=The Two Steps of the Method of Socrates.= The external form of the method of Socrates was conversation. Thinking was to him an inner conversation. The result of a conversation, external or internal, was evolvement,――the implicit in thought made explicit. This was quite opposed to the method of the Sophists, which was the supplying of knowledge. Socrates did not propose to start from any kind of knowledge except the ideal to be striven for. Starting with the presupposition that man contained knowledge, the end which Socrates attempted to reach by his method was a practical one. With so much in summary, let us examine the two steps of the method of Socrates. The first step that Socrates deems necessary for man in attaining this ideal of moral excellence is negative. Indeed, it is more,――it is complete abnegation on the part of the seeker for truth. One must confess that he himself knows nothing, and come to a realization that his untested individual opinions are not the truth. He must approach the subject as a seeker and not as a teacher. This attitude of mind is the beginning of wisdom. Plato relates how the Delphic oracle amazed Socrates by announcing that he was the wisest of the Greeks. In reflecting upon the statement of the oracle he came to agree with the oracle because, as he said, he was ignorant and he knew it, while the other Greeks were ignorant and did not know it. Before Socrates began to examine any conception, he professed or assumed to profess absolute ignorance of it. He is the modest inquirer. He is always described in the rôle of the questioner who is seeking information and light.