Speaker 1: Part two of the Apology of Socrates by Plato, translated
Speaker 1: by Benjamin Jowett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Speaker 1: Part two strange, indeed would be my conduct domen of Athens,
Speaker 1: if I, who, when I was ordered by the generals
Speaker 1: whom you chose to command me at potidier, Amphipolis and Delium,
Speaker 1: remained where they placed me like any other man facing death.
Speaker 1: If now, when as I conceive and imagine, God orders
Speaker 1: me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself
Speaker 1: and other men, I were to desert my post through
Speaker 1: fear of death or any other fear, that would indeed
Speaker 1: be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court
Speaker 1: for denying the existence of the gods if I disobeyed
Speaker 1: the oracle because I was afraid of death, fancying that
Speaker 1: I was wise when I was not wise. For the
Speaker 1: fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and
Speaker 1: not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown.
Speaker 1: And no one knows whether death, which men in their
Speaker 1: fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be
Speaker 1: the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort,
Speaker 1: the ignorance, which is the conceit that a man knows
Speaker 1: what he does not know. And in this respect only
Speaker 1: I believe myself to differ from men in general, and
Speaker 1: may perhaps claim to be wiser than they are. That,
Speaker 1: whereas I know but little of the world below, I
Speaker 1: do not suppose that I know. But I do know
Speaker 1: that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man,
Speaker 1: is evil and dishonorable. And I will never fear or
Speaker 1: avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil. And therefore,
Speaker 1: if you will let me go now, and are not
Speaker 1: convinced by Annis who said that since I had been prosecuted,
Speaker 1: I must be put to death, or if not, that
Speaker 1: I ought never to have been prosecuted at all, and
Speaker 1: that if I escape now, your sons will all be
Speaker 1: utterly ruined by listening to my words. If you say
Speaker 1: to me, Socrates, this time we will not mind aneitis,
Speaker 1: and you shall be let off, but upon one condition
Speaker 1: that you are not to inquire and speculate in this
Speaker 1: way any more, and that if you are caught doing
Speaker 1: so again, you shall die. If this was the condition
Speaker 1: on which you let me go, I should reply men
Speaker 1: of Athens. I honor and love you, and I shall
Speaker 1: obey God rather than you. And while I have life
Speaker 1: and strength, I shall never cease from the practice and
Speaker 1: teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one whom I meet, and
Speaker 1: saying to him, after my manner, you are my friend,
Speaker 1: a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city
Speaker 1: of Athens. Are you not ashamed of heaping up the
Speaker 1: greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and carrying
Speaker 1: so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement
Speaker 1: of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all.
Speaker 1: And if the person with whom I am arguing says, yes,
Speaker 1: but I do care, then I do not leave him
Speaker 1: or let him go at once. But I proceed to
Speaker 1: interrogate and examine and cross examine him. And if I
Speaker 1: think that he has no virtue in him, but only
Speaker 1: says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the
Speaker 1: greater and overvaluing the less. And I shall repeat the
Speaker 1: same words to every one whom I meet, young and old,
Speaker 1: citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as
Speaker 1: they are my brethren. For know that this is the
Speaker 1: command of God, and I believe that no greater good
Speaker 1: has ever happened in the state than my service to
Speaker 1: the God. For I do nothing but go about persuading you,
Speaker 1: all old and young alike, not to take thought for
Speaker 1: your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly, to
Speaker 1: care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell
Speaker 1: you that virtue is not given by money, but that
Speaker 1: from virtue comes money and every other good of man,
Speaker 1: public as well as private. This is my teaching. And
Speaker 1: if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I
Speaker 1: am a mischievous person. But if anyone says that this
Speaker 1: is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth. Wherefore, o,
Speaker 1: men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anitis bids,
Speaker 1: or not as Anitis bids, and either acquit me or not.
Speaker 1: But whichever you do, understand that I shall never alter
Speaker 1: my ways, not even if I have to die. Many
Speaker 1: times men of Athens do not interrupt, but hear me.
Speaker 1: There was an understanding between us that you should hear
Speaker 1: me to the end. I have something more to say
Speaker 1: at which you may be inclined to cry out. But
Speaker 1: I believe that to hear me will be good for you,
Speaker 1: And therefore I beg that you will not cry out.
