[177] Life of Lysander.
[178] Xen. Hellen. ii. c. 2.
[179] Memorabilia, book i. chap. 1, p. 10.
[180] Those readers who wish to inquire into it will find a learned and able paper on this subject by Schleiermacher, in the Berlin Transactions, translated in the Philological Museum, vol. ii. No. 6, “On the worth of Socrates as a philosopher.”
[181] Ibid., p. 544.
[182] The earliest extant notice of this curious question is contained in the recently discovered Republic of Cicero, edited by Maii, lib. i. c. 10. As this treatise is not contained in the general editions of the philosopher we shall translate it:—“You have heard, Tubero, that after the death of Socrates, Plato, to acquire knowledge, travelled first to Egypt, then to Sicily and Italy, that he might learn the discoveries of Pythagoras; and that he had much intercourse with Archytas of Tarentum and Timæus the Locrian, and got possession of the Commentaries of Philolaus; and that, as the name of Pythagoras was then in much credit in those parts, he devoted himself to men of the Pythagorean school and to those studies. Therefore since he loved Socrates singly, and wished to refer everything to him, he blended the Socratic humour and subtlety of language with the obscurity of Pythagoras and that air of gravity given by so many kinds of learning.”
[183] Tusc. Quæst. v. 4.
[184] Schleiermacher, as above. The rest of this paragraph is taken, with some trivial alterations, from the History of Greece.
[185] For an account of this class of men, see vol. ii. pp. 153–157.
[186] Mr. Cumberland, in the ‘Observer,’ has made a violent attack on the moral character of Socrates. Mr. Mitchell has taken a more moderate and candid tone in the ‘Preliminary Discourse’ to his translation of Aristophanes. We have to acknowledge ourselves indebted to his extensive acquaintance with the Socratic writings, for references to several valuable and characteristic passages.