—for the purpose of distinguishing the true philosophers from the false. They are authorised to bestow an olive-crown on any thinker who deserves it; while those who fail to pass the scrutiny of Elenchos are to be branded in the forehead with the stamp of a fox or an ape. As they are setting out on this errand Parrhesiades remarks to his companion, "Wherever we go, we shall not need many olive wreaths; but we shall require plenty of branding irons."
Of all the philosophical sects the Cynics are the objects of Lucian's greatest aversion. He is also severe on the Stoics, whose methods of reasoning are satirised in the Auction of Lives. There are fewer hints of his positive preferences; but it may be said that there are two thinkers for whom, on different grounds, he felt a genuine admiration. In the Fisherman (22) he pays Chrysippus an unwonted compliment by making him the mouthpiece of his own feeling for the literary genius of Plato. In Plato, it is there said, we find a wonderful greatness of thought, a beauty of language which is typically Attic, a charm of style which is singularly persuasive, in alliance with insight, precision, and the faculty of clinching an argument at the right moment. But while Lucian thus appreciated Plato as a consummate artist, as a brilliant master of dialectical fence, and as a comrade in the war upon sophistry, there is another whom he ranks even higher. His fullest sympathy is given to Epicurus. That teacher's writings, he says, have virtue to free the soul from
