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SCIENCE AND POLITICS
IN THE

AN CIENT WORLD
 by the same author

PRIM U M G RAIU S HOMO

Cambridge University Press

SC IEN CE IN AN TIQ U ITY

Home University Library

TH E CIVILIZATION
OF GREECE AND ROME
Gollancz
SCIENCE AND POLITICS
IN T H E

ANCIENT WORLD
BY

B E N JA M IN F A R R IN G T O N
Professor of Classics, University College
Swansea

LO N D O N

G E O R G E A L L E N & U N W IN L T D
 Ον κόμπον ovhc φωνής Ιργαστικονς ovhe την περιμάχητον
παρά τοΐς πολλοΐς παώςίαν όνΰακννμόνονς φνσιολογία
παρασκ€νάζ€ΐ, άλλα σοβαρούς καί αντάρκεις και cm τοΐς
ίδιοι? άγαθοΐς, ούκ cm τοΐς των πραγμάτων μόγα φρονονντας.

E p ic u r u s

The knowledge o f natural law docs not produce men given to

idle boasting or prone to display the culture for which the many
strive, but men o f a haughty independence o f mind who pride
themselves on the goods proper to man, not to his circumstances.
 A c k n o w le d g m e n t s

I wish to thank the fo llo w in g : D r. C y r il B a iley fo r per­

mission to quote fro m his translation o f Epicurus; A . and C .
Black, Ltd., fo r permission to quote fro m Thom as W h it­
taker’ s Priests, Philosophers and Prophets; G . B ell and Sons,
Ltd., for permission to quote from M u n ro ’s translation o f
Lucretius; M r. W . H . S. Jones for permission to quote from
his version o f the Hippocratic writings (Loeb Library,
Heinemann); the Jo w e tt Trustees for permission to quote
from Jo w e tt’ s translation o f The Republic of Plato (O .U .P .);
John M urray for permission to quote from A . W . Benn’s
The Greek Philosophers; and Professor George Thomson
for permission to quote from his version o f the Prometheus
o f Aeschylus.
 C o n te n ts

CHAPTER PACE
LIST OF CHIEF FIGURES FROM ANTIQ UITY II

1. INTRODUCTORY 13
A Modem Illustration

2 . A FIRST GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM 19

From. Anaximander to Cosmas Indicopleustes
3 . A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM 26
The Geometer-God
4- A THIRD GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM 33
I From Empedocles to Prudentius
5. P A G A N A N D C H R IS T IA N S U P E R S T IT IO N 52

6. T H E T W O G R E A T A C H IE V E M E N T S OF PRE-
S O C R A T IC S C IE N C E 57 '

7. P R O M E T H E U S B O U N D 67
The Clash between Science and the City-State
j 8. PL A T O A N D T H E R E L IG IO N O F T H E C IT Y -S T A T E 87
! 9. T H E R E V O L T FR O M TH E R E LIG IO N OF T H E
' C IT Y -S T A T E 107
10. W H A T E P IC U R U S D ID 118
11. E P IC U R U S A N D P LA T O 130
12. T H E R E LIG IO N OF E P IC U R U S 148
13. E P IC U R E A N ISM R E A C H E S R O M E 160
14. L U C R E T IU S 172
15 A FT E R L U C R E T IU S 2 17

BIBLIOGRAPH Y 235

INDP.X 239
 CH A PTE R ONE

INTRO D UCTO RY
A M O D ERN ILLUSTRATIO N

Haeckel, by stressing the application to Man of Darwin s theory

of the Origin of Species, finds that he has transformed himself
from a pure scientist to a politician.*I

\ This is a book about the obstacles to the spread o f a

I scientific outlook in the ancient w orld. O f these obstacles
I the chief is generally characterized as Popular Superstition.
The purpose o f this study is to raise the question h o w far
popular superstition means superstition originated by the
people or imposed upon the people. Plutarch, in his brilliant
essay O n Superstitition, says o f the victims o f this disease that
“ they despise Philosophers and Grave Personages o f State
and Governm ent, w ho do teach and show that the Majesty
of God is accompanied with bounty, magnanimity, love
and careful regard o f our good.” 1 But w e shall find
much evidence to show that philosophers and grave per­
sonages o f State and Government inculcated also less com­
fortable doctrines o f acknowledged falsity. Ancient writers
will inform us o f the nature o f these doctrines and the
motive for their dissemination. Their testimony will h elp '
us to distinguish between the two sources o f ancient super­
stition, popular ignorance and deliberate deceit. T o the
writer it seems that the keeping o f this elementary distinc-
Uon results in a shifting o f the perspective in which the
Instory o f science in antiquity is seen and in the clarifying
° f several issues that were previously obscure. Above all,
13
 INTRODUCTORY

it throws light on the history o f Epicureanism, and on the

strange figure of the Latin poet Lucretius, in whose work
the war against superstition reached its highest expression
in the ancient world.
In the later chapters o f this book w e shall be concerned
to trace the interactions between Natural Philosophy and
Political Philosophy in the world o f Classical Antiquity.
In our view the development o f Natural Philosophy was
violently interfered with by considerations that arose in a
field extraneous to it, namely politics. The invasion o f the
domain o f Natural Philosophy by political ideas is most
evident in Plato. The last determined endeavour to rescue j
Natural Philosophy from politics was made by Lucretius.
Our enquiry, therefore, though it will start before Plato
and continue after Lucretius, will centre mainly round these
two great figures. But since it may not be immediately
apparent that Natural Philosophy and Politics can and do
interact, it may be well to give first an example from modem
times of such interaction.
A m ong the advocates o f the biological th eo ry o f e v o lu ­
tion w hich produced such a ferment, not o n ly in scientific
circles but in society in general, in the closing decades o f
the nineteenth century one o f the m ost p rom inent and i
most zealous was Ernst Haeckel. Round his head broke the
most violent storms o f controversy. Haeckel was a m em ber
o f the upper classes with no particular interest in ■ i
problems. O nly experience revealed to him, and the S° Cial
lation puzzled him somewhat to his dying day t h * ^ 6”
uncompromising public championship o f his scientific ^ ^
was a form o f political action which roused the i Vlews
controversy and made him a hero to one political
and an object o f suspicion to another. P arty
Darwin, when he published his Origin o f Species '
 IN TRODUCT ORY

