Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/161

 The Sophists. 151 testimony of Socrates 4, Plato and Aristotle 5 that in their time it was reckoned an abuse, and destructive of the confidential and affectionate relation which ought to subsist between master and pupil in this highest of arts : and it must be held to be an instance of the shamelessness ascribed to the Sophists that they thus ran counter to public feeling as expressed by those best capable of forming a judgment upon the subject. It seems also that to take money for this particular kind of instruction was not only offensive, but a novelty. Zeller, on the authority of Diogenes Laertius, says that fees had never before been paid for philosophical instruction. " Zeno had done so before them," argues Mr Grote, p. 470. The only authority I can find for this statement is the very questionable one of the First Alcibiades, falsely attributed to Plato, p. 119. a., where it is said that Pytho- dorus and Callias each paid a hundred minae to Zeno, and be- came in consequence * learned or clever and distinguished' 6s re koL iXkoyipos. Plutarch in his life of Pericles, c. 4, which is also referred to by Brandis (Biogr. Diet. Art. Zeno) merely says that he ^Kova-e Z^vavos; but if we accept the statement of the pseudo-Plato, it would appear far more probable that the hundred minae were paid for instruction in Zeno's famous logic ; a much more marketable commodity, and much more likely to make 'Pythodorus and Callias clever and notorious/ than Eleatic philosophy. However, even if it was his philosophy (that the uni- verse is one, and change, motion, and phenomena in general mere delusions) that Zeno sold so dear, his example cannot be alleged as a defence or precedent : for from the specimens of his method of reasoning with which he puzzled his contemporaries, and the fallacy of which it has been reserved for modern inge- nuity to explain, it would appear that he was in the most modern sense of the word a Sophist : and so he seems to have been considered by Aristotle, who names him amongst them in the de Soph. Elench. Again, Mr Grote tells us that Plato was a rich man and could afford to give instruction for nothing ; and 4 See especially Xen. Mem. I. ii. 6, Xovvras, <ro0t<rras d3<rirep irSpvovs d-iroKa- 7,8, and i. vi. 13. In the latter pas- oww. sage the expressions are particularly 5 This enters as an essential point strong. The taking of fees for this kind into Aristotle's definition of cro0wr?fo de of instruction is branded as an intellec- Soph. Elench. c. 1, 6 <ro0i<rT7?s XPV^' tual prostitution : ical tt)v <ro<plav wati- tktttjs dwb <paivo[j.&r)$ acxplas, otf<rr)$ 5' tws roiis ftbf dpyvplov t< fiovkoixtvq tu- oti.