Speaker 1: I would have you know that if you kill such
Speaker 1: a one as I am, you will injure yourselves more
Speaker 1: than you will injure me. Nothing will injure me, not melitus,
Speaker 1: nor yet aneitis. They cannot, for a bad man is
Speaker 1: not persuaded to injure a better than himself. I do
Speaker 1: not deny that Annetis may perhaps kill him, or dry
Speaker 1: him into exile, or deprive him of civil rights. And
Speaker 1: he may imagine, and others may imagine, that he is
Speaker 1: inflicting a great injury upon him. But there I do
Speaker 1: not agree. For the evil of doing as he is doing.
Speaker 1: The evil of unjustly taking away the life of another
Speaker 1: is greater far and now, Athenians, I am not going
Speaker 1: to argue for my own sake, as you may think,
Speaker 1: but for yours, that you may not sin against the
Speaker 1: God by condemning me, who am His gift to you.
Speaker 1: For if you kill me, you will not easily find
Speaker 1: a successor to me. Who, if I may use such
Speaker 1: a ludicrous figure of speech, it may sort of gadfly
Speaker 1: given to the state by God God. And the state
Speaker 1: is a great and noble steed who is tardy in
Speaker 1: his motions owing to his very size, and requires to
Speaker 1: be stirred into life. I am that gat fly which
Speaker 1: God has attached to the state, and all day long,
Speaker 1: and in all places, am always fastening upon you, arousing
Speaker 1: and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find
Speaker 1: another like me, and therefore I would advise you to
Speaker 1: spare me. I dare say that you may feel out
Speaker 1: of temper, like a person who has suddenly awakened from sleep,
Speaker 1: and you think that you might easily strike me dead,
Speaker 1: as the Knight dis advises, and then you would sleep
Speaker 1: on for the remainder of your lives, unless God, in
Speaker 1: his care of you, sent you another gatfly. When I
Speaker 1: say that I am given to you by God, the
Speaker 1: proof of my mission is this. If I had been
Speaker 1: like other men, I should not have neglected all my
Speaker 1: own concerns or patiently seen the neglect of them during
Speaker 1: all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to
Speaker 1: you individually like a father or elder brother, exhorting you
Speaker 1: to regard virtue. Such conduct, I say, would be unlike
Speaker 1: human nature. If I had gained anything, or if my
Speaker 1: exhortations had been paid, there would have been some sense
Speaker 1: in my doing so. But now, as you perceive, not
Speaker 1: even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that
Speaker 1: I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one,
Speaker 1: or that they have no witnesses. And I have a
Speaker 1: sufficient witness to the truth of what I say my poverty.
Speaker 1: Some one may wonder why I go about in private
Speaker 1: giving advice and busying myself with the concerns of others,
Speaker 1: but do not venture to come forward in public and
Speaker 1: advise the state. I will tell you why you have
Speaker 1: heard me speak at sundry times and in divers places
Speaker 1: of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and
Speaker 1: is the divinity which Melitus ridicules in the indictment. This sign,
Speaker 1: which is a kind of voice, first began to come
Speaker 1: to me when I was a child. It always forbids,
Speaker 1: but never commands me to do anything which I am
Speaker 1: going to do. This is what deters me from being
Speaker 1: a politician. And rightly as I think, for I am certain,
Speaker 1: o men of Athens, that if I had engaged in politics,
Speaker 1: I should have perished long ago and done no good
Speaker 1: either to you or to myself. And do not be
Speaker 1: offended at my telling you the truth. What the truth
Speaker 1: is that no man who goes to war with you
Speaker 1: or any other multitude, honestly striving against the many lawless
Speaker 1: and unru righteous deeds which are done in a state,
Speaker 1: will save his life. He who would fight for the right,
Speaker 1: if he would live even for a brief space, must
Speaker 1: have a private station, and not a public one. I
Speaker 1: can give you convincing evidence of what I say, not
Speaker 1: words only, but what you value far more actions. Let
Speaker 1: me relate to you a passage of my own life,
Speaker 1: which will prove to you that I should never have
Speaker 1: yielded to injustice from any fear of death, and that
Speaker 1: as I should have refused to yield, I must have
Speaker 1: died at once. I will tell you a tale of
Speaker 1: the courts, not very interesting, perhaps, but nevertheless true. The
Speaker 1: only office of the state which I ever held, o
Speaker 1: men of Athens, was that of senator. The tribe Antiochus,
Speaker 1: which is my tribe, had the presidency at the trial
Speaker 1: of the generals who had not taken up the bodies
Speaker 1: of the slain after the Battle of Argenouse, and you
Speaker 1: proposed to try them in a body contrary to law,
Speaker 1: as you all thought afterwards but at the time I
Speaker 1: was the only one of the pratanas who was opposed
Speaker 1: to the illegality, and I gave my vote against you.
