Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/408

392 ISOCRATES said of htm that " he reflects the human spirit always on its nobler side," 1 and that, in an age of corrupt and impudent selfishness, he always strove to raise the minds of his hearers into a higher and purer air. Thirdly, his method of teaching was thorough. Technical exposition came first. The learner was then required to apply the rules in actual composition, which the master revised. The ordinary teachers of rhetoric (as Aristotle says) employed their pupils in committing model pieces to memory, but neglected to train the learner s own faculty through his own efforts. Lastly, Isocrates stands apart from most writers of that day in his steady effort to produce results of permanent value. While rhetorical skill was largely engaged in the intermittent journalism of political pamphlets, Isocrates set a higher ambition before his school. His own essays on contemporary questions received that finished form which has preserved them to this day. The impulse to solid and lasting work, communicated by the example of the master, was seen in such monuments as the Atthis of Androtion, the Hellenic History of Theopompus, and the Philippica of Ephorus. Style. In one of his letters to Atticus, Cicero says that he has used "all the fragrant essences of Isocrates, and all the little stores of his disciples." 2 The phrase has a point of which the writer himself was perhaps scarcely conscious : the style of Isocrates had come to Cicero through the school of Rhodes ; and the Rhodian imitators had more of Asiatic splendour than of Attic elegance. But, with this allowance made, the passage may serve to indicate the real place of Isocrates in the history of literary style. The old Greek critics consider him as representing what they call the "smooth" or "florid" mode of composition (ya$>vpd, avOr]pa dp/xovta) as distinguished from the "harsh" (avu-rrjpa) style of Antiphon and the perfect " mean " (/xeo-7/) of Demosthenes. Tried by a modern standard, the language of Isocrates is certainly not " florid." The only sense in which he merits the epithet is that (especially in his earlier work) he delights in elaborate antitheses. Isocrates is an "orator" in the larger sense of the Greek word rhetor ; but his real distinction consists in the fact that he was the first Greek who gave an artistic finish to literary rhetoric. The practical oratory of ths day had already two clearly separated branches the forensic, represented by Isaeus, and the deliberative, in which Callistratus was the forerunner of Demosthenes. Mean while Isocrates was giving form and rhythm to a standard literary prose. Through the influence of his school, this normal prose style was transmitted with the addition of some florid embellishments to the first generation of Romans who studied rhetoric in the Greek schools. The distinctive feature in the composition of Isocrates is his structure of the periodic sentence. This, with him, is no longer rigid or monotonous, as with Antiphon, no longer terse and compact, as with Lysias, but ample, luxuriant, unfolding itself (to use a Greek critic s image) like the soft beauties of a winding river. Isocrates was the first Greek who worked out the idea of a prose rhythm. He saw clearly both its powers and its limits; poetry has its strict rhythms and precise metres ; prose has its metres and rhythms, not bound by a rigid framework, yet capable of being brought under certain general laws which a good ear can recognize, and which a speaker or writer may apply in the most various combinations. This fundamental idea of prose rhythm, or number, is that which the style of Isocrates has imparted to the style of Cicero. When Quintilian (x. 1, 108) says, somewhat hyperbolically, that Cicero has artistically reproduced (effinxisse) " the force of 1 Cartelier, Le Discours d Tsocrate sur lui-meme, p. Ixii. 2 Totum Isocratis (tvpoO-tiKiov atque omnes ejus discipulorura aviulas, Ad Att., ii. 1. Demosthenes, the wealth of Plato, the charm of Isocrates," he means principally this smooth and harmonious rhythm. Cicero himself expressly recognizes this original and distinc tive merit of Isocrates. 