Chapter 5The Fount of Ancient Greece.In the preceding chapter we considered the influenceand direct effect of Transcendentalism, and of Emersonin particular upon modern popular thought. But behindEmerson and the Transcendental school there were manyother influences, which we shall now proceed to consider inthese articles. One of the great primary sources or causes of themodern trend of thoughtthat strange revival of old thoughtin new formsis that of the philosophy of ancient Greece. Notalone does the present movement show the strong influence ofthe old Greek philosophical thought, but the Greek ideals arealso to be found at the very heart of the advanced religiousthought of to-day. The New Theology and the New Religionof which we hear so much contain many of the essential idealsof the ancient Greek religio-philosophic schools.Wherever there has been a tendency towardtranscendentalism, there we find the subtle but powerfulinfluence of Neo-Platonism. And, so, in the great TranscendentalMovement of New England, of which Emerson was the highpriest, Neo-Platonism was the chief inspiration. Realizing theinfluence of Emerson and the Transcendental Movement onmodern thought, we may see the important part played byThe Crucible of Modern Thought50the spirit of Neo-Platonism in supplying many of the leadingingredients to the Crucible of Modern Thought. The soul of thisold school of thought persists in marching on throughout thecenturies of thought, although its original body has long beenmouldering in the grave. Or, may we not say that its soul persistsin reincarnating in new bodies, from time to time? It certainlyseems to have taken on a new body of flesh of considerable sizeand strength in this first decade of the twentieth century.In modern scientific Monism, we find a decided goingback to Heraclitus, with his doctrine of the universal flux; ofeverything Becoming and nothing Being; of his conception ofthe ever changing, shifting, moving, universe of things, withits successive cycles. In Herbert Spencer, and other schools ofmodern scientific thought, we see the thought of Anaximanderand Heraclitus revived. And in Spencers conception of TheInfinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceedhis Unknowablewe hear the distinct echo of the voices ofthe earliest thinkers of the older schools of ancient Greece. Thespirit of Athens is walking abroad today in the great Universitiesof Europe and Americaand many of the worlds greatestminds are bidding her welcome to her new home. The broththat is being brewed in the great pot has a decided flavor of theAttic herb.At the very heart of all Greek thought is the idea of a oneness,which is expressed as monism in philosophy, and as pantheismin the higher religious thought of the educated classes. Onebreathes the pantheistic atmosphere when he enters theenchanted realm of the old Greek thought Mr. E. F. Benson,in his latest novel. A Reaping, speaks of this subtle spirit ofpantheism, which, while condemned in all orthodox religions,has nevertheless managed to creep in and make its home inthe newer creeds, as it did in all the old ones, at the last. Thefollowing quotation will give Bensons conception of this subtlespirit of thought and belief:The Fount of Ancient Greece.51There is no myth that grew so close to the heart of things as thestory of Pan, for it implies the central fact of all, the one fact that isso indisputably true, that all the perverted ingenuity of man has beenunable to split into various creeds about it. For Pan is all, and to seePan or hear him playing on his pipes means to have the whole truth ofthe world and the stars, and Him who, as if by a twisting thumb andfinger, set them endlessly spinning through infinite space, suddenlymade manifest. Flesh and blood, as the saying is, could not standthat, and there must be a bursting of the mortal envelope. Yet that,indisputably also, is but the cracking of the chrysalis. How we shallstand, weak-eyed still and quivering, when transported from the duskin which we have lived this little life in the full radiance of the eternalday! How shall our eyes gain strength and our wings expansion andcompleteness, when the sun of which we have seen but the reflectionand image is revealed? That is to see Pan. It killed the mortal body ofPsychethe soulwhen she saw him on the hilltop by the river, andheard the notes of his reed float down to her; but she and every soulwho has burst the flimsy barrier of death into life joins in his music,and every day makes it the more compelling. Drop by drop the oceanof life, made up of the lives that have been, rises in the bowl in whichGod dips His hands. He touches every drop.In both modern pantheism and modern idealism; theinfluence of the ancient Greek great masters of thought maybe plainly discerned. In fact, the modern thought along theselines flows in a direct and unbroken course from the fountainsof ancient Greece. While, as we shall see in another chapter, theseeds of all forms of philosophical and religious thought may befound in the early teachings of India and other Oriental lands,still we may regard the schools of philosophy of ancient Greeceas the direct source of the fundamental conceptions and ideaswhich are now experiencing a remarkable revival in popularityand general acceptance. As Prof. John Dewey has said: TheEleatic school may be regarded as the forerunners of pantheismin their insistence upon the unity and all comprehensiveness ofThe Crucible of Modern Thought52true being. The distinction between finite and infinite, God andthe world, had not, however, been made sufficiently