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ON A METHODICAL PLAN ".< x>

PROJECTED BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED.

€liirii DinisinD. listnrif ml 56ingrn|iliif.

GEEEK AND EOMAN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.

LONDON AND GLASGOW : PUBLISHED BY RICHARD GRIFFIN AND COMPANY,

PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVEESITY OF GLASGOW. 1853.

0\ LIBRARY r

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LOSDOX : PRINTED BY ■nililAM CLOWES ASI> SOSS, 8TAMF011D STREET.

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HISTORY

GREEK A ?s D R 0 31 A X

^Ijilosopljg unb ^ciniu.

CHAELES JAMES BLOMFIELD, D.D. BISHOP OF loxdon;

WILLIAM LOWXDES, Esq., M.A., Q.C.

BEAZEXOSE COLLEGE, OXTOBD ;

Eey. J. W. BLAKESLET, m.a.

VICAR OF TVAEE, LATE FELLOTV A>T) TUTOB OF TEtSIXT COLLEGE, CAilBKIDGE;

andeew fixdlatee, a.m. johx hexey xewmax, b.d.

FOEMEELT FELLOW OF ORIEI. COLLEGE, OXFORD ;

JAMES AMIEAUX JEEEMIE, D.D.

EEGIUS PROFESSOR OP DmXITT, CA5IBRII>GE ;

W. WHEWELL, D.D., F.R.S.

HASTEB OF TEINnr COLLEGE, A^-D PROFESSOE OF SIOEAt PmLOSOPHT, CAMBRIDGE ;

EETER BAELOW, Esq., F.E.S.

PROFESSOR AT THE EOTAL MILITARY ACADEMY, TVOOL'mCH ;

The late FEAXCIS LUXX, M.A.

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIIGE.

,^

PEEFACE.

It is difficult to picture tlie succession of events tliat compose the history of a nation in any other way than by associating them with the fortunes of individuals. Hence the common complaint that, instead of the histories of peoples, we have only the lives of kings and military leaders. Historians find that this is the readiest way to connect the events, and render them easily remembered.

Tlie same expedient is, perhaps, still more necessary in tracing the progress of human opinions. Tlie history of thoughts is best understood and remembered in connection with the history of the thinlcers. Those ' airy nothings' can hardly become fixed ob- jects in the memory, but by giving them ' a local habitation and a name ;' and a necessary commentary on the wTitings or doc- trines of a philosopher, is a knowledge of the character and environment of the man.

It is on this principle that, in the present volume, the History of ancient Philosophy and Science is associated with Biographical notices of the leading thinkers and WTiters. As it is hardly to be supposed that one man should be equally conversant with all the parts of so extensive a subject, the several sketches that compose the volume have been contributed by different hands. Owing to this, and to the circumstance that they stood originally in a different connection, they unavoidably involve some degree

VI PREFACE.

of repetition and of variation in the plan of execution. Nor is it pretended tliat they furnish a complete and uninterrupted history of philosophy. Still it is believed that the reader, while making himself acquaiuted with the Hves of some of the most remarkable men of ancient times, will acquire a tolerable notion of the chief phases that speculative opinion presented in the ancient world; and that what the picture thus loses ia poiut of uniformity and contiaidty, it gains in reality and clear- ness.

It is almost unnecessary to speak of the important place that Greek and Roman Philosophy holds ia the history of iateUectual progress. "Whatever has been done since had its spring in the speculative energy of G-reece; and the present position of phi- losophy cannot be rightly understood without making ourselves acquainted with the speculations of the men with whom it originated.

The intelligent reader wiU perceive the deficiencies and errors of the different systems of doctrine here sketched without ha\ing them pointed out to him at every step ; nor will he less recognise and admire the genius of the men, though they ad- vanced many things that, in the light of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, may seem wrong or were ridiculous.

CONTENTS.

Page iESOP -_.----------- 1

Precepts ------------11

SOCRATES :

Philosophy of the Early Poets --------15

Wise Men of Greece ----------16

iEsop ------------- 16

Thales ------------ 17

Anaximander -----------19

Anaximenes -----------20

Leucippus and Democritus - - - - - - - -21

Anaxagoras -----------21

Diogenes ApoUoniates --__-_--_ 24 Archelaus ------------ 24

Prevalence of Superstition in Greece - - - - - -26

The Sophists ----------- 26

Protagoras ------------ 29

Gorgias ------------ 29

Prodicus ------------29

Hippias ------------ 30

Effects produced by the teaching of the Sophists - - - _ 32 Dialectics ------------32

Socrates ------------33

Birth ------------33

Philosophy ---------- 37

Character --- ___-_--- 42 Death- -----------49

Sects founded by his followers -------50

PLATO :

Birth .--_-----_--- 53

Early Wr tings -----------54

Philosophy of Italy — Heraclitus ---- _--57

Pythagoras and his followers --------58

viii CONTENTS.

