checked by music the fury of a young man about to inflict instant death on his enemy; to have stopped epidemics, and driven away noxious winds. When he went to the Olympic games, the eyes of all people were fixed upon him, as if he were a supernatural being. It was reported, that one night, after a festival, he was visibly conveyed into the heavens, amid the radiance of celestial light. Others said he threw himself into the burning crater of Ætna, that the manner of his death might not be known, and that the volcano afterward threw out one of his brazen sandals. The third and most probable account is that he went into Greece and never returned. A statue was erected to his memory.

Anaxagoras, born five hundred years before Christ, travelled in Egypt, and in various parts of Greece, in pursuit of knowledge. He is supposed to have been the first among the Greeks, who conceived of God as a Divine Mind, entirely distinct from Matter, and acting upon it, not by blind inherent necessity, but with conscious intelligence and design in the formation and preservation of the universe. He taught that the sun was an inanimate fiery substance, and therefore not a proper object of worship. Eclipses were universally imputed to the immediate action of the gods, and when he attempted to explain them to the people by natural causes, he brought himself into great danger. On one occasion, he ridiculed some Athenian priests for predicting disasters from the unusual appearance of a ram with one horn. To convince the populace there was nothing supernatural in the affair, he opened the head of the animal and showed them it was so constructed as to prevent the growth of one horn. He paid the usual penalty for being more wise than the majority of contemporaries. He was accused of not believing in the gods, and was condemned to die; to which he answered very quietly: "That sentence was passed upon me before I was born." Pericles had been his pupil, and cherished great respect and affection for the good old man; but even his powerful influence scarcely availed to change the sentence of death into one

of banishment. He died in exile at Lampsacus, at the age of seventy-two. When he was dying, the senate sent messengers to inquire in what way they could most acceptably express their respect for his memory. He replied: "Let all the boys have a play-day on the anniversary of my death." His request was complied with, and the custom continued for several centuries.

Socrates, born four hundred and sixty-nine years before Christ, was a common citizen of Athens, who first served as a soldier, and afterward earned his living by making images. His excellent character and earnest desire for improvement attracted the attention of a wealthy man, who enabled him to receive instruction from the best teachers, in various branches. Having thus received knowledge, he wished to use it for the benefit of the public. But he established no school, and had no secret doctrines for the initiated only. Seeing the youth of Athens were becoming demoralized by luxury, and led astray by witty scoffers at all sacred things, he relinquished business, and devoted all his time to talking in the markets, workshops, or public walks, wherever he could get an audience to listen to him. With mechanics, sailors, artists, magistrates, and philosophers, he discoursed familiarly concerning moral principles, religious and social duties, or even the sciences, arts, or trades, in which they were engaged.

He had a large intellectual head, but his personal ugli ness was a subject of jesting both with friends and enemies, who were wont to compare him, in that particular, with Silenus and the Satyrs. A physiognomist, who was unacquainted with him, declared that his countenance indicated a very immodest and corrupt nature. His disciples were much incensed at this declaration; but Socrates cooled their anger, by confessing that the stranger had rightly judged his natural propensities, which, however, he had brought under the control of reason. His constitution was so robust, that he endured hunger and cold with indifference. He was very abstemious in his diet; the same homely clothing served him for summer and winter; and he always

went barefoot, even when serving in the army amid the severe frosts of Thrace. He would never receive any pay for his instructions, and frequently refused rich presents, though urged to accept them. He passed his life in voluntary and contented poverty, sustained by a firm conviction that he was sent into the world to fulfil a special religious mission. He bore injuries with the greatest patience; and he not only treated insults with quiet indifference, but even felt a degree of compassion for those who were capable of bestowing them. His teaching was eminently moral in its character. He thought philosophers expended too much time and ingenuity in metaphysical arguments concerning the nature of God and the soul. On such high themes he deemed it becoming to speculate but little. Following the practical bias of his mind, he reasoned from external effects to spiritual causes.