3 Thus, through Rome, and especi ally through Cicero, the influence of Isocrates, as the founder of a literary prose, has passed into the literatures of modern Europe. It is to the eloquence of the preacher that we may perhaps look for the nearest modern analogua of that kind in which Isocrates excelled, especially, perhaps, to that of the great French preachers. Isocrates was one of the three Greek authors, Demosthenes and Plato being the others, who contributed most to form the style of Bossuet. The extant works of Isocrates consist of twenty-one speeches or Wo: discourses, and nine letters. Among these, the six forensic speeches For represent the first period of his literary life, belonging to the years 403-393 B.C. All six concern private causes. They may be classed as follows. 1. Action for Assault (SIKTJ aiKias), Or. xx., "Against Lochites," 394 B.C. 2. Claim to an Inheritance (f-mSiKaa-ia), Or. xix., ^gineticus, end of 394 or early in 393 B.C. 3. Actions to Recover a Deposit : (1) Or. xxi, " Against Euthynus," 403 B.C.; (2) Or. xvii., Trapeziticus, end of 394 or early in 393 B.C. 4. Action for Damage (Sucrj j8A.a^7js), Or. xvi., " Concerning the Team of Horses," 397 B.C. 5. Special Plea (wapaypa^r)), Or. xviii. , " Against Callimachus," 402 B.C. Two of these have been regarded as spurious byG. E. Benseler, viz., Or. xxi., on account of the fre quent hiatus and the short compact periods, and Or. xvii., on the first of these grounds. But we are not warranted in applying to the early work of Isocrates those canons which his mature style observed. The genuineness of the speech against Euthynus is recognized by Philostratus; while the Trapeziticus thrice named without suspicion by Harpocnition is treated by Dionysius, not only as authentic, but as the typical forensic work of its author. The speech against Lochites where "a man of the people " (TOV Tr-t]6ovs fls) is the speaker exhibits much rhetorical skill. The speech irepl TOV {evyovs ("concerning the team of horses") has a curious interest. An Athenian citizen had complained that Alcibiades had robbed him of a team of four horses, and sues the statesman s son and namesake (who is the speaker) for their value. This is not the only place in which Isocrates has marked his admiration for the genius of Alcibi ades ; it appears also in the Philippics and in the Busiris. But, among the forensic speeches, we must, on the whole, give the palm to the ^ gineticusSi graphic picture of ordinary Greek life in the islands of the JEgean. Here especially in the narrative Isocrates makes a near approach to the best manner of Lysias. The remaining fifteen orations or discourses do not easily lend themselves to the ordinary classification under the heads of " deliber ative " and " epideictic." Both terms must be strained; and neither is strictly applicable to all the pieces which it is required to cover. The work of Isocrates travelled out of the grooves in which the rhetorical industry of the age had hitherto moved. His position among contemporary writers was determined by ideas peculiar to himself ; and his compositions, besides having a style of their own, are in several instances of a new kind. The only adequate principle of classification is one which considers them in respect to their sub ject-matter. Thus viewed, they form two clearly separated groups the scholastic and the political. Scholastic Writings. Under this head we have, first, three Set letters or essays of a hortatory character. (1) The letter to the tic. young Demonicus, once a favourite subject in the schools, con tains a series of precepts neither below nor much above the average practical morality of Greece. (2) The letter to Nicocles the young king of the Cyprian Salamis sets forth the duty of a monarch to his subjects. (3) In the third piece, it is Nicocles who speaks, and impresses on the Salaminians their duty to their king a piece re markable as containing a popular plea for monarchy, composed by a citizen of Athens. These three letters may be referred to the years 374-372 B.C. Next may be placed four pieces which are "displays " (eirt8titts) in the proper Greek sense. The Busiris (Or. xi., 390-91 B.C.) is an attempt to show how the ill-famed king of Egypt might be praised. The "Encomium on Helen" (Or. x., 370 B.C.), a piece greatly superior to the last, contains the celebrated passage on the power of beauty. These two compositions serve to illustrate their author s view that " encomia " of the hackneyed type might be elevated by combining the mythical matter with some topic of practical interest, as, in the case of Busiris, with the institu tions of Egypt, or, in that of Helen, with the reforms of Theseus. The Evagoras (Or. ix. , 365 B.C. ?) is a laudatory epitaph on a really able man, the Greek king of the Cyprian Salamis. A passage of 3 Idque princeps Isocrates instituisse fertur, . . . lit inconditani antiquorum dicendi rationem . . . numcris astringeret, De Or., iii. 44, 173.