ployed his whole genius and capacity to depreciate the | him. The artifice was indeed deep and well planned. best and most excellent man that ever the pagan word produced.

These were the first blows struck at him, and served as an essay and trial of the great affair meditated against him. It lay dormant a long while, and did not break out until twenty years afterwards. The troubles of the republic might well occasion that long delay. For it was in that interval that the enterprise against Sicily happened, the event of which was so unfortunate, that Athens was besieged and taken by Lysander, who changed its form of government and established the thirty tyrants, who were not expelled till a very short time before the affair we speak of.

In bringing a man upon the stage, he is only represented by his bad, weak, or equivocal qualities. That He composed a piece called The Clouds, wherein view of him is followed with ridicule: ridicule accushe introduces the philosopher perched in a basket, and toms people to the contempt of his person, and conhoisted up amidst the air and clouds, from whence he tempt proceeds to injustice. For the world are delivers maxims, or rather the most ridiculous subtil-naturally emboldened in insulting, abusing, and inties. A very aged debtor, who desires to escape the juring a man, when once he becomes the object of close pursuit of his creditors, comes to him to be taught general contempt. the art of tricking them at law; to prove by unanswerable reasons that he owes them nothing; and, in a word, of a very bad, to make a very good, cause. But finding himself incapable of any improvement from the sublime lessons of his new master, he brings his son to him in his stead. This young man soon after quits this learned school so well instructed, that at their first meeting he beats his father, and proves to him by subtile but invincible arguments, that he has reason for treating him in that manner. In every scene where Socrates appears, the poet makes him utter a thousand impertinences, and as many impieties against the gods, and in particular against Jupiter. Melitus then appeared as accuser, He makes him talk like a man of the greatest vanity and entered a process in form against and highest opinion of himself, with an equal contempt Socrates. His accusation consisted Ant. J. C. 401. for all others, who out of a criminal curiosity is desir- of two heads. The first was, that ous of penetrating into what passes in the heavens, he did not admit the gods acknowledged by the reand of diving into the abysses of the earth; who boasts public, and introduced new divinities: the second, that of having always the means of making injustice tri-he corrupted the youth of Athens; and concluded with umph; and who is not contented with keeping those se- inferring that sentence of death ought to pass against crets for his own use, but teaches them to others, and him. thereby corrupts youth. All this is attended with a refined raillery and wit, that could not fail of highly pleasing a people of so quick and delicate a taste as the Athenians, who were besides naturally jealous of all transcendent merit. They were so much charmed with it, that without waiting the conclusion of the representation, they ordered the name of Aristophanes to be set down above all his competitors.

Socrates, who had been informed that he was to be brought upon the stage, went that day to the theatre to see the comedy, contrary to his custom; for it was not common for him to go to those assemblies, unless when some new tragedy of Euripides was to be performed, who was his intimate friend, and whose pieces he esteemed upon account of the solid principles of morality he took care to intersperse in them. It has, however, been observed, that he once had not patience to wait the conclusion of one of them, wherein the actor had advanced a dangerous maxim, but went out immediately, without considering the injury which his withdrawing might do to his friend's reputation. He never went to comedies, unless that Alcibiades and Critias forced him thither against his will; as he was offended at the unbounded licentiousness which reigned in them, and could not endure to see the reputation of his fellow-citizens publicly torn in pieces. He was present at this without the least emotion, and without expressing any discontent: and some strangers being anxious to know who the Socrates intended by the play was, he rose up from his seat, and showed himself during the whole representation. He told those who were near him,' and were amazed at his indifference and patience, that he imagined himself at a great entertainment, where he was agreeably laughed at, and that it was necessary to be able to bear a joke.

There is no probability, as I have already observed, that Aristophanes, though he was not Socrates's friend, had entered into the black conspiracy of his enemies, and had any thought of occasioning his destruction. It is more probable, that a poet who diverted the public at the expense of the principal magistrates and most celebrated generals, was also willing to make them laugh at the expense of a philosopher. All the guilt was on the side of those who envied him, and his enemies, who were in hopes of making great use of the representation of this comedy against

A Plut. de educ, liber. p. 10.