PLATO — continued.

Page

Death -_--_------- 68

Spurious Writings ____------ 68

Outline of Philosophy ____--_-- 71

Successors ------ ------88

Modern Platonists ----------88

ARISTOTLE :

Early Histories of Aristotle -------- 96

Summary of his Life - -------- 101-147

His Descendants --,.-___ --_148 Fate of his Works ----------150

Ancient Commentators on Aristotle ------- 155

Nature of the Esoteric Writings ------- 159

Nature of the Politics and Poetics ------- 170

Literary Notice of his existing Writings ------ 172

EPICURUS :

Life ------------- 185

Doctrines ------------188

Successors ------------ 204

CICERO :

Character of his Philosophical Writings ------ 207

His Academy -----------218

Carneades ------------ 219

Philo and Antilochus ---------223

Mixed Philosophy of Cicero -------- 223

Rhetorical Works ----------227

Moral and Physical Writings -------- 230

Poetical and Historical Works -------- 235

Orations ------------235

Characters of his Style --------- 238

Roman Eloquence ---------- 240

Orators before Cicero --------- 240

Ciceronian Age ----------- 241

Decline of Roman Oratory --___--- 241

MSS,, Editions, &c., of Cicero's Works ------ 242

SENECA.— The Stoical Philosopht.

Progress of Philosophy in Rome ------- 249

Cynicism the Parent of Stoicism ------ - 249

Antisthenes ___------- 250

Diogenes ----------- 251

Onesicritus ----------- 252

Monimus ----------- 252

Crates -- ----252

CONTENTS. IX

SENECA. — The Stoical Fhilosovhy— continued.

Page Review of the Cynical Doctrines ___---- 252

The Stoics -----------254

Zeno ------------254

Cleanthes -----------259

Chiysippus __________ 260

Stoicism among the Romans ___----- 261

PanjEtius ----------- 261

Posidonius ----------- 261

Seneca -----------261

Summary of his Life - ------- 261

His Works ---------- 264

Dion Prusaeus ---------- 265

Epictetus ----------- 265

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - - - - - - -265

SEXTUS EMPIRICUS.— The Sceptical Philosophy.

Causes of PpThonism --------- 269

History of Scepticism - - - - - - - - -270

Pynho _--_--_---_- 271 Disciples of Pyrrho ----------273

Sextus Empiricus __-_------ 273

Definition of Scepticism --------- 275

Fundamental Principles - - - - - - - - -275

PLOTINUS.— The Eclectics, or Later Platonists.

Rise of Eclecticism ---------- 287

Potamo -__--------- 288

Aramonius Saccas ---------- 288

Herennius — Origen ---------- 289

Longinus ------------ 289

Plotinus ------------289

Dionysius Longinus - - - - - - - - - -221

Amelius ------------ 291

Porphyry ------------ 291

Jamblicus ------------ 293

Hierocles ------------ 294

Proclus ------------295

Kypatia ------------ 296

Character of the Plotinian Teaching ------- 297

ARCHIMEDES.— Greek Mathematics.

Thales ------------307

Anaximander ----------- 307

Pythagoras ----------- 307

Dcmocritus ____------- 308

X CONTENTS.

ARCHIMEDES.— Greek Mathehatics— conftoec?. ^

Anaxagoras ____-------o8

Hippocrates ___-------- 308

Archytas __---------- 308

Menechmus __--------- 308

Eudoxus _----------- 308

309 Zenodorus ---------~~"

Plato ------------

Autolycus ------------310

Euclid ____-------- 313

Aristillus ------------314

Timocharis -----------314

Aratus

Ctesibius

GREEK PHYSICS.

314

Aristarchus ----------- 314

Archimedes -------- --.t

Mathematical Treatises - - - - - - " -315

Jlechanical Treatises --------- 318

323

Eratosthenes _---------- 323

Apollonius- ----------- 324

329

AsTROXOiir ----------

Claims of the Chaldeans, &c. ------ - 329

Thales -----------331

Anaximander ---------- 332

Anaximenes ---------- 332

Anaxagoras ---------- 332

Pythagoras - - - - - - - - - -33i^

Philolaus -----------333

Eudoxus ----------- 333

Cahppus ----------- 333

Autolycus ----------- 334

Euclid -----------335

Aristarchus ---------- 335

Eratosthenes ---------- 336

Archimedes ---------- 337

Hipparchus ---------- 3o7

Ptolemy -----------340

Greeks posterior to Ptolemy ------- 34j

Mechanics :

Aristotle -----------346

Archimedes ---------- 446

Hydrostatics :

Archimedes _-__------ 347

CONTENTS. XI

GREEK FEYSICS -c&ntiniKd.

