Greek Thinkers; A History of Ancient Philosophy.

Abstract

DATE OF THE " PH^DRUS:'1'] of Isocrates that we find unfriendly allusions to the greater of the two rivals. Sometimes, true " philosopher " as he imagines himself to be, and fully conscious of his own immediate success, he looks down from the height of his superiority on the inventor of barren theories. Elsewhere he extends to the " princes of the contentious art " the same condescending patronage as to the mathematicians and astronomers ; he reluctantly admits that these men, who keep youths to their school-tasks longer than other teachers, do contribute, at least indirectly, towards the preparation of their pupils for life, by sharpening their wits and exercising their faculties.The bitterest expressions of his antipathy were posterior to the death of Plato, whose " Republic " and immortal, is illustrated by an ingenious comparison.Perhaps the soul, with its long series of incarnations, may resemble a weaver who makes and wears a number of garments in succession.Many of these he will wear out and survive, but at last one of them, which he has woven in his old age, will survive him. If we cannot find some •'divine word" which will carry us through the ocean of life like a trusty vessel, then, we are told, it behoves us to take the best and most tenable of human proofs, and let them be our rafta comparison which would certainly suggest to the Greek mind the image of Ulysses escaping from shipwreck.Seeing his friends flag in their efforts, Socrates addresses them, as a general might his " defeated and fleeing troops," and rallies them for. a new attempt.