PniLOsorHY OF Botany. 191 



Cicero said of him that he was the first who called down 

 Philosophy from heaven to earth and introduced her into the 

 public walks- and domestic retirements of men, that she might 

 instruct them concerning life and manners. 



His continuous, severe arraignment of the horde of sophists, 

 hypocritical priests, and selfish politicians gave rise to a party 

 of dangerous and unscrupulous enemies. His endeavor to en- 

 graft upon the mind of the youth the idea of the existence of 

 one supreme Being threatened the interests of the priesthood, 

 who stirred up the fanaticism of the common people by de- 

 nouncing him as a contemptor of the gods. Although he was 

 in the seventieth year of his age, they could not await his nat- 

 ural demise. The accusation was delivered to the Senate in 

 the name of Melitus, and read thus; " Melitus, son of Melitus, 

 of the tribe of Pythos, accuseth Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, 

 of the tribe of Alopeces. Socrates violates the law in not ac- 

 knowledging the gods, which the State acknowledges, and by 

 introducing new divinities. He also violates the laws by cor- 

 rupting the youth. Be his punishment death." After a mock 

 trial, he was condemned to be put to death by the poison of 

 hemlock. Thus died one of the most virtuous men, a victim 

 to priestcraft and unscrupulous politicians. 



With truth Socrates said at the close of his speech in self- 

 defense to the judges who had condemned him: "It is now 

 time that we depart — I to die, you to live ; but which has the 

 better destiny is unknown to all except God." His memory 

 was honored and his name immortalized by two of his disci- 

 ples, who became his biographers, Xenophon and Plato. It 

 was also a blessed termination of an advanced period of life 

 to die in behalf of virtue and morality. 



After the passing away of Socrates, other schools arose pro- 

 fessing to be founded upon his principles — the Megaric, headed 

 by Euclid ; the Cyrenaic, founded by Aristippus ; and the Cyn- 

 ical school, originated by Antisthenes. It is a melancholy as- 

 pect to contemplate the sudden upset of sublime thought into 

 moral mire of those sophistical extremists. The name of 

 Diogenes, of Sinope, has come down to us as an inimitable ex- 

 ample of a humorous pessimist. This temporary eclipse of 

 the Hellenic genius soon passed over, recognized as a discred- 



