181 



Christian, though brought up amidst tlie licentious heathenism 

 of Athens, in the fifth century B.C., and falling a victim to 

 the fickle caprice of an unappreciating and unworthy people. 

 Thus Erasmus felt tempted to say, " Sancte Socrates, ora pro 

 nobis." Others, however, have gone to the opposite extreme, 

 taking up the allegations and arguments of his adversaries, 

 and even maintaining that he was legally and justly con- 

 demned. There is a natural propensity in the minds of learned 

 and ingenious men to scrutinize and suspect the prevailing 

 belief on every subject, more especially in Germany, where 

 there is so great a premium on novelty of speculation, as well 

 as on soundness of knowledge and depth of research. 



It has been suggested by an able writer that the vehement 

 and bitter attacks recently directed against the character of 

 Socrates by Forchhammer and others, have probably arisen 

 from a reaction against the German rationalists. If this be so, 

 it is obviously unfair, in a moral point of view, to put them on 

 the same footing with Socrates, who, circumstanced as he was, 

 could have no higher or truer guidance than his own natural 

 gifts. It is, however, only reasonable that the character and 

 reputation of Socrates should undergo a cross-examination and 

 analysis as searching and unsparing as that which he himself 

 introduced into ethical philosophy, provided it be borne in 

 mind that, as he cannot now answer what is charged against 

 him, nothing be advanced without good and sufiicient proof. 

 " De mortuis, nil nisi verum" should at least be sacredly 

 respected, even if we reject the " nisi honnm" Dr. Thirlwall 

 has given an instructive and interesting review of the senti- 

 ments expressed by Hegel and other eminent German writers, 

 in reference to Socrates and his condemnation, in his History 

 of Grece, (Vol. 4, append. 7, last edition). A valuable con- 

 tribution towards forming a just judgment on the same subject 

 has still more lately been furnished by Mr. Grote, in the 8th 

 volume of his History, in which he enters into a learned, 

 thorough and discriminating investigation of the whole matter. 