Page Pneumatics :

Aristotle ----------- 351

Optics :

Hebrew Mirrors -____---- 352

Aristotle ----------- 353

Euclid ----------- 353

Numa ----------- 35o

Archimedes' Jlirrors --------- 3oo

Ptolemy Euergetes --------- 357

Ptolemy the Astronomer -------- 357

Pliny- --.--------361

Electricity :

Thales ----- -362

Theophrastus ---------- 362

Pliny ------------362

Solinus ----------- 362

Aristotle ----------- 363

Oppian ----------- 363

Claudian ----------- 363

Scribonius Largus --------- 363

Galen ------------ 363

Eustathius ----------- 363

'!

j;sop.

EEPRIXTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

[g. e. p.]

^SOP.

FLOURISHED ABOUT B. C. 560.

The use of the allegory or fable, as a means of instruction, appears to have been one of the earliest dictates of enlightened reason ; and has been resorted to, in a greater or less degree, by the moralists and philosophers of all ages and countries. Hence it is, that throughout the classical historians we meet so often with the name of ^sop, perpetuated for no other reason than that he was the most famous of ancient fabulists ; or, as some writers have alleged, the very inventor of this mode of instruction. His life is totally unconnected with any pubUc events of importance ; his family were utterly obscure ; no kingdoms were conc[uered by him, or settled in legislation ; on the contrary, human natm-e appears in complete degradation in his person and circumstances : in condition a slave, and deformed, it is said, in person, even to the excitement of disgust in those who beheld him, he yet sustains a high rank amongst the sages of ancient times, and certainly more for his method of teaching than for anything extraor- dinary which he communicates. Indeed, what were his particular sentiments as a philosopher can now be very faintly traced : his fables, in which all his precepts appear to have been conveyed, are con- siderably mutilated; and the majority of those which bear his name are the fabrication of a later period. In those which can with any degree of certainty be traced to ^sop as their author, his exact mean- ing is not always obvious ; and the occasion of their composition, which must have given a much greater propriety to their appl'cation, is, for the most part, unknown. The celebrity of yEsop is, perhaps, still more remarkable, as it appears to have been originally uncon- nected with any recommendation from the form of his compositions, or the mode of publishing them : they were not adorned by the graces of poetry, nor do they appear to have been delivered with eloquence. Their novelt)% their liveliness, and then- strict analogy to real life, appear to have been their only attraction ; features of the genuine fable which, under every form of its development, are a tribute to the imperishable charms of trath.

Several countries dispute the honour of giving birth to ^Esop : he Ur.oertainty is sometimes called a Thracian, and by other writers a h^amian; but trv."^ the more commonly-received opinion is, that he was born in the town of Am.monius, in the Greater Phrygia. Perhaps these indications of the uncertainty, serve only to prove the meanness of his origin : of

b2

4 GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

the names of his parents we hear nothing. His pei'son, as we have ah-eady noticed, was deformed in the highest degree ; an immense Person and protuberaiice of the back threw his head forward, and appears from compiejuon. ggj-j^ ijfy |;q heive Utterly stopped his growth : his complexion is said to have been swarthy ; and hence some writers have supposed the name of Msop to be a corruption of iEthiop. In addition to these disadvantages, he had so serious an imperfection in his speech, that for a considerable period of his life he was unable to articulate any sounds distinctlv. Camerarius, a learned German critic, to whose researches we shall be much indebted in this paper, mentions a tra- dition, to which, however, he refuses credit, that ^sop had the good, fortune in his youth to relieve certain travelling priests of his country who were exhausted with hunger and had lost their way ; when, in requital of his kind offices, by virtue of their prayers to the gods, they fii-st brought him to the use of his tongue. This is all we hear of his Slave of earlv life. And we next meet with him at the period of his being Xanthus. offered as a slave to his third master, Xanthus (or, as Herodotus calls him, Jadmon), of the island of Samos. He was carried by a factor to Ephesus, together with some other slaves, for the chance of sale, or on business for his master. As our future sage was feeble in his body, his companions allowed him his choice as to which of their different packages he would undertake to carry, and he, to their astonishment, selected the largest and heaviest, containing the pro- visions of the ])arty ; an instance of what they deemed his folly, which excited no little merriment. In the moniing ^sop bore their ridicule and his own burden with patience. At noon, however, the basket of provender was considerably lightened, by the hearty meal which the sla\'es then made, and ^Esop was, of course, considerably relieved from the weight of his charge. In a few hours more, another meal completely consumed the food, and left the pro\ident weakling entirely at his ease for the remainder of the journey. Upon his arrival at Ephesus with his slaves, the merchant soon disposed of them all by private bargain, excepting three, stated to have been a musician, an orator, and our poor neglected fabulist, of no apparent accomplishments, and of no profession. These he took to the open market, as the only place in which he was likely to dispose of them ; the two former accoutred with the implements of their profession, and the latter making little better appearance that that of a deformed idiot; when Xanthus, a Samian philosopher, entering the area, was attracted by the appearance of ^sop's companions, and inquired o the mercliant his price for them. Objecting to this as exorbitant, the philosopher was on the point of quitting the market, when some o the pupils, by whom he was attended, pointed out ^^sop to his notice. At their solicitation, and jocularly, more than with any. serious intention, he put the accustomed question to the despised captive, of " What he could do?" " Nothing at all," replied ^sop; " for I have just overheard my companions answer youi* question, by

