manner, and made him executor of such a plan, in order to procure for him claims to the worship and adoration of the whole human race, is of itself sufficient proof that dispositions, feelings, and plans of this kind, were not attributed to common men.

We are now, therefore, just where we were, when we entered upon the examination of the philanthropical kings and statesmen of antiquity. As yet, we have found no instance of a man who formed a plan of very great benevolence and extent, embracing the whole human family; at least, one that in respect to its universality, we may venture to compare with the plan by which the founder of Christianity has unquestionably distinguished himself. Let us pass on therefore to that class of the benefactors of mankind, to be found in antiquity, which were every where the most celebrated; namely, to that of philosophers and learned men.

PHILOSOPHERS AND LEARNED men.

§ 70. There are two ways in which we can ascertain the characters of the plans which the philosophers or sages of antiquity had before them, for the general good. We may either look at the influence which they uniformly exerted, in regard to the illumination, improvement, and prosperity of our race, or we may contemplate the systems of instruction which they formed for the promotion of religion, virtue, and happiness. In the first way, we can ascertain what they actually did; in the second, what, by virtue of their general principles, they might have done, had they rigidly adhered to them.

To speak accurately and judge impartially, we must say, that all the philosophers of antiquity with which we are acquainted, in reality deserving of the name, were either Greeks or Romans. The sages of other nations, Confucius alone excepted, of whom we shall speak farther on, were always priests at the same time, or perhaps the founders of new religions, and hence, the guardians

also of superstition. Instead of engaging in close investigations, respecting virtue and happiness, and the nature of things, as they might have done, they employed themselves in astrology, divination, and such other arts, as, in an ignorant nation, would readily procure for them influence and wealth. When, therefore, we have shown what the Greek and Roman philosophers contributed towards enlightening and improving mankind, before the founder of Christianity, we shall know what benevolent plans have been formed and executed by the sages of antiquity.

§ 71. In order to ascertain what philosophy effected among the Greeks, certain periods of time must be distinguished, in which its influence was very different. Among the philosophers who lived before Socrates, Pythagoras alone excepted, of whom I shall speak in particular a little farther on, we cannot expect to find any very great or benevolent plan for the good of the world. Philosophy, which was then in its infancy, had never exerted much influence of a favourable character upon the public. The seven wise men of Greece, so called, were not so much philosophers, as learned and practised statesmen; and they were principally indebted for their celebrity to the laws which they gave to single states in Greece, to their experience in public affairs, and to the various excellent maxims which they used from time to time to lay down,* and which, perhaps, they sought to render agreeable to their contemporaries by the enchantments of poetry. They do not, therefore, properly belong to this place,

*

Respecting this point, consult Plato in Protag., p. 153, 154, Bip. ed. [Tom. III.]

+ So judged Dicearchus respecting these men, and, as it appears, very correctly. Vid. Diogenes Laertius, B. I. Div. 40, and next to him, Cicero de Amicitia, cap. 2. "Thales," says Plutarch, " seems to have been the only philosopher of that age, who was elevated above the affairs of common life by speculation. The other wise men were indebted for this name to their skill in political matters. In Solon. p. 320 [Vol. I.,] where, in general, more is to be found appropriate to this place. [Plut. Lives, &c., Vol. I. p. 134, where, however, the passage is differently rendered. The Greek runs thus: Kai ὅλως ἔοικεν ἡ Θάλεω μόνον σοφία τότε περαιτέρω τῆς χραίας ἐξικεσ θαι τῇ θεωρία τοῖς δ ̓ ἄλλοις ἀπὸ τῆς πολιτικῆς ἀρετῆς τοὔνομα τῆς σοφίας ὑπῆρξε. TR.]

but rather to the class of legislators and statesmen, of which we have already spoken. All the other wise men who lived before Socrates, employed themselves in things which not only had little or no reference to the improvement and happiness of mankind in that age, but in things which were often positively injurious in this respect. A great part of them gave themselves up to dark and laborious investigations, or rather to dreaming and making fictions, about the universe, its origin, and the matter of which it must have been composed; about the heavenly bodies, their nature and motions, and the laws that regulate the changes of the physical world, while they entirely neglected what immediately concerned the happiness of mankind and was especially worthy of the attention of every genuine thinker. The other class of wise men looked more to their own interests, and loved a productive wisdom. Hence, they cultivated that ostentatious eloquence, which is ready to pour itself forth in extemporaneous effusions upon every subject, and, consisting of verbose chattering rather than connected sense, is calculated to astonish the multitude, while, by selling trash respecting the art of civil government, carrying on war, making laws, &c., and by an appearance of acuteness, they deprived the ignorant youth of their precious money, and defrauded the people of Greece. These men are so well known under the name of Sophists, or rather so infamous, that I need not give any farther description of them. The peaceful dreamers of the first class, in giving themselves up to vain speculations, at least did no injury to others, and many of them, considered in another point of view, were really useful citizens. The Sophists, on the other hand, were not only superfluous to the nation, but dangerous, in various respects. The complaints which Plato makes about them to

