Plato is distinguished from the other disciples of Socrates as the one who represents most truly the many-sidedness of his master, completing indeed and developing what was defective in him and incorporating all that was valuable in the earlier philosophers. Before treating of him it will be convenient to speak shortly of the 'imperfect' or one-sided Socraticists.

Euclides of Megara, the founder of the Megaric and so ultimately of the Sceptic school, was chiefly attracted by the negative teaching of Socrates, and his followers are noted as the inventors of various sophisms which served them as offensive weapons against their opponents. The main positive doctrine attributed to them is that they identified the Good, which Socrates called the highest object of knowledge, with the Absolute One of Parmenides, denying the existence of Evil.

Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic and indirectly of the Stoic school, was the caricature of the ascetic and unconventional side of Socrates. Nothing is good but virtue, nothing evil but vice. Virtue is wisdom and the wise man is always perfectly happy because he is self-sufficient and has no wants, no ties and no weaknesses. The mass of men are fools and slaves, and the wise man is their appointed guide and physician. Acting on these principles the Cynics were the mendicant Friars of their time, abstaining from marriage and repudiating all civil claims, while they professed themselves to be citizens of a world-wide community. On the subject of religion. Antisthenes stated explicitly, what was doubtless implied in the teaching of Socrates, that there was only one God, who is invisible and whose worship consists in a virtuous life.

The name 'Cynic' may have had a reference in the first instance to Cynosarges, the gymnasium in which Antisthenes taught; but it speedily received the connotation of dog-like, brutal, which seems to have been justified by the manners of some members of the school. Diogenes, the more famous disciple of Antisthenes, was fond of speaking of himself as ó kvwv, and it seems to have been a usual thing with the Cynics, as with the other Socratics, to draw inferences as to the true and unsophisticated nature of man, from the habits of dogs and other animals'. The aim of the school being to return from a corrupt civilization to a state of nature, they put forward three main 'Counsels of Perfection,' as we may call them, by which this was to be attained, freedom (λevepía), frankness or outspokenness (Tappnoía), and self-sufficingness or independence (avтάρкela). The Cynics, and especially Diogenes, were famous for their pithy sayings and for their pungent biting wit. The following are taken from Mullach's collection. Antisthenes Fr. 65, 'Give me madness rather than pleasure?.' Fr. 88, 'If you pursue pleasure, let it be that which follows toil, not that which precedes it.' Fr. 64, 'The only pleasure that is good is that which does not need to be repented of.' Fr. 55, 'To be in ill repute is good,

1 Compare in Mullach's Collection of Fragments, Diog. § 33, 'other dogs bite their enemies, but I my friends for their good;' also § 122, § 145, § 190, § 210, &c. In § 286 men are said to be 'more miserable than beasts because of their luxury and effeminacy. If they would live the same simple lives, they would be equally free from diseases whether of mind or body.' Similarly Plato in the Republic makes the dog his pattern for the education and mode of life of the Guardians. See II 375 foll., and V 451 foll.

* μανείην μᾶλλον ἢ ἡσθείην.

as toil is good.' Fr. 105, 108, to the question 'what he had gained from philosophy?' he replied 'to be able to endure my own company;' 'what kind of learning was the most necessary?' 'to unlearn what is evil.' Fr. 44, discussing with Plato the nature of general conceptions, he said', 'I can see this horse, but not your ideal horse.' 'Yes,' said Plato, 'for you have the sight with which this horse can be seen, but you have not acquired the sight with which the ideal can be seen.' We read of similar encounters between Diogenes and Plato; thus, by way of ridiculing the latter's definition of man, a 'featherless biped,' Diogenes brought a plucked fowl into the lectureroom; upon which Plato is said to have amended his definition by adding λarvwvvxos, 'with broad nails' (Fr. 124). On another occasion he is said to have come into Plato's house when he was entertaining some friends, and trampled on the beautiful carpets, saying, 'thus I trample on Plato's pride;' to which Plato replied, 'with no less pride, Diogenes. The story of his interview with Alexander is familiar to every one. Among other characteristic sayings may be mentioned Fr. 281, 'It belongs to the Gods to want nothing, to godlike men to want as little as possible.' Fr. 113, 'Oppose to fortune courage, to law nature, to passion reason.' Fr. 295, 296, 'Nothing can be accomplished without training (äσêŋσɩs). Training of the soul is as necessary as that of the body. All things are possible by training.' We read that he crowned himself with the pine-wreath, claiming to have won a greater victory than that at the Isthmia, in his contest with

1 Ιππον μὲν ὁρῶ, ἱππότητα δὲ οὐχ ὁρῶ.

2 Fr. 82, Πατῶ τὸν Πλάτωνος τύφον. Ετέρῳ γε τύφω, Διόγενες,

poverty, disgrace, anger, grief, desire, fear, and, above all, pleasure (Fr. 294).

In spite of a good deal of exaggeration and something of charlatanry, it is probable that the influence of the early Cynics was not without its use in awaking men to a higher view of life; but it was not till the time of the Roman Empire that Cynicism became a real power, fostering freedom of thought and speech in the midst of the soul-crushing despotism of a Nero or a Domitian'. If at times the Cynic reminds us of the 'all-licensed fool' of the Middle Ages, at other times, as in the striking discourse in which Epictetus bids a friend pause before he assumes that name, he rises almost to the sublimity of a Hebrew prophet. Epictetus there reminds his friend that 'to be a Cynic is not merely to wear coarse clothing, to endure hard fare, to beg his bread, to rebuke luxury in others; it is to stand forward as a pattern of virtue to all men, to be to them the ambassador of Zeus, showing them how far they have strayed from what is right and true, how they have mistaken good for evil, and evil for good. It is the duty of the Cynic to shame men out of their peevish murmurings by himself maintaining a cheerful and contented disposition under whatever pressure of outward circumstances. If reviled and persecuted, it is his duty to love his persecutors and, far from appealing to the courts against ill-usage, to render thanks to God for giving him an opportunity of exercising his virtue and setting a brighter example to others. While fearless in reproving vice, he should avoid giving

1 See Epict. Diss. III. 22, and Bernays' very interesting tract Lucian und die Kyniker.

unnecessary offence, and endeavour, as far as possible, to recommend his teaching, not only by persuasiveness of speech, but also by manner and personal appearance, never allowing hardness to degenerate into rudeness or coarseness. If the Cynic were living in a society of wise men, it might be his duty to marry and bring up children like himself; but as things are, he must look upon himself as a soldier in active service, and keep himself free from all ties which might interfere with his great work of delivering the Divine message to the blind and erring world.

Aristippus of Cyrene the founder of the Cyrenaic school, resembled Antisthenes in dwelling exclusively upon the practical side of his master's teaching. Holding that we can never be conscious of anything beyond our own feelings, he held of course that it was impossible to attain objective knowledge. We each have feelings of what we call sweetness, whiteness, and so on, but what is the nature of the object which causes those feelings, and whether the feelings which others call by the same name are really the same as our feelings, on these points we know nothing. The only thing of which we can be sure, the only thing of importance is, whether our feelings are agreeable or disagreeable. A gentle movement of the mind is agreeable and we call it pleasure; a violent movement is disagreeable and we call it pain. Every pleasure is in itself equally desirable, but we may get a greater amount of pleasure by one sort of action than by another. Thus Aristippus interpreted the somewhat ambiguous language of Socrates about happiness in a purely eudaemonistic sense, and declared that the only rule of life was to enjoy