Eschines would 1 appear to have treated the СНАР. teaching of Socrates in the same way. The writings

XI.

chines.

of this disciple,2 are reckoned among the best models C. Esof Attic prose,3 and are by some preferred to those of Xenophon. It is moreover asserted that they repro

CHAP.
XI.

D. Simmias and Cebes.

duce the spirit of Socrates with wonderful fidelity," and the few fragments which remain confirm this view. Nevertheless they appear to have been singularly poor in real philosophic thought. Their strength consists far more in the grace and elegance of their language than in an independent treatment of the Socratic teaching.

7

4

3

More philosophic characters were the two Thebans, Simmias 2 and Cebes. Both were pupils of Philolaus; both are described by Plato 5 as thoughtful men. Still nothing certain is known of their philosophical opinions and performances. The writings attributed to them were already rejected by Panatius as far as he knew them, and the single one extant, known as the Mirror' of Cebes, is certainly spurious. Still less can any dependence be is said (Phædo, 63, A., 77, A.), that he could always raise objections, and was the most inveterate doubter; and the part which he and Simmias play in the Phædo corresponds with this description.

8

1 Aristid. Or. xlv. p. 35. Conf. Demetr. De Interpret. 297. Hence the story (Diog. ii. 60, 62; Athen. xiii. 611), that his speeches had been composed by Socrates, and given to him by Xanthippe. Diog. ii. 47 ranks him among the most distinguished followers of Socrates.

2 Xen. Mem. i. 2, 48; iii. 11, 17; Plato, Phædo, 59, C., 63 A. 3 Mem.; Phædo, 59, C., 60, C.

4 Phædo, 61, D.

5 It is said (Phædo, 242, Β.), that Simmias delivered and composed more philosophical speeches than any one else. In the Phædo, 85, C., he is made to utter the maxim, that every question should be pursued as far as possible. Of Cebes, it

6

6

Diog. ii. 124, mentions twenty-three lectures of Simmias and three of Cebes, including the Mirror. Other testimonies for the latter in Schweighäuser, Epictete Enchiridion et Cebetes tabula, p. 261.

* Diog. ii. 64: πάντων μέντοι τῶν Σωκρατικῶν διαλόγων Παναίτιος ἀληθεῖς εἶναι δοκεῖ τοὺς Πλά τωνος, Ξενοφῶντος, ̓Αντισθένους, Αἰσχίνου διστάζει δὲ περὶ τῶν Φαίδωνος καὶ Εὐκλείδου, τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἀναιρεῖ πάντας.

8 In modern times its genuineness has been maintained

placed on the genuineness of the writings which were circulated at a later time under the name of the shoemaker Simon.' Probably he is altogether an imaginary person.2

In addition to Plato, four founders of Socratic schools are known to us: Euclid, Phædo, Antisthenes, and Aristippus. Of these the two former are much alike; the two others follow courses peculiar to themselves. There arose thus from them three distinct Socratic schools: the Megarian-Elean, the Cynic, and the Cyrenaic. All these are derived from Socrates. One-sided however in their aims, and dependent themselves on earlier theories, they only imperfectly catch the spirit of the teaching of

by Bähr (Pauly's Real-Encyclop. 2 vol. Art. Cebes) and Schweighäuser, c. 13, 33; but their assumption is refuted by two passages in it, one of which mentions a Peripatetic, and the other quotes from Plato's Laws. In other respects too, notwithstanding its general colourlessness, traces appear of later times, e.g. in its Stoic morality and attacks on false culture.

1 See Diog. ii. 122; Suid. Zwkpárns Epist. Socrat. 12, 13; Plut. c. Prin. Philos. c. 1, p. 776; Böckh. in Plat. Minoëm. Simonis Socrat. Dialogi iv. Hermann, Plat. i. 419, 585.

42.

2 What Diogenes says of him is unsatisfactory, and the story that Pericles asked to be taken in by him, but that he refused, besides being chronologically suspicious, is hardly

In

likely to be true. Of the dialogues attributed to him a great part are found in writings belonging to other people (Hermann, 1. c.). It is suspicious, that he is not mentioned by any ancient authority, and that both Plato and Xenophon should be silent about an old and very remarkable pupil of Socrates. addition to the above, Suidas (Zwкрάт. p. 843) mentions also Bryso of Heraclea as a pupil of Socrates. Others, however, as Suidas remarks, called him a pupil of Euclid's, and the comedian Ephippus in Athen. xi. 509, c. calls him an Academician. Theopompus' statement (1. c. 508, D.) that Plato copied some of his writings, would harmonise with either view; but it is in any case false.

CHAP.

XI.

CHAP.

XI.

Socrates, and diverge from him and from one another
in the most opposite directions. Socrates placed
the highest business of man in knowing the good.
What that good was he could not mark out more
accurately, being partly satisfied with a practical
description of it, being partly restricted to a theory
of relative pleasure.
These various sides of the
Socratic philosophy now diverge, and are rounded
into systems. One party confines itself to the
general burden of the teaching of Socrates-the
abstract idea of the good. Others starting from
pleasure which is its result make that the gauge of the
good, and the good itself something relative. Again
within the former class some make the theoretical,
others the practical treatment of the good, to be the
main point. Thus the Socratic teaching gave rise
to the three schools just named, which in so far as
they bring into prominence individual elements in
the spirit of Socrates to the detriment of the rest,
revert to older lines of thought, long since passed
in the historical development of philosophy.
Megarians and Cynics go back to the Eleatic doc-
trine of the One and All, and to the Sophistry of
Gorgias; the Cyrenaics to the negative teaching
of Protagoras, and to the early scepticism of Herac-
litus.

The

CHAPTER XII.

THE MEGARIAN AND THE ELEAN-ERETRIAN SCHOOLS.

THE founder of the Megarian school is Euclid.2 A