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TWO UNPUBLISHED ESSAYS THE 'CHARACTER OF SOCRATES THE PRESENT STATE OF ETHICAL
PHILOSOPHY
BY
RALPH WALDO EMERSON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE
MDCCCXC-Vl
LAMSON WOLFFE D CO
BOSTON O NEW-YORK
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Copyright, 1895,
By Lamson, Wolffe, & Co.
All rights reserved
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SRLF URL
Introduction
logue preserved by John Lovell of pupils of the Boston Latin School, which is the basis of its printed cata
logue. He graduated at the college made him a
THE
name of James Bowdoin
is
first
on that
cata-
Cambridge in 1 745, and, in 1783, Doctor of Laws. He was a fellow
of the college, president of the American Academy, and Governor of Massachusetts in 1788. He was a
leading member of the convention which adopted the Federal
Constitution
;
1780, which
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made
he was president of the convention of the Constitution of Massachusetts.
Very
likely
it
name of "the
successors.
was he who gave Harvard College its new University at Cambridge," and it is per
haps a pity that that
name
has not been preserved by his
When
of some
in
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"to my Alma Mater,
good
security,
left in his will a bequest, the University at Cambridge," four hundred pounds, to be placed at interest
he died, in 1790, he
" and
applied in the
useful
way of premiums
the interest thereof annually for the advancement of
and
polite literature in the residents, as well
grad
uates as undergraduates, of the university, the premiums to be paid in such way and manner as shall be
best
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adapted to excite a
dents
;
spirit
of emulation
among
such
resi
the performances entitled to such
premiums
to be
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Introduction
read in
deliver a fair
library,
by their respective authors, who shall copy of the same, to be lodged in the such copies to be written on
quarto paper of
public
size, that
the
same
such of them as shall merit
in
it
may
in
be bound together
the library."
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handsome volumes and lodged
At some period not very long after Governor Bowdoin's death, the arrangements were made,
substantially
as they are
still
carried on, for the
Bowdoin
prize disser
tations, as they are called at
Cambridge.
An
announce
ment
is
made annually
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that dissertations will be received,
from resident graduates and from
competition for the prizes offered.
as they prefer to handle
undergraduates, in
Several subjects are
select
assigned, from which the competitors
may
such
but no competitor may write ; on any subject except one of these. The income of the fund has not been
all used in every year for the prizes
offered,
and
it
tion of
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till it
unused
has thus been enlarged by the appropria interest to the increase of the principal,
stands on the treasurer's account at about fourteen
At the time of Bowdoin' s death, the dollars. pound of which he spoke was worth $3.33 the fund is
therefore now nearly ten times what it was then.
thousand
;
At
tion.
present, nine prizes are offered from this founda They may be as much as one hundred dollars ;
less
they will not be
than
fifty dollars.
They
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are offered
for translations into
Greek
or Latin, for compositions in
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Introduction
Greek
or Latin,
and
for English essays.
Some of
some
are
are
the
subjects in English essays are historical,
is
what
now called philosophical, and some The dissertations must not contain more
scientific.
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than ten thou
are invited to read
to be designated
sand words, and the authors of successful dissertations them in public, at a place and time
In
by the dean. Mr. Emerson's day, the arrangement was sub
same, but the
first
stantially the
fifty dollars,
prizes
were then only
and the second
at that
prizes thirty.
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The
tradi
tion
is
that a gold
medal was originally
time
;
offered,
and
it
but for many, many years no The winners of candidate ever asked for the medal.
was offered
prizes
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their
were generally young men who knew how to use money and when, many years after Mr. Emer
;
son, a successful competitor asked for his gold medal,
it
proved that the college had no die for any such medal, and no such offer has since been made.
Fortunately for us, among the subjects given in the Mr. year 1820 was "The Character of Socrates."
Emerson was at this time seventeen years old. Know
ing him as we know him now, one is not surprised that he chose this subject. His dissertation, printed
from the copy preserved in the college library, is in the
reader's
there was
hands.
The
next
year,
among
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the subjects
" The
fortunately again, Present State of
Ethical Philosophy."
Once more Mr. Emerson was
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Introduction
successful in the competition, and the second of these curious and valuable papers exists, therefore, in
the col
is reprinted here. reads these essays now, if he be at all familiar with the habit of writing, in the first half
of the
lection at
Cambridge, which also
Whoever
century, of
men who were
dealing with such subjects,
boy of seventeen or eighteen years of wrote what must have surprised and sometimes an age noyed the
sort of men who would be apt to be named
will see that the
upon a committee of award. In the present instance, the committees were the corporation of thecollege, con
sisting
of President Kirkland, John Davis, Dr. William
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Ellery Channing, John Lowell, John Phillips, William Governor Gore Prescott, and Dr. Eliphalet Porter.
assisted in the
award of 1820.
It
would be hard
to
make
a better committee.
It will
in his early tussles
be an encouragement to many a young man, of competition, if he be reminded
at that
that
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
time could not, or
did not, write an essay that was thought worthy of a first It is pathetic to think that the judges were not
prize.
willing to
award the
first
prize to
any of the papers
which were offered
in the
competition.
But to us who read
after the event,
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who
read after
Mr. Emerson has changed the whole philosophy of that " Yankee Plato" time, the opportunity to read
what the
said,
when he was
a boy, of the
life
of Socrates
is
most
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Introduction
fortunate.
I
cannot but think that,
if
we had
not his
manuscript had struggled through anony mously and were printed to-day, we should have sense
name,
if this
enough, wit enough, and insight enough to recognize
the author.
the sketch of the
reader will be curious to compare the paper with life of Socrates in the essay on Plato The date of the
publica in "Representative Men."
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is 1876, but, probably, much of it had been put on paper before that time. In reading the two papers, I
have been led to ask my
The
tion of the essay
self
of the
whether the careful study which, for the preparation first, he gave to the life of Socrates, did not do
something in the direction of the studies of his junior and senior years, and so if it did not lead up to the
sec ond paper. But such speculations are hardly more than
It is he who said, when he was not yet thirty " Milton does not love moral perfection more than I. That
which I cannot yet declare has been my angel from childhood until now." Why should we not expect ofthe boy who was fast growing into such a
fanciful.
years old,
manhood,
that he should write, if he could,
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on the posi
?
tion of the study of ethical philosophy in his time
condition of ethical philosophy in 1821 was cer In 1837, in the same col tainly not very promising.
lege, I
The
Philosophy,"
had given to me for my study Paley's " Moral in which I was taught that I did right in
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Introduction
the hope and expectation of being paid in heaven for
my
sacrifice.
Things were no
better
sixteen
years
before.
It would be idle to anticipate the pleasure with which the reader will follow these early essays, by
pointing out some striking passages in which the early promise of the
man may be
observed.