He said to his hearers: "Reflect that your own mind directs your body by its volitions, and you must be convinced that the Intelligence of the Universe disposes all things according to his pleasure. Can you imagine that your eye is capable of discerning distant objects, and that the eye of God cannot at the same instant see all things? Or that while your mind can contemplate the affairs of distant countries, the Supreme Understanding cannot attend at once to all the affairs of the universe? Such is the nature

of the Divinity, that he sees all things, hears all things, is everywhere present, and constantly superintends all things. He who disposes and directs the universe, the source of all that is fair and good, who amid successive changes preserves the course of nature unimpaired, and to whose laws all beings are subject, this Supreme Deity, though himself invisible, is manifestly seen in his magnificent operations. Learn then, from the things which are produced, to infer the existence of an invisible power, and to reverence the Divinity."

"If thou wouldst know what is the wisdom of the gods, and what their love is, render thyself deserving the communication of some of those divine secrets, which may not

p*

be penetrated by man, and which are imparted to those alone who consult, adore, and obey the Deity. Then shalt thou understand that there is a Being, whose eye pierceth through all nature, and whose ear is open to every sound, extending through all space, pervading all time, and whose bounty and care can know no other bounds than those fixed by his own creation."

"The Deity sees and hears all things, is everywhere present, and takes care of all things. If men believed this, they would abstain from all base actions, even in private, being persuaded that nothing they did could be unknown to the gods."

"There is no better way to true glory, than to endeavour to be good, rather than seem so."

He inferred the immortality of the soul, from the fact that it gives life to the body; from the phenomena of dreaming; from the universal belief of former ages; and from the eternity of the Divine Being, to whom he believed the soul was allied by similarity of nature, not by a participation of his essence. He described the sufferings of the wicked by representing their souls as ulcerated and horribly diseased, and subject to fearful pains, occasioned by the vices of their bodies. The true interpreter of the will of Deity he considered to be a moral sense in man, which distinguishes between right and wrong. He thought it a duty for every one to perform religious rites according to the customs of his country. But he always declared that divine favours could not be purchased; they must be merited; and that could only be done by a blameless life, the truest and best manner of serving Deity. He disapproved of swearing by the gods, and thought the popular legends concerning them tended to produce irreverence. He inculcated the duty of prayer, and taught his disciples this simple form: "Father Jupiter, give us all good, whether we ask it or not; and avert from us all evil, though we do not pray thee to do so. Bless our good actions, and reward them with success and happiness." Plato, who was familiar with his habits, represents him as saying to Phoedrus, when

about to return home from an excursion: "Must we not offer up a prayer before we go?" And thus did the devout man pour forth his reverential feeling in the Grecian form: "O beloved Pan, and all ye gods whose dwelling is in this place, grant me to be beautiful in soul; and may all that I possess of outward things be at harmony with those within. Teach me to think wisdom the only riches; and give me only so much wealth as a good and holy man could manage and enjoy." Xenophon says: "He sacrificed on the public altars of the city, and often at his own house. He also practised divination in the most public manner." He himself asks: "Do I not believe, as well as others, that the sun and moon are gods? Do we not believe demons to be gods or sons of gods?" He often declared, with great solemnity, that the devotion of his time and talents to the instruction of others had been enjoined upon him "by the gods, by oracles, by the god, by dreams, and every other mode in which by divination they order things to be done."

He made frequent allusion to "a demon," who he says warned him what to avoid. This divine voice had accompanied him from his youth. It often forbade him to do things, but never prompted him to any particular action. Sometimes it made suggestions with regard to the conduct of others; and he declared that whenever, from this warning, he signified the will of the gods to any of his friends, he never found himself deceived. Plato represents him as saying, in conversation: "When I was about to cross the river, the usual demoniacal sign was given me; and whenever this takes place, it always prohibits me from accomplishing what I am about to do. In the present instance, I seemed to hear a certain voice, which would not suffer me to depart, till I had made an expiation; as if I had in some way offended a divine nature. I am therefore a prophet, though not a perfectly worthy one; but just such a one as a man who knows his letters indifferently well-merely sufficient for what concerns himself."

This "demon" of Socrates has greatly puzzled modern inquirers. Some have conjectured that he merely meant