THE MEMORABLE THOUGHTS OF SOCRATES.
BY XENOPHON.
TRANSLATED BY EDWARD BYSSHE.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE.
1888.
INTRODUCTION.
This translation of Xenophon’s “Memorabilia of Socrates” wasfirst published in 1712, and is here printed from the revised edition of 1722.Its author was Edward Bysshe, who had produced in 1702 “The Art ofEnglish Poetry,” a well-known work that was near its fifth edition whenits author published his translation of the “Memorabilia.” This wasa translation that remained in good repute. There was another edition of it in1758. Bysshe translated the title of the book into “The Memorable Thingsof Socrates.” I have changed “Things” into“Thoughts,” for whether they be sayings or doings, the words anddeeds of a wise man are alike expressions of his thought.
Xenophon is said to have been, when young, a pupil of Socrates. Two authoritieshave recorded that in the flight from the battle of Delium in the year b.c. 424, when Xenophon fell from his horse, Socratespicked him up and carried him on his back for a considerable distance. The timeof Xenophon’s death is not known, but he was alive sixty-seven yearsafter the battle of Delium.
When Cyrus the Younger was preparing war against his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon,King of Persia, Xenophon went with him. After the death of Cyrus on the plainsof Cunaxa, the barbarian auxiliaries fled, and the Greeks were left to returnas they could from the far region between the Tigris and Euphrates. Xenophonhad to take part in the conduct of the retreat, and tells the story of it inhis “Anabasis,” a history of the expedition of the younger Cyrusand of the retreat of the Greeks. His return into Greece was in the year of thedeath of Socrates, b.c. 399, but his association wasnow with the Spartans, with whom he fought, b.c.394, at Coroneia. Afterwards he settled, and lived for about twenty years, atScillus in Eleia with his wife and children. At Scillus he wrote probably his“Anabasis” and some other of his books. At last he was driven outby the Eleans. In the battle of Mantineia the Spartans and Athenians fought asallies, and Xenophon’s two sons were in the battle; he had sent them toAthens as fellow-combatants from Sparta. His banishment from Athens wasrepealed by change of times, but it does not appear that he returned to Athens.He is said to have lived, and perhaps died, at Corinth, after he had beendriven from his home at Scillus.
Xenophon was a philosophic man of action. He could make his value felt in acouncil of war, take part in battle—one of his books is on the duties ofa commander of cavalry—and show himself good sportsman in thehunting-field. He wrote a book upon the horse; a treatise also upon dogs andhunting. He believed in God, thought earnestly about social and politicalduties, and preferred Spartan institutions to those of Athens. He wrote a lifeof his friend Agesilaus II., King of Sparta. He found exercise for hisenergetic mind in writing many books. In writing he was clear and to the point;his practical mind made his work interesting. His “Anabasis” is atrue story as delightful as a fiction; his “Cyropædia” is afiction full of truths. He wrote “Hellenica,” that carried on thehistory of Greece from the point at which Thucydides closed his history untilthe battle of Mantineia. He wrote a dialogue between Hiero and Simonides uponthe position of a king, and dealt with the administration of the little realmof a man’s household in his “Œconomicus,” a dialoguebetween Socrates and Critobulus, which includes the praise of agriculture. Hewrote also,