CHAPTER VI

THE SYSTEMATIC PERIOD (399 B. C.–322 B. C.)

=The Waning of the Greek National Spirit.= The Systematic Period extends from the death of Socrates to the death of Aristotle. It is only seventy-seven years long――about the same length as the Anthropological and half as long as the Cosmological Period. It begins with those sorry days after the Peloponnesian War and ends with the supremacy of Macedonian power. The period was filled with ferocious wars among the Grecian cities. First came the supremacy of Sparta, then of Thebes (371–362 B. C.), then the invasion by Philip of Macedon and the battle of Chæronea, 338 B. C. In 334 B. C. Alexander the Great began the conquest of the Orient, which he accomplished in two years. He thought by this that he could reunite the Greeks in a common cause. He failed for two reasons. In the first place, as a Macedonian the Greeks would not take him as a national representative. In the second place, the Greek spirit was waning. The people had lost their glorious ideals. Decay had set in. The worm was at the root of Greek life. Greek art, literature, and statesmanship had passed.

=The Place of the Three Systematic Philosophers in Greek History.= Nevertheless, when Greek national life was approaching dissolution, science ripened its richest fruits and created its most comprehensive systems of philosophy. These are connected with the names of Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle. These great systems evidently cannot be accounted for by the social conditions in which they appear. Neither the need nor the demand of the disrupted Greece of these years would be a sufficient cause to explain the appearance of a Plato or an Aristotle. The interests of the Greek people became narrower as the interests of the Greek philosophers became more broadly human. The intellectual tendency of this short period was utilitarian and practical. The problems that now interested the Athenians were the details of mechanics, physiology, rhetoric, and politics. The field of science was now for the first time systematized to logic, ethics, and physics――a classification which, we shall find, will exist for many centuries. Sparta and Macedonia, not Athens and Abdera, represent the spirit of the period.

If then Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle do not reflect the time in which they live, what relation do they bear to Greek civilization? They are not isolated and out of all relation to the life of the Greek people. On the contrary, they are the most comprehensive and the most profound expression of Greek life. One turns to them as the most perfect representation of Greek culture. They are the intimate expression of Greek thought, even if not of contemporaneous Greek thought. They are the final statements of the two preceding periods, projected into a time that had other interests. Democritus brought the Cosmological movement to a close, was its final expression, and gave it systematic form. Plato did the same for the Anthropological Period. In Aristotle the systematic cosmology of Democritus and the systematic ethics of Plato find a new meaning, in a closer union, under a more coördinating principle. Aristotle was the last possible word of Greek philosophy, for he systematized every branch known to the Greeks. He not only evolved a speculative theory of the whole, but he organized the special sciences. It must be further said that no one of these three great Greeks could have produced the results each did produce, if each had not been the leader of a school of many workers. Within each school there must have been vigorous coöperation along lines according to the inclination of the individual members. Thus each school collected a vast amount of material which was worked over according to the method and purpose of the leader.

=The Fundamental Principle of the Systematic Period.= At the beginning of this book attention was called to the difference between Greek, Mediæval, and Modern thought. Greek thought was characterized as objective. It is important to reiterate this objective significance of Greek thought at this point, when we are about to discuss the teachings of Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle. Plato’s theory is often called an idealism and Democritus’ theory materialism, but they are not the idealism and materialism of modern times. No terms have fluctuated in their meanings more than such philosophical terms as these, as can be judged from the fact that in the Middle Ages Plato’s doctrine was called realism. The Greeks were not idealists in the sense that Berkeley and Hegel were idealists. In general, it should be remembered that when we speak of Greek art, Greek politics, Greek philosophy as idealistic, they are not idealistic in the modern sense.[19]

The open-minded Greek sought to picture, to ascertain, to present. He was not dominated by the wish to show how things should be. To know and to understand, to explain by understanding the abiding reason in things, to find out the fundamental principle in things rather than to adjust it to the personal desires――this was the objective attitude of mind of the Greeks. The Greek saw before he reasoned; he visualized his thought in form before he subjected the form to rational analysis. The cosmos was a harmony and an art before which he stood in contemplation rather than in criticism. Human elements were found in it everywhere, but only as parts of that cosmos. “The unity of the spiritual and the natural, which Greek thought demands and presupposes, is the direct unbroken unity of the classic theory of the world.”[20]