A. M. 3603.

He

Never had accusation so little foundation, or even probability and pretext, as this. Socrates for forty years had made it his profession to instruct the Athenian youth. He had advanced no opinions in secret and in the dark. His lessons were given publicly, and in the view of great numbers of auditors. had always observed the same conduct, and taught the same principles. What then could be Melitus's motive for this accusation after such a length of time? How came his zeal for the public good, after having been languid and drowsy for so many years, to awake on a sudden and become so violent? Is it pardonable in so zealous and worthy a citizen as Melitus would wish to appear, to have continued mute and inactive, whilst a person was corrupting the whole youth of that city, by instilling seditious maxims into them, and inspiring them with a disgust and contempt for the established governments? For he who does not prevent an evil when it is in his power, is equally criminal with him that commits it. These are the expressions of Libanius in a declamation of his called the Apology of Socrates. But, continues he, allowing that Melitus, whether through forgetfulness, indifference, or real and serious engagements, never thought for so many years of entering an accusation against Socrates; how came it to pass, that in a city like Athens, which abounded with wise magistrates, and, what is more, with bold informers, so public a conspiracy as that imputed to Socrates should have escaped the eyes of those whom either the love of their country or invidious malignity rendered so vigilant and attentive? Nothing was ever less credible, or more void of all probability.

As soon as the conspiracy broke out,3 the friends of Socrates prepared for his defence. Lysias, the most able orator of his time, brought him an elaborate discourse of his composing, wherein he had set forth the reasons and measures of Socrates in their fullest light, and interspersed the whole with tender and pathetic strokes, capable of moving the most obdurate hearts. Socrates read it with pleasure, and approved it very much; but as it was more conformable to the rules of rhetoric than the sentiments and fortitude of a philosopher, he told him frankly that it did not suit him. Upon which Lysias, having asked how it was possible

2 Liban, in Apolog. Socrat. p. 645-648.
Cicer. 1. i, de Orat, n. 231–233.
Quint. 1. xi, c. 1.

1

This concluded with recommending to the judges to be very much upon their guard against the dazzling eloquence of Socrates, and to suspect extremely the insinuating and artificial turns of address which he would employ to deceive them.

to be well done, and at the same time not suit him :- ing to children that they may treat their parents ill with In the same manner, said he, using, according to his impunity. He glories in a pretended oracle, and becustom, a vulgar comparison, that an excellent work-lieves himself the wisest of mankind. He taxes all man might bring me magnificent apparel, or shoes others with folly, and condemns without reserve all embroidered with gold, to which nothing would be their maxims and actions; constituting himself by his wanting on his part, but which, however, would not own authority the general censor and reformer of the fit me. He persisted therefore inflexible in the reso- state. Notwithstanding which, the effects of his leslution he had formed, not to demean himself by beg- sons may be seen in the persons of Critias and Alcibiging suffrages in the low abject manner common at ades, his most intimate friends, who have done great that time. He employed neither artifice nor the glit- mischiefs to their country, and have been the most ter of eloquence: he had no recourse either to solici- wicked of citizens and the most abandoned of men. tation or entreaty: he brought neither his wife nor children to incline the judges in his favour by their sighs and tears. Nevertheless, though he firmly refused to make use of any voice but his own in his defence, and to appear before his judges in the submissive posture of a suppliant, he did not behave in that manner out of pride, or contempt of the tribunal: it was from a noble and intrepid assurance, resulting from greatness of soul, and the usual attendant upon consciousness of truth and innocence. So that his defence had nothing timorous or weak in it. His discourse was bold, manly, generous, without passion, without emotion, full of the noble liberty of a philosopher, with no other ornament than that of truth, and displaying throughout the character and language of innocence. Plato, who was present, transcribed it afterwards, and without any additions composed from it the work which he calls The apology of Socrates, one of the most consummate masterpieces of antiquity. I shall here make an extract from it.

Upon the day assigned, the proceeding commenced in the usual forms; the parties appeared before the judges, and Melitus spoke. The worse his cause, and the less provided it was with proofs, the more occasion he had for address and art to cover its weakness. He omitted nothing that might render the adverse party odious; and instead of reasons, which could not but fail him, he substituted the delusive glitter of a lively and pompous eloquence. Socrates, in observing that he could not tell what impression the discourse of his accusers might make upon the judges, owns, that for his part he scarce knew himself, such an artful colouring and likelihood had they given to their arguments, though there was not the least word of truth in all they had advanced.

