SOCRATES. 17 



ally distorted, or the features too strongly marked, by the brilliant and 

 inventive genius of that wonderful man. Even upon the testimony of 

 Aristotle we cannot depend with certainty ; for he was notorious for 

 his misrepresentations of the tenets of his predecessors. It is only in 

 the deficiency of more authentic sources of information, that we can 

 trust ourselves to the accuracy of such a writer as Plutarch ; and we 

 can never rely with satisfaction upon the relation of Diogenes Laertius, 

 unless his accounts be either corroborated by less doubtful writers, or 

 bear in themselves the marks of consistency and credibility. Amongst 

 the later authors, Cicero is the most trustworthy source of information 

 concerning the Greek philosophers; yet even he lived at so great a 

 distance of time from the earlier masters of wisdom, that it is more 

 than probable, that their doctrines descended to him much altered and 

 corrupted, through the channels of the more modern philosophy. 



It is commonly said of Socrates, that he was the first person who t 

 brought down philosophy from the skies, and introduced her into the 

 commerce of civil life. But although in his time the title of philoso- 

 pher was almost entirely confined to those who busied themselves in 

 physical researches, or speculated upon abstract notions ; yet at an 

 earlier period the wise men of Greece (for the name of philosopher 

 was not then invented) seem to have directed their attention to the 

 laudable objects of improving the science of legislation and govern- 

 ment ; in pursuit of which, they travelled into the more ancient and 

 flourishing kingdoms of Egypt and the East. It is related by Hero- 

 dotus (1. 29) that the court of Croesus was visited by all the 

 Sophists?, 1 at that time living in Greece. 



Thales, however, appears to have merited the appellation chiefly by Thaies, bom 

 his skill in astronomy and geometry, and by his theories upon the B ' * 640> 

 formation of the universe ; they are the real foundations of his fame ; 

 for as to his speculations upon the divine nature and government, it is 

 extremely difficult, from the causes above mentioned, to ascertain what 

 were really the doctrines of Thales. 



One instance will serve to illustrate this difficulty. We read in 

 Aristotle (de An. 1. 5.) that Thales thought the universe to be full of 

 gods. Diogenes Laertius says, Thales taught that the universe was 

 animated, and full of daemons. But now comes Cicero, and tells us 

 that Thales admonished mankind to bear in mind that the gods per- 

 ceived all things, for that all things were full of them. Valerius 

 Maximus goes one step farther, and asserts that Thales, being asked 

 whether the actions of men escaped the notice of the gods, replied, 

 Not even their thoughts ; " Nee cogitata, inquit. Ut non solum manus, 

 sed etiam mentes puras habere velkmus ; cum secretis cogitationibus 



1 2a<p/<r<nk, ' a contriver.' The Scholiast on Homer, II. 0. 410 (where it is said 

 of a ship carpenter, o; pa, TI xu.ff'K E5 si'SJj <ro<p /??), that the ancients called all 

 artizans <ro<p<<rT/. Herodotus gives this appellation to the mythological philoso- 

 phers before spoken of, and to Pythagoras. Thucydides applies it to the teachers 

 of rhetoric and logic. 



[G. E. P.] C 



