But, in order to arrive at this conclusion, So- | guilty of impiety and rebellion. To establish crates by no means assails Euthyphron with the reality of virtue, therefore, and to dethe formal powers of logic. He rather plays monstrate it to be binding on all created bewith him, brings forward and discusses mythesings, at all times, and in all places, it was nefrom the elder religion of Greece, and carries cessary in Pagan Hellas for philosophy to on clandestinely his war of extermination show that virtue did not derive its sacred against the poets. character from the favor of the gods, but that, on the contrary, if the gods esteemed it, they did so only because of its inherent and inalienable excellence. The soothsayer, in order to shield himself from public censure, alleges the example of the gods, observing, that since Zeus had bound and imprisoned his father Cronos, Happily, Christianity has delivered us from while the latter, in turn, had mutilated Ou- the necessity of making such inquiries; but ranos, it would be impossible for such of his it may, nevertheless, not be unworthy of a countrymen as acknowledged the piety and liberal curiosity to examine the foundations justice of these transactions to condemn him upon which morality rested among the wisest for following the example thus set him by the people of antiquity. Unfortunately, however, inhabitants of Olympos. Plato does not seem the speculations of Plato, more especially to have heard of that tradition, or to have those in the Euthyphron, will not enable us thought that it would make for his purpose, to arrive at certainty in this matter. Socrawhich represents Cronos as swallowing cer- tes is here entirely satisfied with overthrowing, tain animated stones, called Bætyli, in lieu of and not only does not build up himself, but the offspring of Rhea. Nor did he think pro- omits even to point out the way by which we per to indulge in that system of allegory by might build up for ourselves. It may be which the fables of old times may be recon- said, perhaps, that his object was particular, ciled with the doctrines of philosophy. Ac- that he sought to maintain no general thecording to this system, Zeus-the living one, sis, but contented himself entirely with prefrom the verb Law, to live-may be said to vailing on the soothsayer to desist from prosbind and abridge the power of time, and de- ecuting his father, in which, according to a prive it of its sovereignty over creation, by tradition preserved by Diogenes Laertius, he producing faster than it can destroy. On the succeeded. This, doubtless, if we may reother hand, as the world is said to be the off-gard the fact as historical, was a great triumph, spring of time, Cronos, by calling it into existence, may be said to have infringed upon the undivided sway of Ouranos, or that eternity a parte ante which existed before the world was. and more richly deserved a crown than the achievement of those Romans who preserved the life of a fellow-citizen in battle. For, according to his own creed, he thus saved, perhaps, from perdition a human soul. Yet we, The people, however, did not thus under- at this distance of time, may regret that, stand their mythology, but interpreted its while alarming the conscience of the specufables literally, and derived from them a sanc-lative parricide, while undermining and beattion for the very worst crimes they could ing to the ground those battlements of pride commit. Socrates, therefore, was perfectly and vanity which the poor diviner had erectright in making war upon the popular reli-ed about his hypothesis, he did not proceed gion of his country. For according to this a step farther, and show to us frankly and wild system of theology, the gods were all of without disguise what he himself considered them imperfect beings, gifted some with more piety and impiety to be. some with less knowledge, and endowed, ac- Probably a very attentive study of the diacidentally, with weaker or stronger propensi-logue may put us on the track towards disties towards goodness and rectitude. In de- covering it ourselves. He inquires of Euthytermining, therefore, the nature of piety and phron, why it is that we worship the gods, and impiety, or in the establishing of an unerring of what service our worship can possibly be rule for the guidance of human actions, it to those eternal beings? From the reply to would by no means do to adopt the theories this query, we learn what was, probably, the which appear to be prevalent in Olympos. popular notion on the subject. People thought, according to the soothsayer, that when they presented offerings, the gods ought to be pleased with them, since they were thus expending in adoration the things which they themselves most prized. Socrates, however, immediately puts this on a new footing, by inquiring from whom it is that men receive what they possess? which speedily makes it For example, Euthyphron, siding with the younger divinities, maintained it to be perfectly right, under certain circumstances, for children to rise against their parents. But the partisans of Ouranos and Cronos, if there were any, would have argued differently, and denounced both the Metacronian divinities, and those who