the philosophies known to him. In the Auction of Lives Zeus offers a series of great thinkers for sale, while Hermes, acting as auctioneer, extols each new lot as it is put up. Socrates fetches far the highest price—nearly £500—while Diogenes the Cynic goes for twopence. But, except as regards these two, we cannot assume that the valuation represents Lucian's opinion, since Chrysippus fetches much more than Epicurus—which is in flat contradiction to Lucian's own estimate. There is another piece, called The Fisherman; or, the Dead come to Life, in which Lucian vindicates himself from a misapprehension. The philosophers who have come to life again—such as Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato, with Socrates at their head—attack Lucian as the enemy of philosophy. Socrates proposes that he should be tried, and that Philosophy herself should preside over the court. Lucian declares that he does not know where to find such a being, though he has long been in search of her. At last, however, she appears, and Lucian then delivers his defence. He pleads that he is on the same side as the real philosophers: they and he alike are in search of truth; only truth is so difficult to find. His enemies are the enemies of truth and wisdom, who degrade or misrepresent the doctrines which they profess. "I am the foe," he says, "of pretension, quackery, falsehood, and conceit"—μισαλάζων, μισογόης, μισοψευδής μισότυφος. These words, indeed, well describe the most general characteristics of the mind which appears in his writings. The trial is held on the Acropolis of
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