Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/403

 HIPPIAS. 381 jecta moral, political, and even legendary, treasured up in a rery retentive memory. He was a citizen much employed as envoy by his fellow-citizens : to crown all, his manual dexterity was such that he professed to have made with his own hands all the attire and ornaments which he wore on his person. If, as is sufficiently probable, he was a vain and ostentatious man, de- fects not excluding an useful and honorable career, we must at the same time give him credit for a variety of acquisitions such as to explain a certain measure of vanity. 1 The style in which Plato handles Hippias is very different from that in which he treats Protagoras. It is full of sneer and contemptuous banter, insomuch that even Stallbaum, 2 after having repeated a great many times that this was a vile sophist, who deserved no better treat- ment, is forced to admit that the petulance is carried rather too far, and to suggest that the dialogue must have been a juvenile work of Plato. Be this as it may, amidst so much unfriendly handling, not only we find no imputation against Hippias, of hav- ing preached a low or corrupt morality, but Plato inserts that which furnishes good, though indirect, proof of the contrary. For Hippias is made to say that he had already delivered, and was about to deliver again, a lecture composed by himself with great care, wherein he enlarged upon the aims and pursuits which a young man ought to follow. The scheme of his discourse was, that after the capture of Troy, the you'hful Neoptolemus was introduced as asking the advice of > T estor about his own future conduct ; in reply to which, Nestor sets forth to him what was the plan of life incumbent on a young man of honorable aspira- tions, and unfolds to him the full details of regulated and virtuous conduct by which it ought to be filled up. 3 The selection of two such names, among the most venerated in all Grecian legend, as monitor and pupil, is a stamp clearly attesting the vein of senti- ment which animated the composition. Morality preached by Nestor for the edification of Neoptolemus, might possibly be too 1 See about Ilippius, Plato, Protagoras, c. 9, p. 318, E. ; Stallbaum, Pro legom. ad Platon. Hipp. Maj. p. 147, seq. ; Cicero, dc Orator, iii, 33; Platq Hipp. Minor, c. 10, p. 368, B. Plato, Ilippias Mr.ar, p. 286, A, B.
 * Stallbaum, Prolog, ad Plat. Hipp. Maj. p. 150.