took them for patterns, as evident that, while they obtain every thing | Being. Thus the science of ethics is erected from the gods, they imagine themselves to be on the relation subsisting between God and singularly meritorious when they determine man; and habits and actions are found to be to give them back a small part of what is their own. From this and similar considerations, the inference is soon drawn, that piety is not synonymous with offering sacrifice; and the inquiry reverts to the point whence it set out, which was to determine the nature and object of piety, and generally of every other virtue. Socrates, in the course of the dialogue, shows very clearly that the value of our actions, and, consequently, of the principle from which they proceed, is not to be estimated by the amount of their utility to the gods, since, when properly examined, our virtues are found to be of no service whatever to them. virtuous, not because they are pleasing to God, but because they promote the end designed by his providence, which is to secure our own happiness; and for this alone they are pleasing to him. What I have here said occurs nowhere in the Euthyphron, or, so far as I know, in any other dialogue of Plato. Yet it is certainly Platonic, because it grows up spontaneously in the mind while we converse with the characters which he introduces speaking. And this is the peculiarity, and that which constitutes the excellence of this philosopher's remains. Euthyphron, as we have already remarked, is by no means an adept in ethical and metaphysical speculations, but an indiThis naturally directs the investigation into vidual taken at hap-hazard from among the another channel, and suggests the question innumerable representatives which then exwhether all actions be not virtuous or other-isted of the popular style of thinking. This, wise, in proportion as they are useful to our- which seems at first a circumstance to be selves. The theory of virtue shadowed regretted, is precisely the best thing that forth by this demand may appear at first sight could have happened. For, as he occupies to be extremely narrow and unelevated; in the common level of humanity, philosophy, fact, to be synonymous with utilitarianism. in order to communicate with him, is comBut truth is truth; and, after ranging through pelled to lower her sphere and cause it to the whole region of nature and possibility, it move parallel with the body to be enlightened is found to be beyond our power to assign to by it. Had Euthyphron been a suitable virtue any other purpose. But by insinuating reasoner, a lofty thinker, initiated in all the this, Socrates is very far from seeking to es- mysteries of philosophy, Socrates would protablish such a system of selfishness as any bably have retired with him into the innerman of the world would be willing to accept. most recesses of ontology, and carried on a According to the Socratic philosophy, the ob- discussion little profitable to mankind in ject of our existence is happiness, which con- general. The humble capacity of the soothsists in that perfect equilibrium of the intellect, sayer renders such a proceeding impossible. passions, and affections, of old, by a figure Being short, every link of the investigation now become trite and commonplace, denomi- must descend near the earth, or he cannot nated harmony. Every thing which brings us touch it. Nay, more, being once confuted nearer to this state, or tends to preserve us in or convinced, does not satisfy him. He reit, is virtuous, while every thing which checks clothes his error, and brings it forward under our progress, or tends to throw us back when a new shape; so that the confutation, also, arrived, is vicious. But man, not being self- has to be remodelled and brought to bear, as existent, and not existing alone in the uni- it were, upon an ever-shifting point. Still, verse, is conscious of being a subordinate and as to the inhabitants of this earth it is the responsible agent. This consciousness im- heavens that appear to move around in myspels him into many inquiries; first, he desires to ascertain to whom he owes his being, and what is the nature of that cause upon which he depends as an effect. This is the highest exercise of his intellect, and by em- Concerning these wonderful works of art, ploying it wisely he discovers that the cause ancient writers have preserved an extremely in question is in perfect harmony with itself. provoking silence; or rather, saying a great From the next step in the inquiry he learns deal about them, they explain nothing. To that the author of all subordinate intelli- them, however, Dædalos seems to have been gences has established certain laws for their what Steam-engine, perhaps, may prove to guidance, by rigidly following which, they in future generations. Every work of art betheir sphere, and each according to his ca-yond the reach of ordinary intelligence they pacity, may enjoy a measure of that harmony attribute to him, and at length proceeded so which constitutes the felicity of the Supreme far as to endow him with miraculous powers. terious dance, so to the soothsayer, it is not his own reasonings, but those of Socrates, that seem to resemble