Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/478

 456 HISTORY OF GREECE. Understanding thus the method of Sokrates, we shall be t no loss to account for a certain variance on his part and a still greater variance on the part of Plato, who expanded the method in writing so much more with the sophists, without supposing the latter to be corrupt teachers. As they aimed at qualifying young men for active life, they accepted the current ethical and political sentiment, with its unexamined commonplaces and in- consistencies, merely seeking to shape it into what was accounted a meritorious character at Athens. They were thus exposed, looking at a philosophical question with the same alternate attention to its affirmative and negative side, as is shown by a judge to two litigants, is strikingly set forth in this passage. I transcribe a portion of it : 'Ecri at Toif evKopfiaai @ov%.o/i.votf irpovpyov TO oianoprjaai KaXuf ^ yap vaiepov zvTropia. /.vcrif TUV TrpoTepov uiropov/isvuv earl, TAtiv (P owe eortv ayvoovvrar ~dv deafiov Aid del rue dva^epeiac TedeupqKEvai irdoac TrpoTEpov, TOVTUV TE %apiv, nal diu, T& Toitf fyni'VTa? UVEV TOV diaTroprjaai irpcj~ov, bfioiov^ Eivai Tolf irol del fiadifeiv uyvoovai, not Trpof TOVTOII; oi'ff el TTOTS TO &Toi'{i.vov evpjjKEV, % ftr), yiyvusKEiv 'rb yup re?.of roiiru [Tev ov dfoov, ru 6s TrporjtTopriKort. Srj7(.ov. *Er< de (3eA.Tiov uvayKTj %fiv irpbs TO Kpiveiv, TOV wffTrep avTid'iKuv KOI TUV u[iia/37]TovvTuv %6yuv unr/nooTa TTUVTUV. A little further on, in the same chapter (iii, 1, 19, p. 996, a), he makes a remarkable observation. Not merely it is difficult, on these philosophical subjects, to get at the truth, but it is not easy to perform well even the prelimi- nary task of discerning and setting forth the ratiocinative difficulties which are to be dealt with : Hepi yup TOVTUV UTTUVTUV ov povov xaheirbv TO evTroprjaai r^f uXij'&eiaf, uA/l' ovtie rd 6 laTroprjaai. Aoytj pa.6i.ov /ta/lwf. Ato-op^crai means the same as Sie^e^&elv raf u-opia<; (Bonitz. not. ad loc.), " to go through the various points of difficulty." This last passage illustrates well the characteristic gift of Sokrates, which was exactly what Aristotle calls rd diaTropqcai T^oyu KO)MC ; to force on the hearer's mind those ratiocinative difficulties which served both as spur and as guide towards solution and positive truth ; towards compre- hensive and correct generalization, with clear consciousness of the common attribute binding together the various particulars included. The same care to admit and even invite the development of the nega- tive side of a question, to accept the obligation of grappling with all the difficulties, to assimilate the process of :oquiry to a judicial pleading, is to be seen in other passages of Aristotle ; ee Ethic. Nikomach. vii, 1,5; De Anima, i, 2, p. 403, 6; De Cffilo, i, 10, p. 279, 6; Topics, i, 2, p. 101, a: (Sffjatfj.0^ 6e fj fiiafaKTinij) npbf raf aru (j>tf.oooiav e-tarrjftaf, on ovvuftc- voi irpdf ufi(j>iJTpa diaTTOpfjffai, paov EV inaaToif naTotjjo/iEQa Tufaj&t'( rt Kai
 * b 4>evdof. Compare also Cicero, Tnsc. Disput. ii, 3, 9.