Sokrates replies by distinguishing “being” from “becoming,” and suggests that χαλεπός (hard) may mean not “difficult” but “bad.” He then gives a lecture in his turn. He picks out a μέν in the first line and puts it into a most unwarrantable position in his translation, and makes “indeed” go with “hard.” To become good is difficult but possible, to be and remain good quite impossible. Hence Simonides goes on to say that he is quite satisfied with those who do no positive harm. Sokrates also notes a philological point, that ἐπαίνημι in the poem is a Lesbian Aeolic form, justified because the poem is addressed to a citizen of Mitulene. It may be remarked that Hippias also possessed a lecture on the subject. A lecture on Homer by a Sophist is mentioned by Isokrates: such lectures were frequently given by the rhapsodes.
Grammar was also taught, and the right use of words. Less usual subjects were geography,[504] art, and metre. Logic was in its infancy, but the growing lad could practise himself in argument by listening to the disputes of the dialecticians. Current conversation was full of ethical and political discussions: in the fourth century there were the philosophical schools of Plato and, later, of Aristotle, and the lectures of Antisthenes the cynic in Kunosarges; and Isokrates taught political science. Lads seem to have been expected to learn something, at any rate, of the laws of their country: no doubt they were taken up to the Akropolis to read Solon’s code: occasionally they may have been present as spectators in the law-courts, in order that they might gain an idea of legal procedure. Those who intended to become speech-writers for the courts would doubtless learn more: they would also attend some well-known writer like Lusias or Isaios, and learn the art of forensic rhetoric.
It must be clearly understood that the whole of this secondary education was purely voluntary. The parent need not send his lad to hear any teaching of the sort: the poorer classes certainly would not. The richer parents could choose what subjects they or their sons preferred: rhetoric or literature, geography or mathematics—it was all one to the State. Teachers came and went: few stayed in Athens long. Their pupils had either to follow them abroad, as Isokrates went to Gorgias in Thessaly, or wait for their next visit. It was only the schools of Isokrates, of the great philosophers, and of a few speech-writers like Lusias and Isaios, that had any permanence in Athens. Isokrates himself had taught in Chios for a time: Plato was more than once in Sicily, and his school had to do without him in his absence. There is a peculiar fluidity about secondary education in Hellas: the teachers are always on the move. Endowed buildings for them there were none: they taught in their own houses and gardens, or in those of rich hosts, or in school-rooms borrowed for the occasion, or in public resorts like the gymnasia, or even in the streets. Consistent or continuous instruction was the exception: the Sophists proper gave it only to a few. The average lad at this time naturally acquired a wide and superficial knowledge of a great number of subjects, just the amount of knowledge which is such a dangerous thing. The lads became Jacks-of-all-trades: Plato, struck with the educational error of wide superficiality, wrote the Republic as a counterblast, preaching “One man, one trade.” This protest is largely directed against the specious superficiality of the Sophists’ teaching.
Consequently, secondary education fell into two halves, the fluid teaching of the wandering Sophists and the continuous teaching of the more stationary schools of Plato and Isokrates. It will be convenient to accept this division, and take the fluid half first. In subjects, the two must overlap one another: the Sophists taught logic as much as Plato, rhetoric as much as Isokrates, and universal information of very much the same range as Aristotle. But the method was different, just because as a rule the Sophist was here to-day and gone to-morrow, while the stationary teachers taught the same pupils for several years together and could study their particular idiosyncrasies, and the value of education depends very largely on the teacher’s understanding of, and sympathy with, the individual boys whom he teaches.
It is of interest to trace the development of the term Sophia and of the Sophists who professed it.
The earliest thoughts of the Hellenic peoples were enshrined in hexameter verse. Homer and Hesiod represent the science and philosophy, as well as the religion, of their age. The poetical tradition survived in philosophy as late as Parmenides and Empedokles: the last trace of it may perhaps be found in the myths of Plato. The religious and ritual thinkers and the composers of oracles also employed verse. Consequently “wisdom,” in the earliest Hellenic literature, is mainly associated with poetry and music, and the words σοφοί and σοφισταί are applied indiscriminately to poets.[505] This sense of σοφιστής survived in later times, and Protagoras could call Homer, Hesiod, Mousaios, Orpheus, and Simonides all alike by this title. Orpheus is so styled in the Rhesos. Phrunichos called Lampros the musician a “hyper-sophist,” and Athenaeus declares that Sophist was a general title for all students of music.
A second use of the word “wise man” had also existed from the earliest times, by which it had been applied to those who were skilful in some particular craft, such as carpentering,[506] medicine,[507] or chariot-driving.[508]
The “Seven Sages” also received the name of Sophist,[509] and in their age the cognate words σοφός and σοφία became connected with practical and political wisdom.[510]
Then the rise of education in Hellas, in which these old poets and thinkers were largely employed, and the analogy of the other educational titles with similar endings, γραμματιστής and κιθαριστής, gave the word σοφιστής an association with the teaching profession. Scientific knowledge was beginning to accumulate. Sufficient history was known to serve as a foundation for political theory and precept. Rhetoric was becoming an essential preliminary to political life, since, with the rise of democracy, persuasion became the dominating influence in law-courts and assemblies. The desire for knowledge was never so keen as during the latter half of the fifth century in Hellas. With the demand came the men. All over the Hellenic world arose professional teachers, who carried the knowledge, which they had learnt from one another or discovered for themselves, from city to city. Everywhere their lectures attracted large and enthusiastic crowds. Among the subjects which they studied and taught may be mentioned mathematics (including arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy), grammar, etymology, geography, natural history, the laws of metre and rhythm, history (under which head fell also mythology and genealogies), politics, ethics, the criticism of religion, mnemonics, logic, tactics and strategy, music, drawing and painting, scientific athletics, and, above all, rhetoric. To such a heterogeneous collection what name could be given but “wisdom,” σοφία? The name Sophist was applied indiscriminately to all these secondary teachers.
There are several interesting accounts of these Sophists in extant literature, but the writers are always prejudiced opponents.