Speaker 1: And when the orators threatened to impeach and arrest me,
Speaker 1: and you called and shouted, I made up my mind
Speaker 1: that I would run the risk having law and justice
Speaker 1: with me, rather than take part in your injustice, because
Speaker 1: I feared imprisonment and death. This happened in the days
Speaker 1: of the democracy. But when the oligarchy of the thirty
Speaker 1: was in power, they sent for me and four others
Speaker 1: into the rotunda and bade us bring Leon the Salomonian
Speaker 1: from Salamis, as they wanted to put him to death.
Speaker 1: This was a specimen of the sort of commands which
Speaker 1: they were always giving with the view of implicating as
Speaker 1: many as possible in their crimes. And then I showed,
Speaker 1: not in word only, but indeed, that if I may
Speaker 1: be allowed to use such an expression, I cared not
Speaker 1: a straw for death, and that my great and only
Speaker 1: care was lest I should do an unrighteous or unholy thing.
Speaker 1: For the strong arm of that oppressive power did not
Speaker 1: frighten me into doing wrong. And when we came out
Speaker 1: of thee Rotunda. The other four went to Sulemnus and
Speaker 1: fetched leon. But I went quietly home, for which I
Speaker 1: might have lost my life, had not the power of
Speaker 1: the thirty shortly afterwards come to an end. And many
Speaker 1: will witness to my words. Now, do you really imagine
Speaker 1: that I could have survived all these years if I
Speaker 1: had led a public life, supposing that, like a good man,
Speaker 1: I had always maintained the right and had made justice
Speaker 1: as I ought the first thing? No, indeed, men of Athens,
Speaker 1: neither I nor any other man. But I have been
Speaker 1: always the same in all my actions, public as well
Speaker 1: as private, And never have I yielded any base compliance
Speaker 1: to those who are slanderously termed my disciples, or to
Speaker 1: any other not that I have any regular disciples. But
Speaker 1: if any one likes to come and hear me while
Speaker 1: I am pursuing my mission, whether he be young or old,
Speaker 1: he is not excluded. Nor do I converse only with
Speaker 1: those who pay me. But any one, whether he be
Speaker 1: rich or poor, may ask and answer me and listen
Speaker 1: to my words. And whether he turns out to be
Speaker 1: a bad man or a good one, neither result can
Speaker 1: be justly imputed to me. For I never taught or
Speaker 1: professed to teach him anything. And if any one says
Speaker 1: that he has ever learned or heard anything from me
Speaker 1: in private, which all the world has not heard, let
Speaker 1: me tell you that he is lying. But I shall
Speaker 1: be asked, why do people delight in continually conversing with you.
Speaker 1: I have told you already, Athenians, the whole truth about
Speaker 1: this matter. They like to hear the cross examination of
Speaker 1: the pretenders to wisdom. There is amusement in it. Now.
Speaker 1: This duty of cross examining other men has been imposed
Speaker 1: upon me by God, and has been signified to me
Speaker 1: by oracles, visions, and in every way in which the
Speaker 1: will of divine power was ever intimated to any one.
Speaker 1: This is true, O Athenians, or if not true, would
Speaker 1: be soon refuted. If I am or have been corrupting
Speaker 1: the youth, those of them who are now grown up
Speaker 1: and have become sensible that I gave them bad advice
Speaker 1: in the days of their youth, should come forward as
Speaker 1: accusers and take their revenge. Or if they do not
Speaker 1: like to come themselves, some of their relatives, fathers, brothers,
Speaker 1: or other kinsmen should say what evil their families have
Speaker 1: suffered in my hands? Now is their time. Many of
Speaker 1: them I see in the court. There is Creto, who
Speaker 1: is of the same age and of the same deem
Speaker 1: with myself. There is Crotobolus, his son, whom I also see.
