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Jacob klein dain

a. trafton

about plato's philebus

on corneille's

183
194

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harry v. Jaffa
martin

torn sawyer: hero of middle america

226

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interpretation
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157

ABOUT PLATO'S PHILEBUS

Jacob Klein

To

speak about a

Platonic
I

dialogue,

about a

Platonic

dialogue,

means

to do violence to it. A sense of guilt will,

of pain within me while
am speaking.

therefore, be
it
were

a continuous source

But I

cannot resist

the temptation

to shed some light

you

some

moonlight,

as

on the

Philebus. 1 hope

will forgive me 1 cannot for sounding extremely pedantic, for speaking much longer than I should, and for making it sometimes very difficult for you to follow. Let me state five basic points on which my talking about the Philebus wiU rest.

First:

Platonic dialogue is
in this
respect

not a

treatise

or the text of a

lecture; it is

not comparable

to a work of Aristotle or, for that matter,

to any of Plotinus's Enneads as edited by Porphyry. A Platonic dialogue is usually a drama, a mime, in which what happens cannot be separated from what is said and argued about.

Secondly: however serious the purpose and the content of a Platonic dialogue, its seriousness is permeated by playfulness; indeed, as we can read in the sixth letter attributed to Plato, seriousness and play are sisters. The comical aspect of a Platonic dialogue can never be completely dis
regarded.

Thirdly:
called and

no

Platonic dialogue
called the

can

be
1

said

to

represent what might

be

has been

"Platonic

doctrine."

The dialogue may

well

hint, though never "with perfect of Plato, the thinker. The Sophist, for
But
an unimpeachable about source

clarity,"

at genuine and ultimate

thoughts

example, does that

most certainly.

source provides us with more direct information Plato's thinking than he himself ever put down in writing. This is Aristotle, who spent twenty years at that place of leisure, the and

Academy,
way
of

attention to

heard what Plato himself said. I assume that we have to pay Aristotle's reports, never forgetting that Aristotle has his own
other people's

describing

thoughts,

a peculiar

terminology

rooted

in

his own thinking he reports.

and not

in the thinking

of those other people about whom

Fourthly: in the last two centuries scholars, not all, but most of them, have tried to understand the Platonic dialogues as belonging to different stages of a in Plato's own thinking. Now, it is of course possible that Plato, in his long life, changed his views on many and perhaps even on most important points. But to follow a Platonic dialogue means to take it as it is, as one whole, in which the interlocutors play a
"development"

A lecture

given at

St. John's College,

Annapolis, Maryland,

on

May 20, 1971.

Soph. 254 C.

158

Interpretation

definite and unique role and in which what is said and what is happening does not depend on anything that is said and is happening in any other dialogue. Before we could understand any in Plato's thinking, it is incumbent on us to understand each dialogue in its own
"development"

terms. This understanding is not helped by assigning a dialogue to a certain period in Plato's life. Yet, in the case of the Philebus, it will not be
not in deviation in Plato's thinking, but merely to establish whether certain statements in the dialogue may refer to somebody's conspicuous behavior within the Academy in Plato's later days. And, happily enough, there is general agreement that the Philebus

unimportant to

take notice

of

the time this dialogue was written

order to track some

"developmental"

is

late

dialogue,

although some of

the

reasons

for this
and

dating

might

be

questionable.

Fifthly: every
about a

word

in

Platonic dialogue counts,

the dialogue to remain

silent

may

count even more.

for somebody in That's why talking

dialogue
now

must

necessarily

remain

insufficient.
conversation

And

let

us

approach

the Philebus. The

takes place

in Athens;

learn exactly where; it may be at a gymnastic school or at a wrestling school. What we read is a part of a very long conversation which begins some time in the afternoon. There are three interlocutors:
we

do

not

Socrates, Protarchus,
perhaps,
are
and

Philebus: many young men, half listening. Socrates is, well, Socrates
and a

a a

dozen
man

or a

dozen

devoted to

inquiries
the

discussions

friend

and

lover

of youth.

Protarchus is

Athenian, Calhas. Philebus is not known at all. He is one of the few personages in the Platonic dialogues, like Callicles, Diotima, Timaeus, invented by Plato; if they do not remain nameless, like the Stranger from Elea and the Stranger from Athens, their names are appropriately coined. The name of Philebus indicates that he is a "lover of as Socrates is. Philebus seems to be young, but slightly older than Protarchus and all the listening young men around them.2 The title of the dialogue as it has been handed down to us is Philebus. This title is never mentioned in the writings of Plato's contemporaries. Aristotle refers to what is said in the dialogue at least eight times, mention ing Plato once. There seems to be no reason, however, to doubt that the
son of a well-known
youth"

is genuine. Moreover, there is one good reason which for its authenticity. The dialogue contains 2,369 hnes (I did not count them, but somebody did). Of these 2,369 lines only 23 are spoken by Philebus (those I counted). He raises his voice altogether
title
speaks

"Philebus"

forcefully

chosen more

only 14 times. Under these circumstances, who else but Plato could have the name of Philebus for the title of the dialogue? There will be
to say
about

this matter later on.

The

main question raised question

in the dialogue is: What is the best human

cope

life? And this

has to

primarily

with

the all-pervasive

feeling

16 B.

A bout Plato's Philebus

of

1 59
us.

pleasure,
of us

common without

to

all

living

beings
to

haunting, filling, mocking

All
we

exception ways:

want

thousands of different

we seek

be pleased in thousands and to lie down or to sit comfortably;

enjoy
good

hke

hearing things
and

that flatter us;

we

we

company, witty words,

delight in traveling, in going to the theatre or to the movies, in looking at beautiful things; we love caresses, precious gifts, wild emotions; we loose ourselves with rapture in exerting power, in sexual satisfaction, in ecstasies, and so on, and so on. A list of pleasures like the one I have just given is not to be found in the dialogue, but an infinite number of possible pleasures is implied in the arguments
good

drink

food;

we are
who goal

facing. It is Philebus who looks at Pleasure as the highest good, in Pleasure not only the best of human possessions, but the after which all living beings strive. Pleasure (f|5ovr|) is the goddess
sees
and more

he

worships. And quite a few of us, I think, follow him. Socrates does not. He contends that there is something better desirable than pleasure, to wit, thoughtfulness in deciding how

to act

(to

is intelligible only (to voeiv), the power of memory (to fteuvrio-'dai) and that which is akin to these, right opinion (56|a opdr)) and true calculations (odry&Eig Xoyiauni); but Socrates
(poovetv), the apprehending of what

carefully
pleasure

adds

that these

powers

are

better

and

more

desirable than

for those beings

who are able will

to share in these powers; only to

beings

who

have this ability

of

these powers be profitable, now and in

the future.

This juxtaposition
of

Socrates, is

made

by

both contentions, of that of Philebus and of that Socrates very shortly after we begin reading. It
with

is introduced

by

Socrates is

the

foUowing
are now

words:

"See,

what the assertion what our assertion

with

which you

to

accept

then, Protarchus, from Philebus, and

3

is,

against which you are

to argue, if you do not agree

them?"

it. Shall

we give a

summary

of each of

These

words

are

the very first words that they cannot be versation;

of

the dialogue. But what

as

understood

they just
of a

continue

what

immediately is indicating beginning of a con was said before; if they were the
strikes us

the

beginning by co (cb nrjcuTarjY,>

(Sf|) and Protarchus,
Philebus
. .

conversation, the
not

vocative

nocoTcipxe
and

would

be

preceded
"then"

simply
not

notbxaQxe);
be
used. you
which

the

words

"now"

(vuvi)
the

would

Listen
are

again:

"See,
accept

then

what
.

assertion

is

now

to

from

The dialogue has no true beginning. Nor does it have a true ending. This is the last sentence we read, spoken by Protarchus: "There is still a little left, Socrates; you will certainly not give up before
remains."

we

do,

and

shall remind you of what no

We do

not yet under

stand

why the dialogue has

beginning

and no ending.

But

we see

(and

this is
over

important),

when we

the thesis

upheld

by

begin reading, that Protarchus has to take Philebus. More about that later.
the two banners that Protarchus and

Enjoyment

and thoughtfulness are

il A.

160

Interpretation

Socrates

are respectively thoughtfulness face each

waving. other.

The life

of

pleasure clear

and

the life of that

But it becomes

immediately

Socrates is considering some other life superior to both of them.4 He will keep reverting to this third life. It will finally be described in the last pages of the dialogue. What follows the juxtaposition of the two views, that of Philebus and

Protarchus on the one hand and that of Socrates on the other, is insistence that pleasure has many different aspects: "For, when simply hear her named, she is one thing, but surely she takes on
of shapes which

Socrates'

you

just

all sorts

are, in

way,

unlike

each

other."5

Socrates

gives two

simple, though significant, examples: the pleasures of a hcentious man are

very different from those

thoughtful man,

of a self-restrained

man,

who

enjoys

his very

self-restraint; the pleasures of a fool are very different from those of a

who enjoys

the sources of pleasure may be

his very thoughtfulness. No, says Protarchus, different, may have an opposite character,
of all things most
color and

but "how

can pleasure

help being
Socrates,

hke

itself."6

Yes,

says

figure

are what

like pleasure, that is, they are, but

even, in the
case of

colors

and

figures

can

be very, very different him

change

and

colors,
not see

most opposed

to each other, like black and white. Protarchus does

how this

could make

his

mind.

Socrates tries for the

be said later in the incisively, anticipating dialogue. No argument, he says, disputes that pleasant things are pleasant. But Protarchus's contention, which upholds Philebus's conviction, implies
third

time, this time

what will

that all pleasant things are good. That's what is wrong. Pleasant things
are

for the

most part

bad

and

only
are

some are good.

says

Socrates,

call all of

them good,

although you might

But you, Protarchus, be forced by the

argument to agree that

admits

they

otherwise

different. Protarchus tacitly

that pleasures may be very different from each other, and even opposed to each other, but sticks to his main point that pleasures, inas
much as

they

are

pleasures, are always good.

At this

point

Socrates

goes

back to his

own

contention, namely, that of the intelligible

thoughtfulness
are good.

(q)o6vr|0ig)
adds

and the apprehension

(vovq)
some even

He

to these

for the first time

knowledge (Ejucnfpr|)

and predicts

among them

that many kinds of knowledge will come to the fore, unlike each other. Should it turn out that some are

opposed to each

other,

could not

he, Socrates,
unlike

then cling to the

point

that all

knowledge is
absurdity?

alike

and

Protarchus
assertion

"save
and

himself"

in

an

Protarchus is
receive

pleased

that

both, his

that

of

Socrates,

the same treatment and is now willing to grant that there are many different pleasures just as there are many different knowledges (we have to note that he does not mention opposite pleasures
and

knowledges).

4 s

11 D.
12 C.

12D/E.

About Plato's Philebus

161
about

within

Socrates is satisfied knowledge and

with

Protarchus's

concession

the manyness
no

within pleasure and speaks as

follows: "With

concealment, then, Protarchus, of the differentiation within my good and within yours, but facing it squarely, let us be bold and see if perchance, on examination, it will tell us whether we should say that the good is
pleasure or

thoughtfulness

or some other third the

thing."7

It is the

second

time that Socrates reverts to

the

best

of

human

possessions.

possibility that something third may be He proceeds by strengthening this state

abounds.

ment

by

an assertion which

This is
thetical

one of

has a wide, wide range. the transitions in which the dialogue

Philebus,"

(Paren
entitled extant).

in the 2nd century A.D. Galen wrote a treatise "On the transitions in the which is unfortunately not Let me say a few words about the transition we are now facing.
remark:

Up
word

to this point the talk was

about

things

most

familiar to
was

all of

us,

about pleasure and about

thoughtfulness
and

and about sense.

knowledge,

this last

taken in its colloquial

vague

The talk

concerned

about our

lives in

this our world.

What Socrates is undertaking

all-embracing universality,

now

is to

lift the

conversation to a

level

of

disregarding

knowledge altogether. He will come back to them after a short while and then launch out to an even higher level. Why does he do that? The answer is: to find the ultimate sources of what is so close to us and usuaUy unquestioned by us. The dialogue seeks to link the most common to the most uncommon and fundamental. To find the link will require a great deal of vigor on part. The manyness within pleasure and within knowledge leads Socrates
pleasure and
Socrates'

to remind Protarchus of the

and

"astounding"

assertions

that

"many

one"

are

that "one is

many."9

difficult

about these assertions

which come also many, sider

into being and because he has many

the eISt] of

There is nothing particularly surprising and if they refer to visible and tangible things, perish. A man, for example, is one, but he is
members and parts.

But

when we con which can

intelligibles,

of which is one and only in speech the "one and problem becomes extremely perplexing unique, (Socrates mentions four of the intelligibles: the One Man, the One Ox, the One Beauty, the One Good). That's where the trouble sets in. Any

encountered

things, the "invisible (iv Wyco), and each one

looks,"

be

many"

young man, says Socrates, challenging those present, any young man, once he has tasted the flavor of that perplexity and thinks he has found a treasure of wisdom, does not spare anyone, neither himself, nor his parents, nor any human being, who can hear him, and joyfully sets every possible argument in motion, confounding everybody. Protarchus feels hit. "Do you
Socrates,"

not

see,

men?

Are

you not afraid

he says, "how many we that we shall join

are and that we are all with

young
you,

Philebus

and attack

14 B. 14 C.

162

Interpretation
Socrates'

if
on.

you

revile

us?"9

But

challenge

works.

Protarchus

wants

Socrates to find

better

road

than was used

up to

now and

to lead them

Socrates retorts that there is a better road, which he always loved, which is easy to point out, but very difficult to foUow. Whatever human art has description of discovered had been brought to light through it. this better road marks a new transition in the dialogue.
Socrates'

Socrates

calls

this

road a

"gift

of gods

to

men,"

which we owe

to some

Prometheus together
we and

with some

theus stole the fire he gave

gleaming fire (let to men). The ancients,

says

me remind you:
who were

Prome

better than

lived

nearer

the gods,

Socrates
all

with

deadpan seriousness, have

inherent in their nature,

handed down to

us the tradition that

the things which are ever said

to exist are sprung from One and

Many

and

have,
now

Limit (jtspac;) and Infinitude (cuiEtpia). We in a little while. What Socrates emphasizes
case, look for
there be
one eI8o?
and

shall come

back to this
we

point

is that

must, in every

(he

uses the word

Ibea here)

and next

for two, if

if not, for three or some other number; and we must treat each of these t'ibt] in the same way, that is, subdivide each of them, "until we can see that the original one is not just one and many and is." 10 Then we infinite, but also how many it may bid farewell to infinity,

two,

bid fareweU to the ibia of infinity. Protarchus wants Socrates to clarify

what

he has

said. of

No
the

wonder!
alphabet.

Socrates
The

provides

this

clarification

by

pointing to the letters

man, as
an

sound which we emit

through our mouth can be called one, yet it is

infinite in diversity. A
observed,
sounds

god or a godlike

Egyptian story teUs,

sounds,
semi-vowel

however,

that

there

are

distinct

vowel

and

consonants

in Greek 7 vowels, 3

semi-vowels

or

sonants

(X,

p, a), and

breathing

14 consonants, more exactly 10, if we include the rough sound h and exclude the 5 double consonants. This means that
oneness and

between the
of sounds.

the infinitude of sound there are definite

all of

numbers

One has to know

emphasizes

them to

possess

the

art of

reading

and

writing.

Socrates
the

the the

numbers of sounds and

letters. But this

example of

alphabet and
also

example of

the numbers of musical inter

vals,

which

Socrates
"

gives,

are meant

to let Protarchus and Philebus

zlbx\.

and us understand

that there are numbers in the realm of the

will

Later in

clearly distinguish between numbers of un equal units, that is, numbers of sensible things, and pure mathematical numbers of units, that is, of units which do not differ at all from each
the dialogue

Socrates

other.

But

we

learn from Aristotle

12

that Plato

also

spoke

of

eidetic
ilbr\.

numbers, of numbers of units which are themselves nothing but

To try to find them

means to embark upon

that

better, but

difficult

road.

16 A.
to n
12

16 D.
56 D-E.

See

esp.

Met. XIV, 3, 1090 b 32ff.

About Plato's Philebus

163

and Philebus do not understand what is going on. Philebus does not see what the theme of numbers, which Socrates has especially injected into the discussion, has to do with the alternative of pleasure and

Protarchus

thoughtfulness,
were was

which

was each
and

in
of

question.

Socrates
as

reminds
well

him that they

wondering how
one
and

them,

pleasure of

as

thoughtfulness,
number

many,
as

whether
,3

"each

them possessed a
whether

before

becoming
as well

infinite,"

that is to say,

there were t'ibx\ of

pleasure

of

thoughtfulness,

which

beings that continually come into in pleasure and thought. Protarchus is

cannot

being

and perish and

then are dispersed among that live their lives

perturbed.

He

understands

what

Socrates is
Philebus to

after. answer

He it.

find

an

answer to the question.

He

wants

And he formulates the

follows: "I think Socrates is asking us whether there are or are not of pleasure, how many there are and of elbt\ u what sort they are, and the same of Philebus does not
question as
thoughtfulness."

utter a word.
Callias."

But Socrates
underscores

remarks:

"What

you

say is

most

true,

son of

15

He

the importance of this fact

by

addressing
and

Protarchus ceremonially Protarchus is intent

as son of on

Callias.
the

bringing
end. would

discussion

about what

pleasure

thoughtfulness to a satisfactory

We learn from
on and not go

Socrates

promised

that he

stay

he says that home before this

end was reached.

This

promise must which

during

the

discussion

have been given, we have to assume, preceded what we read in the dialogue, and

we should not

ing him and knowledge into their ei8t| himself or to let that go, if there be some other way to solve the matters at issue among them. Socrates is willing to do the latter, and this marks a new transition in the dialogue. Socrates claims playfuUy that some god has just reminded him of
some was

forget that. Protarchus demands that Socrates stop perplex the other young men and decide either to divide pleasure and

talk about

pleasure

and

dreaming

or perhaps when

thoughtfulness, which he heard he was awake. What he heard

when

he

was

that

thoughtfulness was the good, but some third thing, different from both and better than both. We remember, of course, that Socrates himself had intimated this twice. He does it now for the third
neither pleasure nor

time. If this
not

could

be the

victor and

into its
will

ei8t).

be clearly shown now, says Socrates, pleasure would it would no longer be necessary to divide pleasure And Socrates adds that, while the discussion proceeds, this

become

still clearer.

What foUows leads to three insights: (1) it is the lot of the Good and only of the Good to be self-sufficient; (2) if we take the life of pleasure and the thoughtful hfe separately, so that the life of pleasure is totally divested
of

any thought, any

is

knowledge,

any opinion,

any memory,

and

the

18 E. 19 B.
Ibid.

15

164
thoughtful

Interpretation

life,

on

the other

hand, totally
cannot

untouched

by

any pleasure,

both lives

in this bare form

and as

be

conceived

as

self-sufficient, as

desirable
and

good;

thoughtfulness

and

would choose.

Let

me

a life made up of a mixture of pleasure in both will be the kind of life everybody sharing remark that Socrates and also Protarchus list under

(3) only

the

powers associated with thoughtfulness

vov

the

power of

apprehending the

intelligibles,
sense. concludes:
cannot

which

in

common

parlance

This term

will now play a central role it has been sufficiently shown that Philebus's goddess, Pleasure, be considered identical with the good. Thereupon Philebus raises

may simply mean good for quite a while. Socrates

his
but

voice:

"Nor is

your

vov; the good,

Socrates'

objections.'16

Let

us

hear

reaction:

not so

the true vovc,,

which

is

also

Socrates; it will be open to the same "My voiig perhaps, Philebus; divine; that one, I guess, is different.
over the combined
about

I do

not as yet claim we must

life, but
"

for the vovg the prize of victory look and see what is to be done
still

the

second

on, speaking to Philebus: "Each of us might perhaps put forward a claim, one that vovg is responsible for this combined
prize."

Socrates

goes

life, is its
would cause claims

cause, the other that pleasure is: and thus neither of these two
or the other of them might
,8

be the good, but one [of the combined

be

regarded as

the

life]."

Then, turning
against mixed

to

Protarchus, Socrates
an even
stronger

he

might

keep

way

and might contend

up his fight "that in this

Philebus in

and more similar

than pleasure

that life both desirable and

good."

life it is votjg that is more akin to that, whatever it may be, which makes As to pleasure, he adds, "it is farther
present."

behind than the third place, if my yovc, is at all to be trusted at The emphasis in this passage is clearly on the terms voiig and

19

"cause"

(amov). What remains unclear is the sense in which the term is to be taken and the rank to be attributed ultimately to the voiig. And let
us not

"cause"

for

a moment

forget it

Socrates'

own
might

voijg.

Socrates
pain

suggests that

be better to leave
way
and

pleasure and not to

the

thus proving her in Protarchus disagrees. Socrates asks whether Protarchus dis agrees because he, Socrates, spoke of paining pleasure. It is the second time that pain is mentioned in the dialogue. It is done jokingly. Pain

her

by testing

her in the

most precise

wrong.

was mentioned

for the first time

untouched

when

Socrates dealt
The way he

with

the thought
was this:

ful

life, totally
anyone

by

pleasure.

put

it then

be willing to live possessing thoughtfulness and voiig and knowledge and perfect memory of all things, but having no share, great or small, in pleasure, or in pain, for that matter, but being utterly un
affected

"Would

by

everything

of

that

sort?"

20

The question,

which

is

supposed

is it

22 C.

22C-D.
22 D. 22 E.

is
" 20

21 D/E.

About Plato's Philebus

to be negated,
when put

165

would perhaps

does

not

in this form actually involves a difficulty: one be willing to accept a thoughtful pleasureless life, which involve us in any pain. The third time pain will be mentioned is
close companion of pleasure and as a real evil.
shocked

going to show pain as a Protarchus says he is not but

rather

by

Socrates'

pleasure,"

by
and

Socrates'

apparent attempt to

"paining stop talking about

phrase

pleasure

altogether

because Socrates does

let
you go yet until you
end."

not seem to understand

"that

not

one of us will

have brought the

second

argument about warned

these matters to
about

an

21

This is the

time Socrates is

leaving Whew, Socrates

hes
requires

too early.

cussion prize

ahead of new

exclaims, and predicts that a long and difficult dis them. To fight the battle of the voiig for the second
weapons

in
and

addition

to those already used. A

new

beginning
dialogue.
Let
we us

has to be made,
be
on our guard

this will mean a new transition in the

in making this

beginning,

says

Socrates,

and

should

indeed pay

attention

to these words. Socrates suggests that

everything that now exists in the world be distributed in a twofold, or in a threefold way. The results of this distribution are very different from each other. They are called by Socrates, indiscriminately and unrather

precisely, tlbr\
"limitless"

or yivt], which

shall

translate
as a

by

the word
of

"tribes."

The
the

first two have been

mentioned

before

kind

Promethean

gift:

(to
let
an

araipov) and the

"limit"

(to

jtEpctg).

The third is the

mixture

of

these two into one. This is not to be taken

us

literally,
Socrates
I
23

as we shall see
adds:

in

a moment:

be

on our guard.

And

now

"But I

cut

considerably
and

ridiculous

figure, I think,
22

when

attempt a separation

into

tribes

enumeration."

Protarchus

wonders

why.

Socrates: "It

seems to means

me,

fourth tribe is
the
even a

besides."

needed

It turns

out that

Socrates
who

the

cause of

commixture of

those first two. And

power of

Protarchus,

fifth, separation, is told in affable words that this fifth is not needed now, but that if it be needed later, he should excuse Socrates for going after it. The mentioning of
is
eager

to supply

namely the

Protarchus's
necessity
and even

of the

and the way of handling it cast a doubt on the fourth tribe, the cause. There might be something strange ridiculous indeed about that. We should be on our guard.
proposal consider

Let
the

us

one

of

following

English translations

the first two tribes, namely to cbtEipov. The are all adequate: the limitless, the endless,

boundless,

the unlimited, the

infinite,

the

innumerable,
not

the indefinite.

the indeterminate. And the inexperienced one,

we must not

forget the homonym

Plato does
"limit,"

cfatsipog,

meaning

upon which word

to

fail to

pun. 24 almost im-

As to the

second

tribe,

jtspag, the

it becomes

21 22 23 24

23 B. 23 D.
Ibid.

17 E.

166
mediately
substitutes
apparent

Interpretation

that,

although

for it the

phrase

"that

which
and

Socrates keeps using this term, he also has to jtspag evov, that is
limit,"

to say, the
are

"limited."

Protarchus
and the

somewhat

confused.

Socrates
them is

proposes are

the other young men as weU as we to investigate how each of

them, the

"limitless"

"limited,"

both "one
again:

and

many"; for he

contends that each one of starts with

the

"limitless,"

up warning Protarchus
25

split

and scattered

into

many.

He
to

"What I

ask you

consider

is difficult
"quicker

debatable."

and

Here

are special cases of

and and

this

tribe,
26

parts of
and

its

manyness:

"hotter

and and

colder,"

slower,"

"greater In

smaUer,"

"exceedingly

slightly,"

"excessive

lacking."

each

there is "the more

as well as

them is constantly advancing the (to uaXXov te vxxi t|ttov). and never stationary in sharp contrast to what is determined by a fixed

Each

less"

of

number,
exist.

by

just "that is

much":

if

such

a number

advances, it ceases to
"limitless"

What

captures our attention

meant

is the

expression to \1aXk6v te xai tJttov.

This
to

expression

to gather together the tribe of the

27

and

put upon

it

the seal of a single nature.

It is

used

six

times in the

passage we are now particle te

is

omitted.

considering and once more much later on. Once the This omission focuses our attention on the use of

this particle in
all

all the other cases.

The

verbs related to

this expression are this

argument

in the dual. And Socrates

and

summarizes pointedly:
limitless."

"By
2S

the

hotter
pair.

its

opposite

become together

The
the

"hmitless"

is

The

expression

"the

more as well as the

less,"

as

seal of a single

nature,

seals a

duality. And this is

an

duality
pair.

remains

completely indeterminate.
and

The

"limitless"

indeterminate
"limit,"

But

what about
limit,"

the

on

the

one

hand,

the

"hmited,"

that
as

"which has

on the other?

Let

us

take the

"limited"

first. It is,

Socrates quite clearly states, 29 contrary to "the more as well as the less"; it is the equal, and equality, the double, and any number in firm relation to another number or a measure in firm relation to another measure, that

is, everything
and makes
30
number."

which

"puts

an end

to the variability between the opposites

and

them proportionable

harmonious
means

by

the introduction

of

We

understand

that what

Socrates

by

this

tribe

of

the

"limited"

is
all

what we read

in the Fifth Book

of

Euclid's Elements. This book is in

probability either a perhaps somewhat condensed copy of an original work of Eudoxus or imitates this work. Who is Eudoxus? He was born in

Cnidus,

on

the shores of Asia

a while.

Minor,
an

came

to

Athens
a

and stayed at

Plato's
and

Academy
25 2 27

for

He

was

astronomer,

mathematician,

24 A.
"Lacking"

is

not mentioned.

It is

lacking in deed.

25 A.
24 D.

28
28 30

25A/B. 25 D/E.

About Plato's Philebus

geographer; he

167
and

firmly

established

the doctrine of ratios

proportions,

including
"mix"

those of numerically incommensurable magnitudes; he tried to the ei8r|, as understood by Plato, with all the sensible things;

he declared pleasure to be the his goddess, as she is for Philebus. Eudoxus, as Aristotle reports, "seemed to be a man of exceptional temperance, and hence he was thought to uphold this view not because he was a lover of pleasure, but because it seemed to him that it was so in
and

what

is

most

important to

us

supreme good.

