Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/465

 THE ELENCHUS OF SOKRATES. -H3 " that conceit of knowledge without reality," which reigned un disturbed in the moral world around him, and was only begin ning to be slightly disturbed even as to the physical world. Tc him the precept, inscribed in the Delphian temple, " Know Thy- self," was the holiest of all texts, which he constantly cited, and strenuously enforced upon his hearers ; interpreting it to mean, Know what sort of a man thou art, and what are thy capacities. in reference to human use. 1 His manner of enforcing it was alike original and effective, and though he was dexterous in vary- ing his topics 2 and queries according to the individual person with whom he had to deal, it was his first object to bring the hearer to take just measure of his own real knowledge or real ignorance. To preach, to exhort, even to confute particular errors, appeared to Sokrates useless, so long as the mind lay wrapped up in its habitual mist or illusion of wisdom : such mist must be dissipated before any new light could enter. Accordingly, the hearer being usually forward in announcing positive declarations on those general doctrines, and explanations of those terms, to which he was rr.ost attached and in which he had the most implicit confi- dence, Sokrates took them to pieces, and showed that they involved contradiction and inconsistency; professing himself to be without any positive opinion, nor ever advancing any until the hearer's mind had undergone the proper purifying cross- exam?iiation. 3 uu/.?.oj aiSeaovTai rbv TTJ I6iaf TE%viif Aoyov, 7} It rbv tsvrov, 6f avjy KOIVOC tan irpof rotif tfeovf ; 1 Plfto (Phicdr. c. 8, p. 229, E ; Charmides, c. 26, p. 164, E ; Alkibiad. i, p. 124, A; 129, A; 131, A. Xcn-^ph. Mem. iv, 2, 24-26. ovruf iavrbv tTriOKEifiupevoc, bxoios carl ?rpdf rqv ivdpuirivriv xptiav, iyvuKe rqv aitrov ivva/uv. Cicero (do Legib. i, 22, 59) gives a paraphrase of this well-known text, far more vague and timid than the conception of Sokrates. nude's, especially that with the former, in Xen. Mem. iii, c. 6, 7. 1 There is no part of Plato in which this doxosophy, or false conceit of wisdoru, is more earnestly reprobated than in the Sophistes, with notice of the clcnchus, or cross-examining exposure, as the only effectual cure foi inch fundamental vice of the mind ; as the true purifying process (Sophistfis, c. 33^S, pp. 230,231). Seo the sanre process illustrated by Sokrates, after his questions put t*
 * Sco the striking conversations of Sokrates with Glankon and Char