Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/566

Rh 506 A K I A K I this service, called Aristides the founder of their city, and erected a brazen statue to him. He declined the other honours which they would have heaped upon him, and would only accept the office of priest of yEsculapius, which he held till his death, about 189 A.B. The extant works of Aristides consist of two small and unimportant treatises on rhetoric, and of fifty-five orations or declamations. In several of these he selects the same subjects as had been treated by Demosthenes and Isocrates, and puts himself in direct competition with them. His contemporaries ventured to compare him with Demosthenes, but modern criticism does not confirm this judgment. The style of Aristides is good, sometimes terse and elegant, but occasionally laboured, and there is a total want of the vigorous energy of thought and practical skill that give so much power to the orations of Demosthenes. No doubt this is in great measure due to the fact that the subjects selected by Aristides were to him fictitious, and that, conse quently, his whole attention must have been concentrated on the diction and manner of treatment ; in the cause itself he could have had no living interest. A complete edition of his works was published by Dindorf, Aristidis Opera, 3 vols ., Leipsic, 1829. ARISTIDES of THEBES, a celebrated Greek painter, was an older contemporary of Apelles, and flourished about 350 B.C. He is said by Pliny to have been the first to express in his paintings character and passion; but this is probably an exaggeration. Several of his paintings are recorded in which there was manifested extraordinary mas tery of expression. His colouring is said by Pliny to have been hard. ARISTIDES, QUINTILI ANUS, author of a valuable treatise on music, lived probably in the first century of our era. According to Meibomius, in whose collection (Antiq. Musicae, AIK. Septem, 1652) this work is printed, it contains every thing on music that is to be found in antiquity. ARISTIPPUS, the founder of tho Cyrenaic school of philosophy, was the son of Aritadas, a wealthy merchant of Gyrene, in Africa. Nothing is known of the early part of his life, but he appears to Lave been sent by his father on a voyage to Greece, and while there, attending the Olympic games, he was attracted by the fame of the Socratic teaching. He immediately proceeded to Athens, united himself to the circle of followers who surrounded Socrates, and continued with him till his death in 399. He did not, however, accept without essential modification the teaching of his master, and his conduct, in many points, was displeasing both to Socrates and to other members of the Socratic band. He had probably brought with him from the wealthy city of Cyrene habits of luxury and osten tation, which contrasted forcibly with the homely and temperate life of his master. Xenophon, in the Memorabilia, reports his conversation on the nature of temperance, in which he defends his life of ease and self-indulgence. Plato also somewhat significantly states that he was absent in the island of ^Egina on the day when Socrates died. Another feature of his character, which rendered Aristippus objectionable to the other Socratics, was his tendency to adopt the theory and practice of the Sophists, among whom he is expressly included by Aristotle (Met., ii. 2). It is more than probable that in Cyrene he had been already introduced to the doctrines of Protagoras, of whose influence his own theory shows manifest traces. We are further told that he opened his school before the death of Socrates, who blamed him for receiving payment from his scholars. This story is probably inaccurate as to the time when he began to teach, but it is undoubtedly true that he took money for his lectures, and defended the practice. Aristippus resembled the Sophists in another particular ; like them, he avoided the duties and ties of citizenship by wandering from city to city. He was a professed cosmopolitan. The records of his travels, particularly of his visit or visits to the court of Syracuse, and his hostile relations with Plato there, are not in all points consistent, and rest on but slender authority. He appears to have settled finally in his native city, and seems to have died there. Although nothing is known with certainty as to the dates of his birth and death, 435 B.C. for the one, and about 356 B.C. for tho other, may be accepted as probably accurate. The life of Aristippus is the best exemplification of his principles. Truo temperance, according to him, consists not in abstaining from pleasure, but in being able to enjoy it with moderation. He therefore indulged in good living, rich clothing, splendid dwellings, and in the society of the accomplished hetsera?. But in all these pleasures he remained thoroughly master of himself ; he possessed them, and was not possessed by them. At any moment he could relinquish pleasure, for he had attained an equanimity that rendered him happy under any circumstances. To make the most of life, reasonably to enjoy the present moment, and to drive off care, reflection, and forethought, were the practical precepts by which he guided himself. As might naturally be expected, Aristippus left no definite system of philosophy ; indeed, according to some accounts, he wrote nothing at all. Diogenes Laertius certainly gives a list of works ascribed to him, but some of these were no doubt spurious, and none have survived. His daughter Arete, who had received the spirit of his teaching, continued the school after his death, and in turn instructed her son, the younger Aristippus (hence called ^rpoSt SaKTos), to whom is attri buted the systematic representation of the Cyrenaic doc trines, the fundamental principles of which, however, are due to the elder Aristippus. In the Socratic theory of morals, virtue had appeared as the only human good, and reason as the indispensable condition of right action; but there was at the same time a utilitarian side to this teaching. Ethical virtues had been tested by their consequences ; proof of the virtuous quality of an action had been drawn from its tendency to give pleasure ; happiness or utility had been, in a certain sense, laid down as the end of action. This one-sided aspect of the Socratic theory was accepted by Aristippus, and by him carried out to its full extent. He refused altogether to consider those speculative elements, which, though in some degree rejected by Socrates himself, were nevertheless inherent in the Socratic system. Logic and Physics he thought unnecessary, for they contained nothing which bore upon the end of action, and for the same reason, as Aristotle tells us, he rejected mathematical study. But although Logic and Physics, as separate disciplines, received no attention from the Cyrenaics, yet they were admitted as supports to their ethical theory. According to Aristip pus, knowledge is sensible perception ; all that we know of anything is the impression made by it on us. These impressions are motions, changes in our mental states ; and each mental state is a purely subjective phenomenon, from which we can deduce nothing as to the constitution of external reality. Nor can we compare our knowledge with that of others ; each one s sensations are peculiarly his own, and can be known only by himself. General names or conceptions, and, consequently, general proposi tions or truths, are meaningless and absurd. Individual feeling is the sole criterion of truth. From this it follows at once that such feeling is the only means by which we can determine our actions; feeling becomes the standard both of truth and of action. Now the only difference among feelings, in their relation to action, is their pleasurable or painful quality. The change effected in us by any object is either a violent, a gentle, or a perfectly tranquil motion. The first is painful, the second pleasant, the third in