But

pleasure was not

truth."

3i

Socrates,
of

as we see

in the

dialogue, disagrees.
ratios.

The tribe
scattered

the

"hmited"

then consists of

The tribe

of

the

"limitless,"

in the
as

seal

the araipov, in its infinite manyness found its unity 32 of "the more and its that is, in "the more as well
of
opposite,"

the

less."

The tribe found its

of

the
to."

"limited,"

the manyness of determinate ratios,

was
"reference"

has

not yet

unity.

Socrates says, "referred "limit" itself (Eig to itepag).

contain a multitude nor

This unity was only postulated, There was indeed a direct And Socrates feel
a concludes:

only, as to the
not

33

"The limit did

did

we

difficulty

that it might not be one

by

nature."

34

It is

at

this point that we might turn to Aristotle's reports about Plato's

unwritten words to confirm what we greater clarity.

found in the dialogue

of

and

to win

In the Sixth Chapter

says of

of

the First Book

to him

the Metaphysics to
posit a

35

Aristotle

Plato: "It is
"

peculiar and

[i.e., Plato]
Physics,

duality

instead

of the single

Limitless,
at great are

to make the Limitless consist of 'the Great and

of the
where

the the

SmaU.'

In the Third Book

two

Aristotle discusses
36 again:

aitEipov

Plato there

length, we read in the Fourth Infinites, 'the Great and the

in the Philebus,
and except
"great" "small"

Chapter

"For
thus
own

Small.' "

We

see

confirmed what we read

that

Aristotle, in his
their

way,

uses
37

the

words

without

comparative

forms.

other places.

He keeps using these words, in speaking about Plato, at many But, what is more important, in Books XIII and XIV of
mentions several times

the Metaphysics Aristotle

puts out of

two

"elements,"

as are

he

it, which, according to Plato, have to understand that Aristotle has in mind "eidetic
blages
of 6i5t). and

"numbers"

derived. We
assem

numbers,"

These two
"one"

sources are
ev).

the "indeterminate

dyad"

(f| dopiOTog
pair of

8vfxg)
more

the

(to

We

recognize

the indeterminate

the

Philebus in the "indeterminate

as
well

dyad,"

the

duality

of the

Limitless, "the
named

as

the

less."

But

we

see

now

that what was

the

si Arist. Met. XII, 8, 1073 b 17ff.; Proclus, In Eucl. Comm. (Teubner) 2ff.; Arist. Met. I, 9, 991 a 14f.; Nic. Eth. X, 2, 1172 b 9ff. 32 33 34

pp.

67,

26 D. 25 B. 26 D. 987 b 26-28.
203
a

35
s

15.
end.

37

Cf. 37 C

168
"Limit"

Interpretation

in the Philebus
"elements"

can

also

be

named the

"One."

What Aristotle
everything, that
powers.

calls

the

can rank

be

called the ultimate sources of

which what

has the first

meant

both

as

beginnings

and as

ruling

That is
fixed

is

by

dpxr), in

common parlance as well as

in
a

most

thoughtful

speech.

We

should not

assume, I think, that Plato had

definitely

name

for
the

each of

these dpxat. The terms the

and perhaps

Good,
Whole

the
are

One,

the Precise

itself,
of the

Same, the Limit, dpxai, depending on

and suitable.

the

aU suited

to one

the context in which

they

are used.

As to the

names of

the second ao/i], the "indeterminate the Other (which also implies a

dyad,"

"the

more as well

as the
no

less,"

duality 38)
clear.

seem aU of them

less

In the Philebus

Socrates, in putting
character

a seal on

the tribe of
character

the cbiEipov,
of

makes

its intrinsic

perfectly

But the

the jtspag, the

"limit,"

remains obscured.

Now let
of the

us

take up the third

tribe,

the

"mixture"

of
mean?
dyad,"

the

"Limitless"

and

"Limit."

What does
power

"mixing"

here
other.

It

means that the two

"Limit,"

dpxai,
"One,"

the

"Limitless,"

the "indeterminate
on
each

and

the
"One,"

the

exert

their

described is to say,
ei8t|
we

as

follows. The "indeterminate

two

dyad"

What happens then may be that duplicates the

produces also

entities,

two

i8r|,

duplicates

each

of

these

"divides"

may

say

each of

these i8r|

and

keeps

on

du

plicating we have to assume up to a certain point. In Aristotle's reports dyad" the "indeterminate is explicitiy characterized as a "doubling (8uojtoiog). 39 It is the ultimate source of definite manyness, of
power"

"numbers,"

in the

realm of the Ei8n as weU as

in

our world.

In the

earlier

passage,
and of

when

Socrates first introduced the Promethean

and urged

"infinitude"

gift of

"limit"

that in every case a definite number of

tibr\

had

to be found (the alphabet

helping

hardly
this

discernible hint that the

"limitless,"

"Limitless"

him to clarify this point), there was with its doubling power is

for the multiplicity of the ei8i> You wiU remember that in the the infinite, was ultimately dismissed. Not so in the world in which we live. What happens here is this: the
responsible
context
"Limit,"

the

"One,"

transforms

the

"indeterminate

dyad"

into

determinate one,

that is to say, transforms the two constantly and indeterminately changing terms of the dyad into two stationary and determinate ones and keeps

doing this,
Socrates We The
of

produces, in

other

words,

a multitude of ratios.

can call the manyness of ratios

understand now what confused

That's why 40 "the offspring of the Protarchus and us when Socrates

limit."
"limited,"

substituted

"that

which

has

limit,"

the

for the

"limit"

itself.

"limited,"

the assemblage of

ratios, is already
a

a part of

the mixture,

the third tribe. But it

represents

special

kind,

mathematical
a certain

partnerships

mixture, or rather mixtures, of a that can give to parts of the

world we

live in

Tightness,

remove the excess and

indefiniteness,

ss so

Cf. Soph. 255 D

Met.

and a

256 E-257 A.
and

XIII, 7, 1082

15

8,

1083 b 36.

25 D.

About Plato's Philebus

and produce

169
mathematical partner

balance

and

right

measure.

41

Such
the

ships

engender, for example, health,

of the

establish

entire

genuine

art of

bring beauty and strength Socrates, addressing

music,

about the temperate seasons and all the

bounties
of about

of our

world,

body,

and

all

the

beauties

the

soul.

And

Philebus

directly

and

speaking

that

proper

42 of mathematical ratios, has this to say: partnership (6p0f| xoiycovia) "For this goddess, my beautiful Philebus, beholding the wanton violence and universal wickedness which prevailed, since there was no limit of

pleasures or of excess

in them,

established

law

and order

[vo^og
on the

xai Ta|ig]

in

which

there is limit. You say she

safe."

exhausted

us; I say,

contrary,

she

kept

us of

43

Socrates

addresses

Philebus, but

we

cannot

help

thinking
to

Eudoxus. Philebus remains completely silent. Socrates turns And Protarchus: "How does this appear to you,
Protarchus?"

Protarchus Let

answers:

"It is very

much

how I feel,

Socrates."

44

the common power of the two dpxai determines the Sometimes the community of this power is lacking. Socrates turns now to the fourth tribe, the cause. You wUl remember that Socrates seemed somewhat reluctant to add this fourth to the first
us conclude: mixture.

three. And
"Limitless'

indeed, is
and the

there any need for it? The

appeared as

common power

of the

"Limit"

the cause of the mixture and of

now

what

is

engendered
sound a

in this
note

mixture.

Listen

to

Socrates'

words:

"Should I
and

false

if I

caUed
what

the fourth the

cause of

the mixture

generation?"

45

And listen to
the

Socrates

one moment earlier says

all

with regard

to all the first three tribes: "That which fabricates

call

these,
to be
can

the cause, we

fourth,

distinct from the

ultimate

others."46

it has been sufficiently That has not been shown at

as

shown

all!

How
what

sources,

dpxi, be

caused

by

something
"Limit,"

else?

If that

were

so, the

first two tribes, the

are.

"Limitless"

and

the

would not

be

they
and

The

exploration of

this fourth

tribe,
which

the

"cause,"

is left pending,

Socrates What
reached?

makes a new was

transition,

helps him to turn backwards.

the purpose, he asks, of coming to the point they have They were trying to find out whether the second prize belonged
to thoughtfulness ((ppovnaig).
and

to

pleasure or

They
life

had posited, Socrates

reminds see

Protarchus

us, that the

mixed

was the victor.

We

can

now, he continues, to which tribe it belongs, namely, to the third "limitless" and all that is tribe, formed by the mixture of all that is

"bound

by

the

limit."

47

And

now

Socrates

asks

Philebus to

which of

the

41 42 43
44 45

26 A.

25 E.
26B-C.

26 C. 27B/C. 27 B.

46 47

27 D.

170 three tribes his life

Interpretation

of unmixed pleasure

belongs. The full

answer

question

is this:

have
"the

pleasure and pain a

limit

or are

they among
be

the things

which admit

more as well as

the

less?"

Philebus's

which admit not

the more; for

multitude

pleasure would not and

aU

is: "Yes, among those the good, if it were

limitless in

in the
aU

'more.'"48
evil."

Socrates

dryly
pain

replies:

"Nor

would pain,

Philebus, be

the

49

This is how

is intro
are
not

duced in the discussion for the third time, Socrates adds he would grant Philebus that

and

this time decisively. For

pleasure and

both,

pain,

in the tribe
pain.

of

the Limitless. We
addition

note

Philebus One
of

meant

only pleasure,

Socrates'

is decisive.
limitless
of pair.

Pleasure

and pain are a are no

the

consequences of this

finding
We in

is that there

remember that

pleasure, in the strict sense of this word. ei8t| Socrates had intimated that the discussion would show
would not

a clearer

way why it
will use

be necessary to divide

pleasure

into its
wiU

ei8t)-

Socrates

this term later on in

strict sense.

discussing
and

pleasure, but it

not

have to be taken in its

next question

The

Socrates

asks
and

Protarchus
voiig
shall

Philebus is: to

what

tribe thoughtfulness, knowledge Socrates explains: "For I think

or not

be

assigned without

impiety.

that our risk

is

not a small one

now."

in

finding

finding

the right answer to what is

being
51

asked

50

PhUebus:
you your
same."

"You

exalt your own

god,

Socrates,

do."

you

Socrates: "And

52 goddess, my friend. But the question calls for an answer, aU the Protarchus intervenes and urges Philebus to answer. Whereupon Philebus

says:

"Did

you

not,

Protarchus,
raises

choose

to reply in my
us

place?"53

This is defend
word spoke regret.

the last time Philebus

his

voice.

Let

look back for

a moment. will

At the "has

beginning
of
tired"

of our

reading

we

learn that Protarchus

Philebus's thesis
grown

pleasure, because Philebus

himself,
a

as

Protarchus says,
on

(the Greek

word
an

is d^EipnxE,

pun

the

ditEtpov). A little later Philebus has

opportunity to

regret that

he

up

again and calls upon and

his

own goddess to witness that

he does

When the "one

perhaps

many"

question comes up,

not

Protarchus

remarks:

"It is
54

best for the inquirer he

wiU

to disturb Philebus in his sweet

repose."

And

now

be

silent aU

the

time,

even when

pleasure, his goddess,

is thoroughly discussed. What is he doing aU this time? Just listening? Socrates' Protarchus has some difficulty in answering last question,
namely, to
what tribe

knowledge

and vor>g should

Socrates to

answer this question

himself. Socrates is

be assigned, and asks wiUing. He declares:

48 49
50

27 E. 28 A. Ibid. 28 B. Ibid. Ibid. 15 C

[tacit
reference

si 52 63
54

to

the

proverb:

\ii\

xiveiv

xccxdv

eu

xeijievov].

About Plato's Philebus "What

exalt

171
and

you enjoin me

to do is

not

difficult,"55

he
and

repeats:

"It is

easy."

thereby really themselves, says Socrates, that voiig is king of heaven and earth. 50 Socrates adds: "Perhaps they are What foUows is indeed an easy, but not too convincing
agree,
right."

Let

us

be

on our guard.

All

wise men

"cosmological"

account, which ends with the

statement

that voiig belongs to that

all."

of

the

four tribes

which was called

"the

cause

of

67

Notice,
last

please, again,
answer."

"of

all."

And Socrates

adds:

"Now,

you

have

at

your

Protarchus:

very sufficient one; and yet you answered without Socrates: "Yes, Protarchus, for sometimes playing my noticing 59 provides rest from serious We understand: the
it."

"Yes,

and a

5S

pursuit."

"cosmological"

account, which makes the voiig the cause of

playful

all

the other
voiig

tribes,

was a

account.

We

are

not

sure

whether

this

is the "divine
the confines

mentioned of

before. And let

us not

forget that,

within

human

life,

the

best,

voiig could obtain, was the second prize.

Socrates

concludes

this entire discussion of the four tribes

by

pointing to
"limit"

voiig and to pleasure. He does not mention anything pertaining to "mixture." and to the Let us remember, he says, "that votig was akin to
cause
and

pleasure was

belonged roughly speaking [o"xe86v] to this tribe and that itself limitless and belonged to the tribe which, in and by have
either

itself, has
We

not and never will

beginning

end."

or middle or

60

must add that this holds also for pain. As we have seen, the dialogue, too, has neither a beginning nor an end, and for that matter, no middle. The graph of a Platonic dialogue usually not always looks like this:

But the

graph of

the Philebus looks hke this:

55
5 57 58 58 60

28 C.
Ibid.

30 E.
Ibid.

Ibid. 31 A.

1 72 The dialogue itself, taken

are

Interpretation

as a

drama, in

which

we, the

readers or

listeners,
.

If it does that, it must But we be pleasurable and painful. We wUl have to wait and see need not wait to register the most important result of the preceding dis

involved,

seems

to resemble pleasure

and pain.

...

cussion.

AU the

pleasures

and

pains,

small

or

great,

which pervade

our

hves,

reflect

in their

duality

the "indeterminate

dyad."

an ultimate source, It is thus that some

one of

the

dpxai, namely
familiar
and
reflection

of our most

common experiences can reach.

are tied to one of the highest points human

Socrates

now abandons

this high level

and

turns to

a much

lower

one.

new

transition is made.

Only
able

about

a third of

the dialogue has been

considered so

far. I

shall

be

to

proceed much

faster from

now on.

is to see, says Socrates, where each of them, that is, voiig and pleasure, can be found and by means of what affection both come into being, whenever they come into being. m Note, please, that the voiig mentioned here is said to come into being and cannot, therefore, be under The
next

task

stood

as

the eternal divine

voiig.

Socrates takes

pleasure

first,

and

im

mediately adds that it is impossible to from pain.

Socrates'

examine pleasure

sufficiently

apart

contention

is that

pain and pleasure emerge

"limitless"

in the
the

combined

"limit"

tribe,

the one, we remember, where the

and conducive

join

together and

form

right measure.

partnership When this balance is broken in us,

and

a mathematical

to balance and

living beings,
at

"a dis

ruption of nature
time."

a generation

of pain

also

take place
restored and process of

the same

62

"If,

on the other

hand, balance is being

generated."

is returning
are

to its pain,

own

nature, pleasure is the

process

63

The

destruction is
we

and

of

restoration
and

is

pleasure.

When

being
again

emptied, we are

becoming hungry
not

pained;

when we are

fiUing

up

through eating, we are pleased. And the same can be said of thirst. It is
shown

later that it is

the

body

that hungers or thirsts or has any such

pained or pleased.

affection, that the

and pain often

body
in the

cannot, therefore, be
and

Pleasure

belong

to the soul,

to the

soul only.

enough,

as

case of we

hunger
one

and

But sometimes, or rather thirst, the body is involved.

Whenever this is the case,

Another kind
arises within

face
as

kind does

of pleasure and pain. not

of pleasure and pain

soul

involve the

body

at all.

It

the

itself

the sweet and cheering hope of

pleasant

things to to
come.
soul

come and as

the fearful

and woeful expectation of painful things

Both the
in

pleasant and

the

painful expectations

originate within

the
of

memory.

Socrates

proceeds to give a circumstantial

description

this origin

by
and

recollection,

passing from perception to memory, to forgetfulness, to finally to desire. But he ends this passage by reverting

to pleasure and pain that involve the body. He points to a man who is

si 62

31 B.

31 D. Ibid.

63

About Plato's Philebus

173

empty and fUled again

other
man

suffers

and enjoys

pain, but who, because this hope. "At such

pain and

of
a

his memory, hopes to be time, then, a man, or any

*4

living being,
is
without
stress

has both

once."

joy

at

If, however,

an

him. The

hope of is on the

being filled, duality of pleasure

is
Let

a twofold

feeling
of a

of pain arises

empty in
of a

and pain.

The possibility
twofold

twofold pain and

emphasizes

although this

not mentioned us not

pleasure

the
at

duality

even more.

forget its

ultimate source.

Looked been

in this

passage

is

also a

life in

which there and voiig.

and

is

no

feeling
a

of

pleasure or pain at

all, but only thoughtfulness

Such

hfe had Now

considered much earlier

in the dialogue
life."

had been

rejected as

totaUy
it is
adds

undesirable,
calls

lacking
most

Socrates
not
agrees:

it "the

divine

self-sufficiency and, therefore, Protarchus chimes in:

goodness.

"Certainly
Socrates

hkely

that gods feel either

joy

or

its

opposite."

65

And Socrates

"No, it is

very unlikely; for

either point

that they may consider this

is unseemly for later on, if it

them."

would

help

the

argument; they might give voiig

prize.

credit

for it in contending for

the second

We

shall

be

watching.
subdivided

new

transition takes place. What follows can be title that

can

into three
agree

parts,

and the
what

be

given

to all of them

is "On false

pleasures."

This is

happens in
pains

part one:

Protarchus is unwilling to

that

be false; he accepts the possibility of false but rejects the possibility of false fears, false expectations, and opinions, false pleasures; a lengthy discussion foUows which culminates in the
pleasures
and

could

assertion

that a

"just,

man,"

pious and good

an

"friend

gods,"

of the
man"

has

"true
of

pleasures,"

while

"unjust

and

thoroughly bad
6a

can

only

have "false
ridicule;

pleasures,"

which
and

imitate the "true

said of pains.

pleasures"

to the point

the

same can

be

This,

now, is

what

happens in
pair

part two: we are reminded

that pleasure

and pain are a

hmitless

tied to "the more as well as the

always

less";

any

one who pleasures

feels

pleasure

in any way

may be felt as present pleasures in the future; the latter ones may be false because they may not come into being as expected, not as great and intense as expected; and when, in our

really feels pleasure; but these and also as pleasures to be felt

feelings,
pains,
of

we are

trying
and

to compare pleasures with pleasures, or pains with

or pleasures with

the limitless

pains, we may reach entirely false results, because indeterminate character of both, pleasure and pain.
concern

The third but

part of

this passage does not

false

pleasures

directly,
of

rather pleasures

falsely
One

understood or

falsely
own about

judged. The theme

pleasure,
rejected

pleasure and pain

is

a common of

topic in Plato's
the opinions
pain

time, widely discussed

by

outstanding
that

men.

by

Socrates, is
men

freedom from

is identified

with pleasure.

For

some

this

opinion amounts

to the firm denial of the existence of pleasures

64 65 m

36 B.

33 B.
39E-40C.

174
altogether.

Interpretation For them that

escapes
not

which

Philebus

and

merely Socrates does "Should I I have look

are

from

pain.

These

men are men

his friends "of harsh

caU pleasures
judgments."

67

mention

Antisthenes is

one

of these men.

any names, but it is highly probable that Antisthenes is reputed to have said: I
would strangle

ever meet
condensed

Aphrodite,

her

hands."

with

my

own

this passage of the dialogue to the utmost. But you

understand at

that it chaUenges the conviction of Philebus radicaUy. Let us

again.

him

He has

not said a word. not

he had

grown
ago

tired. Has

his

sweet repose mentioned

sleep?

Is he reaUy listening? We know, by Protarchus a And sleep, sound,

long

time

transformed itself into sound

dreamless sleep, we should observe, excludes any feeling of pleasure and life," pain, brings about, in other words, a condition of the "most divine
yet a condition not compatible with

Philebus's
closed

own aspirations.
and

Yes,

there
while

he

lies,

the beautiful
continues

Socrates
and

the

ears, Philebus, inquiry, imposed upon him by Philebus, Protarchus,

with

eyes

closed

the other young men. In sharp contrast to Philebus's

Socrates'

fatigue

and

somnolence are

vigor and straightforwardness.

68

A
men

subtle

transition is brought to pass inasmuch as Socrates takes those

judgments"

"of harsh

with whom

he disagrees
means

as allies.

He is going
who

to describe more
oppose

accurately

what

pleasure

to

these men,

We have already seen that pain and joy can be felt at the same time. The point is now emphasized: pain and pleasure do not only constitute an indeterminate pair, but they also mix with each other. This is again shown by Socrates in a tripartite way. Some
or existence. mixtures of pleasure and pain are

it

deny its

those in which both

pleasure and

pain,

involve

the

body,

tends to consider

as, for example, itching and scratching, which Protarchus 69 a "mixed Some mixtures are those in which the
evU."

body

and

the

soul contribute

the opposite elements, "each adding pain or

pain,"

pleasure

to the other's pleasure

a man

and

70

as, for example

we

have

heard that before

emptiness, but

rejoices

from thirst, is pained by bis bodily in his hope to be filled, a hope entertained only by
suffers of mixture
soul

his
in

soul.

The
the

third

kind

is

the most

important; it is

the one

which

soul and

only the

is involved. Socrates
we not

gives as examples

of pains

belonging
71

to this third kind: anger,

fear, longing,
only

jealousy, envy
pleasures?"

and

hy

asks:

"Shall in
to

mourning, love, find them full of ineffable

to anger and to
and

He then

refers

one

sentence

mournings pleasure
you

and

longings in

order

show

the mixture of pain

next question

of

in them. Protarchus

fully

Socrates'

agrees.

is: "And
and at

the
67 68 es
70

same

remember, too, how people, time weep"! 72 "Yes,

at

tragedies, enjoy the spectacle

says

certainly,"

Protarchus. Whereupon

44C-D.

See, for
46 A. 47 C.

example, 34 D 4-8

and

38 B 3-4.

7i
72

47 E.
48 A.

About Plato's Philebus Socrates

that
answer

175

asks:

"And the

condition of our souls at comedies

mixture of pain and
understand."

do
73

you

know
not

there, too,

there is a

pleasure?"

Protarchus's

is: "I do

not quite

Socrates

confirms that

it is

easy to chus,

understand such a condition under such

circumstances, and Protar

on

his part,

confirms

that it is not easy for him. It is not easy for us

of

either.

This is

the short

beginning
and

the discussion

about

the third kind of

soul.

mixture of pleasure

pain,

which

involves only the

surprisingly, Socrates launches into a

Socrates'

lengthy

explanation of what

And now, happens

only for

to spectators at comedies. It takes no less than four pages, and ends with
contention spectators

that pain

is

mixed

with

pleasure

not

but
to

also

in the theatre, where tragedies and "in ah the tragedy and comedy of
or

comedies are performed

74

life."

Today,

we are prone

caU

any horrible
and

"tragedy"

simply
not
life"

sad event a

and a

funny

one a

"comedy."

But that

was

done in

ancient

times. The

expression

"tragedy
tragedy,

paradoxical. not

in the dialogue is highly unusual and even comedy of It is almost unique; a somewhat similar phrase referring to to comedy, can be found only in Plato's Laws. 75 Why is this in the Philebus? Let
us

expression used

hear

what

Socrates

says. also see an

He takes up envy first.

envious man

Envy

is

a pain of

the soul, but we

close

rejoicing in the
main

evils that

befall those

to him. Thus

envy is both
ridiculous

pain and pleasure.

Socrates then takes up the

ridiculous.

The

is in the
does

the consequence of a disposition in the human soul

which contradicts

the famous inscription at Delphi. A ridiculous man

is

a man who

not

know himself. This

have three
conceit of

aspects:

(1)

the conceit

being

more

beautiful than
especially

folly of not knowing oneself can of being richer than one is; (2) the one is; (3) the conceit of being more
than one is (8oooo(pia). This third

virtuous than one

is,

wiser

kind

of conceit

is the

most numerous. cases

must

Now,

we tend

to laugh

at men who

thus
are

conceited.

But two

be distinguished here. Those

may be strong and able to revenge themselves, and are then powerful, terrible, and hateful; for folly in the powerful is hateful and base. Or they are weak and unable to revenge themselves, and then they are truly ridiculous. When we laugh at the follies of such men, who may be our friends, we feel pleasure. But to feel pleasure at the follies of our

laughed

at

friends is what envy brings about, since it is envy that makes us rejoice in the evils that befall these our friends, and envy is painful. Therefore, when we laugh at what is ridiculous in our friends, we mix pleasure and
pain.

It is

not quite

clear

how

all

this explains

what

happens
adds

at

although

Protarchus

appears to

be

satisfied.

Socrates

that

comedies, all that

anger

was

said

by

him

so

far

concerned

only envy, mourning,

and

(he

73 74 75

ibid. 50 B.
817 B.

176
omits

Interpretation

longing,

which was

also

mentioned

by

him in that

one

sentence

he

before passing on to tragedies and comedies). And now, Socrates declares, he need not go further and Protarchus ought to accept
uttered

the

assertion now

But

that there are plenty of mixtures something extraordinary happens that that

of pain

and of pleasure.

sheds more

light

on the

theme of comedy.

You

wiU

remember

the

extracted

from him the

about pleasure

promise

young men, who surround Socrates, not to go home before bringing the
to
a

discussion
this

and thoughtfulness

satisfactory
reminded

end.

And
of

you wUl also remember

that

Protarchus, later on,

not one of the was

Socrates

promise and assured

go

him that
me

young
off,

men would

let let
to

him

before the
says now:

end

of

the discussion

reached. me

Listen to
or

what

Socrates let
me

"Tell

then: will you

let

will you

midnight come?
off."

76

I think only a few words are needed to induce How strange! Why on earth does Socrates utter these
who

you

words?

Is this the Socrates

entered not

is known for his

discuss things? Has he

presented

grown tired

never abating eagerness to like Philebus? Or is it that envy has

life"

only the Xoyog but also the stage, the "comedy of in the dialogue? Incredible as it might seem, Socrates appears to
asleep, seeing Philebus asleep, Does that not mean that Socrates is pained
"divinely"

be
yet

envious
77

without

pleasure
and

and pain. also

by

this envy
sleep,
of

pleased

by

the

ridiculous of

aspect

of

Philebus's
the

which

manifests

the

latter's

"conceit
us,

wisdom,"

8o|o0ocpia
words of

friend

Philebus? But
and are

what about

who read or

hear the life"?

the dialogue

the spectators of this

"comedy

of

Well,
is

we are puzzled and

pleased

by

realizing that Socrates

of all people
what

envious at this moment,

might

and we are also pained refuse to

accept

by

witnessing

happens to him. We

that this is what is going on at this moment, but this refusal would only mean that we expect to be pained and pleased, // we
accepted

it. dialogue is
pleasurable and painful

Yes,
to

the

in deed

(Epycp), in
there

addition

dealing

with pleasure and pain

in

speech

(Xoyco). And is

any

need

feels in reading, or listening to, the dialogue in all its deliberately complex and inordinate convolution? We understand now, I think, why the title of the dialogue is Philebus. Socrates proceeds, of course. He takes up now and this is a new
to mention the pain and the pleasure one

transition

the

pure

pleasures,
of such

that

is,

pleasures

unmixed

with

pain.