It
is
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a pity that
we have no
contemporary record of the occasion in which he read these essays before an audience of
undergraduates. The
will required that the essays
should be so read.
At
the
present time, they are read "when and where the dean requests." At times, there has been a certain
difficulty,
I believe, in
finding an audience.
But had there been
any spirit of prophecy in the classes which graduated in i8zo and i8zi, there would have been no doubt
but that
they would have filled the modest chapel of the time to hear Ralph Waldo Emerson lecture on Socrates
or on
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ethical philosophy.
EDWARD
NOTE.
Since this introduction was in type,
to
E.
HALE.
Mr. Josiah P.
which
his father
Quincy has shown
received as a
first
me
the original gold medal
prize
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when Mr. Emerson took
a second.
The
medal bears the head of Bowdoin on the obverse.
This shows
that the die has been lost in recent times, if the traditions above
referred to
were well founded.
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The
Character of Socrates
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The
Character of Socrates
Dissertation of i8zo]
[A Bowdoin Prize
my way Through Lyceum's walk, the green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale Where, oft
enchanted with Socratic sounds,
fair
" Guide
pure devolved his tuneful stream In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store
Ilissus
Of these
auspicious
fields,
may
I
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unblamed
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn My native clime."
years commanded an unusual degree of attention from the curious and the learned. The
late
THE
much
philosophy of the
human mind
has of
increasing
notice
which
it
obtains
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is
owing
raised
to the genius of those
men who have
themselves with the science to general regard, but chiefly, as its patrons contend, to the uncon
trolled progress
of
human improvement.
The
advocates, however, commendable, has sinned in one particular, they have laid a little too much self-
complacent stress^
zeal of
its
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in other respects
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The
Character of Socrates
their
on the merit and success of
own
unselfish
exertions, and in their first contempt of the absurd and trifling speculations of former metaphysicians,
appear to have confounded sophists and true phil osophers, and to have been disdainful of some
who have enlightened the world and a path for future advancement.
ment
marked out
Indeed, the giant strength of modern improve is more indebted to the early wisdom of
is
Thales and Socrates and Plato than
allowed, or perhaps than
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generally
modern philosophers
have been well aware.
This supposition is strongly confirmed by a consideration of the character of Socrates, which,
in
every view,
is
uncommon and
Plato without
admirable.
To
by
one who should read
his life as recorded
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previous knowl edge of the man, the extraordinary character and
Xenophon and
circumstances of his
incredible.
It
biography would appear
that antiquity had
would seem
endeavored to fable forth a being clothed with all the perfection which the purest and brightest
imagination could conceive or combine, bestow-
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The
ing
to
Character of Socrates
so
upon the piece only
it
much
of mortality as
tangible and imitable. view of the character, imaginary
inclined to
make
Even
in this
we have been
revelation,
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wonder that men, without a
of reason only, should set forth a model of moral perfection which the wise of any
by the
light
And, further, it age would do well to imitate. offer a subject of ingenious speculation, to might
mark the
points of difference, should
all its
modern
and
fancy, with
superiority of philosophic
theological knowledge, endeavor to create a sim ilar But this is foreign to our purpose. paragon.
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be well, in reviewing the character of Socrates, to mark the age in which he lived, as the moral and
political circumstances of the times
It will
would probably exert an important and immediate influence on his opinions and character. The
dark ages of Greece, from the settlement of the colonies to the Trojan War, had long closed.
The young
had been growing in and territory, digesting their strength, population, constitutions and building up
their name and
republics
importance.
The
Persian
War,
that hard but
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The
Character of Socrates
memorable controversy of rage and spite, con and disciplined independ flicting with energetic
ence, had shed over their land an effulgence of glory which richly deserved all that applause
which
trial
after ages
have bestowed.
It
was a
stern
of
human
if,
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effort,
and the Greeks might be
with
less glorious
tri
pardoned
in their intercourse
nations, they carried the record of their long
umph too far to conciliate national jealousies. The aggrandizement of Greece which followed
this
memorable war was the zenith of
its
and splendor, and ushered of the political fabric.
in the decay
powers and fall
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The
remembered
age of Pericles has caused Athens to be At no time during her in history.
existence were the arts so flourishing, popular taste and feeling so exalted and refined, or her
political
relations
so
extensive and respected.
The
Athenian people were happy at home, rev erenced abroad, and at the head of the Grecian
confederacy.
Their commerce was
In
lucrative,
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this mild
and
their
it
wars few and honorable.
period
was
to be expected that literature and
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The
science would
tering
Character of Socrates
fos
grow up vigorously under the
of taste
patronage
and
power.
The
of
Olympian games awakened the emulation of
genius and
produced
the
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dramatic
efforts
^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristoph
anes, and philosophy came down from heaven to Anaxagoras, Archelaus, and Socrates.
Such was the external and obvious condition
apparently prosperous, but a con cealed evil began to display specific and disastrous The sophists had
acquired the consequences.
of Athens,
brightest popularity
and influence, by the exhibi
accomplishments whose novelty captivated the minds of an ingenious
tion of those superficial
people,
its
among whom
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true learning
was yet
in
own
infancy. sake.
Learning was not yet loved for its It was prized as a saleable com
sophists bargained their literature,
;
modity. such as
The
it
was, for a price
and
this price, ever
ability
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exorbitant,
scholar.
was yet regulated by the
of
of the
should pos sess so strong an influence over the Athenian
That
this singular order
men
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The
Character of Socrates
public argues no strange or unnatural state of
been sometimes represented ; it is the proper and natural result of improvement in
society, as has
a
money-making community.
By
the prosperity
of their trading interests all the common wants of society were satisfied, and it was natural that
the
mind should next urge
its
claim to cultivation,
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and the surplus of property be expended for the This has been gratification of the intellect.
found true in the growth of
provided the
all
nations,
that
after successful trade, literature
soon throve well,
human mind was cramped by no of climate or " skyey influences." disadvantages The Athenian sophists
adapted their course of
pursuits of knowledge, with admirable skill, to the
taste of the people.
They
first
approved them
selves masters of athletic exercises, for the
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want
of which no superiority of
intellect,
however
Grecian
consummate, Would compensate
republics.
in the
They then applied themselves to the cultivation of forensic eloquence, which enabled
them
on any and on any occasion, however unexpected. subject
to discourse volubly, if ignorantly,
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The
Character of Socrates
in
this
To
become
perfect
grand
art,
it
was
necessary to acquire, by habit and diligence, an imperturbable self-possession which could con
front, unabashed, the rudest accident
;
and more
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over, a
flood
of respondent and exclamatory
phrases, skilfully constructed to meet the emer After this gencies of a difficult conversation.
laudable education had thus far accomplished
its
aim, the young sophist became partially con versant with the limited learning of the age in all
its
subjects.
