trust to the penetration of our readers. In this place also, did our limits permit, we might enter at some length into the state of parties, which in some shape or other always divided Athens. A war party and peace party-a party which favoured aristocratical, and a party which in like manner leaned to democratical principles, are terms which we easily understand; and we can guess, by the influence they have upon ourselves, what would be their effects upon the fiery, disputatious, and idle citizens of Athens. To their literary parties however, and more particularly to that war of opinion, which existed between the philosophers and the writers for the comic stage, we have nothing analogous; but it was as keen, as bitter, and as unintermitting as any opposition of politics between the Whig and Tory of this country: even the subordinate animosities between the comedian and the flute-player, who was employed to regulate the steps of the choral movements, give occasion to remarks in the plays of Aristophanes, (who certainly did not want for the esprit de corps,) which to this day are highly amusing. Now though nobody questions the general sincerity of those who advocate Whig or Tory principles among ourselves, yet we believe the warmest arguers on either side would not always like to be taken to the letter in the opinions of each other, which the heat of argument sometimes elicits: the public meanwhile are the real gainers by the controversy-they form silently their judgment from the conflicting parties, and often set right those who are ostensibly their preceptors. And in free states it is right that all this should be so. The atmosphere which we breathe is purged and cleansed in the same manner: the explosion takes place above, and the quiet fields below are only made sensible of the storm by the showers which are elicited from the concussion, and which fall to gladden, to fatten, and to fertilize. In this sense, Socrates, as a philosopher, was fair game for Aristophanes, as a comedian; and the good sense of the former (perhaps the most predominant feature in his wonderful mind) would lead him to be the first to laugh at the absurdity, and would teach him that in a free state it was better that many things should evaporate in a laugh than in a more serious way. Many other points might here be insisted upon, and particularly such as would tend to remove those prejudices, which lead readers to suppose, that Socrates was, at the time of the exhibition of the Clouds, the same important personage to his contemporaries which his doctrines and his death have since made him to posterity; and that therefore any attack upon him must have been the effect of envy and malevolence. It would be easy to prove, that Socrates, an obscure philosopher just commencing his career, could be no great object of envy to Aristophanes, already high in fame, and shining

shining in a branch of that particular profession where it was so peculiarly the object of ambition in Athens to excel. The relationships of rank,-those relations which all are so ready to deny as influencing their conduct, but which, in fact, operate so strongly upon all,-might here also be mentioned with effect; and it would be no difficult matter to shew, that though a mistaken contempt might thus be generated, there would be small grounds for supposing a decided malevolence, in a man of rank and property, to the son of Phænaret the midwife, who valued his house with all its contents at five minæ. Even the opposition of personal character, as well as of profession, between the philosopher and the poet; the one gay, jovial, light-hearted, and a man of the world; the other serious, thoughtful, and contemplative; witty perhaps, but from the vivacity which lies in the intellect, and not that more sociable one which lies in the temperament, might not be undeserving of remark; and still more might we insist upon the circumstance, that the personal appearance of Socrates (which we described more at length than persons of good taste might think warrantable, on purpose to give effect to this remark) was a consideration to a poet, part of whose entertainment consisted in the ridiculousness* of his masks :-but we hasten to remarks of a more important tendency, and we shall discuss them as freely, but as candidly as we have every other part of our subject.

The name of Socrates is known to most readers, we believe, only by the page of history, where nothing appears in its undress; and even to persons tolerably conversant with the learned languages, the knowledge of this singular man is often confined to that beautiful little work of Xenophon, which indeed deserves the classical appellation of 'golden,' and to that immortal Trilogy of Plato, which has been embalmed by the tearst of all ages. When we read the admirable system of ethics (some few blots excepted) which is laid open in the former, and the simple narrations which conduct the author of them to the close of his mortal career in the latter, it is not simply a burst of admiration, or grief, or horror, which breaks from us, but a union of all three, so profound, and so involved, that the mind must be strong indeed, which can prevent the feelings, for a time, from mastering the judgment. Few readers, we believe, even make the attempt: the prison scene is an agony of suffering, to which the mind gives

Επι το γελοιότερον ἐσχηματιζετο is the expression of Julius Pollux (lib. iv. c. when speaking of the comic mask. See also Lucian de Salt. v. v. p. 141.

19),

One of the greatest, wisest, and best men of antiquity, and whose little infirmities only made him the more amiable, confesses that he never read the Phædon without an agony of tears. Quid dicam de Socrate? cujus morti illachrymare soleo Platonem legens. -Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. viii.

way

way that it may not be torn by opposing it; Socrates drinking the poison shocks the imagination--we feel, such is the merit of the sufferer, or such the consummate skill of his biographer, as if a sin had been committed against human nature-we think for a moment that a chasm has been left in society which can never again be filled up. It is an invidious task to interrupt the current of such feelings, even if there be any thing illegitimate in their source: fortunately for the honour of our species these feelings are mostly right in their application, and what deductions are made can be supplied from higher sources. What these deductions are we must explain, and we believe the minds and the authorities of much more learned persons than ourselves, will go with us in the explanation.

