Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/368

 346 HISTORY OF GREECE. point of view is emphatically inculcated. He is admonished tc set before him both sides of every hypothesis, and to follow out both the negative and the affirmative chains of argument with equal perseverance and equal freedom of scrutiny ; neither daunted by the adverse opinions around him, nor deterred by sneers against wasting time in fruitless talk ; since the multitude are ignorant that without thus travelling round all sides of a question, no assured comprehension of the truth is attainable. 1 We thus find ourselves, from the year 450 B.C., downwards, in presence of two important classes of men in Greece, unknown to Solon or even to Kleisthenes, the Rhetoricians, and the Dialecti- cians ; for whom, as has been shown, the ground had been grad- ually prepared by the politics, the poetry, and the speculation, of the preceding period. Both these two novelties like the poetry and other accom- plishments of this memorable race grew up from rude indige- nous beginnings, under native stimulus unborrowed and unassisted from without. The rhetorical teaching was an attempt to assist and improve men in the power of continuous speech as addressed to assembled numbers, such as the public assembly or the dikas- tery ; it was therefore a species of training sought for by men of active pursuits and ambition, either that they might succeed in public life, or that they might maintain their rights and dignity 1 Plato, Parmenid, pp. 135, 136. Parmenides speaks to Sokrates : Ka/ltf fj.lv ovv ical #e<a, ev ladi, rj bpfj.fi, f/v 6p/i(zf Eirl Todf Aoyovf sXnvaov Tov KOI yvfivuaai fiuJiAov dia rf/f doKovoije axprjarov elvai /cat KahovfiEvrji; iinb TUV iro'h.'XiJv udoTieux'tof, Sue e~i vsof el' el <5e fir), ae diaQevZerai f/ aTiq&eia. T7? ovv 6 rpoTrof, Qiivai (roc Su/cpan?), u Hapfievidq, rfjf yvnvaaiag; Ovrof, e'nrelv (TOV Iapfievl6r]v) ovirep qKovaac ZTJVUVOS Xpj) 6e K.a.1 rods ETL Trpdf TOVTU GKOTTEIV, fi ij uovoVf e I e ffTiv luaarov, vrcoTf&eftevov, OKOTTEIV T& Zvfi- BaivovTa K rr) f v IT odtasuf a/l^.a K at, e I fir} sort T b aird T ov TO V7rorii?een9at eZ ftovkti fj.uhTi.ov -yvfivaa^vat ' Kyvoovai ydp ol TD^-ol OTL UVEV TavTTjs rijf 6iu TTUVTUV Stegodov ical irhuvTic, aSvvarov kvTvxbvta T6J a?L7)dl vovv ax^lv. See also Plato's Kratylus, p. 428, E, aliout the necessity of the investigator looking both before and behind upa irposau KOI cmiaau. See also the Parmenides, p. 130, E, in which Sokratur is warned re specting the -iv&puTruv <56faf, against enslaving himself to the opinions of men : compare Plato, Sophistes, o. 227, B. C.