The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

' Degerando, Hist, des Systâm. de Phil., t. i., p. 128, a la note. " Dionys. Halic, De Tkucid. Judic.

62 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

Lucretius who, being inspired by the works of Leucippus and of Epicurus' wrote a book upon the nature of things, which has never been as yet well comprehended or well translated, the language not being understood.

Comedy, reformed by Menander, was again improved by Plautus and by Terence who acquired much reputation in this style; as to dramatic art in itself, it remained in its inertia. The Romans having the same gods and nearly the same mythology as the Greeks, were neither sufficiently elevated in intelligence to reinstate this art and make of it the masterpiece of the human mind; nor sufficiently advanced in exact knowledge to change wholly its forms and make of it, as we have, a new art, whence allegory and the moral part of Evunolpoeia have been completely banished. But what the Romans were unable to do for dramatic art, they unfortunately were able to do for Epopoeia. Certain writers, able versifiers, but absolutely deprived of intellectual inspiration, incapable of distinguishing in poetry the essence from the form, following what the degenerated theatre and the inspired declamations of Euhemerus* had taught them, imagined foolishly that the gods and heroes of antiquity having been only men stronger and more powerful than the others, mythology was only a crude collection of historic facts disfigured, and Epopceia only an emphatic discourse upon these same facts. ^ Thereupon they believed that it was only a question of taking any historic subject whatever, and relating it in verse with certain em-

■ The real founder of the Atomic system such as has been adopted by Lucretius (De Rerum Natura, 1. i.), was Moschus, Phoenician philosopher whose works threw light upon those of Leucippus (Posidonius <At6 par Strabon, 1. xvi., Sext. Empiric, Adv. mathem., p. 367). This system well understood, does not differ from that of the monads, of which Leibnitz was the inventor.

" Fr^ret, Mytholog. ou Religion des Grecs.

3 Voltaire, who has adopted this error, has founded it upon the signification of the word Epos, which he has connected with that of Discourse (Dictionn. pkilos. au mot Epopee). But he is mistaken. The Greek word iito% is translated accurately by versus. Thence the verb eweiv, to follow in the tracks, to turn, to go, in the same sense.

The Essence and Form of Poetry 63 bellishments, to create an epic poem. Lucan and Silius Italicus, in choosing, the one the misfortunes of Pompey, and the other the victories of Hannibal, considered themselves superior to Homer or Vergil, as much as they supposed Rome or Carthage superior to Ilium. But a just posterity, notwithstanding the prejudices of their panegyrists, has put them in their place. It has considered them merely the inventors of a kind of bastard poetry, which might be called historic poetry. This poetry, entirely separated from Eumolpoeia, whose moral essence it is unable to realize, preserves only the material and physical forms of true Epopoeia. It is a body without soul, which is moved by a mechanical mainspring applied by a skilful workman.

As to the poetic form in itself, its only point of variance with the Greeks and Romans was that of elegance. The verses written in the same manner, depended likewise upon a fixed number of time or of feet regulated by musical rhythm. If rhyme had been admitted there in the first ages, it had been excluded early enough so that there remained no longer the least trace of it. The Latin tongue, very far from the Greek in flexibility, variety, and harmony, for a long time treated with contempt by the Greeks who, regarding it as a barbarous dialect, only learned it with repugnance'; the Latin tongue, I say, unpleasing, obscure, not even supporting the mediocrity of ordinary elocution, became, through the laborious efforts of its writers, a tongue which in the works of Vergil, for example, attained such a perfec-

' The Greeks looked upon the Latin authors and artists as paupers enriched by their spoils; also they learned their language only when forced to do so. The most celebrated writers by whom Rome was glorified, were rarely cited by them. Longinus, who took an example of the sublime in Moses, did not seek a single one either in Horace or in Vergil; he did not even mention their names. It was the same with other critics. Plutarch spoke of Cicero as a statesman; he quoted many of his clever sajrings, but he refrained from comparing him with Demosthenes as an orator. He excuses himself on account of having so little knowledge of the Latin tongue, he who had lived so long in Rome! Emperor Julian, who has written only in Greek, cites only Greek authors and not one Latin.

64 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras