her he shall not by means of it be cast out of his
city. To suppose that all these matters lay within the scope of human
judgment, to the exclusion of the preternatural, was preternatural
folly. Nor was it less extravagant to go and consult the will of Heaven
on any questions which it is given to us to decide by dint of learning.
As though a man should inquire, "Am I to choose an expert driver as my
coachman, or one who has never handled the reins?" "Shall I appoint a
mariner to be skipper of my vessel, or a landsman?" And so with respect
to all we may know by numbering, weighing, and measuring. To seek advice
from Heaven on such points was a sort of profanity. "Our duty is plain,"
he would observe; "where we are permitted to work through our natural
faculties, there let us by all means apply them. But in things which are
hidden, let us seek to gain knowledge from above, by divination; for the
gods," he added, "grant signs to those to whom they will be gracious."

(6) Or, "in the sphere of the determined," {ta anagkaia} = certa,
quorum eventus est necessarius; "things positive, the law-ordained
department of life," as we might say. See Grote, "H. G." i. ch.
xvi. 500 and passim.

(7) Reading {os nomizoien}, or if {os enomizen}, translate "As to
things with certain results, he advised them to do them in the way
in which he believed they would be done best"; i.e. he did not
say, "follow your conscience," but, "this course seems best to me
under the circumstances."

Again, Socrates ever lived in the public eye; at early morning he was to
be seen betaking himself to one of the promenades, or wrestling-grounds;
at noon he would appear with the gathering crowds in the market-place;
and as day declined, wherever the largest throng might be encountered,
there was he to be found, talking for the most part, while any one who
chose might stop and listen. Yet no one ever heard him say, or saw him
do anything impious or irreverent. Indeed, in contrast to others he set
his face against all discussion of such high matters as the nature of
the Universe; how the "kosmos," as the savants (8) phrase it, came into
being; (9) or by what forces the celestial phenomena arise. To trouble
one's brain about such matters was, he argued, to play the fool. He
would ask first: Did these investigators feel their knowledge of
things human so complete that they betook themselves to these lofty
speculations? Or did they ma