Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/183

 The Sophists. 173 according to the ordinary Greek standard ; but if this was all the virtue he taught, I question if the morals of his pupils would have derived any great benefit from his instructions : and if we further consider the rhetoric which he did teach, as well as the virtue which he did not ; rhetoric, of which according to Socrates in the Gorgias the object was (I adopt Mr Grote's own words, p. 526) "to cheat an ignorant audience into persuasion without knowledge, and to satisfy the passing caprice without any regard to the perma- nent welfare and improvement of the people 16 ;" we may easily see how such training may, or I should rather say must, have had an injurious effect on the principles of the wealthy young aspirants to political distinction who attended his lectures. However, we need not trouble ourselves to ascertain what were Gorgias* sentiments on the subject of virtue ; for it appears from the Meno, 95. c. that he not only did not profess to teach it himself, but laughed at those that did his only aim was to make men " clever," deivovs ; so that he left his rhetoric to produce its full corrupting effect upon the minds of his youthful hearers unguarded by any moral precepts or principles. Though at the same time Polus and Callicles tell us (Gorg. 461. b. 482. c.) that Gorgias was ashamed to make this admission when he was asked the question, and was obliged out of compliment to the vulgar prejudice on the subject to say that he did teach virtue and jus- tice as well as rhetoric: as indeed he does to Socrates in the Gorgias, and involves himself in a contradiction thereby. Nor was this all. Gorgias had also a philosophical creed if opinions amounting to the purest scepticism deserve to be called a creed which illustrates well enough the character of the man's mind, and affords an indication of the probable nature of his instructions in subjects of a more practical kind. It was, as we find it stated by the Aristotelian author of the treatise de Xenophane Zenone et Gorgia, ovk elvai fao-tv ovSeV 8' eoriv, ay vcca-Tov elvaC ei Se kcu eort kcu yvoaarov, dXX' ov drjXarov aWois, C. 5. This is confirmed by Sext. Empir. [R. and Pr. H. Ph. 190] h yap t<5 imypcxpofievw Hep tov p.f) ovros rj .irepX (pixrecos rpla Kara to egfjs 16 The definition of this Sophistical  rb. irpdy- law and public assemblies ancient and fiara ovdh> 5e? avTTjv ddii/ou Sirws 2x e h modern ; another of the sophistical Mxavty 54 two. iraQovs evpyjKbai tiVre "shams." Comp. 459. E.