226 HISTORICAL TALES.

kind. A striking picture is given us of the physical
qualities of this great moral philosopher. His ugli-
ness of face was matter of jest in Athens. He had
the flat nose, thick lips, and prominent eyes of a
satyr. Yet he was as strong as he was ugly. Few
Athenians could equal him in endurance. While
serving as a soldier, he was able to endure heat and
cold, hunger and fatigue, in a manner that astonished
his companions. He went barefoot in all weather,
and wore the same clothing winter and summer.
His diet was of the simplest, but in religious festi-
vals, when all were expected to indulge, Socrates
could drink more wine than any person present,
without a sign of intoxication. Yet it was his con-
stant aim to limit his wants and to avoid all excess.

To these qualities of body Socrates added the
highest and noblest qualities of mind. Naturally
he had a violent temper, but he held it under severe
control, though he could not always avoid a display
of anger under circumstances of great provocation.
But his depth of thought, his remarkable powers of
argument, his earnest desire for human amendment,
his incessant moral lessons to the Athenians, place
him in the very first rank of the teachers of man-
kind.

Socrates was of humble birth. He was born 469
B.c. and lived for seventy years. His father was a
sculptor, and he followed the same profession, He
married, and his wife Xanthippe has become famous
for the acidity of her temper. There is little doubt
that Socrates, whose life was spent in arguing and
conversing, and who paid little attention to filling