色诺芬：《回忆苏格拉底》
Title: The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
Author: Xenophon
Editor: Henry Morley
Release Date: January 10, 2006 [eBook #17490]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMORABLE THOUGHTS OF SOCRATES***
Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
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" was first
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 of
English Poetry," a well-known work that was near its fifth edition when
its author published his translation of the "Memorabilia." This was a
translation that remained in good repute. There was another edition of
it in 1758. Bysshe translated the title of the book into "The Memorable
Things of Socrates." I have changed "Things" into "Thoughts," for
whether they be sayings or doings, the words and deeds of a wise man are
alike expressions of his thought.
Xenophon is said to have been, when young, a pupil of Socrates. Two
authorities have recorded that in the flight from the battle of Delium in
the year B.C. 424, when Xenophon fell from his horse, Socrates picked him
up and carried him on his back for a considerable distance. The time of
Xenophon's death is not known, but he was alive sixty-seven years after
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 plains of Cunaxa, the barbarian auxiliaries fled, and the Greeks
were left to return as they could from the far region between the Tigris
and Euphrates. Xenophon had to take part in the conduct of the retreat,
and tells the story of it in his "Anabasis," a history of the expedition
of the younger Cyrus and of the retreat of the Greeks. His return into
Greece was in the year of the death of Socrates, B.C. 399, but his
association was now with the Spartans, with whom he fought, B.C. 394, at
Coroneia. Afterwards he settled, and lived for about twenty years, at
Scillus 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 out by the Eleans. In the battle of Mantineia the Spartans and
Athenians fought as allies, and Xenophon's two sons were in the battle;
he had sent them to Athens as fellow-combatants from Sparta. His
banishment from Athens was repealed 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 been driven from his home at Scillus.
Xenophon was a philosophic man of action. He could make his value felt
in a council of war, take part in battle--one of his books is on the
duties of a commander of cavalry--and show himself good sportsman in the
hunting-field. He wrote a book upon the horse; a treatise also upon dogs
and hunting. He believed in God, thought earnestly about social and
political duties, and preferred Spartan institutions to those of Athens.
He wrote a life of his friend Agesilaus II., King of Sparta. He found
exercise for his energetic mind in writing many books. In writing he was
clear and to the point; his practical mind made his work interesting. His
"Anabasis" is a true story as delightful as a fiction; his "Cyropaedia"
is a fiction full of truths. He wrote "Hellenica," that carried on the
history of Greece from the point at which Thucydides closed his history
until the battle of Mantineia. He wrote a dialogue between Hiero and
Simonides upon the position of a king, and dealt with the administration
of the little realm of a man's household in his "OEconomicus," a dialogue
between Socrates and Critobulus, which includes the praise of
agriculture. He wrote also, like Plato, a symposium, in which
philosophers over their wine reason of love and friendship, and he paints
the character of Socrates.
But his best memorial of his old guide, philosopher, and friend is this
work, in which Xenophon brought together in simple and direct form the
views of life that had been made clear to himself by the teaching of
Socrates. Xenophon is throughout opposing a plain tale to the false
accusations against Socrates. He does not idealise, but he feels
strongly, and he shows clearly the worth of the wisdom that touches at
every point the actual conduct of the lives of men.
H. M.
全文下载：http://fs1.bay.cech.com.cn/download/file_share_12971721.html
