[Side-note: Attachment of Aristippus to ethics and philosophy--contempt for other studies.] That the scheme of life projected by Aristippus was very difficult requiring great dexterity, prudence, and resolution, to execute it--we may see plainly by the Xenophontic dialogue; wherein Sokrates pronounces it to be all but impracticable. As far as we can judge, he surmounted the difficulties of it: yet we do not know enough of his real life to determine with accuracy what varieties of difficulties he experienced. He followed the profession of a Sophist, receiving fees for his teaching: and his attachment to philosophy (both as contrasted with ignorance and as contrasted with other studies not philosophy) was proclaimed in the most emphatic language. It was better (he said) to be a beggar, than an uneducated man:[197] the former was destitute of money, but the latter was destitute of humanity. He disapproved varied and indiscriminate instruction, maintaining that persons ought to learn in youth what they were to practise in manhood: and he compared those who, neglecting philosophy, employed themselves in literature or physical science, to the suitors in the Odyssey who obtained the favours of Melantho and the other female servants, but were rejected by the Queen Penelopê herself.[198] He treated with contempt the study of geometry, because it took no account, and made no mention, of what was good and evil, beautiful and ugly. In other arts (he said), even in the vulgar proceeding of the carpenter and the currier, perpetual reference was made to good, as the purpose intended to be served and to evil as that which was to be avoided: but in geometry no such purpose was ever noticed.[199] [Footnote 197: Diog. L. ii. 70; Plutarch, Fragm. [Greek: U(pomnê/mat' ei)s Ê(si/odon], s. 9. [Greek: A)ri/stippos de\ a)p' e)nanti/as o( Sôkratiko\s e)/lege, sumbou/lou dei=sthai chei=ron ei)=nai ê)\ prosaitei=n.]] [Footnote 198: Diog. L. ii. 79-80. [Greek: tou\s tô=n e)gkukli/ôn paideuma/tôn metascho/ntas, philosophi/as de\ a)poleiphthe/ntas], &c. Plutarch, Fragm. [Greek: Strômate/ôn], sect. 9.] [Footnote 199: Aristot. Metaph. B. 996, a 32, M. 1078, a. 35. [Greek: ô(/ste dia\ tau=ta kai\ tô=n sophistô=n tine\s oi(=on A)ri/stippos _proepêla/kizon_ au)ta\s], &c.] [Side-note: Aristippus taught as a Sophist. His reputation thus acquired procured for him the attentions of Dionysius and others.]