of the cognitive process and its relative nature.—Gorgias—his treatise on physical subjects—misrepresentations of the scope of it.—Unfounded accusations against the sophists.—They were not a sect or school, with common doctrines or method; they were a profession, with strong individual peculiarities.—The Athenian character was not really corrupted, between 480 B.C. and 405 B.C.—Prodikus—The choice of Hercules.—Protagoras—real estimate exhibited of him by Plato.—Hippias of Elis—how he is represented by Plato.—Gorgias, Pôlus, and Kalliklês.—Doctrine advanced by Pôlus.—Doctrine advanced by Kalliklês—anti-social.—Kalliklês is not a sophist.—The doctrine put into his mouth could never have been laid down in any public lecture among the Athenians.—Doctrine of Thrasymachus in the “Republic” of Plato.—Such doctrine not common to all the sophists—what is offensive in it is, the manner in which it is put forward.—Opinion of Thrasymachus afterwards brought out by Glaukon—with less brutality, and much greater force of reason.—Plato against the sophists generally. His category of accusation comprehends all society, with all the poets and statesmen.—It is unjust to try either the sophists or the statesmen of Athens, by the standard of Plato.—Plato distinctly denies that Athenian corruption was to be imputed to the sophists.—The sophists were not teachers of mere words, apart from action.—General good effect of their teaching upon the youth.—Great reputation of the sophists—evidence of respect for intellect and of a good state of public sentiment. 317-399 CHAPTER LXVIII. SOKRATES.