V LC Control Number The Editor takes this occasion to announce the commencement of VOLUME IV. of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy. The first lumber will be ready in January, 1870, and hereafter the Journal will e issued as a regular quarterly and at the usual times, to-wit: Januy, April, July, and October.
In Vol. IV. will appear, besides other valuable matter, fV I. A complete Translation of the celebrated "Meditations " of Descartes. II. Fragments of Parmenides translated from the Greek original. (Other Greek frag- ments are also to he expected.)
III. The Outlines of the Philosophy of Eights, Morals and Religion, hy G. W. F.
Hegel (as given in his Philosophical Propaedeutics).
IV. Outlines of Hegel's Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (also, from the Propaedeutics, by Hegel himself).
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^ i / *- THE EEAGMENTS OP PAEIENIDES.
Translated into English Hexameters, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,.
B Y Tiiomas Davidson.
HISTOEICAL.
The Eleatic school of Philosophy is mainly represented by four- names: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Melissos, and Zeno. Though the first of these is universally regarded as the founder of the school, Par- menides is the most important figure in it, the Eleatic par excellence. His father's name was Pyrrhes. He himself was a native of Elea or Velia. This city, which was of small importance politically, was founded about B. C. 540 by a colony of Phokaeans. It lay on the west- ern shore of Lucania.
The date of Parmenides' birth is uncertain; but we shall hardly be wrong in placing it in the last quarter of the sixth century B. C. Diogenes Laertius says he flourished about the sixty-ninth Olympiad (B. C. 504-501); but this can hardly be true, if any confidence is to be placed in the statements of Plato. In the dialogue entitled Par- menides we read: "Antiphon stated on the authority of Pythodoros that Zeno and Parmenides once came to the greater Panathemea Parmenides being at that time quite an old man with grey hair and a handsome and noble countenance, and certainly not over sixty-five- years of age; Zeno about forty years old, tall and elegant,, said to have been the favorite of Parmenides; He mentioned also that they put up at the house of Pythodoros in the Kerameikos, outside the city walls, and that Sokrates and many other persons visited them there, desiring to hear Zeno read his productions, which had then been brought by them for the first time, and that Sokrates was then a very young man." In the Sophist, Sokrates is made to say: "I was present when Parmenides uttered and discussed words of exceeding beauty, I being then a young man, and he already far advanced in years."'
/ 2 Parmenides.
/ 2 Parmenides.
Again, in the Theaitetos, he Bays: u For I was personally acquainted with the mat), I being very young, and he very old." Supposing Sok- rates, who was born about B. G. 469, to have been fifteen yeai's old when he conversed with Parmenides, this would place tbis meeting in 454 B. C, and the birth of Parmenides in 519. This tallies exactly with the statement of Diogenes that Zeno, who, according to Plato, was twenty-five years younger than Parmenides, flourished about the seventy-ninth Olympiad, 454-451 B. C. Mr. Grote's opinion, which is not much at variance with this, is worth quoting in his own words: " It will hardly be proper to place the conversation between Par- menides and Sokrates — as Mr. Clinton places it, Fast. H. vol. ii. App. c. 21, p. 364 — at a time when Sokrates was only fifteen years of age. The ideas which the ancients had about youthful propriety would not permit him to take part in conversation with an eminent philosopher at so early an age as fifteen, when he would not yet be entered on the roll of citizens, or be qualified for the smallest function, military or civil. I cannot but think that Sokrates must have been more than twenty years of age when he thus conversed with Parmenides.
"Sokrates was born in 469 (perhaps 468) B. C.; he would therefore be twenty years of age in 449; assuming the visit of Parmenides to Athens to have been in 448 B. C, since he was then sixty-five years of age, he would be born in 513 B. C. It is objected that, if this date be admitted, Parmenides could not have been a pupil of Xenophanes: we should thus be compelled to admit, which perhaps is the truth, that he learned the doctrine of Xenophanes at second-hand/' Theophrastos informs us that Parmenides was a pupil of Anaximan- der; but this can hardly be true, if as Diogenes asserts, on the author- ity of Apollodoros, Anaximander died in the fifty-eighth Olympiad (548-545 B. C), several years before the founding of Elea. That Parmenides may have been acquainted with some of the teachings of Anaximander seems not unlikely. The latter had declared the Infinite to be the first principle of all things, a doctrine which it seems to be the intention of Parmenides pointedly to refute and disclaim when he says: "Wherefore that that which is should be infinite, is not permitted."
