whatever party gained the victory, the losses and the woes of defeat fell upon Greeks; let success alight where it would, its effects were disastrous to the Hellenic race. One public calamity usually accompanies another; and when the ancient virtue of Athens was unnerved, the sophists flocked from every side to batten on the vices of that giddy-paced capital. No class of men known to history have ever been so worthy of the execrations of the world as the Greek sophists of that age, except, perhaps, the philosophers-those birds of evil omen-whose boding cries foretold the storms of the French Revolution.

A clear-headed and honorable citizen must have looked upon the unprincipled teachings of these reprobates with abhorrence, and, if he were a man of genius, he would task his powers to the utmost for the purpose of putting down the moral nuisance. In modern times, such a man would resort to the press as the mightiest engine to aid him in waging the holy warfare. In ancient Attic days, he resorted to the comic stage. The freedom of the old comic theatre, before the bloody reign of the Thirty, was to the Athenians what the freedom of the press is to the modern constitutional states; and the restraints imposed upon the comic theatre by that formidable oligarchy were precisely the same thing as the censorship of the press is under modern despotisms. Aristophanes was the great master of ancient comedy, and, when he saw the progress the sophists were making towards the ruin of his country's morals and manners, let loose upon the offenders the gleaming shafts of his angry genius,

δεινὴ δὲ κλαγγὴ γένετ ̓ ἀργυρέοιο βιοῖο.

Before the comedy of "The Clouds" was produced, Aristophanes had brought out "The Revellers," "The Babylonians, "The Acharnians," and "The Knights." Two of these, "The Acharnians" and "The Knights," had been honoured with the first prize. B. C. 424, he appeared with "The Clouds;" but, notwithstanding the distinguished merits of the piece,-in the author's opinion it was the best he had ever written,-the judges awarded the first prize to Cratinus, and the second to Ameipsias, and only the third honours were decreed to Aristophanes. The following year he brought forward the Second "Clouds," in which he complains with humourous bitterness of the injustice that had been done him, and affirms that, the sentence of the judges to the contrary notwithstanding, this comedy was the most skilfully constructed of all his pieces. Besides the ingenious compliments he pays to the Attic audience, he makes his chorus utter various whimsical threats to deter the judges from committing a second blunder 3.

Not only the base principles of the sophists are exposed, but their absurd and effected language is ridiculed with masterly effect. The

3 Fritsche, however, is of opinion that the First "Clouds" was materially different from the play as we now have it; and that the latter, written to bring contempt upon Socrates, was never represented, in consequence of a recon

ciliation brought about between the poet and the philosopher. See Quæstiones Aristophanea (De Socrate Veterorum Comicorum Dissertatio, pp. 59, seqq.). The arguments for this opinion, though ingenious, are not conclusive.

oddities of manner by which they undertook to impose upon the popular credulity, and set themselves apart from the rest of the world, are held up to scorn and contempt. But in this piece the poet's satire by no means hits the sophists alone. His arrows fly in every direction,—πάντη ἀνὰ στρατόν,—and strike at public and private vices, wherever found. The peculator, the demagogue, the coward, the libertine, wore no armour thick and hard enough to shield them from the fatal dart. The pompous poet, who substituted forced and unnatural phrases and extravagant imagery for simplicity of thought and clearness of expression, thereby corrupting the public taste, the musician, who adopted an effeminate style, instead of the ancient airs that roused the souls of the heroes of Marathon like the sound of a trumpet,-and the dances, who set aside the modest movements of an earlier and better age, to introduce the licentiousness of the Cordar, thereby melting away the manly virtues of the youthful generation,- all felt the keen edge of that satire, whose temper still keeps its fineness, and whose brilliancy is scarcely dimmed by the rust of more than twenty centuries.

It is very unfortunate for the fame of Aristophanes, that he selected Socrates as the type and representative of the sophists. Little could he imagine the effect this was destined to have upon his reputation for many centuries. Little could he foresee that the stories repeated by Elian would be allowed to tarnish his name, until the learning and sagacity of modern critics should redeem it from the bitter reproach of having caused the death of the noblest man of his age. We cannot help regretting and condemning the poet's mistaken choice of Socrates for the chief personage in the play; we must censure the wantonness of the attack upon his person, making a good and great man the object of his overwhelming ridicule but no ground exists for the calumny, that he was bribed by the enemies of the philosopher; it is impossible that he should have been influenced by the malicious prosecutors, Anytus, Melitus, and Lycon; and there is not much reason to suppose that the representation of the comedy had any futher effect upon the reputation of Socrates than to connect, in the popular mind, some ludicrous associations with his name, and perhaps to strengthen the prejudices fomented against him by his enemies; an effect certainly to be lamented, but not to be charged upon the poet as a proof of settled malignity, and of the diabolical intent to bring the greatest and best of the Athenians to the hemlock.