Speaker 1: Then again there is Licinius of Spetus, who is the
Speaker 1: father of Escanines. He is present. And also there is
Speaker 1: Antophon of Cepheus, who is the father of Epigenius. There
Speaker 1: are the brothers of several who have associated with me.
Speaker 1: There is Nicostratus, the son of Theodotes, and the brother
Speaker 1: of Theodotus. Now Theodotus himself is dead, and therefore he
Speaker 1: any rate will not seek to stop him. There is Farlus,
Speaker 1: the son of Democolus, who had a brother theogz and Adematus,
Speaker 1: the son of Ariston, whose brother Plato is present. And Atrodolus,
Speaker 1: who is the brother of Apollodorus, whom I also see.
Speaker 1: I might mention a great many others, some of whom
Speaker 1: Melitus should have produced as witnesses in the course of
Speaker 1: his speech, and let him still produce them. If he
Speaker 1: has forgotten, I will make way for him, and let
Speaker 1: him say if he has any testimony of the sort
Speaker 1: which he can produce. Nay, Athenians, the very opposite is
Speaker 1: the truth. For all these are ready to witness on
Speaker 1: behalf of the corrupter, of the injurer of their kindred
Speaker 1: as Melitus and Anetas call me not the corrupted youth.
Speaker 1: Only there might have been a motive for that. But
Speaker 1: their uncorrupted elder relatives. Why should they too support me
Speaker 1: with their tests stimony? Why indeed, except for the sake
Speaker 1: of truth and justice, and because they know that I
Speaker 1: am speaking the truth, and that Melitus is a liar. Well, Athenians,
Speaker 1: This and the like of this is all the defense
Speaker 1: which I have to offer. Yet a word more. Perhaps
Speaker 1: there may be some one who is offended at me
Speaker 1: when he calls to mind how he himself, on a
Speaker 1: similar or even a less serious occasion, prayed and entreated
Speaker 1: the judges with many tears, and how he produced his
Speaker 1: children in court, which was a moving spectacle, together with
Speaker 1: a host of relations and friends. Whereas I, who am
Speaker 1: probably in danger of my life, will do none of
Speaker 1: these things. The contrast may occur to his mind that
Speaker 1: he may be set against me and vote in anger
Speaker 1: because he is displeased at me on this account. Now,
Speaker 1: if there be such a person, among you. Mind, I
Speaker 1: do not say that there is to him. I may
Speaker 1: fairly reply, my friend, I am a man, and like
Speaker 1: other men, a creature of flesh and blood, and not
Speaker 1: of wood or stone, as Homer says. And I have
Speaker 1: a family, yes, and sons Athenians three in number one
Speaker 1: almost a man, and two others who are still young.
Speaker 1: And yet I will not bring any of them hither
Speaker 1: in order to petition you for an acquittal. And why
Speaker 1: not not from any self assertion or want of respect
Speaker 1: for you. Whether I am or am not afraid of
Speaker 1: death is another question of which I will not now speak.
Speaker 1: But having regard to public opinion, I feel that such
Speaker 1: conduct would be discreditable to myself and to you, and
Speaker 1: to the whole state. One who has reached my years,
Speaker 1: and who has a name for wisdom ought not to
Speaker 1: demean himself, whether this opinion of me be deserved or not.
Speaker 1: At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is
Speaker 1: in some way superior to other men. And if those
Speaker 1: among you who are said to be superior in wisdom
Speaker 1: and courage and any other virtue to mean themselves in
Speaker 1: this way, how shameful is their conduct. I have seen
Speaker 1: men of reputation. When they have been condemned behaving in
Speaker 1: the strangest manner. They seemed to fancy that they were
Speaker 1: going to suffer something dreadful if they died, and that
Speaker 1: they could be immortal if you only allowed them to live.
Speaker 1: I think that such are a dishonor to the state,
Speaker 1: and that any stranger coming in would have said of
Speaker 1: them that the most eminent men of Athens, to whom
Speaker 1: the Athenians themselves give honor and command, are no better
Speaker 1: than women. And I say that these things ought not
Speaker 1: to be done by those of us who have a reputation,
Speaker 1: And if they are done, you ought not to permit them.
