[801] So Demokritus, Fragm. ed. Mullach, p. 185, Fr. 131. οὔτε τέχνη, οὔτε σοφίη, ἐφιστὸν, ἢν μὴ μάθῃ τις....
[802] Aristotle (Problem. c. 30, p. 953, Bek.) numbers both Sokratês and Plato (compare Plutarch, Lysand. c. 2) among those to whom he ascribes φύσιν μελανχολικὴν, the black bile and ecstatic temperament. I do not know how to reconcile this with a passage in his Rhetoric (ii, 17), in which he ranks Sokratês among the sedate persons (στάσιμον). The first of the two assertions seems countenanced by the anecdotes respecting Sokratês (in Plato, Symposion, p. 175, B; p. 220, C), that he stood in the same posture, quite unmoved, even for several hours continuously, absorbed in meditation upon some idea which had seized his mind.
[803] Dr. Thirlwall has given, in an Appendix to his fourth volume (Append. vii, p. 526, seq.), an interesting and instructive review of the recent sentiments expressed by Hegel, and by some other eminent German authors, on Sokratês and his condemnation. It affords me much satisfaction to see that he has bestowed such just animadversions on the unmeasured bitterness, as well as upon the untenable views, of M. Forchhammer’s treatise respecting Sokratês.
I dissent, however, altogether, from the manner in which Dr. Thirlwall speaks about the sophists, both in this Appendix and elsewhere. My opinion, respecting the persons so called, has been given at length in the preceding chapter.
[804] See Plato, Euthyphron, c. 3, p. 3, D.
[805] Xen. Mem. iv, 8, 3:—
“Denique Democritum postquam matura vetustas
Admonuit memores motus languescere mentis,
Sponte suâ letho sese obvius obtulit ipse.”
(Lucretius, iii, 1052.)