The Memorabilia | Page 4

be verified. Then on whom, or what, was
the assurance rooted, if not upon God? And if he had faith in the gods,
how could he fail to recognise them?
[2] Or, "A divine something." See "Encyc. Brit." "Socrates." Dr. H.
Jackason; "The Daemon of Socrates," F. W. H. Myers; K. Joel, "Der
echte und der Xenophontische Sokrates," i. p. 70 foll.; cf. Aristot. "M.
M." 1182 a 10.
[3] See Aesch. "P. V." 487, {enodious te sombolous}, "and pathway
tokens," L. Campbell; Arist. "Birds," 721, {sombolon ornin}: "Frogs,"
196, {to sometukhon exion}; "Eccl." 792; Hor. "Od." iii. 27, 1-7.
[4] See "Anab." III. i. 4; "Symp." iv. 48.
[5] Or, "if his vaunted manifestations from heaven had but manifested
the falsity of his judgment."
But his mode of dealing with his intimates has another aspect. As

regards the ordinary necessities of life,[6] his advice was, "Act as you
believe[7] these things may best be done." But in the case of those
darker problems, the issues of which are incalculable, he directed his
friends to consult the oracle, whether the business should be undertaken
or not. "No one," he would say, "who wishes to manage a house or city
with success: no one aspiring to guide the helm of state aright, can
afford to dipense with aid from above. Doubtless, skill in carpentering,
building, smithying, farming, of the art of governing men, together with
the theory of these processes, and the sciences of arithmetic, economy,
strategy, are affairs of study, and within the grasp of human intelligence.
Yet there is a side even of these, and that not the least important, which
the gods reserve to themselves, the bearing of which is hidden from
mortal vision. Thus, let a man sow a field or plant a farm never so well,
yet he cannot foretell who will gather in the fruits: another may build
him a house of fairest proportion, yet he knows not who will inhabit it.
Neither can a general foresee whether it will profit him to conduct a
campaign, nor a politician be certain whether his leadership will turn to
evil or good. Nor can the man who weds a fair wife, looking forward to
joy, know whether through her he shall not reap sorrow. Neither can he
who has built up a powerful connection in the state know whether he
shall not by means of it be cast out of his city. To suppose that all these
matters lay within the scope of human judgment, to the exclusion of the
preternatural, was preternatural folly. Nor was it less extravagant to go
and consult the will of Heaven on any questions which it is given to us
to decide by dint of learning. As though a man should inquire, "Am I to
choose an expert driver as my coachman, or one who has never handled
the reins?" "Shall I appoint a mariner to be skipper of my vessel, or a
landsman?" And so with respect to all we may know by numbering,
weighing, and measuring. To seek advice from Heaven on such points
was a sort of profanity. "Our duty is plain," he would observe; "where
we are permitted to work through our natural faculties, there let us by
all means apply them. But in things which are hidden, let us seek to
gain knowledge from above, by divination; for the gods," he added,
"grant signs to those to whom they will be gracious."
[6] Or, "in the sphere of the determined," {ta anagkaia} = certa,
quorum eventus est necessarius; "things positive, the law-ordained
department of life," as we might say. See Grote, "H. G." i. ch. xvi. 500

and passim.
[7] Reading {os nomizoien}, or if {os enomizen}, translate "As to
things with certain results, he advised them to do them in the way in
which he believed they would be done best"; i.e. he did not say, "follow
your conscience," but, "this course seems best to me under the
circumstances."
Again, Socrates ever lived in the public eye; at early morning he was to
be seen betaking himself to one of the promenades, or wrestling-
grounds; at noon he would appear with the gathering crowds in the
market-place; and as day declined, wherever the largest throng might
be encountered, there was he to be found, talking for the most part,
while any one who chose might stop and listen. Yet no one ever heard
him say, or saw him do anything impious or irreverent. Indeed, in
contrast to others he set his face against all discussion of such high
matters as the nature of the Universe; how the "kosmos," as the
savants[8] phrase it, came into being;[9] or by what forces the celestial
phenomena arise. To trouble one's brain about such matters was, he
argued, to play the