It will appear, therefore, that the Lesser Socratics were more Sophistic than Socratic. They were diametrically opposed to Socrates’ theory of the universality of truth. The excellent Good must be sought by each in his own way. This is individualistic virtue, and not that of humanity. Civilization was valued by them only as it satisfied individual needs. The common problem of individualistic happiness limited the efforts of both schools, while the results that they reached in solving it were quite different. There are two ways of achieving happiness; one is by satisfying the desires, the other is by cutting off the desires. For happiness is the perfect proportion of desire and satisfaction. A living creature is happy if his desires are satisfied, whether those desires be few or many. In the theory of the Cyrenaic school, happiness is gained by increasing the satisfactions; in the theory of the Cynic school, happiness is gained by decreasing the desires. =The Cynic School= was founded by Antisthenes, and numbered among its adherents Diogenes, about whom so many curious stories have been told, Crates of Thebes, his wife Hipparchia, and her brother, Metrocles. Virtue in the eudæmonistic sense is the only end, and this school agreed with Socrates that this end is to be attained by knowledge. That is to say, virtue or knowledge is only a means of gaining happiness, and all other possessions the Cynics affected to despise. Virtue as knowledge is therefore to be sought; ignorance is to be shunned; all else is a matter of indifference. Riches, luxury, fame, honor, sense-pleasure and pain, and later with logical consistency all shame, convention, family, and country were objects of contempt. Man must make himself independent by cutting off the desires which he cannot satisfy or the desires that seem superfluous. He should keep alive only such desires as are necessary to existence. In independence of all outward circumstance the Cynic conceives himself to be the Wise Man, in contrast to whom the mass of men are fools. The Cynic is, therefore, the equal of the undesiring gods. He has independent lordship and does not need the artificialities of civilization. Natural law was contrasted by him in a Sophistic way with statutory law, and in the midst of the refinements of society he preached a return to a state of nature.