Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/176

 166 Journal of Philology. 8. i. 6. the two conversations with Antiphon the Sophist (who wanted to rob him of his pupils and associates) upon happiness, and the sophistical profession : especially 13 on the mercenary character of these teachers, who prostitute themselves by selling their wisdom or learning to any one that likes to purchase it, and so obtain the name of Sophists a passage which, if it stood alone, would be quite sufficient to show the opinion that Socrates must have entertained of them : and from rv. 6. 1, it follows that his views of the communicability of knowledge were diametri- cally opposite to those of Gorgias 2o)Kpan/r yap roi/s pev etdorar, ri Zmuttov ftrj t<5i> ovratv, evopifc Koi rots aWois av et-rjyriaOai bvvaa-Qai as in fact his entire philosophical method, described in the same pas- sage, was directly opposed to the rhetorical epideictic harangues (whence, as Plato says, you could never get any explanation of any thing) in which the Sophists were in the habit of setting forth their views of the nature of things. From these and similar considerations, I do not see how Socrates could well have enter- tained any other feeling towards them than that of, not personal hostility, but contempt for their pretensions and dislike of their teaching. This feeling is in fact shown in the cautionary lecture which he gives to the young Hippocrates, who had asked to be introduced to Protagoras, with the view of placing himself under his tuition, Protag. 312. b. 314. c; and as this dialogue is generally considered the most Socratic of Plato's works, and was probably written by him during his master's life-time, it seems most natural to suppose that Socrates really did regard the Sophistical system of teaching as he is here represented by Plato to have done. As to Xenophon's own opinion of them as a class, to say no- thing of the Memorabilia from which so much has been already quoted, a pretty strong one may be found in the 13th chapter of the little treatise de Venatione. Mr Grote, who refers to the pas- sage in a note p. 497, characterises it "as a sharp censure with very little that is specific or distinct." As evidence of the character of their teaching it is definite enough for our purpose ; and what motive could Xenophon have had for misrepresenting them ? as Socrates was " not hostile to them," Xenophon at any rate could not have derived his prejudice from his master ; and he at all events was no speculative visionary who looked at things from a different point of view and therefore misjudged these