soft-pedalled its application to the origin o f man. H e pro­

vided his b o o k w ith a theistic conclusion, and m erely
suggested eti passant, as am on g the probable results o f his
theory o f N atu ral Selection, that “ light w ill be throw n on
the origin and history o f hum anity.” His Germ an translator,
jBronn, w hose version appeared in i860, still more timid
[than D a rw in , thought it better not to render the passage
Iat all. H e sim ply omitted the dangerous sentence. B u t at
ja scientific congress at Stettin in 1863 Haeckel, w ho was
the first speaker, vigorously underlined the implications for
the natural history o f man that must logically be developed
from D a rw in ’ s theory. H e had the general approval o f his
colleagues, V irc h o w am ong them. But V ircho w had a sense
for the social implications o f science that Haeckel in his
innocence did not yet possess. A t a later stage o f the same
congress he proceeded to limit the field o f action o f science
in a sense the full significance o f which did not become
clear for m any years. It was the business o f the scientist,
said V irch o w , to establish facts, but not to go on to philo­
sophize about them. In the domain o f fact science is supreme.
I f it be established as a fact that man is descended from the
ape, no tradition in the world w ill be able to suppress the
fact. An d the supremacy o f science in the domain o f fact
must be respected even beyond its frontiers. Church and
State must both bow to science in the realm o f fact. “ The
far-seeing Government and the open-minded Church will
always assimilate these advancing and developing ideas and
make them fruitful.” But at the same time, said Virchow,
science must not seek to trespass beyond its frontiers. And
in the drawing o f those mysterious frontiers Virchow showed
a wish to compromise with the claims o f the far-seeing
Government and die open-minded Church which was later to
produce the sharpest divergence between him and Haeckel.
15
 IN T R O D U CT O R Y

-S i
At the Stettin congress Virchow did not indicate
nature of the compromise he sought with Government,
concession was to the Church, and very curious was the
line he drew between the spheres o f Science and the Church.
Consciousness, said Virchow, and above all those facts of
consciousness that dominate our whole higher life, can never
be the concern of science. “ That is, I think,” he said, the
point where science makes its compromise with the
Churches, recognizing that this is a province that each can
survey as he will, cither putting his own interpretation on
it or accepting the traditional ideas; and it must be sacred
to others.”
V ir c h o w ’ s position w as anything but completely clear,
b u t en ou gh o f it w as clear to be inacceptable to H aeckel
T h e scientist m igh t gather facts but he must n o t d ra w con­
clusions, at least in the sphere o f consciousness. T o impose
such a com prom ise on H aeck el w o u ld have been to forbid
him to think. H e w as to be free to trace the evolu tion of
the physical structure o f livin g things fro m the moneron
to man, but not free to associate th erew ith a n y conclusions
on the evolution o f the psychic activities that dep en d on
the physical structure. Vesalius had already m uttered under
such restrictions three hundred years before. H aeckel con­
tinued to enquire, to speculate, and to publish. Virchow,
now openly settmg expediency above truth, m oved into
full opposition. A t the congress o f i8 ? 7 , it ^ n o ,ongc,
w ith the open-minded Church (its pow er had declined in
the meantime in Germany! that i_
compromise, hut with J fo t-^ L V c o 8 *° .
f o r t h e m o m e n t w x ,h . mg Governm
for the moment was the more powerful nf fL ent,
C' winch
time, no. the Deposit o f the F^th bm
were to define the limits o f the scientist’s StatC’
winism was now opposed on the ground A ^ t h ^ s S a l
16
 INTRO D U CTO RY

Democrats had taken to it. Science was to be restricted

because the people were becoming interested in its con­
clusions. Not truth but political expediency was to be the
controlling factor in the growth o f science.
Haeckel n o w felt h im self crushed between the upper and
the nether m ill-stone. H e had always dreaded the ignorance
o f the m ultitude; n o w he began to fear that his w orst enem y
was the alliance o f the Ch u rch w ith the reactionary political
party in G erm an y. Ignorance, he reflected, m ay be cured;
the appeal to interest is always addressed to d e a f ears. He
had always concerned him self w ith publishing his con­
clusions to the educated non-specialist; n ow he would seek
a wider public still. He w ould, i f he could, enlighten the
multitude. T h at w a y at least lay hope for the future o f
mankind. Haeckel had turned politician, but not by aban­
doning science; he had merely found that to be a consistent
.and courageous scientist was politics in the highest degree.
/With the composition o f The Riddle o f the Universe he
addressed him self to the man in the street. The book,
translated into fourteen languages, sold in its hundreds o f
•[thousands. T h e Jena professor, whose weak voice could
Jiardly be heard in the lecture-room, had spoken to the
‘tvorld. His determination not only to enquire but to publish
*hc results o f his enquiries had transformed the very nature
-inf his activities. His opinions ceased to be a matter o f merely
academic concern; they, and his right to express them, had
'become the symbol o f a struggle o f the people for eman­
cipation. T o his bewilderment, and possibly not altogether
(to his satisfaction, he was exalted to the rank o f a prophet
J w the democracies o f the world.
Such were the repercussions in Church and State o f one
ian’s advocacy o f Darwinism at the end o f the nineteenth

i c'ntury. I f it was observed with alarm that he was being

LUnt* a * d I'o litu i u* Ikt XikK tU World I7 D

 INTRODUCTORY

read by factory-workers and fishermen; if it was discovered

in his own country that his works were “ a fleck o f shame
on the escutcheon o f Germany,” “ an attack on the foun­
dations o f religion and morality” ; and in Glasgow that die
impeccable author himself was “ a man of notoriously
licentious life,” these phenomena have, as we shall see, their
analogy in the history o f science in the ancient world .1
2

1 Plutarch’s de Supersfitione, chap. 6. Translation by Philemon Hollani

2 The source for the account o f Ernst Haeckel given in this chapter
is Haeckel, His Life and Work; by Wilhelm Bolsche; translated by Joseph
McCabe, Fisher Unwin, 1906.
 CHAPTER TWO

A FIRST GLANCE AT OUR

PROBLEM
FROM A N AXIM AN D ER TO COSMAS
INDICOPLEUSTES

Anaximander, in the sixth century B.C., teaches a theory of

solution based on observation. Cosmas, in the sixth century
A.D., teaches a theory based on the Bible, that the universe is
made on the model of the Tabernacle of Moses.

