The Classical Wisdom Tradition

Selections from Aristotle’s treatise on household management, part 2. “Now in the other animals this intercourse is not based on reason, but depends on the amount of natural instinct which they possess and is entirely for the purpose of procreation. But in the civilized and more intelligent animals the bond of unity is more perfect (for in them we see more mutual help and goodwill and co-operation), above all in the case of man, because the female and the male co-operate to ensure not merely existence but a good life.” Aristotle, Economics Book I Chapter 3 (1343b12-20)

Selections from Aristotle’s treatise on household management, part 1. “As regards the human part of the household, the first care is concerning a wife; for a common life is above all things natural to the female and to the male. For we have elsewhere laid down the principle that nature aims at producing many such forms of association, just as also it produces the various kinds of animals. But it is impossible for the female to accomplish this without the male or the male without the female, so that their common life has necessarily arisen.” Aristotle, Economics Book I Chapter 3 (1343b7-12)

“Household management” is the literal meaning of Greek οἰκονομία, Latin oeconomia. In English, the words "economy" and "economics" have since the 17th century come to refer more narrowly to the management and theory of social and state wealth. However, the term originally referred broadly to the administration of the household, including family relations, work, and practical affairs generally. Two major sources on household management are Xenophon’s Socratic dialogue Oeconomicus and Aristotle’s Economics.

Starting next Sunday, we will begin a series of summer Sunday prayers along with a recommended reading for the week from our book The Flower of the Mind (Free pdf you can find here: t.me/classicalpolyt…). The goal will be to read the whole book through the summer once. We are inviting everyone to participate in collective prayers and reading. Please share your insights and experiences in the comments. Recommended reading for the next week: Prelude to the Reawakening of Europe i

“The cures for the spirit also have been discovered by the ancients; but it is our task to learn the method and the time of treatment. Our predecessors have worked much improvement, but have not worked out the problem. They deserve respect, however, and should be worshipped with a divine ritual. Why should I not keep statues of great men to kindle my enthusiasm, and celebrate their birthdays? Why should I not continually greet them with respect and honour? The reverence which I owe to my own teachers I owe in like measure to those teachers of the human race, the source from which the beginnings of such great blessings have flowed. If I meet a consul or a praetor, I shall pay him all the honour which his post of honour is wont to receive: I shall dismount, uncover, and yield the road. What, then? Shall I admit into my soul with less than the highest marks of respect Marcus Cato, the Elder and the Younger, Laelius the Wise, Socrates and Plato, Zeno and Cleanthes? I worship them in very truth, and always rise to do honour to such noble names. Farewell.” Seneca, Letters 64

On a similar note, Julius Caesar wrote about how young Germanic tribesmen in their early twenties highly valued chastity, believing that it made men stronger, taller, and more muscular. More on this soon.

“When men have wearied themselves with wine and lust, when night fails them before their debauch is done, when the pleasures which they have heaped upon a body that is too small to hold them begin to fester, at such times they utter in their wretchedness those lines of Vergil: Thou knowest how, amid false-glittering joys. We spent that last of nights. Pleasure-lovers spend every night amid false-glittering joys, and just as if it were their last. But the joy which comes to the gods, and to those who imitate the gods, is not broken off, nor does it cease; but it would surely cease were it borrowed from without. Just because it is not in the power of another to bestow, neither is it subject to another's whims. That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away. Farewell.” Seneca, Letters 59

"Let this, therefore, be a fundamental principle in all societies, that the gods are the supreme lords and governors of all things, - that all events are directed by their influence and wisdom, and that they are loving and benevolent to mankind." - Cicero

Ritual purity has three key dimensions: I. Ethical purity. We must live our lives free from licentiousness, passion, and injustice, following God obediently with correct and pious conceptions of divinity. II. Dietary purity. We must follow customary dietary guidelines. III. Physical purity. Clothes, ritual instruments, and sacrificial space should be clean and consecrated. "But as for you, turn your foolish heart altogether away from these things [i.e., examples of vice], and, as far as you are able, sacrifice to the deathless gods purely and cleanly, and burn rich meats also, and at other times propitiate them with libations and offerings, both when you go to bed and when the holy light has come back, that they may be gracious to you in heart and spirit" Hesiod, Works and Days 335-340 "If a good man sacrifices to the gods and keeps them constant company in his prayers and offerings and every kind of worship he can give them, this will be the best and noblest policy he can follow ... But if the wicked man does it, the results are bound to be just the opposite. Whereas the good man's soul is clean, the wicked man's soul is polluted, and it is never right for a good man or for God to receive gifts from unclean hands ..." Plato, Laws 716d-717a "But it also becomes incumbent on every one to offer libations and sacrifices and first-fruits, according to the customs of his country, purely, and not heedlessly nor negligently; not stingily nor extravagantly." Epictetus, The Handbook 31

"We must therefore rouse ourselves to action and busy ourselves with interests that are good, as often as we are in the grasp of an uncontrollable sluggishness." Seneca, Letters 56

“I would therefore have you reflect thus, not only when it is a question of gain, but also when it is a question of loss. 'This object is bound to perish.' Yes, it was a mere extra; you will live without it just as easily as you have lived before. If you have possessed it for a long time, you lose it after you have had your fill of it; if you have not possessed it long, then you lose it before you have become wedded to it. 'You will have less money.' Yes, and less trouble. 'Less influence.' Yes, and less envy. Look about you and note the things that drive us mad, which we lose with a flood of tears; you will perceive that it is not the loss that troubles us with reference to these things, but a notion of loss. No one feels that they have been lost, but his mind tells him that it has been so. He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self! Farewell.” Seneca, Letters 42

“Therefore, with regard to the objects which we pursue, and for which we strive with great effort, we should note this truth; either there is nothing desirable in them, or the undesirable is preponderant. Some objects are superfluous; others are not worth the price we pay for them. But we do not see this clearly, and we regard things as free gifts when they really cost us very dear. Our stupidity may be clearly proved by the fact that we hold that "buying" refers only to the objects for which we pay cash, and we regard as free gifts the things for which we spend our very selves. These we should refuse to buy, if we were compelled to give in payment for them our houses or some attractive and profitable estate; but we are eager to attain them at the cost of anxiety, of danger, and of lost honour, personal freedom, and time; so true it is that each man regards nothing as cheaper than himself.” Seneca, Letters 42

“No man ought to glory except in that which is his own. We praise a vine if it makes the shoots teem with increase, if by its weight it bends to the ground the very poles which hold its fruit; would any man prefer to this vine one from which golden grapes and golden leaves hang down? In a vine the virtue peculiarly its own is fertility; in man also we should praise that which is his own. Suppose that he has a retinue of comely slaves and a beautiful house, that his farm is large and large his income; none of these things is in the man himself; they are all on the outside. Praise the quality in him which cannot be given or snatched away, that which is the peculiar property of the man. Do you ask what this is? It is soul, and reason brought to perfection in the soul. For man is a reasoning animal. Therefore, man's highest good is attained, if he has fulfilled the good for which nature designed him at birth. And what is it which this reason demands of him? The easiest thing in the world, – to live in accordance with his own nature. But this is turned into a hard task by the general madness of mankind; we push one another into vice. And how can a man be recalled to salvation, when he has none to restrain him, and all mankind to urge him on? Farewell.” Seneca, Letters 41

“We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God.” Seneca, Letters 41