JESOV. 0

affirming that they could do everything ; therefore there is nothing left for me to do." Xanthus, delighted with this answer, now entered into conversation with tliis unattractive wit, and became fully sensible of his superior powers. In answer to a question respecting the deformity of his person, ^sop boldly remarked, " that a philosopher like Xanthus should appreciate a man according to the vigour of his mind, and not to the appearance of his body ;" an observation upon which that philosopher immediately acted. The factor being asked the price of his deformed slave, declared that could he obtain from the purchaser a proper sum for the other two, he would cheerfully part with ^Esop for nothing. This offer was accepted; Xanthus at once paid the price to which he had first objected for the musician and the orator, and returned home with all three of the slaves, ^sop here found his master in more hopeless bondage than himself, to a wife of a most furious and jealous temper. On his first appearance amongst Anecdotes, the domestics, as her husband's slave, she asked, in scorn, of Xanthus,

whether it were a beast or a man that he had now brought home ?" when ^sop, unable to repress a similar disposition, is said to have exclaimed, " From the mercies of fire, water, and a wicked woman, great gods deliver us!" This of course awoke the vehement temper of his mistress, and ^sop, with difficulty, brought himself through this awkward reception, by pretending that he only recited some lines of the poet Euripides, and observing, how practicable it was for her whom he addressed to make herself " as glorious in the rank of good women." This story, however, cannot be correct in its entire details, for the murder of ^sop, in Delphi, occurred at least eighty years before the Greek tragedian was born. It is stated, however, that the aptness of iEsop's reply on this occasion conciliated the favour of the incensed lady.

iEsop had not been long in the sers-ice of the Samian philosopher, when the latter took his newly-acquired slave to a gardener for the purpose of purchasing some herbs ; the agriculturalist, observing Xanthus in the habit of a philosopher, inquired the reason why those plants which grew of themselves, and without any artificial aid, should come up so fast and thrive so well, whilst others, though never so carefully cultivated, could scarcely be preseiTed from perishing. "Xow," continued the gardener, " you who are a philosopher, pray disclose to me the meaning of this." Xanthus was, however, utterly at a loss for a satisfactory answer, and was obliged to content himself with saying, " That so Providence had ordered it to be." Here JEso\) interfered ; and, after a sarcasm upon the imperfection of the school of pliilosophy in which Xanthus was bred, requested to be permitted himself to give the solution. " For what," said the slave, "signifies a general answer to a general question, but an acknowledgment of complete ignorance on the subject proposed ?" To this Xanthus readily consented, observ- ing to the gardener, that it was beneath the dignity of a philosopher to answer minutely such a trivial question. "The earth, then," said

6 GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

^sop, " may be considered as in the nature of a real mother to that which she brings forth out of her own bowels ; but she is only a step- dame in the production of those plants that are cultivated and assisted, nay, sometimes even forced under her care, by means of the sheer in- dustry of another. It is natural for her to withdraw her nourishment from the one, and to lavish her powers upon the other kind of plants." This solution of the gardener's question is said to have so delighted him, that he not only refused to take money for the herbs that had been bought, but welcomed ^sop to the produce of his garden in future.

