Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/430

 408 HISTORY OF GREECE. during the later years of his life, from other Grecian cities ; file- gara, Thebes, Elis, Kyrene, etc. Now no other person in Athens, or in a,iy other Grecian city, appears ever to have manifested himself in this perpetual and in- discriminate manner as a public talker for instruction. All teach- ers either took money for their lessons, or at least gave them apart from the multitude in a private house or garden, to special pupils, with admissions and rejections at their own pleasure. By the peculiar mode of life which Sokrates pursued, not only his conversation reached the minds of a much wider circle, but he became more abundantly known as a person. While acquiring a few attached friends and admirers, and raising a certain intel- lectual interest in others, he at the same time provoked a large number of personal enemies. This was probably the reason why he was selected by Aristophanes and the other comic writers, to be attacked as a general representative of philosophical and rhe- torical teaching ; the more so, as his marked and repulsive physi- ognomy admitted so well of being imitated in the mask which the actor wore. The audience at the theatre would more readily recognize the peculiar figure which they were accustomed to see every day in the market-place, than if Prodikus or Protagoras, whom most of them did not know by sight, had been brought on the stage ; nor was it of much importance, either to them or to Aristophanes, whether Sokrates was represented as teaching what he did really teach, or something utterly different. This extreme publicity of life and conversation was one among the characteristics of Sokrates, distinguishing him from all teach- ers either before or after him. Next, was his persuasion of a special religious mission, restraints, impulses, and communications, sent to him by the gods. Taking the belief in such supernatural intervention generally, it was indeed noway peculiar to Sokrates : it was the ordinary faith of the ancient world ; insomuch that the attempts to resolve phenomena into general laws were looked upon with a certain disapprobation, as indirectly setting it aside. And Xenophon 1 accordingly avails himself of this general fact, n replying to the indictment for religious innovation, of which 1 Xenoph. Mem. i, 1, 2, 3.