CHAPTER II.

THE GREEK HUMANISTS: NATURE AND LAW pages 53-107

I. The reaction of speculation on life, 53—Moral superiority of the Greeks to the Hebrews and Romans, 54—Illustrations of humanity from the Greek poets, 55—Temporary corruption of moral sentiment and its explanation, 56—Subsequent reformation effected by philosophy, 57—The Greek worship of beauty not incompatible with a high moral standard, 58—Preference of the solid to the showy virtues shown by public opinion in Greece, 59—Opinion of Plato, 60.

II. Virtues inculcated in the aphorisms of the Seven Sages, 62—Sôphrosynê as a combination of moderation and self-knowledge, 62—Illustrations from Homer, 62—Transition from self-regarding to other-regarding virtue, 63—How morality acquired a religious sanction (i.) by the use of oaths, 64—(ii.) by the ascription of a divine origin to law, 65—(iii.) by the practice of consulting oracles on questions of right and wrong, 65—Difference between the Olympian and Chthonian religions, 66—The latter was closely connected with the ideas of law and of retribution after death, 67—Beneficent results due to the interaction of the two religions, 68.

III. The religious standpoint of Aeschylus, 69—Incipient dissociation of religion from morality in Sophocles, 70—Their complete separation in Euripides, 71—Contrast between the Eteocles of Aeschylus and the Eteocles of Euripides, 72—Analogous difference between Herodotus and Thucydides, 73—Evidence of moral deterioration supplied by Aristophanes and Plato, 74—Probability of an association between intellectual growth and moral decline, 75.

IV. The Sophists, 76—Prodicus and Hippias, 77—Their theory of Nature as a moral guide, 79—Illustration from Euripides, 80—Probable connexion of the Cynic school with Prodicus, 81—Antithesis between Nature and Law, 81—Opposition to slavery, 82—The versatility of Hippias connected with his advocacy of Nature, 83—The right of the stronger as a law of Nature, 84.

V. Rise of idealism and accompanying tendency to set convention above Nature, 85—Agnosticism of Protagoras, 87—In what sense he made man the measure of all things, 88—His defence of civilisation, 89—Similar views expressed by Thucydides, 90—Contrast between the naturalism of Aeschylus and the humanism of Sophocles, 91—The flexible character of Nomos favourable to education, 92—Greek youths and modern women, 93—The teaching of rhetoric, 93—It is subsequently developed into eristicism, 94.

VI. The nihilism of Gorgias, 95—His arguments really directed against the worship of Nature, 96—The power of rhetoric in ancient Athens and modern England, 97—The doctrines of Protagoras as developed by the Cyrenaic school, 99—and by the Megaric school, 100—Subsequent history of the antithesis between Nature and Law, 100.

VII. Variety of tendencies represented by the Sophists, 102—Their position in Greek society, 103—The different views taken of their profession in ancient and modern times, 104—Their place in the development of Greek philosophy, 107.