Attention has often been directed to the “ miraculous” rise

jof Greek science in sixth-century Ionia. Equally marvellous
is the state o f its decline in the sixth century o f our own
era after more than a thousand years o f civilization. This
being the phenomenon w e hope to explain in some measure,
it w ill be w ell to take a preliminary survey o f it.
In the sixth century in Ionia, within the compass o f the
lifetime o f tw o men, Thales and Anixamander,^ science
achieved an astonishing development. It is a fact, which
anyone can confirm w ho cares to take the trouble, that the
kind o f things that Anaximander was saying in his book
On Nature were the same kind o f things that an up-to-date
writer puts forward to-day in a scientific handbook o f the
universe. Thus, Anaximander was already maintaining
that the sun, moon, and stars, the eardi, and the sea, were
all made o f one fundamental substance; that they came
to occupy their present positions in the universe as a
natural result o f the motion with which the primary
19
 A F IR S T GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

matter is endowed; that this motion tended to send the

hot and fiery element to the outside o f the universe, the
cold and earthy to the centre, while water and mist lay
between; that the earth was still undergoing a great pro­
cess o f change, owing to the fact that the encircling heat
continually dried up the moisture from the sea and the
surface o f the earth, a process plainly proved by the observed
phenomenon o f raised beaches; that living things had been
produced in the course o f the natural process thus described
and were under the necessity o f adapting themselves to their
environment or perishing; that “ the first animals were
produced in moisture, and were covered with a spiny
tegument; in course o f time they reached land; when the
integument burst they quickly modified their mode o f life” ;
and that “ living creatures were bom from the moist element
when it had been evaporated by the sun; man, in the begin­
ning resembled another animal, to wit, a fish.” These
were the kind o f things Anaximander was writing. And
he was further aware that he had arrived at these conclusions
by looking at the universe about him and thinking about
what he saw. He realized that the kind o f things he was led
by observation and reflection to believe about the universe
constituted a new kind o f knowledge not the same as that
taught by poets and priests; but he thought that it could be
trusted to make its w ay by itself with intelligent people and
would be found useful to humanity. He him self began to
apply his knowledge to the practical purpose o f making a
map o f the known world.
People have been rightly astonished at the progress in
science that was made in a generation in Ionia in the sixth
century. But is it not even more astonishing that this
promising beginning should in due time have completelv
failed ? In the sixth century o f our own era a writer call d
20
 A F IR S T GLANCE AT OUR P R O B LE M

Cosm as Indicopleustes, w hose w o r k has survived w hile on ly

the smallest fragm ents o f An axim an der’s remain, set out to
prove, in his C hristian T o pography, that the earth is a flat
plain w ith high walls enclosing it on each o f its four
jsides. H e w as led to this opinion not prim arily b y the
jexamination o f the w o rld , but b y a conviction that the
jworld w as made on the model o f the tabernacle o f Moses
[described in H o ly W r it. W ith this supernatural guidance
;to aid him he kn ew that the sky was a semi-cylindrical lid
(which rested on the four walls and thus formed a cover for
ΐ the plain. Other knowledge also he possessed. It had been a
[defect o f Greek science that it had failed to develop a theory
;-of energy, and much nonsense was believed and written by
jGreek philosophers on the question o f the power that moved
'the heavenly bodies. Bu t Cosmas had a solution for this
(problem also. According to him the motive power for the
heavenly bodies was supplied by angels. It was angels who
produced the phenomena o f night and day, and other
phenomena o f the sort, by carrying the heavenly bodies
round a high mountain that lay to the north o f the plain.
The defect o f Greek science was thus made good. The foolish
Greeks had hesitated on the threshold o f a theory o f energy;
angels rushed in where fools had feared to tread. But the
most significant thing o f all is that Cosmas had parted with
the idea that the universe is evidence o f its own nature. This
evidence is now to be derived not from study o f nature but
from study o f a book; and this book is not believed because
it is new, but because it is old; and not simply because it is
old, but because it is supernatural. W hat causes had operated
to produce the change from the world o f Anaximander to
the world o f C o sm a s Indicopleustes ? This is the question
Iwith which we shall be concerned.
It m a y be ob je cte d that in con trastin g A n a x im a n d e r w ith
21
 A FIR ST GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

Cosmas we are contrasting one o f the greatest o f Greek

thinkers with a Christian writer o f no very great intellectual
pretensions. But this objection is not valid, for the compari­
son is intended not between the individual thinkers, but
between the two men as representative o f their times, and
both Anaximander and Cosmas are representative figures.
I f it had been a question o f finding a better scientist than
Cosmas in the sixth century o f the Christian era, Joannes
Philoponus, the distinguished commentator on Aristotle’s
Physics, w ho was converted from Neo-Platonism to
Christianity about a . d . 520, would serve our turn. But
Philoponus is not a typical figure. In so far as he was a
scientist he represents the survival o f a dying tradition. It
was the opinion o f Cosmas, namely, that in the Bible we
have the key to the understanding o f the nature o f things,
that was to be characteristic o f the coming age.1
The problem, then, is to find an adequate cause for the
decline o f the scientific activity o f the ancient world, the
disappearance o f the spirit o f enquiry into the nature o f
things. M any answers have been suggested. Christianity has
been blamed. B ut this is no answer to our problem; for,
in so far as Christianity was incompatible with science, we
have still to ask w hy the ancients abandoned their science for
Christianity.
The inroads o f the barbarian peoples on the frontiers o f
the Roman Empire are credited with the destruction o f the
tradition o f civilization. But this raises the enormous question
why the civilized portion o f the world should have declined
in power and the uncivilized portion increased, until the dis­
proportion became so great that the barbarians overran the
Empire. I f science had been doing what science can do for
mankind the Empire would never have fallen before the
attack o f the rude invaders.
22
 A FIRST GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

Greek science, it has also been said, failed because the

Romans could n ot assimilate it; w h e n the R om ans assumed
the political m astery o f the Greeks, the creative race was
reduced to a subject position, and the Rom ans themselves
could not take up the torch. B u t the racial incapacity o f the
Romans for science is a v e ry doubtful argument, as doubtful
as the supposed racial basis o f the scientific achievement o f
the Greeks. T h ere w as no Greek race, and no Rom an race.
jThe Greek thinkers w ere, racially, a thoroughly mongrel
lot. T hen, as in the m odem w orld, m any o f the most
distinguished “ European” scientists had a good porportion
o f oriental blood in their veins.2 A n d i f there was no Greek
race w ith a special aptitude for science, there was no Roman
race w ith a special inaptitude for it. The ancient Romans
were as mixed a lot as the m odem Italians; and i f the modern
Italians have contributed richly to science, while the ancient
Romans contributed very litde, the explanation does not
he in race.
External causes for the failure o f ancient science proving
I insufficient, internal causes have been sought for. It has been
said, with m uch justification, that the basis o f Greek science
was too narrow. R oughly it m ay be said that the Greeks,
conspicuously successful in mathematics, failed in physics.
They indulged in much physical speculation, but they did
not establish a tradition o f systematic experiment. Such
experiments as they are known to have employed were
rather in the nature o f illustrations o f speculative conclusions
than part o f a clearly apprehended technique o f research.
This explanation is good so far as it goes. But it still leaves
the further question, why die development o f Greek science
should have been so lop-sided. T o diis again a partial answer
has been given by those who point to the slave-basis o f
ancient society, and who see in the divorce o f theory and
23
 A F IR S T GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

