34 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Some of the persons, whom Plato introduces as conversing with 

 Socrates, could never have seen him ; and Xenophon says, that as it 

 was perfectly well known that Socrates confined himself wholly to 

 moral philosophy, those writers who put into his mouth long dis- 

 cussions upon subjects relating to physics, were guilty of a palpable 

 imposture. This remark was evidently aimed at Plato. The Abbe 

 Gamier has endeavoured to exonerate Plato from these charges, but 

 without success. 



The genius and ambition of Plato having thus disqualified him for 

 the office of a faithful historian of the philosophy of Socrates, we 

 must be cautious how we impute to that extraordinary man any 

 opinion or practice, upon the authority of Plato, unless we have the 

 concurrent testimony of Xenophon, whose amiable candour and sim- 

 plicity irresistibly claim our belief. His 'ATro/uvr^yLtorfv/zara, or 

 Memoirs 1 of Socrates, are our text-book, in investigating the opinions 

 of his master. 



The life of Socrates was written by Aristoxenus, Demetrius, 

 Phalereus, and several others, whose works have perished; but we 

 find notices from them in the writings of later authors; in some 

 instances contradicting one another, and requiring the judgment of 

 sound criticism to decide upon their comparative credibility. 

 Socrates Socrates was born in the fourth year of the seventy-seventh Olym- 



born468u.c. p igi ^ on fa^ B \ x th of the month Thargelio, at Alopece, a demus or 

 borough, of Attica. His father, who was a statuary, was named 

 Sophroniscus ; his mother, who was a midwife, Phaenarete. Socrates 

 Leams ins was instructed by his father in his own art, which he exercised with 

 fat ' ier>s art of some skill and success : Pausanias says, that he made the statues of 

 Mercury and the Graces, which stood at the entrance of the Acropolis. 

 His father having died, left him an inheritance of eighty minae, which 

 he lost by the treachery of a relation, to whom he had lent it upon 

 interest. Being thus reduced to the necessity of working at his pro- 

 fession, he contented himself with doing just enough to bring him in 

 a bare subsistence, and employed his leisure time in the study of 

 philosophy. 2 Crito, a rich Athenian, is said to have furnished him 

 with the means of procuring for himself such instruction as he desired. 

 Becomes a At the age of seventeen, he became a hearer and favourite scholar of 



scholar of 



Archelaus. * This book is usually called the Memorabilia. Gellius describes it as " a trea- 

 tise concerning the actions and sayings of Socrates :" y.-xo^wonvnt is ' to remind* 

 a.<ro[*.vnpoviviAa,, ' anything of which one is put in mind;' therefore, Kfof^vn^oviv^Krix. 

 are probably Memoirs. Boswell's Life of Johnson would be exactly designated 

 by this word. We must here observe, that some critics have doubted whether the 

 Memorabilia be the genuine production of Xenophon or not. 



2 Brucker makes a ludicrous mistake on this subject. He says, " Quare neces- 

 sitate compulsus, non Athenis tantum, sed et Duris statuariam exercuit." He 

 found in the Latin version of Diogenes these words : " Porro Duris serviisse ilium 

 ait, et sculpsisse lapides;" '. e., "Duris also relates that he was a slave, and cut 

 statues." Whereas Brucker, not consulting the Greek, where there is the nomi- 

 native Aovgtg, mistook Duris for the ablative, and fancied it to be the name of a 

 place. 