We have referred to two books, (forming but a small portion of the Charta Socratica, or those writings by which the manners, life and doctrines of Socrates may be made familiar to us) as including almost all that is known of this extraordinary man by the generality of readers. These books form part of the system of education in most of our great schools: they are read at an age, when the feelings are warm, the impressions vivid and lively, and when the pride of learning is beginning to operate very strongly. This course of study necessarily brings two names into contact, which are often afterwards connected merely for the purpose of making dangerous and unworthy comparisons. Youthful and inquisitive minds see that system of ethics, which they are told, more particularly forms the internal evidence for the divine authority of the Scriptures, in some measure laid open by the hand of Xenophon; they see the immortality of the soul intimated in the dialogues of Plato, and did their researches extend farther into the Socratic philosophy, they might see dark suggestions of many of the other great Scriptural doctrines-the nature of moral evil, the originally happy state of man, the deluge, the doctrine of free will, and a future state of rewards and punishments. The much greater doctrines of Repentance and the Atonement they do not see displayed; but neither the voices of their own conscience nor a commerce with the world, have taught them the truly divine hand manifested in the former; and the incomplete development of their faculties renders them utterly incapable of duly estimating the latter. We know that we speak from higher authority than our own, when we say that the consequences of these early impressions are often fatal; that men are thus made half-wise in human learning and utterly ignorant in that better wisdom, which makes wise unto salvation. A deeper research into the writings of the Socratic school might lead them to appreciate somewhat better that profound maxim, which does so much honour to the most thought

ful

ful and philosophic people in Europe, that there is no philosophy so deep as the philosophy of Christianity; but time, opportunity, and, we may add, a more competent share of scholarship than sometimes falls to the lot of such persons, are necessary to the task; and the consequence is, that they are left a prey to doubts and disquietudes, from which even the consciousness of an upright and unblemished life does not at all times remove the sting.

We have for this reason felt less compunction than we should otherwise have done in removing any prop to virtue, however misplaced, by displaying some proofs in the preceding part of our remarks, that the character of Socrates was a little more open to remark, than some admirers in their ignorance are aware of, and more than some in their knowledge, are willing to bring into notice. Learned and impartial men, well acquainted with the subject, will do us the justice to say, that some points are not pressed so closely as they might have been, and that had we not confined ourselves to the two authors, from whom we have very rarely deviated, our remarks might have been conveyed in a higher tone of censure. Our object, however, has been, not to depreciate Socrates, but to do justice to a man, whose motives, we think, have been much mistaken, and whose character, in consequence, has been unduly depreciated. In pursuing our remarks upon Xenophon and Plato, the two highest and most genuine authorities, to which we can go for the character of Socrates, a little more may turn up for the justification of Aristophanes.

Dates and periods make no great figure in literary discussions; but they are often of the utmost importance in settling the real truth of things. Our opinions of Socrates are derived entirely from the writings of Xenophon, Plato and Aristophanes; and we believe many readers class all these persons in their minds as immediate contemporaries, and perhaps, from a passage in Plato's Banquet, as living in habits of society together. This was so far from being the case, that the two great biographers of Socrates were actually children in the nursery, at the time the Clouds were brought upon the stage; the future master of the Academy being then but six years old, and Xenophon within a year of the same age. Had these difficulties rested only on the testimony of such a man as Diogenes Laertius, whose sins of forgetfulness (μvnovixa áμaρтnuaтa) are almost proverbial, they need not have demanded

*The nature of our work did not require us to go very deeply into this discussion; and we are glad that it did not. A book was put into our hands, just as we reached this part of our subject, a few pages of which convinced us, that in pursuing the matter farther we might very easily have exposed ourselves to the charge of incompetence. See Lectures on the Comparison between Paganism and Christianity, by the present Dean of Westminster, Dr. Ireland.

much

much investigation; but when we find the mistake originating with a writer in general so accurate as *Strabo, it becomes us to state the grounds of our dissent from them. In the battle of Delium, which took place one year before the representation of the Clouds, Socrates is represented by both these writers as saving the life of Xenophon, during the retreat which followed that celebrated engagement. Now this we do not hesitate to say is a ridiculous fiction. The first important event in the very eventful life of Xenophon was his joining the expedition of Cyrus, a prince certainly not without errors, but whose character, like that of many of the other Persian princes and nobles, contrasts very favourably with the rude republicans, with whom they were brought so much into contact. This expedition is settled by chronologists as taking place just twenty-one years after the battle of Delium; and Xenophon, who has left us so matchless an account of that interesting expedition, calls himself at the time a young man (veaviaxos), and gives us to understand that his close pursuit of philosophy, coupled with his early years, excited the mirth of his fellow-soldiers, till circumstances had taught them to appreciate the practical effects, which often result from such theoretical pursuits. The English historian of Greece, who to the utmost boldness and originality of opinion, unites the greatest patience and minuteness of research, settles the age of Xenophon at the time of his first connexion with Cyrus at six or seven and twenty. What Socrates therefore really was at the time of the representation of the Clouds, and how far the poet was justified in his attack, neither of the two persons, from whom alone any authentic accounts respecting him have come down to us, could possibly tell: their intercourse with their great master must have commenced long after the period in question, and apparently the whole of Xenophon's work, and no doubt many of the dialogues of Plato were written at a time, when for their own personal safety it became them to communicate rather what they wished to be made known respecting their great leader, than what they could make known. These writers, besides, differ considerably in their accounts of their master in some points they are almost diametrically opposite to each other, in others they evidently write at each other; and perhaps the same remark may have struck our readers, which has often occurred to ourselves, that as the most excellent of Xenophon's compositions is that which he derives entirely from Socrates, so the most noble and the most perfect work of Platot is that into which even the name of Socrates does not enter. Now when an enemy and a friend give something

In lib. ix.

p.

278.

The Treatise on Legislation.