500 



SOCRATES 



son.v 



somewhat mean-looking version of this.) It follows 

 from tliis fundamental principle that virtue i- one, 

 the excellence of each good quality jnst con-i-ting 

 in t lie /(-noiriMj/ what ought or ought not to he done. 

 It follows also that no one can know (in the truest 

 sense) what is right and yet do what i- wrong. In 

 Xenophon we do not find Socrates maintaining any 

 of these opinionn in quite MI explicit and paradox- 

 ical a form. In Plato they are carried out to their 

 logical consequences (see PLATO). We find, e.g., 

 that Xenophon makes Socrates say that rulers 

 should be those who l.nmr the art of' ruling. This 

 sound* commonplace enough. But we cannot say 

 that Socrates did not go on to propound Plato s 

 paiailo\ that the perfect state would therefore be 

 one in which the rulers were philosophers. 



Xenophon represents Socrates as using the argu- 

 ment from design to prove the existence of the 

 cpds. But we cannot say with certainty how far 

 his opinions about the gods differed from tho-e of 

 the popular religion. We may fairly suppose that 

 they approached more nearly to those of Plato 

 than to those of the average Athenian. On the 

 other hand, from the language of Plato's Apology, 

 it seems pretty clear that Socrates did not hold the 

 definite views about the immortality of the soul 

 which are maintained in the Phmio, but left the 

 question of a future life quite uncertain. 



Socrates founded no special school of philosophy, 

 but gave their starting-point to several distinct 

 schools. Euclides of Megara ( not to In- confounded 

 with the great mathematician of Alexandria who 

 lived a century later) took up the Socratic dialectic 

 as lii- main object of study, and, combining Socratic 

 with Eleatic influences, became the founder of the 

 Megaric or ' Eristic ' (i.e. disputatious) school. On 

 the other hand, AntUthenes (q.v.) the 'Cynic,' 

 who taught that virtue was the sole end of life, 

 and Aristippus (q.v.) of Cyrene, who taught that 

 pleasure was the end, neglected the intellectual 

 and logical aspects of the Socratic teaching and 

 took a narrowly practical view of the object of 

 philosophy, each maintaining an opposite extreme 

 in his view of goodness. These are often called 

 the ' one-sided ' or imperfect Socratics. Plato alone 

 inherited his master's spirit in ite fullness. 



The part of Zeller's Hirtorg of Greek PhUofophy deal- 

 ing with Socrates i published separately in the English 

 translation. The materials for the life and teaching of 

 Socrates are Xenophon'i tfrmoraliilin and Nympotiam 

 (the Apology ascribed to Xenophon is probably spurious), 

 and Plato, Apolofiy (most strictly historical of liis 

 writings), Crilo. the narrative parti of the Phinln, 

 Sympotium. For further references, see XF.NOPHOX, 

 PLATO ; see also article on ' the damum of Socrates,' by 

 H. Jackson, in Journal of PhUolo>jy, vol. v. 



Sorrnt'S. a church historian, lx>rn and brought 

 up at Constantinople about the end of the 4tli 

 centurv A.D. Little is known of his life save that 

 he followed the profession of an advocate. His 

 ^tin-in covers the period from 306 

 to 4.'fl. ami was most probably written aliont 440. 

 A historv its chief value lies in it* transparent 

 honesty, for the writer's grasp of the subject was 

 feeble and his knowledge small. He borrowed 

 from Ku-i-hiiiH, Knlinus, .Minimising, hcsi.lcs eye- 

 withe-- ami ural tradition, mainly from the mem 

 of the Xovatian party at Constantinople. He had 

 a profound reverence for driven, and a high regard 

 for Greek culture ; am! while he himself maint.-mi- 

 an easy orthodoxy. In- is indifferent to dogmatic 

 definitions and toferuf of erroneous opinion when 

 not noisv. Editions are by Ilussey ( IS33) and 

 \V. lirigiit, with Intro-Inchon (187H): there is an 

 English translation in Bohn's Library (1851), 

 another l>y I'rofes-or A. ('. /cnos in Schaffs 

 'Select Library f Niceneand Post-Nicene Fathers' 

 '2d series, Mi ii., New York, 1801). 



