Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/115

Rh objects of sense—in the admirable defence provided by means of the eyelids and eyelashes for the eye—in the arrangement; of the incisor and molar teeth—in the maternal instinct, and all the instincts of self-preservation which keep our species from destruction. He asked if all this, as well as all the orderly mechanism of the heavens, could be the work of chance? Aristodemus replied that he could not see any directors of the universe. To which Socrates retorted, "Why, you cannot see your own soul, the director of your body, and you might as well say that all your own actions are the result of chance." Aristodemus now shifted his ground, and said, "I do not ignore the divine power, but I think it too grand to need my worship." "The grander it is," said Socrates, "surely the more it should be honoured by you, if it condescends to take care of you." Aristodemus said that the difficulty with him was to believe that the gods took any thought for men. On which Socrates, to prove the divine Providence, pointed out the highly-favoured position occupied by man among the animals—the privileges of reason; the warnings sent to nations and individuals by omens and auguries; and the analogy between the mind ruling over and directing the body, and the universal intelligence which must be conceived as pervading all things and directing their movements. In fine, he recommended Aristodemus to make practical trial of the habit of worship, and of consulting the gods by divination.

Such was the natural theology of Socrates, as recorded by Xenophon. In it we find the argument