The poets, the historians, the sages,
on the useful
arts,
the writers
each and
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all
And occupied by turns his glancing observation. when the motley composition of his mind was
full, it
some few
only remained to stamp upon his character to make him what the peculiarities,
called a
moderns have
and his mannerist," education was considered complete. professional When the sophists made
themselves known,
they assumed a sanctity of manners, which awed familiarity and very conveniently cloaked their
sinister designs.
"
Pythagoras, after his persever
ing exertions for the attainment of knowledge,
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io
The
Character of Socrates
after his varied
and laborious
travels,
had estab
institu
lished a romantic school at
Crotona with
tions resembling free
in
masonry, which had planted
Greece prepossessions favorable to philosophy.
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The
dices,
sophists availed themselves of their preju
and amused the crowds
who
gathered at
the
rumor of novelty, with
riddles
and
defini
tions, with gorgeous theories of existence, splendid fables and presumptuous professions. They laid
claim to all knowledge, and craftily
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continued to steal the respect of a credulous populace, and to enrich themselves by pretending When to
instruct the children of the opulent.
they had thus fatally secured their own emolu ment, they rapidly threw off the assumed rigidity
of their morals, and, under covert of a sort of perfumed morality, indulged themselves and their
followers in abominable excesses, degrading the
mind and debauching
virtue.
Unhappily
for
Greece, the contaminating vices of Asiatic lux ury, the sumptuous heritage of Persian War,
had
but too
naturally seconded
the
growing
depravity.
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The
Character of Socrates
The
youth of great
men
is
any peculiarities minds have secret workings ; and, though they feel and enjoy the consciousness of
genius, they seldom betray prognostics of greatness. Many
which
arrest observation.
seldom marked by Their
who were
cradled by misfortune and want have reproached the sun as he rose and went down,
for amidst the baseness of circumstances their
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large
minds were
unsatisfied, unfed
;
many have
their
bowed lowly
were destined
to those
whose names
own
; many have gone down to their graves in obscurity, for fortune withheld them from eminence, and to
beg they were
to outlive
ashamed.
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Of
only but displaying genius for higher pursuits, Crito, who afterward became his disciple, procured for
know
the son of the sculptor and midwife we that he became eminent as a sculptor,
him admission
to the schools
and to such educa
tion as the times furnished.
But the rudiments
of his character and his homely virtues were formed in the workshop, secluded from tempta tion j and
those inward operations of his strong
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1 2
The
Character of Socrates
mind were begun which were afterwards matured
in the ripeness
of
life.
We shall
proceed to examine the character of
the philosopher, after premising that we do not intend to give the detail of his life, but shall occa
sionally
adduce
facts
of the opinions
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to the
we have
of biography as illustrative With regard formed.
method pursued in the arrangement of our remarks, we must observe that sketches of the
character of an individual can admit of
definiteness of plan, but
little
we
shall direct
our atten
tion to a consideration of the leading features of
his
mind, and to a few of
to
his
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moral excellences
which went
make up
the great aggregate of
his character.
The
chief advantage which he
owed
to nature,
the source of his philosophy and the foundation of his character, was a large share of plain good
sense,
itself to
a shrewdness
which would not
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suffer
be duped, and withal, concealed under a semblance of the frankest simplicity, which
beguiled the objects of his pursuit into conversa This tion and confidence which met his wishes.
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The
was the
his
Character of Socrates
13
faculty
which enabled him
to investigate
own
character, to learn the natural tendency
and
bias of his
own
genius, and thus to perfectly
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control his mental energies. There is a story of Socrates, related by Cicero, which militates somewhat
with the opinion we
have formed of
ognomist, after
his
that when a physi mind, examined his features, having
had pronounced him a
man
of bad passions and
depraved character, Socrates reproved the indig nation of his disciples by acknowledging the
truth of the assertion so far as nature
was con
his
cerned, saying that
life
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it
had been the object of
passions.
art,
to eradicate these violent
This
and
as
might have been merely a trick of such is consistent with his character.
not view
it
We
can
it is
in
any other
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light
;
for although
very probable that natural malignity might have darkened his early life, yet no assertion of his
own would
his
whole
life
convince us, in contradiction with and instruction, that he was ever
Such, too, was subject to the fiercer passions. the order of his intellect. He was a man of
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14
The
Character of Socrates
strong and vivid conceptions, but utterly desti
tute of fancy.
Still,
he possessed originality and
sometimes sublimity of thought. His powerful mind had surmounted the unavoidable errors of
which are found applicable
education, and had retained those acquirements to the uses of com
mon
life,
whilst he had discarded whatever
was
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absurd or unprofitable. He studied the nature and explored the des tinies of men with a chastised
enthusiasm. Not
withstanding
the
sober, dispassionate
is
turn
of
mind which we have mentioned, he
not un
moved
at
all
times
;
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when he
enters into the
upon the immortality of the soul and the nature and attributes of Deity, he forgets his
discussion
quibbles upon terms, and his celebrated irony,
and sensibly warms and expands with his theme. This was aided by the constant activity of his mind,
which endowed him with energy of thought and language, and its discipline never suffered him to
obtrude an unguarded emotion. In perfect accordance with this view of his
mind
is
his
conduct under circumstances related
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The
Character of Socrates
15
by Plato. In prison, whilst under condemnation, he was directed in vision to seek the favor of the
Muses.
This new
was
utterly
upon him incongruous with the temper and
discipline enjoined
habits of feeling usual to the philosopher.
His
plain sense and logical mind, which would reduce
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everything, however impressive, to mathematical
measurement, were
little
conversant,
pose, with poetical visions.
In
we may sup fact, we could
not suppose a character more diametrically oppo site to the soul of the poet, in all the gradations
of cultivated mind, than the soul of Socrates. The food "and occupation of the former has do with
golden dreams, airy nothings, bright personifications of glory and joy and evil,
to
Brahma, moulding magnificent forms, clothing them with The latter dwells on beauty and grandeur.
earth, dealing plainly
and we imagine him
sitting apart, like
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and bluntly with
men and
men's actions, instructing them what to do and to forbear ; and even when he desires to lift his
tone,
it is
only to mingle with higher
reality,
but
never forsaking safe,but tedious, paths of certainty.
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16
The
All this
Character of Socrates
we know, and
the
manner which Soc
him
for
rates selected to perform the task assigned
creates neither disappointment nor surprise
;
perhaps in the biographical annals
there
of his country
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feature
was no
intellect
whose leading
more
nearly resembled
fables
It
his
own
than Esop, whose
he undertook to
versify.
may
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well be supposed that a mind thus cast
instruct,
was eminently calculated to
and
his
didactic disposition always rendered
him
rather
the teacher than the companion of his friends.
