190 Philosophy OF Botany. 



founder. The basis of their doctrine was Pantheism, the un- 

 ion of all things into one mdivisible whole ; that God and the 

 world are one and the same. 



From these schools, which were engaged in speculating 

 about the nature and origin of things, we turn now to the So- 

 cratic school, of which Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus (B.C. 

 469), was the founder. His father was a statuary, and his 

 mother, Phaenarete, a midwife. In his youth he followed the 

 trade of his father, and became a successful artist. Later, and 

 under the protection of Crito, a wealthy Athenian, to whom 

 he served as an instructor of his children, he gave up his occu- 

 pation and attached himself to the school of Anaxagoras, 

 Archelaus, and others, and became master of every kind of 

 learning which the age in which he lived could afford. For 

 three times in succession he also served his country in military 

 capacity with great distinction. After he had reached an age 

 of nearly fifty-six years, he, for a while, served in a civil office 

 in the Senate of the Five Hundred. From his wide experience 

 in public life he had regretfully observed how much the opin- 

 ions of the Athenian youth were misled and their principles 

 and taste corrupted by philosophers, who spent a^ their time 

 in refined speculations upon the nature and origin of things, 

 and by sophists, wdio taught in their schools the arts of false 

 eloquence and deceitful reasoning. To amend this evil he 

 conceived the wise and generous design of instituting a new 

 and more useful method of instruction. He justly concluded 

 the true end of philosophy to be, not to make an ostentatious 

 display of learning and oratory, but to free mankind from the 

 dominion of pernicious prejudices, to correct their vices, to in- 

 spire them with the love of virtue, and thus conduct them over 

 the path of wisdom to true felicity. His method of instruc- 

 tion was in the form of dialogue, in which he endeavored with- 

 out persuasion to deduce the truths of which he wished to con- 

 vince a person as a necessar}^ consequence of his own conces- 

 sions. His favorite maxim was : " Whatever is above us does 

 not concern us." He estimated the value of knowledge by its 

 utility, and recommended the study of geometry, astronomy, 

 and other sciences only so far as they admit of practical appli- 

 cation to the purposes of human life. 



