Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/120

110 Another set of anecdotes has a faintly superior interest, in which Socrates is represented as advising his friends in their practical difficulties. One of them is in straits because his lands have been occupied by the enemy, and he can get no revenue from them, while he has a large household of slaves to support. Socrates advises him to make the slaves weave clothes for sale; and the experiment is successful. A second friend is reduced to beggary by war, and Socrates recommends him to become some rich man's steward. A third has plenty of means at his disposal, but is troubled by the so-called sycophants, or informers, bringing vexatious suits in order to extort money from him. Socrates tells him to retain the services of a clever poor man, who acts as his solicitor, and defeats the sycophants with their own weapons. We speak of a faint interest attaching to these stories; and it consists merely in this, that they exhibit Socrates as constituting himself adviser-general to his friends in matters of all descriptions.

One group of dialogues in the 'Memorabilia' is concerned with political or military topics. Socrates is represented in these as giving advice to young aspirants for offices of command in the state or the army. In some of these we observe a suspicious affinity to certain favourite speculations of Xenophon's on the improvement of cavalry, and on measures to be taken for the revival of the Athenian power. In others we find vague platitudes inflicted on the listener, such as that "it is the duty of a general to render those under him happy." In one there is a