Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/187

Rh very god-fearing, especially in the matter of seeking signs and omens; very just and truthful; that he should possess, or acquire, the art of influencing and ruling over other men, and that he should use that art for beneficent ends. Such was the whole duty of man according to Xenophon. It was a simple doctrine, and we can easily see that it was compounded of the Spartan ideas of education, with some of the intellectual and moral ideas of Socrates. We may conclude, then, that Xenophon was no philosopher in the proper sense of the term. Even as a moral essayist, as in the 'Cyropædeia,' the 'Hiero,' the 'Agesilaus,' &c., he is not strong, but only passable. His strength is not in deep thoughts or elevated sentiments, not as a master of the true and the beautiful, but as a manly, straightforward writer of information, and as having admirably told one deeply interesting story—the epic tale of the Ten Thousand Greeks.

At the same time, we must not refuse to allow to Xenophon a certain amount of originality. It is probable that he had no model before him, either for his 'Anabasis' or for his 'Memorabilia.' And it seems not unlikely that his ' Banquet' may have been the first imaginary dialogue introducing Socrates that was ever written. If so, it gave the idea to Plato, who, taking it up, wrote dialogues that are to the 'Banquet' of Xenophon as the plays of Shakespeare to those of Marlow. The various minor works of Xenophon are specimens of a kind of originality—not the originality of creative genius, but rather a sort of practical inventiveness which showed him what things might