By whatever names the great theories of the Systematic Period are called, we must remember that they did not depart from this objective Greek point of view. At certain times the moorings of Greek thought seem about to be shifted, as when Plato passes beyond the ancient Greek attitude and anticipates Christian morality by flight from the world of sense, and when Aristotle elaborates his doctrine of a transcendent god. But the tie never breaks, and the Systematic philosophers remain Greek and not modern. They have the Greek objective attitude of mind. The inner consciousness does not stand with its attestations over against all other things. The greatest of these philosophers never thought of himself but as “bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh” of the world surrounding him. In art the classic Greek “could obey but not surpass nature”; in religion he worshiped beings that were only superior human beings; in politics he was a member of a social whole. To Æschylus, Pericles, Socrates, Protagoras, Aristophanes, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle alike, human nature is a part of the world and not _vice versa_. The Greek mind interpreted nature rather than recreated it.

What, then, is the nature of the development of Greek thought, and in what respect does the Greek Systematic philosophy differ from the philosophy of the Greek Cosmologists? Greek philosophy in the Cosmological Period starts with a conception of an objective harmony of nature and spirit which is called hylozoism. Step by step in the Anthropological and Systematic Periods that harmony becomes broken into a dualism of mind and matter. The philosophy of this Systematic Period is a dualism of the parts of one objective world, not a subjective-objective antithesis. The realm of spirit lies side by side with that of nature, and the separation and alienation never reached the complete form that it did in the Middle Ages. The great Greek Systematizers in part represent this dualistic tendency, in part are a scientific effort to overcome it. “In spite of this tendency [to a dualism] the original presupposition [a harmony between nature and spirit] asserts itself in decisive traits; and we shall find that the true cause of its incapacity to reconcile these contradictions satisfactorily lies in its refusal to abandon that presupposition. When that [unity] is canceled, there remains to it no possible way of filling up a chasm which, according to its own standpoint, cannot exist.”[21]

=A Summary of Greek Philosophy.= At this point a summary of Greek objective philosophy will be helpful. The philosophical problem that had been working itself out since Thales had been this: How may we think the Being that abides amid the changes of phenomena? The Cosmologists scrutinized physical nature and, without differentiating nature and spirit, conceived abiding Being to be living matter. The Anthropologists (except Socrates) doubted if there is any abiding Being. Among the Systematic Philosophers a dualism for the first time appears. Nature and spirit are differentiated, but both remain entirely objective. Democritus regarded the material universe as abiding Being, but in so large a way as to be able to construct upon it a psychology and an ethics. Plato found abiding Being in the realm of the spirit, in a group of moral and æsthetic entities. Aristotle attempts to overcome the opposition between materialism and Platonism. To him abiding Being is neither physical nature nor the spirit apart from physical nature. Abiding Being to Aristotle is the spirit _in_ nature.

=Greek Philosophy (objective).=

1. The Cosmologists――Hylozoism. Abiding Being is living nature――some form of living matter.

2. The Anthropologists――Relativism (except Socrates). Being is not abiding, but consists of transitory mental states. This is a form of what was called by the schoolmen Nominalism, and summed up by the phrase _Universalia post rem_.

3. The Systematic Philosophers. Democritus――Materialism. Being consists in material atoms, but regarded in so large a way as to furnish a basis for a psychology and an ethics.

Plato――Objective Idealism. Being consists of permanent moral and æsthetic concepts or types. In mediæval philosophy Platonism was called realism and was summed up by the phrase _Universalia ante rem_.

Aristotle――Conceptualism. The abiding Being does not consist of material atoms nor in spiritual types apart from matter, but is an unfolding essence _in_ matter. This was usually called conceptualism by the Schoolmen, and was summed up by the phrase _Universalia in re_. Aristotle’s conception was as difficult as it was important. He was not always clearly a conceptualist, but sometimes appeared in the rôle of an “objective realist.”

=Democritus and Plato――Their Similarities and Differences.= The materialism of Democritus and the idealism of Plato were as opposed as was possible within the realm of Greek thought. We must not exaggerate their similarities, but they had at least four common characteristics.

_Their Similarities._

1. Both develop an outspoken rationalism,[22] which starts as a reaction from the perception theory of Protagoras. They agree with Protagoras that perception cannot yield truth, and so they turn away from perception to the reason to find true knowledge.

