In the time of Socrates, among men only of worn out instincts, old conservative Athenians who let themselves go for the sake of happiness, as they said, for the sake of pleasure, as their conduct indicated and who had continually on their lips the old pompous words to which they had long forfeited the right by the life they led, was perhaps necessary for greatness of soul, the wicked Socratic assurance of the old physician and plebeian, who cut ruthlessly into his own flesh, as into the flesh and heart of the noble, with a look that said plainly enough Do not dissemble before me!