I have already said that their accusation consisted of two heads. The first regards religion. Socrates inquires out of an impious curiosity into what passes in the heavens and in the bowels of the earth. He does not acknowledge the gods adored by his country. He endeavours to introduce new deities; and, if he may be believed, an unknown god inspires him in all his actions. To make short, he believes there are no gods.

Socrates began his discourse with this point,5 and declared that he would speak to the judges as it was his custom to talk in his common conversation, that is to say, with much simplicity, and no art. He then proceeds to particulars. Upon what foundation can it be alleged, that he does not acknowledge the gods of the republic; he who has been often seen sacrificing in his own house and in the temples? Can it be doubted whether he uses divination, since it is made a crime in him to report that he received counsels from a certain divinity; and is thence inferred that he aims at introducing new deities? But in this he innovates nothing more than others, who, putting their faith in divination, observe the flight of birds, consult the entrails of victims, and remark even words and accidental encounters-different means which the gods employ to give mankind a foreknowledge of the future. Old or new, it is still evident that Socrates acknowledges divinities, by the confession of even Melitus himself, who in his information avers that Socrates believes dæmons, that is to say, subaltern spirits, the offspring of the gods. Now every man who Believes the offspring of the gods, believes the gods. As to what relates to the impious inquiries into natural things imputed to him;7 without despising or condemning those who apply themselves to the study of physics, he declares that, as for himself, he had entirely devoted himself to what concerns moral virtue, the conduct of life, and the rules of government, as to a knowledge infinitely more useful than any other; and he calls upon all those who have been his hearers, to come forth and convict him of falsehood if he does not say what is true.

"I am accused of corrupting the youth, and of instilling dangerous maxims into them, as well in regard to the worship of the gods as the rules of government. You know, Athenians, that I never made it my profession to teach, nor can envy, however violent against me, reproach me with ever having sold my instrucThe second head relates to the interest and govern- tions. I have an undeniable evidence for me in this ment of the state. Socrates corrupts the youth by respect, which is my poverty. Always equally ready instilling bad sentiments concerning the Divinity into to communicate my thoughts either to the rich or them, by teaching them a contempt of the laws, and poor, and to give them full leisure to question or anthe order established in the republic; by declaring swer me, I lend myself to every one who is desirous openly against the choice of the magistrates by lot; of becoming virtuous: and if amongst those who hear by exclaiming against the public assemblies, where me, there are any that prove either good or bad, neither he is never seen to appear; by teaching the art of the virtues of the one, of which I am not the cause, making the worst of causes good; by attaching the nor the vices of the other, to which I have not contriyouth to himself out of a spirit of pride and ambition, buted, are to be ascribed to me. My whole employunder the pretence of instructing them; and by prov-ment is to persuade the young and old not to enter

tain too much love for the body, for riches, and all His et talibus adductus Socrates, nec patronum quæsivit other precarious things, of whatsoever nature they ad judicium capitis, nec judicibus supplex fuit; adhibuitque be; but to let their principal regard be for the soul, liberam contumaciam à magnitudine animi ductam, non à su- which ought to be the chief object of their affection: perbia. Cic. Tusc. Quæst. I. i. for I incessantly urge to you, that virtue does not proPlat, in Apolog. Socrat. Xenoph. in Apolog. Socrat.ceed from riches, but, on the contrary, riches from et in Memor. Plat. in Apolog. p. 24. Socrates in reality did not approve this manner of elect- virtue; and that all the other goods of human life, as ing the magistrates. He observed, that when a pilot, a muwell public as private, have their source in the same sician, or an architect is wanted, nobody is willing to take him principle. at a venture; though the faults of these people are far from being of such great importance as those errors which are committed in the administration of the republic. Xenoph. Memorab. L. fig. 1. p. 712.

"If to speak in this manner be to corrupt youth, I 6 Plat. p. 17. Plat. p. 27. Xenoph. p. 703.