It was currently reported in Aristotle's time that Parmenides was a pupil of Xenophanes, and we have every reason to believe that he was. We learn also that he was intimate with several Pythagoreans, two of whom, Ameinias and Diochsetes, are mentioned. He is said to have admired them greatly, to have adopted to a considerable extent their mode of life, and to have erected a JSeroon to the memory of Dio- chsetes.
Parmenides. 3 Parmenides. 3 Parmenides was no mere dreamer. Like Empedokles and others, he took an active part in the public affairs of his native city, and drew up a code of laws, to which the Eleans every year swore to conform. He was the friend of Empedokles and Leukippos, and the teacher of Melissos and Zeno. He disseminated his philosophy not only by his writings, but also, as we have seen, by public lectures and discussions. He employed in his discussions the Dialectic method of reasoning which had been invented by Xenophanes, and was afterwards so much improved and used by Zeno as to be considered his invention. We are not aware that Parmenides left any prose writings. Like most of the contemporary philosophers, he committed his teachings to verse and indeed, if we may believe Proklos and Cicero, was not very successful in so doing. The former says his diction was more like prose than poetry, and the latter that his verses were inferior, but the matter of them sometimes pretty forcible; which we can believe.
The only work of Parmenides known to the ancients, and probably the only one he, ever composed, was the poem entitled On Nature whereof considerable fragments have come down to us — preserved mainly in the works of Plato, Sextus Empeiricus, Proklos, and Simpli- cius. The ancients regarded the poem as divided into two parts, the one On Truth or On the Intelligible, the other On Opinion or On the Perceptible. The latter is called by Plutarch a Cosmogony, and not without reason, for in it Parmenides seems to have attempted, without denying the existence of the gods, to explain them upon physical prin- ciples. In what esteem this poem was held by the ancients we may learn from the writings of Plato and Aristotle, as well as from many later productions. Much that is put into the mouth of Parmenides in the Platonic dialogue which bears his name, we must ascribe to Plato himself, or to whoever was the author. This dialogue, which accord- ing to Hegel contains "the sublimest dialectic that ever was," is held by some critics not to be from the pen of Plato.
The following translation is made from the Fragments as they stand in Mullach's Fragmenta Philosophorum Grmcorum, Paris, Didot. Though I have adopted his arrangement, I have not in all cases adopted his readings, which are, in one or two instances, I think, very inconsid- erate. 1 have used every effort to make the translation literal, and I think it will be found to be so. As to my verses, I may plead that, if Parmenides was unable to write his Philosophy in good Greek hexam- eters, I may be excused for not being able to translate them into good English ones. In the notes, I have brought together all the valuable information I have been able to and regarding the different parts of the work of Parmenides.
4 Parmenides.
ON NATURE.
I. Introduction.!
Soon as the coursers 2 that bear me and drew me as far as extendeth Impulse, guided me and threw me aloft in the glorious pathway, Up to the Goddess 3 that guide th through all things man that is conscious, There was I carried along, for there did the coursers sagacious, Drawing the chariot, bear me, and virgins preceded to guide them — Daughters of Helios* leaving behind them the mansions of darkness — Into the light, with their strong hands forcing asunder the night-shrouds, While in its sockets the axle 5 emitted the sound of a syrinx, Glowing, for still it was urged by a couple of wheels well-rounded, One upon this side, one upon that, when it hastened its motion.
There were the gates of the paths of the Night and the paths of the Day-time.
Under the gates is a threshhold of stone and above is a lintel.
These too are closed in the ether with great doors guarded by Justice 6 — Justice the mighty avenger, that keepeth the keys of requital.
Her did the virgins address, and with soft words deftly persuaded, Swiftly for them to withdraw from the gates the bolt and its fastener.
Opening wide, they uncovered the yawning expanse of the portal, Backward rolling successive the hinges of brass in their sockets, — Hinges constructed with nails and with clasps; then onward the virgins Straightway guided their steeds and their chariot over the highway.
Then did the goddess 7 receive me with gladness, and taking my right hand Into her own, thus uttered a word and kindly bespake me: " Youth that art mated with charioteers and companions immortal, Coming to us on the coursers that bear thee, to visit our mansion, Hail! for it is not an evil Award that hath guided thee hither, Into this path— for, I ween, it is far from the pathway of mortals — Nay, it is Justice and Eight. Thou needs must have knowledge of all things, Firsts of the Truth's unwavering heart that is fraught with conviction, Then of the notions of mortals, where no true conviction abideth, But thou shalt surely be taught this too, that every opinion Needs must pass through a the All, and vanquish the test with approval. 1 0 II. On Truth. 11 "Listen, and I will instruct thee— and thou, when thou hearest, shalt ponder- What are the sole two paths of research that are open to thinking. One path is: That Being doth be, and Non-Being is not: This is the way of Conviction, for Truth follows hard in her footsteps. Th' other path is: That Being is not, and Non-Being must be; Parmenides.
