1

be allowed to practice this lower sort of music before an audience of a lower type. But, for the purposes of education, as I have already said, those modes and melodies. should be employed which are ethical, such as the Dorian; though we may include any others which are approved by philosophers who have had a musical education. The Socrates of the Republic 1 is wrong in retaining only the Phrygian mode along with the Dorian, and the more so because he rejects the flute; for the Phrygian is to the modes what the flute is to musical instruments - both of them are exciting and emotional. Poetry proves this, for Bacchic frenzy and all similar emotions are most suitably expressed by the flute, and are better set to the Phrygian than to any 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 1 Cf. Plato, Republic, III. 399.

are intoxicating, not in the ordinary sense of intoxication

excite men), but because they And so with a view to a time

(for wine rather tends to have no strength in them. of life when men begin to grow old, they ought to practice 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.

III. XENOPHON.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Xenophon, the Greek historian and essayist, was born at Athens about 430 B. C. Early in life he came under the influence of Socrates, to whom, in the "Memorabilia,” he pays an affectionate tribute. This work shows that it was the moral and practical teachings of the philosopher, rather than his metaphysical speculations, that made a deep impression on the disciple.

In 401 B. C. Xenophon joined the expedition of the younger Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes II. of Persia. After the battle of Cunaxa, in which Cyrus was killed, Xenophon directed the retreat of the Greeks, of which he has left a detailed account in his "Anabasis." It was chiefly due to his courage and skill that the Grecian force, after numerous dangers and hardships, finally made its escape.

After his return to Greece, Xenophon made his home in Sparta. He admired the institutions of that country, and had his children educated under the Spartan system. While living in retirement near Olympia he wrote his principal works. His "Cyropædia," from which the first of the following selections is taken, is a historical romance rather than sober history. Xenophon uses the Persian king to illustrate his own views of education, which do not essentially differ from the system of Sparta.

In his "Economics," which treats of the management of the household and farm, Xenophon presents a pleasing picture of the Greek wife and of her domestic duties. Un

like his "Cyropædia," it is Athenian in spirit, and limits the sphere of woman to domestic duties. It is from this work, which clearly brings before us the education of Athenian women, that the second selection is taken.

SELECTION FROM THE "CYROPÆDIA" OF
XENOPHON.

CHAPTER II.

1. Cyrus is said to have had for his father Cambyses, king of the Persians. Cambyses was of the race of Perseida, who were so called from Perseus. It is agreed that he was born of a mother named Mandane; and Mandane was the daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. Cyrus is described, and is still celebrated by the Barbarians, as having been most handsome in person, most humane in disposition, most eager for knowledge, and most ambitious of honor; so that he would undergo any labor and face any danger for the sake of obtaining praise. 2. Such is the constitution of mind and body that he is recorded to have had; and he was educated in conformity with the laws of the Persians.

These laws seem to begin with a provident care for the common good; not where they begin in most other governments; for most governments, leaving each individual to educate his children as he pleases, and the advanced in age to live as they please, enjoin their people not to steal, not to plunder, not to enter a house by violence, not to strike any one whom it is wrong to strike, not to be adulterous, not to disobey the magistrates, and other such things in like manner; and, if people transgress any of these precepts, they impose punishments upon them. 3. But the Persian laws, by anticipation, are careful to provide from the beginning, that their citizens shall not

be such as to be inclined to any action that is bad and mean. This care they take in the following manner. They have an Agora, called the Free, where the king's palace and other houses for magistrates are built; all things for sale, and the dealers in them, their cries and coarsenesses, are banished from hence to some other place; that the disorder of these may not interfere with the regularity of those who are under instruction. 4. This Agora, round the public courts, is divided into four parts; of these, one is for the boys, one for the youth, one for the full-grown men, and one for those who are beyond the years for military service. Each of these divisions, according to the law, attend in their several quarters; the boys and fullgrown men as soon as it is day; the elders when they think convenient, except upon appointed days, when they are obliged to be present. The youth pass the night round the courts, in their light arms, except such as are married; for these are not required to do so, unless orders have been previously given them; nor is it becoming in them to be often absent. 5. Over each of the classes there are twelve presidents, for there are twelve distinct tribes of the Persians. Those over the boys are chosen from amongst the elders, and are such as are thought likely to make them the best boys; those over the youth are chosen from amongst the full-grown men, and are such as are thought likely to make them the best youth; and over the full-grown men, such as are thought likely to render them the most expert in performing their appointed duties, and in executing the orders given by the chief magistrate. There are likewise chosen presidents over the elders, who take care that these also perform their duties. What it is prescribed to each age to do, we shall relate, that it may be the better understood how the Persians take precautions that excellent citizens may be produced.