practice that fo llo w s fro m the institution o f sla very a r^ asoI\

fo r the d e ve lo p m en t o f the speculative and abstract side o f
science and the failure o f its co n crete applications.
To the present writer the line o f explanation opened up by
those who approach the problem o f the failure o f ancient
science from the point o f view o f the social structure o f
ancient society seems the true one. The problem is complex,
and in this essay only one aspect o f it w ill be stressed. Many
writers have shown a lively sympathy with the view that
science is the creation o f an elite and is endangered i f it be
entrusted to the ignorant mob. It is not so common to find
any corresponding sense o f the responsibility o f governments
for the existence o f such ignorance; still less o f the active
part played by governments in the promotion o f ignorance.
Salomon Reinach3 accounts for the retrogressions towards
animism and magic, whether in nineteenth-century France
or fourth-century Greece, by “ the admixture o f minds
emancipated, but few in number, with the ignorant and
superstitious multitude.” But though he does utter a
reproach against the “ cultivated rationalistic classes, which
cared nothing for enlightening the poor folk,” he shows no
true sense o f the issues involved. He is unaware o f the
resistance offered by oligarchies to the spread o f knowledge
among the people. This is another aspect o f the truth,
without which the halting progress o f enlightenment cannot
be understood either in the ancient or in the modern world.
Readers o f C o lle t’ s History o f the Taxes on Knowledge* w ill
understand the problem as it existed in E n g la n d in the
nineteenth century, and w ill be able to set in its h isto rical
con text the fam ous inscription on the Examiner n ew sn
in the 1 8 3 0 ’s: “ Paper and print 3 j d ., T a x e s on K n o w l r T ^
3 id ., Price 7 d .” T h e n , “ learning that the State ,” in P
phrase o f G eo rg e Ja co b H o lyo ak e , “ w as fo r a hundred ai d
24
 A FIRST GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

forty-three years the active and determined frustrator o f

public information,” they will turn back to the study o f the
oligarchical policies o f Greece and Rome with a sharpened
comprehension. In the view o f the present writer, the
problem o f government in the class-divided societies o f
classical antiquity reveals its acuteness not only in the
descriptions o f open stasis, or class-warfare, in which the
records o f the ancient historians abound, but in the
systematic efforts on the part o f governments, priesthoods,
and leaders o f thought in various fields o f human achieve­
ment, to provide the mass o f their people not with true
| ideas but with “ wholesome” ones.

1 For Joannes Philoponus see Brunet et M idi, Histoire des Sciences:

Antiquiti, Paris, 19 35, pp. 963 if. It m ay be noted that the opinion o f these
two authorities is w holly against the out-moded view that Christianity
killed Greek science. According to them it died o f internal decay. Elle
aurait eu le meme sort, aoyons-nous, sans Vintervention ie I’iglise chritienne234
(p. 978).
2 See Seignobos, in his recent Essai d'une Histoire Compare des
Peupies de ΓEurope (Rieder, Paris, 1938), p. 29: Les Grecs, opdrant sur les
connaissanccs accumuldes en Orient cr&rent une methode de pensie si
nouvcllc qu’clle a ctd appelcc “ le miracle grec” et attribute i un g&iie
propre a la race hcllinique. En fait, elle fut l’ oeuvre du n petit nombre
d’individus, savants, philosophes, dcrivains, venus dcs points les plus
eloignes, la plupart meme de pays dont la population n’<ftait d’origine
hcllenique.
3 Sec Salomon Reinach’s Orpheus, English translation, Routledgc,
1931. pp. 24 and 95.
4 Collet’s History of the Taxes on Knowledge, Watts (Thinker’s
Library), Intro, pp. x and xi.

25
 CHAPTER THREE

A SEC O N D G L A N C E A T O U R
PRO BLEM
T H E G E O M E T E R -G O D

In this chapter it appears that arithmetic is democratic, geometry

oligarchic, and that God prefers the latter.

Science, as has been implied in our last chapter, can advance ,

or retreat along two roads. There is first the advance that
consists in the actual progress o f knowledge and refinement
o f ideas, irrespective o f the numbers o f those who share
in the advance. In the second place there is the progress o f
the dissemination o f scientific ideas among the general mass
o f the people.
In our modern world, where the practical applications
o f science have transformed and continue to transform
society, the question o f the dissemination o f scientific know­
ledge among the people at large assumes a different aspect
from that which it presented in antiquity. Pure science, in
our western democracies, may still to some extent be the
preserve o f an oligarchy, but without a wide dissemination
o f technical knowledge modem society is unworkable. The
problem that presents itself to societies o f oligarchical com­
plexion is how to combine political ignorance with technical
efficiency.
These considerations reveal to us the further fact that there
is a connection between the character o f science and its
dissemination. In this matter our democracies are at the
26
 A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

cross-roads. Either our science must transform itself by the

recognition that the history o f its development is unin­
telligible without an understanding o f its social origins; that
men cannot be adequately trained in applied science without
instruction in its social function; and that the obstacles to
the progress o f science can be external to it, in the sense that
they rise out o f the structure o f society as well as out o f
theoretical errors; either this transformation must take place
or science must retreat. The future o f science is now plainly
a political question. Either we must base our civilization
j more thoroughly on scientific foundations, or we must
destroy science itself. Both processes are taking place in the
I world to-day.
| Bu t in the w orld o f Classical Antiquity, though there
was an analogous situation, it had recognizable differences.
The machine age had not come. A t the basis o f the social
pile lay man himself, not man and the machine. There was
therefore no problem to be solved o f combining technical
training w ith political incompetence. The problem was the
simpler one o f disseminating such ideas as would make the
unjust distribution o f the rewards and toils o f life seem a
necessary part o f the eternal constitution o f tilings, and o f
suppressing such ideas as might lead to criticism o f this view
o f the universe. That the extent to which this political
principle operated seriously conditioned the history o f !
science, and was, in fact, a major cause o f that degeneration
o f science which took place between Anaximander and
Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is the object o f this essay to
prove.
There will be those who will deny that any such con­
siderations affected die judgments o f leaders o f thought and
opinion in Classical Antiquity. There will be many more,
who diough they will admit that there is some evidence
27
 A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

for this contention, w ill think that it is o f little or no moment.

