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in the habit of believing in oracles and other special intima- 

 tions from the gods, to which the " divine sign" of Socrates 

 was strictly analogous. Hegel characteristically accounts for 

 it as an instance of somnambulism, supposing it to have been 

 the reflection of his own consciousness in a mesmeric trance ; 

 in proof of which he cites the fact that on one occasion, before 

 the camp at Potidsea, he was observed to remain for many 

 hours together in the same position, apparently lost in thought. 

 But, however we may attempt to explain the fact, it must be 

 admitted that the conviction in the mind of Socrates (evi- 

 dently serious and sincere) was a proof of deep religious 

 sensibility. 



We next come to the nature and tendency of his philo- 

 sophy. He states in his Apology that his friend and admirer 

 Chserephon had put this question to the oracle at Delphi, 

 whether any other man was wiser than Socrates, to which the 

 Pythian priestess replied, that no other man was wiser. 

 This perplexed Socrates, who felt conscious of no peculiar 

 wisdom, but at length he proceeded to test by scrutinizing 

 questions all who thought themselves wise (politicians, poets, 

 artists, and others) ; the result of which was that neither he 

 nor they knew any thing of what was truly good or honour- 

 able, but they fancied they knew, while he was conscious of 

 his ignorance. This, accordingly, he regarded as his mis- 

 sion, to convict by cross-examination the conceit of knowledge 

 without the reality. It may easily be believed that, as he 

 says, in the exercise of this mission he provoked many per- 

 sonal enemies. He constantly contrasted the state of men's 

 knowledge on the general topics of man and society with that 

 which artists or professional men possessed in their callings. 

 He was the first, says Mr. Grote, to proclaim that " the proper 

 study of mankind is man." Xenophon says of him that he 

 was always discussing human affairs ; investigating, what is 

 piety ? what is impiety ? what is the honourable and the base ? 

 what is the just and the unjust ? what is temperance, or un- 



