26 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



or not), aimed a deadly blow at the lucrative calling of the whole 

 tribe of exegetae and soothsayers. 



The example of Nicias, as represented by Thucydides in his 

 account of the Athenian expedition against Sicily, affords a striking 

 Prevalence of proof of the hold, which this superstition had obtained upon the minds 

 in P Greece? n even f tne higher classes in Greece; while, on the other hand, 

 Pericles was a remarkable instance of the advantage which a man of 

 powerful mind acquires over his contemporaries, by divesting himself 

 of the superstitious notions of the age in which he lives. The fol- 

 lowing is the observation of Plutarch : " Pericles not only derived 

 this benefit from his intercourse with Anaxagoras, but he seems to 

 have been rendered superior to that kind of superstitious fear, which 

 astonishment at the phenomena of the heavens excites in those who 

 are ignorant of the causes of them, and by reason of their inexperience, 

 are disturbed, and like persons possessed in religious matters: from 

 which superstition natural philosophy emancipates a man, and inspires 

 him with a firm piety, accompanied by pleasing hopes, in the room of 

 this terrifying and feverish superstition." The same author, speaking 

 of the eclipse of the moon, which induced Nicias to defer his retreat, 

 says, that eclipses of the sun were then pretty well understood by 

 the common people to be occasioned by the moon ; but an eclipse 

 of the moon itself was much more incomprehensible, and a subject 

 of great alarm. For Anaxagoras, the first philosopher who had 

 written clearly on the subject, had not publicly divulged his opinions ; 

 but his scholars kept them close amongst themselves through fear of 

 the people, who could not endure those philosophers who treated of 

 natural causes, but called them in contempt ^erewjOoXt'ffxai, or " per- 

 sons who prose about things in the sky;" being jealous of their 

 attributing to natural causes, that which belonged to the gods alone ; 

 ibr which reason Protagoras was banished from Athens, and Anax- 

 agoras put into prison ; from which he was with great difficulty libe- 

 rated by Pericles. 



It was obviously the interest of all the expounders and soothsayers 

 above mentioned to foment the popular jealousy of these studies, and 

 to raise the cry of atheism against the new philosophy. Anaxagoras 

 was accused of impiety v because he asserted that the sun was a mass 

 of ignited stone, thereby degrading that luminary from the order of 

 gods ; and when Aristophanes, some years afterwards, endeavoured 

 to fix the popular odium on Socrates, he represented him as a minute 

 philosopher, prying into the secrets of nature. It was well observed 

 by Justin Martyr, " Those persons before the Christian era, who 

 endeavoured by the strength of human understanding to investigate 

 and ascertain the nature of things, were brought into the courts of 

 justice as impious and over-curious." 



The Sophists. We have before observed, that the name which was applied to 

 these persons who inquired into the secrets of nature, or studied 

 political economy, was Sc^iorfe, " sophist." It is said by Isocrates, 