Soda. In its widest sense the manufacture of 

 soda embraces a chain of operation* which includes 

 the making of Sulphuric Acid ^^ lmt ltn ^ 

 (q.v.), sulphate of soda, Hydro- woo i> m u.s. by j. . 

 chloric Acid (q.v.), Bleaching^ "' O-P-J- 

 Powder (Q.V.), caustic-soua, soda-ash (alkali), and 

 crystals ofsoda( washing-soda). From some of these 

 processes valuable by-producte are also obtained, 

 such as iron, copper, and even silver from the 

 pyrites, after the latter is burned to vield the 

 sulphur required to make the sulphuric acid. This 

 sulphur is now recovered on a very large scale from 

 exhausted black-ash by ( 'bailee's process. 



Formerly most of the soda 01 commerce was 

 extracted along with other product* from the 

 ashes of certain seashore plants (see BARILLA, and 

 KELP). Natural carbonates of soda (sodium car- 

 bonates) are found in different parts of the world, 

 and in some places are worked for use. See SODIUM. 

 Tlie quantity of soda obtained from all other 

 sources is, however, now quite insignificant in com- 

 parison with that produced by the decoin|>osition 

 of common salt (chloride of sodium), either by Le- 

 Wane's process, or by the comparatively recent Am- 

 monia-soda process. This manufacture, which is 

 conducted on a gigantic scale, is the chief among 

 British chemical industries. Cryolite (q.v.), a 

 Greenland mineral, is used in the United States as 

 a source of soda, and of ite bicarbonate. 



Leblanc's process was first made known to the 

 world by a commission of the French republic in 

 1794, although dating some years earlier. It has 

 been one of the most valuable discoveries in the 

 entire range of chemical manufactures, and has 

 been practised for a century without any important 

 alteration. The author of this invention reaped 

 no benefit from it himself, but spent the last of his 

 days in an hospital, 'a wreck in fortune, health, 

 and hope.' Owing partly to the war between 

 France and England, and partly also to the exist- 

 ence of a duty of 30 per ton on common salt, which 

 continued for eight years after the close of the 

 war, Leblanc's process was not adopted in Great 

 Britain except on a very limited scale till IS'.'.'f. 

 After the repeal of the tax in that year Mr James 

 Muspratt erected his celebrated works at Liverpool, 

 adopted the process in its entirety, and succeeded, 

 after overcoming many difficulties, in establishing 

 this great industry in Great Britain. The object 

 of the process is (1) to convert common salt by the 

 action of sulphuric acid into sulphate of soda 

 (sodium sulphate); (-2) to reduce this sulphate 

 to the sulphide of sodium by the abstraction of 

 oxygen ; and (3) by certain reactions, in which car- 

 bonate of lime (calcium carbonate) takes part, to 

 produce either carbonate of soda (sodium canionate) 

 or caustic-soda. The several stages are as follows. 



I'nnl urtinn i if Suit-rake or Sul/iti'it'' "f Soda 

 iinii Siil/ihute). The decomposition of common 

 iilt is effected by treating it with sulphuric acid, 

 which converts it into sulphate of soda ami hydro- 

 chloric acid, thus : 



Chlorld of Sodium (Sodium ^ 

 I Common Salt) (Chlorine. 



Hydrated /Water -JS^!!?*" 

 flo 1 pfIur.cAcid( 8ulphur) ' c ^ 



The reaction is represented by the equation 

 2NaCl -f H.SO4 = 2HC1 + NatSOt. 



This operation was long conducted in a rever- 

 beratorv furnace, which allowed the gaseous 

 hydrochloric ai'iil produced to e-eape into tin 1 air, 

 to the destruction of all vegetation in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Fig. 1 will serve as a diagram to 

 explain the nature of the salt-cake furnace, called 



