[163] _D._ ii, 18. The tone of Tertullian, _e.g._ in _de Anima_, 1, on the Phaedo, suggests that Socrates may have been over-preached. What too (_ib._ 6) of barbarians and their souls, who have no "prison of Socrates," etc? [164] Plut. _de Stoic. repugnantiis_, 31, 1048 E. Cf. _de comm. not._ 33. [165] Plutarch, _Amat._ 13, 757 C. _horas depou ton upolambanonta buthon hemas atheotetos, an eis pathe kai dynameis kai aretas diagraphomen ekaston ton theon_. {75} CHAPTER III PLUTARCH Stoicism as a system did not capture the ancient world, and even upon individuals it did not retain an undivided hold. To pronounce with its admirers to-day that it failed because the world was not worthy of it, would be a judgment, neither quite false nor altogether true, but at best not very illuminative. Men are said to be slow in taking in new thoughts, and yet it is equally true that somewhere in nearly every man there is something that responds to ideas, and even to theories; but if these on longer acquaintance fail to harmonize with the deeper instincts within him, they alarm and annoy, and the response comes in the form of re-action. In modern times, we have seen the mind of a great people surrendered for a while to theorists and idealists. The thinking part of the French nation was carried away by the inspiration of Rousseau into all sorts of experiments at putting into hasty operation the principles and ideas they had more or less learnt from the master. Even theories extemporized on the moment, it was hoped, might be made the foundations of a new and ideal social fabric. The absurdities of the old religion yielded place to Reason--embodied symbolically for the hour in the person of Mme Momoro--afterwards, more vaguely, in Robespierre's Supreme Being, who really came from Rousseau. And then--"avec ton Etre Supreme tu commences a m'embeter," said Billaud to Robespierre himself. Within a generation Chateaubriand, de Maistre, Bonald, and de la Mennais were busy refounding the Christian faith. "The rites of Christianity," wrote Chateaubriand, "are in the highest degree moral, if for no other reason than that they have been practised by our fathers, that our mothers have watched over our cradles as Christian women, that the Christian religion has chanted its psalms over our parents' coffins and invoked peace upon them in their graves." {76} Alongside of this let us set a sentence or two of Plutarch. "Our father then, addressing Pemptides by name, said, 'You seem to me, Pemptides, to be handling a very big matter and a risky one--or rather, you are discussing what should not be discussed at all (_ta akineta kinein_), when you question the opinion we hold about the gods, and ask reason and demonstration for everything. For the ancient and ancestral faith is enough (_arkei gar he patrios kai palaia pistis_), and no clearer proof could be found than itself-- Not though man's wisdom scale the heights of thought--