^sop had to bear with all the oppressions of slavery ; and many anecdotes, of dubious authority, are told of this part of his life. He is said to have interpreted an obscure inscription, which had utterly foiled his master ; and, emboldened by his success, to have demanded of him what i-eward he would offer, if he were to point out to him a considerable bidden treasure? "One-half of it and your liberty," said Xanthus. Possessed of the property, however, the faithless Samian conveniently forgot the conditions upon which he acquired it, and re- turned to the defenceless JEso]) menaces and blows ; though he is said to have been fearful lest he should betray the matter to king Dionysius, who was entitled to the advantage of the discovery. On another oc- casion, the wife of Xanthus having eloped from her husband, notwith- standing the acerbity of her disposition, he was desirous of recalling her, and -^sop undertook the task of lulfilling his wishes. He pre- ])ared a plentiful feast, and gave it publicly abroad, that his master's first wife having separated from him, this entertainment was prepared for a second marriage. The eftect was as he had imagined, the lady immediately ordered her chariot to be prepared, and returned to the house of her husband. At another time Xanthus, in a moment of inebriety, had made a considerable wager that " he would drink the sea dr}'," and, on becoming sober, applied to -^sop to extricate him from the difficulty into which he had involved himself. " Sir," said the slave, " be careful of Bacchus ; it is the humour of this god first to make men cheerful, then to make them drunk, and lastly to make them mad." He exhorted him, however, to take courage, and piu^sue his advice. Xanthus, accordingly, appeared next day on the sea-shore, attended by the man with whom he had made the ridiculous agree- ment. "And now," said he, " am I ready to drink the sea dry, but it is you who must first stop all the rivers which run into it."

A circumstance, however, at last occurred, which not only liberated iEsop from his undeserved degradation, but so atti-acted the attention of the Sainians as to elevate him highly in the public esteem. He appears, in this instance, to have been a little more wary in his com- munications for the benefit of others, and determined to assert that station in society for which his acute and comprehensive mind so ad- mirably qualified him. In common with all the surrounding states in this semibarbarous age, these people were strongly addicted to the

2E.S0P. 7

practice of augury. On a day of peculiar solemnity amongst them, an eagle had snatched awav a ring upon which the arms of the town were engraven, and, after having carried it to a considerable distance, dropped it at last into the bosom of a slave. To explain this mys- terious omen the philosophers of Samos were consulted, and, amongst others, Xanthus, the master of ^sop, who immediatelv applied to him for assistance. When all the sages of the island had been com- pletely perplexed, Xanthus arose, at the instigation of ^sop, in an assembly of his countrymen, confessing his ignorance, and recommend- ing them to his long-tried slave, as a man peculiarly gifted by the gods with wisdom, for a solution of the augurv. ^sop was accordingly summoned to the assembly, but declined to enter upon the subject. He alleged the unworthiness of his condition, and the serious effects of his master's permanent displeasure against him, should the interpreta- tion of the augury interfere with anv of his designs. This objection was of course oveiTuled, by his immediate manumission through the interference of the assembly, on which he is reported to have addressed them as follows: " The eagle," said ^Esop, " is a roval bird, and sig- nifies a gi-eat king ; the dropping of your signet into the bosom of a slave, or one who has no power over himself, denotes the loss of your liberties : if vou are not particularly vigilant in the conducting your affairs, this omen will but too shortly be realized." The event was answerable to ^sop's solution of the augury ; for, shortly after, Croesus, king of Lydia, commissioned ambassadors to demand a tri- bute, as a token of submission to him, from the Samians ; and the successful interpreter of the oracle was called to the debate, which such a demand naturally produced. " The path of liberty," observed His honours, the now honoured sage, " is naiTow and ruirged at the entrance ; but the further you advance on it, the plainer and the smoother it shall be found." This noble sentiment decided the Samians : a defiance was pronounced against the Lydian monarch, and his embassy dismissed with contempt. When Croesus learnt these circumstances, and that one man, recently a slave, had, by a few words only, induced the boldness of this measure, he sent to the Samians, offering them peace and independence, on condition of their delivering up ^^sop, the insti- gator to the threatened war. To this the sage himself offered his instant acquiescence, but first admonished the Samians on the im- providence of purchasing peace bv sending awav those counsellors in whom consisted their chief defence ; and on this, it is said, he first introduced the well-known fable of the Wolves and the Sheep who gave up their only defenders, the Dogs. This apologue, so well applied, determined the people again to resist the demands of Croesus ; a tribute of regard for JEsop which emboldened him to a patriotic step for the future stability of their state, which is not exceeded in personal courage or address in all history. He suddenly departed from Samos, and presented himself at the Lydian camp. " I come success »t not here, great king," said he to Croesus, " in the condition of a man '.''* L><iian

8 GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

abandoned or given up by his country, but of my own will appear before you, with this only request, that you will vouchsafe me the honour of your royal ear before you condemn me." He then ad- dressed the monarch in the elegant fable of the Captive Grasshopper, who begged for life upon this simple plea: " that all her business was her song, and that her death could bring no possible advantage to her possessor." The generous monarch felt the force of the appeal, and not only pardoned the petitioner, but desired him to ask any further favour within his wishes, ^sop was not forgetful of those who had been his deliverers from slavery, and might almost be called his coun- trymen ; he implored the king's goodwill toward the Samians ; and obtained them a grant of permanent peace and favour under the royal signet, ^sop hastened to Samos with the welcome news, and a statue was decreed to his honour in return for his important services. He then returned to the court of Lydia, and entered upon a still more extensive career of fame ; he became a public counsellor of the state,

In favour and the distinguished and permanent favourite of Croesus; xmder whose

witUGitEsus. pjj|.,.QQ3gg^ and for whose instruction and amusement, he composed many of those apologues that have been handed down, under his name, from age to age, and through the languages of all civihzed countries, to the present day.

