the mercy-seat is assigned, and in whose honour all that external magnificence has been piled up; so also we pass through the manifold and marvellous constructions of Plato’s imagination to that austere memorial where Xenophon has enshrined with pious care, under the great primary divisions of old Hellenic virtue, an authentic reliquary of one standing foremost among those who, having worked out their own deliverance from the powers of error and evil, would not be saved alone, but published the secret of redemption though death were the penalty of its disclosure; and who, by their transmitted influence, even more than by their eternal example, are still contributing to the progressive development of all that is most rational, most consistent, most social, and therefore most truly human in ourselves. FOOTNOTES: [80] Cf. Havet, _Le Christianisme et ses Origines_, I., 167. [81] _Gesch. d. Phil._, II., 47. [82] The oracle quoted in the _Apologia Socratis_ attributed to Xenophon praises Socrates not for wisdom but for independence, justice, and temperance. Moreover, the work in question is held to be spurious by nearly every critic. [83] _Mem._, IV., vi., 1. [84] _Mem._, IV., iv., 10. [85] Zeller, _Ph. d. Gr._, II., a, 103, note 3 _sub fin._ [86] It may possibly be asked, Why, if Plato gave only an ideal picture of Socrates, are we to accept his versions of the Sophistic teaching as literally exact? The answer is that he was compelled, by the nature of the case, to create an imaginary Socrates, while he could have no conceivable object in ascribing views which he did not himself hold to well-known historical personages. Assuming an unlimited right of making fictitious statements for the public good, his principles would surely not have permitted him wantonly to calumniate his innocent contemporaries by foisting on them odious theories for which they were not responsible. Had nobody held such opinions as those attributed to Thrasymachus in the _Republic_ there would have been no object in attacking them; and if anybody held them, why not Thrasymachus as well as another? With regard to the veracity of the _Apologia_, Grote, in his work on Plato (I. 291), quotes a passage from Aristeides the rhetor, stating that all the companions of Socrates agreed about the Delphic oracle, and the Socratic disclaimer of knowledge. This, however, proves too much, for it shows that Aristeides quite overlooked the absence of any reference to either point in Xenophon, and therefore cannot be trusted to give an accurate report of the other authorities. [87] _Ph. d. Gr._, II., a, 93 ff. [88] In the conversation with Hippias already referred to. [89] _Mem._, III., ix., 4. [90] _Mem._, III., vi. [91] _Mem._, IV., ii. [92] _Mem._, IV., iii. [93] _Mem._, III., ix., 10. [94] _Mem._, IV., vi., 14.