Add
to all this
tration into the character of others,
an unrivalled keenness of pene and hence
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arose his ruling motive in all his intercourse with men ; it was not to impart literary knowledge or
information in science or
his
art,
but to lay open to
human mind, and all its unac knowledged propensities, its weak and fortified All positions, and the
springs of human action.
the
this
own view
was achieved by the power of
his art,
and
it
enabled him easily to grasp the mind, and mould
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it
at will,
and to unite and direct the wandering
energies of the
human
soul.
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The
Character of Socrates
17
was
His mind was cultivated, though his learning little. He was acquainted with the works
of the most eminent poets of his country, but as he seems never to have made literature his study,
the limited erudition he possessed was probably gleaned from the declamations of the sophists,
whose
pride never scrupled to
borrow abundantly
from the superfluous light which departed genius afforded. His own acquisitions had been made
in the
workshops of the Athenian artisans, in the society of Aspasia and Theombrota, and by in
experienced observation.
living in
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telligent,
Though
as he
taste for the elegance or pride
Athens, he acquired little of life ; surrounded
was by the
living marbles
which
all
suc
ceeding ages have consented to admire, and then just breathing from the hand of the artist, he
appeared utterly dead to their beauties, and used them only as casual illustrations of an argu ment. In
the gratification of his desire to learn
and know mankind, he visited the poor and the rich, the virtuous and the degraded, and set him
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self to explore all the varieties
of circumstances
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1
8
The
Character of Socrates
occurring in a great city, that he might discover what were "the elements which furnish forth
creation."
We may judge
from the acquaintances of the
philosopher what were the minds most congenial to his own. Of his great contemporaries,
Euripides Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, He never at alone was his pupil and friend.
tended the theatre only as his tragedies were to This warmth of feeling for the be performed.
chaste and tender dramatist should defend his
mind from the imputation of
taste
utter deafness to
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The majestic and sublime and beauty. of Sophocles was not so intimately allied genius
to the every-day morals of Socrates
knew and
mon
his
; Euripides taught more human nature in its com The oracle of Delphos justified aspects.
choice
in
that
remarkable
declaration
:
Bptavre iravr&v,
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The
fathers, with their usual
grudge against
the heathen oracles, formed singular opinions " The respecting this extraordinary decree.
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The
great Origen
is
Character of Socrates
19
when
of the opinion that the Devil, he delivered that sentence, by giving Soc
rates those partners purposely
obscured his glory,
to applaud
whilst he
it."
was
in
some measure forced
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have attempted to draw the outline of one of the most remarkable minds which human
history has recorded,
its
We
and which was rendered
extraordinary by times in which he lived.
wonderful adaptation to the
We
must now hasten
to our great task of developing the moral superi
ority
of the philosopher.
manly philosophy has named fortitude, temperance, and prudence its prime virtues. All
belonged, in a high degree of perfection, to the son of Sophroniscus, but fortitude more particu
larly.
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A
Perhaps
it
the first-fruits of his philosophy. constitution was built up like his
was not a natural virtue, but A mind whose
the will of
the philosopher moulding the roughest materials into form and order might create its own
virtues,
and
set
them
in array to
compose the
not like other
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aggregate of character.
He was
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2o
The
Character of Socrates
men, the
sport of circumstances, but by the per
severing habits
of forbearance and
his
self-denial
whole being which enabled him to hold the same even,
he had acquired that control over
all
unchangeable temperament in
his fortunes.
the extremes of
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influ
is
This exemption from the
ences of circumstances in the moral world
almost like exemption from the law of gravita
tion in the natural
economy.
The
exemplifica
tions of this fortitude are familiar.
When
all
the judges of the senate, betraying an unworthy
pusillanimity, gave
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way
to an iniquitous
demand
of the populace, Socrates alone disdained to sac rifice justice to the fear of the people.
On
broken
another occasion, in the forefront of a
battle, Alcibiades
owed
his life to the firm
ness of his master.
Patriotic
steadfastness in
resistance to the oppression of the Thirty
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is
recorded to his honor.
Tyrants Although we are un
willing to multiply these familiar instances, we would not be supposed to undervalue that milder
fortitude which Diogenes Laertius has lauded, and which clouded his domestic joys. The vie-
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The
tory over
Character of Socrates
21
human habits and passions which shall bring them into such subjection as to be sub servient to the real
advantage of the possessor
is
that necessary virtue
which philosophers de
nominate temperance.
We
are led to speak of
this particularly because its existence in the char acter of Socrates has been questioned.
The impurity of public morals and the preva lence of a debasing vice has left a festering reproach on the
name of Athens, which deepens
as the
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manners of
civilized nations
have altered
and
improved. and paragraphs
formerly led
rates.
Certain
in the
many
equivocal expressions Dialogues of Plato have to fasten the stigma on Soc
laid
This abomination has likewise been
of Virgil, and probably with as
to the charge
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justice.
little
Socrates taught that every soul was an
eternal, immutable form of beauty in the divine mind, and that the most beautiful mortals ap
proached nearest to that
celestial
mould
;
that
it
was the honor and
better
delight of
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human
intellect to
contemplate this beau ideal, and that this was done through the medium of earthly per-
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2 z
The
For
Character of Socrates
fection.
this reason this
sober enthusiast
associated with such companions as Alcibiades,
Critias,
and other beautiful Athenians.
article in the
A
of u
late
Quarterly Review, the
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better to vindicate the character of Aristophanes
from the reproach attached to him as the author
The Clouds," has taken some pains to attack the unfortunate butt of the comedian's buffoon
unpleasant at this day to find facts misrepresented in order to conform to a system,
ery.
It is
and unwarranted insinuations wantonly thrown out to vilify the most pure philosopher of an
tiquity,
interest
is
for no other purpose than to add the of novelty to a transient publication. It a strong, and one would
think an unanswer
able,
argument against the
allegation, that his
unsparing calumniator, the bitter Aristophanes, should have utterly omitted this grand reproach,
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while he wearies his sarcasm on more
cant
follies.
insignifi
it
Nor
did he pass
it
by because
was not accounted
of the age
justifies
a
crime,
as if the fashion
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the enormity ; for in this identical play he introduces his Just Orator,
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The
Character of Socrates
23
declaiming against this vice in particular and remembering with regret the better manners of
when lascivious gestures were un studied and avoided and the cultivated strength of manhood was
devoted to austere, laborious
better times,
virtue.
The whole
tions of Socrates ought to
this
character and public instruc have shielded him from
imputation, while they manifest its utter When the malignity of an early improbability.
historian had given birth to the suspicion, the
often bore no good-will to Socrates (whose acquired greatness eclipsed their natural often employed
their pens to confirm and parts),
fathers,
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diffuse
it,
who
and
it
owes
its
old currency chiefly to
their exertions.