Xenoph. p. 710,

confess, Athenians, that I am guilty, and deserve to be punished. If what I say be not true, it is most easy to convict me of falsehood. I see here a great number of my disciples; they have only to appear. But perhaps reserve and consideration for a master who has instructed them, will prevent them from declaring against me: at least their fathers, brothers, and uncles cannot, as good relations and good citizens, excuse themselves from standing forth to demand vengeance against the corrupter of their sons, brothers, and nephews. But these are the persons who take upon them my defence, and interest themselves in the success of my cause.

elsewhere, and who inflexibly applies himself to prevent the violation of the laws and the practice of iniquity in a city, will never do so long with impunity. It is absolutely necessary for him who would contend for justice, if he has the slightest wish to live, to remain in a private station, and never to have any share in public affairs.

"For the rest,5 Athenians, if, in the extreme danger in which I now am, I do not imitate the behaviour of those who upon less emergencies have implored and supplicated their judges with tears, and have brought before them their children, relations and friends; it is not through pride and obstinacy, or any contempt for you, but solely for your honour, and for that of the whole city. It is fit that you should know, that there are amongst our citizens, those who do not regard death as an evil, and who give that name only to injustice and infamy. At my age, and with the reputation which I have, whether true or false, would it be consistent for me, after all the lessons I have given upon the contempt of death, to be afraid of it myself, and to belie by my last act all the principles and sentiments of my past life.

"Pass on me what sentence you please, Athenians; but I can neither repent nor change my conduct. I must not abandon nor suspend a function which God himself has imposed on me. Now it is He who has charged me with the care of instructing my fellow citizens. If, after having faithfully kept all the posts wherein I was placed by our generals at Potidea, Amphipolis, and Delium, the fear of death should at this time make me to abandon that in which the Divine Providence has placed me, by commanding me to pass my life in the study of philosophy for the instruction of myself and others; this would be a most criminal desertion indeed, and make me highly worthy of being cited before this tribunal, as an impious man who does not believe the gods. Should you resolve to acquit me, on condition that I keep silence for the future, I should not hesitate to make answer,-Athenians, I honour and love you, but I shall choose rather to obey God than you,2 and to my latest breath shall never renounce philosophy, nor cease to exhort and reprove you according to my custom, by telling each of you when you come in my way, My good friend,3 and citizen of the most famous city in the world for wisdom and valour, are you not ashamed of having no other thoughts than of amassing wealth, and of acquiring glory, credit, and dignis ties, whilst you neglect the treasures of prudence, truth, and wisdom, and take no pains in rendering your soul as good and perfect as it is capable of beers, and thereby induce you to violate your oaths, it ing?'

"But without speaking of my fame, which I should extremely injure by such a conduct, I do not think it allowable to entreat a judge, nor to procure an acquittal by supplications: he ought to be persuaded and convinced. The judge does not sit upon the bench to show favour by violating the laws, but to do justice by conforming to them. He did not take an oath to favour whom he pleases; but to do justice where it is due. We ought not therefore to accustom you to perjury, nor you to suffer yourselves to be accustomed to it; for in so doing, both the one and the other of us equally injure justice and religion, and both become criminal.

"Do not therefore expect from me, Athenians, that I should have recourse amongst you to means which I believe neither honest nor lawful; especially upon this occasion, wherein I am accused of impiety by Melitus. For if I should influence you by my praywould be undeniably evident that I should teach you not to believe in the gods; and even in defending and justifying myself, should furnish my adversaries with arms against me, and prove that I believe in no divinity. But I am very far from such thoughts. I am more convinced of the existence of God than my accusers; and so convinced, that I abandon myself to God and you, that you may judge of me as you shall deem best for yourselves and me."

Socrates pronounced this discourse with a firm and intrepid tone.s His air, his action, his visage, bore no resemblance to that of a person accused: he seemed the master of his judges, from the assurance and greatness of soul with which he spoke, without, however, losing any thing of the modesty natural to him. So noble and majestic a deportment displeased and gave offence. It is common for judges," who look upon themselves as the absolute dispensers of life or death to such as are before them, to expect, out of a secret tendency of mind, that they should appear in presence with humble submission and respectful awe; an homage which they think due to their supreme authority.

