Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/186

176 basis' is of course full of information, not only about Greek manners, but also about the state of the Persian Empire, the geography of many interesting countries, and the characteristics of several wild tribes. The 'Hellenica' is a contemporary record of the affairs of Greece for a period of fifty years, and we have only abstained from abridging it, because to do so would be to rewrite a portion of Greek history which has been often and well written in English before. To the 'Memorabilia' men look for a particular kind of information—information about the strange personality of Socrates. It is true that Xenophon has not done the work of recording the conversations of his master as well as might be wished. He had not the fine perception or dramatic faculty which would have been requisite for the task. But the collection of facts which he gives is, as far as it goes, valuable.

The ancients considered Xenophon a "philosopher," and Diogenes Laertius writes his life as such. But his only claim to be called so is, that he was a pupil of Socrates, and wrote anecdotes about him. Xenophon never uses a metaphysical word or utters a metaphysical thought in all his writings. He was a moralist, and apparently he could not understand that Socrates was anything more than a moralist. Xenophon's ethical philosophy was expressed in his 'Education of Cyrus,' though often repeated without variation in other books. It comes to something of this kind—that a man should train his body by hunting and similar exercises, and his mind by debate and discussion; that he should be very sober and temperate;