impossible, the need for it cannot be said to have diminished: "However little that instrument may have been ap"plied since the death of its inventor, the necessity and "use of it neither have disappeared, nor ever can dis 66 appear. There are few men whose minds are not "more or less in that state of sham knowledge against "which Socrates made war: there is no one whose no"tions have not been first got together by spontaneous, "unexamined, unconscious, uncertified association, rest"ing upon forgotten particulars, blending together dis"parities or inconsistencies, and leaving in his mind old "and familiar phrases, and oracular propositions, of "which he has never rendered to himself account : "there is no man, who, if he be destined for vigorous "and profitable scientific effort, has not found it a necessary branch of self-instruction, to break up, disentangle, analyze, and reconstruct these ancient men"tal compounds - and who has not been driven to do "it by his own lame and solitary efforts, since the giant "of colloquial philosophy no longer stands in the mar"ket-place to lend him help and stimulus." 1 He no longer stands amongst us. Yet we can fancy what would result were he now to visit the earth were he once more to appear with that Silenic physiognomy, with that grotesque manner, with that indomitable resolution, with that captivating voice, with that homely humor, with that solemn earnestness, with that siege of questions among the crowded parties of our metropolis, under the groves and cloisters of our universities, in the midst of our political, our ecclesiastical, our religious meetings, on the floor of our legislative assemblies, at the foot of the pulpits of our well-filled 1 Grote, viii. 670 churches. How often in a conversation, in a book, in a debate, in a speech, in a sermon, have we longed for the doors to open and for the son of Sophroniscus to enter- how often, in the heat of angry accusations, in the tempest of pamphlets, in the rabbinical subtleties. or in the theological controversies, that have darkened counsel by words without knowledge for eighteen centuries and more, in Judaic or Christian times, might souls, weary with unmeaning phrases and undefined issues, have been tempted to exclaim: "O, for one hour of Socrates!" O, for one hour of that voice which should by its searching cross-examination make men see what they knew and what they did not knowwhat they meant, and what they only thought they meant - what they believed in truth, and what they only believed in name — wherein they agreed, and wherein they differed! Differences, doubtless, would still remain, but they would be the differences of serious and thinking men, and there would be a cessation of the hollow catchwords and empty shibboleths by which all differences are inflamed and aggravated. The voice of the great Cross-examiner himself is indeed silent, but there is a voice in each man's heart and conscience which, if we will, Socrates has taught us to use rightly. That voice, more sacred than the divine monitor of Socrates himself, can still make itself heard; that voice still enjoins us to give to ourselves a reason for the hope that is in us — "both hearing and asking questions." He gave the stimulus which prepared the Western world for the Great Inquirer, the Divine Word which should "pierce even to the divid ing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and 'marrow" of the human mind," and discern the "thoughts and intents of the heart."1 For that fancied repose, which the spirit of inquiry, whether from within or without, disturbs, the example of Socrates, and of the long line of his followers in Christendom, encourages us to hope we shall be more than compensated by the real repose which it gives instead. "A wise "questioning" is indeed "the half of knowledge." "A life without cross-examination is no life at all." 1 Heb. iv. 12. LECTURE XLVII. ALEXANDRIA, B. C. 333–150. JEWISH AUTHORITIES: Josephus, Ant., xi. 8-xii. 4. A. D. 7C. 3 Maccabees. Wisdom of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus): In Hebrew, B. C. 200. In Greek, B. c. 132. Wisdom of Solomon, Qu. B. C. 50? Aristobulus, B. C. 180, in Eusebius, Præp. Ev. vii. 13; viii. 9; ix. 6; xiii. 12. HEATHEN AUTHORITIES: Hecatæus of Abdera, B. c. 320 (Josephus, c. Apion, i. 22). |