Socrates lists five kinds

our

pleasures, four
cannot

of them conveyed to us

by

senses, one

involving

that which

be

sensed.

The first four

kinds

of pure pleasure

have their
or

source

colors, in

clear sounds and

in many

odors.

beautiful

living

beings

paintings,

figures, in beautiful The beautiful figures are not 78 but "says the a
argument"

in beautiful

50 D.
77 78

Cf. Apology 40C-E. 51 C.

About Plato's Philebus

straight

111
line drawn
of
with

Une drawn
compass,

with

the

help

of a

ruler, a
with

circular

the

help

of a

plane

figures drawn
the

the

help

these same

tools,
The

and solid

figures

constructed with

help

of suitable

instruments.

79

beautiful
color. pleasures

colors are pure sounds

are

Clear

colors, in those that

which

trace of any other send forth a single pure tone. The

no

there is

these

figures,

colors,

and sounds pleasures

generate

are pure

pleasures,

unmixed with

pain.

As to the
divine."

of

smell, they are,

as

Socrates

playfully says, "less deeply serious is that

The last kind of pure pleasure and this is which has its source in the known or the knowable, accessible to human beings without hunger for learning and without pangs of such hunger. 80 What Socrates means is contemplation O&Ecopia), which
not preceded

is

by

Epoag, the

desire to leads to
pure

know,

as we

feel it in the

pursuit of

knowledge. This
The transition
of which again

pleasure of contemplation
now made

is felt

a passage

exceedingly few. that again has three parts,

by

the third is the

realm

most

important. The first

part extends

in

some

way

the

of

pleasures

by

the

statement

that what

characterizes such pleasures understand pleasures.

is due

measure.

The

second part makes us also true

that the pure pleasures are, because of their purity,

In

the

third
while

the

longest

part of

Socrates
man,

refutes

"certain

ingenious
genious

people"81

people"

are reduced a

accepting little later to

one

their premises. These "in

and

one

there is

hardly

any doubt that this man is Aristippus. His premise, which Socrates accepts, is that pleasure consists in a process of generation and has no
stable

being. What is
To
refute

rejected

by

Socrates is that

such a process

in itself

is

a good.

this assertion, Socrates proposes to consider the

relation

The
or

question

that the process of coming into being (yEveaig) has to being (cuoia). is: which one of the two is for the sake of the other? Protarchus the
question as

rephrases

follows: do

ships exist

for the sake

of

shipbuilding

is shipbuilding for the sake of ships? Protarchus knows the answer to this question, of course, but Socrates gives the answer in an all-comprising form:

"Every instance
generation of which
good,"

of generation

is for the

sake of some
82

is

always

for the

sake of

being."

Now,
not of

the

being or other, and all being for the sake

that order.

the process of generation takes place is "of the order of the the process of generation itself is
we must

while says

Therefore,
of

Socrates,
who

be

grateful

to him who pointed out that there is

only
all

a generation,

but

no

being

of pleasure. end

He

makes a

laughingstock
end

those

find their highest

Protarchus

in

pleasure and

know that is

pleasure

is nothing but
order of

a process of generation.

For their highest "It is

good."

not of

the

the

good.

concludes:

a great
83

absurdity,

as

it

appears,

Socrates,

to teU us that pleasure is a

79 so si 82
83

53 A-B. 52 A. 53 C.
54 C.

55 A.

178 There is
a new

Interpretation

transition, in which courage, self-restraint and vovc are mentioned and which begins to move the dialogue upward. The task is now to consider voiig and knowledge carefully and to find out what is by
nature purest

in them. We
of

expect

that their truest parts will be joined with

mixed

the

truest parts of pleasure

in the desired
are

life.

Two kinds
things, the
the

knowledge
of the
made.

other serves
how"

distinguished. One is necessary to produce education and nurture. The productive knowledge,
producing arts, is taken up

"know
aided

first,

and

here

again a

division is to be

Some
and

of

those

parts are acquired

by

practice and

toil,

by
as

guessing,

lack

precision.

the arts of counting, measuring, and weighing.

They do not use sufficiently This holds, Socrates says,

for music,
and

generalship.

it is commonly practiced, for medicine, agriculture, piloting, But in the arts of building, shipbuilding, and house

building, for
It is

and the use of

example, there is much more precision, because measuring ingenious instruments play a much greater role in them.

arts of counting and of measur into two kinds. Some counting refers ing (not, however, that of weighing) to visible and tangible units, which are all unequal; but there is also

at this point that

Socrates divides the

counting

of units

that do

not

differ

at all of

from
to

each other.

This kind

of

counting is the basis of the true art The art of measuring may also refer
or to entities

numbering,

of

true

"arithmetic."

either

visible and

tangible things

that

cannot

be

sensed.

To measure,
"geometry,"

and to not

deal with, the

purpose of

latter

entities means to

be

engaged

in

for the

production and

trade, but for

the purpose of

for the

careful

study

of ratios and

knowing. And this holds also proportions. These true arts of number
and nurture. as

ing

and

measuring

serve education

We

see that

there is a
purer

kind

of

another.

knowledge purer than another, This purity of knowledge brings

truth.

one

pleasure

is

than
and

about much greater

clarity

precision and much more

But there is, beyond that pure mathematical knowledge, the power of dialectic. It deals with Being, True Being, with that which always im
mutably is. Protarchus remembers at this point the claim of Gorgias that the art of persuasion, the rhetorical art, surpasses all other arts. Socrates
replies the

that he was the

not

thinking
and

of the art

that

surpasses all others

by being
thinking
be.
the

"greatest,"

"best,"

the "most
which

useful"

to men; he was
about

of the

art

or

the knowledge

is

most concerned
and of
at

clearness,
might at

precision, and the most true, however little

little

use

it

Socrates
power

asks

Protarchus to look
is in love

neither

the usefulness

nor

reputation

of the various

in

our souls which

sciences, but to consider whether there is a with Truth and does everything for the
power possess thoughtfulness

sake of
votic

Truth. Would this

greatest purity? with

(cppovnaic)

and

in the

Protarchus
to find

concedes that

this must be so.

To be in love it. It
pursue

Truth does

not mean

to possess it or to contemplate

means to pursue

it,

to

try

it

means to submit to the

it, indefatigably, unremittingly; to power of discourse, a power that is able

that which make

to discover in the spoken or

silent words

speaking

and

About Plato's Philebus

179

thinking ultimately possible, namely beings. But, as Socrates points out,

engaged with

the unchangeable and,

the

thereby,
and

true

many existing

arts

the men

in them do
opinions.

not submit to

the

power of

discourse, but

are satisfied spends out

their

If

a man sees

hfe in studying this world of ours came into being, how it is acted

fit to investigate nature, he that is to say, tries to find

upon and

his

how it

how it
always

acts

itself.

By doing
asks:

that, that
future
"How

man

toils to discover transient past,

not what

productions of

the present, the

and the

unchangeably
stable about

is. And Socrates have

no

can we gain

anything

things

which

stability

whatsoever?"84

The

argument compels us thus what

to see that the stable, pure,

same without change or
it."

and

true,

can

only be found in

is eternally the

mixture mav

or, Socrates surprisingly adds, "in what is most akin to mean the moving, but never changing celestial bodies.
passage which

85

He

This

deals

with

the

purest

knowledge

ends with

the re

to voiig and cpoovnoig, which have to be honored most. This reference is the last transition in the dialogue to the last passage of
peated reference

the dialogue.

This last

passage pleasure

is

about the most

desirable life, in
undertakes expected

which

thought

fulness
the

and

are mixed. of

mixture with

the

help

Socrates Protarchus. We
purest

now

to make this that

and still expect

knowledge will be joined in this mixture. Before the mixing beeins, Socrates reminds Protarchus and us of what had been said before. Philebus had claimed that pleasure was the true goal
pure pleasures and

the

of

every

living being
mean

and

that these two words,

on

"good"

and

"pleasant,"

mean
and

the same thing.

Socrates,

the

other

hand,

claimed

that

"good"

"pleasant"

different things
than pleasure's.

and

that the share of thoughtfulness

in the in
all

good

is

greater

They had

agreed, Socrates continues,

that any

living being, in whom the good is present always, altogether, and ways, has no further need of anything, but is perfectly self-sufficient;
neither

but that

life

of

pleasure

unmixed

with

thoughtfulness nor a

thoughtful life unmixed with pleasure was a desirable life.

Directly
winning least an

related

to the

task of making the mixture is the task of

of

the good in the well-mixed life, or at be better able to find out to what in the well-mixed life the second prize should be assigned. We remember that Socrates had raised the question before. At that time the possible recipients
a clear

understanding

outline

of

it,

86

so as to

of

the second prize were voiig

and pleasure.

Note that in this last far.

playfully
and

passage

of the

dialogue
make

voiig

has

not

been "Let

mentioned so

This is begins to

now what

Socrates

says

jovially

just before he
with

the

mixture:

us make

the mixture,

Protarchus,

a proper prayer

to the gods, Dionysus or

Hephaestus,

or whoever

he be

84

59 B. 59 C. 61 A.

85 86

180
who presides over the over

Interpretation
mixing."

87

Dionysus leads
pleasure.

on revellers and presides

orgies; he

stands

here for

Hephaestus is known for his

continues:

thoughtful and sober

craftmanship.

Socrates

"We

are

like

wine

pourers,
a

and

beside

us are

fountains

that of pleasure may be hkened to

fount
pure,

of

honey,
88

and

the sober,

wineless

fount

of thoughtfulness to one our

of as

health-giving
question

water of which we must

do

best to

mix as weU

possible."

The first
with all

is:

should

Socrates

and

Protarchus

mix all pleasure

thoughtfulness? Socrates observes that this would not be safe. It

mix

would

be better to

first that

pleasure which was more most true

truly

pleasure

with that agrees.

knowledge
about

which was

and most precise.

Protarchus
a man who and

But Socrates is

not satisfied.

Let

us

assume, he says,
the i8og of

is thoughtful
guided

justice itself, that is,

about

justice,

is
in

of

in his reasoning about everything that truly is the intelligible, by his voeiv (it is the first time that
passage

by

his is

apprehension
mentioned

vovc

this last

of the

dialogue). If this
the all-embracing

man

is

fully

cognizant

of

the

mathematical circle and

celestial

sphere, but is ignorant

of our

human

sphere

knowledge?
concerned

No,

says
with

human circles, will this man have sufficient Protarchus, it would be ridiculous for a man to be
and

only

divine knowledge. "Do impure

into the
ever art of

mean,"

you

"that

the unstable and

the

untrue rule
89

and circle

Socrates asks, is to be
that is

put with

the

mixture?"

other arts man

Yes,

says

Protarchus,
ago

necessary, if any
go

is

to find his way home. Socrates and Protarchus

which and

further.

They
and

put

music,

they

said

a while

was

fuU

of

guesswork

mingling with Then Socrates turns to the

pleasures are not the

lacked purity, the pure into the

all

the deficient kinds of knowledge

mixture. pleasures.

Here

again

the pure and true

only ones to be put into the mixture. For the first and only time in the dialogue Socrates mentions "necessary by which he means pleasures connected with the satisfaction of vital needs,
pleasures,"90

and adds them

to the pure ones. And the further question arises: is it not

advantageous and

harmless to let

all pleasures

be
all

a part of

the mixture,

just

as

it

was

harmless

and advantageous

to let
says:

the arts and all knowl

no use

edge

be

such a part?

Whereupon Socrates
ask

"There is
That's

in asking

us,

Protarchus;
asks

we must

the pleasures themselves

another."

and

the different

kinds
He
of

of thoughtfulness about one

91

what

Socrates does.
answer nor

first the

pleasures:

"Would

you choose
92

to dwell with the whole

thoughtfulness

all?"

or with none at

And Socrates lets them

that for any tribe to be solitary

and unaUoyed

is

neither

possible

87

61 B/C. 61 C. 62 B. 62 E.

88 88
ao si 82

63A/B.
63 B.

About Plato's Philebus

profitable:

181
of all other

"We think the best to live

so

with

is the knowledge

93 is possible, the perfect knowledge of Let us not forget, it is Socrates whom we hear speaking. It is highly doubtful whether the pleasures can speak and can have any knowledge

things and,

far

ourselves."

as

of themselves.

And

now

Socrates turns to thoughtfulness

and voiig.

(It is

the second time

Socrates
pleasures

asks

that voiig is mentioned in this last passage of the dialogue.) them whether they want the greatest and most intense

to dwell with them in addition to the true and pure pleasures.

replies

And Socrates
the true
are united of virtue; madden

for them

that

is, for

thoughtfulness and voiig

that

and pure pleasures

are almost their

own,

and also

those which

to health

and self-restraint and all

those which are handmaids

they

should

be

added

to the mixture; as to the pleasures which

the souls of men,

would

which are senseless that

the companions of
mix

folly
voiig.

and of aU

the other vices, it

thoughtfulness

be

to

them with the

This is the third time

vo-ug is

mentioned also

in the passage,

while

(cppovnaig), by Socrates, is left out. When Socrates has finished replying in the name of both voiig and cppovnoig, he says to Protarchus: "Shall we not say that this reply which the voiig has now made for itself and memory and right opinion is thought
which was
addressed

ful

sensible?"

and
voiig?

94

And Protarchus

says:

"Very

so."

much

Which voiig

is this

Is it the "divine

that Socrates contrasted with

his

own

in his reply to Philebus a long time ago? No, it is Socrates who was speaking guided by his own voiig. It is not the voiig that the and that the sages, in cosmological account found to be "the cause of It is not to be "king of heaven and exalting themselves, declare
"easy"
all" earth."

the fourth tribe of the Promethean gift, to

the
appear ridiculous

which

by doing
makes

that.

Socrates'

own voiig

Socrates introduced, fearing is responsible for

neither nor

kind

of mixture

he

to produce the life which combines thought

fulness

and

pleasure, is the the

of

cause of this
and of

life. It is
"limit,"

the

cause of

the

"limitless"

commixture of

the

the cause of these

first two tribes

the Promethean gift.

original

What does the it

means

introduction
of

and the subsequent somewhat veiled a subtle

the voiig as the "cause of rejection of this voiig mean? I think

of great
pupil

all"

mocking

Plato's

Aristotle. Aristotle's

thoughts must certainly have been familiar to Plato in his late years. A that informs us about Aristotle's life, passage in an ancient
manuscript,95

hints have

at

lively

controversies

between Plato
voiig, and to

and

Aristotle. Plato
once

appears

to

nicknamed

Aristotle 6

have

said,

when

Aristotle

was not present at a meeting:

lecture

room."

"The voiig is absent; dullness reigns in the We do know that the investigation of the different meanings

83
84
ss

63 B/C.
64 A.
Codex Marcianus. See Paul Friedlander's Akademische Randglossen in Die

Gegenwart

der Griechen im Neueren

Denken, Festschrift fiir Hans-Georg Gadamer,

I960,

p.

317.

182

Interpretation

of cause works.

(akta)

and of the

divine voiig

plays a

decisive

role

in Aristotle's
all a

What the dialogue intimates is that voiig is above possession, and that Socrates is the embodiment of this voiig.
Socrates
must

human

completes

the mixture

by

be

a part of

it,

and then asks what

mixed

pointing to the necessity that truth is the most precious in it and the
most

chief

cause

for this
of

life to be

lovable. The

answer

is: due

measure and proportion which

bring

about

beauty

and excellence.

Nobody
these

is ignorant

this. We

should

more

properly,

however,

consider

three, beauty, truth, due measure, as the the mixture. We see, first: vovc is more akin to truth than pleasure; secondly: nothing could be found more immoderate than pleasure and nothing is more in harmony with due measure than voiig and knowledge;
components of

the goodness of

voiig has a greater share in beauty than pleasure. And now, finaUy, Socrates gives a list of the best human possessions in their proper order. First something like Measure, Due Measure, Propriety,
and thirdly: and

comes

like everything which must be considered of the same order. Secondly what is well proportioned, beautiful, has been completed and is
this is my prophecy

sufficient, and all that belongs to that very to the third

if

you
96

family. Socrates insist on voiig

continues:

"As

and cppovnatg,

you will not wander place?

far from the

No, it is
the

elevated

Is vong relegated to the third to the proper rank, if you consider the role the
dialogue. Fourthly
opinions;
come

truth."

triad played

in the

entire

the different kinds

the
painless

of

knowledge,
pleasures of which

arts,

the true

and

fifthly

pure

as we

the soul, some of which accompany knowledge and some of have seen accompany perceptions (observe that knowledge

was not mentioned

before among the

pure

pleasures, presumably because

knowledge involves the desire to know, involves Epcog, in which pain and pleasure are mixed). There is no sixth place, says Socrates, quoting Orpheus. He reminds us that neither voiic nor pleasure is the good itself, since both are devoid of self-sufficiency. But within the mixed life, which is the victor, voiig has now been given the second prize, while
the pursuit of
pleasure
Socrates'

as

own voiig place.

had

predicted a

long

time

ago

is further

behind than the third

and

Note that

this

holds

even

for

pure pleasure

that the satisfaction of vital needs

should

fifth. We
called

be

aware

"Pythagoreans"

is not mentioned at all. Pleasure is that, according to the tradition, the people associated the goddess Aphrodite with the number
strangely
and inordinate. It is desirable life. The cbtapov, reigns, though not supremely, in the unprecise

five. The list

the
given

by Socrates is
the

indeed only

an outline of

good

in the

most

"limitless,"

the

"indeterminate,"

dialogue.
I
a

shall

not

keep

you

until

midnight.

Good

night!

But there

wiU

be

discussion.
86

66 B.

183

ON CORNEILLE'S HORACE
Dain A. Trafton

The drama
Rome's
the

of

Horace is

played against a

background

of allusions

to

origins.

Behind Corneille's

harshly

illuminated

characters appear

shadows of

Romulus,
under

the Sabine women, and Camilla of the Volsci. the auspices of the divine promise of empire

AU that happens is
made
upon

to

Aeneas. Critics
seem

who

have

noticed

this background
1

and reflected

it

to agree that its function is to provide a framework of

and action of

analogies to

the characters

the play itself.

What happens in

Horace,
made

these critics claim, is like what happened in Rome's earliest

history. And by
in
play
as a

bringing

together

and

expanding the

scattered remarks

a number of recent

essays,

one might synthesize a view of

the

kind

of

recapitulation,

reduced

to its essential pattern, of Rome's

own

legendary
Horace,

foundation.
one might
not about

begin, is

in its

right

play

about political about

foundation

the foundation

of a

state, to be sure, but

Albe is the first of those conquests by which, as we are frequently reminded, Rome is to spread its empire over the earth. But the conquest of Albe is also a parricide, for Albe is said to be Rome's "mother" (56). In the light of the play's aUusions to Romulus (see 11.52-54, 1532, 1755-58), then, Horace appears to be the parricidal role of the state's founder when reenacting he destroys Albe and kiUs his brothers-in-law and sister in the process. 2
an empire.

the foundation of

The

conquest of

Camille,
Her

of

course,

plays the role of victim

not

in this dramatic
and

recapitulation.

name

(which is

found in the sources)

her curse, caUing for

See, for

example, Peter

Newmark, "A New View

'Irony'

of

Horace,"

French Studies,

X (1956), 1-10; J. W. Scott, "The

French Studies, XIII (1959), 11-17; Lawrence E. Harvey, "Corneille's Horace: A Study in Tragic and Artistic Ambivalence," Studies in Seventeenth-Century French Literature, ed. Jean-Jacques
of

Horace,"

University Press, 1962), 65-97; Serge Doubrovsky, Gallimard, 1963), pp. 181-82; and The French Review, XL Walter Albert, "The Metaphor of Origins in (1966), 238^5. Harvey appears to have been the first critic to point out the allusions
Demorest
Corneille
et

(Ithaca:

Cornell

la dialectique du heros (Paris:

Horace,"

to the Sabine
2

women and

to Camilla (pp. 87-89).

Throughout

this

essay

use

"state"

rather

than
a

"city"

to

refer

to

Rome.

Although the latter

would

be

more appropriate

from

Roman

point of view

(e.g.,

Livy's),
(See

the former is Corneille's word in the play. It is one of the ways

attention

by

which

he draws
note

to the relevance of

his

material

to seventeenth-century France.

11.)

184
the

Interpretation

annihilation of

Rome

by

an

army

of

its

neighbors

(1305-06),
and

suggest

that Corneille saw her as

of

a reincarnation of

the tragic

heroic

spirit

Camilla,

the

warrior maiden who

Italian
that

cities and

tribes against

led her Volscians along with the other Aeneas and died in the hopeless attempt
reminds us of process

to throw him
seems

out of

Italy. Camille's fate

attend

the tragic suffering

which states

destined to

the harsh

by

are

founded

and expanded.

And Sabine (who is

married and

not

in Corneille's
prevent who

sources at

all), the daughter of Albe

to a

Roman,
women

who threatens

to throw

herself between her husband

combat

her brother to Sabine days. The

their parricidal
a

(659-62),
is
no

recalls

those

interceded in

similar situation

during
less

Rome's
to

earliest
political

spirit of mediation she

represents

essential

foundation

than the

heroism

and

parricide of

the founder or the tragic suffering of those who cling to the

aU us

old

ways.

Through

these
that

allusions,
to

one

might

conclude, CorneiUe great,

states

seems

to

be telling
return same

become
the

and

stay

must

occasionally
quires

to their

beginnings;

aggrandizement and

of states re mediation

the

that are

unholy crime, tragic suffering, necessary when states are founded.

mean

capacity for

No doubt Corneille does

the

to suggest that Rome's

similar patterns.

founding
on

and ana

founding

of

its
of

empire

followed

Stress

the

logical function
another

the

play's

historical

function,
have

which

is

perhaps even more

allusions, however, obscures important but which com

addition

mentators

altogether

neglected.

For in

to

revealing

the

similarities, Horace
the

also makes clear

the fundamental differences

between

foundation
and

of the empire and the

foundation

of

Rome itself.

Horace,

Camille, Camilla,
the

Sabine live in very different times from Romulus, Aeneas, and the Sabine women. The times of the founders were simpler; foundation of the empire is torn by uncertainty and paradox.
new

Although the
prophecy,
come

imperial
of

state comes

into

being
reveals

under

the

sign of a

prophecy from the days from heroic

could not

the

founders,
the

the new state also has

its

own

and a comparison

between the two In

how far Rome has

spoke

simplicity.

beginning,
ultimately

the gods

unambiguously to
easy, it

Aeneas. Although the be doubted

and

destiny

they foretold

directly and was hardly

a nameless
at

promised a glorious reward

for

suffering.

Greek

living

In contrast, the prophecy made to Camille by at the foot of the Aventine is a deceptive riddle,
moods of

best

the

hope and, when it finally proves true, pointing the way only to death. Similar changes, moreover, lie behind the allusions to Camilla and the Sabine women. The fact that Camille, unlike her name sake, is not an external enemy of Rome but part of the city itself, and
source of not

fitful

only

part of the

city but

part of

Horace's

own

family,

tends to increase

destiny. The imperial undertaking to conquer others apparently also involves a kind of self-destruction. And while the desperate stratagem of the Sabine women was successful in effecting a reconciliation and in preventing parricide, the similar effort of Sabine is fruitless. Her entreaties are soon
our sense

of

the paradoxical harshness of Rome's

great

On Corneille's Horace

185

silenced by her husband, who orders his father to keep her locked in the house while the parricidal combat runs its course. At the end of the play she is reconciled to her husband in Rome not because she has prevented bloodshed but in spite of the fact that she has faUed to do so. These changes in connection with Camille and Sabine are in accord with

CorneiUe's

general expansion of

the theme

of parricide until

it touches

every

aspect of the action and constitutes perhaps

the

central

theme in the

play. For the founders of the city, at least as they appear in the play's historical aUusions, parricide was Umited to a single instance the murder and did not taint every deed, was even specifically averted in of Remus

the

war

between the Romans

look to
and

and

the Sabines. But for the founders of the

empire parricide occurs at

one must

that

every turn; it infects everything. Accordingly, theme and to its protagonists, the parricidal founders,
order

Romulus
the most

Horace, in

to

understand what

1 take to be
of

at once and

important difference between the founders

of the empire and

the city

the

founders

the

key

to the play's deeper political meaning.

According
Horace,
aU

to

one

of

the most

interesting

recent

interpretations
the need felt
stand

of

parricide can

be

understood as an expression of
origins.3

by

heroes to

destroy

their

The hero's impulse is to

alone, to

assert a godlike

independence,

and

his

aspiration

toward

divinity drives

him to

destroy

any ties that bind him to the

common

fanuly
form

tie is especially galling because it reminds

upon

lot. Of these, the him of his radical

dependence

or other

the parricidal

his origins; he is not self-created. Parricide in some consequently becomes a heroic necessity. Horace's part in destruction of Albe and his murder of his sister, then, like

Romulus's heroic

murder of

Remus,

can

be

seen as

inevitable

consequences of

aspiration. can agree

One
of

that the account of

main

Romulus's

murder of

Remus

given

by Livy (I.vii), Corneille's

velli,
made
reserves

source, might be interpreted in the light

reader of

this analysis of heroism. At least one careful

Livy, Machia
virtii

his highest

praise

for Romulus precisely because his

him radically independent of his origins. Romulus, Theseus, Moses, and Cyrus are the four greatest princes for Machiavelli because they were Of able to break absolutely with the past and to found truly new was an accident of birth that freed Romulus from many of the course it
states.4

ties that bind

she

men

to their origins, but when Fortune failed

with

him,

as when

burdened him
Horace's

twin

brother,

his heroic

virtu

provided

the

remedy.

To

see

parricide as

the expression of a similar, heroic effort

to liberate himself from his origins, contrary, Horace's

parricide appears
understands

however,
to be

is

unconvincing.

On the
of

an affirmation and

defense

bis

origins

as

he

them. For if

Horace is sternly ready to

3 4

Doubrovsky,

pp.

133-84;
ch.

esp. pp.

151-52.

See The Prince,

6.

186
commit

Interpretation
sororicide, a kind of fratricide

(killing

kind

of matricide

(as the Roman

that he is

who

his brothers-in-law), and a kills Rome's "mother"), the play

Patricide
and

also makes

it

clear

not about

to complete the gamut of parricidal

origins.

crimes and make a clean parricide

sweep

of

his

that form of

that involves crimes against one's patrie axe unthinkable to him.

Father

and

fatherland

remain

sacred,

and

his

other parricides are

in fact
origins

dedicated to them precisely because it is in them that he feels his he. After murdering
succession:

CamUle, Horace meets three characters in quick Procule, Sabine, and his father. Against the reproaches of the first two, Procule and Sabine, Horace unflinchingly defends the (1323) of what he has just done, and if Sabine manages temporarily to upset his equanimity, it is rather by the pathos of her request that he kill her too than by any doubt she throws upon his opinion of Camille's deserts.
"justice"

evidence in these encounters, or anywhere else in Horace's conviction of the justice of his deed is ever shaken. But when his father accuses him, not of injustice, but of having dishonored himself, his submission is immediate and utter. And the terms in which he
no

There is

convincing

the play, that

proffers

it

are revealing:
mon

Disposez de
J'ai S'il Si
cru

sang, les lois vous

sien aux

en

font maitre;

devoir le

lieux

qui m'ont vu naitre.

