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258 I can to throw light upon them, by saying a few words upon each.

35. First.—In several parts of the Dialogues of Plato, Socrates announces himself, with considerable humour, as a person devoted to the same calling as his mother Phænarete, who practised the obstetric art; the only difference between them being that, whereas she assisted women with her skill, he helped to deliver the minds of men of the ideas of which they were in labour. The analogy between his mother's profession and his own was referred to by Socrates in order to show that he could no more impart, and that it was no more his business to impart truth and knowledge to the minds of his hearers, than it was her business to bear the child, and impart it to those whom she was called upon to deliver. In both cases it was their business to elicit something from within, and not to communicate anything from without. More particularly was this true in regard to the birth of intellectual knowledge; for, according to Socrates, the mind contained within it truths which external experience or communication with others might call forth, but which no external experience and no communication with others could instil or impart. The mind must originate them within itself. As an example of this kind of truth, the whole science of mathematics may be adduced. In the dialogue of Plato entitled Meno, Socrates is represented as educing from the mind of a young slave, by