This one, I tell thee in truth, is an all-incredible pathway.
For thou never canst know what is not (for none can conceive it), Nor canst thou give it expression, for one thing are Thinking and Being.
* * * * * * * * " And to me 'tis indifferent Whence I begin, for thither again thou shalt find me returning. 1 2 ******** Speaking and thinking must needs be existent, for is is of Being. Nothing must needs not be; these things I enjoin thee to ponder. Foremost of all withdraw thy mind from this path of inquiry, Then likewise from that other, wherein men, empty of knowledge, Wander forever uncertain, while Doubt and Perplexity guide them — Guide in their bosoms the wandering mind; and onward they hurry, Deaf and dumb and blind and stupid, unreasoning cattle — Herds that are wont to think Being and Non-Being one and the self-same,1 3 Yet not one and the same; and that all things move in a circle.
******** Never I ween shalt thou learn that Being can be of what is not; Wherefore do thou withdraw thy mind from this path of inquiry, Neither let habit compel thee, while treading this pathway of knowledge, Still to employ a visionless eye or an ear full of ringing, Yea, or a clamorous tongue; but prove this vext demonstration Uttered by me, by reason. And now there remains for discussion One path only: That Being doth be — and on it there are tokens, _Jtfany and many to show that what is is birthless and deathless, -Whole and only-begotten, and moveless and ever-enduring: Never it was or shall be; but the all simultaneously now is,i * One continuous one; for of it what birth shalt thou search for? How and whence it hath sprung? I shall not permit thee to tell me, Neither to think: ' Of what is not,' for none can say or imagine How Not-Is becomes Is; or else what need should have stirred it, After or yet before its beginning, to issue from nothing?, Thus either wholly Being must be or wholly must not be. Never from that which is will the force of Intelligence suffer Aught to become beyond being itself. Thence neither production Neither destruction doth Justice permit, ne'er slackening her fetters; But she forbids. And herein is contained the decision of these things; Either there is or is not; but Judgment declares, as it needs must, One of these paths to be uncomprehended and utterly nameless, No true pathway at all, but the other to be and be real. How can that which is now be hereafter, or how can it have been? For if it hath been before, or shall be hereafter, it is not: C Parmenides.
Thus generation is quenched and decay surpasseth believing. Nor is there aught of distinct; for the All is self-similar ahvay. Nor is there anywhere more to debar it from being unbroken; Nor is there anywhere less, for the All is sated with Being; Wherefore the All is unbroken, and Being approacheth to Being. Moveless, moreover, and bounded by great chains' limits itlieth, Void of beginning, without any ceasing, since birth and destruction Both have wandered afar, driven forth by the truth of conviction. Same in the same and abiding, and self through itself it reposes. Steadfast thus it endureth, for mighty Necessity holds it — Holds it within the chains of her bounds and round doth secure it. Wherefore that that which is should be infinite is not permitted; * 5 For it is lacking in naught, or else it were lacking in all things.
* * -x- * -x- * * * Steadfastly yet in thy spirit regard things absent as present; Surely thon shalt not separate Being from clinging to Being, Nor shalt thou find it scattered at all through the All of the Cosmos, Nor yet gathered together.
•x- * * * * * * * •x- * * * * * * * One and the same are thought and that whereby there is thinking;1 6 ^ever apart from existence, wherein it receiveth expression, Shalt thou discover the action of thinking; for naught is or shall be Other besides or beyond the Existent; for Fate hath determined That to be lonely and moveless, which all things are but a name for — Things that men hare set up for themselves, believing as real Birth and decay, becoming and ceasing, to be and to not-be, Movement from place to place, and change from color to color. But since the uttermost limit of Being is ended and perfect, Then it is like to the bulk of a sphere well-rounded on all sides,! 7 Everywhere distant alike from the centre; for never there can be Anything greater or anything less, on this side or that side; Yea, there is neither a non-existent to bar it from coming Into equality, neither can Being be different from Being. More of it here, less there, for the All is inviolate ever. Therefore, I ween, it lies equally stretched in its limits on all sides. And with this will I finish the faithful discourse and the thinking Touching the truth, and now thou shalt learn the notions of mortals. Learn and list to the treach'rous array of the words I shall utter.
in. On Opinion. is "Men have set up for themselves twin shapes to be named by Opinion, (One they cannot set up, and herein do they wander in error,) And they have made them distinct in their nature, and marked them with tokens, Parmenides. 1 Opposite each unto each— the one, flame's fire of the ether, Gentle, exceedingly thin, and everywhere one and the self-same, But not the same with the other; the other, self-similar likewise, Standing opposed by itself, brute might, dense nature and heavy. All the apparent system of these will I open before thee, So that not any opinion of mortals shall ever elude thee.
