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XLIV. — On the Sophists of the Fifth Century, B.C. By Professor Blackie. 



(Read 18th March 1867.) 



One of the most remarkable phenomena in our recent historical literature is 

 a tendency to whitewash all characters which had previously presented a black 

 appearance ; to prefer the intellectual divination of a subtle modern professor to 

 the plain testimony of a sober old chronicler ; and generally to unsettle all things 

 that we had in previous ages been taught to look on as settled. That this tendency, 

 dating from the gigantic excavations of Niebuhr and Wolf, had its origin in an 

 honest love of truth, and a searching scrutiny of evidence, cannot be doubted. 

 That its results have in the main been beneficial is equally certain ; but, on the 

 other hand, it is not to-be denied that it has sometimes run into the most wanton 

 excesses, and that it has tainted some of the most notable historical productions 

 of our age with a vice which will render it necessary for a future generation to 

 repeat the work now done from a broader point of view, and with a j uster criti- 

 cism. Among the great works which have not escaped this prevalent contagion 

 must be named the History of Greece, by George Grote. In this work, 

 while the democratic institutions of Athens have been vindicated in the most 

 masterly manner, and the political tone of the work may be regarded as, on the 

 whole, sound, the author has in some prominent sections blotted his pages with 

 the peculiarly German rage of substituting conjecture for fact, and overriding 

 testimony by theory. And in doing this he has not only acted more like a 

 German than an Englishman, but he has in some instances proceeded far beyond 

 the bounds of negative criticism and bold assertion which the best German 

 writers have observed. In no part of his work does this tendency, not only to 

 overdo, but altogether to invert the natural order of things, appear more promi- 

 nently than in his chapter on Socrates and the Sophists. In this part of his 

 work, while he presents himself to the general reader as the chivalrous champion 

 of injured innocence, the accurate weigher of historical evidence sees only another 

 instance of the wonderful effect of a favourite theory in blinding a sensible man 

 to the truth which radiates from the strongest testimony. To the reader of Mr 

 Grote' s chapter it must certainly seem as if Socrates had spent his life most 

 stupidly, if not most basely, in fighting with a class of men, of which he himself 

 was one, the best among many good, and that Protagoras was a far more sensible 

 man, and, at bottom, a much more profound philosopher than Plato. The effect 

 produced by this chapter of the history has been rather increased than diminished 

 by the distinguished historian's comment on the Protagoras and other dialogues 



VOL. XXIV. PART III. 8 Q 