This must be so, otherwise it is difficult to account for the
fact that they make so little mention o f it in their books.
The usual practice is to affirm, or to assume without affirm­
ing, that the opinions o f all ancient thinkers are innocent
o f any other consideration than devotion to Truth. It will
be well therefore to give an example o f what is meant by the
contention that both the character o f ancient science and the
problem o f its dissemination were affected by political
considerations.
In the Eighth B ook o f Plutarch’s Dinner-table Discussions,
the second topic raised is Plato’s meaning in saying, i f he
did say, that God is always busy with geometry. Diogenianus
raises the question, and after a preliminary assent has been
given to Plutarch’s view that the saying, though not to be
found in any o f the writings o f Plato, is certainly conform­
able to the spirit and style o f the man, the discussion begins.
The first speaker, Tyndares, is not disposed to see any
special difficulty in the saying. Are we to suppose, he asks,
that Plato meant anything more unusual or subtle than his
oft-repeated opinion that the function o f geometry is to
draw us away from the sensible and the perishable to the
intelligible and the eternal? For the contemplation o f the
eternal is the end o f philosophy, as the contemplation o f
the mysteries is the end o f initiation. W e must remember,
he says, that it was for this reason that Plato found fault
with the attempts o f Eudoxus, Archytas, and Menaechmus
to find solutions for geometrical problems by instrumental
and mechanical devices. For these bring us down to material
things again, and away from the eternal and bodiless Forms
with which God, being God, is always occupied.
(So spoke Tyndares. And I think we may take it that it
is generally, if still not universally, admitted that this shrink-
28
 A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR P RO BLE M

ing o f Platonic science from contact with material things is

not unconnected with the aristocratic contempt for manual
labour. If further evidence should be wanted on this point,
it can be found in those chapters o f his Life of Marcellus in
which Plutarch records with approval the contempt felt by
the great engineer Archimedes for his own mechanical
achievements.)
B u t the second speaker, Florus, was far from being
i content w ith this simple explanation. H e thinks there m ay be
[ something m ore particular implied. W ith pointed reference
; to the fact that Tyndares was a Lacedaemonian, he reminds
the com pany that Plato was w on t to link the name o f his
master Socrates w ith that o f Lycurgus the law-giver o f
j Sparta; indeed that he looked upon the founder o f the
| Spartan constitution as being as important an influence on
Socrates as the mathematician Pythagoras himself. He then
offers the following remarkable interpretation o f Plato’s
conception o f the geometer-God. “ Lycurgus is said to have
banished the study o f arithmetic from Sparta, as being
democratic and popular in its effect, and to have introduced
geometry, as being better suited to a sober oligarchy and
constitutional monarchy. For arithmetic, by its employment
o f number, distributes things equally; geometry, by the
employment o f proportion, distributes things according
to merit. Geometry is therefore not a source o f confusion
in the State, but has in it a notable principle o f distinction
between good men and bad, who are awarded their portions
not by weight or lot, but by the difference between vice
and virtue. This, the geometrical, is the system o f proportion
which God applies to affairs. This it is, m y dear Tyndares,
which is called by the names o f D ike and Nemesis, and
which teaches us that we ought to regard justice as equality,
hut not equality as justice. For what the many aim at is the
29
 A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

greatest o f all injustices, and God has removed it out o f the

world as being unattainable; but he protects and maintains
the distribution o f tilings according to merit, d e te rm in in g it
geometrically, that is in accordance with proportion and
iaw.”
(The equation between Spartan oligarchy, geometry, and
the law o f God, m ay seem surprising to some. W e shall
unhappily be familiar enough with such thoughts before we
have finished our enquiry.)
The third speaker, Autobulus, was not quite satisfied with
what Florus had said. T o him it seemed that Plato had
intended something less political and more cosmic in
significance. W hat Plato intended to convey is that Matter
is a principle o f disorder and discord on which geometry
imposes order and harmony. For “ when number and
proportion are put into Matter, then the indeterminate is
bound and circumscribed, first by lines, next by surfaces
and depths, and so furnishes the first forms and different
bodily shapes which serve as the foundation and base, as it
were, for the coming into being o f air and earth, o f water
and fire.”
When Plutarch himself, who spoke last, was asked to
make his contribution, he expressed himself as o f the opinion
that there was something in what each o f them had said.
He rejected neither the ethical view that the function o f
geometry is to lift up our minds from things earthly to
things heavenly; nor the political view that geometry is
oligarchic, and arithmetic democratic; nor the cosmic view
that an understanding o f the principles o f geometry is the
key to the understanding o f the universe, the view that
exalts a priori mathematics above observational physics; he
rejected none o f these views but rather summed them all up
in a religious interpretation o f his own. ^
30
 A SECOND GLANCE AT OUR PR OBL EM

God, according to Plutarch’s interpretation o f Plato’s

meaning, being the supreme geometer, had set himself, in
the act o f creation, the supreme geometrical problem. This
is not, as might be supposed, the demonstration that the
square on the hypotenuse o f a right-angled triangle is equal
to the sum o f the squares on the other two sides; rather was it
that altogether choicer problem, on finding the solution
to which Pythagoras had felt moved to sacrifice to God.
This was: Given any two figures, construct a third similar
to one and the same size as the other. The universe, Plutarch
explained, owed its origin to three things, God, Matter,
and Form. Matter is o f all subject things the most disorderly;
; Form is o f all patterns the fairest; G od is o f all causes the
| best. G od, therefore, set H im self the problem to make a
third thing like Form and coextensive with Matter. The
L result was the Kosm os, in which Form is imposed on all
I Matter.
So ends this particular Dinner-table Discussion. It is
obvious that it comes out o f a rich culture. And when w e
remember that some five hundred years separate Plutarch
from Plato w e are reminded o f the vitality o f that culture.
The Academ y which Plato had founded was still alive and
was not to be closed for another four hundred years. W e
cannot but be impressed with the tenacity as well as the
intellectual content o f the Platonic tradition. But, equally,
nobody can pretend that the system has not got a political
side to it. It is the philosophy o f an oligarch. The ethics, die
I science, the religion are quite consciously held as part o f the
j creed o f an oligarch. Or, i f one prefers to put it the other
I W a y , the political theory o f oligarchy is held to be the
necessary consequence o f the ethical, scientific, and religious
views.
Furthermore, one cannot but be struck with the emphasis
31
 A SECOND GLANCE AT O UR PROBLEM

upon mathematical, and the neglect o f physical, science.