*To this place, belongs a witty and very animated description of this idle and fruitless wisdom, given by Socrates, Plato in Theaet., c. 24, 25, Fischer's ed. [Bip. II. 70 seq.,] and a fragment of Euripides, which is illustrated by Valkenaer, Diatrib. in Euripidis perditor dramat. reliquias, p. 26 seq. Comp. also Xenophon, Mem. Socr., 1. I. c. 1. § 11 seq.

Socrates, in almost every dialogue, are indeed said to be somewhat exaggerated and unjust. It is certain, however, that their instruction was the means of filling the Grecian youth with a proud conceit, a pernicious selfishness, and habituating them to a certain want of thought, and the fact serves to explain the origin of numerous errors which existed even in the administration of political affairs, and greatly hindered the advancement of that genuine, serious and severe wisdom, which actually enlightens and improves. Besides, it can be shown that they inculcated many principles, which, of necessity, brought religion and virtue altogether into suspicion; and that they sought to recommend vice by the most specious delusions of eloquence, and all the subtleties of a puzzling system of dialectics. To their pernicious instruction is also to be ascribed a great part of those extravagant immoralities, which sprung up so rapidly and unexpectedly, in the most flourishing states of Greece, and which neither Socrates, nor his pupils, were able to limit or restrain. By this time, it is easy for us to draw the conclusion, that it is needless to look for any very comprehensive plan of benevolence among the philosophers before Socrates. The influence which their knowledge and opinions exerted upon society, will not allow us to think of finding any among them who were capable of forming such purposes as those of which we are in pursuit.

§ 72. I have already admitted that Pythagoras ought to be excepted from the above general remarks. It is certain, that, agreeably to the taste of his contemporaries, he also gave himself up to dreams respecting the above named subjects. Indeed, his fiery, vivacious, and enthusiastic spirit, must have greatly inclined him to such a course. On the other hand, however, it is also certain, that of all the philosophers before the time of Socrates, he paid the most attention to real happiness and moral improvement, and, as far as his sphere extended, he unquestionably labored very actively in their behalf.

It is to be regretted, that the history and opinions of this extraordinary man, are involved in such doubt and

uncertainty. Owing to the great want of contemporary writers and of credible accounts, as well as to the shameless fabrications of his senseless admirers of later ages, a cautious writer cannot assert any thing respecting him without some measure of fear. From what can be gathered, however, with any degree of certainty from ancient authors respecting Pythagoras, he seems, both in his institutions, and the instructions connected with them, to have had a plan before him, which did honor both to his intellect and heart. Tiedemann, who, with Meiner,* has unquestionably thrown very great light upon the life and philosophy of Pythagoras, considers this plan the greatest which a philosopher ever conceived. "It was his intention," says this scholar, "in the first place, to enlighten his pupils, and exercise their understandings in difficult investigations, and then lay down precepts in accordance with which, they might, by means of good laws and religion, improve their fellow citizens and fill them with an increasing reverence for virtue, while they were to keep every thing concealed from the uninitiated in their own breast, and bring nothing to light any farther than it was carried into execution, and impart no more to any one, than he comprehended; by which means, a lasting influence was ultimately to be acquired for himself and school, in regard to the welfare of the human race. This was certainly one of the most exalted plans ever invented by a mortal!" According to this writer's opinion, therefore, the society of the Pythagoreans was to consist of a number of wise men firmly united together, who were to give laws, and impart instruction to the great mass of the people, according to their wants, and to carry their discoveries to the utmost boundaries of human knowledge; at the same time, in diffusing their light among the common people, they were to exercise wisdom and caution, and carefully avoid making schisms, and getting up new parties and sects. Such a society, he thinks, must have prov

*In his Geschichte des Ursprungs, Fortgangs und Verfalls der Wissenschaften Griechenland und Rom, Bd. I. Buch. III. S. 178 ff.