Speaker 1: You ought rather to show that you are far more
Speaker 1: disposed to condemn the man who gets up a doleful
Speaker 1: scene and makes the city ridiculous than him who holds
Speaker 1: his peace. But setting aside the question of public opinion,
Speaker 1: there seems to be something wrong in asking a favor
Speaker 1: of a judge and thus procuring an acquittal, instead of
Speaker 1: informing and convincing him. For his duty is not to
Speaker 1: make a present of justice, but to give judgment, and
Speaker 1: he has sworn that he will judge according to the
Speaker 1: laws and not according to his own good pleasure, and
Speaker 1: we ought not to encourage you, nor should you allow
Speaker 1: yourselves to be encouraged in this habit of perjury. There
Speaker 1: can be no piety in that. Do not then require
Speaker 1: me to do what I consider dishonorable and impious and wrong,
Speaker 1: especially now when I am being tried for impiety on
Speaker 1: the indictment of Melitus. For if O Men of Athens,
Speaker 1: by force of persuasion and entreaty, I could overpower your oaths,
Speaker 1: then I should be teaching you to believe that there
Speaker 1: are no gods, and in defending should simply convict myself
Speaker 1: of the charge of not believing in them. But that
Speaker 1: is not so, for I do believe that there are gods,
Speaker 1: and in a sense higher than that in which any
Speaker 1: of my accusers believe in them. And to you and
Speaker 1: to God, I commit my cause to be determined by
Speaker 1: You as is best for you and me. There are
Speaker 1: many reasons why I am not grieved, O Men of Athens,
Speaker 1: at the vote of condemnation. I expected it, and am
Speaker 1: only surprised that the votes are so nearly equal. For
Speaker 1: I had thought that the majority against me would have
Speaker 1: been far larger, but now had thirty votes gone over
Speaker 1: to the other side, I should have been acquitted, And
Speaker 1: I may say, I think that I have escaped Melitus.
Speaker 1: I may say more, for without the assistance of Antaeus
Speaker 1: and Lycon, any one may see that he would not
Speaker 1: have had a fifth part of the votes, as the
Speaker 1: law requires, in which case he would have incurred a
Speaker 1: fine of a thousand truckmen. And so he proposes death
Speaker 1: as the penalty. And what shall I propose on my part,
Speaker 1: o men of Athens, clearly that which is my due,
Speaker 1: and what is my due? What return shall be made
Speaker 1: to the man who has never had the wit to
Speaker 1: be idle during his whole life, but has been careless
Speaker 1: of what the many care for wealth and family interests,
Speaker 1: and military offices, and speaking in the Assembly and magistracies
Speaker 1: and plots and parties, reflecting that I was really too
Speaker 1: honest a man to be a politician and live. I
Speaker 1: did not go where I could do no good to
Speaker 1: you or to myself, but where I could do the
Speaker 1: greatest good privately to every one of you. Thither I
Speaker 1: went and sought to persuade every man among you that
Speaker 1: he must look to himself and seek virtue in wisdom.
Speaker 1: Before he looks to his private interests and look to
Speaker 1: the state, before he looks to the interests of the state,
Speaker 1: And that this should be the ardor which he observes
Speaker 1: in all his actions. What shall be done to such
Speaker 1: an one, doubtless some good thing, O, men of Athens,
Speaker 1: if he has his reward, and the good should be
Speaker 1: of a kind suitable to him. What would be a
Speaker 1: reward suitable to a poor man who is your benefactor,
Speaker 1: and who desires leisure that he may instruct you? There
Speaker 1: can be no reward so fitting as maintenance in the Britaneum,
Speaker 1: O man of Aathans, a reward which he deserves far
Speaker 1: more than the citizen who has won the prize at
Speaker 1: Olympia in the horse or chariot race, whether the chariots
Speaker 1: were drawn by two horses or by many. For I
Speaker 1: am in want, and he has enough, and he only
Speaker 1: gives you the appearance of happiness, and I give you
Speaker 1: the reality. And if I am to estimate the penalty fairly,
Speaker 1: I should say that maintenance in the Britoneum is the
Speaker 1: just return. Perhaps you think that I am braving you
Speaker 1: in what I am saying now, as in what I
Speaker 1: said before about the tears and prayers. But this is
Speaker 1: not so. I speak rather because I am convinced that
Speaker 1: I never intentionally wronged any one, although I cannot convince
Speaker 1: you that time has been too short. If there had
Speaker 1: been a law at Athens, as there is in other cities,
Speaker 1: that a capital cause should not be decided in one day,
Speaker 1: then I believe that I should have convinced you. But
Speaker 1: I cannot in a moment refute great slanders. And as
Speaker 1: I am convinced that I never wronged another, I will
Speaker 1: assuredly not wrong myself. I will not say of myself
Speaker 1: that I deserve any evil or propose any penalty. Why
Speaker 1: should I? Because I am afraid of the penalty of death,
Speaker 1: which Malitius proposes. When I do not know whether death
Speaker 1: is a good or an evil, why should I propose
Speaker 1: a penalty which would certainly be an evil? Shall I
Speaker 1: say imprisonment? And why should I live in prison and
Speaker 1: be the slave of the magistrates of the year of
Speaker 1: the eleven? Or shall the penalty be a fine and
Speaker 1: imprisonment until the fine is paid? There is the same
Speaker 1: objection I should have to lie in prison for money
Speaker 1: I have none and cannot pay. And if I say exile,
Speaker 1: and this may possibly be the penalty which you will have.
