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56 But, in spite of all these obstacles, there have existed, (Providence be praised!) in every age of the world, some, who have been eminent for their goodness, purity of character, disinterestedness, devotion,—some, who have attained that higher glory,—some, who have kept before the world a likeness of God in His first and Divinest attribute. First, among these, there looms up throngh the mists of antiquity that noble spirit, who has already been adduced as an instance of wisdom, and is now again to be brought as an example of goodness—. Equally beautiful the life, as the death, of that high-souled Grecian. "At the age of thirty years"—says one of his biographers—he took the resolution to devote himself entirely to the pursuit of Divine and human knowledge, and, as he attained it, to communicate it to others. He believed himself an ambassador of God to the citizens of Athens. Hence he was occupied from the dawn of day, in seeking persons whom he might instruct in all that is important to mankind in general, and also in what befitted the particular circumstances and characters of those with whom he conversed. He went to the public assemblies and the most crowded streets; or entered the workshops of mechanics and artizans, and conversed with them on religious duties, on their social and political relations, on all points relating to morals, and even on agriculture, war, and the arts. He strove to remove prevailing prejudices and errors, and to substitute right principles; to awaken the better genius in the minds of his hearers; to encourage and console them; in a word to enlighten and improve men, and make them really happy. His habitual serenity and cheerfulness was the effect, in great part, of self-discipline. He treated his body as a