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SCIENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE. 199was necessary for the preservation of his code of laws; andit was not less natural that his younger friends should inturn deliver to theirs the principles of that venerable sage.But the words of the biographer himself show clearly enough,that no methodical instruction was given ;but principles ofpractical wisdom, consisting in maxims for the conductingof public affairs, and drawn from experience ; maxims ofwhich the few remaining poetical fragments of the lawgivercontain so valuable a store.From this practical direction, the Grecian philosophersafter the times of Pythagoras entirely withdrew ;and devoted themselves altogether to metaphysical speculations.They were employed in inquiries respecting the elements,and the nature of things; and came necessarily upon thequestion, which has so often been repeated, and which nevercan be answered, respecting the truth or falsehood of theperceptions of our senses. We know with what zeal thesewere made in the Eleatic school Theyinquiries employedin a great measure Xenophanes, Parmenides, Heraclitus,Empedocles, and others. If therefore we read of individualsamong these men, that they attained to political eminence, 1their philosophy was connected with their political stationonly so far as they thus became conspicuous and; becausewise men were selected for counsellors. In one point anearer relation existed between their^philosophy and thestate ;we mean in their diminishing or attempting to diminish the respect for the popular religion.In a countrywhere the religion was a poetical one, and where philosophy had Jbecome entirely distinct from religion, the spirit offree, unlimited speculation, on its awakening, could not butscrutinize the popular faith, and soon detect its weaknesses.This we hear was done by Xenophanes, who with equalboldness used bitter expressions respecting the gods, and theepic poets who have invented about the gods such indecentfables. 2 This contradiction between philosophy and thepopular religion, is on the one side the most certain proof ofthe independence of the former ; but it was also the point, inwhich the state and philosophy came in contact, not without1As Empedocles in Agrigentum? who is said to have refused the diadem,and confirmed the liberties of the people, Diog.-Laert Tin.2Diog. Laertix.ila9