harvests for future
generations, like Jesus when Judea was tottering to its fall. In the
intellectual development of man's higher life he holds a place not unlike
that of Jesus in the emotional development.

Socrates, as Xenophon describes him, goes no farther as a teacher than to
impress the principles of conduct as they were generally accepted by good
men of the time, with peculiar persuasiveness. But Plato shows him as an
original investigator of the human mind and the universe. In this there
is an undoubted trait of true portraiture, but its limit is very
difficult to trace, because in Plato's dialogues the master is made the
mouthpiece of all the pupil's philosophy. The most distinctive feature
which can be identified as that of Socrates himself is the
cross-examination. Under this process, high-sounding generalities,--put
in the mouths of speakers in the dialogues, the whole word-play set forth
with exquisite grace and charm,--are shown by a rigid sifting to resolve
themselves into nebulous and baseless figments,--the mere simulacra of
true knowledge.

The conversations glide from this destructive analysis into a
constructive philosophy, and then we soon feel that it is Plato rather
than Socrates whom we are getting. The great contribution of Socrates
himself to philosophy is the attitude he impressed--of inquiry which is
serious because seeking the foundations of virtue and happiness, and is
inexorable in its insistence on nothing less than solid reality. Against
all allurements of indolence, comfort, and social convention he presses
the question, What is _true_? His characteristic word is:

"Some things, Meno, I have said of which I am not altogether confident.
But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that
we ought to inquire than we should have been if we indulged in the idle
fancy that there was no knowing and no use in searching after what we
know not; that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and
deed, to the utmost of my power."

Plato took from Socrates not method but inspiration, and soared into
speculation. He wrote over the door of the Academy, "Let no one enter
here who does not know geometry." That is, you are first to acquire
absolute confidence, by familiarity with the demonstrations of
mathematics, that real and certain knowledge is accessible to the human
mind. Thus planting his foot on firmest certainty, Plato leaps off into
a glorious s