Si dans

vos sentiments mon zele est criminel,

m'en

faut

recevoir un reproche

eternel,

ma main en

Vous A
si

pouvez

devient honteuse et profanee, d'un seul mot trancher ma destinee:

sang de
souille qui ma

Reprenez
Ma Ne

tout ce

lachete

brutalement

la

purete.

main n'a pu souffrir

souffrez point

de crime en votre race; de tache en la maison d'Horace.

(491-92)
First it is important to
note

that it is

not clear

that

Horace

agrees with

his father's
Procule
or

accusation

any

more than

he

agreed with vos

the reproaches of
.

Sabine. The
clauses

words

"Si dans

sentiments

and

the
are

conditional

that follow suggest that Horace's

"sentiments"

different from his father's. And later, before the king, when Horace asks for permission to kill himself to save his honor, he does not speak of expiation for Camille's murder or for any particular dishonor
already

incurred. He admits that he is "en peril de quelque ignominie" (1584), "quelque" but the vague indicates that he is not thinking specificaUy of Camille but generally of the future dishonor that may come to him simply because he will be unable to live up to the expectations created in "le by his exploit against the Curiaces. The point is that Horace
peuple"

submits to

his

father,

not

because he
says

agrees with and

him, but
the

out of piety.

"Reprenez

sang,"

tout ce

Horace,
In

in the original

version of comes

1641, he

said

"Reprenez

sang."

votre

either case

implication

On Corneille's Horace
through clearly enough. "You have a
right,"

187

agree with your

yours of

Horace is saying, "whether judgment or not, to take back this blood because it was in the first place. You gave it to me. You are its origin, the origin
life."

my

Furthermore, behind
origin of

this fundamental piety felt for his father as the

his blood hes

mon

an even

deeper piety felt for Rome.

vous en

Disposez de
J'ai
cru

sang, les lois

sien aux

font maitre;

devoir le

lieux

qui m'ont vu naitre.

Horace
gave

wiU surrender bis blood to bis father, not only because his father it to him in the first place, but because his father's right to it is decreed by Roman law. Roman law recognizes fathers rather than

mothers as the origin of

the play,
that

nor would

he,

one can

blood. Horace never even mentions his be sure, be moved by Sabine's Albe because Albe is Rome's
the

mother

in

argument

Rome

"mother"

should not attack

and

its
of

"origin"

(55-56). To
might

Horace's

opinion about

extent, then, that Roman law is the origin his origin, the origin of his piety for his father,

Roman law
also

be

said

to

be the

origin of

Horace's

origin.5

But Rome

figures in Horace's piety for his origins in another, much more direct way. Rome is the place where he was born, his place of origin. And the
power

that this idea of Rome has for him is

evident

in the fact that it

was

to this place of origin that he felt

even warned
Rome"

he

"owed"

CamiUe, just before killing her,

interets de

Camille's life. Indeed, he to remember "Ce que doit

not

ta naissance aux

(1300). It is

surprising, therefore,

that Horace considers

his first

speech

feels that

King

he teUs us within the first five lines of in the play, one of Rome's (375) or that he TuUe, as the head of the state, has as much right to his

himself,

as

"children"

blood
would

as

his father does. In his

long

final speech, Horace

reveals that
not

he
for

already have committed suicide to save his honor were it his behef that he does not have the right to shed blood that
to the king:

"belongs"

Mais C'est

sans votre conge mon

sang

n'ose sortir:

Comme il
vous

vous appartient, votre aveu

doit

se

prendre;

le derober

qu'autrement

le

repandre.

(1586-88)
a passage such as the one just mentioned, in which Horace speaks committing suicide to save his honor, some critics have concluded that The important point, how he is primarily motivated by personal ever, is that in spite of his desire Horace wUl not kiU himself unless he

From

of

glory.6

5 fl

Cf. Aristotle's Politics, 1275b, 26-30 (III.i.9). See, for example, Doubrovsky, p. 149 and note 134
VAstree,"

"Corneille
p.

et

Revue d'histoire litteraire de la

and
'Gloire'

on p. 539; fimile Droz, France, XXVIII (1921),

Horace,"

371;

and

W. H. Barber, "Patriotism

in Corneille's

Modern

Language Review, XLVI

(1951), 368-78.

188
receives

Interpretation
the king's

permission.

In

other

words,

here,

as

elsewhere,

he

definitely

subordinates his personal glory to

his fatherland. In

fact, it

of his glory may even be doubted whether Horace has any conception individual quality separate from his origins. When he as a distinctly
speaks of
"name''

saving his honor and glory, he is also thinking of protecting his (1569). The three words are interchangeable, and the sense of
that
characterizes

"name"

him

throughout

the

play

provides

another

the piety that binds him to father and fatherland. Horace has two names, and the very first reference to him in the play couples

Ulustration

of

both

of them around the verb

"to

be"

as around an equal sign.

"Horace
and

est

Romain"

(25).
a

"Horace"

and

"Roman": these
names

are

his names,
with

it is

important that
constitute

they

are

also

that he

shares

others;

they

heritage

and a

bond

with others

that give him his sense of

identity. He tells his father that he kiUed CamUle, not only because he her life to Rome, but because "Ma main n'a pu souffrir de felt he
"owed"
race,"

crime en votre

and

in the

next

hne he is the

urges

his father to kiU him The

rhyme carries

rather than suffer a stain emotional

"en la

d'Horace."

maison

the

weight; the name this

"Horace"

name of

"votre

race,"

and

it

is the is

name of

race rather

than a merely individual name that Horace

concerned

to protect, as when he asks Tulle's permission to kiU himself.

name

Horace's name and honor are practically indistinguishable from the and honor of his race. It is even possible to wonder whether the
title refers to him or to his father
or

play's

to the race in general.

attaint to

Certainly
as an

Horace

have been offended by the individual that is implicit in such a doubt.

would not

his honor

Horace

regards with

similar

piety the

name

that comes to him from

"named"

Rome. He is

humbly aware that the fact that he is 331, 368, 372, 502) by Rome as its representative
"naming"

against

(see 11.307, Albe offers

him glory that he would never have acquired through personal merit alone. Although no one doubts his worth, his nevertheless comes as
a surprise
also

in the play. There may be some assumed modesty, but there is fundamental sincerity in his reply to Curiace's compliments:
trembler pour

Loin de

Albe, il

vous

faut

plaindre

Rome,

Voyant
C'est D'avoir

ceux qu'elle oublie et

un aveuglement pour

les trois qu'elle elle bien fatal

choisir mal. plus

nomme.

tant a choisir, et
ses enfants

de

Mille de

beaucoup

dignes d'elle

Pouvaient bien

mieux que nous soutenir sa querelle.

(371-76)

By

Rome's
of
point

unexpected

favor Horace

and

children
n'est

Rome, Romans par de (354),

Romains"

excellence.

exclaims

his brothers have become the "Hors les fils d'Horace, il Curiace. "Fils d'Horace" has
and

become practically identified with "fils de burden of his new name eagerly:

Rome,"

Horace

accepts the

On Corneille's Horace

189

Contre

qui que ce soit que mon pays m'emploie

J'accepte
It does "Horace

aveuglement cette gloire avec

gall

joie.
a
glorious name

not
est

him that Horace become

that his glory
will

because
part

Romain",
"Si

remain

in

significant
l'etre"

a reflected glory.
admonishes

vous n'etes

Romain,

soyez

digne de

(483),

he

Curiace when we might have expected him to say, had he been 7 a different kind of hero, "Si vous n'etes Horace, soyez digne de Now we are in a position to state more fuUy the difference between Horace and Romulus. If the founding of the state called for heroic in
l'etre."

dependence,
Both kinds

the
of

founding

of the empire

is

a work of radical

dependence.

foundation involve crime, particularly the most terrible crime of parricide; but for Romulus parricide was the necessary means to something new, whereas Horace commits his parricide for the sake of
something old, in the
empire.

name of

famUy

and

state,

as well

as

for the

new

Romulus

was

impious,

and

Horace is

impiously

pious.

His

impiety

is hmited
patriotism

by

an almost simultaneous
so

that is

often attributed

piety for pater and patria, and the to him is precisely defined by the

paradoxical union of

these two

qualities.8

The founder

of an empire must

be

the profoundest

kind

of patriot.

His task is to

renew

his fatherland

by
in

committing
whom

ultimate

the crimes necessary to political foundation except the crime against the fatherland itself. He is a paradoxical creature
aU

nearly

utter

ruthlessness

is joined to the deepest

piety.

By
the

contrast, of course, the founder of a new state cannot be a patriot. His

energies cannot
state of

be devoted to the
must

preservation and aggrandizement of

his origins; he

be

prepared

to commit any crime, even against

his origins, to

accomplish

his task. He
of a new

respects no

father
9

or

fatherland

and

becomes instead the father

land,

the father of his state rather

than, hke Horace,

one of

its

"chUdren."

most eminent

Horace is

also

conscious

of

owing his

"name"

partly to

fate;
la

at one

point

he

reminds

Curiace that it is "Le

fate's
or
role

sort qui

de I'honneur

nous ouvre not

barriere"

(431).
com

This

recognition of

suggests

that Horace does

same

identify himself

pletely

with

father

fatherland. At the

is clearly much stronger Camille for the encounter

time, however, his feeling for them than his piety for fate or the gods. When he leaves with the Curiaces, his last advice to her is:
le sort;

Querellez del
Mais
apres

et

terre,

et maudissez

le

combat ne

pensez plus au mort.

(529-30)
In
8

other words,

he
is

will

allow

her to

curse

heaven,

earth,

and

fate; but
of

when she

curses

Rome, he

will

kill her.
word

"Patriotism"

often

used

rather

loosely in

studies

Horace. That

the play leads us to discover the roots of the concept in Horace's piety

has

never

been
s
field"

pointed

out.

Cf. Abraham Lincoln's "Address Before The

Young Men's Lyceum

institutions."

of

Spring

(1838)

on

"the

perpetuation of

our political

190

Interpretation

The idea that Romulus, as founder, is the father of Rome is never implied by the passage, explicitly stated in the play but is unmistakably argues that Albe is Rome's already mentioned, in which Sabine
"mother"

"origin."

and

She is trying to

persuade

Julie that Rome

should

respect

its

maternal origin:

Mais

respecte une ville a qui souviens-toi que

tu dois Romule.
ses rois

Ingrate,

du sang de

Tu tiens ton nom, tes murs et tes premieres lois. Albe est ton origine: arrete et considere Que tu portes le jer dans le sein de ta mere.

(52-56)
I have
commented upon seen that

Sabine's failure to
patriot's

understand

Roman

patriotism.

We have
Horace is
same

the Roman

piety does

not extend

to mothers.
at

animated

by

"une

assurance"

male

(379;

cf.

1069). But

the

time Sabine's words lead us to reflect that if Albe is Rome's mother,

must
much more

be Romulus. Indeed, it is him than from Albe that Rome received its
Rome's father

directly
and

from
city's

"name,"

"walls,"

"laws."

According
walls,
the
and

to the legend recounted

although

by Livy,
usage

Romulus

raised

the

he followed Alban his

creation

for

certain religious of

laws,

political

laws that he

established were

apparently
that

his

own

devising.

The
of

name that

he

gave

was,

of

course, his

own. conscious

Thus Romulus

gave to

Rome

all those things

Horace is

having

inherited from it:

mon

walls

(the "lieux

qui m'ont vu

naitre"), laws

les lois vous en font maitre"), and name behind Vieil Horace as Horace's origin, Romulus stands behind Rome. Romulus is the origin of Rome and there fore ultimately the origin of Horace. In a certain sense the founder of a

("Disposez de

sang,

("Roman"). If Rome

stands

state

is indeed the
Now

origin of

its citizens,

of

the people

who grow and

state and are

formed
equal

by

the influence of the name, walls, the final

up in his laws that

he

created.

we can perceive

irony

of the play's allusions to

Romulus. To
analogies

Romulus (and
to

to

Horace),

Horace

would
of

have to

destroy destroy

literally,

course; he

would

him truly his origins and found something new, Romulus. Horace could not do this have to do it indirectly by attacking Romulus's
make the play's allusions to patriot would of

creation, his namesake, Rome. Horace the Rome, destroy the name, walls, and laws
ones of

have to turn
and

on

Romulus,

create

new

his

own.

Roma

would

have to be

replaced

by

Horatium.10

10

Beyond this,
an

one

might

detect the

suggestion

that for Roma to be

replaced

by Horatium, it
promised point would
run

would also

be necessary for Horace to

and

destroy
upon

the gods.

They have
at

imperial destiny to Rome,

counter

any

attack

it

by Horace

this
that

to their designs. More generally, does it not

follow
may

the hero
gods, or

who wants
at

least the

to be truly independent of his origins will have to destroy the old gods? Machiavelli hints that founders of states have

On Corneille's Horace

191
such

That Horace's triumphs

put

might

have led to

a conclusion

is

not

inconceivable. In fact Valere's

the

demand,

to death for CamiUe's murder

in the last act, that Horace be is based on the assumption that he is

can,
unless checked

kind

of man who wants to and now own.

immediately,
Horace's
crimes

make

Rome his

Valere

admits

the

outstanding
the
most

merit of

victory, but he also sees him and therefore warns TuUe:

as capable of

outstanding

Mais

puisque

d'un tel

crime

il

s'est montre

capable,

Qu'il triomphe

en vainqueur et perisse en coupable.

Arretez sa fureur, et sauvez de ses mains, Si vous voulez regner, le reste des Romains: 11 y va de la perte ou du salut du reste.

(1487-91)
"Quel sang
epargnera ce

barbare

vainqueur?"

(1501)

he

goes on

to

ask.

Faisant triompher Rome, il se Vest asservie; II a sur nous un droit et de mort et de vie; Et
nos

jours

criminels ne pourront plus

durer

Qu'autant

qu'a sa clemence

il

plaira

I'endurer.

(1507-10)
As Valere
sees

it, Horace has

analogy:

acquired a power of

life

and

death

over

Rome,
with

a power over

blood that belongs to fathers alone,

and

Valere

closes

the

frightening
lieu Rome

Sire,
En

c'est ce qu'il

faut

que votre arret premier

decide.

ce

a vu

le

parricide;

La

suite en est a

craindre, et la haine des Cieux: main, et redoutez les Dieux.

Sauvez-nous de

sa

(1531-34)
TuUe,
of

course,

comes

is false. After

listening

to

to see that Valere's understanding of Horace Valere, Tulle listens to Horace and realizes

that Rome has nothing to fear from the hero who would already have committed suicide to save his name were it not for his belief that his

blood belongs to the

mands while other reason.

state.

"Vis

I'Etat"

pour servir

(1763), Tulle

com

he pardons, confident that Horace would not live for any And whereas Valere sought to condemn Horace by compar
to turn the same analogy to flattery:

ing him

to

Romulus, Tulle dares

to do something like this

when

he
us

characterizes at

them

as

"armed

prophets"

(The
of a

Prince,
new

ch.

6),

and

Livy

informs

length

about

Romulus's
no

establishment allusions

religion

in Rome (I.vii).

Horace, however,
rise

contains

to

these

activities of

Romulus,

and unlike
might

the possibility that Horace to an

assault at all. upon

might attack remains

the state,

the possibility that he

remotest of

the gods

only the

suggestions, if it

is in the play

(See

note

7.)

192 De
pareils serviteurs sont

Interpretation

Et de

pareils aussi sont au-dessus

les forces des wis, des lois.

Rome dissimule

Qu'elles

se taisent

done;

que

Ce que des sa naissance elle vit en Romule: Elle peut bien souffrir en son liberateur Ce qu'elle a bien souffert en son premier auteur.

(1753-58)
The

flattery

lies in the implication that

the parricide committed

by

the

If is hke that committed by its "premier TuUe really believed in that implication, we can suppose that he would of a state is not the servant of a put Horace to death. The "first king. He does not preserve other kings but becomes one himself. Horace saves himself, paradoxically, by asking permission to kUl him
state's
author"

"liberateur"

auteur."

self.

If he had

not revealed

accept

made above

Valere's him the

the

point of view. greatest

his piety so clearly, Tulle would have had to Horace's success against the Curiaces has
in Rome,
and

man as

he

stands

temporarily

even

king himself,

Tulle

recognizes when
Btats"

to Horace that he is "maitre de deux

he (1742):

admits that

it is due

Sans lui j'obeirais

Et je

ou

serais sujet ou

je

je donne la loi, suis deux fois roi.

(1745-46)
What
could

be

more natural

for Valere

or

for any

other

Roman in his

position than

to conclude that

a man of such

greatness,

who

has

also

just

ruthlessly killed his sister, is potentially a Romulus? For Valere, Romulus's outstanding virtue joined to his parricide provide the only precedent from

Roman
accuses

history to explain Horace. How could Valere, Horace, has not had the audience's opportunity
of

who,

when

he

to observe the
unprecedent

intensity
ed

his patriotism, be

expected to understand

it? It is

in Roman history.

No doubt there were Roman patriots of a kind before Horace. Vieil Horace seems to be one. But Horace is the first clear figure of a patriot in Livy, and Corneille's Horace carries his patriotism undeniably further than did his father. Camille suspects that Vieil Horace prefers the state to his family (255), but we actually see Horace act out the implications of that preference. To be ready to die for one's patrie is, as he says, a common form of patriotism; one must also be ready to kill one's nearest

dearest (437-52). Horace is the first Roman to go that far; in him, first time in Roman history, the piety felt for the fatherland as origin is exposed in all its impious power. Perhaps Corneille shared
and

for

the

Machiavelli's belief that the common, respectable forms of political behavior are misleading. In any case, it appears that Horace turns to the extreme case in order to define the limits and essence of patriotism.

On Corneille's Horace

193

Corneille is telling us that to understand patriotism we must strip away its blandly pious garb of every day; we must lay bare the terrible paradox, the impious piety hidden in its heart.11

As every

student

of

the

play

knows,

Horace
and

was

dedicated to Cardinal
much speculation

Richelieu in terms
about

of

the

warmest

admiration,

there has been

the play edited Pol Gaillard for Les Petits Classiques Bordas (Paris: Bordas, 1967), pp. 22-23, or Jacques Maurens, La tragedie sans tragique (Paris: Armand Colin, 1966), pp. 198-242. I suspect that a connection may exist between the impious piety of

the meaning

of this

tribute.

See, for

example, the

edition of

by

Horace's
policy.
point.

patriotism and

the doctrine of

raison not

d'etat that

guided

the great

cardinal's

Such One

a connection,

however, is
be the

readily demonstrable beyond

a certain

would and

have to trace the

pedigree of raison

d'etat back to its

origins

in

Machiavelli,

that would

subject of another essay.

194

TOM SAWYER: HERO OF MIDDLE AMERICA

Harry V. Jaffa

chapter of Tom Sawyer Becky tells her father, in strict the Judge how Tom had taken her whipping in school: ". confidence, was visibly moved; and when she pleaded grace for the mighty lie which

In the last

Tom had told in

a magnanimous

order

own, the Judge said

with a

to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous,

lie

down Truth

through

history

lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march breast to breast with George Washington's lauded
the

about the

hatchet."

Tom Sawyer,

master of

noble

lie, is

the master

figure

of

American

literature, the character in whom, more than in any other, Americans fancy themselves to be reflected and idealized. Not Captain Ahab, pursu

ing

the great white whale, or Walter

Mitty

at the

bridge is
an

of the

destroyer,
for
glory.

but Tom Sawyer playing hooky comes closest to To be described as having a "Tom Sawyer
measurable value to

our aspirations

grin"

accolade of

im

any

rising

politician.

In

recent years

the man to whom

this epithet
of

was most

frequently

applied was

the late
a curious

President, General
revelation

the

Army

Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is

of

the

American
sought

soul

that the reflection of his Kansas

childhood

in his boyish
repubhc

smile and wave of

the arms conveyed more of the reassurance the

from his leadership than any specific achievement of his later life. We are a democratic people, and democracies love equality above aU else, as Alexis de Tocqueville so forcefully pointed out so long ago. We
tend to equalize the distinctions based upon
wealth and

birth, but

we

tend also to equalize those based upon age. Where else is it

an achievement not

considered

to be able to tell the mother from the daughter

granddaughter?

or

the grandmother from the

It is

nature's

immortality
and

that a

father

should

find in his
elders.

son signs of

way providing his own qualities

of

characteristics. signs of

But it is

part of

democracy's The
and

quest

for

immortality
the

to

seek

its

childhood

in its
and

ancients

celebrated with age.

strength that comes with we

maturity
part

the wisdom that comes

charm

But

moderns
of

turn instead to the the young. In

cleverness

nocence

this follows from our

and progress. and

"When I contemplate discoveries in the arts which have been

wrote

if not the in belief in science the immense advantages in science

made within with confidence

life,"

Jefferson in

1818, "I

look forward
and

the period of my to equal

will conse

advances

by

the present generation,

have

no

doubt they

quently be
and

as much wiser

than we have been as we than our

witches."

they than the burners

of

As

a nation we seem

fathers were, early to have

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

195
to
an elevation

been
of

committed

to a depreciation of ancestral wisdom

and

the young that reverses the order of nature. Tom Sawyer had no father. Aunt Polly tells us that he is her dead sister's son; but no allusion of any

kind is

to his paternity. Even Huck Finn had a father, albeit drunk. Tom is the new boy, if not the new man, par excellence. Gang," "Tom Sawyer's whose formation is the culminating event, or conclusion, of the novel, is in fact the United States, whose founding or re
ever made

the town

founding

is described symbolically
of of

within

the framework of the plot. The

democratization
father figure
about

the republic requires a juvenile hero to replace the

of course

Washington. We know
was

that the "lauded Truth

Parson Weems's invention, just as we know that Judge Thatcher is utterly deceived as to the generosity of Tom's lie. But
the

hatchet"

Judge Thatcher's declared

intention,
somehow

to

send

Tom first to the National in the country indicates destiny is that of a

realize

Military Academy
guardian of

and then

to the best law

school

that even he comprehends

that Tom's

the democratic republic. What Judge Thatcher fails to

education
a new

is that Tom's which Tom is

are ruled

is already complete, that in the new order, of prince, the boy is father of the man, and the old

by

the young.

In the third
a

chapter we

find that the

commanders

small

fry

of

regularly in battle

under

the rival generalship of Tom

St. Petersburg meet and Joe Harper,

bosom friend. The two

do not,

we

are

told,

condescend conduct of

to fight in person. Rather do thev

operations through aides-de-camp.

sit upon

an eminence

and

We
it is

are not vouchsafed carried on

details We
of

the

conflict,

although we may surmise

by

well-defined

rules,
told
after

by

which

the advantages of the respective

won a great

sides are evaluated.

are

that Tom's army

which

victory

after a

lone

and

hard battle,

"the dead

were

counted, prisoners exchanged, the terms

the next

disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the necessary battle All Tom's virtues, we learn, are in a manner arts of war, arts of force and fraud, in which the latter component is predominant. Tom may be said, like the
perjury.
grandfather of

appointed."

Odysseus,
are of

to surpass everyone in
not of

thievery

and

Yet his deceptions

out,

the grand,

the petty variety.

And

they turn
piety
a

against which

in the end, to be in the service of the law and justice and he appears to rebel. Tom's unregenerate individualism, is the book's his
never

or protestantism, which

failing

source of

humor,

strikes

deeply

sympathetic chord within

the sanctuary of the conventions he

glory, produced

appears to ridicule.
a most profane

In

one of

moments of supreme

by

sing the

deception, he makes the congregation of the little village doxology with a passion and intensity they had not known. In
chapter

the opening
him."

the

author

tells us that Tom "was

not

the Model
and

Boy

of the village.

He knew the

model

boy

very

well

though

loathed

In the end,
the town

however, Tom is
by his
generalship.
skills are

the Model Boy.

Tom,

we

may say,

captures

Tom's military

displayed in the opening episode,

when

he is

196

Interpretation
a cupboard as

hidden in

Aunt

Polly

seeks

him

out.

he

makes a

dash for

freedom,

only to be

caught

As her back is turned, by the taU of his coat.

He stoutly denies all wrongdoing, but the evidence of the jam jar is upon 'My! Look him. "The switch hovered in the air the peril was desperate " And as the old lady whirls around, Tom is gone in behind you,
aunt!'

the

instant,

over

the high board fence outside,

a

and

is lost to

sight.

There follows
Tom is
always

long

soliloquy in
tricks

which we

learn from Aunt

PoUy

that

playing

such

and

that she is always

she

being

victimized

by
he

them. She ought to be on to them now,

never plays

says, "But my goodness,

a

them alike, two

an expert

days,

and

how is

body

to know what's

coming?"

in trickery, not only because of the variety of his tricks, but because he knows how to work on the feelings of his subjects. "He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander she observes, "and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down again and I can't
Tom is
up,"

hit him The

lick."

a
next

episode

displays
expects

still

further Tom's

resourcefulness

and

something

of

the magnitude of the obstacles it faces. Tom has

played

hooky,
guileful

as

Aunt
she

Polly

he has,

and

at

dinner

she

conducts

in her simplicity thinks) inquisition designed to entrap him. It has been a warm day and she supposes that he has gone swimming. (as He forestalls her

by

damp
his

See?"

yet.

observing that "Some of us pumped our heads mine's Aunt Polly retorts that he wouldn't have to unbutton

shirt to

whether

the

pump his head and demands that he open his jacket to see collar she had stitched closed is still securely in its place. Tom
safe

feels he is

now,

until

"Well, now, if I didn't think you black." it's At this, Tom has no
examines concealed

his half-brother Sid treacherously comments, sewed his collar with white thread, but recourse but to flight. When alone, he
and white
at

the two large needles with black

thread he carries

in his lapels

and complains

bitterly

his

aunt's must

inconsistency
be impressed
with

in

using now one and now the other. Nevertheless, we the fact that his guile was more than sufficient for
not

by
to

dealing
which

her, had

Sid betrayed him. He

vows retribution

to

Sid,

is

not

long

come.

Aunt
the next
a

Polly day,
a

is

now

determined to
is

punish

Tom. She
a

will make

him

work

which

Saturday,
and a

when all
and

the other boys will be

conflict

having
her,

holiday. Aunt

Polly loves Tom,

heart

there is

within

between

loving

stern

Puritan

conscience.

Her heart is

vulnerable to

him is

Tom's wiles, which play upon her weakness. Her love for return, but it is slight beside the great love they share, which is for himself. There is no conflict within Tom between heart and conscience, of the kind that so dramatically preoccupies that other trans cendent hero in the later volume, Huckleberry Finn. Yet Tom does, as
not without we shall a man

see, have

a conscience of a sort.

Tom,

unlike

Huck, is essentially
settled

(or

boy)

of

the

law,

who needs

only to have it

that he is

the lawgiver.

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America Or

perhaps we
good
should

197

say that he is like Machiavelli's

good

Prince,

who

knows that

laws

require

arms

and

therefore devotes himself

first to attaining eminence in arms. Tom retreats from the dinner table, discomfited. Wandering through the town, he comes upon a stranger, "a

boy

a shade

larger than

himself."