Again, even within the domain o f mathematics it is possible
for one branch o f die subject to be felt to be oligarchical
and another democratic. And not only is arithmetic con­
demned as having egalitarian tendencies; mechanics are
rejected as a danger to the soul. Amidst prejudices so violent
as these, is it not possible, or even probable, that the neglect
o f physics is a further example o f the influence o f politics
on science ? That this is indeed so we shall attempt to show
in the sequel. And the consequences o f its neglect were
neither slight nor soon mended. They were, in a famous
phrase with which we shall be concerned later, “ wounds
o f life,” the occasion o f groaning and tears to many
generations o f men.
 CHAPTER FOUR

A THIRD GLANCE A T OUR

PROBLEM
FROM EM PEDOCLES TO PRUDENTIUS

In the fifth century B.C. the pagan poet Empedocles preaches

the need fo r a knowledge o f the Nature o f Things. In the fifth
century A.D., the Christian poet Prudentius rejects the knowledge
o f the Nature o f Things.

In discussing the history o f science even in m odem times

it is far fro m easy to be certain how far the dissemination
o f ideas am on g the public has kept pace with the progress
o f know ledge in itself. This information is still more difficult
to acquire w ith regard to ancient times. And in speaking
o f the high level o f scientific know ledge attained by
Anaximander in Miletus in the middle o f the sixth century
we intended no guarantee that his ideas had permeated
society w idely and deeply.
Nevertheless, there is much evidence in support o f the
view that the Ionian renaissance was in a very real sense
a popular m ovem ent o f enlightenment. Thus in a medical
treatise on The Nature of Man, which dates from the second
half o f the fifth century, we have evidence o f a wide interest
in the science o f the day. The writer opens with the remark:
“ He who is in the habit o f listening to speakers who discuss
the nature o f man in a way that goes beyond its connexion
with the science o f medicine will find nothing to interest
him in the present account.” Then, after a few acid com-
I'o lilu t M Ikt AruU nl World 33
 A TH IR D GLANCE AT OUR P R O tf tB i '»

ments on the random speculations o f philosophers who

discuss human nature without a study o f medicine, e
writer observes that the fact that they contradict one another
is proof that their approach is at fault, and proceeds: One
can easily convince himself o f this by attending their
debates. Though the same debaters appear again and again
before the same audiences, no one ever wins three times
in succession. N o w one is victorious now another, the
popular favour going to the talker who displays the readiest
eloquence before the crowd.”
The evidence for a wide popular interest in the most
advanced physical speculations o f the day seems conclusive.
And this becomes the more impressive i f it is remembered
that the philosophical opinions attacked by the Ionian medi­
cal writer are those o f the poet-philosopher, Empedocles
o f Acragas in Sicily. Empedocles was probably still alive
when the treatise from which we have been quoting was
written. It is startling testimony to the permeation o f the
Greek w orld o f the fifth century by philosophic and scien­
tific ideas that the views o f a Sicilian poet should be the
rage with popular audiences in the lecture halls o f Asia
Minor, and should provoke an acrid discussion by an
Asiatic doctor.
Further evidence o f the impact o f the scientific thought
o f the day on society in general is provided i f w e turn
to the mainland o f Greece. Before the vast audiences in the
theatre o f Dionysus at Athens the choruses were already
chanting lyrics in which Euripides was introducing to his
somewhat backward fellow-citizens the views o f the Ionian
thinkers which he had learned from Anaxagoras, their
representative in Athens. And already, before Empedocles,
two philosophic poets o f considerable powers had appeared,'
one in Asia Minor, one in Italy. These were Xenophanes
34
 A THIRD GLANCE AT OUR PROBLEM

and Parmenides. And their choice o f verse for a medium

is sure proof that they intended their utterances to reach
a wide audience. Xenophanes, we know, gave public reci­
tations o f his poetry, and in his old age he could boast that
his thought had already been sixty-five years in circulation
throughout the world o f Greece. What was the specific
quality o f this new and exciting knowledge ?
A m o n g the fragments o f verse b y Xenophanes that
have com e d o w n to us are tw o lines in w hich he says that
“ the G ods have not revealed everything to men from the
beginning, but men b y searching in time find out better.”
This is in the true spirit o f the age. But as men became
conscious o f knowledge as a slow accumulation o f expe­
rience acquired b y active search they became curious also
to understand the nature o f knowledge and the process by
iwhich it is acquired. Thus opened the great debate on the
jvalidity o f the information conveyed to us by the senses,
and on the part played by Reason in the constitution o f
human knowledge. The second poet o f whom w e have
spoken, Parmenides, convinced, by many proofs, o f the
fallibility o f the senses, was o f opinion that Reason alone
could be relied on, and endeavoured to construct a system
o f philosophy from which the evidence o f the senses should
be ejected.
Empedocles, although the doctors scented danger to their
science from the too hasty application o f his theories, was
a true scientist as well as a philosopher and a poet; and he
took a middle course. He was too wise to reject the evidence
o f the senses. I f he did not regard sense evidence as in itself
science, he knew that it was the material o f science; and
he knew that it was by reflection on the evidence o f the
senses that advance in physical knowledge is made. He
himself was responsible for one o f the major advances in
35
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Butcha,” 326
Butchers, 299
Buttermilk, 171
Buy a horse, 206
grapes for wine-making, 229
Buying horses, 58

