It is to the poets and other writers of the _Sixth age_ itself, however, that we are to look for the prophetic anticipations of the glorious event which was to illuminate its close. At the beginning of this age, flourished the _Seven Wise Men_ of Greece, whose laconic, but excellent aphorisms, indicated the approach of better times. To them we owe, according to Plato, the celebrated maxim Γνῶθι σεαυτόν,—_Know thyself_; but even to know himself was more than man could attain, without a revelation from heaven;—how much more necessary was it, therefore, that the knowledge of the everlasting God should emanate from the same source! Accordingly, we find in the Scriptures, the following maxim perpetually inculcated, which is as much above that of the Seven Sages, as the Heavens are above the earth. “The fear of the Lord is the _highest_ wisdom;”[66] to which we may add, with Solomon, David, and Job, who all uttered the same aphorism—“And to depart from evil is understanding;” (Prov. i. 7; Psalm cxi. 10; and Job xxviii. 28.) and it is easy to give it the laconic form, if this be any recommendation to the admirers of the wisdom of the Heathen, who prefer to drink at their muddy streams, and neglect the fountain of truth; for we have only to say Γνῶθι θεὸν,—_Know God_; and we concentrate in these two words, all that is necessary for man’s happiness, both in this world, and that which is to come: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent;” John xviii. 3. He indeed, who knows God, knows himself also; for he knows that in the sight of God, he is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;” and that he must buy of God, through Jesus Christ, “gold tried in the fire,” that he may be rich; and “white raiment,” that he may be clothed, and that the shame of his nakedness may not appear; and “eye-salve” to anoint his eyes, that he may see; Rev. iii. 17, 18. When a century and a-half of the _Sixth age_ had passed away, arose Socrates, the wisest of all the Greeks, who, as Cicero remarks, brought philosophy down from heaven to earth, and taught all that man could know about Divine things, which, according to his own confession, was positively nothing, with the exception of some obscure ideas which he had learned from primitive tradition. He indeed appears to have had just views of man’s ignorance, and according to Plato, his illustrious disciple, who survived his master half a century, he considered that there was no real way of finding out the truth concerning God, but by a revelation from Heaven, by the hand of a Divine Messenger. This appears evident, both from some passages in Plato’s Dialogue, entitled the “Phædo,” and from the following remarkable passage in that entitled the “_Second Alcibiades; or, of Prayer_,” which we copy from the 2nd vol. of Dr. Hales’s “Analysis,” p. 1231.