* * * * ###* All things now being marked with the names of light and of darkness, Yea, set apart by the various powers of the one or the other, Surely the All is at once full of light and invisible darkness, Both being equal, and naught being common to one with the other.
* * * -x- * * * * For out of formless fire are woven the narrower circlets, ' 9 Those over these out of night; but a portion of flame shooteth through them. And in the centre of all is the Goddess that governeth all things: She unto all is the author of loathsome birth and coition, Causing the female to mix with the male, and by mutual impulse Likewise the male with the female.
* tt -X- * * *## Foremost of gods, she gave birth unto Love; yea, foremost of all gods. 2 0 *** # * *** Then thou shalt know the ethereal nature and each of its tokens — Each of the signs in the ether, and all the invisible workings Wrought by the blemishless sun's pure lamp, and whence they have risen* Then thou shalt hear of the orb-eyed moon's circumambient workings, And of her nature, and likewise discern the heaven that surrounds them, Whence it arose, and how by her sway Necessity bound it, Firm, to-encircle the bounds of the stars.
##* * * #** ##* * * #** " How the earth and the sun, and the moon, and the ether Common to all, and the milk of the sky, and the peak of Olympus, Yea, and the fervent might of the stars, were impelled into being.
*** * * #*# Circling the earth, with its wanderings, a borrowed, a night-gleaming splendor.
* ■& # # * #•*# Wistfully watching forever, with gaze turned towards the sun-light.
*## * * **• Even as in each one of men is a union of limbs many-jointed. So there is also in each one a mind; for one and the same are That which is wise and the nature generic of members in mortals, Yea, unto each and to all; for that which prevaileth is thinking. 2 1 * * * * * * * * 8 Parmenides.
Here on the right hand the youths, and there on the left hand the maidens. 2 2 Thus by the strength of opinion were these created and now are, Yea, and will perish hereafter, as soon as they grow unto ripeness; Men have imposed upon each one of these a name as a token."
NOTES.
1. This introduction has generally been looked upon as allegorical. In one sense it is so; at the same time we must not forget that what in its own day was the soberest statement of facts that could be made, frequently appears to succeeding ages as allegorical. Primitive peo- ples found it far easier to embody new thoughts and feelings in the concrete forms of their mythology, with which they were familiar, than to describe them in abstract terms. If we find Parmenides say- ing that he was borne aloft by horses to the presence of the Goddess who governs all things, we must not forget that our own language is not altogether free from allegory, when we say that he "rose to higher regions of thought." Parmenides did not mean to make an allegory; he simply gave an account of his mental progress in the ordinary my- thological dialect of his time, and that, from our point of view, seems allegorical.
2. If we compare the opening of this with a passage in the fifth book of the Iliad, where Here and Athene visit Zeus in their chariot, we cannot fail to be struck with the similarity of the two. "And Here touched the steeds sharply with the whip, and, of their own accord, the gates of the sky, kept by the JTorce, to whom are entrusted the wide sky, and Olympus, to fold back the dense cloud, and to replace it, burst open. And through these they guided their goaded steeds, and found the son of Kronos sitting afar from the other gods on the sum- mit of many-peaked Olympus." We need not be very\ansious to de- termine precisely what Parmenides meant by coursers or by chariot. Imaginations capable of furnishing the sun with a chariot for his daily course might surely be pardoned for giving the soul one, when it ascends into the pure ether of thought, without our supposing that it must represent the appetites or anything else in particular. A chariot was the recognized means of rising aloft, not only among the Greeks but also among the ancient Indians, the Hebrews (witness the story of Elijah), and other nations. That Parmenides, when his mind was expanding, and, as it were, grasping the whole Universe in one thought, should have felt that he was coming into the region of the gods, and pictured himself as furnished with their means of locomo- tion, one can readily believe. If this is oncet admitted, we need not spend much labor in attempting 10 interpret minute points about the Parmenides. 