l give himself sedulous concern as
respects his outer or external relations--his position in society;
conforming his acts to that standard which it in its wisdom or folly,
but in the exercise of its might, has declared shall be regarded as
right. Or, if his occasions be such as to make it for his interest to
depart from the social rule, let him do it in secrecy; or, what is far
better, let him cultivate rhetoric, that noble art by which the wrong
may be made to appear the right; by which he who has committed a crime
may so mystify society as to delude it into the belief that he is worthy
of praise; and by which he may prove that his enemy, who has really
performed some meritorious deed, has been guilty of a crime. Animated by
such considerations, the Sophists passed from place to place, offering
to sell for a sum of money a knowledge of the rhetorical art, and
disposed of their services in the instruction of the youth of wealthy
and noble families.

What shall we say of such a system and of such a state of things? Simply
this: that it indicated a complete mental and social demoralization--mental
demoralization, for the principles of knowledge were sapped, and man
persuaded that his reason was no guide; social demoralization, for he was
taught that right and wrong, virtue and vice, conscience, and law, and God,
are imaginary fictions; that there is no harm in the commission of sin,
though there may be harm, as assuredly there is folly, in being detected
therein; that it is excellent for a man to sell his country to the Persian
king, provided that the sum of money he receives is large enough, and that
the transaction is so darkly conducted that the public, and particularly
his enemies, can never find it out. Let him never forget that patriotism is
the first delusion of a simpleton, and the last refuge of a knave.

[Sidenote: They reject the national religion.]

[Sidenote: Spread of their opinions among the highest classes.]

[Sidenote: They end in blank atheism.]

Such were the results of the first attempt to correct the partial
philosophies, by submitting them to the measure of a more universal one;
such the manner in which, instead of only losing their exclusiveness and
imperfections by their contact with one another, they were wrested from
their proper object, and made subservient to the purpose of deception.
Nor was it science alone that was affected; already might be discerned
the foreshadowings of that convictio