A Life of Socrates by Dr. G. Wiggers [pp. 236-265]

Life of Socrates.
Cebes] I was soon disappbinted in this hope; for in the progress
of my reading, I discovered that the man no longer applied his
principle of reason, and mentioned no causes by which to classify things; but declared air, ether, water, and many other
strange things to be causes. This appeared to me just as
absurd as if somebody should say, Socrates does every thing
which he does with reason; and afterwards endeavouring to
point out the motive of every single action, he should say in
the first place, I am sitting here because my body is composed
of bones and sinews, &c. I should have liked very much to
have obtained some instruction, from whomsoever it might have
proceeded, concerning the nature of this cause. But as I did
not succeed, and as I was unable to find it out of myself, or to
learn it from any one else, I set out on a second voyage in
search of the cause."
In moral philosophy Socrates was certainly more successful.
He had no doubt some aid from the prevailing opinions both of
the common people and of the philosophers of his day; yet the
notions that obtained in the best systems were so crude, so
mixed up with fatal errors, and withal so modified to suit a depraved heart and depraved manners, that it is not easy to
decide either how much he was indebted to his predecessors, or
how much posterity was indebted to him. When he succeeds in
making any thing of importance plain and clear, it is evident
that he has either received it from tradition, or that he obtained
it by means of the inductive system of philosophizing. But how
much is attributable to the one cause, and how much to the
other, no man can now certainly decide. We are inclined to
the opinion, that the influence of Socrates for good, was rather
in bringing into merited disrepute prevailing errors, and even
systems, than in developing new ideas or notions. It must also
be acknowledged that he did important service in presenting,
both by precept and example, in the most striking manner, the
necessity and value of strict, unbending justice. We have
already seen Plato's estimate of him. Xenophon says that he
"was so pious that he undertook nothing without asking the
counsel of the gods; so just, that he never did the smallest
injury to any one, but rendered essential services to many; so
temperate, that he never preferred pleasure to virtue; and so
256
[APRIL