The

stranger

is dressed to

degree

of

fashion
that ate

that to

Tom is astounding, and he "had into Tom's Later Tom calls him
vitals."

a citified air about

"aristocracy,"

him

noun as adjective. a

fight. It is

using the The necessary outcome of the ensuing confrontation is bitter one, and results in Tom's victory. Before the fight
there is
resort to
of a contest of wills, in which we see both Tom every imaginable bluff. They come to force fraud are exhausted. But we see that Tom,

takes place,

however,

and the other

boy

only

after

the resources

something of a bully, is no coward. Much later, when Tom, with Joe Harper and Huck Finn, is thought to be dead, the children along of the town vie with each other in memories of the departed. "One poor
although
chap,"

remarks the
with

tolerably
me
.

manifest pride

author, "who had no other grandeur to offer, said in the remembrance: 'Well, Tom Sawyer

he licked
could

once.'

say that

But that bid for glory was a faUure. Most of the boys We thus see that Tom's democratic leadership among
upon

the viUage boys is founded

not

the

natural right of

the stronger, a right

inconsistent
returned

with an aristocratic

love

of glory.

Tom
she saw

the

state

home late, only to find his aunt awaiting him, and "when his clothes were in her resolution to turn his Saturday
firmness."

holiday

into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in its Tom's generalship had enabled him to play hooky. But will it
so with

enable

impunity? He had nearly escaped scot free until Sid's treachery betrayed him. Aunt Polly's heart before it was hardened might have rescued him, had not her conscience accused her and him
together. "He's full
go unpunished must

him to do

of

the Old

Scratch,"

she
sin and

says,

and

to

allow

him to She Thus is

is only "a-laying up
punishing

suffering for

us

both."

do her

duty by

he cursed with Adam's curse; as full of the Old Adam as of the Old Scratch, "he hates work more than he hates anything But Tom's
else."

him, or and being

she will

be his

ruination.

genius

does

not

and revenge

himself do

forsake him. Not only will he escape the fate of Adam, upon Sid, but he will in the end displace Sid and the
will

Model
and

Boy
will

as

the paragon of respectability. He

so ex

look down

upon

them,

he

cathedra, from a new

we are
ways."

created

for himself. Sid,

adventurous, troublesome person, but over the orthodoxy in

accepts.

have told, "was a quiet boy, and had no Tom will triumph, not only over Sid's
seat of will

authority he

aunt

Polly's

soul

that Sid

dutifully

Tom is

hero

of

the

new

Calvinism, in

which

a new wine of

worldly glory is poured into the old churchly vessel, and such success will henceforth be regarded as the hallmark of election and salvation.

"Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright Cardiff Hill, beyond the village fresh, and brimming with life just far enough away to seem a Delectable and above it lay
and
....

Land."

198 Thus is the

work with

Interpretation
scene set
a

for

a most

bucket

of whitewash
burden."

unpromising Christian. Tom is set to and a brush. "Life seemed to him

attempts

hollow,
Negro

and existence a

Tom first
sent

to

suborn

the little

boy Jim,

who

has been

to pump

water.

He

offers

three

temptations to Jim to whitewash for him:

first,

that he wiU carry the

bucket to the

"alley";
poor

and

finally,

remonstrances

for him; next, that he wUl give him his white that he will show him his sore toe. After many that "Ole missis [wiU] take an tar de head offn
well
me,"

Jim succumbs. He is bent over with absorbing interest as the bandage is unwound, but before the stigmata come into view, Aunt Polly descends in force, and Jim is sent "flying down the street with his pail and a tingling

rear."

Tom, for
it
all

moment,
empties

whitewashes

with

vigor.

But

soon

despair

settles upon

him. He

his

pockets

to examine his wealth; but

by

bartering
an

away, he finds that he

could not purchase more

than half

hour

of pure

spiration
tion."

burst

upon

freedom. "At this dark and hopeless moment an in him! Nothing less than a great, magnificent inspira
set

The

effect of

this inspiration is to

Tom tranquilly to

work.

This he

hitherto do, because his soul within him was troubled. Now it is serene. But what is the work? It is not the work of whitewashing the fence, although that is how it will appear to Ben Rogers, the first of the
could not

long series of Tom's victims. The real believing that he, Tom, is absorbed in
requires

work

is in

deceiving

Ben into
that
of

the whitewashing,
appear

a work

for its

consummation

that

he

beyond possibility

whitewashing and the work of deceiving are distinguishable to the mind, but not to the eye. And Tom does enjoy his work and take pride in it. At the end of the chapter the
so absorbed.

detection to be

The

work of

author

intrudes
or a

the

following
without a

reflection:

"Tom

had discovered
order make

a great

law
a

of

human action,

knowing

it

namely, that in

to

make

man

boy

covet

thing, it is only necessary to

have
comprehended

the

thing
the

difficult to
writer of

attain.

If he had been
would now obliged
do."

a great and wise philosopher

like

this

book, he

that Work consists

of whatever a a

body is

to

do,

and

that

Play

consists of whatever

body is

not obliged

to

But Mark
altogether

Twain,

that great
could

and

wise

philosopher, like
sold

candid.

Tom

not

have

the

Tom, is not boys whitewashing

privileges, however unconstrained the activity, merely under the aspect of its being play. He had first to create in them the vision of its desirability,
and

this

vision

is

a work of art.

Tom

makes

Ben

believe, first,

that

he,

Tom, is enjoying it;

a position of envy and distinction. In a polity whose is equality, where the individual feels himself lost in the mass, no passion burns more universally than the passion for distinction, or more precisely, the illusion of distinction. Actual distinctions are of course by

execution; and to do it is to occupy

second, that it is something that requires skill in its last and most important, that to be selected or permitted

principle

their

nature rare and

difficult, but

the iUusion of

distinction is easy

and

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

can

199

be

made available to anyone who

a

is

gullible and
a

willing to pay for it.

As Ben begs for

chance to

take

turn at the whitewashing, Tom

cautiously refuses, saying it wouldn't do, since Aunt Polly is so particular about this fence, "right here on the street, you know but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and she Tom says he reckons
wouldn't."

"there

ain't one

boy

in

thousand,

maybe two thousand

spirit

that

can

do it

the way it's got to be

upon one

done."

And then in the

that was to descend

of used-car

hundred,

or maybe

two hundred thousands

salesmen,

whose ancestor

Tom is, he goes on in response to Ben's begging, "Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now don't
you was to tackle this fence and anything Ben's appetite is now whetted, from a faint in clination to a raging desire. He offers Tom the core of his apple; Tom holds out. Then he offers all of the apple. "Tom gave up the brush with you see was to

how I'm fixed? If

"

happen to it

reluctance

Big

Missouri

in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And worked and sweated in the sun, the

while

the late steamer

artist sat on a

retired

barrel in
of more

the shade close

by, dangled his legs,

as used-car salesmen

and planned

the

slaughter

innocents."

And,
of

have discovered

ever

since,

"There

was no

they

came

material; boys happened along every little while; to jeer but remained to At the end of the operation
whitewash."

lack

Tom "had had had three

and the fence plenty of company it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the In that moment of great inspiration, Tom had revealed to him some of

nice, idle time

coats of whitewash on

village."

the profoundest mysteries of American democratic

capitalism.

Its is

essence
under

does not,
stood

we

see, lie in "the

capitalist

estate,"

relief of man's

if that

estate

to be merely the

estate of nature.

Rather does it lie in the

relief of

an estate relief

the

he is to

profit. of

himself has created, by infusing the desires by whose Long after Tom, John Kenneth Galbraith was to

make a

theory

this

fact,

and call

it the "dependence
which

effect."

Tom is the
achieve

quintessential

capitalist, carrying

enterprise

to that consummation that is

every

entrepreneur's

deepest longing, but

he

never

hopes to

except, no doubt, in that better world to which good capitalists aspire to go. He turns the workers into customers and sells them their own labor.

What he realizes is pure profit, purer profit indeed than Karl Marx ever imagined in his wildest polemics against the iniquity of surplus value. He has no overhead, no labor cost, and no cost of material, and he exacts
the entire
runs out.

purchasing

power of

his market,
not omit not

at

least

until

the

whitewash

We should, moreover, the entire transaction. Tom sells

with whom the original

to

notice

the twofold nature of

only to the boys but to Aunt

takes
place.

Polly,
to
con

"exchange"

He is

under a

"debt"

her
self.
and

under what we might call

the old,

precapitalist order

debt

tracted

by

playing hooky. This debt too he discharges

a

at no cost

to him

And there is
"his"

further bonus. When he

reports

back to

work

is inspected, Aunt

PoUy

"was

so overcome

headquarters, by the splendor

200
of

Interpretation
achievement

his

that

she

took him into the

closet and selected a choice

apple and added

delivered it to him, along with an improving lecture upon the value and flavor a treat took to itself when it came without sin
effort."

through virtuous

Tom

thereupon

doubles his bonus, or,

"hooking"

we might as

say, enlarges

upon

his

state of

grace,

by

doughnut,

Aunt

Polly is closing

with a

happy

scriptural

flourish.
one of

Tom has imposed his

proved

will upon

every

his slave,

as

it

will

hereafter. He has

played

its obstacles; fortune has hooky, and far from

paying the

wages of

sin, he has

reaped a wonderful

bounty
not

of profits

from

a venture of marvelous enterprise.

The inspiration

that

brings these but

rewards

is founded

upon

the capitalist

discovery By

that wealth is

to be measured

by

the work it embodies those

the principle of the just price

by

the

appetites of own
great

who exchange.

shrewdly
nineteenth

rigging

the market in his

favor, he
fortunes

exemplifies

the new principle, upon which most of the

of

America in the later

century

were

based. Tom
barons"

Sawyer is
the Gilded

an exquisite example of

the genius of the "robber

of a

of

Golden Age. "hooked" his apple and the Tom skips off. But in Taking doughnut, passing out he sees Sid, with whom he still has an account to settle. A storm of clods fills the air; and although Aunt Polly comes to Sid's rescue, it is not before revenge has been exacted. Now Tom's soul is at peace.

Age,

concealed

in the idyllic setting

The peace however is short-lived. Tom goes off to direct the victory of his army over Joe Harper's. But this is mere epilogue to the victory at the fence. The more important sequel occurs afterwards as Tom is passing the house where Jeff Thatcher lives, and where for the first time he
catches sight of a

"lovely
who

in two

long

tails,"

little blue-eyed creature with has just come to town. Mars

yellow and

hair

plaited

Venus
a

are

in

conjunction, and the "fresh-crowned hero fell without the hero's affections, we

firing

shot."

But

learn, had

not

been
and

tabula rasa. "A certain

not even a

Amy Lawrence herself behind

vanished out of

his heart
months

left

....

He had been
. . .

winning her;

and she

memory of had con

fessed hardly a week ago the betrothal ceremony in

coy

Later

we watch

which she plights

the wooing of Becky, and her faith to Tom. After the

and

denials, the chase, the maidenly surrender, he tells her that now she is

blushes,
never

finaUy
or

the kiss

of

to love

but him, "never, never, and forever." She agrees, and that he never marry anyone but her. Tom's reply is, "Certainly. Of course. it." That's part of But his obligations are clearly an afterthought. A moment later he blunders into disclosing the engagement to Amy and be a very short time. Tom's conquest of Becky kind of complicating circumstances that had previously befallen his hooky playing, when Sid ratted on him. This time he has ratted on himself. But as before, his victory will be all the more astounding. The illusion of virtue that he will conjure before Becky (and her father), which will obscure the memory of his infidelity, is exactly of
can

marry anybody demands in return

that

"forever"

to him

thereupon faces the

same

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

a piece with

201
when

that

with which

he

confronts

Aunt

Polly

he

presents

her

with

the thrice-whitewashed fence.

We have followed

our

hero from

Friday

to

Saturday,

and now

it is

Sunday. Aunt PoUy's religion, over which Tom so mightily triumphed at the fence, now assaUs him with all its multiplied Sabbath-day force. First
there is

famUy

worship, foUowed

to have memorized for the

days before. His

cousin

by a drill in Sunday school. Sid, Mary tries to help him,

thought,"

the verses he is
of

supposed

course, had learned his

mind was

but "his

travers

ing

the whole field of human

and

the case appears hopeless. In

her perplexity, Mary offers him a prize, without teUing him what it is. Then, "under the double pressure of curiosity and prospective gain, he And what did it with such spirit that he accomplished a shining
success."

were

the verses? The five hnes of the Sermon on the

are

Mount, beginning
heaven."

"Blessed

the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of

Tom

had
As

chosen them

"because he

could

find

no

verses
on

that were

shorter."

we shah

see,

they

constitute

the exact point

the moral compass

180 degrees

opposite

to the principle

by

which

Tom lives. Tom does

for gain, the chiefest gain being the glory that nurtures But memorizing the injunctions to humUity and meekness brings him a "sure-enough knife, which sends convulsions of

nothing

except

self-esteem.

Barlow"

delight through his At the door

of

system.

It

was a good school

deal.
a comrade.

the

Sunday
"yaUer"

Tom drops back

family
tickets

procession and accosts a

Sunday-dressed

step from the The trading for

begins,

fishhook."

verses. yeUow.

exchanging for a "piece of lickrish and a Each blue ticket, we learn, is payment for memorizing two Ten blue tickets are worth one red one, and ten reds equal one
with

Ten

yellow

tickets

would

bring

the

scholar who

had

memorized

2,000

verses a

Dore

Bible,

very plainly

bound,

and

"worth

those easy "Only the older pupils managed to and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a

times."

forty cents in keep their tickets

and so

Bible,

the

circumstance."

delivery
We

of one of

these prizes

was a rare and

noteworthy
stomach"

are told that

it is doubtful that "Tom's

mental

had

ever

"really hungered for one of those prizes, but unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory and eclat that came with
it."

This

Sunday

proves

to be different from other Sundays. There

are

visitors to the school of august presence.

The

great

Judge

Thatcher, from
wife and

Constantinople,
she of

the county seat,

comes accompanied eyes.

by

his
are

child,
the

the

yellow

hair

and

blue

Everyone,
only
one

we

told, from

most restless of the

boys to the
off."

Sunday
was
and

school superintendent

is,

each

in

his Mr.
of

own

way,

"showing

"There

thing

wanting, to make
to deliver a prize

Walters'

and exhibit a

ecstasy complete, But no

that was a

chance

prodigy."

one seemed

to have the requisite number

tickets,

or so

now at

this moment,

his inquiries among the star pupils had indicated. "And when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward

202
with nine
yellow

Interpretation

tickets,

nine red

tickets,
not

and

ten blue

ones."

We

are

assured

that the

superintendent

had

expected

"an

application

from
were

this

source

for the
face,"

years."

next ten and

But the "certified

the other

checks

good

for their
and
envy,"

"Tom

was therefore elevated to a place with the

Judge
with

elect."

the other
realize

Too late did

boys,

their vitals "eaten to this hated

that

"they

themselves

had

contributed

splendor

by trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in whitewashing privUeges. These despised themselves, as being the seUing Or perhaps we should dupes of a wily fraud, a guUeful snake in the
grass."

say that, like Esau, they found inheritance for a mess of pottage. crafty Jacob, the Lord.
and

out

too late that

they had

sold

their

Certainly Tom
his

here fits the role of the

as one chosen of

hke him

wiU vindicate

character

Tom has
so now

repeated upon a grander scale used

the miracle of the

fence. As

before he had he has

the labor of the

boys,

gaining the credit for it

himself,

their labor in memorizing Bible verses. In doing so, Tom again demonstrates his superiority. He displays that ""rational and
utilized
industrious"

soul

that,

by

its prosperity in
an artisan of

this

world,

came to

be

regarded

as

the

elect of

God,

and therefore a proper witness of

the true faith. Tom

has already
credit

shown

himself

belief,

when

he led the boys to

supposed

something

directly

opposite

to

what

they had previously

the
author

to be true. Of the many successors of Ben "they came to jeer, but remained to
pray,"

Rogers,

had

said

that
a

whitewash."

This

paraphrases

familiar line in Goldsmith's The Deserted Village, "And fools, who spoken of a gifted divine in a village scoff, remained to Although Tom's Bible itself,
session yet mental stomach

came to church.
prize

may

never

have hungered for the

he had the

vision

to see a good connected with

he

presumably knew its contents lacked. Moreover they lacked his entrepreneurial genius,
that the others
who
scattered efforts

its better

pos

than

which saw

that the assembling of the

capital

of

many

could create a

new,

asset,

as

distinct from the

consumption goods with which sell

he

entered

the market.

Whereas the
see

others

the testimonials of their

faith, he
him to

buys them. We
escape

that it is not mere love of ease that drove

work, or

an appetite

for

goods that
or eclat

led him to

seU as

whitewashing
that

privileges.

Nor is it love
him
now.

motivates

of glory He displays a

alone, great

is,

that
un

shrewdness

that transcends these

acquired

doubted

motives when

he

exchanges

his newly

liquid

assets

for

the far more durable

credit with

capital of a world all

churchly

reputation.

the world, a
who

represented

by

Tom is acquiring the vast dignity of Judge

with

Thatcher Tom's

is, besides
for the

else, her father.

aspiration

prize

Bible may have had little to do

the

contents of such

that book. Or perhaps we should say that it had little to do with

contents, as understood by the old Protestant orthodoxy, if a protest orthodoxy be not a contradiction. As Tom was introduced to the ing He Judge, "his tongue was tied, his breath would hardly come dark." would have liked to fall down and worship him, if it were in the
....

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America Tom sadly flunks the test wonder, as the "curtain of
of scriptural
charity"

203
we are

knowledge,

and

left to

is drawn, what lies behind. It is our hypothesis that nothing detracts from Tom's essential triumph. As far as the Judge is concerned, Tom's display of genuine feeling, if not his rote

learning, testify in his behah. We

book Tom is
occasion. as much

must remember

that at the

end of

the

the Judge's hero as the Judge is Tom's upon this the Judge misconstrues Tom's
motives

We

would surmise that on each occasion.

in Tom's favor Tom is

presented

to

us

throughout as a

rebel against

the

constraints of

home,
for his

church,

and school.

But in
either rebels.

each case of

his

rebellion or

is
at

the occasion

becoming

hero,
he

the

institution,

least in the

institution,

and grieving her beyond measure, he becomes the beloved prodigal, for whom she rejoices ninety and nine times more than ever she could for Sid. Tom's

against which

By disobeying Aunt Polly,

naming David

and

Goliath

as

the first apostles is

infinitely

funny.

Evidently

they
of a

were

the only two Biblical names he

memory.

could summon

from the depths

the significance
must we

highly functional

But

we should not overlook must

that the story of David's heroism

have had for Tom. Nor

forget that, very soon, Tom does play David to Injun Joe's Goliath and helps rid the town of a scourge believed to have taken the lives of five
of

its

citizens.

In Plato's dialogue

on

piety,

Euthyphro,

we are presented

with these alternative or

that it consists

definitions: that piety consists in obeying the gods in imitating the gods. In both the Athens of Socrates

and

Tom Sawyer's

America,

the conventional wisdom would appear to

have been
upon

on the side of

radical

divine authority. form of piety; both insist

upon

obeying the gods, of doing what one is told to do, But both Euthyphro and Tom insist upon the more
upon or the heroes his father for he believes to be true of Zeus and

imitating

the gods,

who represent

the divine to them. Euthyphro prosecutes

murder,

the

pattern of conduct

Kronos; Tom imitates both

In the
service

David

and

the

scion of the

house

of

David.

in the

church

that followed the

relieve

Sunday

school, Tom was

counted pages

busied in many

ways

designed to

his

oppression.

"Tom

the

pages of the sermon; after church

he

always

knew how many

about

there

had been, but he

seldom

time,

we are

told, "he
moving

was

knew anything else really interested for

the

discourse."

This

little

while."

The

minister

had evidently taken

a grand and at a

as

his text the

the lion
and

eleventh chapter of

Isaiah

and

"made
and

picture of

the assembling together the lamb

should

of

the world's hosts

the

millennium when child should

lie down together

little

lead
the

them."

But,
the

says the

lesson,

the

moral of

great spectacle were

author, "the pathos, the lost upon the boy; he only

thought of the

conspicuousness of

principal character

before the

on-

looking
he

wished

nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that lion." he could be that chUd, if it was a tame
moral of

Whether the

boy

depends

upon one's point of view

the spectacle of the prophecy was lost upon the as to what that moral was. The

204
author seems and

Interpretation
to be assuring us that his own understanding is orthodox but mistaken. We doubt that this is
real

that he finds Tom to be amusing

Mark Twain's
millennium.

intention. Tom
to
understand

wants

the glory of the little chUd of the

child

Are

we

that the

himself does
of

not want

it?

Does God

not create man

for his

own glory?

Tom kind

understands

that the

admiration of and

the

child

depends

upon a certain

Tom becomes

an ever greater expert

in compelling wonder,

belief in that child; or belief

of which
passage

in himself. We believe Tom's enterprise, or the enterprise is the vehicle, becomes intelligible in the light of a famous
sixth chapter

Tom

in the
armed

of

MachiaveUi's Prince. There it is

and of

said

that

all

prophets

have succeeded,
in the light

that

all unarmed ones

have failed. This

and

must

be

understood

the reflection that both Jesus

unarmed prophets who

MachiaveUi
when

were unarmed prophets.

Of the

failed, MachiaveUi

mentions

only Savonarola, "who

was

destroyed

amid

his institutions

they were still new, as soon as the multitude ceased to believe because he had no way to keep firm those who had once believed
make strates

him,
or

to

the unbelieving

believe."

The

art embodied of

in Tom Sawyer demon

may become firm
with

how

without

the

compulsion

arms

men runs

believers in the
Joe Harper to

principle of a new regime.

Tom

away

Huck

and

punish

Aunt

Polly

and

Becky by becoming

that dread and

fearful figure, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. But he returns instead as the central figure of that pathos that is his own funeral. He
returns to enact

his

own resurrection!

Let

us retrace the

development
over

of

this Machiavellian Imitatio Christi.

The evening
was

of

the

the ancient curse of

reproached

for

day that Tom had gained his great victory Adam, he returned home in the best of clodding Sid, but this he did not at aU
for stealing sugar,
and

work,

spirits. mind.

He His
not

knuckles
punished you

are rapped

he

complains that

Sid is

for the

same crime. always

"Well, Sid don't

sugar

torment a

body

the way

do. You'd be
Then Aunt

into that
steps

reply.
sugar.

Polly

is the watching into the kitchen and Sid reaches for the
warn't

if I

you,"

"But Sid's fingers Sid

slipped and

the bowl dropped and

broke."

Tom

expects that

will catch

it

and adopts an attitude of

demure

silence on

Aunt Polly's return. But just as he expects the thunder of vengeance to fall upon Sid, a potent palm sends him sprawling on the floor. Then Tom speaks up, "Hold on, now, what er you belting me for? Sid broke Poor Aunt Polly is perplexed, and all she can say is that she is sure that Tom didn't get a lick too many, for all his many transgressions, seen and
it!"

unseen.

Now the
saw

situation

between Tom
chapter.

and

his

aunt

is the

reverse of

what we

in the opening
now reproaches

demned
his

him,

Her conscience, her. And he in his turn is

which then con quick to perceive

possibilities

in the

advantage

he has

gained.

"He knew that in her heart

her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the But the genius within Tom will have no cheap reward, merely by humbling her. He will die for her sin. "And he pictured himself How she would throw herself brought home from the river, dead
aunt was on

consciousness of

it."

....

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

upon

205

him

and

her lips pray God to

give

her back her

....

boy

....

But he

would

lie there

cold and white and make no sign

And

such a

luxury

to him was this petting of his sorrows that he could not bear to have any

worldly cheeriness for such contact

.

or
. .

any grating delight intrude upon it; it was too sacred Then the scene shifts to the "deserted street
.
. .

where

the Adored Unknown

lived,"

Becky. He lies
the
wUted

meeting beneath her window, clasping to his bosom flower that is the memorial of his secret passion. "And thus he
on the ground out

for

this

is before

the

with

would

die

in

the cold

world,

with no shelter over

his homeless head,

no

friendly

hand to

wipe the

to bend pityingly over

of

death damps from his brow, no loving face him when the great agony This reenactment
came."

the cross is interrupted when

voice profaned

a window

is

raised and

"a

maidservant's

discordant
hero"

the

holy

calm,

and a

deluge is
a

of water
now a

drenched

remains."

the prone martyr's

who now which

The

"martyr"

erstwhUe

"strangling
curse,

further

profanes what

had been

holy

calm with a

is quickly followed
war, and rehgion

by

the sound of shattering glass. The mysteries

of

love,

are

in

close proximity.

But the

mood of martyrdom returns.

losing Becky,
trouble,
released

he

retreats

into the

woods

After wooing, winning, and then beyond Cardiff HiU. "The boy's

soul was steeped

at

best,

and

It seemed to him that life was but a in melancholy he more than hah envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately
....
aU."

If he only had a clean Sunday school record he could be This latter sentiment is one of the wiUing to go and be done with it few expressions of what we might call conventional remorse. It should, of
....

course, be taken for

slightest

what an

it

is,

namely,

an

excuse,

since

Tom has

not

the

inchnation for

done?
should

Nothing."

early death. "Now as to this girl. What had he Tom conveniently forgets the infidelity, or perhaps we

meant

say hypothetical bigamy, that had so disturbed Becky. "He had and been treated like a dog She would be sorry the best
. .
.

....

maybe when earlier scene

it

was

too late.

Ah, if he
that he

could
could

Tom had
without

wished

only die be drowned, "all

temporarily!"

In the

at once and

unconsciously,
nature."

passion
at

undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by Tom, we see, is the paradigm of that latter-day Christian, whose is the pleasant indulgence of his own self-love, expressed as grief
of others

the neglect

to take him

at

his

own

self-estimate.

Or,

more

precisely, it is the pleasant contemplation of the grief or pain of others, for faUing to take him at his own self-estimate. The pleasure that he is to

enjoy occurs in virtue of a death that is both painless and temporary! Tom is unmindful that, by the traditional Christian doctrine of the resurrection,
aU
also

death is temporary, for the faithful. Of course, traditional Christianity taught that the soul of the individual found its fulfilment by the
it
after not

recognition given

recognition,
on earth. of

by God,
this

Moreover,
replaces

death, by God in Heaven. Tom demands that by men (and women), not in Heaven, but is to happen, not in virtue of the grace and power
but

God,

but in

virtue of a certain secular skill.

The fraud that Tom

now

perpetrates

traditional piety, in the same way that the traded

206 tickets
to the
replace the work of prize

Interpretation memorizing the

sacred

scriptures, as title

deeds

Bible.
for
a

Tom's fantasies
envy that
grief

wish

painless,

temporary death is followed by

But
we should notice that

a series of
and

of

self-glorifying he inflicts upon

revenge.

the fear
of

others

and remorse

of earlier
over

in these fantasies are equivalents fantasies, in which Aunt Polly and dead body.
an

the

Becky
for his

weep bitter tears

ways of

his

poor

They

are

simply
of

alternative

enjoying the pain of others, ways with which

he

retaliates

supposed rejection.

First, then,

idea he had

once

had

clown with

recurs, to be

rejected with

disgust. It is entirely
considers
illustrious."

out

becoming a of harmony

his

present mood.

Next he

"to

return after

long

years,
. . .

all warworn

going away to be a soldier, Better still, "he and

come

would

join the Indians

and

away in the future

back

a great

chief,

bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and prance into Sunday school, some drowsy summer morning, with a bloodcurdling war whoop, and
envy."

sear

the eyeballs of all his companions with

closer

unappeasable

This is

getting in

to the
would

mark.

than this. He

be

pirate!"

"But no, there was something gaudier even And the future is now vouchsafed to him

colors of unimaginable splendor. people

shudder!
.