It must be remembered, too, that Socrates was not to all of his contemporaries what he is to us. He was charged by some with the common vices of his age; from this charge, however, the Memorabilia of Xenophon amply vindicates him. There are three principal delineations of Socrates which have come down to us. In an historical point of view, the Memorabilia of Xenophon contains the most important and authentic. The principles of the great teacher are, no doubt, here recorded with fidelity. The Socrates of the "Platonic Dialogues" probably unites with the main features of a truthful representation many fictitious details. He is, in many points, to be regarded as a dramatic character, through whom Plato

intended to convey his own opinions, without, however, putting into his mouth any sentiments strongly at variance with the well-known opinions of his teacher. Looked upon in this view, the Socrates of Plato is one of the most original and masterly creations of genius; but it is impossible to draw the line here between the Dichtung and the Wahrheit. The third representation is that which has been handed down by the comic poet, the Socrates of the ancient comedians. This character is partly historical and partly fictitious. That Socrates really occupied himself with the investigations of the physical philosophers in the early part of his life, and availed himself of the teachings of the sophists, is undoubtedly true; but he renounced and opposed them the moment his piercing intellect discerned the hollowness of their pretensions. His manner, however, if not his character, was marked by peculiarities that naturally laid him open to the sarcasms of the comic poets and the attacks of his enemies. The singularity of his appearance and figure, the profound abstraction into which he occasionally fell, in spite of his otherwise eminently practical character, and notwithstanding the fearless bravery with which, when occasion called, he met the dangers of war, and the still more formidable dangers of the "ardor cirium praca jubentium," as when he happened to be president for the day of the assembly that tried the generals after the battle of Arginousæ, held out great temptations to the unscrupulous satirists who possessed the public ear. It really seems as if he occasionally "put an antic humour on," for the purpose of making people open their eyes and wonder. Such a whimsical incident as that recorded of his demeanour at the siege of Potidea-his standing all night in a phrontistic reverie, until sunrise the next morning, drawing upon himself the curious and laughing eyes of the soldiery-certainly would lower the dignity of a philosopher in any age, and excite the ridicule of a people much less quick to see absurdities than the ancient Athenians. His way of asking questions-that searching irony on which he plumed himself not a little-must have been maddening to the disputatious little men whom he was so fond of encountering and disarming. The outward courtesy which veiled his keen and cutting interrogatories, made them only the more provoking and hard to bear. The most persevering question-asker of modern times is but a small annoyer compared to the master of Attic dialectics, who went on with a strain of remorseless irony, until the victim sunk under the inevitable reductio ad absurdum 5.

4 This subject is ably handled by Süvern, in his paper on The Clouds,' translated by W. R. Hamilton, F.R.S.; by Wiggers, in his "Life of Socrates;" and by Meiners, in the "Geschichte der Wissenschaften," Vol. II. pp. 346,

seqq.

5 Besides these facts, it must be remembered that Socrates spent his time, not in the official service of the state, but in wandering about the streets and public places of the city, or discoursing with artisans in the workshops. He

was followed by crowds of listeners, who attached themselves to him, some for the sake of being instructed by his wisdom, others rawn by the attractions of his incomparable wit. His wife and children were left in a great measure to themselves; for, with the spirit of a genuine Greek, Socrates placed the cares and duties of domestic life in the background, at least as compared with modern Christian views of the duties involved in the relations of home. Yet, in this matter, Socrates acted on a deli

At the time when Aristophanes composed "The Clouds," no doubt Socrates was generally regarded by the comic poets only as the most sophistical of the sophists; he was their frequent associate, and carried their argumentative style into other than the sophistical circles. It is far from wonderful that the poet had not yet learned to distinguish between him and them, that he still considered Socrates to be the very perfection of the sophistical character, and that he was led into the mistake of holding up to reprobation the man whose firmness and wit, whose clear-seeing judgement, comprehensive intelligence, and extraordinary genius were destined to work mightily towards the same end-the overthrow of the sophists-which the poet himself had so deeply at heart. It must be remembered, too, that the trial and execution of Socrates did not occur until nearly twenty-five years after the representation of "The Clouds,"-that neither Plato nor Xenophon, though they alluded to the farcical representation of "The Clouds," made any important charge against the poet,-and that Aristophanes and Socrates, there is some reason to believe, were on friendly if not intimate, terms during the interval.

berately formed determination to consecrate his life disinterestedly to the teaching of the truth. His conduct may not inaptly be compared to that of Howard and Whitefield. It would seem, from the testimony of the ancients, that Xanthippe had a keener sense than most of her country women of the natural rights of her sex, and was not exactly pleased with the philosophic manner in which her lord and master spent his time. Some modern scholars have attempted to vindicate her from the charge of being a common scold, which has made her name a by-word. They have shown satisfactorily that such anecdotes as that of her throwing a vessel of water upon the head of Socrates, and his reply, that we must always expect rain after thunder,-of her upsetting the table when he brought home an unexpected guest to dinner,and a good many other like specimens of termagancy, are the gossiping inventions of later writers. The most favorable decision we can adopt, however, upon a candid consideration of all the circumstances of the case of Xanthippe, is, that she did sometimes scold, but that it was pro causa.

