on record a single public statement which reads: "We know that our action is prompted

by avarice, but we are strong enough to win and that is all that matters?" Nothing but

true repentance brings a man to say:

Volumes have been written about Socrates, the man, his message, and his method. It

would, however, be quite outside the scope of these articles to attempt to deal with our

subject in detail. The details of his philosophy and all that led up to the bowl of hemlock

that terminated his life we must leave for the interested reader to look up for himself.

Socrates laid the foundation of moral philosophy and died at the end for the doctrine

he held. But neither his teaching nor his death could bring life. Nothing less than the

death of the Founder of our faith could make a philosophy of morals anything more than

an excellent system of teaching beyond the possibility of practical attainment. As Peter

teaches us, we may "add to our faith virtue", but this is not possible until we are Divinely

empowered, and made partakers of the Divine nature.  In other words, virtue is

knowledge, but only if that knowledge is the knowledge of Christ.

Socrates founded no school, but left behind the memory of a life that had in some

measure exemplified his aim and teaching. As was to be expected, therefore, different

men interpreted his life and teaching in various ways, according to their own

temperaments and predilections. Three different systems have become historical, the

school of the Cynics, the Cyrenaic school, and the Megaric school, represented

respectively by Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Euclid* (* - not to be confused with the

mathematician of the same name). All these schools, however, were too one-sided in

their presentation of the original teaching of Socrates.

Antisthenes, and the Cynics.--The name of this school of philosophy has become a

normal English word describing any one who is misanthropic and inclined to sneer at the

sincerity or goodness of others. Socrates, with a healthy humanity, despised the soft, the

luxurious, and the effeminate, but Antisthenes caricatured his master instead of following

him, living coarsely, and dressing in rough and ragged clothing. Socrates, however,

made it plain that such a manner of living was not a true interpretation of his doctrine for

he said on one occasion to Antisthenes: "I see thy vanity, Antisthenes, peering through

the holes of thy cloak." This saying seems to approach the truth to be found in the

Sermon on the Mount: