{222} temperance, men were not useful
to themselves or to others, and temperance meant the complete mastery
of self. Friendship and love were cardinal points in the doctrine of
ethical life. The proper conduct of life, justice in the treatment of
man by his fellow-man, and the observance of the duties of citizenship,
were part of the ethical philosophy of Socrates.

Beauty is only another name for goodness, but it is only a harmony or
adaptation of means to an end. The Socratic method of ascertaining
truth by the art of suggestive questioning was a logical mode of
procedure. The meeting of individuals in conversation was a method of
arriving at the truth of ethical conduct and ethical relations. It was
made up of induction and definition. No doubt the spirit of his
teaching was sceptical in the extreme. While having a deeper sense of
the reality of life than others, he realized that he did not know much.
He criticized freely the prevailing beliefs, customs, and religious
practice. For this he was accused of impiety, and forced to drink the
hemlock. With an irony in manner and thought, Socrates introduced the
problem of self-knowledge; he hastened the study of man and reason; he
instituted the doctrine of true manhood as an essential part in the
philosophy of life. Conscience was enthroned, and the moral life of
man began with Socrates.

_Platonic Philosophy Develops the Ideal_.--Plato was the pupil of
Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. These three represent the
culmination of Greek philosophy. In its fundamental principles the
Platonic philosophy represents the highest flight of the mind in its
conception of being and of the nature of mind and matter, entertained
by the philosophers. The doctrine of Plato consisted of three primary
principles: matter, ideas, and God. While matter is co-eternal with
God, he created all animate and inanimate things from matter. Plato
maintained that there was a unity in design. And as God was an
independent and individual creator of the world, who fashioned the
universe, and is father to all creatures, there was unity in God.
Plato advanced the doctrine of reminiscences, {223} in which he
accounted for what had otherwise been termed innate ideas. Plato also
taught, to a certain extent, the transmigration of souls. He was
evidently influenced in many ways by the Indian philosophy; but the
special doctrine of Plato made ideas the most permanent of all things.
Visible