quicksilver, or, to borrow his own figure, the statues of Dædalos. Even in minute and trifling matters, every | was certainly strong in him to examine the thing curious was ascribed to Dædalian in- foundations of established opinions, to rock genuity. Thus the dolls which moved with and shake them, and render people appresprings were the invention of this artist; and, hensive of their fall, whether they were subwhen Augæas was at a loss how to capture versible or not. But a false notion he would the thieves who robbed his treasury, it was quixotically go out of his way to attack. to the wit of Dædalos that he applied for as- Thus in the present discussion with Euthysistance. The story, we fancy, is familiar to phron, he flies off into the realms of poetry, our readers, how the great mechanician set for the purpose of overthrowing an idea his snares in the golden treasury; how Aga- which two verses of Stasinos had rendered medes was taken; and how his companion, popular :Trophonios, to avoid detection, cutff o his Ζῆνα δὲ τὸν ῥέξαντα, καὶ ὃς τάδε πάντ' ἐφύτευσεν, head; together with the flight of Cerayon Οὐκ ἐθέλεις εἰπεῖν· ἵνα γὰρ δέος, ἔνθα καὶ αἰδῶς. and Trophonios to Athens and Boeotia. But "Where there is fear," exclaims the bard, the self-moving statues remain still an enigma. there, also, there is shame." But SocIt would seem, that wherever they might be rates, desirous of convincing the soothsayer placed, they would never stand still, but, that popular opinions are almost always mocking the hand of him who sought to grasp them, glide hither and thither like shadows; nay, though fashioned of bronze, they had almost the warmth and vitality of flesh and blood, so that, in order to keep them quietly upon their pedestals, it was absolutely necessary to chain them there. No wonder, therefore, that Euthyphron, knowing the pedigree of Socrates, should have made merry with him upon his supposed logical artifices. Nevertheless the ancient genealogists, to whom we are indebted for the history of the landed gentry of Attica, have been guilty of a grievous oversight in tracing the descent of Socrates from the author of the Augæan snares. It is thus, however, that they give it : Zeus-Hera. Hephastos- -Gaia. Erechtheus Procris, Metion A woman, name unknown. Eupalamos Alcippe. Dædalos. Many other men and women! Sophroniscos Socrates. wrong, undertakes utterly to demolish the proposition of Stasinos. He shows, therefore, that fear may be where there is no shame; since we may fear the plague, but cannot be ashamed of it. On the other hand, if we be ashamed of an action, we are afraid to be seen committing it; and, therefore, observes the philosopher, we must reverse the poet's saying, and affirm that, "Where there is shame, there, also, there is fear.” This criticism, however, is merely introduced by way of illustration, the object being to show that, although whatever is pious must be just, every thing just is not necessarily pious. From this he concludes that, although the father of Euthyphron might be justly prosecuted, it would yet be contrary to all the laws of piety that he should be prosecuted by his son. Having proceeded thus far, and evidently awakened very serious apprehensions in the mind of the soothsayer, he presses him to develope completely his theory of piety. But the honest man had now begun to turn his eyes inward upon himself, to be troubled at the aspect of his own intentions, to be filled with doubts and misgivings, to distrust even his own lofty pretensions to divine knowledge. For the first time in his life, perhaps, he feels himself humiliated. His self-confidence gives Now the son of Sophroniscos, a sculptor way, and he finds in his own case a verificaby profession, and an able one, too, since the tion of the maxim he had newly learned, that beautiful group of the Graces which adorned where there is shame, there, also, there is the Acropolis was his, being thus descended fear. He is uneasy in the presence of Socfrom the Dædalian family, might, therefore, rates, whose terrible powers of destruction in be supposed to possess the art of giving a matters of opinion he has just witnessed. He, sort of rotundity to his principles, so that therefore, trembles for the safety of all his they would constantly slip away from be- notions; and, lest not one of them should be neath the foot of reasoning. But he very left to him, he suddenly takes to flight, proearnestly, in his discourse with the parricide, mising to renew the investigation at some disclaims this ability, and maintains that he future period, but manifestly with the solemn had rather possess sound and immovable determination to break that promise. As we principles than be master of the wealth of have said, however, the speculative parricide Tantalos. Nevertheless the inclination slays his father only hypothetically. INTERMENT IN TOWNS. From the Athenæum. = A Supplementary Report [to the Sanitary Report] on the Practice of Interment in Towns. By Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Presented to both Houses of Parliament. But on the many sections of this disgusting part of the subject, our readers will not require us again to enter. They were fully considered in our notice of