"I am reproached with abject fear and meanness of spirit, for being so busy in imparting my advice to every one in private, and yet having always avoided being present in your assemblies, to give my counsels to my country. I thought I had given sufficient proofs of my courage and fortitude, both in the field, where I have borne arms with you, and in the senate, where I alone opposed the unjust sentence you pronounced against the ten captains, who had not taken up and interred the bodies of those who were killed or drowned in the sea-fight near the islands Arginusa; and when, upon more than one occasion, I opposed the violent and cruel orders of the thirty tyrants. What is it then that has prevented me from appearing in your assemblies? It is that Dæmon, Athenians, that voice divine, which you have so often heard me mention, and which Melitus has taken so much pains to ridicule. That spirit has attached itself to me from my infancy it is a voice which I never hear, but when it would prevent me from persisting in some-their thing I have resolved, for it never exhorts me to undertake any thing. It is that which has always opposed me when I would have intermeddled in the affairs of the republic; and its opposition was very seasonable; for I should have been amongst the dead long ago, had I been concerned in the measures of the state, without effecting any thing to the advantage of myself or our country. Do not take it ill, I beseech you, if I speak my thoughts without disguise, and with truth and freedom. Every man who would generously oppose a whole people, either amongst us or

1 Plat. p. 28, 29.

* Πείσομαι τῷ θεῷ μᾶλλον ἢ ὑμῖν.

This was what happened now. Melitus, however, had not at first the fifth part of the voices. We have reason to suppose that the judges assembled upon this occasion might amount to five hundred, without reckoning the president. The law condemned the accuser to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas,s if he

Plat. p. 34, 35,

Socrates ita in judicio capitis pro se ipse dixit, ut non supplex aut reus, sed magister aut dominus videretur esse judicum. Cic. 1. i. de Orat, n. 231.

Odit judex ferè litigantis securitatem; cùmque jus

The Greek signifies, O best of men, & åpiore åvòpov, suum intelligat, tacitus reverentiam postulat. Quint. Liv. which was an obliging manner of accosting.

• Plat. p. 31.

P..

c. 1.

About 251.

had not the fifth part of the suffrages. This law had been wisely established to check the boldness and impudence of calumniators. Melitus would have been obliged to pay this fine, if Anytus and Lycon had not joined him, and presented themselves also as the accusers of Socrates. Their influence drew over a great number of voices, and there were two hundred and eighty-one against Socrates, and consequently only two hundred and twenty for him. He wanted no more than thirty-one to have been acquitted, for he would then have had two hundred and fifty-one, which would have been the majority.

2

Apollodorus, who was one of his friends and disci ples, having advanced to him to express his grief for his dying innocent: "What," replied he with a smile, " would you have me die guilty?"

Plutarch, to show that only our weakest part, the body, is in the power of man, but that there is another infinitely more noble part of us entirely superior to their threats, and inaccessible to their attacks, cites these admirable words of Socrates, which are more applicable to his judges than his accusers: Anytus and Melitus may kill me, but they cannot hurt me. As if he had said, in the language of the Pagans: Fortune may deprive me of my goods, my health, and my life; but I have a treasure within me, of which no external violence can deprive me; I mean virtue, innocence, fortitude, and greatness of mind.

SECTION VII.-SOCRATES REFUSES TO ESCAPE OUT

OF PRISON. HE PASSES THE LAST DAY OF HIS LIFE IN
DISCOURSING WITH HIS FRIENDS UPON THE IMMOR-
TALITY OF THE SOUL. HE DRINKS THE POISON.
PUNISHMENT OF HIS ACCUSERS. HONOURS PAID TO
HIS MEMORY.

