(468-399 B.C.)
[Illustration: Socrates. [TN]]
Socrates, who, by the consent of all antiquity, has been considered as
the most virtuous and enlightened of Pagan philosophers, was a citizen
of Athens, and belonged to the town of Alopece.
He was born in the fourth year of the 77th Olympiad. His father,
Sophroniscus, was a sculptor; and his mother, Phanarete, a midwife.
He first studied philosophy under Anaxagoras, and next under Archelaus,
the natural philosopher. But finding that all these vain speculations
concerning natural objects served no useful purpose, and had no
influence in rendering the philosopher a better man, he devoted himself
to the study of ethics; and (as Cicero, in the third book of his
Tusculan Questions, observes) may be said to be the founder of moral
philosophy among the Greeks. In the first book, speaking of him still
more particularly and more extensively, he expresses himself thus: "It
is my opinion (and it is an opinion in which all are agreed) that
Socrates was the first who, calling off the attention of philosophy from
the investigation of secrets which nature has concealed (but to which
alone all preceding philosophers had attached themselves), engaged her
in those things which concern the duties of common life; his object was
to investigate the nature of virtue and vice; and to point out the
characteristics of good and evil; saying, that the investigation of
celestial phenomena was a subject far above the reach of our powers;
and that even were they more within the reach of our faculties, it could
have no influence in regulating our conduct."
That part of philosophy, then, whose province is the cultivation of
morals, and which embraces every age and condition of life, he made his
only study. This new mode of philosophizing was the better received on
this account, that he who was the founder of it, fulfilling with the
most scrupulous care all the duties of a good citizen, whether in peace
or in war, enforced by example the precepts which he taught.
Of all the philosophers who have acquired celebrity, he (as Lucian in
his dialogue of the Parasite remarks) was the only one that ever
subjected himself to the hardships of war. He served two campaigns, in
both of which, though unsuccessful, he served in person and exhibited a
manly courage. In the one, he saved the life of Xenophon, who when
retreating, had fallen from his horse and would have been killed by the
enemy, had not Socrates taking him upon his shoulders, removed him from
the danger and carried him several furlongs, till his horse, which had
run off, was brought back. This fact is related by Strabo.
In his other campaign, the Athenians having been entirely defeated and
put to flight, Socrates was the last to retreat, and showed such a stern
aspect that the pursuers of those who fled, seeing him every moment
ready to turn upon them, never had the boldness to attack him. This
testimony is given him by Athenaeus.
After these two expeditions, Socrates never set a foot out of Athens. In
this, his conduct was very different from that of the other
philosophers, who all devoted a part of their life to travelling, that
by intercourse with the learned of other countries they might acquire
new knowledge. But as that kind of philosophy to which Socrates limited
himself led a man to use every effort to know himself rather than to
burden his mind with knowledge which has no influence on moral conduct,
he thought it his duty to dispense with tedious travelling, in which
nothing was to be learned which he might not learn at Athens among his
countrymen, for whose reformation, besides, he thought his labors ought
to be devoted, rather than to that of strangers. And as moral philosophy
is a science which is taught better by example than by precept, he laid
it down as a rule to himself, to follow and practise all that right
reason and the most rigid virtue could demand.
It was in compliance with this maxim that, when elected one of the
senators of the city, and having taken the oath to give his opinion
"according to the laws," he peremptorily refused to subscribe to the
sentence by which the people, in opposition to the laws, had condemned
to death nine officers; and though the people took offence at it, and
some of the most powerful even threw out severe menaces against him, he
always firmly adhered to his resolution; thinking it inconsistent with
the principles of a man of virtue or honor, to act contrary to his oath
merely to please the people. Except on this single occasion, we know not
whether he ever acted in a civil capacity; but insulated as the occasion
was, he acquired such reputation by it at Athens, for probity and the
other virtues, that he was more respected there than the magistrates
themselves.
He was very careful of his person, and blamed those who paid no
attention to themselves, or who affected exterior negligence. He was
always neat, dressed in a decent, becoming manner; observing a just
medium between what might seem gross and rustic, and what savored of
pride and effeminacy.