Mr. Walker's book (see Athen. No. 630). Great and painful, however, as are the details of interments, they do not equal those THREE years ago, Mr. Walker, in his of the evils which are occasioned by the deGatherings from Grave-yards,' alarmed and lay of interments. The evil of delay among the shocked every body by his statements of the laboring class perhaps is hardly to be conceivresults of the practice of interring the deaded by the upper and middle classes, whose doamidst the habitations of the living, and the mestic arrangements do not subject them to disclosures made in that work must have pre- the same painful necessities. Numerous pared the public mind for a general consider-afflicting cases are recited in proof of these ation of the whole subject relating to sepul- melancholy though unavoidable circumture. Mr. Chadwick's Report now appears, stances which we have not heart to repeat. and he enters on the inquiry with a compre- But the evil does not stop with the mere hensive grasp, and fairly propounds the ques-sanitary part of the subject. A clergyman tion, whether it is not the business and po- deposeslicy of a government to make the interment "With the upper classes, a corpse excites of the dead an object of national regard, and feelings of awe and respect; with the lower no longer to leave it to individual manage-orders, in these districts, it is often treated with ment. Mr. Chadwick commences his Report by examining the evidence upon which the innocuousness of the emanations from human remains is upheld by some authorities, and he makes out a strong case (indeed we should say, a conclusive one) against the doctrine. He observes, that "Men with shrunken figures and the appearance of premature age, and a peculiar cadaverous aspect, have attended as witnesses to attest their own perfectly sound condition, as evidence of the salubrity of their particular occupations." Some curious evidence on this point is not of an unquotable description:-7 "In the course of some inquiries which I made with Professor Owen, when examining a slaughterman as to the effects of the effluvia of animal remains on himself and family, some other facts were elicited illustrative of the effects of such effluvia on still more delicate life. The man had lived in Bear-yard, near Clare-market, which was exposed to the combined effluvia from a slaughter-house and a tripe factory. He was a bird-fancier, but he found that he could not rear his birds in this place. He had known a bird fresh caught in summer-time die there in a week. He particularly noted, as having a fatal influence on birds, the stench raised by boiling down the fat from the tripe offal. He said, You may hang the cage out of the garret window in any house in Bear-yard, and if it be a fresh bird, it will be dead in a week.' He had previously lived for a time in the same neighborhood in a room over a crowded burial-ground in Portugal-street; at times in the morning he had seen a mist rise from the ground, and the smell was offensive. That place was equally fatal to his birds. He had removed to another dwelling in Vere-street, Clare-market, which is beyond the smells from those particular places, and he was now enabled to keep his birds." as little ceremony as the carcase in a butcher's shop. Nothing can exceed their desire for an imposing funeral; nothing can surpass their efforts to obtain it; but the deceased's remains share none of the reverence which this anxiety for their becoming burial would seem to indicate. The inconsistency is entirely, or at least in great part, to be attributed to a single circumstance that the body is never absent from their sight-eating, drinking, or sleeping, it is still by their side; mixed up with all the ordinary functions of daily life, till it becomes as familiar to them as when it lived and moved short step to desecration. The body, stretched in the family circle. From familiarity it is a out upon two chairs, is pulled about by the children, made to serve as a resting-place for any article that is in the way, and is not seldom the hiding-place for the beer-bottle or the gin if any visitor arrives inopportunely. Viewed as an outrage upon human feeling, this is bad enough; but who does not see that when the respect for the dead, that is, for the human form in its most awful stage, is gone, the whole mass of social sympathies must be weakened-perhaps blighted and destroyed." eration. all classes, are next brought under considThe expenses of funerals, as borne by Perhaps there is no custom in which each class of society aims to follow more scrupulously the examples set by the class above it than in funerals. The array of the most " customary" funeral is strictly the heraldic array of a baronial funeral:— "The two men who stand at the doors being supposed to be the two porters of the castle, with their staves, in black; the man who heads the procession, wearing a scarf, being a representative of a herald-at-arms; the man who carries a plume of feathers on his head being an esquire, who bears the shield and casque, with its plume of feathers; the pall-bearers, with batons, being representatives of knights-com- the different classes of society in proportion to panions at-arms; the