Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/197

 is supposed to have been—discourse on these high questions of religious philosophy, and one would almost guess that Plutarch's subsidiary intention was to indicate, by the broken character of the discussion, the difficulty of attaining to a complete and final view of the subject. Various rational and supernatural explanations of the well-known Socratic expression are suggested, explanations which vary in harmony with the different types of character, or mental attitude, already familiar in Plutarch. Galaxidorus takes the extreme rationalistic view. He rebukes Philosophy for promising to pursue scientific methods in the investigation of "the Good and the Expedient," and then, in contempt of Reason, falling back upon the gods as principles of action, thus relying on dreams instead of demonstrations. He thinks the Dæmon of Socrates was nothing but the "last straw" which inclines, in one direction or the other, a man whose close and experienced study of every aspect of the case has not enabled him to come to a practical decision. A sneeze might be the grain which turned the balance. Phidolaus will not allow so "great a phenomenon of prophetic inspiration" to be explained by a sneeze, a method of divination which "is only jestingly used by common people in small matters." A statement of Simmias to the effect that he had heard Socrates often inveighing against those who asserted they had seen a divine vision,. 580 A.]