t
be a nonentity. Be he good or bad, he must be conceived in the grand
manner. Milton's Satan is not good, but he is great, and would be a
fit subject for a tragedy. The soundness of Aristotle's thought here
is very noteworthy. What is mean and sordid can never form the basis
of tragedy. Modern newspapers have done their best to debauch this
word tragedy. Some wretched noteless human being is crushed to death
by a train, and the newspapers head their paragraph "Fearful Tragedy
at Peckham Rye." Now such an incident may be sad, it may be dreadful,
it may be horrible, but it is not tragic. Tragedy no doubt deals with
suffering. But there is nothing great and ennobling about this
suffering, and tragedy is concerned with the sufferings of greatness.
In the same way, Aristotle does not mean that the comic {331} hero is
necessarily a wicked man, but that he is, on the whole, a poor
creature, an insignificant being. He may be very worthy, but there is
something low and ignoble about him which makes us laugh.

Tragedy brings about a purification of the soul through pity and
terror. Mean, sordid, or dreadful things do not ennoble us. But the
representation of truly great and tragic sufferings arouses in the
beholder pity and terror which purge his spirit, and render it serene
and pure. This is the thought of a great and penetrating critic. The
theory of certain scholars, based upon etymological grounds, that it
means that the soul is purged, not _through_, but _of_ pity and
terror, that by means of a diarrhoea of these unpleasant emotions we
get rid of them and are left happy, is the thought of men whose
scholarship may be great, but whose understanding of art is limited.
Such a theory would reduce Aristotle's great and illuminating
criticism to the meaningless babble of a philistine.

7. Critical Estimate of Aristotle's Philosophy.

It is not necessary to spend so much time upon criticising Aristotle
as we spent upon doing the same for Plato, and that for two reasons.
In the first place, Plato with his obvious greatness abounded in
defects which had to be pointed out, whereas we have but little
adverse criticism for Aristotle. Secondly, Aristotle's main defect is
a dualism almost identical with that of Plato, and what has been said
of the one need only be shortly applied to the other.

At bottom Aristotle's philosophy is the same as Plato's, with some of
the main defects and crudities removed. Plato was the founder of th