Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/68

40 STATESMEN AND SAGES acquired such reputation by it at Athens, for probity and the other virtues, that he was more respected there than the magistrates themselves. He was very careful of his person, and blamed those who paid no attention to themselves, or who affected exterior negligence. He was always neat, dressed in a decent, becoming manner ; observing a just medium between what might seem gross and rustic, and what savored of pride and effeminacy. Though furnished with few of the blessings of fortune, he always maintained perfect disinterestedness by receiving no remuneration from those who attended on his instructions. By such conduct he condemned the practice of the other philosophers, whose custom it was to sell their lessons, and to tax their scholars higher or lower, according to the degree of reputation they had acquired. Thus Socrates, as Xenophon relates, used to say that he could not conceive how a man, whose object it was to teach virtue, should think of turning it to gain ; as if to form a man of virtue, and to make of his pupil a good friend, were not the richest advantages and the most solid profit with which his cares could be rewarded. It must further be remarked that Socrates kept no class, as did the other philosophers, who had a fixed place where their scholars assembled, and where lectures were delivered to them at stated hours. Socrates' manner of philoso- phizing consisted simply in conversing with those who chanced to be where he was, without any regard to time or place. He was always poor ; but in his poverty so contented, that though to be rich was within the reach of a wish, by receiving the presents which his friends and scholars often urged him to accept, he always returned them ; to the great dis- pleasure of his wife, who had no relish for carrying philosophy to such a height. In regard to food and clothes, so hardy was his manner of life that Antiphon, the Sophist, sometimes reproached him, by saying that he had not a slave so miserable as would be contented with it : " For," said he, " your food is disgustingly mean ; besides, not only are you always very poorly dressed, but winter or summer you have the same robe ; and never anything above it : with this, you on all occa- sions, go bare-foot." But Socrates proved to him that he was greatly mistaken if he thought that happiness depended on wealth or finery ; and that, poor as he might seem to him, he was in fact happier than he. " I consider," said he, " that as to want nothing is the exclusive prerogative of the gods, so the fewer wants a man has, the nearer he approaches to the condition of the gods." It was impossible that virtue so pure as that of Socrates should have no effect in exciting admiration, especially in a city such as Athens, where that example must have appeared very extraordinary. For those very persons who have not the happiness to follow virtue themselves, cannot refrain from doing justice to those who do follow it. This soon gained Socrates the universal esteem of his fel- low-citizens, and attracted to him many scholars of every age ; by whom the advan- tages of listening to his instructions, and engaging in conversation with him, were preferred to the most fascinating pleasure and the most agreeable amusements.