C⸺, Major, 3
Cah (Kah), 174
Calico printers, 200
rinsers, 193
Call to the bath, 72
Camel, bite of the, 243
fight, 242
tics, 392
Camels, mode of procuring fighting, 242
Campanile, the, Julfa, 157
Camp out, 348
Captain Burke, 344
Hansard, 343
S⸺, 179
T⸺, R.E., 278
Carapet, Mr., 357
Caravanserai Gulshan, 200
Mokhlis, 182
Carboys, 236
Card-playing, 96
Carpets, Persian, 149;
1883, 150
 all wool, 151
Bath, 152
colours of, 150
fast colours, 149
faults in, 150
“Gelīm,” 152
increase in price of, 153
“Jejīm,” 152
Meshed, 149
mode of laying, 152
“Nammad,” 152
of great value, 151
of Mūrghāb, 151
old, 149
patterns of, 150
quality of, 150
value, 151
why they last, 150
Carvings, Abadeh, 332
Cashmere shawls, 274
Caspian steamer, 211
Cathedral of Julfa, 100
Cats, long-haired, 305
ordinary, 305
Causeways, 198
Cavalry, irregular, 266
Cells of students, 197
Cemetery, Armenian, 162
Chaff beds, 20, 25
Chah Ali Bunder, 275
Chambers, Captain, 127, 176
Character of Armenians, 316
Persians, 314
Char Bagh, 135, 196
Chardūr, 325
Chargāt, the, 322
Charlesiah, 132
Charms, 291
Cheap freehold, a, 206
Cheapness of ice, 240
Cheese, tale of the phantom, 172
Chelinjeh Khan, 223
Chess, 97
Chibouque, 32
Children, dress of, 325
Cholar wine, 229
grape, 232
Cholera, 224
Chuppering, rules of, 259
Chupper khana, interior, 25
a, 386
whip, 22
Church Missionary Establishment, 165
Church Missionary Schools, 144, 163
Church Missionary Society, educational work of, 144
Church of England, 166
Jesuits, 143
Civil suits, 189
Claim to sanctity of Armenians, 73
Classical Persian, 278
Clay biscuits, 334
Cleanliness of Persians, 316
Clemency, royal, 317
Climate, variable, 339
Clothes of Persians, 318
Cocculus indicus, 129
Coffee à la Turca, 6
Coinage, new, 371
Collars, difficulty of washing, 153
College at Ispahan, 196
Teheran, 338
Collins, Sergeant, 293
place of murder of, 351
Colonel Prideaux, 346
Colt, anecdote of a, 103
grey, 239
Comfort of travelling, 55
Common flowers, 172
Complexion of women, 324
Compliments, Persian, 28
Concubines, 326
Confiscation, 155
Constantinople, 5
Conversation with king’s son, 165
Cook, my, tries to take priest’s orders, 139
Cooks, 297
Cook-shops, 298
Coral reef, 342
Cossack regiments, 370
Cost of living, 186
Costume, Persian, 317
of women, 322
Court costume, 50
Courtiers, 199
Cream, mode of obtaining, 171
Credit, 188
Crickets, mole, 216
Crops, 173
Croquet lawn, 167
Crucifixions, 204
Cruelty to horses, 329
to a nun, 140
to Yari, 78
Cruelties to Mirza Naim, 272
Crying off, 188
Cucumber jam, 92
Cuisine, Persian, 296
Curdled milk, 171
Curio buying, 332
Curious accident, 128
ring, 376
Cursing Baab, 155
Curtain in Armenian church, 140
Custom-house, 267
Custom of Shiraz, 379
the Kūrūk, 370
Cut straw, 174
Cyrus, tomb of, 355

D⸺, Mr., 51
Damage to telegraph line, 113
Damascening, 189
Dar, the, 201, 282
Darius, treasure of, 78
Daroga, the, 371
Day in Ispahan, 200
Day of Judgment, picture of the, 161
Debauchee, a, 244
Decorated pond, 50
Decorations, church interior, 160
Dehbeed, 356
tax-man at, 133
Delleh, 69
Demarvend, 373
Dervish and puppets, tale of, 285
at tomb of Hafiz, 278
Dervishes, 42
at Tazzia, 281
garden, 46
hats, 44
horn, 46
 mode of begging, 44
vices, 46
vows, 43
Desht-i-arjeen, 350
Diana, temple of, reputed, 107
Dig for treasure, we, 79
Dilgoosha, 220, 274
Dinner on road, 107
sent away, 245
with a Persian prince, 114
Discipline, 71
Disguise of robbers, 264
Dispensary, my, 200
over the prison, 182
Doctors, 33
Doctors, studies of, 338
Dog-cart, my, 248
Dog, loss of, 129
Dogs, varieties of, 306
Doherty, Mr., 401
Dome, tiled, 196
Donkeys, 365
handsome, 342
Doogh, 171
Doong, 391
Door, substitute for, 394
Doors at Erzeroum, 213
silver, 196
Double snipe, 107
Dozd-gah, 262
Dr. Hoernle, 163
Dr. Odling, 351
Dressel’s, 408
Dresses of honour, 51
Dress of dervishes, 43
Dried bread, 336
fruits, preparing, 169
Drink in Julfa, 141
Drive to Ispahan, 373
Drunkards, Persian, 141
Dubbeh, 188
Ducks, wild, 176
Dunaberg, 407
Dung beetles, 216
Duration of journey, 412
Durbend, 404
Dyah, 326
Dying twice, 203

Early rising, 33, 116

Eating opium, 181
Ecbatana, 80
Economy of trading class, 172
Educated women, 339
Education, 337
of Armenians, 144
Effects of Bastinado, 148
Egglesiah Wang, 138, 157
Embassy, the English, 372
Embroideries, 333
Enamels, 331
English missionaries, 155
Engraving on metal, 332
seal, 184
Enzelli, 210, 402
Episcopal throne, 160
Erivan, 19
Eructation, politeness of, 91
Erzeroum, 212
Esther, tomb of, 75
Etiquette, 28
Evil eye, the, 325
Exaggeration, 315
Execution of a Baabi, 154
of a Prince, 125
of a woman, 275
of women, 122
Executions, 202
Expelled nun, 163
Expenses, our, 187
Eyebrows, painting the, 325
Eyn-ul-Molk, 38
Fair hair at a discount, 324
Faithless women, fate of, 275
Faizabad, 356
Fallen fruit, 311
Fals, 277
Famine, 251 to 255
at Ispahan, 253
at Kūmishah, 254
at Shiraz, 253
grain seized during the, 252
rise in mule-hire during the, 251
Fantails, 94
Fards, use of, 323
Farnooses, 115
Fars, 272
Fast of Ramazan, 284
Fasts, Armenian, 144
Father, the, 314
Fathmeh, 387
Fee, compulsory, of a vizier, 255
Feen, 386
Fellek, 147
Fellow-travellers, Persian, 215
Felt coats, 152, 320
Feramūsh Khana, 124
Ferhad and Shireen, 119
Feridan, 131
Fermenting of wine, 232
Ferns and bush vegetation, 400
Fight amongst robbers, 265
Fighting rams, 308
Figures of (?) Fame, 119
Finn, Mr., 310
Firdūsi, 338
Fire temple, 364
Firewood as a crop, 364
weighing, 25
Fireworks, 377
Firman, Royal, 257
First cousins, 326
fruits, 168
professional, visit, 41
Fish in hot spring, 348
in kanāats, 128
poison, 129
poisoning, 386
Flap-jacks, 335
Flat, the, 405
Flirtations, the Prince’s, 280
Flowers, common, 172
near Caspian, 400
wild, 173
Foods of poor, 336
Forests near Caspian, 400
Forged antiquities, 76
Fortune-tellers, 120
Freehold, my cheap, 206
Frogs, 398
Frozen wine, 58
Fruit, fallen, 311
Fruits, 168
“Furder,” 126
Furniture, black-wood, 345
want of, 123
Fussa, 240, 243
fertility, 247
Governor of, 244
Futteh Ali Shah’s family, 59

