The Sophists. 157 to step the victim of sophistry learns to acknowledge no rule but that of his own fancied interest, and in compassing his selfish ends to trample upon all laws and violate every moral and social obligation. The manifest connection between some of the opinions here condemned and the Protagorean dogma would at once render it probable that Protagoras his associates and followers are referred to in the foregoing passage : but the conclusion becomes almost a matter of certainty when we compare some of the statements contained in it with the following extracts and references. Pro- tagoras' known religious scepticism, irep pev Be&v ovk e^co eldevai elff as elcnv eitf cos ovk tlvlv : his doctrine of justice, Theset. 167. C. [where a professedly favourable account is given of his theory and its consequences] ola y av eKao-rrj noXei dUaia Kai KaXa So/07, Tavra Ka elvai avrfj ecos av avra vopiljj, COmp. 172. B. ; to the Same effect is Hippias' opinion about 'laws/ Memor. iv. 4. 14, Nopovs . . . nSs av tis yyijcraiTO cnrovbaXov irpaypa eivai fj to ireidecrdai avrols ovs ye noXXaKis airol oi Qepevoi aTroboKipacravTes peTaTiBevrai ; COmp. with Legg. 1. C, dXX' dpcpio-^rjTovvras StareXeTv, k.t. X. The opposition of (fivats and vofios is adduced by Prodicus, Protag. 337. c, by Callicles, Gorg. 482. e. 484. a. Comp. Theaet. 172. a. b., where it is attributed to those who accept Protagoras' doctrine though they do not go the whole way with him. Arist. de Soph. El. c. 12., cocnrep 6 KoXXikXtjs iv tco Topyia yey pairrai Xeycov, Ka oi dp^aiot de iravres (i.e. the older Sophists) ioovto (TVu$aLveiv...evavTia yap elvai <f>vo~iv /cat vopov, Kal rf]V biKaiocrvvrjv Kara vopov pev elvai KaXbv, Kara, (fiiio-iv 8' oi KaXov... jjv de to pev Kara, (pvcriv avrols to dXtjdes, to 8e Kara vopov to tois noXXots 8okovv. It is true that this distinction was not confined to the persons commonly called Sophists it is attributed by Diog. Laert. n. 16. to ArchelaUS, eXeye . . . to dUaiov elvai Ka to alo~xpbv ov cpvcrei dXXa vopa, who was contemporary with Protagoras, Gorgias, &c, and as he was a physical philosopher and this is the only ethical opinion reported of him, it is likely enough that he may have borrowed it from some of them. A similar distinction was also applied by Democritus to his physical system, Sext. Empir. ap. Ritter et Preller, 90, vopco, cprjcri, yXvKV Ka vopco iriKpov, k.t.X. eTerj be (i.e. <pvo-ei) aTopa Ka Kevov. Democritus was a later contemporary of Protagoras and the earlier Sophists. Who the * poets' are who are mentioned together with prose-writers does not appear.