Mso-p now, easy in his circumstances, thirsted for new opportunities of observation, and obtained leave to travel. His ultimate and prin- cipal object was to visit the famous city of Babylon, then in its me- ridian splendour, and to the king of which he had procm-ed a recom- mendation from Crcesus, who was in alliance with him. In the way

His travels, to Babylon, ^sop traversed the rising states of Greece, and called forth the admiration of several of the cities where he abode. At the villa of Periander, near Corinth, he met the Seven Sages, whose fame was at that time at its zenith, and contended with them on the ques- tion of the best form of government, iEsop alone preferring a monarchy to that of any other. With Solon he appears to have been previously acquainted, upon the visit of that legislator to the court of Croesiw, when he is said to have advised him (on his being neglected at court) " to make his visits to kings as pleasant, or as seldom as possible," to which the more rigid Grecian philosopher replied, " or, rather as seldom, or as profitable as possible." When he visited Athens, then under the dominion of Pisistratus, he admonished the discontented citizens that they should rather bear the slight evils of which they complained, than seek an unknown and perhaps an intolerable change; and on this occasion was it that he related the famous tale of the ' Frogs wanting a King,' and who, discontented with their harmless log-sovereign, were punished by Jupiter for their oscillatory disposition by the tyranny of the dii'eful stork.

Kthl^nn' -'Esoji at last reached the dominions of Labynetus, king of Babylon,

where his talent at solving enigmas and auguries produced him ample rewards and reputation. Secure of a comfortable subsistence, he next

Babylon.

sought for an equivalent to the natural affections of life, by the substi- tution of an artificial connection, not uncommon in those days. He adopted as his son and heir a promising youth of the name of Ennus, who appears, however, to have treated him with peculiar ingratitude. Ennus forged his adopted father's name and seal to a paper containing the plan of a plot against the king of Babylon,' who, giving way instantly to his rage, and not imagining the falsehood of the accuser, immediately ordered the execution of jEsop. From death, however, the sage was rescued by some noble friends, who yet were obliged to conceal him from the public vengeance by a close confinement. Labynetus soon had reason to repent his rashness in depriving himself of so useful a counsellor, without having given him the chance of acquittal by a hearing ; for Amasis, king of Egypt, having sent to Babylon requesting to be supplied with an architect " who could build a tower which should hang in the air, and with a philosopher who could resolve all difficult questions " (this kind of practice forming at that time one of the principal amusements of a court), Labynetus was immediately reminded of the qualifications of jEsop, whom he esteemed capable of performing all the wishes of his Egyptian ally. On expressing sorrow for his unknown fate, the friends of the sage produced him to the joyful and repentant monarch in the rags and squalid appearance of a prison, and -lEsop quickly cleared himself from all suspicion of guilt. Labynetus, in just revenge, would now have sacrificed his treacherous accuser, but ^sop procured his pardon, and even again restored him to his own wonted favour, ^sop then departed for Egypt with the ambassadors of Amasis; but although he seems readily to have undertaken the obscure oflices required — in which way he performed them we are not told — he appears to have soon returned to Babylon, where he was much occupied in the educa- of Ennus. Amongst his precepts we find the following fragments of no common mind: " Worship God, my son, " said he, "with care, His precepts with reverence, and with a sincerity of heart, void of all hypocrisy or ostentation ; for know that he is omnipotent as he is true. Have a care even of your most private actions and thoughts ; for God always sees you, and against you your conscience is always ready to bear witness. Prudence, as well as nature dictates, that w4ule you do all the good in your power to all persons whatever, you should pay the same honour to your parents which you expect your children should pay to you ; and prefer your relations before strangers in the exercise of your good offices. Nevertheless, w'here you cannot be beneficial be not ruinous to any one. Words signify actions and thoughts ; there must be no impurity in either. Be careful of childish or im- potent affections; but follow the dictates of your reason, and you are safe. Be still assiduous to learn, as long as anvthing is left unknown to you ; and value wisdom before money. The human mind requires cultivation as do the plants of the field ; the improvement of our reason assimilates us to angels j the neglect of it changes us into beasts.