2. Both develop a world of twofold reality. Perceptions are not regarded by them as illusions, although perceptions are transitory. Both make a new estimate of perceptions, and give to the world of perceptions a relative value. There are therefore two kinds of reality: the relative reality of the world of perceptions and the absolute reality of the world of reason. The result in both is a broad theory of knowledge.

3. In both, reality consists in a plural number of objective norms. Both reach their conception of these norms in the same way. The changing qualities of things are stripped away and the true reality is discovered beneath. Both designate this true form by the same word, idea (ἰδέα). To both, the forms are objective entities.

4. Both are attempts to overcome scientifically the dualism which had emerged from the former hylozoism of Greek thought.

_Their Differences――The Development of the Meaning of Idea._ 1. But the forms or ideas are so vitally different in the doctrines of these two philosophers that they have nothing in common save the name. On the one hand, Democritus took the word “idea” just as he found it in popular speech. It is the shape of a visible thing, the geometrical form of physical objects. It gets no new content in his hands, but is merely the physical atom. With Plato, however, the word gets a new meaning. He fills the form or idea with an ethical content. The idea as a quantity becomes now a quality. The idea becomes an Idea. The forms of Plato are logical species and teleological causes, while the forms of Democritus are atom-complexes.[23] In both philosophers they are the norms of reality. But while Democritus still keeps his forms as the realities of physical nature, Plato conceives his forms to be true realities of objective human nature.

2. This vital difference between the two philosophers may get some explanation from the difference in the philosophical inheritance of each. To be sure, they were contemporaries, both being born in the Anthropological Period and both doing their most mature work in the Systematic Period. Both, too, were acquainted with the philosophy of the preceding time. But the ethical teaching of Socrates dominated Plato, and through it he became the legitimate perfecter of the Greek enlightenment and the anthropological movement. But what was the influence of Socrates upon Democritus? It seems to have been nothing. Why is Plato absolutely silent about Democritus when he mentions other Greek philosophers? No one has yet been able to say. Democritus stands at Abdera isolated from the ethical movement at Athens. The only influence upon him from that movement came from Protagoras, who was a member of the school at Abdera. Democritus is the finisher of the Cosmological movement.

=The Life of Democritus= (460–370 B. C.). Democritus was twenty years younger than Protagoras, about ten years younger than Socrates, and a generation older than Plato. He was outlived by Plato; and Aristotle was a young man when Democritus died. He was therefore contemporary with the intellectual movement going on in Greece, with Athens as a centre. While he does not appear to have come under the influence of Socrates, he was well acquainted with the destructive epistemology of the Sophists. Abdera, where he lived, is in Thrace, and seems to have been outside the Anthropological movement at Athens. The school of Leucippus was at Abdera; and Democritus was instructed in the Sophistic doctrine directly from Protagoras, who was a member of the Atomistic school before going to Athens. The three Systematic philosophers were wide travelers, Democritus not less than Plato and Aristotle. He traveled extensively through Greece, Egypt, and the Orient. He then returned to Abdera and began his scientific activity. He remained five years in Egypt, and came to know the greater part of western Asia. He returned to Abdera about 420 B. C., and therefore did not begin his teaching before he was forty years old. The length of time that Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle took for their apprenticeship, and the advanced age before they began their mastership, is remarkable. Democritus was the greatest investigator of nature in antiquity, and Aristotle used much of Democritus’ work for his own scientific writings. The ancients admired the writings of Democritus, and the loss of them in the fourth century after Christ is one of the most lamentable that has happened to the literary documents of antiquity. His works were extraordinary in number, and upon every known subject.

Democritus was the real exponent of the Atomistic school. The founder, Leucippus, belonged to the Cosmological Period; Protagoras, the Sophist, belonged to the Anthropological Period, and had great influence in the development of the school at Abdera; but Democritus, in systematizing the doctrines of Leucippus and in accepting the perception theory of Protagoras, became its most notable representative. He was the great systematizer of the Cosmologists, and yet he differed from all the Cosmologists in embodying in his theory the results of the Sophistic movement.

