ARTS, LIBERAL. or SEVEN LIBERAL. The dis tinction between the liberal arts and the practi cal arts on the one hand, and philosophy on the other, originates in Greek education and phi losophy. In the Republic (lik. xi.) of Plato, and the Politics 1) of Aristotle, the 'liberal arts' are those subjects that are suitable for the development I if intellectual and moral excellence, as distinguished from those that are merely use ful or practical. The distinction was always made, by the Greek theorists, between music, lit erature in the form of grammar and rhetoric, and the mathematical studies, and that higher aspect of the liberal discipline termed philosophy. Philosophy was sometimes called the liberal art par cscenenct. Philo of Judlua, in his attempt to harmonize Hebrew religious literature and Greek philosophy by allegorical interpretation, takes this relationship of the arts and philosophy as the meaning of the union of Abraham with Hagar and Sarah. the former typifying the lib eral arts, the latter typifying philosophy. No definite number was ever assigned to the liberal arts by the Greeks, though the distinction later indicated by the terms tririum and guadririunt is clearly drawn in the Republic of Plato. Varro (im.c. 116-2S) reproduces the distinction and the substance of the various 'liberal arts' for the Romans, though he includes medicine and archi tecture, both practical subjects, excluded alike by Greek and by Medheval thought. Quintilian (A.D. 35-95) dNeusses five arts, grammar. rheto ric, music, geometry, and astronomy; but with the subdivision of the first and fourth, there would be added dialectic and arithmetic. By the Fifth Century the number of arts is definitely recognized as seven, both by the churchman Au gustine and the pagan Martiamis Capella. Cas
siodorus, in the Sixth Century, applies the term quadririum to arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; probably before that time the term tricium had been applied to grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, to indicate the trinity of time subject rather than simply their elementary character. By the time of Alcnin, in the Eighth Century, a sacred significance is attached to the number seven. and the Church appropriates, this organiza tion of human or pagan learning, to which at first it had been extremely hostile. Throughout the Middle Ages the 'seven arts,' as combined into the tricium and guadricium, represent the sum of human learning. Dante, in his // convito (Bk. II.), identifies them with the seven planet ary circles of the heavens, and discovers in each planet the characteristic excellence of the appro priate study. The 'Seven Liberal Arts' formed the curriculum of the early universities, and their mastery entitled one to the degree of bachc/or, or maWer 'in arts.' For the greater portion of the Middle Ages philosophy had simply been the inclusive hom, hut with the develop ment of the universities it was recognized as a higher discipline. The Renaissanee broke down even this limitation, and hereafter knowledge was no longer confined to these definite and nar row limits. For a survey of the significance of the term liberal arts, consult: Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals (New- York, 1397) ; and also an article on which this is based, by A. F. West, Princeton College Bulletin (1890). See DEGREE; DIPLOMA; UNIVERSITY; PHILOSOPHY.