leaves, and making it dwell in a tub. He professed that the
nearer a man approaches to suicide the nearer he approaches to virtue.
He wore no other dress than a scanty cloak; a wallet, a stick, and a
drinking-cup completed his equipment: the cup he threw away as useless
on seeing a boy take water in the hollow of his hand. It was his delight
to offend every idea of social decency by performing all the acts of
life publicly, asserting that whatever is not improper in itself ought
to be done openly. It is said that his death, which occurred in his
ninetieth year, was in consequence of devouring a neat's foot raw. From
his carrying the Socratic notions to an extreme, he merits the
designation applied to him, "the mad Socrates." His contempt for the
opinions of others, and his religious disbelief, are illustrated by an
incident related of him, that, having in a moment of weakness made a
promise to some friends that he would offer a sacrifice to Diana, he
repaired the next day to her temple, and, taking a louse from his head,
cracked it upon her altar.

[Sidenote: Decline of morality.]

What a melancholy illustration of the tendency of the human mind do
these facts offer. What a quick, yet inevitable descent from the
morality of Socrates. Selfishness is enthroned; friendship and
patriotism are looked upon as the affairs of a fool; happy is the man
who stands in no need of a friend; still happier he who has not one. No
action is intrinsically bad; even robbery, adultery, sacrilege, are
only crimes by public agreement. The sage will take care how he indulges
in the weakness of gratitude or benevolence, or any other such sickly
sentiment. If he can find pleasure, let him enjoy it; if pain is
inflicted on him, let him bear it; but, above all, let him remember that
death is just as desirable as life.

If the physical speculations of Greece had ended in sophistry and
atheism, ethical investigations, it thus appears, had borne no better
fruit. Both systems, when carried to their consequences, had been found
to be not only useless to society, but actually prejudicial to its best
interests. As far as could be seen, in the times of which we are
speaking, the prospects for civilization were dark and discouraging; nor
did it appear possible that any successful attempts could be made to
extract from philosophy anything completely suitable to the wants of
man. Yet, in the midst of these discreditable delusions, one of the
friends and