322 What is Religion ? I June, 
fleeting and imperfedt” In such a mind as that of Hera- 
clitus “ such a dodtrine would deepen sadness, till it pro- 
duced despair.” With Protagoras the formula was “ Man 
is the measure of all things.” 
Sextus Empiricus.— “ Matter, says Protagoras, is in a 
perpetual flux whilst it undergoes augmentations and losses ; 
the senses also are modified according to the age and dis- 
position of the body ; that the reasons of all phenomena 
(appearances) resided in matter as substrata , so that matter, 
in itself, might be whatever it appeared to teach 
Whoever is in a healthy state perceives things such as^they 
appear to all others in a healthy state, and vice versa. . A 
similar course holds to different ages, as well as in sleeping 
and awaking. Man is therefore the criterion of that which 
exists; all that is perceived by him exists; that which is 
perceived by no man does not exist.” . 
“ The Sceptics were content with the convidtion of the 
insufficiency of knowledge ; the Sophists had the vanity and 
desire to penetrate the mysteries of the Universe. In their 
visits to various cities they found varieties of laws and ordi- 
nances, and this convinced them that there were no such 
things as right and wrong by nature, but only by convention. 
This because of their corollary of their dogma respedting 
truth. For man there was no eternal right, because there 
was no eternal truth. This denial of abstradt truth and 
abstradt justice is easily pushed to absurd and immoral 
consequences.” 
The Sophists were the natural production ot the opinions 
of the epoch, and in them is seen the first energetic protest 
against the possibility of metaphysical science. It was the 
protest of baffled minds. The scepticism of the Sophists 
was a scepticism with which no great speculative intellect 
could be contented (vide pp. 98 to 103 inclusive). 
Tennemann’s notice of Protagoras is as follows : — “ He 
maintained that human knowledge consists only in the per- 
ception of the appearance through the subject, and that what- 
ever appeared to any one in his state at the time was tiue , 
consequently that man is the standard of all things ; that, as 
far as truth or falsehood are concerned, there is no differ- 
ence between our perceptions of external objects ; that 
every way of considering a thing has its opposite, and that 
there is as much truth on one side as on the other ; and 
that, consequently, nothing can be supported in argument 
with certainty ; maintaining at the same time the so- 
phistical profession to make the worse the better argument. 