By this first sentence the judges only declared Socrates guilty, without decreeing against him any penalty. For when the law did not determine the punishment, and when a crime against the state was not in question (in which manner I conceive Cicero's This great man, fully convinced of the princple he expression, fraus capitalis, may be understood,) the had so often inculcated to his disciples-that guilt is person found guilty had a right to choose the penalty the only evil a wise man ought to fear, choose rather he thought he deserved. Upon his answer the judges to be deprived of some years which he might perdeliberated a second time, and afterwards passed haps have to live, than to forfeit in an instant the glory their final sentence. Socrates was informed that he of his whole past life, in dishonouring himself for ever might demand an abatement of the penalty, and by the shameful behaviour he was advised to observe change the condemnation of death into banishment, towards his judges. Seeing that his contemporaries imprisonment, or a fine. He replied generously, that he had but a slight knowledge of him, he referred him would choose neither of those punishments, because self to the judgment of posterity; and, by the genethat would be to acknowledge himself guilty." Athe-rous sacrifice of the remnant of a life already far adnians," said he, "to keep you no longer in suspense, as vanced, acquired and secured to himself the esteem you oblige me to sentence myself according to what I and admiration of all succeeding ages. deserve, I condemn myself, for having passed my life in instructing yourselves and your children; for having neglected with that view my domestic affairs, and all public employments and dignities; for having devoted myself entirely to the service of my country, in labouring incessantly to render my fellow-citizens virtuous; condemn myself, I say, to be maintained in the Prytaneum at the expense of the republic for the rest of my life." This last answer so much offended the judges, that they condemned him to drink hemlock, a punishment very much in use amongst them. This sentence did not shake the constancy of Socrates in the least. "I am going," said he, addressing himself to his judges with a noble tranquillity, "to suffer death by your order, to which nature had condemned me from the first moment of my birth; but my accusers will suffer no less from infamy and injustice by the decrees of truth. Did you expect from me, that to extricate myself out of your hands, I should have employed, according to the custom, flattery and pathetic expressions, and the timorous and grovelling behaviour of a suppliant? But in trials, as well as war, an honest man ought not to use all sorts of means for the preservation of his life. It is equally dishonourable both in the one and in the other, to ransom it only by prayers and tears, and all those other abject methods which you see every day practised by people in my present condition."

The text varies in Plato: it says, thirty-three, or thirty; whence it is probably defective.

AFTER the sentence had been passed upon him, Socrates, with the same intrepid aspect with which he had held the tyrants in awe, went forward towards the prison, which lost that name, says Seneca, when he entered it, and became the residence of virtue and probity. His friends followed him thither, and continued to visit him during thirty days, which passed between his condemnation and death. The cause of that long delay was, the Athenians sent every year a ship to the isle of Delos, to offer certain sacrifices; and it was prohibited to put any person to death in the city, from the time that the priest of Apollo had crowned the poop of this vessel, as a signal of its departure, till the same vessel should return. So that sentence having been passed upon Socrates the day after that ceremony began, it was necessary to defer the execution of it thirty days, during the continuance of this voyage.

In this long interval, death had sufficient opportu nity to present itself before his eyes in all its terrors, and to put his constancy to the proof, not only by the severe rigour of a dungeon, and the irons upon his legs, but by the continual prospect and cruel expectation of an event which nature always abhors. In this sad con* Primis sententiis statuebant tantùm judices, damna-dition he did not cease to enjoy that profound tranrent an absolverent. Erat autem Athenis, reo damnato, si fraus capitalis non esset, quasi pœnæ æstimatio. Ex sententiâ, cùm judicibus daretur, interrogabatur reus, quam quasi æstimationem commeruisse se maximè confiteretur. Cic. I. i. de Orat. n. 231, 232.

It appears in Plato, that after this discourse, Socrates, without doubt to remove from himself an imputation of pride and contumacy, modestly offered to pay a fine proportionate to his indigence, that is to say, one minæ (fifty livres), and that, at the solicitation of his friends, who had bound themselves for him, he rose in his offer to thirty mine. Plat. in Apolog. Socrat. p. 38. But Xenophon positively asserts the contrary, p. 705. This difference may be reconciled, perhaps, by supposing that Socrates refused at first to make any offer, and that he suffered barnself at length to be overcome by the earnest solicitations of his friends.

Cujus responso sic judices exarserunt, ut capitis hominem innocentissimum condemnarent. Cic. l. i. de Orat. n. 233. Plut. p. 39. VOL. 1.-46

quillity of mind which his friends had always admired in him. He conversed with them with the same temper he had always expressed; and Crito observes, that the evening before his death he slept as peaceably as

De anim. tranquil. p. 475.

"Maluit vir sapientissimus quod superesset ex vitâ sibi perire, quàm quod præterisset: et quando ab hominibus sui temporis parùm intelligebatur, posterorum se judiciis reservavit, brevi detrimento jam ultima senectutis ævum seculorum omnium consecutus. Quint. 1. i. c. 1.

• Socrates eodem illo vultu, quo aliquando solus triginta tyrannos in ordinem redegerat, carcerem intravit, ignominiam ipsi loco detracturus. Neque enim poterat carcer videri, in quo Socrates erat. Senec. in Consol. ad Helvet,

Socrates carcerem intrando purgavit, omnique honesti orem curiâ reddidit. Id. de vit, beat. c. xxvii. Plat. in Criton.