Though furnished with few of the blessings of fortune, he always
maintained perfect disinterestedness by receiving no remuneration from
those who attended on his instructions. By such conduct he condemned the
practice of the other philosophers, whose custom it was to sell their
lessons, and to tax their scholars higher or lower, according to the
degree of reputation they had acquired.
Thus Socrates, as Xenophon relates, used to say that he could not
conceive how a man, whose object it was to teach virtue, should think of
turning it to gain; as if to form a man of virtue, and to make of his
pupil a good friend, were not the richest advantages and the most solid
profit with which his cares could be rewarded.
It must further be remarked that Socrates kept no class, as did the
other philosophers, who had a fixed place where their scholars
assembled, and where lectures were delivered to them at stated hours.
Socrates' manner of philosophizing consisted simply in conversing with
those who chanced to be where he was, without any regard to time or
place.
He was always poor; but in his poverty so contented, that though to be
rich was within the reach of a wish, by receiving the presents which his
friends and scholars often urged him to accept, he always returned them;
to the great displeasure of his wife, who had no relish for carrying
philosophy to such a height. In regard to food and clothes, so hardy was
his manner of life that Antiphon, the Sophist, sometimes reproached him,
by saying that he had not a slave so miserable as would be contented
with it: "For," said he, "your food is disgustingly mean; besides, not
only are you always very poorly dressed, but winter or summer you have
the same robe; and never anything above it: with this, you on all
occasions, go barefoot."
But Socrates proved to him that he was greatly mistaken if he thought
that happiness depended on wealth or finery; and that, poor as he might
seem to him, he was in fact happier than he. "I consider," said he,
"that as to want nothing is the exclusive prerogative of the gods, so
the fewer wants a man has, the nearer he approaches to the condition of
the gods."
It was impossible that virtue so pure as that of Socrates should have no
effect in exciting admiration, especially in a city such as Athens,
where that example must have appeared very extraordinary. For those very
persons who have not the happiness to follow virtue themselves, cannot
refrain from doing justice to those who do follow it. This soon gained
Socrates the universal esteem of his fellow-citizens, and attracted to
him many scholars of every age; by whom the advantages of listening to
his instructions, and engaging in conversation with him, were preferred
to the most fascinating pleasure and the most agreeable amusements.
What rendered the manner of Socrates peculiarly engaging was, that
though in his own practice he maintained the most rigid severity, yet to
others he was in the highest degree gentle and complaisant. The first
principle with which he wished to inspire his youthful auditors was
piety and reverence for the gods; he then allured them as much as
possible to observe temperance, and to avoid voluptuousness;
representing to them how the latter deprives a man of liberty, the
richest treasure of which he is possessed.
His manner of treating the science of morals was the more insinuating,
as he always conducted his subject in the way of conversation and
without any apparent method. For without proposing any point for
discussion, he kept by that which chance first presented. Like one who
himself wished information, he first put a question, and then, profiting
by the concessions of his respondent, brought him to a proposition
subversive of that which in the beginning of the debate had been
considered as a first principle. He spent one part of the day in
conferences of this kind, on _morals_. To these everyone was welcome,
and according to the testimony of Xenophon, none departed from them
without becoming _a better man_.
Though Socrates has left us nothing in writing, yet by what we find in
the works of Plato and Xenophon, it is easy to judge both of the
principles of his ethical knowledge and of the manner in which he
communicated them. The uniformity observable (especially in his manner
of disputing), as transmitted by these two scholars of Socrates, is a
certain proof of the method which he followed.
It will be difficult to conceive how a person who exhorted all men to
honor the gods, and who preached, so to speak, to the young to avoid and
abandon every vice, should himself be condemned to death for impiety
against the gods received at Athens, and as a corrupter of youth. This
infamously unjust proceeding took place in a time of disorder and under
the seditious government of the thirty tyrants. The occasion of it was
as follows:
Critias, the most powerful of these thirty tyrants, had formerly, as
well as Alcibiades, been a disciple of Socrates. But both of them being
weary of a philosophy the maxims of which would not yield to their
ambition and intemperance, they, at length, totally abandoned it.