The consenting voices of succeeding generations have pronounced the character of Socrates to be the highest and purest of all antiquity. The trifling foibles, if foibles they were, which laid him open to the ridicule of the comic poets, have had no effect in diminishing the reverence with which all good men consecrate his memory. The universal opinion is well expressed by Meiners:-"He is distinguished from

many of the most celebrated men by the fact, that he appears the more worthy of reverence the more thoroughly he is known, and the more deeply we penetrate into his life and character.

....

When we consider how degenerate philosophy had become when Socrates discovered the truth, and how corrupt the people among whom he taught heavenly wisdom. not only without pay, but in the midst of incessant persecution and danger of death, it is difficult not to believe that he was enlightened and formed by a higher spirit, or, at least, that he was sent by Providence exactly at the time when the people most needed such a teacher.

Socrates not only taught virtue, but practised it; and his whole life was purer and freer from faults than his philosophy from errours. In all Greek and Roman antiquity, I know of no one whose conduct was so irreproachable and worthy of imitation, and whose character was so complete in all respects, as that of Socrates. This s'ge was not only elevated above all the vices of his contemporaries, but we may even say, almost above all the weaknesses of his race. . . . . His wife, Xanthippe, paid him a tribute which probably but few women could have paid their husbands without flattery. and which requires some reflection to comprehend its whole extent. Xanthippe said of her husband, that he always had the same aspect, in coming in and in going out.' Meiners. Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Vol. II. pp. 346-470.

We know that they were sometimes together at the symposia which Plato and Xenophon have immortalized. At least, they are both represented by Plato as taking part in the discussions of the Banquet. What must have been the conversation of a supper-party made up of such men as Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes! What brilliant wit and keen repartee then shot with electric speed from guest to guest! What splendour of language, what depth of thought, what beauty of imagery, what overflow of poetic illustration, what play of frolic fancy, sparkled round the festive board, outsparkling the Grecian wine!

The greatness of the genius of Aristophanes is not generally appreciated, and the value of his comedies, as illustrations of the political antiquities, the life, morals, and manners of Athens, is not fully understood. The truth is, we are indebted to him for information upon the working of the Attic institutions, which, had all his plays been lost, we should have vainly sought for in the works of other authors. With what boldness and vigour does he sketch that manyheaded despot, the Demos of Athens! With what austere truth does he draw the character of the Athenian demagogue, and in him the demagogue of all times! How many rays of light are poured from his comedies upon the popular and judicial tribunals,—the assemblies in the Pnyx, the Senate, and the Heliastic courts! No intelligent reader can doubt that Aristophanes was a man of the most profound acquaintance with the political institutions of his age; no reader of poetic fancy can fail to see that he possessed an extraordinary creative genius. It is impossible to study his works attentively, without feeling that his was one of the master minds of the Attic drama. The brightest flashes of a poetical spirit are constantly breaking out from the midst of the broadest merriment and the sharpest satire. An imagination of endless variety and strength informs those lyrical passages which gem his works, and are among the most precious brilliants of the Greek language. In the drawing of characters, his plays exhibit consummate skill. The clearness of his conceptions, the precision of his outlines, the consistency with which his personages are throughout maintained, cannot fail to impress the reader with the perfection of his judgement, and the masterly management of the resources of his art. His manifold and startling wit has been surpassed neither by the myriad-minded Shakspeare nor the inimitable Molière. He had the inestimable advantage, too, of writing in a language which is undoubtedly the highest attainment of human speech; and all the rich varieties and harmonies of this wondrous instrument he held at his supreme command. Its flexibility under his shaping hand is almost miraculous. The very words he wants come, like beings instinct with life, and fall into their proper places at his bidding. At one moment he is revelling in the wildest mirth, and the next he is sweeping through the loftiest region of lyrical inspiration, but the language never breaks down under his adventurous flight.

But it is not to be denied that Aristophanes is often coarse and indecent. Some of his plays are quite unfit to have a place in any scheme of classical reading. This is not to be pardoned to the age