10 GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

Wisdom aiid virtxie are the only permanent and inviolable good ; but the study of these, without the practice, is nothing. Think not, how- ever, that asperity of aspect necessarily designates wisdom ; for wisdom makes us serious, but not severe. It is one degree of virtue not to be vicious. Keep thy faith with all men ; and avoid a lie to man, for that is an oflence to God. Measure your words : for great talkers have no respect for either honesty or trath. Frequent the society of good men, for the sake of their manners, as well as their virtues. Be careful of the worldly maxim that there is sometimes good in evil ; for profitable knavery and starving honesty is a mistake ; virtue and justice are ever eventually productive of good and profit Admit not that restless passion, curiosity for the affairs of others, but attend to your own business. Speak ill of no one ; and no more indulge in the hearing of calumnies than be the instniment of reporting them ; for those who love the one, commonly practise the other. Intend honestly, and leave the event to God. Despair not in adversity, and exult not in prosperity, for everything is changeable. There are three things of which you will never repent — being early and industrious at your business ; learning good things ; and obliging good men. Remember that is done best which is done in season ; watch therefore for oppor- tunities of doing good. Love and honour kings, princes, and magis- trates ; for they who punish the guilty and protect the innocent form the band which holds society together." Such are the lessons of morality and wisdom which are attributed to ^sop in his adojited character as a parent ; but the object of his anxious cares appears to have ill requited them : his life was a scene of rebellion and debauchery, although he is said to have been at last a penitent, and to have died in all the bitterness of remorse for his ingratitude to ^sop.

In well-earned prosperity, a favourite with the monarch, and loved and respected by his private connexions, -lEsop now appears to have passed many years at 13abylon ; and when he at last obtained a forced Last journey permission to revisit Greece, it was onlv on the express condition of to reece. ^^ early return to that city. As he again passed through the various cities of the peninsula, he resumed his former habit of delivering his sentiments by way of fable, until he is said to have been barbarously assassinated by the inhabitants of Delphi.

The object of the Phrygian sage in visiting this city m his last journey is related ditlerently by different historians. Some have stated, that, satisfied with his travels, he arrived at length at the court of his first patron and protector, Croesus, intending to make Lydia his future home ; and that when resettled there, and under the accustomed favour of the king, he was deputed by him to consult the oracle at Delphi on some important occasion, a circumstance according with the well-known fact of the unusual i)artiality and liberality of Croesus to this famous oracle. Others report, that his own curiosity and thirst for general knowledge led our fabulist thither, and a desire to consult the oracle on some personal affairs. But, whatever were

^SOP. 11

his objects, his disappointment at the barbarous manners of the people, and at the oracle itself; his consequent sarcasms, and his death, are uniformly related. On his arrival at Delphi, then a place held sacred throughout Greece, he found the inhabitants, whom he had expected to see deserving of the reputation they had acquired for piety, wisdom, and learning, deeply immersed in pride, avarice, and barbarism. Unfortunately for himself, he did not conceal his sentiments concern- ing them, but allowed his contempt and aversion to become publicly apparent, although clothed in his usual allegory. " I find," said he, " the curiosity that brought me hither to be exactly similar to the expectation of those who, whilst standing on the shore, see something at a distance which the wind and the waves are floating towards them ; they imagine it to be of considerable bulk or value; but upon its approaching nearer, they discover it at last to be nothing more than a heap of floating sticks, weeds, and rabbish." This censure, it should seem, was levelled not at the lower class of the Delphian people only, but likewise at the magistracy, and perhaps at the juggles of the famous oracle itself; the cheats and extortions attendant upon which cannot be supposed altogether to have escaped the penetrating intellect of ^sop.

Jealous of their reputation, and well knowing the credit with which the fabulist was received by princes and states of the first importance, and those bv whom the Delphian oracle was, until then, highly reverenced, the magistracy of the city, and perhaps the priests of the temple, resolved to silence the censures of ^sop by depriving him of life. It was necessary, however, that he should appear to the public eye to deserve the ignominious death they meant to inflict on him, and the philosophic traveller had already quitted Delphi to depart, when he was seized onlv a few miles from the town, on a charge of sacrilege. jEsop at first ridiculed the accusation ; but the conspirators had laid their plot too sure. They had secreted amongst his baggage, for no benevolent design, a golden cup which belonged to the temple, and there, on inspection, it was found. This apparent proof of iEsop's guilt was not exhibited to the people in vain : they were much enraged; and the court at which he was afterwards regularly tried, condemned him to be thrown headlong from a rock. J^^sop, to Avhom kings, states, and cities of the gi'eatest celebrity had listened with admiration, could now with considerable difliculty obtain a hearing for the few words in Avhich he endeavoured to expose the artifice under which his character was for the first time impeached. But in vain : he was hurried to execution. On the road, however, he is said to ha\e succeeded in diverting their attention for awhile from its imme- diate object; and, evading those who held him, to have escaped to a neighbouring altar. From hence, however, he was dragged, with the remark, that those who robbed their sanctuaries were not entitled to protection from them ; when he made another and final attempt to move their compassion or awaken their justice, in the fable of the