9 chariot or its axles. Sextus Empeiricus, in whose work Adversus Ma- thematicos this introduction is for the most part preserved, makes a comment upon it, which we must take for what it is worth. Sextus lived at a time when philosophers were finding allegories in everything ancient; witness his contemporary Porphyry's Cave of the Nymphs. His views of what Parmenides may have thought, and his ideas con- cerning the imagery likely to have suggested itself to Parmenides, can have no authority whatever. He says: "In these lines, Parmenides says he is borne by coursers — that is, the irrational impulses and appe- tites of the soul — along the noble and glorious pathway of a goddess — that is, the path of contemplation based on philosophic reason. For reason, like a guiding deity, conducts to the knowledge of all things. And her daughters go before — namely, the senses. He refers to the ears when he says: 'It was urged by a couple of wheels well-rounded' by the wheels (circles), that is, of the ears, through which they receive sound. Intuitions he calls l daughters of the Sun,' who leave the 'mansions of darkness/ and move [their veils] toward the light, be- cause without light there would be no use for them. He says he came to Bike or avenging Justice, ' who keepeth the keys of requital,' that is, to thought, which has the sure and steadfast comprehensions of things. She, having received him, promises to teach him two things, ' First of the Truth's unwavering heart that is fraught with persuasion,' that is, the unswerving step of science ', 'Then of the notions of mortals, where no true conviction abideth,' that is, whatever is matter of opinion, as being, for that reason, uncer- tain. In the end she makes the clear declaration, that the senses are not to be trusted, but only the reason. She says: ' Neither let habit compel thee, while treacling this pathway of knowledge, Still to employ a visionless eye, or an ear full of ringing, Yea, or a clamorous tongue 5 but try this vext demonstration Uttered by me, by Reason. ' From this it is plain that he (Parmenides) also, in pronouncing the scientific reason to be the canon of truth in regard to the things that are (in matters of ontology), revolted against the authority of the senses."
3. (See note 7.)
4. The daughters of the Sun, in the mythological account, were yEgle, Lampetie, and Phaethousa — Eadiance, Sheen, and Gleam. The allegory here is very simple. Pindar calls the sun's ray the " Far- seeing mother of the eyes," and the sun himself the "Birth-giving father of the sharp rays," and the "Lord of the fire-breathing steeds." Preller, in his Griechische Mythologie, says: "From his radiant light 10 Parmenides.
10 Parmenides.
ITolios is called Phaothon, and also the glittering eye of Heaven or of Zeus; because the eye is the light of the body, and has therefore, in all times, been used as an expression for all the radiant and gleaming phenomena of the sky. For the same reason Helios is the all-seeing (7rayo7rr7jc), all-observing, all-investigating, the general spy of gods and men, to whom nothing is hidden or secret. * * * He is likewise a god of the truth of all that is concealed, a god who was wont to be invoked in oaths and by oppressed innocence. Prom this, the further transition to the principle of wisdom and cognition was easy; and, in this sense, Parmenides, in the opening of his philosophico-didactic poem, tells us that he rose to the heights of knowledge riding in the chariot of the sun, and guided by the daughters of Helios; while Pindar, in a very beautiful poem, composed on the occasion of a solar eclipse, had called the ray of the sun the "mother of the eyes, and the fountain of wisdom." Passages might be quoted from the tragedians to show that the sun was considered the source of sight and blindness, e.g. Eurip. Hekabe, 1066-8; Soph. 0. C. 869.
5. The chariot of the sun is not mentioned in Homer. It is first noticed in the so-called Homeric Hymn to Helios. No particular meaning is to be attached to the axles or wheels; they are mentioned simply to show the ease and rapidity of the motion.
6. In the passage quoted from Homer in note 2, we learn that the gates of the sky were kept by the Soros. The names of these, accord- ing to Hesiod, are Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene — Order, Justice, and Peace. Thus Parmenides, in making Justice the guardian of the gates of the sky, adheres to the ordinary mythology. We learn also from Hesiod — Works and Days, 254 sq. — that Justice was greatly revered by the Olympian gods, standing in very close relation to Zeus, and keeping watch for him over the transgressions of men. The Horse, it must be remembered, are the daughters of Zeus and Themis (Eight). "We need not be astonished at the materials of which the gates are said to be made. Even Homer speaks of the heaven as "brazen," "all- brazen/' and "iron."
7. The Goddess (0ed) here meant is evidently the same as the one referred to in line 3, and there called Aaqnov. Patter, in his History of Philosophy, misled perhaps by Sextus Empeiricus, supposes Dike to be meant. But this is evidently wrong; for Dike is merely the gate- keeper in the mansion of a higher power. Mullach sees this and cor- rects Eitter, but is nearly as far wrong himself when he affirms that the goddess meant is Wisdom. There are two things particularly to be remarked in regard to the personages mentioned in this poem; — first, their names are always significant; second, not one of them is a personification made by the poet himself, but all are taken from the Parmenides. 11