Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/464

 442 HISTORY OF GREECE. taken being subject to exceptions, but all of them taken collec- tively governing practice, as in each particular art. 1 Sokrates and Plato talk of " the art of dealing with human beings," " the art of behaving in society," " that science which has for its object to make men happy : " and they draw a marked distinction between art, or rules of practice deduced from a theoretical survey of the subject-matter and taught with precognition of the end, and mere artless, irrational knack, or dexterity, acquired by simple copy ing, or assimilation, through a process of which no one could render account. 2 Plato, with that variety of indirect allusion which is his char- acteristic, continually .Constrains the reader to look upon human and social life as having its own ends and purposes no less than each separate profession or craft ; and impels him to transfer to the former that conscious analysis as a science, and intelligent practice as an art, which are known as conditions of success in the latter. 3 It was in furtherance of these rational conceptions, " Science and Art," that Sokrates carried on his crusade against 1 The existence of cases forming exceptions to each separate moral pre- cept, is brought to view by Sokrates in Xen. Mem. iv, 2, 15-19; Plato, Republic, i, 6, p. 331, C, D, E ; ii, p. 382, C. 2 Plato, Phsedon, c. 88, p. 89, E. avev TX VT IS TTJS mpt TavdpuKsia '> TOIOVTOS xpt/adai Imxetpel rolq av&puTroif d jap TTOV fiera TEX VI )S t^p^ro, uffTrep ex l > ovruf av fiyrjaaTO, etc. i] noXiriKr) Te%VTi, Protagor. c. 27, p. B19, A; Gorgias, c. 163, p. 521, D. Compare Apol. Sok. c. 4, p. 20, A, B ; Euthydemus, c. 50, p. 292, E : rif 'or 1 iorlv tTTiaTTjfit] tueivT), rj ^/uf Evdaipovaf iroifioeiev ; . . . The marked distinction between re^vr;, as distinguished from drf^vof rpiftfi uAoyof TpiQri or tyireipla, is noted in the Phaedrus, c. 95, p. 260, E, and in Gorgias, c. 42, p. 463, B ; c. 45, p. 465, A ; c. 121, p. 501, A, a remark- able passage. That there is in every art some assignable end, to which its precepts and conditions have reference, is again laid down in the Sophis- tes, c. 37, p. 232, A. 3 This fundamental analogy, which governed the reasoning of Sokratea, between the special professions and social living generally, transferring to the latter the idea of a preconceived end, a theory, and a regulated prac- tice, or art, which are observed in the former, is strikingly stated in one of the aphorisms of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, vi, 35 : Ov% <5p?f, TW$- oi Texvirat. upfio&VTai (lev uxpt nvbf Tpdf roiif idiuraf, ovdev f/aaoi avTexovrai rov hoyov r^f rfxvrif, KOITOVTOV uwoa oi>x virouevovoiv; Ov Seivbv, el 6 upxtTCKruv KOI 6 larpbf