"How his
at

name would

fill the world,

and make would

And,

the zenith of
stalk

suddenly

appear
...

at

the old village and

crime-rusted

his fame, how he into church, brown

side
...

and weather-beaten

his

cutlass at

his
and

his black
swelling

flag

unfurled,

with

the

skull and crossbones on

it,

hear
the

with

ecstasy the whisperings, 'It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate! " of the Spanish
Main!'

Black Avenger
with

And
mother,

so

Tom

gathers

up Joe

Harper,

who

has had
go

difference

his

similar

to Tom's with Aunt

to go anywhere with anybody, and

pirates.

Polly, off they

and

is ready to Jackson's Island to play

Huck

Finn,

who

turns out, in the main, to be no more than from the town, away from all adult supervision or inter skylarking, away a boiled ham, a side of bacon, ference. They do steal certain provisions

The pirating

expedition

and

hooks

and

lines for fishing. And Tom

night.

and

Joe have
meat,

difficulty
and

getting

to

sleep

that

They

remember

the

stolen

conscience

causes

trouble.

"They

tried to argue it away

sweetmeats appeased
and

by

reminding
scores

conscience that

they had
no

purloined

apples such

of

times; but
.
.

the

conscience was not

to be

by

thin plausibilities

there was
was

getting

around while

the stubborn fact that

and

taking
and against

sweetmeats

only
plain

'hooking,'

taking bacons
and

hams

such

valuables was

simple

stealing

there was a command that "their piracies

that in the

Bible."

So

they inwardly
inconsistent is
of the
should

resolve

should not again

be

sullied with

the crime of stealing. Then conscience granted a

pirates
not

truce,

and these

curiously
see,
then

grand,

fell peacefully to petty variety. He

would are

sleep."

Tom's piracy,

as we shall

means

to capture the town.

value of

Why

he despoil it? That

of

be to diminish the
as

his

the

laws

property

in his favor

his

commercial genius

own. All has already

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America demonstrated. He

or at
should

207

be the last his

one to

hold them in disrespect. Mark is

again misleading.

Twain's interpretation least

of

leading
are

character

These

pirates, them, anything but inconsistent. In the middle of the day, the boys are puzzled to hear a distant boom ing. Presently they see the village's httle steam ferryboat, its decks crowded
one of
with people.

entire town

is

Then they realize that the booming is a cannon and that the engaged in a quest for drowned bodies. But it is Tom's mind
thought"

in

which the
us."

'revealing
they
were
shed
.

it's

"They felt
missed;

like heroes in

they
town,

were

flashes. "Boys, I know who's drownded an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; mourned; hearts were breaking on their
. .

account; tears were

and

being

the departed were the talk of the whole

as

the envy of

all the

boys,

far

as this

dazzling
a

notoriety
after

was

concerned.

This

was

fine. It

was worthwhile to

be

all."

pirate,

But His

when the excitement

subsides, trouble
and

sets

in for the

pirate chieftain.

crew grows

homesick
and

the process
play.

by

which

mutinous, play loses its savor, reversing the work of whitewashing had been transmuted into
and

After Joe

Huck have drifted

makes

off to

sleep, the troubled leader

steals out of

own

camp and home. He creeps

the
of wake

his way back to St. Petersburg and to his unobserved into the sitting room and squeezes

bed. Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Mrs. Harper are there. It is being held for the lost boys. Tom who is believed at least by Aunt PoUy to be in a better place, is quite literally beneath them. Now the fantasy that Tom had imagined, of the grief occasioned by
under a

kind

his death, is being enacted in his very that is both painless and temporary! Tom
"with
remains

presence.

He is enjoying

"death"

silently beneath
witnesses
love"

the

bed

untU everyone

has departed. He

joins the

heavenly

to Aunt Polly's prayer for

him, delivered

such measureless

that Tom welters in tears in his

hiding place.

As

she

finaUy

falls into
of

a troubled
pity."

her, "his heart full

scroU,
upon which

sleep, he steals out and looks down at Tom takes from his pocket a sycamore

he had

written a message. with a

"But something
of

occurred to

him
the

....

His face lighted

happy

solution

bark
of

hastily
coming

in his
and

pocket."

The light

on

his thought; he put Tom's face, of course, is the

idea

climax

to

his

own

hiding in the church, to provide the tremendous funeral. And he couldn't bear to spoil such a gorgeous

and pity for Aunt Polly do not deter him from her love and her grief an instrument of his self-glorification. making There is a curious epilogue to the secret visitation of that night. After

spectacle.

So his love

the

funeral is over,

and

the

resurrection

has transfigured Tom into

un

believable glory among the smaller fry, and unappeasable envy among the larger, he imposes scandalously upon Aunt Polly's credulity for a further
enlargement of

his

apotheosis.

He tells her in

complete

detail

but

with

artful

bed,

the story of everything he overheard from beneath the pretending that it came to him in a dream while on the island. Sid

hesitations

overhears this shameless

powered

imposture in

silence.

He is
to

now

hopelessly

over

by

Tom's

grandeur.

He only

comments

himself, "Pretty

thin

208
as

Interpretation

long

dream

is

revealed

camp that Mrs. Harper

any mistakes in because Joe Harper had told his mother Wednesday evening. Poor Aunt Polly,
as

it!"

that,

without

Eventually
Tom's
had

the

hoax

of

having left the

rushed

who

to teU

of

Tom's

prophetic

powers, is subject instead to remarkable

embarrassment.

his deceptions
the case of
of

charity."

a knack for profiting from the exposure of as we saw in less than from the deceptions themselves the coUar thread, and as we guessed in the case of the "curtain In the pocket of his old jacket he stiU had the bark on which

Yet Tom has

no

he had written, "We

pleads

ain't

dead

pirates."

we are

in

extenuation of

his

fakery

only off that he had

being
she

When he

come over that night to

reheve

Aunt Polly's
would

anxieties and not

to gloat over them,

says,

'"Tom,
you

Tom, I
ever

be the thankfuUest

soul

in this

world

if I

could

beheve

had
to

as

know it,
not

Tom."

good a thought as that, but you know you never did, and I He pleads that this is the truth, and Aunt Polly begs him

lie,

against all

that it only makes things a hundred times worse. Tom insists, probabUity and reason, that this is not a lie. Aunt Polly rejoins

that she would "give the whole world to beheve that

sins."

it

would cover

up

a power of

Tom

explains

that it was only the thought of the funeral

him change his mind and put the bark back in his pocket. Then he teUs her how he kissed her as she slept, to which she responds with infinite pathos. Tom has so wrought upon her that her will to believe in him is equal in fuU to the great power of faith that is in her. It will require but a single scrap of evidence to make him the complete beneficiary of that
that made

faith. When Tom leaves

she

turns toward the closet with its tattered

jacket. Her heart is

herself into

overwhelmed with whatever

. . .

its burden
twice
a good she

of

love,

and she reasons

justifying him,
with
...

the evidence.

"Twice
a good

she

put

out

her hand to take the

refrained."

garment

and

Finally,
lie
I

"she

fortified herself let it

grieve through

the thought: 'It's

lie

it's

won't

me.'

moment

later
'I

she was

flowing

tears

and saying:
sins!'

could

reading Tom's piece of bark forgive the boy, now, if he'd

"

committed a million redemption and

As far

as

Aunt

Polly

is

concerned.

Tom's

glory

are complete.

consider game

Before turning to the culminating episode of Tom's piracy, let us it against the background of certain alternatives. Tom's favorite is that
of

Robin Hood. We
Huck Finn. Joe in the
It is
woods

see

him

at

it twice,

once with

Joe Harper
store

and once with

their equipment

Tom play at it regularly and beyond Cardiff Hill. What they do

and

is, in

fact,

to play roles in episodes drawn from the story, just as if it were a

stage production.

ritual.

Here

we

first
of

has
of

never

heard

game, played to win. It is, rather, a dramatic Tom's own kind of scriptural authority. But Huck Robin Hood, and Tom tells him, "Why, he was one
not a see

the

greatest men

that was ever in England

and

the best. He was a

robber."

Huck

asks who and

he

robbed.

"Only

sheriffs and
never

people

and

kings,
'a'

such

like. But he
with

bishops and rich bothered the poor. He

square."

loved 'em. He

always

"Well,

he

must

divided up been a

brick."

'em perfectly Huck rejoins, To which Tom replies, "I bet you he

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

was, Huck.
such men

209

Oh, he

was

the noblest man that ever was.

you."

They

ain't

any
with

now, I
and

can

tell

When Tom had

played

Robin Hood

Joe

Harper,

the boys had ended

"grieving

that there were no outlaws

wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss. They said they would rather be outlaws
any more,
a year

in Sherwood Forest than President

episode of

of

the United States

forever."

In the final

Tom's

and

Hood again,
of

and was allowed neglected

by

Joe's reenactment, "Tom became Robin the treacherous nun to bleed his strength

away through his

wound."

Then Joe,

"representing
put

a whole

tribe

and weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly that the falling arrow might indicate Robin's hands, shot

forth,"

his bow into his burial. Tom

on

place of

the arrow, "and fell back and would have

corpse."

died, but he lit

nettle and

highly
that is

All Tom's deaths are, we see, sprang up too gaily for a dramatic and extremely temporary. But the story of Robin Hood is
piratical

the romantic embodiment of that Machiavellian or

Christianity

Tom's
calls

rehgion.

Tom
why.
and

Robin "the
are

noblest man

that

was."

ever and

We

can understand
and rich people

The

people that

Robin robbed, "sheriffs

bishops

kings,"

therefore
privUeged

to

democratic,

essentially appendages of a feudal regime. He Protestant radicalism. In his attack

represents

appeals on

the

orders, Robin

the

egalitarianism

of

the American

Revolution; in his betrayal by

spirit

the established church, he represents the

America, represented by Judge Thatcher, whom Tom would have liked to fall down and worship (if it that Robin were dark), is dedicated to that "simpler but wider
of

the Reformation.

But Tom's

justice"

Hood
of the

robbed

to implement. When Robin Hood's principle

becomes

that

estabhshment, noble outlawry is no longer possible. That is why Tom can engage in ritualistic play as Robin Hood, but when it comes to
a serious choice of a

vocation, it

never occurs world of

to

him to

make

Jackson's Tom is

Island into Sherwood Forest. In the

on

American

democracy

the

nistic

property and authority, because that world is itself antago to bishops and kings. Yet that world lives, in its imagination, in the
side of a

its revolutionary past, symbolized by the story of Robin deeper sense, Tom does enact Robin Hood, in the same sense that Robin himself enacts the Christ of radical Protestantism. Robin is a robber, and Tom Sawyer's Gang is a robber gang. But it is a robber gang
golden glow of

Hood. In

that

meets the explains

highest

standards of respectability.
way:

At the is
more

end of

the

novel

Tom

it to Huck in this

"A

robber

high-toned than

what a pirate is as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high Robin himself, if memory serves, up in the nobility dukes and was an earl. Tom Sawyer's Gang is founded, not only upon the powerful imagination of its leader, but upon his wealth which is inherited from
such."

an earlier nonrespectable

gang,

Murrel's,
other

whose

treasure cache

becomes

Tom's

and

Huck's in

the end.

In

despoilers, which is exactly what American Revolution, the despoilers

words, Tom ends by despoiling the Robin Hood had done; only after the
can

only be

enemies

of

the legal

210
order.
able

Interpretation

Yet nothing prevents the ill-gotten gains from supplying an admir foundation for the new, respectable gang. In the new legal order the
and most so
respectable

highest

kind
that of

of

robber

is

also

the

most or

highly

honored. And

the myth of

Robin Hood is

replaced

by,

becomes

instrumental to,

a new myth

Tom Sawyer.

Before piracy is settled upon for the expedition to Jackson's Island, one alternative is briefly considered. When Tom meets Joe as he is on the point of running away and finds that Joe is about to do the same, "they began to in
plans."

lay

their

"Joe

was

for

being

hermit,
were

and

living

on crusts

a remote

cave,
to

after

listening

dying, Tom, he conceded

and

sometimes, of cold and want and

that there
some

grief; but

conspicuous
pirate."

advantages about a

life

of

crime,

and so

he

consented

to be

We

know that Tom's piracy

those pleasant passions
unpleasant

consisted

connected

eminently in the in Joe's mind with

appropriation

of aU

the spectacle of the

life

of the

lonely death,

and

hermit. Tom has already indulged the fantasy of a his steps are already directed toward enjoying all its its disadvantages. On Jackson's Island he has
Joe
and

advantages without

some

further discussion

with

Huck

about

the

comparative

merits of
get

hermiting
mornings,

and

pirating.

A pirate, Tom explains, "don't have to

go see a pirate

up

and you

don't have to

to school, and wash, and aU that

when

blame foolishness. You

don't have to do anything, Joe,

and
way."

he's ashore, but a hermit he has to be praying considerable, Joe don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself that
now

then he

assures

Tom
see,"

that, it, he much prefers being a pirate. "You Tom continues, "people don't go much on hermits, nowadays, like they used to in old times, but a pirate's always Moreover, Tom
that he's tried
respected."

continues, "a hermit's

got

put sackcloth and ashes on

to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and " his head, and stand out in the rain, and
who

This is too
and

much

for Huck,

demands to know

what

they do

such

things for. Tom says he doesn't

know, but they

always

Huck

would

insists that he
it?"

around

have to do them too, if he was a not, upon which Tom demands, "How'd you get Huck says he wouldn't stand it, that he'd run away. At this
would

do these things, hermit. Huck stoutly

Tom exclaims, "Run away! Well, you would be a nice old slouch of a disgrace." hermit. You'd be a Tom thus sees quite clearly that hermiting, meaning
nist
ascetic

Christianity, is

ashore comes close to

society in
of

which

out of style. On the other hand, pirating Marx's vision, in the Germain Ideology, of a commu there is perfect freedom, and all distinction between

work and
"work"

play is
not

abolished.
said

It

also resembles

the Garden
and

of

Eden. The

piracy is

to

consist

in taking

people

(but

pirates,

we soon

comes not

women) walk the plank, and learn, do none of these things. Their climactic moment afloat but ashore, and it comes in the church, where they dem

burning ships, making burying treasure. But these

onstrate the superiority of the piratical to the hermitical, of the com fortable to the uncomfortable brand of Christianity. Yet Tom remains true to his compulsive sense of propriety, which is also an unreasoning sense of

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

authority,

211

even as he rejects hermiting. Whereas Huck would reject the hermit's life because it makes no sense even though it comes closer to his own style of living than to Tom's Tom rejects it because it is out of

fashion. Yet if it from the

were

in

fashion, Tom

would see no

way for

departing

authoritative version of

hermiting. Tom

cannot conceive of an

alteration or variation

from

an authoritative model except

if it be founded
of

upon an equal or superior authority.

All Tom's defiances

authority

are

based, like Euthyphro's,

upon a

higher

and more esoteric version of the

authority he seems to defy. Let us then return to the churchly consummation of Tom's piratical Christianity. "When the Sunday-school hour was finished the bell
.
. .

began to toll, instead of ringing in the usual in the hushed atmosphere induced by the death. "None
before."

way."

The

villagers gathered

presence

of

the mystery of
so

could remember when

the little church had been

as

full

The

congregation rises

reverently

the bereaved families

and prays.

enter.

Amidst hymn
Life.' "

muffled sobs

the

minister spreads

his hands

"A moving

was

sung,
of

and

the text followed: 'I am the Resurrection and the

Little

could the congregation guess

that, but

a week

before,
seen

the

central

figure

the

present

drama, sitting in
who should
.
. .

their midst, had lusted after

the glory of the httle child

lead them.
of

They

had
at

in the
same

departed only "faults

seemed rank

and

flaws
well

[and episodes] that

the
such a

the time had

rascalities,

deserving
of

cowhide."

These

way And the congregation, conscious that heretofore they had been persistently blinded to the truth about the lost lads, felt the pangs of conscience compounding their grief.
the

incidents

are now related

by

the minister in

as to

illustrate

sweet,

generous

natures

the

departed.

"The
went

congregation

became

more

and more

moved,
down,"

as

the

pathetic

tale
end

on, till

at

last the

whole

company broke

including

in the

himself. At this moment, when the pathos of the occasion had reached its extremity, there is a rustle in the gallery. A moment later the astounding event occurs, as the three boys come up the aisle, Tom in
the
preacher

the the

lead,
rear.

Joe

behind,

and

Huck in his tattered

rags

slinking miserably in

In the

pandemonium that

follows,

two incidents are remarkable.

As their families throw themselves upon Tom and Joe, Tom laid hold of Huck and said, "Aunt PoUy, it ain't fair. Somebody's got to be glad to Huck." see As Aunt PoUy responds with her warm humanity, the minister's voice thunders out, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow
SING! up
and put your

hearts in

it!"

with a triumphant

burst,

and whUe

"And they did. Old Hundred swelled it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer
about

the Pirate looked

around upon was

the envying juveniles the

'sold'

him
life."

and con

fessed in his heart that this

proudest moment of

his

We

are

told

by

the

author

that "As the

congregation

trooped

out

they

said they Old Hundred sung like that

would almost

be willing to be
once as

more."

ridiculous This puts us in

made

again to

hear

missionary piracy ville, in Huckleberry

of

the

king, Finn, as well

he

worked

mind of the the camp meeting in Poke-

as

reminding

us of

how the

king

and

212
the

Interpretation

duke
the

"sold"

the httle Arkansas river town

with the

"Royal

Nonesuch."

When Jim is "in

out."

shocked
. . .

by

the rascality
aU

of

the

king, Huck

explains

that it's

breed

[that]

kings is mostly rapscallions,

to

as

fur

as

can

make

Later Huck

comments

himself, "What

was
'a'

the use to teU

Jim that these

and,
kind."

warn't real was

kings
as

and

dukes? It

wouldn't

done from

no

good;

besides, it
Kings

just

said:

you couldn't tell them

rulers of

the real

and

dukes

are the

fraudulent

the

anciens

regimes,

who appear as mere

frauds,

divested of all the aura of rule in this demo

a success.

cratic regime. who come

But Tom's fraud is

Unhke the

guUed

townspeople

back for blood to the third in the

church of

performance of

the "Royal None

such,"

those

St.

Petersburg have,
was not

in

a manner of

speaking,

got their money's worth.

And it

His ambition, unlike the king's and a price price that Aunt PoUy and the town pay for Tom's ambition is far higher than that exacted not in money but in grief and anguish
taken

money but glory that Tom sought. the duke's, is not vulgar. Yet the

by

the emblems of spurious nobility in the later work.

All Tom's virtues, we have said, are arts of war; yet the consummation virtues has been an imitation of the greatest of the unarmed prophets. But the deceptions practiced by Tom have been recognizable as
of these

deceptions. The fame Tom has his way to proach. We have

upon who recourse

achieved

in the

episodes

noted,
are
and

and

the

pleasures attendant upon a painless and a place

noted a and station

temporary death,
in Tom to the

beyond detection

only beyond

stages

re

resemblance and

patriarch could

Jacob,
final

deceived both his brother

as

his father. But there

be

no

to fraud when alone Jacob wrestled with the

angel of

the Lord.
and

Tom,
as

he

wrestles with

his

conscience

during

the trial

of

Muff Potter

he faces death in the cave, also demonstrates that his cleverness are not the full measure of his character.

daring

and

his

We have presented Tom's piratical Christianity as animated by a lust for glory in a world still believing itself to believe in the otherworldly religion of humUity. Tom's religion appears as a sanctification of that
process

by

which

the blessed have

their rewards

here

and now.

We

should

bear in
the

mind

that the

ancien regime

the

one plundered

by

Robin Hood

was characterized

by inequality
next world.

and

the postponement of the pleasures of

many to the
and

Modern

democracy

is

characterized

by

equality Tom is a hero

the enjoyment
of

that myth

by by

the many of the pleasures of this world. which rehgion is transformed to meet the

democracy. Tom has an elaborate set of superstitions, which strike kind of humorous absurdity, against the background
requirements of modern

one as
either

having
of

staid

orthodoxy

or

of

scientific

reasoning.

However, if
rather than

we

remember

the

obeying the divine, we can see an equally radical Protestantism in his superstitions. Protestant ism was in its origins a movement of religious authority from the established
orthodox roots of
church

Tom's piety, in imitating

to the

common people.

The

extension of this movement

is

shown

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

213
to the
super

here

when

Tom

reveals the source of

his

convictions

in

regard

natural.

Tom,

we should

remember,

always settles

disputes

by

an appeal

Usually it is the books he has read, about Hood, hermits, pirates, or robbers, that supply the truth about these things. In Huckleberry Finn Tom undergoes a radical extension of his literary authoritarianism. Tom Sawyer's Gang is there conducted upon methods borrowed from Don Quixote. The attack upon the Sunday
to authority, never to experience.

Robin

school

picnic

is closely

modeled

upon

episodes

from Cervantes. The

upon

emancipation of

Jim,

at

the end of the latter novel, is based

.
.

bor
.
. .

rowed

bits
IV"

and pieces

from "Baron Trenck

"them
heroes,"

Benvenuto

Chelleeny

Henry
among

and other of

the Count of Monte Cristo

chief

them.

transformed

by

Tom's Law is derived from the Book, the original being infusions from such other sources as we have suggested.
remarkable
with

Accordingly,
the

it is

supernatural

the superstition that a

of

when, in considering a question in regard to Huck questioning the authenticity or reliability of stray dog howling in the night is a certain prophecy
the matter

death

Tom

settles
all

by

saying, "That's

what

the

niggers

say,
as

and

they know
of

about stand

these kind of
outside

things,

Huck."

Negroes in

source

authority

conventional

Christianity

Tom

Sawyer's America, much as earlier Protestants were outside the precincts of authority in the Europe from which Tom's ancestors had fled. Tom is led by his superstitions to a rendezvous with Huck Finn, to test
the virtues of a

dead
"

cat

for the

removal of warts.

The

cure requires

going

to the graveyard

'long

about midnight when

has been
three"

buried,"

on the assurance

somebody that was wicked that "a devU wiU come, or maybe two

or you

to carry off the deceased. "When they're

your cat after

taking

that

feller away,

heave
warts

devil,
is

as much

say 'Devil follow corpse, cat foUow " follow cat, I'm done with We suspect that Huck himself an attraction for Tom at this point the beginning of their
and
ye!'

'em

relationship in the
conventional

novel

as the ritual of of

the cat. Huck's position outside

society, hke that

the slaves, promises communion with an

esoteric and more genuine reahty.

But Huck's belief in foundation in

devU

or

devils

merely the soul of the deceased to be follow in the graveyard, culminating in the murder of young Doctor Robinson, we infer that body snatching was practiced by many young medical scholars, who needed cadavers for
and not

coming for the corpse has that Huck expects the body
From the

a certain

reality.

It is

notable

carried off.

events that

dissection

and who could not get

them any other way. The main obstacle to

dissection was the traditional religious belief in the bodily resurrection, a belief to which Tom also addresses himself, as we have seen. The doctor,

hke Huck, Tom,

outside

and

the

Negroes,
views.

represented

ground

of conviction was

traditional
arose

religious

Huck's
of grave

superstition

then

not of

random, but
modern

from the

frequency

medicine. and

Dobbins the
children,

schoolmaster

robbing in the early days is also a secret votary

and which must of

of

medicine,

the book he keeps locked in his desk

view of as

be

kept from the

Becky discovers, because

its

pictures

214
of the naked

Interpretation human

body
wart

is

a textbook

in

anatomy.

Huck's
modern

and

Tom's
and

cures

have

other

points

of

resemblance

to

medicine,
to the

indeed to

modern

science

altogether, in contra
rid

distinction
catharsis of

traditional

religious

beliefs. ridding
method

Getting
is

of

warts

is

body,

in

contrast with

oneself of

sin, a

catharsis of

the

soul.

In

ridding

oneself of

warts,

aU-important.

The devUs

that carry off Hoss Williams must be approached at the right time, in the right place, and with the right incantation. Earlier, Tom had described two other methods of removing warts. One is with spunk water, the rain in the hollow of a tree stump. Bob Tanner is said to have water

remaining
with

faUed

this method. For Huck this is

evidence of

the

inefficacy

of

the

method. Tom, however, insists that Bob had not done it correctly, the proper way being as follows. One must go at midnight to a stump that is

in the

middle of the

woods,

and

back up to it to immerse

one's

hand. Then "Because

you recite a prescribed around

verse, take eleven steps with your eyes shut, turn

anyone.
busted."

three times, and walk home without speaking to

if

you speak

the

charm's

The

other method consists

a bean, drawing blood from the wart and putting it on one bean, and burying that half at midnight at the crossroads in

in splitting half of the

the dark of

the moon. Then you burn the

got

rest of

the bean. "You see that piece that's

and

the blood on it will to

keep drawing
that

drawing, trying
and

to fetch the
soon off

other piece she at midnight

it,

and so

helps to draw the wart,

wart cures

pretty
are

comes."

Implicit in laws

the

three

all of which are performed

is the belief that the

the
of physics and

powers

of

darkness
have

impersonal but to

forces, like
produce the

chemistry,

and

no option

desired

results

if they

are solicited

in the

proper manner.

They

differ in this from prayer, to which a personal God may or may not respond, according to the desire of the petitioner. They are also like
modern science

in that the

power

in

question obeys anyone who

discovers

the right method, and the possession of this method is independent of the
character of

the seeker. For one of these superstitions to fail means to

see

Tom only that it has not been performed properly. In fact, we never Tom verifying any of his wart cures. He claims that he has taken
"thousands"

off

of warts with spunk water and attributes the supposed multi warts to the

plicity

of

his

fact that he

plays a great

deal

with

frogs. That

frogs

cause warts

is

as much a superstition as

the idea that spunk water

removes

them, and we suspect that the cause and the cure are equaUy imaginary. Neither of the boys exhibits any warts for removal before the trip
the warts for the
sake of which

to the graveyard. All their interest is concentrated upon the ritual and none
upon

the ritual is ostensibly performed.

We

observe

that, to

devotee

of modern

science, the failure of

science

to solve a problem does not mean that science cannot solve the problem.

AU it

means is that the right experiment has not yet been devised or the right formula found. The votary of traditional religion, however, believes

that God acts for the

best,

whether

he

seems

to grant our prayers or not.

It is

assumed that

God knows better

than we

do

what

is

good

for

us and

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

215
manifest,

that, moreover, his

in the

purposes are

fulfilled
one.

and

his

goodness made

next world as well as

in this

Tom's

expectations are confined and superstition

strictly to this world,

and we can see that science

in

kind
Aunt

of

fluid

PoUy,

reshaping the traditional beliefs of St. Petersburg. although a traditionalist in religion, subscribed to all the new
mixture are
and

"health"

periodicals
victim whenever she

"phrenological

frauds"

and

made

Tom their

deemed his health in

need of assistance.

Aunt Polly's

traditional faith does not protect her from these incursions of pseudo

science, any more than it protects Tom from wart cures. In Aunt Polly's "cure" decisions to Tom with the water treatment, the sitz baths, the

blister plasters, and finally the whiskey), both the ailment and the
warts and
experience

"painkiller"

(which

was as

probably
as

raw

cure are

probably

imaginary

the

the

wart cure.

In this

respect

the triumph of imagination over

old

is

no

less in the

new than

in the

dispensation.
religion, science,

We

can see

that in Tom Sawyer's St.

Petersburg law,
in the

and superstition are

moving in the direction

world replaces salvation

of a new order
next as

in

which

self-

preservation

in this

the

dominating

human

concern.