=The Comprehensiveness of the Aim of Democritus.= The reconstruction of the philosophy of Democritus has always been difficult for the historian because, from the originally great mass of his writings, only fragments remain. The fragments show, however, many interesting things: that he covered the entire range of experience in his investigations; that he was quite as much interested in psychical as in physical problems; that his contribution to epistemology was even greater than to physics; and that he was interested in the atomic theory because he believed that it was a working hypothesis for the explanation of experience of every kind. This last characteristic shows the systematic nature of his work and his right to stand with Plato and Aristotle. Democritus fully realized that the task of science was to explain experiences through a conception of reality. So he constructed his conception of the atom in order that he might explain phenomena intelligibly. He saw that no conception strange to experience or against experience, like the Eleatic Being, would answer scientific demands. A rational conception of absolute reality will have value only as experience testifies to it and, on the other hand, as it explains experience. Democritus valued his theory of the atoms because it seemed to explain all phenomena. This construction of a single fundamental rational principle for all kinds of phenomena shows how much more of a systematic scientist he was than the Cosmologists.

=The Enriched Physics of Democritus――Hylozoism becomes Materialism.= There is so great enrichment in elaboration and generalization in the physical doctrine of Democritus over that of Leucippus that it amounts to a change in principle. In all probability Leucippus, like other Cosmologists, was a hylozoist, and did not differentiate matter and life. He is to be grouped with the Reconcilers, or even with the Eleatics, rather than with Democritus. Democritus was a materialist. The period of forty years between himself and Leucippus had been the rich period of the introduction of psychological investigation and of the discrimination of psychical from physical processes. Materialism or spiritualism is not possible in the historical development of the human mind until it passes through just such a period of differentiation as the Sophistic Enlightenment. Before such a period there is animism and hylozoism; after such a period there is materialism and spiritualism of various sorts. Matter must be discriminated from spirit before one of the terms can be reduced to the other. So the hylozoistic pluralism of Leucippus became in the hands of Democritus a realistic materialism, pluralistic as well.

The reduction of all phenomena by Democritus to a _mechanics of atoms_ was theoretically an enrichment of physics, for it anticipated the underlying principle of modern physics. The apparent qualities of things and the qualitative changes of things are conceived by Democritus to be in truth only a quantitative relation of atoms. He set before himself the task of explaining in detail how this or that quality consists of atoms in mechanical motion. The mental life of man must be explained in the same way. So too, wherever he could, he emphasized more sharply than his predecessors the mechanical necessity of the movement of atoms. Impact caused by contact of the atoms was the cause of every occurrence and change. No event is to be explained as the manifestation of some spirit, or referred to some spiritual agency. Mechanical cause is behind every event; mechanical cause is the unifying principle of the doctrine of Democritus; mechanical cause is the reason for the chasm between the philosophy of Plato, of Aristotle, and that of Democritus. It is the reason, too, why the theory of Democritus was obscured until modern times. All teleological conceptions and all hylozoistic and animistic ideas are expelled from the theory of Democritus, on the assumption that spatial form and motion are simpler and more comprehensible terms of explanation. Thus for the first time we have a conscious _outspoken materialism_, and for the first time the world is conceived to be a _universal reign of mechanical law_.

The physical theory of Democritus also yielded a rich scientific _explanation of the historical evolution of the universe_. The universe, according to Democritus,――following the teaching of Leucippus,――consists of two parts: the Plenum or self-moving, qualitatively similar atoms; and the Void or empty space, in which the atoms move. The Plenum, or the atoms, is Being; the Void is not-Being. The atoms differ only in form and size;[24] they are infinite in number and therefore are of an infinite number of forms and sizes; they are imperceptibly small. The perceptible qualities do not belong to them, but to their motions. Motion is an irreducible function of atoms, and each atom, lawless in itself, is in flight through space. An aggregation of atoms arises when the atoms meet in their cosmic flight. The shock causes a vortex which draws more atoms into itself. Like atoms are drawn together, and the heavy atoms press the fine fire-atoms to the periphery. Thus innumerable worlds are formed, for any place of the meeting of several atoms can be the beginning of a new world. Sometimes small worlds are drawn into the vortices of large worlds, and sometimes large worlds disintegrate in fatal collisions. The worlds are therefore endless and in endless succession. The whole swings in space like a ball; the rim of the whole consists of compact atoms; the centre is filled with air. To much further length than we can go here Democritus developed a theoretical description of cosmic evolution upon the principle of mechanical necessity――and the description is almost modern.

=The Materialistic Psychology of Democritus.= It is easy to understand an explanation of the physical universe as atoms in motion; for our modern scientific theories of nature are set in these terms, even if we have transformed the Democritan static atom into a dynamic entity. It is rather more interesting to follow such a materialist as Democritus in his extension of the materialistic principle over upon the realm of the mental life.