We shall not speak particularly of the prudence
of Socrates.
philosophical
He
possessed
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signification
it abundantly, of the term,
in the
but
inter
none of that timorous caution which might
fere
with the impulses of patriotism, duty, or
courage.
It
seems to have been a grand aim of
a patriot,
his life
to
become
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a reformer of the abuses
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24
The
Character of Socrates
of morals and virtue which had become a national
He saw his country embarrassed, and without help in the abyss of moral plunging and excess made
Dissipation degradation.
calamity.
Athens their home and revelled with impunity. " " Give us a was song of Anacreon or Alcaeus
!
the
common
cry.
itself
had entwined
its
frightful voluptuousness about the devoted city, and
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A
ultimate baneful
their
work.
consequences had begun In these circumstances, when all
eyes appeared to be blinded to the jeopardy by the fatal incantations of vagrant vine-clad Muses, this
high-toned moralist saw the havoc that was
in operation.
men
;
flatter
He desired to restore his country he would not treacherously descend to them.
accomplish
this,
To
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To
after
he selected a different
course from the ordinary plans of young men.
an Athenian entering on life and aspiring eminence, the inducements to virtue were
weak and few, but to vice numberless and strong. Popularity was to be acquired among these de
generate republicans
;
not as formerly
among
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The
Character of Socrates
25
by toilsome struggles for pre-eminence in purity, by discipline and austere virtue, but by squandered
wealth, profligacy, and \Vhat, then, flattery of the corrupt populace.
their great ancestors,
had an obscure young man, poor and
friendless,
to expect, sternly binding himself to virtue,
and
attacking the prevalent vices and prejudices of a This was certainly no unworthy great nation ?
prototype of the circumstances of the founders of the Christian religion. He devoted himself
entirely to the instruction of the
young, aston
a strange system of doctrines ishing which inculcated the love of poverty, the for
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them with
giveness of injuries, with other virtues equally
unknown and
unpractised.
His philosophy was a source of good sense and of sublime and practical morality. He directs
his disciples
to
know and
;
practise
the purest
principles of virtue
to be upright, benevolent,
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and brave; to shun vice, TO Oi)pov^ the dreadful monster which was roaring through
earth for his prey. The motives which he pre sented for their encouragement were as pure as
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26
the
life
The
Character of Socrates
they recommended.
Such inducements
were held up as advancement in the gradations of moral and intellectual perfection, the proud
becoming more acceptable in the eye of Divinity, and the promise to virtue of com
delight of
munications from other and higher spheres of existence. The notions of the nature of God
which Socrates entertained were
infinitely
more
philosopher
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correct and adequate than those of any other before him whose opinions have
to us.
come down
Additional praise is due to him, since he alone dared to express his sentiments on the subject
and
is
his infidelity to the popular religion.
"
What
"
It is
God ?
"
said the
disciples to Plato.
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" hard," answered the philosopher, to know, and
impossible to divulge."
Here
is
that reluctance
which timorous believers were obliged to display. " What is God ? " said they to Socrates, and " The he
God who has
replied,
great
himself,
formed the universe and sustains the stupendous work whose every part is finished with the ut
most goodness and harmony
j
he
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who
preserves
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The
them
to
Character of Socrates
27
perfect in immortal vigor and causes
unfailing
them
obey him with
punctuality and a
rapidity not to be followed
this
by the imagination himself sufficiently visible by the endless wonders of which he is the author, but
God makes
continues always invisible in himself."
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explicit
and noble.
He
continues,
This is " Let us not,
then, refuse to believe even what
we do
not
supply the defect of our corporeal eyes by using those of the soul ; but especially let us learn to render
the just homage
let
behold, and
us
will
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of respect and veneration to that Divinity whose it seems to be that we should have no other
perception of him but by his effects in our favor.
Now
this adoration, this
pleasing him, and
we can
homage, consists in only please him by
doing his will." These are the exalted sentiments and motives
which Socrates enforced upon men, not
lated or extraordinary portions
in insu
of
his
system but
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through the whole compass of his instructions. Convinced that the soul is endowed with energies
and powers, by which,
if
well directed, she strives
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28
The
Character of Socrates
and climbs continually towards perfection, it was his object to stimulate and guide her ; to quicken
her aspirations with
new
motives, to discover
and apply whatever might spur on conscientious endeavor or back its efforts with omnipotent
strength.
He
wished the care and improvement
of the soul to be of chief concern, that of the
of
body comparatively trifling. The natural effect his philosophy was to form an accomplished
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so perfect a man as was compatible pagan, with the state of society ; and this state should not
be underrated.
A
nation of disciples of Socrates
would suppose a state of human advancement which modern ambition and zeal, with all its
of knowledge and religion, might never hope to attain. And, could Athens have expelled her sophists
and corruptors, and by ex
superiority
hibiting respect for his instructions
have extended
the influence of her most mighty mind until the chastity of her manners was restored and the
infirmities
tues,
of her dotage displaced by active vir had her citizens then become the converts
she might
and advocates of Socratic sentiments,
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The
Character of Socrates
29
free
have flourished and triumphed on till this day, a and admirable commonwealth of philoso
phers, and looked with enviable unconcern
all
on
the revolutions about her that have agitated and swallowed up nations ; and Philip of Mace-
don and
Mummius
But
of
Rome
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is
obscurity.
offer
this
might have slept in digression, and we can
a vision affords.
no apology except the pleasure which such must now proceed to say
We
his ambiguous genius. Satftmv of Socrates partakes so much of the marvellous that there is no cause for
something of
The
wonder
arising
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from the difference of opinion
discussion.
manifested in
its
Those who
love
to ascribe the most to inspiration in the prophets of God's revealed religion claim this mysterious
personage as akin to the ministering spirits of
the
Hebrew faith. know not of this
Those who, with Xenophon,
similarity, or
who do
not find
foundation for this belief, look upon the SaifAcov only as a personification of natural sagacity ;
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the philoso charitably supposed that himself was deluded into a false conviction pher
some have
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30
The
Character of Socrates
that he enjoyed a peculiar
communication with
the gods by the intervention of a supernatural learned their will and accomplished their being,
ends.
These supposed claims which
Socrates
laid to divine inspiration
have induced many to
marvellous
carry their veneration to a more extent than we can safely follow.
We
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are
willing
to
allow
that
they
have
the
plausible
arguments
who
have considered
as
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philosopher in the
more imposing view,
an
especial light of the world
commissioned from
heaven and as a distant forerunner of the Saviour
Dr. Priestley, with a bolder hand, has instituted a comparison between Socrates and
himself.
are not disposed to enter upon these discussions, as they do not lead to truth and serve only to
bewilder. It is prob
the Saviour himself.
We
able that the philosopher adopted the successful
artifice
of Lycurgus, referring
his instructions to
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higher agents in order to enforce their obedi
regard to the innocence of the artifice, although perhaps no philosopher has a
ence.