clear at thistime to justify calling the system pantheism. Through Plato andAristotle the terms of the problem, both in themselves and intheir relation to each other, are made evident. Neo-Platonismand Stoicism are both pantheistic. The former is of a logical,idealistic type, based upon Platos theory of the relation betweenthe One Being, Nous, and the Ideas; teaching that the world issimply one of a series of emanations from God, radiating fromHim, as light from the sun, and having its apparent distinctiononly through a negative element, Non-Being or Matter. And, asProf. A. S. Pringle-Pattison has said: The first historical systemto which the name of Idealism is applied by common consentis that of Plato.The Idealistic system might be fitly styled thePlatonico-Aristotelian.Pre-Socratic SchoolsThe Pre-Socratic schools of ancient Greece, which flourishedabout five hundred years before the Christian era, endeavoredto establish a unity or one reality behind the various phenomenaof the universe. Rising above the primitive myths, they soughtto establish a fundamental substance, of which all the world ofappearance was by a manifestation or reflection. Even beforetheir time, thinkers had assumed a fundamental oneness inNature, and the Pre-Socratic schools endeavored to find outwhat this One was. Their first questions were, What is the primalsubstance? From what does all come? What is the essence ofthings? At first, the answers implied the fundamental natureof material substances. Thales thought that water was theanswer; Anaximenes said, air; and Anaximander suggesteda boundless or infinite something, somewhat resemblingthe modern scientific conception of the ether. Each of theirthree schools, however, regarded the fundamental substanceas animate, and possessing all the qualities and attributes of lifeand mind.The Fount of Ancient Greece.53HeraclitusHeraclitus, the Ephesian, (500 b.c.) advanced a newer andmuch more advanced conception. He held that the universalsubstance is an ethereal, spiritual essence, symbolized by firealiving, moving, active principle, constantly manifesting changein form of manifestation. He considered this principle rather inits objective, than in its subjective phasehe held that insteadof being, it should be thought that everything is becoming.Just as the flame is apparently constant, although its particlesare constantly changing, so is the universal flame really more ofa becoming than of a being. He held that nothing is stableexcept instabilitynothing constant but change. Everything isin a state of fluxeverything begins to change the momentit is created or born. The law of change is ever manifestingitself. Nothing persists. Everything is in constant motion andsubject to constant change. The flame evidently desireschange, and abhors stability. Action and reactioninvolution,evolution, and devolutionthe laws of cycles and rhythmsan immutable law of change causing a beginningless andendless sequence cause and effectthese were the teachingsof Heraclitus. His fire was not a material fire, but a spiritualflame. In many particulars his philosophy agrees with that ofHerbert Spenceracross the chasm of nearly 2,500 years thesetwo great thinkers clasp hands. The influence of Heraclitusupon the later Stoic schools was most markedand throughthem he has influenced still later schools. The latest works ofWestern physical science make many a mention of the nameof this old Ephesian thinker, whose name has almost becomeforgotten in the interval. His ideas, I think, will be found muchin evidence in the philosophies of the future.The EleaticsThe Eleatics, another school of this period, gave muchconsideration to the old problem concerning the One and theMany, laying special emphasis upon the One. XenophanesThe Crucible of Modern Thought54was as eloquent and active as any modern Monist in denouncingthe anthropomorphic conceptions of Deity, and said boldlythat the One is GodGod is the Oneand thus made thefirst real pantheistic statement of the early Greek philosophy.In this identification of God with the One, is found the basicthought of all pantheism, ancient and modern. Parmenidesenlarged upon this idea of Oneness, holding that, What is mustalways have been, and must always be. Change is impossible tothe One, for that would imply that something could arise outof nothing, or pass into nothing, both of which suppositionsare foreign to rational thought. He thus identified God withthe Absolute.The PythagoreansThe Pythagoreans, in their earlier days at least, devoted lesstime to speculation than to religious and ethical thought, atleast so far as their public utterances were concerned. In theirinner circles, they taught a mystical doctrine, in which certainforms of idealistic pantheism undoubtedly had a part, althoughtheir conception seemed rather toward that of a transcendentallaw rather than toward Deity. Their teaching regarding themystic numbers, etc., is believed to have been identified withcertain occult doctrines, probably acquired from Egypt andChaldea. Anaxagorus held that above the atomic forms andultimate elements, of which the universe was composed, therewas the Nous, or Universal Principle of Law and Order, whichacts intelligently in ordering the universethe principle ofmind in substance.SocratesThe second great period of ancient Greek philosophicalthought is that of the Socratic Schools, which derive theirname from their founder, Socrates, who lived 469393 b.c.Socrates did not aim to found a school, and his teachingswere expounded most publicly, but his followers establishedThe Fount of Ancient Greece.55