All Tom's

superstitions

are

evading or controUing threats to his person or believes the devils are coming to take Hoss Williams, there is no mention of the hell or hell-fire awaiting the victim. The only allusion to future
punishment

recognizing and his property. Although he

ways

of

there is

none whatever

to future

reward

is

when and

he

con

templates the fate of

might

Jimmy Hodges, "lately

released,"

thinks he
record."

be willing to

go

When the stray

reckon
school

dog

too "if he only had a clean Sunday school howls nearby as the boys flee the murder scene,

they

they're

"goners."

Again, Tom

momentarily

regrets

his

Sunday

him. Elements
part of

record, but only because of the conviction of doom that has seized of the oldtime religion thus survive in Tom, but only as
the
new religion of self-preservation

in this

world.

That is, they

appear, along with his superstitions, as elements of his wariness in dealing with the supernatural as one among the threats to his personal safety.

Tom

and

Huck
wart

are

drawn to the but in fact

graveyard at

midnight, ostensibly
exigencies

by

the dead-cat
medicine.

cure

by

the

secret

of modern

There they witness the murder of the young doctor. They become the guardians of an important truth, upon which both the justice of the law and (to a degree) the safety of the community depend. Not even Muff Potter knows the facts about the murder, because he was drunk and unconscious when it was committed. The boys are terrified and swear an
oath,
about
ever written

out

by

Tom

on a pine

shingle, that

"they

will

keep

mum

this

and

they

wish

they may drop down dead in

Tom's

their tracks if
and

they

tell and
prick

rot."

Huck

admires

facility

in writing

takes a brass

his flesh. But Tom stops him and insists on using one of the he carries for the sewing of his shirt collar. There is a danger of poisoning from the pin, he explains to Huck. We can see, in this informative sidelight, the beginning of Tom's transition from super
pin

to

clean

needles

stition

to

science.

Although

invoking the

powers of

darkness

by

their oath,

216 Tom
any Huck
wiU

Interpretation
take care not to corrupt the blood that invokes those powers

by
of

negligence with respect puts

to natural causality. The oath is required, as

wouldn't

it, because
us
him."

"that Injun devU

oath then

make

any

more

drownding didn't hang

personal engendered

than a couple of cats, if we was to squeak 'bout this and

they

The

has the

purpose of sanction

safety

by

by adding a supernatural Injun Joe. It draws a kind

which

guaranteeing their to the fear already

of pledge

for its

enforcement

from

the

blood,

takes the place of God in what we would consider

a conventional oath.
guard.

Shedding

blood is

Of course, it is their lifeblood that they wish to safe makes the oath a kind of homeopathic antitoxin,
a certain resemblance to

in

which respect

it bears

the

wart cures.

Before the
the

night

out the

horror

of the murder

has been

augmented

by

howling

dog. After that

who

that it is Muff Potter

death has passed, Tom is convinced is doomed. He seems unaware that if Muff is
omen of

doomed,

it is because

of their own oath to conceal the truth.

As

we

have

seen, that oath now stands

in the way

of

truth, justice,

and

the security of

the community. This oath, we see, protects Injun Joe at the

inquest,

where

the boys for the first time feel the puU of sympathy for poor, betrayed

Muff Potter.
serene

statement"

They hear falsely

the "stonyhearted liar [Injun

accusing Muff,

and

they

expect upon

Joe] reel off his "every moment

head."

that the clear sky would dehver

God's lightnings
"'this

his

When

divine Satan
as

vengeance
and

fails, they

conclude that

miscreant sold

himself to

it

would

be fatal to

meddle with the quieted

property

of such a power

that."

Tom's

conscience

is thus

by

the opinion that God has

abdicated

it

will

not,

responsibUity too. When in the however, appear to be God's

comes to trial.
guilt.

crisis

he does the
It
wiU

work of

God,

work.

be Tom Sawyer's.

It is

some weeks

murder,
yet

finaUy
has

later that Muff, who has now been charged with the The boys are oppressed by their secret, Tom
Huck
seeks out seems and

fear dominates

Huck to find
enough. outcast
an

whether

the latter's to know

resolve

weakened.

firm

He

appears

Injun Joe better than

own resolve more

Tom,

being

himself is less
that

likely
swear

to have protection from Joe's vengeance. It is clear that Tom

fears his
com

than he fears Huck's when he

suggests

they
into

their oath of secrecy again.

miseration

Having
no

sworn, the boys

account,"

relapse

for Muff. "He

get

ain't

hain't
with

ever

money to

done anything to hurt anybody. drunk on But it transpires that he

. .
.

Huck, "but then he Just fishes a little, to get

says
also shared

food

Huck,

when and

there wasn't enough for two,

and

that

he has

mended

kites for Tom

guilt

by

pathetic

knitted hooks to his fishlines. They try to relieve their doing many small kindnesses for Muff at the village jail, but the gratitude they receive in return only adds mightily to their inward
comes

torture.

The trial Tom is The

out

evidence unshaken,

on, it

and at

the end of the second

can a

day,

with

Injun Joe's
That
night

appears there

be but

one verdict. of

late

and returns

home "in

tremendous state

excitement."

next

day

three

witnesses are caUed.

The first testifies to seeing Muff

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

wash

217
the
murder. attests

himself

at a

brook, early in

the morning

following

second

testifies to the

identity

of the murder
each

knife. A third
at

that

the knife in question was Muff's. In

cross-examine.

case, Muff's lawyer declines to

The

courtroom

buzzes

with

dissatisfaction

the lawyer

for the defense, who appears to be letting his case go by default. But suddenly the lawyer addresses the court, saying that he has changed his before. Then he had intended to defense from that he had indicated in his opening remarks two days prove only that Muff had committed an

involuntary homicide
he
says.

under

the influence of drink.

Turning

to the clerk,

"Call Thomas

Sawyer!"

In

an atmosphere electric with puzzled

anticipation, the

clerk administers the

oath,

an oath

different from that

sensational

Tom had

administered

to himself and to Huck. Then Muff's lawyer leads

almost

Tom, breathless
narrative of

and

inaudible

at

first,

through the

the events he and Huck had witnessed from their

graveyard.

hiding
and

place

that night

in the

"The

strain upon pent emotion reached

its

climax when the

boy

'

said:

and as

the doctor fetched around the knife and

a
'

Muff
as all

Potter

fell, Injun Joe jumped

gone!"

with

Crash! Quick

lightning
opposers,

the half-breed sprang for

and was was a

window, tore his way through

"Tom
of

the

young."

glittering hero once The heroism is on

for his but his

more
a

the pet of the old, the envy

solid

more

Tom

now pays a price

glory.

His days,

we

basis than before; but are told, were "days

horror."

exultation,"

of splendor and

nights "were seasons of

"Injun

Joe infested it
that

What was his dreams, and always with doom in his tempted Tom into this new heroism? All his glory hitherto had
eye."

aU

been

the consequence of moment

tricks the

played upon others. murder.

Fear had dominated

Potter had
under

him from the

only led to the
and

of

Sympathy for Muff

until

precaution of a second

oath,

the trial was

way

the tension began to build. The scene in the courtroom certainly was

one whose as

"theatrical
which

gorgeousness"

appealed

to his
at

nature

as

strongly

that in

he

returned

to play the lead

was
or

his

own

funeral. We
upon

have no introspective evidence of what it decision to risk Injun Joe's vengeance,

himself in his
evidence
own oaths.

that led to Tom's great

the

doom invoked

In

Huckleberry

Finn

we are provided abundant

of the hero's inward processes of moral crisis and of the deliberations accompanying their resolution. The Huck of the later novel articulates his private world much as does Hamlet in the great soliloquies. In Tom's case, we are never told in advance how the hero determines upon

his great deeds. In the whitewashing a great, magnificent inspiration

...

episode we

are

told only that "an

upon

inspiration"

had burst

him. At

the the the

Sunday

school

we

saw

boys, but his

presence of

sudden

Tom mysteriously trading for tickets among presentation of himself for the prize Bible, in
almost as much of a surprise

Judge Thatcher, is
the

to us as
of

to Mr.

Walters,

Sunday

school superintendent.

Later, in

the midst

his pirating expedition, as he sleeping form of Aunt Polly,

stands

silently in the
that

night over the

troubled
with a

we

only know

"his face lighted

218

Interpretation

In each of these cases we only learn what he had decided from the results of his decision. An indication of how Tom decides may be gleaned, however, from the description of how he chooses his runaway vocation. He contemplates the careers of the clown, the Black Avenger soldier, and the Indian chief. Then, as the vision of the

happy

solution of

his

thought."

of the
and

Spanish Main
choice

his

inner

reflection

his being, it sweeps the field, is made. It is the workings of Tom's passions, not any upon alternative courses or motives, that determine his
seizes and convulses

fate. We
moment

venture

to suggest,
murder until

therefore,

that fear

controUed

him from the

warred

of

the

but that

compassion

for Muff Potter

closely latter.

with

fear

the second oath recorded the ascendancy of the

We

recoUect

but
that

one reference

to Tom's conscience in

connection with

the murder trial. In the twenty-third chapter, in which the case is brought

on,

we are told

"Every

reference to

the

murder sent a shudder almost persuaded

to his

heart, for his

how he he
clear could

troubled conscience and

fears

him that
see

these remarks were put

forth in his

be
not

suspected of

hearing as 'feelers'; he did not knowing anything about the murder,

in the
and

but
not

still could

be

gossip."

comfortable

midst of this

It is

from this

whether

conscience

fears

are

altogether

different
sought

things. Tom would like to be

a comfortable ened could

"comfortable,"

even as

he

earlier

had

by

way enjoying Injun Joe; but he also feels threatened by the community, which use legal processes to compel him to testify if they suspected what
we

of

the advantages of

death. The feels

threat

he knew. Yet
Potter
and

know that he is troubled

also

by

bis

attachment

to Muff

by

the threat to Muff. It is our

judgment

that

it

is,

strictly

speaking, compassion for

Muff,
takes.

not conscience

proper, that

motivates

Tom

in the direction he from Tom

a sense
of

finaUy
as

By

compassion we mean another.

identification

with

We

sympathy arising distinguish it from

conscience, insofar

the latter imphes recognition of a

duty
law

or obligation.

shows no sense of obligation to

he

quite

Muff, or to either literally feels for him, and this feeling, this
fundamental fear
passion

or

justice. But
at war

passion, is

with the more

he has for his is reversed,

own
not

life. In the end, the

ascendancy

of

over compassion

by

the strength of

compassion, but by its mighty assistance from Tom's love of glory and eclat. The melodrama of the trial and the vision of himself in the central role like that of the little child of the millennium overcome the contrary

force

of

fear. The playing

gratifications,

of the

heroic

role

before the
presented

entire community,

and of

the

role of personal savior of

Muff,

overwhelming im
the more
remote

mediate sense of

which obliterated

for the

moment

danger from Injun Joe.

us
understand acted so

But let
seems to

thoroughly

what

that love of glory was that

of

have

decisively

upon

Tom. Love

glory has two

roots

that, strictly understood, differ as much as conscience and compassion. Glory is an intensification of fame, as fame is of honor. We can love honor either from self-knowledge or from self-love. In the former case,

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

what we ceUence.

219

ultimately seek is a competent assurance of our virtue or ex That is to say, we may desire virtue as a means to well-being, and honor as a means to virtue. The quest for honor may then be an element in the quest for self-knowledge in the service of excellence. But the quest
for glory glory latter
rooted

in

self-love

apart

from Tom
no

self-knowledge

tends to make

an end

in itself. The
thus

passion

species

appears as a passion

gratify clearly of the merely for a name. Perhaps this

and who must overcome

seeks to

is

not unnatural

anonymity
privileges.

boy who has by becoming a founder

a of

for

father

his

in his

own right.

We

spoke earlier of

the love of distinction to which Tom

appealed

in his

sale of

whitewashing

Love

fame,
to the

in

a modern mass

democracy,

tends to be the

passionate negative

constant

threat to the sense of individual identity.

At bottom, it is the from the

dividual it
will perspective

equivalent upon

the human level of the

reaction of

the organism to the threat of physical extinction, as that threat is seen

of modern
science.

From this
a

perspective
and

the in

organism

is

never

more
a

than

hypothetical

temporary

sequestration

of atoms upon

gravitational

dissolve. Radical

nominalisms

in

physics and

field into which, presently, in ethics parallel each

other.
sees

and

Because Tom's glory has no foundation beyond the acclaim he hears or feels he is constantly driven to repeat it. He must
revive that

constantly
of

limelight in

which alone

he

experiences assurances

Whether he is swearing the oath to keep the secret, or revealing the same secret before the astounded court, he is obeying the same law of his nature.

his

own

authenticity.

Tom's
at

unquestionable

glory in the church has now been transformed into glory in the courtroom, and beyond. Yet Injun Joe remains liberty. Rewards have been offered, a detective from St. Louis has
questionable

come and

gone, but

no

must prove

Joe's

nemesis.

Joe. Of course, it is Tom, assisted by Huck, who After the trial had ended so sensationally and

Tom had been immortalized

that believed he
would

by

the

village

newspaper, "There

were some

be President, yet, if he escaped The humor notwithstanding, it is Tom's quasi criminality that qualifies him as is the relevant proverb. an antagonist of Joe. "Set a thief to catch a
thief"

hanging."

myth that

In fact, Tom never sets out to this is a story of a boy,

the art of the
novel and an

catch

Joe. Because
things
are

of

Mark Twain's
to chance
art of

certain

ascribed

by
his
In

that otherwise might be

secret

ascribed

to the

the
and

protagonist.

Tom

Huck discover the

accidental

meeting
a

place of

Joe

confederate

as

by-product
unrelated

of

treasure hunt that is

the plot.

presented to us as a a

development

to the
the

prior action of

ruined,

abandoned

house, they
the
one

witness

equally

accidental

dis

covery

by

Joe

of

the long-lost treasure of the Murrel Gang. From their

watch
criminals

hiding

place

they

hear is to be hidden in
cross."

of
set

Joe's
off,

At that

point

the boys

off the treasure, which they dens, "Number Two under the not to apprehend Joe, but to steal
cart

the treasure for themselves. Their motive is simply to rob the robbers.

220 It is Tom's
until

Interpretation

of some
skill

interest to

recognize

the cause of Joe's

the treasure. Joe

undoing.

It is

not

in tracking

either

him

or

and

his

companion

planned

to light out for Texas with their

one more

they had done

"dangerous''

loot; but Joe would not do so job. Had they foregone that

final job, they might have taken both their loot and the treasure and departed for a life of ease, and perhaps even respectability. But the job consists, as the confederate himself discovers only at the last moment,
in taking threatens
assistance
murdered

revenge upon even

the Widow Douglas. At a

crucial

moment, Joe

the

confederate with

death

unless

he

renders the conclusion.

in carrying the act of vengeance to its young Doctor Robinson as revenge for
vagrancy.

necessary Joe had

caused

once

having

him to be jailed for

justice
of of the

The

widow's same

peace, had done the

husband, who had been a thing. Moreover, he had once

done something
the
village

infinitely jail, ""like a

worse;

nigger!"

he had had Joe horsewhipped in front The insult to Joe's pride had demanded
cheated

the judge's

death,

and since the

judge had

him

by dying
Joe has

without
a

Joe's assistance, it now demanded the widow's and barbaric sense of honor, yet it is a sense
moreover a sense of

mutilation.

brutal
It is

of

honor

nonetheless.

of

glory

and eclat.

honor that has nothing in common with Tom's love It causes him to lose both treasure and life. Yet Joe
with

shows, in the dialogue

for

much with

him in

comparison with

his confederate, that neither life nor gold count his pride or honor. Mark Twain dangerous being. Yet
good. except

presents

Joe to

us as a worthless as well as a old-fashioned

novel of

for Aunt Polly's

ative pride within

piety, Joe appears to be the sole

an

represent pagan

the

devotion to

immaterial
upon

Joe's
of

joins Aunt Polly's Christian

and

humility

the

altar

Tom's

materialistic self-glorification.

Tom

temperance tavern.

Huck trace Injun Joe to his lair in the whisky room of the They believe the treasure is in the room and that if in there
will not when

they
night

can get

Joe is away they

can make off with

it.

They
job.

are certain
and

he

leave

by day,
when

and agree

that Huck will watch every

on

come

for Tom

Joe has left

and on

the

"dangerous"

Several

nights pass without

picnic

event,

heralded
away
to
us

that had been planned

Saturday by Becky. Why

Tom

goes on the long-

Tom

risks

being

on a night when

Injun Joe
sure

might emerge of the

from his den is

expressed

as

follows. "The
and

fun

evening

outweighed the uncertain

treasure;
and not
day."

boylike, he determined

to yield to the stronger inclination

allow himself to think of the box of money another time that We think the author meant, not that Tom "determined to but that he yielded. The present good of the picnic outweighed the treasure, just as the fear of Injun Joe had been outweighed by the glory

yield,"

in the

courtroom.

Before pursuing the dual themes of the treasure and the picnic, we must direct attention to an episode that was a necessary condition of the picnic,
namely, the
reconciliation of

Tom

and

began

with

the

discovery by Becky

that Tom had

Becky. Their estrangement, which been engaged to Amy

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

221
noon

Lawrence, had finaUy

recess,

reached an

impasse. But
desk

one

Becky

passes the schoolmaster's

a

and sees

day during the the key in the

is the
opens

lock.

The
and

master

keeps

book there, the

the school.

tormenting mystery

of

identity Becky turns

of which

great and

the

key,

the

drawer,

presently is inspecting the anatomy text with its handsomely engraved At that moment Tom steps up frontispiece, "a human figure, stark behind her, Becky starts, and as luck would have it, tears the page. Becky
naked."

bursts into tears: her terror

multiply What
a

of

discovery

and

punishment

thereupon

thousandfold her

grievance against

Tom.

Dobbins does in such cases is to demand of the class that the guUty party step forward. When no one volunteers, he asks each of the scholars in turn, fixing his gaze full upon him or her, to discover evidences of guUt. Such a procedure might not succeed with such a hardened
old
prevaricator as

Tom, but it cannot faU with such an innocent as Becky. Becky might have confessed had she not been so paralyzed by fear. The beating that is the sure punishment for such a crime appears to her in aU
the

lurid hght
sent

of

eternal

damnation. But Tom has been licked times

seen

without number.

We have

him is

to be

to sit with the girls, the first

dehberately court a licking in order day Becky had come to the school.
bitter
at

He hke But

can't understand a girl

why

Becky

so

the prospect. "That's just

they're so thin-skinned and

chicken-hearted,"

he

comments.

of course we

know that that is

that

part of

their charm for

about

Tom. At the

same could

time,

we

know

taking

licking

is

the smallest price Tom

possibly pay for any good thing he might desire. At the crucial moment, just as Dobbins reaches Becky in his relentless search for the

guilty one, Tom has another of his great inspirations. "He sprang to his it!' and when he stepped forward to go feet and shouted / done
. . .

to his
upon

punishment

the surprise, the gratitude, the adoration that shone

him

out of poor

Becky's

eyes

seemed

pay

enough

for

hundred
charac

floggings."

Their
as

reconciliation

is

complete.

Indeed,

it

should

be

terized,
valor.

not

a reconciliation,

but

as

conquest.

No knight slaying
perceived as greater

dragon had
So Tom
the

ever won

fair

lady by

what

the

lady
the

had

and

Becky

are

inseparable

upon

long-delayed

picnic.

In

afternoon

the

children

a main avenue that was

take to exploring McDougal's cave. There was "knew" familiar to most. No one, we are told the
and

cave, for there

were

labyrinths beyond labyrinths,

main avenue
and

it

was not custom

and recesses

ary to
as

venture

beyond the

the corridors

immediately

adjacent

thereto. "Tom Sawyer knew as much of the cave

one."

any Tom leads

of

unknown,

until

Becky on into the cave, beyond the known portion to the finally they are lost, with no idea, and finally no rational
alive.

hope,

emerging
seized

Why? At
a

a certain

point, "the ambition to be

discoverer

him."

Tom is

venturer; his is the spirit of enterprise.

own

But Tom
danger

never seeks

danger for its

as

sake; nor does he willingly face

suppressed

except

when,

in the courtroom, it is

by

another,

222
more

Interpretation

immediate

passion.

But

now

Tom is led to

unsought

and

un un

for him to necessary danger. There was no reason known without marking the pathway by which they might return. But Tom is under a compulsion to break with the trodden pathways, to go
venture

into the

death or salvation, retracing his steps. There wiU be either lost the way and being driven ever but no turning back. And so, having * onward, Tom and Becky are lost. from the picnic piece of cake she has "'saved Their only food is a
onward without
. .

for us to dream on, Tom, the way grown-up people do with wedding " Tom shows great tenderness for Becky's growing weakness in cake the cave and reserves the greater part of the cake for her, never eating
more than a smaU part of of

his

own share.

Yet he

never returns

the pledge

her troth. To

him,

the cake is not consecrated; it is only a means of

When they come to a spring, Tom decides that they must make a halt; at least the water wiU keep them alive longer, whUe they wait and hope for rescue. Becky becomes very weak; slowly she sinks into "a and eventuaUy loses aU hope. She teUs Tom to take his dreary
survival.
apathy,"

kite hne

and continue

to explore if he chooses; but makes him promise

to return from time to time and to hold her hand when the end comes.

During
in the fear
appeal

this terrible vigil, Tom

of

makes

discovery

that Injun Joe is

chamber

the

cave

next

to their own. Fear of Joe overcomes

of the cave at that moment.

It apparently

never occurs

to Tom to

to Joe to rescue them. Yet Joe could have had no grudge against
and

Becky;
pardon.

it

might

have been in Joe's interest to have

was

saved

both

of

them. After aU, there

already

a petition

being

circulated

for Joe's

Rescuing

the children after all other hope had gone might have the petition. But Tom's future glory brooks no such

led to the
medium.

success of

How then
are

and

why does Tom

succeed?

There

two conspicuous facts about the vigU in the darkness. First

is the apparent absence from Tom of any conception of his own death. Although Tom knows fear particularly of Injun Joe there never seems to be the decided equation between hopelessness and death that there is
in the
as case of

Becky.

its inevitable

conclusion.

Becky feels her growing weakness and accepts death But Tom, although aware of the facts of the
himself to it. Second is the
either

situation,
gestion

never resigns

absence of

any sug

of

prayer,
the

by

before did Tom

approach of

ever

that only once when Huck was overcome by fright at the pray,
or
recaU

Tom

Becky. We

"devils"

in the
or

graveyard.

But he broke it

off

before

ever

naming the Lord. In his utmost extremity, Tom relies on no other power
than

himself,

whether

higher

lower.
or

Tom then, wasting no time extends his kite line, first down

energy

on

useless

thoughts

or

actions,
and then a

down
speck

still

another.

Turning

down another, back from the third, "he glimpsed

one corridor, then

far-off

that looked like

daylight."

Dropping

the

line, he

groped

toward the

See

note page

224.

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

223

hght is

and

presently "pushed his head

the broad Mississippi rolling

and shoulders through a smaU

by!"

hole

and saw saved

by Tom, by

hght

vouchsafed

Tom is thus saved, and Becky to him far within the innermost

the cave, at a point where the probabUity of finding light or of hght finding him was the most remote, if not most unreasonable. Tom
recesses of

thus becomes
comes,
not

an

authentic

hero

of that new

Calvinism in

which grace

by

works or

faith, but by

the spirit of utter and

indefeasible

self-reliance.

finds

merit

may say, is saved by the Lord because the Lord in the fact that it had never occurred to Tom to ask for help.

Tom,

we

Tom may have

appeared as a clever and

lucky

trickster hitherto. But he

wUl emerge with a new aura of

authenticity

and

legitimacy. The highest

of

principle of the old order

education and

has

now anointed

the leader

the new. Tom's

the

within the earth. sun.

formation of his character have been completed deep Tom Sawyer's Gang is now ready for the hght of the

Huck
and
and

meanwlule are

has kept his

ever

own

faithful

vigil.

On the

night

that Tom

Becky
his

wandering

deeper into

the cave,

Huck foUows Joe

companion as they leave their lair. But they carry a box with them, Huck mistakenly believes is the treasure. There is no time to go for Tom. The men pursue a course toward the Widow Douglas's, and follow which

closely in the dark, Huck discovers the evU But the widow has company, and the men lurk

ing

nature of

their mission.

under cover

the lights to

go out.

Then Huck
and

runs

for help. The Welshman

driven off, but

and

waiting for his sons

arrive with guns.

Joe

his
for

confederate are

not captured.

Huck is terrified
seized with a

and

is taken into the Welshman's

a

house,

where

fever

and

long
wiU

time loses

consciousness.

he is When he

comes to
of a

himself again, he too

taste, but

without

pleasure, the glory

return.

hero.
and

Before Huck recovers, Tom Thatcher has the

mouth of

Becky triumphantly
not

Judge

the cave sealed,

knowing

that Joe is within.

of thirst and starvation before Tom discovers what the Judge had done. The hght that had been vouchsafed to Tom has been denied to Joe. Now the boys are safe, and when Huck is well enough, Tom takes him aside and imparts his secret. Number Two is in the cave, and Tom knows

And Joe dies

an

easy way to
gather

get

there. He is

sure

that that is where the treasure is kept.

They

up

provisions and two

head for the which he and

secret place

five

miles

bags to carry the treasure. Then they below the mouth of the cave from

Becky

had

emerged upon

to safety.

Exploring

the chamber where

a

Tom had nearly

stumbled

Joe, they discover

without
cross."

cross, done
Two,"

with
and

candle smoke on a

big

rock.

This
be

doubt is "Number

the treasure must be "under the terror. Injun Joe's

must
ghost must

But Huck is Tom

again struck with

nearby.

remonstrates that

the

ghost

surely be

at

the mouth of the cave, where Joe had

wouldn't.

died,

rather

than

here. But Huck disagrees, "No, Tom, it

It

would

hang

around

224

Interpretation
money.

I know the way doubts too. That the ghost

the
reasonable.
what

of

ghosts,

and so

do

you."

Tom begins to have

would stick to the

But

once more

inspiration

comes to

fools

we're

making

of ourselves!
cross!"

seemed eminently Tom. "Looky-here, Huck, Injun Joe's ghost ain't a-going to

treasure

come around where

there's a

And

so

the

sacred symbol performs

the function that wiU now be characteristic in the order over which Tom

is to

preside.

It

wUl point

the way to the new salvation and

keep

the air

pure and

free
and

of evil spirits

for the

votaries of the

faith.

Huck

Tom

return

to St. Petersburg. As tells them

they

enter the at

town, the
As

Welshman

sees

them

and

they

are

wanted

the Widow

Douglas's. Their

wagon appears

to him to be loaded with old metal.

they
the
sent

reach

the

widow's

it

appears

that something great is in progress. All

are

people

of consequence

in the town

there. The boys

wants

are

quickly
of

aside out

for scrubbing
the
window

and

dressing. Huck
But Tom
anything.

to find a rope and

another

drop

and

escape.

senses

scene

grandeur and won't miss

it for

The

celebration

the supposed grand revelation

by
the

the Welshman of

setting for how Huck had risked

is

his life that Saturday night to the Welshman to secrecy, but

vinced

save the widow.

Huck had

earlier

sworn

death

of

the Welshmanbut

not

Huck

that
some

Injun Joe evidently has con the oath is no longer binding.

