"SOCRATES. 87 



that flourished at that period. Herodotus and Thiieydides, the histori- 

 ans, Aschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, the dramatists, Callicrates and 

 Phidias, the sculptors, Zeuxis, the painter, Hippocrates, the father of 

 medicine, were all known to our philosopher, and he was esteemed the 

 greatest among the great. Although of humble extraction, the son of a 

 statuary, wisdom adopted him as a favorite child and bestowed upon him 

 a nature of imperishable lustre. Although his physiognomy was so un- 

 prepossessing as to resemble a satyr and a buffoon, his soul was all vir- 

 tue, and from within issued such sublime and pathetic things as brought 

 tears from the hearer and melted the most obdurate heart. His father, 

 Sophroniscus, furnished him witli the best facilities for mental cultiu-e 

 and in early life placed him under the instruction of that eminent teach- 

 er, Anaxagoras, whose sublime principles of theology soon exerted an in- 

 fluence upon his mind and laid the foundation of that exemplary charac- 

 ter which has been the admiration of the world. F'rom his youth he 

 was wholly , intent upon the acquisition and communication of knowl- 

 edge ; and was deeply impressed with the conviction that an obligation 

 rested upon him to persuade his countrymen to the practice of moral 

 excellence: with this was united a noble contempt of his own private 

 emolument, which induced him constantly to decline and refuse all those 

 compensations, which from the value of his instructions might have ren- 

 dered him wealthy. His whole life was public, open and in the sight of 

 all men, and in cordial fellowship with all : and such was the originality 

 and grandeur of his sentiments, the eloquence and power of his expres- 

 sions, that the most exalted individuals, of whom the city of Minerva 

 could boast, were attracted to his abode — men of rank and wealth, states- 

 men and scholars, poets and historians, orators and philosophers listened 

 with mingled emotions of pleasure and wonder to the lessons of wisdom 

 as they fell from his lips. The multitude too were his hearers in the 

 crowded agora ; and all his energies were directed to the single purpose 

 of rendering them wiser and better. This paragon of excellence, how- 

 ever, became an object of hatred to the fickle and corrupt Athenians. — • 

 He had especially excited the jealousy and raised the ire of the vain soph- 

 ists, pseudo-philosophers, n'hose icliole science consisted in an artificial 

 apparatus of general arguments u'hich they could apply to every suhject, 

 and by loliicli they could maintain^ with an appearance of plansililify, 

 either side of any question. Socrates having no sympathy for their mer- 

 cenary quackery and holding in detestation their inane paradoxical hy- 

 potheses, fearlessly unmasked their pretended excellencies and destroy- 

 ed their credit with the people. In opposition to t!ie prevalent senti- 

 ments, he taught that there was one supreme Providence "whose eyes- 