12 GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

Eagle, the Hare, and the Beetle ; and to prove to them that injustice always meets with its due punishment, though practised by the strong upon the weakest of creatures. " Nor are you," continued the un- happy sage, " to flatter yourselves that the profaners of the holy altars, and the oppressors of the giiiltless, can ever ultimately avoid the vengeance of the gods." All this served but the more to enrage his already exasperated judges, and the furious and unthinking multi- tude. They dragged him forward to the fatal spot, and the last words he uttered were characteristic of his history. He likened his miserable lot to that of an old man who had fallen into a pit, together with some asses : both he and the beasts having been beaten out of their road by the violence of a tempest, the animals, when they found themselves precipitated into this cavern, and confined to its narrow boundaries, began to kick the aged traveller, and gave him his death-wounds. " Unhappy wretch that I am," exclaimed ^sop, in the person of this old man, " since die I must, it is doubly hard to die by means of, and surrounded by, these asses, the most senseless of beasts ! To suffer death unjustly were enough calamitous, but for it to be inflicted by the hands of a barbarous and ignorant people, alike devoid of humanity, honour, hospitality, or justice; — ye gods, permit not my innocent death to pass unavenged!" In the midst of this harangue, the im- patient multitude precipitated him from the rock, and he fell lifeless His death, at its base. Thus perished, as he had lived, the sage and celebrated ^sop, mixing wasdom with wit, entertainment with instruction.

The veneration with which the character of iEsop has been generally regarded by the historians of his time, cannot, perhaps, be more strongly exemplified than in their ascribing a dreadful plague, wnth which the Delphians -were shortly afterwards visited, to the outrage thus com- mitted on the hospitality peculiarly due to great men, and their impiety to the gods. This the Pythoness herself declared to be but justice upon them for their crime, and directed a public atonement to be made for it. Accordingly we find that this clamorous and capricious people, soon after his death, erected a pyramid to the memory of ^Esop. It was also a tradition of the best times of Greece, that the conspirators by whose wicked contrivance he fell, so severely suflered the stings of conscience, that they slew themselves in remorse ; — a circumstance which is reported to have given pleasure to the more civilized nations of the Greeks around. Socrates is said to have amused and consoled himself, in several of the serious hours he spent in prison, shortly before he suffered, by rendering several of the compositions of iEsop into familiar verse.

SOCRATES.

BY

CHARLES JAMES BLOMFIELD, D.D.

BL5H0P OF LONDOy.

REPRISTED FROM tSE ORIGINAL EDITION.

SOCRATES.

FROM B.C. 469 TO B.C. 399.

The biography of this remarkable person, who occupies so conspicuous a station in the history of the human mind, will be conveniently in- troduced by a short sketch of the previous history of philosophy in Greece.

The earliest philosophy of the Greeks, which was derived to them Philosophy through Ionia, from Asia, consisted in devising both names andp^J_*"^ attributes for the various deities, who were supposed to preside over tlie diflerent departments of the universe ; and in conveying to a simple people a system of theology and ethics in allegorical poems. Many fragments of these were incorporated into the works of Homer and Hesiod; and some are to be fomid in the more ancient oracular verses which are quoted by the Greek historians. The ' Theogonia ' of Hesiod was no doubt taken, as to its principal features, from the cos- mogony of some more ancient philosophical poet ; and it is to be re- marked, that this philosophy, such as it was, and fi'om whatever source derived, was coeval with the language in which it was taught ; for the names of the deities are not bon'owed from the oriental mytho- logy, which probably supplied many of the deities themselves ; but are Greek names, significant of the attributes which they were intended to personify. Thus, void space is termed Xaog, from the verb Xdw, ' to yawn,' AWi'ip, ' the sky,' is from a'idcj, 'to be bright.'

Certain of these poets or philosophers, for the professions were not then distinct, were employed professionally by some of the Grecian states, to compose useful mythological poems and hymns, appropriate to the worship of various deities : in particular we may mention Pamphus, and Orpheus, an imitation of whose hymns was in after ages forged by some falsary.'

These were the masters of wisdom to the earhest Greeks, who for