Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/375

TEACHERS FOR PAT. 353 ophon, 1 that SokratGs considered such a bargain as nothing less than servitude, robbing the teacher of all free choice as to persons or proceeding ; and that he assimilated the relation between teacher and pupil to that between two lovers or two intimate friends ; which was thoroughly dishonored, robbed of its charm and reciprocity, and prevented from bringing about its legitimate reward of attachment and devotion, by the intervention of money payment. However little in harmony with modern ideas, such was the conscientious sentiment of Sokrates and Plato; who therefore considered the name sophists, denoting intellectual celebrity combined with an odious association, as preeminently suitable to the leading teachers for pay. The splendid genius, the lasting influence, and the reiterated polemics, of Plato, have stamped it upon the men against whom he wrote as if it were their recognized, legitimate, and peculiar designation : though it is certain, that if, in the middle of the Peloponnesian war, any Athenian had been asked, " Who are the principal sophists in your city ? " he would have named Sokrates among the first ; for 1 Xcnoph. Memor. i, 2, 6. In another passage, the sophist Antiphon whether this is the celebrated Antiphon of the deme Rhamnus, is uncertain ; the commentators lean to the negative is described as conversing with Sokrates, and saying that Sokrates of course must imagine his own conver- sation to be worth nothing, since he asked no price from his scholars. To which Sokrates replies : T Q 'AvriQuv, Trap 1 ijulv voui&rai, rr/v upav nal rt/v aoQicv ouoiuf fie-j KaKbv, ouoiuf 6e alaxpbv, diari&f&dai dvat. Tqv re yap upav, euv uev Tif upyvpiov irui^y ru /3ov7iOUV(f>, irdpvov avrbv uiroKal.oiJffiv iuv 6e rif, bv av yvtj re nayadbv ipaarr)v ovra, rovrov fy'ikov kavri^ TtoirjTai, OLxfipova voui- Kal TT/V aotyiav uaaiiruf ToOf HEV apyv piov ryfiovho/Acvv f, a o (j> tffT uf uair ep IT o pv ov f uxoical.ovaiv oartf 6e, bv av jvij ev<f>vu ovra, ditiaoKuv o, n av l%ri ayadbv, QiXov noielrai, TOVTOV vo/ii&uev, a ru caA^> uyai9u TroTitTy irpoof l 'cei, ravra woielv (Xenoph. Mc- mor. i, 6, 13). As an evidence of the manners and senument of the age, this passage ia jxtrcmely remarkable. Various parts of the oration of JEschines against Timarchus, and the Symposion of Plato, pp. 217, 218, both receive and ^rivc li^ht to it. Among the numerous passages in which Plato expresses his dislike and contempt of teaching for money, see his Sophistes, c. 9, p. 223. Plato, indeed, thought that it was unworthy of a virtuous man to accept salary fo the discharge of any public duty: sec the Republic, i, 19, p. 347. VOL. vin. 23oc.