SOCRATES. 



leagues, on account of his inexperience, he foon convinced 

 them that ia wifdom and integrity he was much their fu- 

 perior. N-) confideration could ever induce him to give a 

 vote, or fanftion a nieafure, that appeared to iiim to be 

 contrary to juftice and the laws ; and in oppolition to the 

 thirty tyrants, whofe proceedings focmed to him to be cruel 

 and oppreflive, he expofed even Ins life to danger in fup- 

 porting-, with undaunted firmnefs, the rights of his fellow- 

 citizens ; and when they iflued an order to apprehend a 

 wealthy citizen of Salamis, which he difapproved, he refufed 

 to execute it, alleging that he would rather fuffer death 

 himfelf, than be inftrumental in inflifting it unjuftly upon 

 another. Thefe proofs of public virtue, both in a military 

 and civil capacity, fays one of his biographers, are fufficient 

 to entitle the name of Socrates to a diftinguifhed place in the 

 catalogue of good citizens. But his higheit honour and 

 praife are thofe which belong to him as a philofopher and 

 moral preceptor. Obferving with regret how the Athenian 

 youth were milled, and even corrupted in their principles 

 and tafte, by the mode of teaching that prevailed among 

 fpeculative philofophers and artful fophilts, he determined 

 to inftitute a new and more ufeful method of inftruftion. 

 He jultly conceived the true end of philnfophy to be, not 

 to make an oftentatious difplay of fuperior leaniing and 

 ability in fubtle difputations or ingenious conjeftures, but 

 to free mankind from the dominion of pernicious prejudices ; 

 to correA their vices ; to infpire them with the love of 

 virtue, and thus conduft them in the path of wifdom to 

 true felicity. He, therefore, allumed the charadter of a 

 moral philofopher ; and, looking upon the whole city of 

 Athens as his fchool, and all who were difpofed to lend him 

 their attention as his pupils, he feized every occafion of 

 communicating moral wifdom to his fellow-citizens. He 

 pafled his time chiefly in pubhc. It was his cuilom, in the 

 morning, to vifit the places made ufe of for walking and 

 public exercifes ; at noon, to appear among the crowds in 

 the markets or courts ; and to fpend the reft of the day in 

 thofe parts of the city which were moft frequented. Some- 

 times he coUefted an audience about him in the Lyceum, 

 (a pleafant meadow on the border of the river Ilyfl'us,) 

 where he delivered a difcourfe from the chair, whillt his 

 auditors were feated on benches around him. At other 

 times he converfed, in a lefs formal way, with any of his 

 fellow-citizens in places of common refort, or with hio 

 friends at meals, or in their hours of amnlcmcnt ; thus mak- 

 ing every place to which he came a fchool of virtue. Not 

 only did young men of rank and fortune attend upon his 

 leftures, but he fought for difciples even among mechanics 

 and labourers. 



The method of inftruftion, which Socrates chiefly made 

 ufe of, was, to propofe a feries of queftions to the pcrfon 

 with whom he converfed, in order to lead him to fome un- 

 fcrefeen conclufion. He firlt gained the confent of his 

 refpondent to fome obrious truths, and then obliged him to 

 admit others, from their relation, or relcmblancc, to thofe 

 to which they had already affented. Without making ufe 

 of any dircft argument or perfuafion, he chofe to lead the 

 perfon he meant to inftrudt, to deduce the truths of w^hich 

 he wifhcd to convince him, as a neceflary confequence from 

 his own concedlons. He commonly condufted thefe con- 

 ferences with fuch addrt-fs, as to conceal his defign, till the 

 refpondent had advanced too far to recede. On fome occa- 

 fions, he made ufe of ironical language, that vain men 

 might be caught in their own replies, and be obliged to 

 confefs till ir ignorance. He never afl'umed the air of a 

 morofe and rigid preceptor, but communicated ufeful in- 

 VoL. XXXIII. 



ftruftion with all the eafe and pleafantry of polite con- 

 verfation. 



The modefty of Socrates was no lefs diftinguilhed than 

 his wifdom. He profefTed " to know only this, that he 

 knew nothing ;" meaning by this declaration, which he 

 often repeated, that he had no other intention than to con- 

 vince his hearers of the narrow limits of the human under- 

 ftanding. Far from encouraging univerfal fcepticifm, he 

 always ipoke confidently and decidedly on moral fubjefts ; 

 but at the fame time he wifhed to expofe to contempt the 

 arrogance of thofe pretenders to fcience, who would not 

 acknowledge themfelves to be ignorant of any thing. He 

 preferred moral to fpeculative wifdom ; and therefore con- 

 demned thofe whofe whole attention and time were occupied 

 about abftrufe refearches into nature, and who took no 

 pains to render themfelves ufeful to mankind. His favourite 

 maxim was, " whatever is above us, doth not concern us." 

 He eitimated the value of knowledge by its utility, and 

 recommended the ftudy of geometry, allronomy, and other 

 fciences, only fo far as they admit of a praftical application 

 to the purpofes of human life. His great objeft, in all 

 his conferences and difcourfes, was to lead men into an 

 acquaintance with themfelves ; to convince them of their 

 follies and vices ; to inlpire them with the love of virtue ; 

 and to furnifh them with ufeful moral inftruftions. Cicero 

 might, therefore, very juftly fay of Socrates, that he was 

 the firlt who called down philofophy from heaven to earth, 

 and introduced her into the public walks and domellic re- 

 tirements of men, that fhe might inltruft them concerning 

 life and manners. 



The moral lefTons which Socrates taught, he himfelf 

 diligently praftifed ; whence he excelled other philofophers 

 in perfonal merit, no lefs than in his method of inftruftion. 

 His conduft was uniformly fuch as became a teacher of 

 moral wifdom. His mind, through the whole of his life, 

 was iupcrior to the attraftions of wealth and power. His 

 inftruftions were gratuitous, and he refufed rich prefents, 

 that were offered to him by Alcibiades and others, though 

 his wife earneltly importuned him to accept them. He 

 wanted little for his own perfonal accommodation. In his 

 clothing and food, he confulted only the demands of nature. 

 Although his fare was fimple, he was hofpitable ; and 

 fomctimes invited men of fuperior rank to partake of his 

 meals. On one of thefe occafions, his wife complained of 

 the incompetency of their piovifion for their guefts ; but to 

 thefe complaints he merely replied, that if his guefts were 

 wife men, they would be iatisfied with the provifions which 

 his table afforded ; if otherwife, they were unworthy of 

 notice. " Whillt others," fays he, " live to eat, wife men 

 eat to live." He knew, that temperance was conducive to 

 health, and he found by experience that this was the cafe ; 

 for he cicapcd infcftion in the midit of the plague which 

 proved in fatal to his fellow-citizens. 



Although he admired a fair external form, as the index of 

 a mind poliellcd, or at Icaft capable, of moral beauty, and 

 converfed freely with young perfons of both fexes, in order 

 to afhil their progrefs in wifdom and virtue ; yet his enemies 

 have never been able to fix upon him the charge of in- 

 continence. " Modern calumnies," fays our biographer, 

 " which impute to this great man vices, with which he 

 was never charged by his contemporaries, ought to be 

 treated with univerlal contempt." In his domellic connec- 

 tion he was unfortunate, yet he converted this into an 

 occafion of exercifing his virtue. Xantippe, of whom 

 many tales, that are mere fabrications, are related, was 

 without doubt a woman of a high and unmanageable fpirit. 

 H h Socrates 



