Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/231

Rh early abandoned his profession and avoided as far as he could any more active participation in public business. He devoted himself to philosophy and applied himself to listen to everybody of eminence who might assist his studies. He soon gave up physics—as leading to nothing and being beyond human powers—and devoted his whole mind to ethics and mental philosophy. He spent his time in the gymnasia—especially the Lyceum—and was ever ready to discuss questions on these subjects with any and everybody, especially with the young men, who, having learnt what was to be learnt at school, were seeking more advanced training. He charged no fee, and his conversation and company were open to all. It would be impossible in a short space to discuss the positive side of his teaching, so far as there was any. But a few words may show why he was likely to make enemies. He did not lecture but conversed, and his method was to apply his elenchos or refutation in such a way as to show his hearers that they did not know what they thought they knew. Thus men would glibly use the words "justice," "right and wrong," "holiness," "virtue," "wisdom," and the like. He would show them that they had no clear idea of what these words indicated, and therefore on what principles they were conducting their life or choosing one line of action and rejecting another. The same process would show men that their views and conceptions of the gods were hopelessly vague and uncertain. Such demonstrations could easily be represented as sapping the foundations of religion and morality. The prejudice which was roused by them