With
sincerer
reverence
for truth, yet the
doctrine
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The
Character of Socrates
31
was but too common
were
if
at that time that they promulgate useful falsehoods ; and he imagined that the necessity of the case
free to
might acquit Lycurgus, certainly a falsehood of a more heinous nature would at present have
been
justifiable.
The
entitled
death of this illustrious
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man
has chiefly
him
to the veneration of mankind.
The
mild magnanimity which could forgive and justify its unjust oppressors ; the benevolence which
forgot self and its pains and necessities in the ardor of instructing others ; the grandeur of soul
which disdained self-preservation purchased
the expense of inflexible principle
at
tues
which stooped not in extremity which the human understanding always must approve, and which
compel admiration. We have heard much of triumphant and honor
or by sudden violence,
or from natural causes
the courage ; these are vir
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able deaths at the stake
of
men who have
;
died
in
martyrdom
for liberty, religion, or love
these
But without are glorious indeed and excellent. into consideration the allowance to be taking
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32
The
Character of Socrates
made
lous,
for exaggeration
and the love of the marvel
we
should attribute
much
is
to the influence
of despair.
hurried suddenly from family and friendship and all the atmosphere
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enthusiast
An
of social
life
his joys
and hopes and habits
to the place of torture and execution, to pay the
penalty of adherence to a tenet.
fearful
The quick and of circumstances bewilders and change overwhelms a mind easily affected by things ex
Morbid
sensibility
ternal.
takes the place of
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sanity of mind, and, but partially conscious of his conduct, he mechanically repeats the language
strongly written on his memory ; and it follows that the ignorant mistake his imbecility for fear
lessness,
and
his insensibility for blissful antici
pation of approaching glory.
Such cases are by
no means improbable, and a strict scrutiny of miraculous last words and dying speeches will find them.
But in the sacrifice of Socrates there
is
no shadow of a doubt on which
incredulity
might attach itself. The firmness and uncon cern with which he regards the approach of death
are truly astonishing
;
there does not appear to
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The
Character of Socrates
33
have been the slightest accession of excitement, not the alteration of a degree in his mental tem He met
his agitated friends with the perature.
usual calm discourse and deliberate reasoning. He spoke upon the subject, it is true, when they
frequently introduced
in the ordinations
it,
but willingly acquiesced
employed
his
of superior intelligence, and reason to unveil the sublime pur
poses of Providence. fortunate superstition of the Athenians fur
A
nished him with the opportunity of manifesting the sincerity and greatness of his philosophy, as
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the length of time between his condemnation and death enabled him to hold frequent inter
course with his disciples.
Human
sincerity has
seldom passed a severer ordeal than did the prin ciples of Socrates. Notwithstanding the minute
accuracy with which his every action has been detailed, we know not that the fortitude of which
we have spoken ever abandoned him to a mo ment's melancholy. behold him upbraid ing the
pusillanimity, or soothing the sorrows, of
We
those friends whose office
it
should have been,
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34
The
Character of Socrates
in the ordinary course of circumstances, to alle
viate his
own
dying agonies.
The
dignity and
grandeur of soul, everywhere predominant, is sustained to the conclusion of the great tragedy,
till
we
are irresistibly led to bestow
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upon the
pagan the praise of a perfect man. It is melancholy to turn from this heroic event, this mighty giving-up
of the ghost, to the dark
der.
of so foul a mur history of the causes and agents should avoid all recurrence to it, and
We
save mankind the shock and blush of recollection,
not we think that some palliation might be pleaded to soften this black disgrace on a name we so much
love to venerate as that of
did
Athens.
When the philosopher began life there was a freshness of glory diffused over his country which no after
times equalled. There had been
magnificent
success
in
arms and
arts,
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and
achievements which
overshadowed the great
Hercules and names of their own romance, Theseus and Achilles. These stupendous suc cesses, to which
modern history does not pre-
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The
Character of Socrates
35
tend to offer a parallel, had become familiar to
them, and led them to that independence of character the ultimate effect of which was that
caprice
It
which distinguished the people of Athens.
natural, further beholding the full dis of their might, which had been thus glori play ously exhibited, that
these republicans should
was
acquire confidence in themselves, a fearlessness of contending interests about them, and of the
own actions, which was from the political community as a imparted whole to each separate state, and
from the state
consequences of their
to each individual.
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youthful Socrates.
Such countrymen had the But he lived to see them
degenerate, and crouch to the despotism of the Thirty ; to submit to defeat abroad, and to fac
tion
at
home.
All this, however, had
little
effect
on that caprice whose cause we have
mentioned.
When
the anarchy of the Thirty
Tyrants was over, the impatience with which the people remembered their own submission only
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increased the action of their caprice
;
nor
is
it
extraordinary if an overflowing zeal to approve
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36
The
Character of Socrates
themselves freemen should have made judgment
hasty.
We
liberty
should rejoice but
if
the death of Socrates
were referable merely
;
to this
impetuous
it
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spirit
of
it
belongs chiefly to that general
debasement of morals which
of Socrates to attack and reprehend.
was the passion Their
progress is sufficiently marked by the successive characters of the comedy, from its primal inno
cence to
its
third stage,
when
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that
grossness
became fashionable which
stains the
dramas of
Aristophanes. But not only their anger at the man who reproached them with their vices induced them
to offer violence to him, but likewise his infi
delity to the religion
duction of
new
doctrines.
of their fathers, and intro Grosser infidelity
than that for which Socrates suffered, and which his predecessors Anaxagoras and Archelaus had
wisdom enough to entertain but dared not avow, was openly proclaimed in the licentious theatre, and
applauded by the multitude. But there is
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The
Character of Socrates
plausibility in the
37
some appearance of
apology
for that inconsistency.
In the theatre, impiety excited strong feeling,
and the people's gratitude to the poet who could so faithfully amuse them would easily find apol
ogy for more glaring impropriety. But the phil osopher was the teacher of youth, who should
do away with every improper impression, and might not be allowed to infringe upon the faith
they had been accustomed to venerate. Besides, they came to the lectures of the sage with dis
passionate minds, and there was no purpose of warm feeling to be answered which might par
don the introduction of what they termed pro We must confess that it is hard to fanity. check andchange the free tide of an ancient
religion.
When
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tertains of his
Maker
old prejudices which man en are fixed ; when he is
reasoning himself into a consent to the laws of God which govern him ; when he has incorpo
rated the
names and
attributes of those
who
views
know and make
his destiny
with
all
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his
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38
The
;
Character of Socrates
of existence be
its
be
this
it
religion bad or good,
tendency what
its
may,
till
he
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is
con
error he will repel with indigna tion the power that came to rend and shatter
vinced of
the whole constitution of his soul.