G⸺, Colonel, 2
G⸺, Mr., 97
Gambling in Pera, 9
Game, 299
Games, 97
Gardening, 309
Garden-parties, 311
Gardens at Shiraz, 223
Gate of Royal Garden, 198
Gelim, 152
Georgian ladies, 17
Gersteiger Khan, the Baron, 370
Gez, 158, 383
Ghilān shoes, 399
Gholam, a bold, 178
Girls’ school, 165
Goggles, 54
Golden pipes, 112
Goldsmid, Sir F., 56, 157, 417
Goor Khur, 308
Gougas, 127
Governor of Fars, 135
Fussa, 244
Governor’s garden, 199
Grain, extracting, 174
stores, curious, 385
Grape feeding of horses, 103
sugar, 171
Grapes as horse feed, 171
varieties of, 171
Grateful Armenian, 93
Graves, Armenian, 162
Great square of Teheran, 52
Gregor, Saint, 160
Greyhounds, 305
“Grimes,” 344
Guebre-abad, 385
Guebre gardener, 369
Gulf Arabs, 106
Gulhaek, 369
road, 36
Gūlpigon, 127, 132
Gulshan caravanserai, 200
Gūmrūkji, anecdote of a, 237
Gun at sunset, 284
Gunge, a, 77
Guns, blowing from, 202
Gurken, 216
Gymnastics, 98

H⸺, Mr., 128

Habashi, 326
Hadji, 121
Hadjiabad, 354
Hadji Ali Akbar, 229
Baba, 3
Kawam, 272
Khalleel, 109
Mahomed, 381
Saduk Ispahani, 192
Hadji Mirza Kerim, 192
Hafiz, tomb of, 276
Hailstones, large, 391
Hair of women, 323
wearing the, 321
Hajeeb, 392
Hakim-bashi, 201
princes, the, 145
Hamadan, 57, 64
vines at, 311
wine, 57
Hamilton poles, 301
Handicrafts, 189
Hansard, Captain, 343
Harem, the, 39
Hassir, 197
Hats, 223, 320
Headgear, 321
Head-rolling dervish, 43
Health of the staff, 296
Henna, 334
High priest, anecdote of, 290
Highway robbers, 263
Hippocrates, 82
Hissam-es-Sultaneh, 204
Hockey, Sergeant, 127
Hoernle, Dr., 163
Home-life of families, 92
Honesty of Ispahanis, 192
Hornet, death from sting of, 250
Horse-breaking, 352
Horse clothing, 90
feed, 102
market, the, 201
Horses, breeds of, 104
grape feeding on, 103
height of, 100
on grass, 103
price of, 106
Hospitality, strange want of, 267
Hotel at Kasvin, 395
de Byzance, 212
Hot spring, 348
Houssein and Hassan, 279
Khari, 201
Kūli Khan, death of, 262
name of, 281
House-building, 126
House, I buy a, 206
snakes, 307
Huge tent, 280
Hughes, Mr., 127
Hunting party, 84

I am mobbed, 82
I am robbed, 263
Ibrahim, 383
Ice, cheapness of, 246
mode of making, 241
Ices, 240
I commence the cornet, 72
I decorate a house, 206
Idleness of Armenians, 359
I fall among brigands, 259
Illness, 207
of Zil-es-Sultan, 255
Imādieh, 118
Imād-u-Dowlet, 108
looted, 119
Imād-u-Dowlet’s bad son, 124
Imām-i-Juma, 153, 199
Imām Riza, 387
Imāmzādeh Hāshem, 400
Immorality of Armenians, 138
pigeon-flying, 94
Impregnable village, 262
Impromptu entertainment, 312
Indelicate dress of ladies, 40
Indian lottery, 340
Industry of Armenian women, 360
Infants, 325
Inlaid work, 332
Interest, rate of, 76
Interior of house of a grandee, 39
mosque, 97
Intricate carpentry, 39
Intrigues of Shiraz women, 276
Ironing, 333
Iron poles, 301
Irregular cavalry, 266
Irreligion common, 339
Irrigation, artificial, 127
Iskender, 378
Ispahan, 215
 arrival at, 135
Ispahan bridge, 135
cobs, 105
Ispahani, honesty of, 192
Ispahan priests, 197
start for, 127
Istikhara, 277
Istikhbal, 56, 109

J⸺, Colonel, V.C., 217

J⸺, Mr., 387
Jack and Jill, 83
Jade teapot, 201
Jaffir Kūli, 381
Jahn-i-ma Garden, 276
Japanese embassy, 377
Jars of sweets, broken, 258
Jeddah, 342
Jejim carpets, 152
Jesuits, church of, 143
Jewelled belts, 320
wand, 258
Jewellery, 323
Jewish sacrifice, 258
shrines, 75
Jews, 74, 146
at Erzeroum, 213
burial-ground, 293
 oppression of, 146
thrown into tank, 52
treatment of, 377
Jika, the, 322
Johannes, Mr., 144, 163
Jokes of robbers, 267
Journey home, 208, 381
through Turkey, 213
Juba, the, 318
Judicious bishop, 139
Julfa, 135, 137
ancient, 161
cathedral, 157
cemetery, 162
customs, 359
doorways, 142
emigration, 143
nunnery, 139
origin of, 161
priests, 363
quarters, 206
Justice, 146
Persian, 295

Kabobs, 89, 297

Kafsh, 321
Kah, 174
Kah-gil, 369
Kahtam, 332
Kakheite wine, 18
Kalāat, meeting the, 255
my, 258
of Kawam, 258
Kalam-dan, 288
Kalian, 15
Kalians, details as to, 29
Kalifa, Kuchek, 138
Kammer, 142
Kanāats, 127
Kangawar, fish in, 128
temple at, 107
Kanjar, 320
Karabagh, 219
horses, 105
Karageus, 6
Kara Sū, the river, 108
Kashan, 385
Kashish Mardyros, 141
Kasim, wedding of, 282
Kasvin, Syud at, 208
Kawam, 257
Kalāat of, 258
Kawamabad, 355
Kawam-u-Dowlet, 239
Kawam-ul-Molk, 270
Kazerūn, 349
Keesa, the, 334
Kemball, Sir A., 208