Part 13 (1/2)

It would see to Philo, were (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Dialectic, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Geometry, (6) Music Astronomy appears in none of the lists Philosophy is divided into (1) Physics, (2) Logic, (3) Ethics (_De Mutat No current

From what has been adduced, I think we may fairly conclude that at the Christian era no definite number had been fixed for the liberal arts either at Athens, Alexandria, or Rome The list apparently differed in different places Clearly the Roramme was quite different from the Greek Shortly after this era, we find Seneca (who died AD 65) giving the liberal arts, _liberalia studia_, as (1) Grammar, (2) Music, (3) Geometry, (4) Arithmetic, (5) Astronomy (_Epist_, 88) He divides Philosophy into (1) Moral, (2) Natural, (3) Rational, and the last he subdivides into (a) Dialectic and (b) Rhetoric Above all he places Wisdom, ”_Sapientia perfectum bonum est mentis humanae_” (_Epist_, 89)

Here we see that two of the Seven Liberal Arts are classed under Philosophy A little later, Quintilian divides all education into (1) Gra orator to study a little Music, Geo to the Greeks, we find sextus Empiricus, who seems to have flourished in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the second century, writing a great work against the dogmatists or ”mathe to six arts, and three sciences of philosophy The arts are (1) Grammar, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Geometry, (4) Arithic, (2) Physics, (3) Ethics We are now not far from the Seven Liberal Arts; still we have not reached them

There is not, I think, any noteworthy list of the liberal arts to be found in any ancient author after sextus, till we coustine

In his _Retractiones_, written about 425, he tells us (I, 6) that in his youth he undertook to write _Disciplinarum Libri_ (the exact title of Varro's work!), that he finished the book on (1) Gra with _other five_ disciplines, (3) Dialectic, (4) Rhetoric, (5) Geometry, (6) Arithmetic, (7) Philosophy It has frequently been assumed that we have here, for the first time, the Seven Liberal Arts definitely fixed; but there is nothing whatever in the passage to justify this assumption The author does not say ”_the_ other five disciplines,” butthese five, h certainly a ”discipline,” was never, so far as I can discover, called an art, liberal or otherwise There is not the s back the Seven Liberal Arts to St Augustine, who surely was incapable of any such playing with nunize the ”Seven”

It is in the fantastic and superficial work of Martianus Capella, a heathen conteustine's, that they first make their appearance, and even there no stress is laid upon their number They are (1) Grammar, (2) Dialectic, (3) Rhetoric, (4) Geometry, (5) Arithmetic, (6) Astronoht in the better schools of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, when, on the whole, the Greek liberal curriculum had supplanted the Roround for supposing that Capella had anything to do with fixing the curriculum which he celebrates His work is a wretched production, sufficiently characterized by its title, _The Wedding of Mercury and Philology_ He wrote about seven arts because he found seven to write about Attention was first called to the _nu attached to it, by the Christian senator, Cassiodorus (480-575) in his _De Artibus et Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum_ He finds it written in Prov ix, 1, that ”Wisdom hath builded her house She hath hewn out her seven pillars” He concludes that the Seven Liberal Arts are the seven pillars of the house of Wisdom They correspond also to the days of the week, which are also seven It is to be observed that he distinguishes the ”Arts” from the ”Disciplines,” or, as they said later, the _Trivium_ from the _Quadrivium_ The pious notion of Cassiodorus orked out by Isidore of Seville (died 636) in his _Etyiae_, and by Alcuin (died 804) in his _Grammatica_ Of course, as soon as the nuarded as fixed by Scripture authority, it became as familiar a fact as the number of the planets or of the days of the week, or indeed, as the number of the elements About AD 820 Hrabanus Maurus (776-856), a pupil of Alcuin's, wrote a work, _De Clericorum Institutione_, in which the phrase _Septem Liberales Artes_ is said to occur for the first tiorical poem _De Septem Liberalibus in quadam Pictura Descriptis_[13]

The Liberal Studies after St Augustine did not include Philosophy, which rested upon the Seven Arts, as upon ”seven pillars,” and was usually divided into (1) Physical, (2) Logical, (3) Ethical[14] After a ti terned by Cousin to the twelfth century, we find the following scheme:--

{ Ethics

{ Practical { Econoy

PHILOSOPHY { { { Arithmetic } { { Mathematics { Music } { Theoretical { { Geometry } = Quadrivium

{ { { Astronomy } { { Physics

The author expressly says that ”Mathematica quadrivium continet”; but he plainly does not include the _Triviu century In the _Itinerarium Mentis in Deuements:--

{ { Metaphysics--essence: leads to First { { Principle = Father

{ Natural { Mathee = Son

{ { Physics--natures, powers, diffusions: { { leads to Gift of Holy Spirit

{ PHILOSOPHY { { Graic--perspicuity in argu = Holy { { Spirit

{ { { Monastics--innascibility of Father

{ Moral { conomics--familiarity of Son

{ { Politics--liberality of Holy Spirit

Here we have the _Trivium_, under the division ”Rational,” while the _Quadrivium_ et nine sciences or disciplines, and the number was apparently chosen, because it is the square of three, the number of the Holy Trinity In the latter case this was certainly true Speaking of the primary divisions of Philosophy, the Saint says: ”The first treats of the cause of being, and therefore leads to the Power of the Father; the second of the ground of understanding, and therefore leads to the Wisdo, and therefore leads to the goodness of the Holy Spirit”

Dante, in his _Convivio_ (II, 14, 15), gives the following scheme, based upon the ”ten heavens,” nine of which are ences, while the last rests in God

{ { Graels

{ { Rhetoric Venus Thrones

LIBERAL ARTS { { { Arithmetic Sun Dominions

{ Quadrivium { Music Mars Virtues