LATER SCHOOLS: THE CYNICS.--The impulse given by Socrates gave rise to still other schools of philosophers. _Aristippus_ of Cyrene (about 380 B.C.) founded a sect which held that happiness is the chief end, the goal of rational effort. _Antisthenes_, who was born 422 B.C., and especially _Diogenes_, went to the opposite extreme, and founded the school of _Cynics_, who looked with disdain, not only on luxuries, but on the ordinary comforts of life, and inured themselves to do without them. Their manners were often as savage as their mode of living. HISTORICAL WRITINGS.--The three principal historical writers were _Herodotus_ (c. 484-0.425 B.C.), the charming but uncritical chronicler of what he heard and saw, by whom the interference of the gods in human affairs is devoutly credited; _Thucydides_, who himself took part in the Peloponnesian war, the history of which he wrote with a candor, a profound perception of character, an insight into the causes of events, a skill in arrangement, and a condensation and eloquence of style, which are truly admirable; and _Xenophon_, an author characterized by naturalness, simplicity, and a religious spirit. GREEK LIFE.--It will be convenient to bring together here some features of Greek life, (1) _Public Buildings and Dwellings_. The Greeks almost always preferred to live in cities. These grew up about an _Acropolis_, which was a fort on a hill, generally a steep crag. This was a place of refuge, and the site of the oldest temple. It became often, therefore, a sacred place from which private dwellings were excluded. At the nearest harbor, there would be a seaport town. The _Piraeus_ was more than four miles from Athens,--a mile farther than the nearest shore, but was chosen as being an excellent harbor. Sparta, alone, had no citadel,--the access from the plain being easily defended,--and no walls. The attractive buildings in a Greek town were the public edifices. Private houses, as to the exterior, were very plain, with flat roofs, with few stories, and low. Towards the street "the house looked like a dead wall with a strong door in it," It was built round an open court: in the case of the best houses, round two courts,--one bordered by apartments for the men, the other with the rooms for women. Bedrooms and sitting-rooms were small, admitting but little light. Fresco-painting on the walls and ceilings came to be common. The furniture of the house was plain and simple, but graceful and elegant in form. The poorer classes slept on skins; the richer, on woolen mattresses laid on girths. The Greeks lived so much in the open air that they took less pains with their dwellings. The public buildings were costly and substantially built. (2) _Meals, Gymnastics, etc._ The Greeks rose early. There are no notices of a morning bath. The first meal was light. It was succeeded, as was the custom at Rome, by calls on friends.