SOCRATES. 27 



that Solon was the first who assumed this title ; that is, probably, the 

 first Athenian. About the time of Socrates this appellation began to 

 be applied to those professors of wisdom, who dogmatised with con- 

 fidence upon every subject, and taught philosophy as a perfect science, 

 for pay ; while the modest inquirers after truth contented themselves 

 with the title of 0tXo<ro</>ot, " lovers of wisdom," after the example 

 of Pythagoras. By degrees, these two classes of men became distinct 

 from, and opposed to each other, chiefly through the influence of 

 Socrates ; but in his time the distinction was not established. About 

 that period, however, the sophists began to assume a tone of greater 

 confidence, and professed to teach the principles of natural and moral 

 philosophy as matters, not of investigation, but of certainty; and 

 seeing the success which had attended the lectures of Anaxagoras, by 

 whose advice Pericles had been enabled to obtain the control and 

 direction of the Athenian republic, they joined the arts of logic and 

 eloquence to the study of morality and natural history, and pretended 

 to be masters and teachers of the whole circle of human knowledge. 

 In reading the history of those times, as it regards the progress of 

 philosophy, we must be careful not to confound the sophists of the 

 Socrai-ic age with those of a later period, who confined themselves to 

 the art of rhetoric : such were the sophistse whose lives were written 

 by Philostratus. That the sophists of Athens combined natural phi- 

 losophy with eloquence and politics, appears from the following senti- 

 ments of Socrates, as reported by Xenophon. " No person ever saw 

 or heard an irreligious or impious action or word of Socrates : for he 

 was not accustomed to discourse concerning the nature of all things, 

 as most of his contemporaries did, considering how that, which the 

 sophists call the universe (/coer^oe), is constituted, and by what neces- 

 sity each of the heavenly phenomena happens ; but he used to prove 

 the folly of those who busied themselves about such things ; and he 

 used to inquire, in the first place, whether they applied themselves to 

 these pursuits, having previously obtained a complete knowledge of 

 everything relating to man ; or whether they could reconcile it to their 

 notions of propriety and duty to omit all consideration of human 

 affairs, and study only divine things. And he expressed his surprise 

 at their not clearly perceiving, that these things are not discoverable 

 by the human intellect, since even those who most prided themselves 

 upon discoursing on these subjects, did not think alike, but differed 

 with one another like so many crazy people ; for some crazy persons 

 are not afraid, even of things which are really formidable, while others 

 see fear where there is none : some again make no scruple of saying or 

 doing anything, even in a crowd, while others cannot bear even to 

 appear in public : some respect neither temple nor altar, nor anything 

 pertaining to the gods, while others worship sticks, and stones, and 

 beasts. So amongst natural philosophers : some think that there is 

 only one entity, others an infinite multitude ; some hold that all things 

 are continually in motion, others that nothing can be moved ; some 



