Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/98

 72 HISTORY OF GREECE. Iliese words portended nothing less than revolution to the dynas- ty, and ruin to Syracusan power. A single Athenian sophist (they exclaimed), with no other force than his tongue and his reputation, had achieved the conquest of Syracuse ; an attempt in which thousands of his countrymen had miserably perished half a century before. 1 Ineffably were they disgusted to see Dio- nysius abdicate in favor of Plato, and exchange the care of his vast force and dominion for geometrical problems and discussions on the summum bonum. 1 For a moment Plato seemed to be despot of Syracuse ; so that the noble objects for which Dion had labored were apparently within his reach, either wholly or in part. And as far as we can judge, they really were to a great degree within his reach had this situation, so interesting and so fraught with consequences to the people of Sicily, been properly turned to account. With all reverence for the greatest philosopher of antiquity, we are forced to confess that upon his own showing, he not only failed to turn the situation to account, but contributed even to spoil it by an un- seasonable rigor. To admire philosophy in its distinguished teachers, is one thing ; to learn and appropriate it, is another stage, rarer and more difficult, requiring assiduous labor, and no common endowments ; while that which Plato calls " the philoso- phical life," or practical predominance of a well-trained intellect and well-chosen ethical purposes, combined with the minimum of 1 Plutarch, Dion, c. 14. "Evioi (Je irpoaenotovvTO dr-j^epaiveii', el irpoTe- -iov fiiv 'A.-dyvaloi vavriKalf Kal Tre&nalf dwiifieai devpo Trhevaavref uicv- A.OVTO Kttl diefy&apriaav irporepov t) haSelv Svpaitovaaf, vvvl &e 61' tvdf aofyiGTov Karcikvovai rtjv kiovvaiov rvpavvida, etc. Plato is here described as a Sophist, in the language of those who did not like him. Plato, the great authority who is always quoted in disparage- ment of the persons called Sophists, is as much entitled to the name as they, and is called so equally hy unfriendly commentators. I drew particu- lar attention to this fact in my sixty-eighth chapter (VoJ. VIII.), where I endeavored to show that there was no school, sect, or body of persons dis- tinguished by uniformity of doctrine or practice, properly called Sophists, and that the name was common to all literary men or teachers, when spoken of in an unfriendly spirit. 2 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 330 B. 'Eyu 6e iruvra i-trepfvov, rqv TrpuTt/i 'uwoiav fyvhuTTuv -yTTFp ufyiKQfiijv, f/Trtjf elf eiudvfilav tAtfof r^c $ 1^006
 * w <>VC (Dionysius) 6 rf' lv'm-n<jev UVTITEIVUV.