The memory
of Socrates was vindicated from
calumny by the subsequent sorrow of the Athe nians, who endeavored to atone for their crime
by honors splendid
executed
the
unavailing. Lysippus costly tribute of their respect, and the vengeance of the senate fell upon the
if
accusers, in punishment adequate to their guilt. He was Socrates led a sanctimonious life.
abstemious, and his whole demeanor corre sponded with the coarseness of his features and
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the deformity of his person.
By
harsh
disci
pline he endeavored to subdue his corporeal wants so far as to make them merely subservi
ent to the mental advantage, yet never carrying it to anything like that excess of Indian super
which worships God by outraging nature. unnatural expression of courage has been This
stition
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The
called
Character of Socrates
39
man
an assertion of the dignity of man. nature wants no such champions.
Hu
We
must hasten
Grecian.
to take our
leave of the
illustrious
As
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the head of the Ionic
school, he did
its
more
to found true philosophy
on
legitimate basis than
any other master.
When
we
consider
how much
this individual fulfilled
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of the great duty which every man owes to his that of crowding into a little life fellowmen,
the most extended benefit, and contributing the strength of his soul to the aggrandizement of
the species,
we
shall
men can cope
with him.
acknowledge that few Lord Bacon, the
foremost of those few, did not
irreproachable character.
come up
to his
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The
Present State of Ethical
Philosophy
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The
Present State of Ethical
Philosophy
[A Bowdoin Prize Dissertation of 1811]
WHEN
its
the present system of things began being, and the eternal relations of mat
were established, the constitution of moral It began with science was yet to be founded.
ter
the social
human
condition,
with man's
first
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his fellowsense of duty It has remained in permanent eternal man. principles, designed to regulate the
present life
to his
Maker and to
and to conduct the human race to their unseen
and
final destinies.
Its
development was
later
:
with rude and unworthy beginnings, in which
Advancement was long
scarcely perceptible and
always uncertain, and blessed with no charter of exemption from the difficulties of error. For a
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time
it
was
extricating itself
from the conse
its
quences of mistake, and improving
condi
tion, sometimes, however, making a false step and plunging deeper into gulfs of absurdity and
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44
The
;
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
pollution
but
it
has
in
finally
placed itself on
circle
respectable
ground
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the
of
human
knowledge.
It
were a bold and useless enquiry, and lead
limits
ing back beyond the
of
human informa
tion, certainly claiming the apology of interest
and importance, to ask what surpassing mind conceives the germ of moral science, or how
it
was communicated from heaven
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to earth.
It
was the
beautiful and eternal offspring of other
worlds, and conferred on this by interposition
which no discoveries might
anticipate.
We
shall briefly sketch the history
of ethical
philosophy, and notice some prominent distinc tions which separate ancient from modern ethics,
before we proceed to consider the present state of the science.
We
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find irregular
and casual hints of moral
science thrown out by the most distinguished ancient Greek poets, descending, as is supposed,
know remotely from primeval revelation. of none, however, among the first schools of Grecian
philosophy, who set himself apart for
We
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
45
the sublime purpose of gathering up the rela tions which bind man to the universe about him.
Ethics were not thus early separated from the immature, misunderstood sciences of logic and
metaphysics.
to
The
world was not old enough
have accurately parcelled and distributed her science into professions. The amassed stores of
experience were not then overflowing her garners, as now, when ages of industry have elapsed to
define and multiply the offices of her stewards. Believing, as the philosophical ancients appear
to have done, that the world as they found
it
has
forever subsisted, and should continue to sub
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sist,
and that an inscrutable Fate overruled their
destinies,
who might make them,
at pleasure,
demigods or nonentities after death, they had but scanty encouragement for any grand and
holy system which the ardor of virtue might induce them to form. Enthusiasm was chilled
by the awful, unrevealing silence which pre vailed over nature, and the sanctions which it
supplied were inadequate to the support of a
great religious faith.
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46
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Some, astonished at the lustre and enchant ment with which this visible world was illu
mined and renewed, imagined the possibility of a more intimate connection between man and
nature, and hence arose the mysteries of Eleu" The sis, and the doctrine of natural magic.
religion of
" Egypt," says Madame de Stael, the system of emanations of the Hindoo, the Per sian adoration of the
elements, are vestiges of
some curious
the universe."
tion
;
attraction
which united man
is
to
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More
;
fortunate
our condi
delight,
we
recognize, with
scientific
they are material, still they are the agency of Deity, and we value them as subservient to the great
relations we seek and
these attractions
pant after, in moral
attractions,
affinities
and
intellectual
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from
his
moral influence.
But the
high and adventurous ends which these inter preters proposed to themselves were unan
swered and afterwards perverted in corrupt times. Others among the ancients were fain to be
lieve the voice of long descended tradition,
and
awaited the return of the departed gods with
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
47
of ample dispensations, and piously congratulated themselves on the security of human condition under
the protection of
the golden
age
Providence.
Others threw themselves head
long on the comfortless creed of the administra tion of chance, and scoffed at the hopes and
terrors of all, as distempered dreams.
To
sible
this frail
and
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fleeting order of beings, per
secuted by the same natural obstructions to pos aggrandizement, the progress of ages has
unfolded, and immediate revelation sanctioned,
a system of morality so complete and divine, and its promises attended with presentiments so
rich of glory hereafter, as to exalt and assimi
late the
species to the boldest forms of ideal
excellence.
date the reduction of ethics to anything like a separate system from the time of Socrates.
We
" Socrates
videtur, primus ab occultis rebus et a na-
tura ipsa involutis, in quibus ante eum philosophi occupati fuerunt, philosophiam avocavisse et ad
communem
vitam adduxisse."*
* Cic. Academ. Quaestiones.
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48
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Others before him had been ambitious of dic
tating laws for the
government of kings and empires, or had locked up their results and con clusions in costly manuscripts,
so that their in fluence upon the public was remote and insig
But
this patriotic philosopher
nificant.
extended
his
first
wisdom
city
body of the people in the of the world, and communicated to his
to the
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not a hieroglyphical scripture to amuse the learned and awe the ignorant, but practical
disciples,
rules of life, adapted immediately to their
dition
con
and character, and little infected by the dogmas of the age. To the inquisitive he un folded his system,
and the laws and dependen
cies
of morals.
The
grandeur of his views
regarding the Deity far outwent those of his con
temporaries,
whose malice exposed him to op There is an impor probrium attached to Socrates, which tant
circumstance
as a blasphemer.
