ARTS
760
ARTS
ancient privilege of "Regency", or the right to
teach, though only in the colleges, the university
professors being specially appointed. In American
universities, which followed here the example of
Oxford and Cambridge, the Mastership was, until
1860, the only degree given in Arts after the Bac-
calaureate and it was usually conferred several years
after the Baccalaureate, residence at the institution
meanwhile not being requisite. In that year, how-
ever, the growing influence of German academic
ideals was evidenced in the introduction, by Yale, of
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Since then one
university after another has introduced this degree,
until at present, the offering of a course of study
and research leading to the Doctorate in Philosophy,
has come to be looked upon as a test of the fitness
of an institution to be classed as a graduate school
or university. Generally speaking, a minimum of
three years' time is required for the degree after the
Baccalaureate, and a thesis embodying original re-
search on some important subject is, as in Germany,
regarded as the most important test of qualification.
The development of the Doctorate course in American
universities has had important effects upon the degree
of A.M. It now holds a middle place between the
Baccalaureate and the Doctorate, and in order to ob-
tain it in the universities, a minimum residence of
one year is required. The bringing together in this
way of the historic degrees of Master of Arts and
Doctor of Philosophy, although effected somewhat at
the expense of the Mastership, is an interesting phe-
nomenon pointing to the two great university types
after which the American university has been
moulded, the relative positions of the two degrees
indicating, at the same time, the predominance at
present of the German over the English type.
J. A. Burns.
Arts, The Seven Ijberal. — The expression artes liberales, chiefly used during the Middle Ages, does not mean arts as we understand the word at the present day, but those branches of knowledge which were taught in the schools of that time. They are called liberal (liat. liber, free), because they serve the purpose of training the free man, in contrast with the artes illiberales, which are pursued for economic purposes; their aim is to prepare the student not for gaining a livelihood, but for the pursuit of science in the strict sense of the term, i. e. the combination of philosophy and theology known as scholasticism. They are seven in num- ber and may be arranged in two groups, the first embracing grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, in other words, the sciences of language, of oratory, and of logic, better known as the artes serinocinales, or language studies; the second group comprises arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, i. e. the mathematico-physical disciplines, known as the artes reales, or physicoe. The first group is considered to be the elementary group, whence these branches are also called artes Iriviales, or trivium, i. e. a well- beaten ground like the junction of three roads, or a cross-roads open to all. Contrasted with them we find the mathematical disciplines as artes quadriviales , or quarlrivium, or a road with four branches. The seven liberal arts are thus the members of a system of studies which embraces language branches as the lower, the mathematical branches as the interme- diate, and science properly so called as the upper- most and terminal grade. Though this system did not receive the distinct development connoted by its name until the Middle Ages, still it extends in the history of pedagogy both backwards and forwards; for while, on the one hand, we meet with it among the cla-ssical nations, the Greeks and Romans, and even discover analogous forms as forerunners in the educational system of the ancient Orientals, its
influence, on the other hand, has lasted far beyond
the Middle Ages, up to the present time.
It is desirable, for several reasons, to treat the system of the seven liberal arts from this point of view, and this we propose to do in the present article. The subject possesses a special interest for the historian, because an evolution, extending through more than two thousand years and still in active operation, here challenges our attention as surpass- ing both in its duration and its local ramifications all other phases of pedagogy. But it is equally in- structive for the philosopher because thinkers like Pythagoras, Plato, and bt. Augustine collaborated in the framing of the system, and because in general much thought and, we may say, much pedagogical wisdom have been embodied in it. Hence, also, it is of importance to the practical teacher, because among the comments of so many schoolmen on this subject may be found many suggestions which are of the greatest utility.
The Oriental system of study, which exhibits an instructive analogy with the one here treated, is that of the ancient Hindus still in vogue among the Brahmins. In this, the highest object is the study of the Veda, i. e. the science or doctrine of divine things, the summary of their speculative and re- ligious writings for the understanding of which ten auxiliary sciences were pressed into service, four of which, viz. phonology, grammar, exegesis, and logic, are of a linguist ico-logical nature, and can thus be compared with the Trivium; while two, viz. astronomy and metrics, belong to the domain of mathematics, and therefore to the Quadrivium. The remainder, viz. law, ceremonial lore, legendary lore, and dogma, belong to theology. Among the Greeks the place of the Veda is taken by philosophy, i. e. the study of wisdom, the scwnee of tdtimate causes which in one point of view is identical with theology. "Natural Theology", i. e. the doctrine of the nature of the Godhead and of Divine things, was considered as the domain of the philosopher, just as "political theology" was that of the priest, and "mystical theology" of the poet. [See O. Willmann, Geschichte des Idealismus (Brunswick, 1S94), I, § 10.] Pythagoras (who flourished between 540 B. c. and 510 B. c.) first called himself a philoso- pher, but was also esteemed as the greatest Greek theologian. The curriculum \\hich he arranged for his pupils led up to the Upbi \6yos, i. e. the sacred teaching, the preparation for which the students received as fiadrifiaTiKot, i. e. learners, or persons occupied with the tiaB'^ixara, the "science of learn- ing" — that, in fact, now known as mathematics. The preparation for this was that which the disciples underwent as dKov^fiariKot, "hearers", after which preparation they were introduced to what was then current among the Greeks as /uouo-ikt; irai5e/a, "musi- cal education", consisting of reading, writing, les- sons from the poets, exercises in memorizing, and the technique of music. The intermediate position of mathematics is attested by the ancient expression of the Pythagoreans /leraixiJ-uv, i. e. "spear-dis- tance"; properly, the space between the combat- ants; in this case, between the elementary and the strictly scientific education. Pythagoras is more- over renowned for having converted geometrical, i. e. mathematical, investigation into a form of edu- cation for freemen. (I'roclus, Commentary on Kuclid, I, p. 19, TTjv trepl TTjf yeuficrptav (ptXoaotpiay fli crxw" Trai5eios iXevO^pov p.eT^<rTTj<rev.) "lie dis- covered a mean or intermediate stage between the mathematics of the temple and the mathematics of
Cractical life, such as that usi^l by surveyors and usiness people; he preserves the high aims of the former, at the same time making it the paliestra of intellect; he presses a religious discipline mto the service of secular life without, however, robbing it
