Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/322



1. impression which Socrates made on the minds of his countrymen generally, and even on men who differed widely in their genius, their character, and their sentiments, was deep and powerful; and his influence was not diminished, it was rather increased and rendered more intense and lasting, by his heroic and signally impressive, although unostentatious, death. Socrates having left behind him no written memorials, all that his friends could do would be to record and publish his opinions as they had gathered them from his own lips. And these opinions would be coloured and modified more or less by the peculiar mental constitution of each reporter; or, at any rate, each would fasten on that side of the Socratic philosophy which he understood best, and which was most in harmony with his own convictions. Accordingly, we find that some of the disciples of Socrates expounded his philosophy, in its more popular aspect, as a useful guide in the practical affairs of life; among these the most