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that should not be forgotten in ethical history, from him is derived the modern custom of
grounding virtue on a single principle. In treating of things which are _/*/, by which
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
49
all things to be are agreeable to the laws. Modern just which improvement acknowledges this to be a
flimsy
he meant virtuous, he declares
and fallacious
criterion,
vary under every
different
which must necessarily government, and
which
state
sufficiently indicates the then imperfect
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of morals.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Bacon's " Inductive Philosophy " tri
umphed over
Aristotle,
and the authority of the
Grecian sage began to decline, multitudes united to accelerate his fall. The indignation of the zeal
ots against his errors
went beyond bounds, and
proceeded to abolish his
ments where
it
empire in those depart deserved to remain entire. Such
violent zeal will probably create a reaction at
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some
future period.
little
The
ethics of Aristotle
have been
sion of
read, and serve only to aston
ish the occasional student
with the comprehen remark and the advancement of knowl
edge which they contain.
Aristotle
pursues different views of morals
exhibits
from the moderns, and
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unexpected
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50
trains
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
of ideas, unconnected, indeed, by phil osophical association ; he occupies himself long
and tediously
in ascertaining definitions
and
in
drawing the boundary
lines
of moral and math
ematical philosophy, and thus manifests the in fancy of the science, but discovers an intellect
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which was acute
hend,
to devise
an
intellect
and vast to compre which belonged to that
unequalled
series
and Plato,
commencing with Socrates alone, among the sons of Adam,
and methodize the science
qualified to institute
of morality. After the ages of Grecian refinement, during
which
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all
the
sciences
burst into
premature
after him,
perfection, the Stoics exhibited rational and cor
rect views of ethics.
Zeno, and, long
his illustrious disciples, Epictetus, Arrian,
and
Antoninus, maintained the doctrine of a supreme Intelligence, of his universal provi
dence, and of the obligation
M.
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we
are under to
conform
and acquiesce in his deci sions as necessarily right and good. Cicero, though the ornament and herald of
to his will
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
little for
51
philosophy in his age, did ment of its principles.
elegant
the advance
Cicero
admired an
philosophy.
What was
and
uncouth or
;
profound he polished
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simplified
for
no
man on
ever pictured to himself such high classical and ethereal beauty, for the wor
earth
ship of imagination, as this distinguished Roman. Cicero was an eclectic philosopher ; he entered
the schools free from the sourness of pedantry
which the pride of philosophy was and hallow. His genius led him
theories and systems with a to seek something to light,
tiable
to to
pardon
explore sole view to de
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employ
his insa
moral imagination. the same in kind, though superior in science is degree, to that of modern essayists ;
his elegant effusions inspired a delight to investigate the
usefulness
to
His
topics of
which they
treated,
a desire
which
twenty centuries have not abated in the breast of liberal scholars.
With Seneca and Marcus Antoninus
the line of ancient moralists, and with
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closes
them the
chief praise of
human
ingenuity and wisdom.
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52
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
Unassisted
proficiency as at the time elapsing
rates
philosophy never made such vast between Soc
and
Antoninus.
After
this
time
the
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Christian religion comes in, supplying the de fects and correcting the errors of morality, and
establishing
on the whole a grander system
;
but
ingenuity alone never soared so high as the epoch we have marked. during From these philosophers,
ethics were deliv
ered
human
down
to the Christian fathers with all the
new motives and sanctions opened by revelation. With all their parade of schools and disputa
tions, the fathers did little to settle the
founda
tions of morals.
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They
wrote
much about them,
to
and collected the crude materials for others to
analyze.
They endeavored
show
a contra
laws of reason and revelation, and to substitute their expositions of the one for the
riety in the
plain dictates of the other.
of the monastic
cell,
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and
But the obscurity the narrow views
which were
the
entailed
Roman
upon each succession of Priesthood, were unfavorable to
grand apprehensions of moral science.
Some
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
53
of them were sufficiently familiar with Greek and Roman philosophy to take up the subject on proper
grounds, but it was beyond the force
of minds perverted by bigotry to continue as had been begun.
it
The
remain
world.
history of this hierarchy must always a phenomenon in the annals of the
The commissioned
apostles of peace
and religion were seen arming the nations of Europe to a more obstinate and pernicious con
test
than had ever been
fatal
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with
hostility,
known ; and pursued with seven successions of
till
bloodshed and horror,
its
dye was doubled
this,
on the crimson
cross.
Not content with
subjects, and
the ambitious popes were embroiled in perpetual
disputes with their
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crowned
from
new some new
every
contest the consecrated robber reaped acquisition to enrich the domain of
the church.
ecclesiastical govern ment, a different and graver character should naturally have been expected from
the vicar of
this
In the theory of
Christ.
From
the
nature of the
institution,
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54
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
great results in intellectual science might reason ably be expected from the peaceful and educated
Neither domestic relations nor labors clergy. to obtain a livelihood interfered to deter them
from these pursuits, and we can hardly ascribe The difficulty their failure to want of motive.
seems
to
have been lodged
in the very spirit
which pervaded and characterized the whole
church, that of choosing darkness rather than a perverse obstinacy of ignorance. To light,
exhibit a system of morals, entire and in all its parts, requires a powerful faculty of generaliza
tion,
which
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is
nourished only where opinion
;
is
it free and knowledge is valued requires, also, an accurate discrimination, accustomed to op
pose subtlety and sophistry with ambidexter in
from big genuity, and a complete emancipation the besetting sin of the Roman church. otry,
With
the torch of revelation in their hands,
we
find the Christian fathers inculcating the neces
sity
of
silly
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and degrading penances, the offering
or delirium, or bidding the transgressor repair to the Holy Land, in order to propitiate
of
whim
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The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
55
the favor of the Deity.
far
The Hindoo
had gone
beyond them
in his
moral estimates.
" If
thou be not," says the lawgiver Menu, " at va riance, by speaking falsely, with Yama, the subduer of all,with Vaivaswata, the punisher, with
that great divinity
who
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dwells in the breast, go
not on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to the plains of Curu, for thou hast no need of ex
piation."
By
the rapid advancement of the collateral
philosophy of the mind by the spring imparted
by Bacon and Descartes, ethical speculations were matured and improved. It was useless to
disclose defects in the culture of the moral
ers
till
pow
the knowledge of the mental operations taught how they should be amended and regu
lated.
With Lord Bacon
our remarks have less con
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nection than with his less illustrious contempo raries, for in contemplating the science of mor
als
we have only to speak of theorists who have analyzed,
the classifiers and
have recommended and applied
not the sages who it. sketch
A
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56
The
Present State of Ethical Philosophy
of the science has no more concern with the
contains or occasions, than the nature of the soil with the different
beautiful
it
sentiments
owners through which
its title
had passed.
important controversy which has been much agitated among modern philosophers,
An
whether
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benevolence
or
selfishness
be
the
arose chiefly from the ma ground of action, levolent spirit of Mr. Hobbes, whose shrewd
speculations discovered to society that
relations
all
their
were
artificial
and grotesque
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;
and that
nature, which they had ignorantly judged to be so sublime and aspiring, would lead them to the
character and cir