420 HISTORY OF GREECE. whereby it ought to be circumscribed. In the present state t which science has attained, nothing is more curious than to look back at the rules which this eminent man laid down. Astronomy now exhibiting the maximum of perfection, with the largest and most exact power of predicting future phenomena which human science has ever attained was pronounced by him to be among the divine mysteries which it was impossible to under- stand, and madness to investigate, as Anaxagoras had foolishly pretended to do. He admitted, indeed, that there was advantage in knowing enough of the movements of the heavenly bodies to serve as an index to the change of seasons, and as guides for voyages, journeys by land, or night-watches : but thus much, he said, might easily be obtained from pilots and watchmen, while all beyond was nothing but waste of valuable time, exhausting that mental effort which ought to be employed in profitable ac- quisitions. He reduced geometry to its literal meaning of land- measuring, necessary so far as to enable any one to proceed correctly in the purchase, sale, or division of land, which any man of common attention might do almost without a teacher ; but silly and worthless, if carried beyond, to the study of complicated diagrams. 1 Respecting arithmetic, he gave the same qualified permission of study ; but as to general physics, or the study of Nature, he discarded it altogether : " Do these inquirers (he asked) think that they already know human affairs well enough, that they thus begin to meddle with divine ? Do they think that they shall be able to excite or calm the winds and the rain at pleasure, or have they no other view than to gratify an idle curiosity ? Surely, they must see that such matters are beyond human investigation. Let them only recollect how much the greatest men, who have attempted the investigation, differ in their pretended results, holding opinions extreme and opposite to each other, like those of madmen 1 " Such was the view which Sokrates took of physical science and its prospects. 2 It is tho 1 Xenoph. Mem. IT, 7, 5. 8 Xenoph. Mem. i, 1, 12-15. Plato entertained much larger views on th subject of physical and astronomical studies than either Sokrates or Xen- ophon : see Plato, Phaedrus, c 120, p. 270, A, and Republic, vii, c. 6-il p. 522, stq
