THE HESPERIAN STUDENT
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of the Parthenon; for Thucydldes with his kounnesB o
thought mill elegance of style. And wp shall remember
it also for a nnme which is, in some respects, nbuvo all
these; a nnme to which modern history pnys reverent horns
age, a name which adorns that period ns nu Uistrious di-
ndem, the nnme of Socrates.
In following the career of .1 public man, it is often
well to ex-inline the clumicloi1 of the times in
which ho lived. Surrounding influences may hftvo
had much to do with his success, and the wants of
the period may havo suggested his calling. Lotus con
aider then more cnrefully the age of Socrates. Lot ub
dctci mine, if possible, how much his greatness waB due
to circumstances, aud how much in turn that age was
indebted to him.
As we have seen, Greece was enjoying the golden
period of her existence. The Persian wnra had closed
and the mighty hosts of Darius and Xerxes had been driven
back over the sea, from whence they came. The Hel
lenic states had risen to commence lite anow in the
sunshine of liberty. Athons, tho "eye of Greece," the
centre of art and culture, sat upon her crowned Acro
polis and from her "(hrono of beauty" led, if she did
not "rule, the world." As one author says "to have
lived in such a city, iu such an age, was no mean train
ing for auy mau."
But, at the same time, the civilization of the day had ft
false basis; it was built solely upon talent. Power, el
oquence, nrtislicskill, these were the glittering crowns
held aloft the goal of man's ambition. The Greeks had
deified the intellect, and had forgotten all else in its ad
oration. Philosophers had come and gone, but had
said little or nothing upon the great subject of moral
responsibility. Thales and Pythagoras Had contented
Miemsclves with studying the grand question of what is
scientifically true; but none had, a& yet, Bolvcd the
grander problem of what is ethically right. Ohristi"
anity with its attendant blc'ssings, had not yet appeared.
More than four centuries and a half must elapse be
fore the star of Bethlehem should guide the wondering
sages to tho cradle of the nuw born child. Greece ' b
her wisdom knew not God" or his laws, and moral dark
ness brooded over tho heathen world. It was in the
midst of intellectual splendor so incomparably grand, iu
the midst of moral desolation so unconcoivably doso
luto that tho labors of Socrates bogan.
It is a singular fact that he spent the first half of his
lifo in obscurity. Wo know that his father was a sculp
tor, and it is claimed that his occupation suggested his
own. For while tho father chiseled naught but cold and
lifeless marble, lie would mould the future and shape the
destiny of human souls.
When ho begun his life-work, ho saw arouud him tho
joulhofhls native city, under the iuslruolion of the
Sophists, a class of men who cared loss for the substance
of their teachings, than for the manner in which they
taught. They laid great stress upon the arts of rhetoric
but spent their time in idle discussions and profitless
argument. Socrates folt that the condition of tho ago de
manded something more than these gilded baubles. Ho
saw that the teachings of the Sophists wore shallow
fallacious, and he resolved that he would overthrow their
system and build a nobler structure on iu ruins. His
own view of his mission, was th.it of a dhBomlnator of
truth in tho broadest sense of tho term, and besought,
by directing the minds of men 'o lofty themes, to lilt
them also to a higher and nobler sphere of existence
Upon one occasion lie said : "1 pass my time iu doing
nothing but persuading you both, young, and old, that
you care so earnestly neither for tho body, nor for tho
treasures, nor for any other thing as for tho soul, by wha1
means it may bo ennobled in the highest degree." Hci
endeavored therefore to quicken the moral senso in man
for as Victor Hugo says: "An awakened conscience is
gntatuos-s of soul." He believed that virtue could bo
taught, and should bo studied, as one of the chief ends of
living. His aim, as ho professed, was only to teach men
to think for themselves, no sought by his penetrating
questions to arouse in each individual mind, a train of
thought that would work out great results. Accordingly
upon all occasions ho interrogated men ; on tho street, in
tho Agora, at tho Lyceum, wherever ho could reach the
ear of tho multitude. His methods of instruction were
tho simplest; ho employed cone of the flowers of rhetoric ,
he assumed no dramatic postures, ho taught in tho plain
conversational style represented in tho dialogues of Plato.
Unlike his great rivals the Sophists he demanded no
pny, for his reward was the consciousness of work well
done.
Before hla time, philosophers generally looked upon
death ns an o'ernnl sleep. Pythagcras, indeed, had brought
forward the idea of tho transmigration of the soul, but it
was Socrates who first formulated the doctrine of tho
soul's immortality. There is something infinitely sad in
the very word used by tho undent Greeks to designate
the resting place of the dead. They looked upon the
forms of their departed friends, they saw that life had
gone, they knew not whore, and they named the
pi ice Hades the unseen tho unknown, the unknow
able, djtitv.- imagine for a moment, an ancient Philoso
phei musing by a. tombofsrme friend lately decensed
How aptly might behave used those pathetic words of a
great modern agnostic. "Again" he would have said,"wo
nro face to fuce with tho great mystery that shrouds the
world. We question, but thoro is no reply. Out on the
wide waste seas there floats no spar. Over the desert of
death the Sphinx gazes forever but never speaks. The
golden bridge of life, from gloom emorgos and J on
shallow rests. Beyond this, we do not know. Pate is
speechless; destiny is dumb, and the secret of the future
has never yet been told." Such were tho views ot tho
most cultured of the Greeks, before the time of Socrates
Having made life so beautiful and sublime, death was the
most awful tiling that could befall them. They shrank
from it as one would from the jaws of a hideous monster.
Lifo was lovely; death was loathsome. Socrates came
speaking words of hope. Ho came announcing his beliof
that while it frail tenoment crumbled to the dust, the
soul of man lives ou, forovor on, throughout tho endless
ages of eternity.
With a lifo so pure, so noble, so unselfish, it might
seem that Socrates would have been the idol of his age.
But the history of the human race, teaches a different
lesson. Ingratitude is the proverbial vice of republics
and the world at large has often been ungrateful towards
Its truest benefactors. The noble Ariatides had been ban
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