In the first place, Democritus conceives man to be part and parcel of the world of atoms. Man is composed of all kinds of atoms. His body consists of earth, water, and air atoms. His mind is made up of fire atoms, which differ from the others in being the finest, smoothest, and most mobile. On this account the fire atoms are the most perfect of all. Psychical activity is the motion of fire atoms. They are scattered throughout the universe, and wherever they are, there is life. They are in plants and animals as well as in man. There is a larger collection of them in man, and this shows his superiority over other living things. In man there is a fire atom between every two other atoms, and the whole is held together by breathing. The different forms of mental activity are simply different forms of atomic motion.

In the next place, our atomic make-up involves the presence of other atomic complexes, if we are to have any psychical activity. External things must stimulate us. But these external things are atoms in action. They can, however, influence us only by coming into contact with our bodies. Only by impact on our bodies can they set in motion the fire atoms which are scattered through our bodies. Every kind of knowledge or mental life involves the participation of the fire atoms in us. Thus mental activity involves two factors; the fire atoms within us and an external group of atoms without us.

How did Democritus explain the varied mental life as the resultant of these two factors? He employed the theory of effluxes, belief in which he shared with his time. This is a purely physiological assumption, originated by such Cosmologists as Empedocles, that somehow external bodies send off emanations from themselves which strike upon our bodies. Most objects in the world influence us at a distance and only through the emission of these effluxes. Democritus conceived these emanations to be little copies or “eidola” of the thing that sends them off. To illustrate Democritus’ meaning: a tree is seen by me because little trees, thrown off by it, hit my eye. This theory retained its position in philosophical circles until after Locke. It persists in the popular mind to-day. It is a general belief that a thought is a copy, photograph, or image of the thing. The words “image” and “imagination” betray their origin. It was believed by Democritus that such copies set in motion the sense organs and through them the fire atoms. The effluxes can, however, affect only those organs of the body that have similar formation and similar atomic motions.

But the effluxes vary very much in the degree of fineness of their atomic structure. There are all sorts, from very fine to very coarse. Since the efflux must correspond to a particular sense if that sense is to be affected by it, the effluxes that can affect the senses vary respectively as to their fineness. Democritus was particularly interested in the sensations of sight and hearing as examples of this. None of the effluxes affecting the senses are as fine as those that stimulate the reason. Unless they were the finest of all the effluxes, they could not affect the fine motions of the fire atoms of the reason. These finest “eidola” or effluxes are the true copies of things, and the reason therefore alone knows things truly. Thought, on the one hand, is precisely the atomic motion of the _direct_ impact of the finest effluxes upon the fine fire-atoms of the soul. Sensation, on the other hand, is atomic motion from the _indirect_ impact of the coarser grades of effluxes upon the fire atoms. The reason knows reality directly. Sensations are aroused in a roundabout way by the coarse effluxes setting in motion the corresponding sense organ, which in turn sets in motion the fire atoms. Thus does Democritus make the distinction between thought and sensation in quantitative terms. Thus does he reduce his psychology to a consistency with his metaphysical principle of materialism.

=Democritus’ Theory of Knowledge――The World of Twofold Reality.= Democritus would have been only one of the great Cosmologists, and he would not have his place by the side of Plato and Aristotle, if his materialism had illuminated no other subject than physics. Indeed, it is doubtful if his physics would have been so grandly comprehensive and unqualified had it not been strengthened by his discriminating theory of twofold knowledge. He might have extended and systematized his materialism so that it explained to the satisfaction of his time both physical and psychical phenomena, and still have been a hylozoist, like Leucippus, the founder of the Atomistic school. The problem of knowledge――the problem of estimating our mental states――was as incomprehensible to Leucippus as to the Eleatics. Democritus, however, was a rationalist and realist like Plato and Aristotle. He recognized, as did they, that there is a difference in epistemological values. His universalized materialism did not prevent him from evaluating our experiences from the same general point of view as the leader of the Academy and the Stagirite. He felt that a twofold reality is as consistent with materialistic principles as with idealism. So he reduced all qualities to quantities, and then as quantities re-valued and classified them. His chief contribution was to the subject of epistemology and not to physics, and that is why he is treated among the Greek Systematizers and not among the Cosmologists. Probably his chief interest lay where he did his chief work.

