ABSTRACT
It is only gradually we can unfold the features of Socrates' spiritual and intellectual greatness. We turn to ask what manner of man he was in looks. It must be confessed that Socrates was ugly in appearance. We can well believe that the spirit within must often have flooded the repellent physiognomy of Socrates with the rapt fire of an unearthly enthusiasm and the subduing grace of an intense human interest. In the last named Socrates is staged as a jolly, good-natured fellow, singing the praises of his own homely features among his boon companions. However formidable and majestic, Socrates, with all his eccentricity, may have appeared to the man in the street, yet, in congenial company at least, he could coin a joke at himself. Aristoxenos, a pupil of Aristotle, tells of having heard his father, Spintharus, who came into personal contact with Socrates, say that his temper sometimes betrayed him into great improprieties of speech and demeanour.