Critias, though formerly a scholar of Socrates, became his most
inveterate enemy. This we are to trace to that firmness with which
Socrates reproached him for a certain shameful vice; and to those means
by which he endeavored to thwart his indulging in it. Hence it was that
Critias, having become one of the thirty tyrants, had nothing more at
heart than the destruction of Socrates, who, besides, not being able to
brook their tyranny, was wont to speak against them with much freedom.
For, seeing that they were always putting to death citizens and powerful
men, he could not refrain from observing, in a company where he was,
that if he to whom the care of cattle was committed, exhibited them
every day leaner and fewer in number, it would be very strange if he
would not himself confess that he was a bad cow-herd.
Critias and Charicles, two of the most powerful of the thirty tyrants,
feeling the weight of the allusion fall upon themselves, first enacted
that no one should teach in Athens the art of reasoning. Although
Socrates never had professed that art, yet it was easy to discover that
he was aimed at; and that it was intended thus to deprive him of the
liberty of conversing as usual, on moral subjects, with those who
resorted to him.
That he might have a precise explanation of this law, he went to the two
authors of it; but as he embarrassed them by the subtlety of his
questions, they plainly told him that they prohibited him from entering
into conversation with young people.
But, seeing Socrates' reputation was so great that to attack him and
serve him with an indictment would have drawn upon them public odium, it
was thought necessary to begin by discrediting him in the view of the
public. This was attempted by the comedy of Aristophanes entitled "The
Clouds," in which Socrates was represented as teaching the art of making
that which is just appear unjust.
The comedy having had its effect, by the ridicule which it threw upon
Socrates, Melitus brought a capital accusation against him, in which he
alleged; first, that he did not honor those as gods, who were
acknowledged such at Athens, and that he was introducing new ones;
secondly, that he corrupted the youth; that is to say, that he taught
them not to respect their parents, or the magistrates. The accuser
required that for these two crimes he should be condemned to death.
Enraged as the tyrants were (and especially Critias and Charicles)
against Socrates, it is certain that they would have been very reluctant
to condemn him, had he availed himself in the least of the favorable
circumstances in his case. But the intrepidity and resolution with which
he heard the accusation, refusing even to pay any fine, as that would
have been to avow himself in some degree culpable; and especially the
firmness with which he addressed the judges when called upon to state
the punishment which he thought he deserved, enraged them against him.
For, with confidence in his integrity, he answered them, "That he
thought he deserved to be maintained at the public expense during the
rest of his life." This whetted afresh the resentment of the thirty
tyrants, who caused him now to be condemned to death.
Lysias, a very eloquent philosopher, had composed an apologetical
oration that Socrates might avail himself of it, and pronounce it before
the judges, when called to appear before them. Socrates having heard it,
acknowledged it to be a very good one, but returned it, saying that it
did not suit him. "But why," replied Lysias, "will it not suit you,
since you think it a good one?"
"Oh, my friend!" returned Socrates, "may there not be shoes and
different articles of dress very good in themselves, and yet not
suitable for me?"
The fact is, though the oration was very fine and energetic, yet the
manner in which it was conducted, did not suit the uprightness and
candor of Socrates.
[Illustration: Death of Socrates.]
Now condemned to death, Socrates was put into prison, where some days
after, he died by drinking the poison hemlock. For this was the
instrument of death, then used by the Athenians, in the case of those
who were condemned for capital crimes.
According to Diogenes Laertius, Socrates was twice married, but of the
two wives he has given him, we know nothing except of the famous
Xantippe, by whom he had a son named Tamprocles; Xantippe rendered
herself celebrated by her ill-humor, and by the exercise which she
afforded to the patience of Socrates. He had married her, he said, from
a persuasion that if he were able to bear with her bad temper, there
could be nothing which he might not support.
He died in the first year of the 95th Olympiad, aged seventy.