He was described as eccentric in his general mode of conduct. He "strutted proudly barefoot along the streets of Athens; he was careless and shabby in his dress; in his manner he was affected and haughty and was subject to ecstatic trances and visions. During these trances he would maintain a standing posture for hours, buried in his thoughts, and was quite oblivious to the external world. There was a celebrated occasion in the camp at Poteidaice, when Socrates was not quite forty; on that occasion he stood motionless from early morning on one day till sunrise on the next, right through a night when there was a very hard frost. When the sun rose he said his prayer and went about his business." [6.] It is also claimed that he would give vent to bursts of anger and fiery passion. Ever since early boyhood Socrates is supposed to have heard an inner voice, which he called a divine sign. It came to him quite often both on important and on insignificant occasions. According to Xenophon, this voice gave him both negative and positive warnings; however, Plato holds that this voice only exercised its influence in opposing the execution of certain things. "And not only was he generally convinced" says Zeller, "that he stood and acted in the service of God, but he also held that supernatural suggestions were communicated to him, not only through the medium of public oracles, but also in dreams, and more particularly by a peculiar kind of higher inspiration which goes by the name of the Socratic daimoviov."[7.] Even by his contemporaries he was regarded as singular and eccentric and his general behavior was ever foreign to his compatriots. Indeed Lelut [(8)] boldly asserts that Socrates was "un fou." Nevertheless "attempts were not wanting to excuse him," so writes Zeller, "either on the ground of the universal superstition of his age and nation, or else of his having a physical tendency to fanaticism."[9.] Another interesting feature in the life of Socrates is that he married late and that his matrimonial life was far from being happy, and in the words of Schwegler, "He nowhere shows much regard for his wife and children; the notorious, though altogether too much exaggerated ill-nature of Xantippe, leads us to suspect, however, that his domestic relations were not the most happy."[10.] It is also important to note that there was a turning point in the history of his life when he took up the preaching of philosophy. It must be borne in mind that he took no money for his teaching and at the same time he left his wife and children destitute. In regard to this Draper remarks, "There is surely something wrong in a man's life when the mother of his children is protesting against his conduct, and her complaints are countenanced by the community."[11.]