Huck

friends around. But the secret had already leaked out, and the surprise lacked some of its supposed force. When the widow responded by saying that she meant to give Huck a
stiU

feared that Joe

might

have

home, have him

And
*

educated,

and start

him in business
need

some

day, "Tom's
"

chance was come.

so

He

said::

'Huck don't

it, Huck's

rich.'

the

long

trail of successes winds its way to the triumph to end

The

exact cause of made

the break

with

the return path is

guidance

not

easy to

state precisely.

Tom had

two smoke

marks

for future

before they

were

attacked

by

the

candle

bats. To escape, Tom leads Becky hastily down a corridor, just as Becky's is put out. The flight continues for some time, down a succession of
entered at

corridors

random.

Is the pathway broken

at

this point? Tom does

not

think of returning for some

about

time, still impelled by his search for novelties to brag later. He then tells Becky he reckons he could find the way back, but fears
again.

encountering the bats

He insists

upon

searching for

new way.

His fear

of

the bats appears to govern him at this point, just as his fear of Injun Joe does a

little later. But the bats

are a

largely imaginary danger. A

reached

resolute attempt

to

protect

the candle, at least until

succeeded.
where

they

the

smoke marks or

the staircase might have

Even if they failed, they would have remained at a point in the cave they might easily have been rescued. In fact, had they remained near the bats, they might have followed them out of the cave when night came, and the bats in their quest for food. If it is true, as we are told, that Tom knew the ways bats, his behavior becomes even more unreasonable. But Tom is ever dominated
the passion of the moment. He never acts reasonably. It is in his defiance of
and

emerged
of

by

reason,

the cunning of his passion, that his

virtu consists.

His way is

irreversibly
One

downwards, and he emerges not from the top, but from the bottom can hardly imagine a more apt symbol of the replacement
Machiavellian
republicanism.

of the cave. of

Platonic

by

Tom Sawyer: Hero of Middle America

all

225

triumphs. Once more Tom is the little

child

in

drama that has

all

the glory of the millennium. The whitewashing of the fence, the prize winning in the Sunday school, the return from the dead, the revelation in
the

courtroom,
gold

all

pale

into insignificance beside the twelve thousand

now

dollars in
Petersburg.
the

coins

that

transfix the

assembled

magnates

of

St.

Tom's glory will now endure. The Lord has shown him to be truly of elect. He has shown him the light of salvation in his hour of sorest His
cross

need.

has

pointed

him the way to the treasure. And the treasure Tom Sawyer's
such

the cross has revealed and protected is such as neither moth nor rust can

corrupt,
path either

or other

thieves

can steal.

Gang
can

is

set upon so

the

to greatness and

immortality
next,
as a

as no

faith

assure

well,

in this

world or the

large

capital.

226 THE DEPENDENCE OF FACT UPON

Martin Diamond
"VALUE"

The title

of

this

paper

states

scientific study hypothesis that

of politics
reason can

its basic argument, namely, that the requires the the study of what is politicaUy
teach
men normative

to live politically. Not any

prise

something about how they yearning, but the empirical

explanations

ought enter

itself

requires a

that

hypothesis. Rational

of

political

facts

like possibility of making rational statements about political This is what is implied by the phrase "the depend ence of fact upon Accordingly, I argue that the radical distinction made by modern political science between facts and values is false and
require
"values."
value."

misleading
scientific

and

that the refusal to treat the validity of values as

subject

to

reasoning is fatal to the empirical study of politics. Let me hasten to add that this article is not addressed to
at

the

fuU
than

theoretical scope of the fact-value question

can

least

not

any

more

be helped. The

perspective

is that

of a

working
stuff of

political scientist who

tries to

understand and explain the

factual

pohtics,

such as states

men, governments, opinion, movements, parties.

Now the factual

and minds with
and most

stuff of politics presents and values

itself empirically to
entwined.

our senses

facts

inextricably
those

Indeed,

the first

fundamental fact
"power"

about politics

is that it is for

all about values.

For

"influence"

example,
phrase

and

modern spook-terms several generations not pohtical

(to

para

Hobbes)

that

have haunted
presence
are

us now

are not

the indicator

and measure of the political.

Behavior is
the

behavior

merely because of the power and influence

pursuit of
such

of power or
with

influence. Until deliberate

merely

and unless
public

involved

mutual

values, we are

dealing

only

with some

social phenomenon power

as, say, a gang, the

bedroom,

or

the factory. Political

or a

is dis

tinguished from the

power of a

gangster, a courtesan,

factory foreman

by

the fact that political power is generated and constituted out of the deliberate mutual pubhc pursuit of values or, as it would be more sensible
to say, out of the public process whereby rival opinions are put forward to what is mutually advantageous and just for the whole community.
as

Consider fact to
see

what everyone of us
and

knows in his bones It is

how

we come

in

hear the

political.

not when spook-abstractions

like

power and

influence

present themselves

to our eyes and ears, for

lectures

they

The

present paper

is based

upon a series of
published

given at on

(Chicago) in 1970, and is to be by F. E. Peacock Publishers.

in the Loyola Series

Loyola University Political Analysis

The Dependence of Fact

cannot

"Value"

upon

227
statesmen,
us

be

seen or

heard. We

see and

hear the

political when present

governments, citizens, movements,

as rival

and parties

themselves to

regarding virtue, justice, or the common good. Each comes clamorously explaining its behavior in terms of some argument or opinion as to what is good and just. These rival opinions about virtue, justice, or the common good are the first and the central political
claimants
phenomenon:

they

are what makes

behavior

political

behavior.

Now the
they

peculiar character of

are arguments: of

these politics-constituting opinions is that for example, "such and such is just or good for the this
that."

country because
empirical

and

Therefore,

the

first demand the

phenomena make on and

confront

evaluate, that

is,

the working political scientist is that he judge the validity of, these conflicting

arguments argument

is just. After all, what else can you do with an besides evaluate it? The political scientist cannot go spelunking,
as to what

he

cannot reach power or

beneath these influence

ought.

opinion arguments to

about

until

opinions

regarding the

any underlying facts he has first dealt justly with the rival The fact he has to deal with first is the

argument the opinion makes about values.

In short, the

ought stands at

study of the is. But precisely here lies the failure of modern political science. It has barred itself from entering through the gateway because it does not
the gateway to the
political

believe that opinions regarding the ought can be evaluated. The fact-value distinction that self-denying methodological ordinance regarding values
teaches
modern political science

that reasoned

argument and values

belong

to two radicaUy separate realms. Hence all value opinions are equal in being equally nonevaluable: the arguments upon which they claim ultimate

ly

modern political which

to rest all equally fail before the tribunal of science. Accordingly, science necessarily treats all serious political opinion,

is

always at

bottom

some sort of reasoned argument

regarding values,

ultimately spurious or self-deceived. Party platforms, constitutions, the great debates over policy issues, the promises of candidates, the speeches
as of

statesmen,

all

these are ultimately massive

rationalizations

of under

lying
ear

interests

and passions.

Politics
against

as

it

presents

itself to the

eye and

the

is

a snare and a

delusion,
himself

a giant

fabrication. The

knowing

scientific

observer must steel

the delusions. Like the wily

Ulysses,

tie himself securely within the coils of scientific method and hold tenaciously to the fact-value distinction when exposed to the siren song of politics, that is, when exposed to the spurious opinion that is the funda

he

must

mental stuff of politics.

Now this is not only to misunderstand the nature of political opinion, but it is also profoundly to degrade both the political and the science that studies it. The fact-value distinction degrades politics and political science because that view of values denies to the political the unique element that constitutes its being. As I have argued, politics is constituted by the rivalry of human opinion regarding justice and the common good. That is to say, pohtics is an expression of the uniquely human faculty of reason-

228

Interpretation

ing

about such matters. aU

It is that
other

rational

faculty

alone

that distinguishes

human things from

political

from the merely fact-value distinction denies the authenticity of the human capacity to reason about justice and the common good. That distinction is therefore fatal to
science
political

things and, in particular, distinguishes the social or the economic or the biological. But the

science; but it is a veritable spawning ground of the other

social sciences.

They

rush

to fill the gap created when modern political

improvidently
in its

abdicates

its

proper subject matter and

cheerfully

acquiesced

preemption

by

others.

And it has been

the social
and sciences.

preempted.

That is the

history
and

of

the last century of

makes

Since

the

fact-value distinction

the rational

the political epiphenomenal,

derivative,
with

reflexive, the pohtical

becomes the dependent variable, varying

variables

the underlying independent

sister

the social, the economic, and the psychological. These

seem

disciplines
all

to have a

subject

matter

and

an

independent

variable

their own; or at least all seem to be

somehow closer

to the core of the

behavior. Political science, in contrast, has come to seem derivative, marginal, sustaining life on table scraps of data and hand-medown methodology from these richer autonomous relatives among the
general stuff of social sciences.

It is hardly necessary to document the recent development. But it may be Ulustrated clearly in S. M. Lipset's Politics and the Social Sciences, the fruit of a series of panels conducted at the 1967 meetings of the American Political Science Association. The
of various essays explain
of pohtics.

the

contribution

the other

social sciences

to the study

Pohtical sociology,

we

are

told, is "the

effort to

to the study of
enthusiasm

apply various concepts political behavior and

application of economic

and methods of

institutions."

sociology There is a "new

politics."

for the
the

theory

to

And

political psychologists and

draw "their intellectual

sustenance

from psychology

apply it to
effective

study

of political attitudes and

behavior."

Regarding
so

the question of whether politics itself affects

"the
eses

arena"

in
i

which

policy

choices are
such

concerning

the

determinants [of

only as but "our hypoth made; choices] must come from the
of

behavior, it does

sciences."

other social

Sociological theory

politics,

economic

theory
of

of

politics,

psychological
political

theory

of pohtics

any theory for the study

politics

but

theory.

This

situation results

inevitably

from the denial that

on

political opinion opinion

must

regarding

values

can

be founded

reason;

political

be

understood as mere rationalization.

Aristotle
political

was

to be the rational animal; modern

wrong in thinking man science knows him to be

University Press, 1969).

fact

Seymour Martin Lipset, Politics and the Social Sciences (New York: Oxford The quotations are from pages xi, xv, xv-xvi, xxii. It should be emphasized that Professor Lipset is primarily reporting on what is in

happening and that he himself usually dignity and autonomy of political things.

shows

an

awareness

in his

work of

the

The Dependence of Fact

"Value"

upon

229

instead the rationalizing animal. Political opinion is a superstructural thing; what really counts is the substructure. Behavior when it manifests itself in the political arena has the annoying habit of masquerading itself as noble and just. As it the other disciplines may deal with the were, fundamental behavioral stuff neat, straight off the shelves as it comes to
them; but the
reveal modern political scientist has, uniquely, the duty to unmask the data. He must discredit the pretended grounds of the behavior and

to

its true subrational or arational "determinants."2 Hence reality is be sought, not in opinion, but behind and beneath it; not in the exercise of man's distinctive rational faculty, but in the exertion upon that faculty of determining forces that link man with all the other creatures and things. From this it follows that what explains all other creatures and things likewise explains man; inevitably, then, political theory must give way to

theory imported from

more

those apparently more primary disciplines that deal

stuff of

directly

with

the universal

behavior. Hence "our hypotheses

things must indeed "come from
position as

concerning the
study
man's

determinants"

of political
sciences."

the other social

From its former

the architectonic

the study of the most important independent variable, namely,

unique

rational-political
"arena"

capacity
which

political

science

is

relegated

to studying only the

in

the

universal stuff of

behavior is

displayed.
AU the carefuUy
way
of

foregoing developments
term
"values."

the

may be seen simply by considering In the process, it will become clear why
"values"

quotation marks were used around the word

at

the outset, as a
recent

indicating

its dubious

status.

Consider first how

is the

contemporary social science usage of the term. The Oxford English Dictionary does not recognize it; in any event, the one reference that could at aU be said to be in the new mode dates only from 1899. Webster's New World Dictionary hsts the new meaning and attributes it to sociology, which both dates the usage and should give political scientists pause. The
traditional meaning
of

the

word was connected

the

value of

value

commodities, do you the buyer or

of material values
seUer place on

as

primarily with things, i.e., in the expression, "What

jewel?"

this ring or does

That

is,

It turns

out on closer

inspection that

modern science

not

treat all values

claim.

equally nonevaluable, as, for example, Brecht seems only modestly to Rather, all value arguments turn out to be equally false when evaluated
as science 3

by

based

upon

the fact-value distinction.

second

traditional meaning

according to the OED dealt

of rank or personal

with

the "worth

or worthiness

(of persons) in

respect

being
Still

of value as a soldier,

holding

a valued rank

for example, in society, setting a high value

qualities,"

on one's own qualities, or

another

valuing

someone

in the

sense of

esteeming that

person. such as

traditional meaning of the word is as a measure of

or musical notes.

things,

But the way the word is used in modern social science clearly derives from the idea of material values, where the emphasis is on the desirer and the value he idiosyncratically places on things, rather than on
mathematical quantities

their inherent worth.

230
the traditional use
material things

Interpretation
of

the

term

emphasized

the

conventional

value

of

the

worth assigned

to them

by

the more

or

less arbitrary

and changeable

desires

of men.
so

Thus the arbitrary

element

important to the

modern usage regard

ing
But

ethical and political values

was always

implicit in the traditional term. hitherto to

mean

as

far

as

can

teU,

the word

values was never used

opinions

that was
of

of justice or the common good. And that is precisely the change wrought: questions of justice were transferred from the realm
to the
"values,"

opinion

realm

of

which

is to say, from the

arbitrary. and

realm

of the

partly

rational

to

the realm of the

reserved

wholly

Treating

justice

under a values applied

term heretofore
an

for

material

things

their conventional
whether

proved

extremely

effective

rhetorical

ploy, because

to commodities or to

justice,

the word value

persuasively implies

that neither
what men

the commodities nor justice have any intrinsic merit, but only subjectively and arbitrarily attach to them. Indeed, when applied
the word came to

to

justice,

imply

everyone

always

knew that

most commodities

whoUy arbitrary matter; after aU, have some objective, in

radical

trinsic worth.

Values
and

being
all

thus understood, there is naturally a

distinction

between facts
settles

and values.

The

word value

the important questions

rhetorically prejudges the case before they can even be asked.

a value
certain

For example, hear how the term value judgment settles the matter: judgment is a judgment made as to whether one likes or dislikes

facts,
to

but only

after

the facts

term presupposes

and

have already been considered. The very thus seems to confirm that facts and values belong
are accessible realm of

different

realms

facts

to

scientific

reason,

while values

belong
of

to the

"noncognitive"

interests

and passions.

Consider the
values-

similar

import

of some

terms closely related to the concept

almost

commitments, preferences, attitudes. They are used interchangeably with the word value, and for the good reason that

they

aU

have the
I
mean

same

thrust regarding the status of rationality.

By

commitment

my will,

by

preference
notice:

my desire,

and

by

attitude

my inclination
at no

or predisposition.

And

titude. Like the word

my commitment, my preference, my value, these words also presuppose that there is

intrinsic is only

merit

that reason can perceive in the

thing

or

an act of will or

desire derived from

or of rational

material content

idea valued; there interests or passions.

of

Consequently,
interests
stressed.

the substantive
or value

my commitment,
the

preference, attitude,

is

little significance;
the content.

what counts are

and passions that

determine
all

The difference between For example, is to But

a given an

these terms and the

idea

of opinion must

be

pollsters

typically

ask what

the respondent's attitude

issue,
be

the

word attitude

attitude

need

not

being used synonymously with opinion. justify itself, while an opinion must. An
a sentence that

attitude can

expressed

in

does

not

include the
always

word
a

"because"; but
"because,"

sentence

expressing

an

opinion

must

give

because

opinions are arguments, while attitudes are

only likes

The Dependence of Fact

and
can

"Value"

upon

231

dislikes,
be

tastes

and

preferences, inclinations

and aversions.

An

attitude

expressed with a

an opinion must always

considered,

an

opinion

shrug or a grimace and is merely expressive, but be discursive. However poorly stated, however ill is an exercise of the rational faculty; it always
that

includes
arational

rational

element that also

is independent
upon

of

the

subrational

or

influences

bear

opinion.

By

contrast, attitudes,

commitments, preferences
tional

are

simply the

products of subrational or ara

determinants. It is therefore an entirely different thing to speak of opinions of the just and to speak of values regarding justice. Values and facts clearly do belong to different realms when values are understood
merely
clear as

the expression of

desire, inclination,

and

interest. But it is

not

that

facts

and opinions are

one ever spoke of

equally heterogeneous. That is why no the fact-opinion distinction. Facts and opinions manifest

ly

do

not

belong
in

to

and the other

which

different realms, the one in which it is not. While reason cannot

reason

is

relevant

support

values, it

surely
what

can support opinions.

Indeed,

the support of reason is precisely

ones.

distinguishes
opinion

sound opinions
so central

from foolish

Now
political

is

to the study of politics that even modern

misunderstood

science,

although

it has

the

nature

of

opinion,

has

nonetheless given a central place to the problem of opinion.

of opinion

Indeed,
the old

the study

is

perhaps that area

in

which modern political science

most prides

itself
4

on

having
claim.

made

the

greatest

advances

upon

political science.

A formidable

mass
all

ficient

support

for the

With

volumes, let me nonetheless the study of opinion, modern political

massed not studied opinion at

be suf due trepidation in the face of these state the following: far from advancing
of studies would seem to science

has

abandoned

it. It has
some

all, but

rather

has

substituted

thing entirely different

The study
substantive

the study of opinion

for that study formation.

of opinion proper is in the first instance the study of its content, its arguments, its wisdom, its folly. The study of opinion formation, on the contrary, presupposes the utter irrelevance of
an opinion's

substance to

radical

conclusion

is

so

sufficiently
texts
and

appreciated

explaining the process of its formation. This startling to common sense that it may be in in its starkness. But the accepted contemporary

formation readily confirm the point. For example, Smith, White introduce their work by disclaiming any interest in the Bruner, specific opinions they dealt with; these were used only as the "focus of investigation." Their book is not concerned with any particular opinions but "is, rather, a study of the psychological processes involved in forming
on opinion

Compare

somewhat

similar

statement

Scientific Study of Politics,

ed.

Herbert

by Walter Berns in Essays on Storing (New York: Holt, Rinehart

critique of

the
and

Winston, 1962),

p.

3. I

am

indebted to Berns for his

and

voting studies, to
whose work

Storing for
made

his thoughtful editing of the book, possible the Essays and this paper.

to Leo

Strauss,

232
and

Interpretation
opinion"

holding
No

an

opinion

any

opinion."5

Consider

what

"any
or

means.

matter

how

wise or

foolish, how [are]

soundly based

Ul

no matter whether

the opinion is that of Plato or the Athenian town

informed, drunk,
hold has

the

same
..
.

"psychological processes
opinion."

involved in

forming

and

ing

any regarding the

an

The

content of the

opinion, its accuracy

and sense

ethical

or political problem

to which it is a response,

zero consequence

for the

process of opinion

opinion

is formed
and

arguments,

and held, one inferences, because they

formation. In explaining why abstracts wholly from its evidence,

cannot

have been the

of opinion

reasons

why the

opinion

is formed

and

held. The study

formation is

perfectly divorced from the study of opinion. How could so incredible a position come to have been held? The answer is that once the fact-value distinction was accepted this ludicrous con
clusion was

inescapable. The theoretical

political opinions rests on

presuppositions must
"values,"

be

restated.

All important

i.e.,

upon arguments as

to the ought. But since values can have no cognitive status, such arguments
can

have

no

standing.

All

opinions

reason; hence there are The purported grounds

stitute

no sound or

ultimately are equally unfounded in foolish opinions regarding the ought.

that

of

any

opinion

is,

the arguments that con

the

its

content

cannot

possibly have influenced

formation

of

the

opinion.
and

That

content which

is

a mere rationalization of subterranean

interests

passions,

are

the true determinants of the opinion.

Thus, by

necessary inference from the fact-value distinction, the study of opinion formation divorces itself from the study of opinion. The persuasiveness of modern political science, despite the ludicrousness
of

its

main

conclusion,

rests

in

part on what we all

know

and

acknowledge,
political

namely,
opinion.

that

interests

and

passions

do profoundly influence

Of

course men are childhood

science

influenced

by

their pocketbooks, their character

structures, their
modern

training,

and

the like. But influenced only;

sense

political

radicalizes

that common

understanding

into the idea

that opinions

factors,
interests
and

that opinion cannot

and passions.

regarding the ought are determined by such be more than a rationalization of underlying
to
argue

want

exactly

the contrary:

that

passion

interest

cannot

by

themselves determine opinion

and that we

have

been wrong to

accept

the notion that any opinion,

so

no matter

how

crass or

transparent,

can

be

determined.

What

an

economic

interest, for

5 M. Brewster Smith, Jerome S. Bruner, Robert W. White, Opinions and Personal ity (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964). Emphasis supplied. See also Robert E.

Lane

and

David O.

Sears,

Public Opinion (Englewood

Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,

1964). "Our study deals mostly with the ways people arrive at their opinions this, believes" rather than exploring just what it is the public (p. vi). Lane and Sears
seek

to understand "the

mechanisms

and

processes at

of

opinion

formation"

(p.

vi).

And in conclusion, "We have not looked this book, but we have examined various

the complexion of popular

beliefs in
are

ways

in

which

beliefs

and opinions

learned

and changed

(p. 1 14).

The Dependence of Fact

example,
can

"Value"

upon

233

determine is the

conclusion or objective that the opiner or

pocketbook can

rationalizer wants

to reach. A man's

indeed

make

him

favor

or oppose a

pocket; he wants
man or support

pohcy because it will or will not put money into his the end result. But that does not end the matter. The

the group or the politician has to make arguments; they have to the result they desire with an opinion that makes sense to others
as weU.

and, for that matter, usuaUy to themselves

the economic

What I

submit

is

that
not

interest,

whUe

it

explains

favoring
i.e.,

the conclusion,
content of

does

and cannot explain

the arguments offered,

the

the opinion.

Let

us acknowledge

that

most pohtical opinion

is in

some

important interest
out of

respect a rationalization.

Yes, but why does,

say, the

economic

choose this particular

rationalization, these words, these arguments,

the infinite number of possible words and arguments?

Why

this view of

justice

or

the common good and not

another?

The easy
to

answer

is that

groups choose arguments that wUl

be

persuasive

particular audiences.

But that only

pushes the problem one

and not another persuade

that audience? What

makes sense and the

economic

hence

persuades? no

Why does this argument is it in the argument that Whatever it is, it cannot spring from
subrational

step back.

interest

by itself;
us

or

arational

factors
wiU

can

transform themselves into a precise

set of arguments

or rationalizations.

Our

inquiry

therefore impels

to look for something else that

help

explain the empirical pohtical

phenomenon, the contending

opinions about

justice that form

political

life. As it were, plotting the

curve of a rationali

zation requires points on

two axes. One is indeed the axis of, say, economic

can conceive of no other explanation

interest; but
perception,

what can

the other be? I

for the behavior to be explained, i.e., the

a rational account

intimation,
of opinion

of what

content of opinion, than a really is just. Our effort to give

an empirical

forces

us

to acknowledge
so

that, just

as

facts impose themselves upon itself on our minds. In short,

the
at

our

senses,

too does the ought impose

with regard

to both the is and the ought,

lightness or correctness of opinion a

is

one of

the

causes of opinion.

This

least is

tenable hypothesis regarding the formation of opinion, whereas

view

the prevaUing
arational

that

opinion

is simply the

product
political

of

underlying
what

forces is incapable
political

of

answering the

question:

determines the

precise content of opinion?

All important kinds

of
skewed

"determinants,"

that

opinion, I submit, is the product is, what men opine is the truth

of

these two

about

justice

by

the force of interest and passion, which do

human indeed so

all of us. We aU hear the voice of justice, but the is twisted and dulled in the caverns through which it has to reach meaning us. The force of the rational factor, the intimation of what really is just, is the independent variable that belongs to political science; the force of

deeply

press upon

interest

and passion

is

what we share with

the other

is the

architectonic

task

the

fascinating

task of seeing the

disciplines. But ours blend in actual

we can

behavior

of

the

rational and subrational

forces. And the only way

do

our

job is

by

evaluating the ought arguments, which are the

factual

stuff of political

behavior.

234

Interpretation

My

meaning
are

can

be illustrated

with

well-known

example

from

Aristotle's Politics. The two

explains,
opinions of

perennial sources of political

division, Aristotle

sharing

of

the oligarchs and the democrats. They have sharply opposed justice. The democrats believe that justice requires the equal office and honors; the oligarchs believe that justice requires

inequality. The very first thing Aristotle does is to show what is sensible in both these views. "Both oligarchs and democrats have a hold on a sort of conception of justice"; but their views are incomplete and distorted. distributive justice; the view of believe, is the product of two forces, one the rational intimation of what justice is, and the other the biasing force of interest. In the first instance, their opinion is formed by the portion of the truth that they do in fact see. According to Aristotle, justice does
What
each

holds is

a skewed version of

each, Aristotle

seems

to

both a certain kind of equality and a certain kind of in in the distribution of office and honors. But the democrat, biased equality by his social and economic position, sees only the equahty side of justice; the oligarch, biased by his position, sees only the inequality side. Both indeed
require

democrats justice

and

oligarchs

by

their respective
point

are partially blinded in their conceptions of interests. Thus, "the oligarchs think that superior case
wealth means

ity

on

one

in their

democrats believe that equality in birth means equality all

partial and and

one respect

superiority on all: the for instance, that of free

round."

The

reason

they have only

this

hence

distorting

opinion of own

justice is that
u

"they

are

judging,

judging

erroneously, in their
and oligarchic

case,"

that

is, in
blend

the light of their

special

interest.
opinions, then,
rationalized. are a

Democratic
ally
see
all

of

justice
and

ration

perceived and of

interest

The task

of political science

is to

important

political

opinion

as

precisely

such

blends

to dis

tinguish the
opinion.

elements.

In

a proper political

analysis, interest

and reason are

each assigned

their just share of influence in

determining

the

content of

Evaluation is thus
"values."

inextricably

a part of

explanation; facts

are

dependent

upon

The true foundation

of a political science that

can explain political

rational and

behavior is the capacity to distinguish between the

and

the rationalizing, between the sound and foolish

fraudulent

parts of opinion.

Now before
assert

everyone

is turned
that
claim

off

that we
of

all act on

every

by this astonishing claim, let me day in our work. Unfortunately,

another or

most

the time it is done covertly; but that is

story.

When

political scientists analyze patterns of aggressive

behavior

the question

of

violence,

they

presuppose
neither

knowledge
nor

of what

the right behavior

is, i.e.,
mean.

behavior that is
almost

aggressive

timid but just right;

of a sort of

one might

say they

presuppose

knowledge

Aristotelian

The Politics of Aristotle, 1962). The

quotations are

ed.

Ernest Barker (New York: Oxford

chapter

University Press,

from Book III,

9.

The Dependence of Fact

"Value"

upon

235

similarly presupposes normative behavior has to be discriminated into categories of ordinary criminality and political militancy; i.e., the behavior has to be judged as either self-seeking or vicious or as justifiable and manly

Analysis

of ghetto riots and of

"backlash"

knowledge. For example,

riot

wrath.

And

what

happens to the fact-value distinction

an

when or

the very

word

"backlash"

means

unjustified

or

excessive

hostility

punitiveness?

For example, in

respondent would
empirical analyses

survey study of backlash, every characterization of a involve a normative judgment. In short, all important of behavior rest upon tacit premises; and if the
"value"

value premises can

have

no objective

validity,

neither

can

the

empirical

conclusions.

You

can't

teU one factual datum from another without a

normative score card.