44 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



we admit the justice of those commendations which are bestowed upon 

 his moral precepts, we find the great and pervading deficiency, which 

 revelation alone could supply, that of motive ; necessarily resulting 

 from a state of uncertainty as to the retribution of a future life. 

 His doctrines Socrates taught that the divine attributes might be inferred from 

 SKhose of *ke wor ks f creation ; a notion asserted also by St. Paul. He main- 

 Scripture. tained the omniscience, ubiquity, and providence of the Deity ; and 

 from the existence of conscience in the human breast, he inferred that 

 man is a moral agent, the object of reward and punishment ; and that 

 the great distinction between virtue and vice was ordained by the 

 Deity. This is the sum of those theological doctrines which Socrates 

 taught with plainness and simplicity ; but which Plato expanded and 

 corrupted with his own refined and abtruse speculations. It is easy 

 to perceive how far superior, both in point of reasonableness and in 

 their moral tendency, these doctrines were, to the metaphysical specu- 

 lations of the Ionic school. 



The soul of man, according to Socrates, is given 'him by the Deity, 

 whom it resembles in its powers and properties ; consequently it is 

 immortal, and will receive, after the death of the body, the rewards of 

 virtue. If Socrates expressed any doubt on this head, it related to the 

 place of the soul in another life, not to its existence or happiness. 



The justness of his notions, upon these important subjects, naturally 

 exalted and purified his moral system. The chief happiness of life 

 he placed in a practical knowledge of virtue, of the ends which man is 

 intended to answer, and of the right methods of pursuing them. This 

 knowledge, when complete, teaches him that in every case that which 

 is just is expedient ; arid that the purest pleasures are those which 

 spring from an habitual rectitude of conduct. The great secret of ob- 

 taining this desirable wisdom is to know ourselves ; a secret which 

 Socrates, in his daily conversations with those who had the greatest 

 reputation for wisdom, proved to be little understood. 



His moral Socrates taught that " to obey is better than sacrifice ;" that the 

 precepts. most acceptable service to the gods is to perform their commands : 

 that man ought simply to ask the gods to give what is good for him ; 

 for that they know, far better than he does, what is really to his ad- 

 vantage : that the gods are to be worshipped, according to the institu- 

 tions of our country ; a precept which is also attributed to Pythagoras. 

 He said that besides the written laws of men, there are certain un- 

 written laws, 1 ordained by the Deity, such as those which enjoin the 



1 "AygaQoivofAoi. This notion was not first entertained by Socrates. We find it 

 expressed by Sophocles, in his Antigone, v. 453. 



eii'St fffavtiv rofovTov uoftyv <ra ace. 



6tuv 



Nor judged I thy decrees of such avail, 

 As that a mortal might transgress the gods' 

 Unwritten and immutable behests. 

 Thucydides, in the funeral oration spoken by Pericles, distinguishes between the 



