=The Ethical Theory of Democritus.= The ethics of Democritus is another example of his general principle of a mechanism of atoms. His attempt to reduce all qualitative to quantitative relations, which gives his theory a unique place in Greek thought, reaches its highest distinction in his ethics. The influence of his ethical doctrine upon the Epicureans, and possibly upon the Cyrenaics, shows its importance in history. Furthermore, its high quality proves that a materialism can offer inspiring ethical doctrines. Some have placed the ethics of Democritus upon a level with the ethics of Socrates because, as it is pointed out, he placed it upon an intellectual basis. The basal ethical principle of Democritus may be stated thus: As true knowledge is the ideal object of the intellect, so true happiness is the ideal object of our conduct. The ethics of Democritus is eudæmonistic, like that of Socrates. Pleasures have fundamental differences. They are in every case the results of atomic motions; but the atomic motions of the intellect differ from those of the senses, and those of the senses differ from one another. The fire atoms of the intellect are small, and have a gentle, peaceful motion; the atomic motions of the senses are coarse and violent, caused by the coarse effluxes of the objects that excite them. Sense-pleasures are relative, like the perceptions. As perception is obscure insight and gains the appearance and not the true reality, so the pleasures of sense are transitory, uncertain, violent, and deceitful. Intellectual pleasures are, like the intellect, real, true, permanent, gentle, and peaceful. True happiness, the goal of human activity, attends upon that right insight――upon the gentle atomic motions of the intellectual life. On the other hand, the coarse atomic motions of the senses disturb the intellectual calm, and are often violent explosions. Democritus believed that knowledge of the atoms, as the true explanation of the world, will give to the soul a measure and a harmony, will guard it from excitement and make it possessor of a peace which――to use his happy simile――is like the ocean calm. Two ideals seem to stand before Democritus, which he did not try to reconcile. Sometimes before his mind’s eye the ideal happiness is purely intellectual pleasure and points toward asceticism. Sometimes he speaks of happiness as the life of perfect self-control and temperance. He never positively denies all value to sense-pleasure, but he gives to sense-pleasure the relative value that he gives to the senses themselves. In every case the ground of happiness is intellectual refinement, and the ground of unhappiness the lack of it. The majority of men are sensualists and are to be contrasted with the Wise Man, who finds his happiness either in his individual life or in his friendship with other Wise Men. CHAPTER VII PLATO (427–347 B. C.)