SOCRATES (469–399 B. C.). =Socrates and Aristophanes.= There were two ways in which the other elements in Greek society tried to meet the Sophists. One was led by Aristophanes, the other by Socrates. Aristophanes was a rich nobleman who looked back with pride upon the good old times. He would have a government of the best rather than of the many. He would destroy the Sophistic movement, and he wrote many satires upon Greek life with that end in view. His satire, _The Clouds_, is of especial interest in this connection. Socrates represents the other way in which the Sophistic movement was met. He accepted the Sophistic movement, but he read more deeply into it than the Sophists themselves, and he tried to find its truth. The extraordinary personality of Socrates is the central figure in this age of critical inquiry. For the first time do we find philosophy centred in a great personality, and there is no more picturesque figure in history. The exposition of his doctrines is essentially a biography. He wrote nothing himself, and the literary sources of his life and teaching are found in Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_ and _Symposium_, in the writings of Plato, and in those of Aristotle. They throw different lights upon his character, and together give a fairly complete picture. Xenophon records the sober, practical, and popular side of Socrates, caught in casual conversation. Plato idealizes Socrates, especially in his later writings, and he reveals Socrates’ character on its imaginative and spiritual sides. Aristotle is more discriminating and less sympathetic, but always reliable because he is a generation removed.[17] =The Personality and Life of Socrates.= Alcibiades described Socrates as like the little cases sold upon the streets of Athens, which were made in the shape of Silenus and contained a carved image. The description was apt, for Socrates had a fine spiritual nature within an astonishing shell. He was short, stout, and thick-set, with his head set upon his shoulders. His eyes were bulging, his nose flat with upturned nostrils, his mouth big and grinning, and his beard disordered. His protruding belly was set upon slender legs, and his dress was slovenly. Nevertheless his geniality, his fine humor, the unselfishness which he manifested unstintedly toward his friends, exercised an irresistible charm upon all the remarkable personalities of his time. Over the Athenian youth his influence was very great, and he surrounded himself with a large circle of admirers, to the neglect of his home cares and his wife Xantippe. While the habit of the Sophists was to talk in private and for pay, Socrates was distinguished from all his contemporaries by the fact that he would talk in the public places with any one, rich or poor, and without remuneration.