Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/24

 14 Journal of Philology. That Alcibiades can be called a Sophist in any proper sense of the word, I utterly deny. His speeches, as reported in Thucy- dides, are not a whit more sophistical than those of Pericles or Nicias. They represent the headstrong, impetuous, bold, and unscrupulous man he was. His contemporaries, whom he loved to dazzle and amaze by his bravery, magnificence and reckless- ness, would have been astonished to hear him coupled with Gorgias as a Sophist. Aristophanes would have been as much astonished as any. Again, I deny that Peisthetaerus has any claim to be called Sophist. The words "sophist," "Sophistical," occur hundreds of times in the Essay, applied to so many persons and things, that it is difficult to get a notion of the sense in which they are used. We may be permitted to suppose that, having no very definite sense, they are found very convenient to mask a halting argument, or hazy conception. If Peisthetaerus is a Sophist, because he is never at a loss for words, and uses any argument good or bad, in jest or earnest, to refute or overpersuade his opponents, then are Dicaeopolis, and Trygaeus, and Bdelycleon, and Lysistrate, also Sophists; even Mercutio, and Prince Hal, and Benedick and Beatrice, will hardly escape the like imputa- tion. " But," says the Professor, " Peisthetaerus and Euelpides are announced to the birds in three passages as Sophists." We turn to these three passages. In 1. 318, they are called Af7rro> Xoytcrra ; in 409, eVa> (ro<f)T)s d(fi 'EXXaSor J in 429, one is TrvKvorarov KLPa&os, o-otyio-fjia, wppa, Tplfipa, 7^al7^aX;/i, oov. We are less surprised to find that one who can translate all these words into "sophists," translates dpviOodjpa, " sophists," too. (62). I would ask, does Peisthetaerus act like a Sophist when he beats Meton, himself a a-o<piarr]s in the language of the Athenian people, (1019), and those two humbugs, the Government Sur- veyor and the Act- of- Parliament Vendor, (1045 sqq.), when he gives such salutary counsel to the would-be parricide (1362 1369), and when he administers such deserved chastisement to the Sycophant (1465) ? In truth, he differs very little in lan- guage or spirit from Dicaeopolis or Chremylus, or Trygaeus he belongs to the ordinary type of heroes of comedy. The sympa- thies of author and audience go with him from the beginning to the end. He is an Athenian citizen "of the right sort," endowed with qualities much admired in ancient Athens, viz. cleverness,