History of Philosophy. 67 



" Men appear wise from their knowledge, not from their ignorance > 

 therefore knowledge is wisdom. But no man can know all things; 

 therefore no man can be in all respects wise. He therefore is 

 wise, who knows that which he professes." 



We cannot better wind up our account of the mode of instruction 

 adopted by Socrates, than by citing a brief summary of his doctrines 

 from the Greek of Themistius, quoted by M. Stapfer in his volume, 

 " De Philosophid Socratis" and translated by M. Degerando, in his 

 admirable work on the Ancient Philosophy. 



" Before the time of Socrates, almost all philosophers were 

 occupied in considering the universe, the form of the earth, and the 

 place it occupies in that universe, and the mode of reproduction of 

 the animal and vegetable kingdom. Socrates did not think the mind 

 of man capable of attaining this knowledge, or at least, that the search 

 after it would turn him from more practically useful enquiries. He 

 was the first to investigate the means, by which a man may become 

 virtuous and honest, and to show him how the germs of virtue may be 

 developed the seeds of vice be stifled at their birth. But he is still 

 further distinguished from the other philosophers of antiquity in the 

 openness, with which he delivered his precepts, not |>in secret to a 

 chosen body of disciples, but to all the world in the most public and fre*- 

 quented places of resort." 



Such were in short the methods employed by the master of Plato, 

 and Xenophon, to inculcate the great moral truths which he wished to 

 disseminate among men. Thus he combated the specious reasonings of 

 the Sophists, and pursuing an opposite plan to that of his predeces- 

 sors sought to render abstruse and difficult points clear and intelligi- 

 ble to ordinary capacities, as they on the contrary had endeavoured 

 to mystify and obscure the simplest ideas by an incomprehensible 

 jargon. He appears to have had no object in view but the good of 

 mankind. To administer to the happiness and well-being of his fellow- 

 men, was the first and only object of his ambition. Wealth or high 

 station he coveted not, luxury he despised* As far as mere human 

 intelligence without the aid of divine wisdom can advance on the 

 road to perfection, he advanced. He was happy, for his mind was 

 contented ; and " a contented mind is a continual feast. He was 

 happy ; for his happiness consisted in promoting the well-being of his 

 fellows, and in contributing to the amelioration of social nature. He 

 was happy ; for he practised as he preached, the excellencies of vir- 

 tue and morality. 



Such goodness would in itself have excited the envy of the ill- 

 directed minds of some men ; but he had raised up a formidable body 

 of enemies in the Sophists, whose fallacies he had refuted, whos^ 

 doctrines he had disproved, and whose mysteries lie had unveiled. 

 He was not only reviled by these persecutors, but held up to the con- 

 tempt of his countrymen in the witty but licentious verses of Aristo- 

 phanes. Nor did their hatred stop here. The offence was too grave 

 to be so easily effaced from their memories. The arrows of his ridi- 

 cule were too sharply pointed not to rankle in their wounds. His blood 

 only would satisfy them: and thus by the malevolence of a party, the 

 just and wise Socrates was cruelly and wantonly murdered. He died as 



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