THE ATHENIAN INQUISITION. 99 



these philosophers announced, in his open-air sermon 

 in the market-place, that the Sun which the common 

 people helieved to he alive — the bountiful god Helios 

 which shone both on mortals and immortals — was 

 nothing but a mass of red hot iron ; when he declared 

 that those celestial spirits, the stars, were only revolv- 

 ing stones ; when he asserted that Jupiter, and Venus, 

 and Apollo, Mars, Juno, and Minerva, were mere 

 creatures of the poet's fancy, and that if they really 

 existed, they ought to be despised ; when he said that 

 over all there reigned, not Blind Fate, but a supreme 

 all-seeing Mind, great wrath was excited amongst 

 the people. A prophet, went about uttering oracles in a 

 shrill voice, and procured the passing of a decree that 

 all who denied the religion of the city, or who philoso- 

 phised in matters appertaining to the gods should be 

 indicted as State criminals. This law was soon put 

 in force. Damon and Anaxagoras were banished ; 

 Aspasia was impeached for blasphemy, and the tears of 

 Pericles alone saved her ; Socrates was put to death ; 

 Plato was obliged to reserve pure reason for a chosen 

 few, and to adulterate it with revelation for the gener- 

 ality of his disciples ; Aristotle fled from Athens for 

 his life, and became the tutor of Alexander. 



Alexander had a passion for the Iliad. His edition 

 had been corrected by Aristotle ; he kept it in a pre- 

 cious casket which he had taken from the Persian 

 king, and it was afterwards known as the " edition of 

 the casket." When he invaded Asia, he landed on 

 the plains of Troy, that he might see the ruins of that 

 celebrated town, and that he might hang a garland 

 upon the tomb of Achilles. But it was not poetry 

 alone that he esteemed ; he had imbibed his master's 

 universal tastes. When staying at Ephesus, he used 



