek View of Life G. Lowes Dickinson With a Preface by E. M. Forster Firstpublishedin1886 Twenty-thirdeditionpublishedin1957 byMethuen&Co.LTD Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2016byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN andbyRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©1957Methuen&Co.LTD TherightofG.LowesDickinsontobeidentifiedasauthorofthiswork has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without permission in writingfromthepublishers. Publisher’sNote The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprintbutpointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmay beapparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomescorrespondencefromthosetheyhavebeenunabletocontact. ISBN13:978-1-138-95785-5(hbk) ISBN13:978-1-315-66148-3(ebk) G. Lowes Dickinson THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE WITH A PREFACE BY E. M. FORSTER M ETHUEN & CO LTD 36 ESSEX ST • STRAND • LONDON WC2 First published i8g6 Reprinted twenty-two times Twenty-third edition 1957 23-1 CATALOGUE NO 3327/u PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY JARROLD AND SONS LTD NORWICH Preface In his unpublished 4 Recollections ’ Lowes Dickin son describes the genesis of this little work: 4 It came to me in our dining-room at All Souls Place, in the old armchair now long vanished from my life—who bought it, I wonder? Does it still exist ? ’ When he sat in that chair he was a Cambridge don in his early thirties, whose main job was the teach ing of Political Science, and whose previous books had been about modern France or Parliamentary institutions. He had been brought up on Latin and Greek it is true, but in a stupid and wasteful way, the classics had meant little to him, and had some times bored him, and it was only when he got away from them, and studied contemporary affairs that he began to discover what they meant. The ancients are modern. That, in brief, was his discovery. They are modern because many of their problems are ours, and have been expressed, parti cularly in Athens, with a lucidity beyond our power. We cannot be lucid, we are too much involved. Our passions colour our judgments— and are bound to, otherwise we shouldn’t be alive. Ancient Greece has the advantage of being remote from us in time ; we can therefore study it with detachment, and we can bring back from it help VI THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE for our problems to-day. Greece hadn’t science, it is true, and she had no global commitments, but she encompassed within the tiny circuit of her city states much that affects and afflicts the modern man in his relationship to society. And because her writers were intelligent and because they were sensitive, she has been able to send us news on these urgent matters which is still fresh, although it is over two thousand years old. That was one of the considerations that occurred to Lowes Dickinson when he sat down to write The Greek View of Life: the political consideration. He was a student of politics right up to his old age (when he produced The International Anarchy) and he naturally gives space to them in this work of his youth. But it was not his only consideration. Greece was not just a convenient laboratory for the social scientist. The joy of living and the greatness of existence were also to be found there. Greek literature combined beauty and depth, wisdom and wit, gaiety and insight, speculation and ecstasy, carnality and spirit ; it had variety; it had construc tional power ; it was the greatest literature the world had yet produced. There was one disadvan tage attached to it. It could only be read by people who had sweated at the language for years, and they generally could not read it as well as they pre tended. Translations were therefore imperative. And whilst admitting that most translations impair the colouring, and even distort the proportions, he preferred them to nothing at all. His book might be called an introduction to translations. It is an PREFACE Vll attempt to show the non-expert the character and environment of hidden treasures and to leave him among them. In his own judgment he succeeded : ‘ I think I have got hold of the central thing, the thing that makes Greek of permanent value to civilisation \ The four sections of the book deal with the Greek attitude towards Religion : towards the State : towards the Individual : towards Art. Religion is a puzzler : all-pervading yet having little connection with what the Christian regards as faith or as conscience ; mainly concerned with making Man feel at home in this world, and offering him only the vaguest intimations of immortality. The State is a puzzler of another sort ; unthinkably small, so small that the people in it know each other person ally, and the same citizen could be farmer, judge, legislator, soldier, etc. The Individual is easier to grasp, but remains definitely b.c. : if fortunate, he is well-to-do and healthy and so can enjoy the operations of his body and his mind and can con tact other fortunate individuals ; his life is not a preparation for a better one, and the end of it is regrettable unless he has become unfortunate. And Art : art is aesthetic, but it is also ethical ; it is individual but it is also social, for the reason that the individual is closely integrated in his city- state. The above is a most crude summary. Still it may help the reader to start off on the four sections. He will notice that Dickinson says nothing of the origins of Greek civilization : it was not his purpose to do
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