The perception theory of Protagoras was the starting-point of both Democritus and Plato. Both adopted it in order to transcend it and make it of real significance. Democritus, upon the basis of his materialistic psychology, admitted that sense-perception is only a transitory process, and its knowledge must be as transitory. But he did not agree with Protagoras that all knowledge is perceptual. Sense-perception does yield only relative knowledge; but there is another kind of knowledge that is not relative but absolute. This is knowledge of the reason. Human beings have reason as well as sense-perception. Thus is Democritus a rationalist, although a materialist.

The contribution of Democritus to the theory of knowledge consists in just this turn which he gave to Protagoras’ doctrine of perception. The relativity of perception becomes in the Democritan theory a different thing from what it was in the doctrine of the great Sophist. To Protagoras perceptual knowledge is relative, and therefore of no value in determining what is real. To Democritus perceptual knowledge is relative, but it has a value,――a relative value. It gets this relative value from the fact that the reason can determine absolute reality. Perception is the contributor to the reason, and also in turn is illuminated by the reason. In the same breath we may say that Protagoras was a contributor to the theory of Democritus, and in turn that the Protagorean relativism was illuminated by the Democritan rationalism. The result was a twofold knowledge――in the language of Democritus, “genuine knowledge” and “obscure insight.”

The objects corresponding to these two kinds of knowledge must be of two kinds. On the one hand, the objects of the reason, or “genuine knowledge,” are the genuine, primary, or real properties of the atoms――for the atoms are reality to Democritus. These are form, size, inertia, density, and hardness.[25] A study of these properties of things is, therefore, a study of real objects. On the other hand, the objects of perception or “obscure insight” are the properties of atoms as perceived obscurely by the senses. These are color, sound, taste, smell. They are the qualities or relative properties of things. A study of these is a study of only what is relatively real. When materialism was revived by the Renaissance, the former group of objects were called “primary qualities” and the latter “secondary qualities.” These terms have become classic, and have rendered permanent Democritus’ evaluation of the objects of the two kinds of knowledge. Out of the fragments of the teaching of the Cosmologists and the one-sided epistemology of the Sophists, Democritus constructed contemporaneously with Plato, perhaps antecedently to him, a theory of twofold knowledge.

=The Ethical Theory of Democritus.= The ethics of Democritus is another example of his general principle of a mechanism of atoms. His attempt to reduce all qualitative to quantitative relations, which gives his theory a unique place in Greek thought, reaches its highest distinction in his ethics. The influence of his ethical doctrine upon the Epicureans, and possibly upon the Cyrenaics, shows its importance in history. Furthermore, its high quality proves that a materialism can offer inspiring ethical doctrines. Some have placed the ethics of Democritus upon a level with the ethics of Socrates because, as it is pointed out, he placed it upon an intellectual basis. The basal ethical principle of Democritus may be stated thus: As true knowledge is the ideal object of the intellect, so true happiness is the ideal object of our conduct. The ethics of Democritus is eudæmonistic, like that of Socrates.

Pleasures have fundamental differences. They are in every case the results of atomic motions; but the atomic motions of the intellect differ from those of the senses, and those of the senses differ from one another. The fire atoms of the intellect are small, and have a gentle, peaceful motion; the atomic motions of the senses are coarse and violent, caused by the coarse effluxes of the objects that excite them. Sense-pleasures are relative, like the perceptions. As perception is obscure insight and gains the appearance and not the true reality, so the pleasures of sense are transitory, uncertain, violent, and deceitful. Intellectual pleasures are, like the intellect, real, true, permanent, gentle, and peaceful. True happiness, the goal of human activity, attends upon that right insight――upon the gentle atomic motions of the intellectual life. On the other hand, the coarse atomic motions of the senses disturb the intellectual calm, and are often violent explosions. Democritus believed that knowledge of the atoms, as the true explanation of the world, will give to the soul a measure and a harmony, will guard it from excitement and make it possessor of a peace which――to use his happy simile――is like the ocean calm. Two ideals seem to stand before Democritus, which he did not try to reconcile. Sometimes before his mind’s eye the ideal happiness is purely intellectual pleasure and points toward asceticism. Sometimes he speaks of happiness as the life of perfect self-control and temperance. He never positively denies all value to sense-pleasure, but he gives to sense-pleasure the relative value that he gives to the senses themselves. In every case the ground of happiness is intellectual refinement, and the ground of unhappiness the lack of it. The majority of men are sensualists and are to be contrasted with the Wise Man, who finds his happiness either in his individual life or in his friendship with other Wise Men.