men walking with wands the internal and external circumstances of their being supposed to represent gentlemen-ushers, habitations; that the deaths and funerals vary with their wands." What a mockery of solemnity is all this mummery of mutes, heralds, pall-bearers, &c.! When woes are feigned, how ill such forms appear, 66 It is estimated that the aggregate waste of money on funerals in the metropolis is between £600,000 and £700,000 annually; and the funeral expenses for Great Britain are not less than between four and five millions. The estimate for the funeral of a poor man's burial is about £5, for that of a person of moderate respectability" from £60 to £100, both cases being, in the opinion of a large undertaker, susceptible of being reduced by 50 per cent. One of the strongest feelings among the laboring classes is the desire for respectful interment; whilst they will give nothing to educate their children, or for their own relief in sickness, they will subscribe for their burial: "In the town of Preston nearly 30,000 per sons, men, women, and children, are associated in six large societies for the purpose of burial; the chief of these clubs comprehends 15, 164 members, and has since its commencement expended upwards of £1,000 per annum, raised in weekly contributions, from a halfpenny and a penny to three-halfpence and two-pence per week." in the metropolis from 1 in every 30 of the population annually (and even more in ill-conditioned districts), to I in 56 in better-conditioned districts; from 1 death and funeral in every 28 inhabitants in an ill-conditioned provincial town district, to 1 in 64 in a better-conditioned rural district: such differences of the condition of the population being accompanied by still closer coincidences in the variation of the span of life; the average age of all who die in some ill-conditioned districts of the metropolis being 29 years only, whilst in better-conditioned districts it is 36 years; the variations of the age of deaths being in some provincial towns, such as Leicester, from 15 years in the ill-conditioned, to 24 years in the better-conditioned districts; and as between town and rural districts 17 or 18 years for the whole population of Liverpool, and 39 and the total excess of deaths and funerals in years for the whole population of Hereford: England and Wales alone, above the commonly attained standards of health, being at the least between thirty and forty thousand annually." We shall glance at the remedies suggested, first noticing the practice in some other cities, the state has undertaken the regulaparts of Europe. In most of the German tion of interments; on the occurrence of a death, immediate notice is given to the authorities, who, if they see fit, cause the body to be removed to a house of reception, where it is submitted to proper medical examination -an arrangement which precludes the possibility of treating any one as dead who is not actually so, prevents the spread of infectious diseases, and reveals murders. At the receiving house at Frankfort Ön a But these Burial-Clubs must not all be considered as the "arrangements of the poor people themselves; they are evidence only of the intensity of their feelings on the subject, of their ignorance, and of their need of in"A private room is appropriated for the reformation and trustworthy guidance." Not ception of each corpse, where regular warmth a few of them are the joint speculations of and due ventilation and light, night and day, the undertaker and the publican, who is are maintained. Here it may be visited by the generally the treasurer, and either lends the relations or friends properly entitled. funds of the club to his brewer, or employs to which is the end of a string of a bell, which finger of each corpse is placed a ring, attached them as capital for himself. The premiums on the slightest motion will give an alarm to received are excessive; where an ordinary one of the watchmen in nightly and daily atinsurance office would be content to take a tendance, by whom the resident physician will risk at 3s. 9d., one burial-club charges 7s. be called. Each body is daily inspected by the 10d., and another 11s. 5d. Drunkenness is one of the least vices fostered by these clubs, and infanticide is known to have resulted from them. The cost of a child's funeral varies from 20s. to 30s., whilst many of the clubs pay from £3 to £5 on the death of a child. We shall not pursue farther an examination into the details of the evils which attend the present customs of interring the dead, but shall give some general results: "That the numbers of funerals, and intensity of the misery attendant upon them, vary amongst responsible physician, by whom a certificate of unequivocal symptoms of death must be given before any interment is allowed to take place." As a general rule the use of the receptionhouse is voluntary, but in cases of infection, the medical police may procure an order from the municipal authorities for the removal of the body. We have already a sort of half-recognized functionary among ourselves, called a "searcher." This office, generally executed by some poor old woman, possibly took its rise from the orders of the Privy Council is |