Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 2.djvu/123

111 and chose to take the side of those who would read the classic authors only so far as the needs of education demanded:

"There are two kinds of writings, first those which are termed the artes proper, secondly, those which are the supplements (appendentia) of the artes. Artes comprise the works grouped under (supponuntur) philosophy, those which contain some fixed and determined matter of philosophy, as grammar, dialectic and the like. Appendentia artium are those [writings] which touch philosophy less nearly and are occupied with some subject apart from it; and yet sometimes offer flotsam and jetsam from the artes, or simply as narratives smooth the road to philosophy. All the songs of poets are such—tragedies, comedies, satires, heroics, and lyrics too, and iambics, besides certain didactic works (didascalica); tales likewise, and histories; also the writings of those nowadays called philosophers, who extend a brief matter with lengthy circumlocution, and thus darken a simple meaning.

"Note then well the distinction I have drawn for thee: distinct and different (duo) are the artes and their appenditia, … and often from the latter the student will gain much labour and little fruit. The artes, without their appenditia, may make the reader perfect; but the latter, without the artes, can bring no whit of perfection. Wherefore one should first of all devote himself to the artes, which are so fundamental, and to the aforesaid seven above all, which are the means and instruments (instrumenta) of all philosophy. Then let the rest be read, if one has leisure, since sometimes the playful mingled with the serious especially delights us, and we are apt to remember a moral found in a tale."

Temperament affected Hugo's view. He was of the spiritual aristocracy, who may be somewhat disdainful of the common means by which men get their education and round out their natures. The mechanical monotony of pedagogy grated on him and evoked the ironical sketch of a school-room, which he put in his dialogue on the Vanity of the World. The little Discipulus, directed by his Magister, is surveying human things.

"Turn again, and look," says the latter, "and what do you see?"

"I see the schools of learners. There is a great crowd, and of all ages, boys and youths, men young and old. They study various