Read Apology By Plato Online

13/66 


the dead are gathered together, and in which there may be a hope 
of seeing the heroes of old— in which, too, there are just judges; 
and as all are immortal, there can be no fear of any one suffering 
death for his opinions. 

Nothing evil can happen to the good man either in life or death, 
and his own death has been permitted by the gods, because it was 
better for him to depart; and therefore he forgives his judges be- 
cause they have done him no harm, although they never meant to 
do him any good. 

He has a last request to make to them— that they will trouble his 
sons as he has troubled them, if they appear to prefer riches to vir- 
tue, or to think themselves something when they are nothing. 


'Few persons will be found to wish that Socrates should have de- 
fended himself otherwise,'— if, as we must add, his defence was 
that with which Plato has provided him. But leaving this question, 
which does not admit of a precise solution, we may go on to ask 
what was the impression which Plato in the Apology intended to 
give of the character and conduct of his master in the last great 
scene? Did he intend to represent him (l) as employing sophistries; 
( 2 ) as designedly irritating the judges? Or are these sophistries to 
be regarded as belonging to the age in which he lived and to his 
personal character, and this apparent haughtiness as flowing from 
the natural elevation of his position? 

For example, when he says that it is absurd to suppose that one 
man is the corrupter and all the rest of the world the improvers of 
the youth; or, when he argues that he never could have corrupted 
the men with whom he had to live; or, when he proves his belief in 
the gods because he believes in the sons of gods, is he serious or 
jesting? It may be observed that these sophisms all occur in his 
cross-examination of Meletus, who is easily foiled and mastered in