Speaker 1: I must, indeed be blinded by the love of life,
Speaker 1: if I am so irrational as to expect that, when you,
Speaker 1: who are my own citizens, cannot endure my disclosures in words,
Speaker 1: and have found them so grievous and odious that you
Speaker 1: will have no more of them, others are likely to
Speaker 1: endure me No, indeed, men of Athens, that is not
Speaker 1: very likely. And what a life should I lead at
Speaker 1: my age, wandering from city to city, ever changing my
Speaker 1: place of exile, and always being driven out? For I
Speaker 1: am quite sure that wherever I go there as here,
Speaker 1: the young men will flock to me, And if I
Speaker 1: drive them away, their elders will drive me out at
Speaker 1: their request, And if I let them come, their fathers
Speaker 1: and friends will drive me out for their sakes. Someone
Speaker 1: will say, yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue?
Speaker 1: And then you may go into a foreign city and
Speaker 1: no one will interfere with you. Now I have great
Speaker 1: difficulty in making you understand my answer to this, For
Speaker 1: if I tell you that to do as you say
Speaker 1: would be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that
Speaker 1: I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that
Speaker 1: I am serious. And if I say again that daily
Speaker 1: to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about
Speaker 1: which you hear me, examining myself and others is the
Speaker 1: greatest good of man, and that the unexamined the life
Speaker 1: is not worth living, you are still less likely to
Speaker 1: believe me. Yet I say what is true, although a
Speaker 1: thing of which it is hard for me to persuade you. Also,
Speaker 1: I have never been accustomed to think that I deserve
Speaker 1: to suffer any harm. Had I money, I might have
Speaker 1: estimated the offense at what I was able to pay
Speaker 1: and not have been much the worse. But I have none,
Speaker 1: and therefore I must ask you to proportion the fine
Speaker 1: to my means. Well, perhaps I could afford a mina.
Speaker 1: And therefore I propose that penalty. Plato, Creto, Critobolus, and Apollodorus,
Speaker 1: my friends here bid me say thirty mine, and they
Speaker 1: will be the sureties. Let thirty mine be the penalty,
Speaker 1: for which sum they will be ample security to you.
Speaker 1: Not much time will be gained O Athenians, in return
Speaker 1: for the evil name which you will get from the
Speaker 1: detractors of the city, who will say that you killed
Speaker 1: Socrates a wise man, For they will call me wise,
Speaker 1: even though I am not wise, when they want to
Speaker 1: reproach you. If you had waited a little while, your
Speaker 1: desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature.
Speaker 1: For I am for advanced in years, as you may perceive,
Speaker 1: and not far from death. I am speaking now not
Speaker 1: to all of you, but only to those who have
Speaker 1: condemned me to death, And I have another thing to
Speaker 1: say to them. You think that I was convicted because
Speaker 1: I had no words of the sort which would have
Speaker 1: procured my acquittal. I mean, if I had thought fit
Speaker 1: to leave nothing undone or unsaid. Not so the deficiency
Speaker 1: which led to my conviction was not of words, certainly not.
Speaker 1: But I had not the boldness, or impudence or inclination
Speaker 1: to address you as you would have liked me to do,
Speaker 1: weeping and wailing and lamenting and saying, and doing many
Speaker 1: things which you have been accustomed to hear from others,
Speaker 1: and which, as I maintain, are unworthy of me. I
Speaker 1: thought at the time that I ought not to do
Speaker 1: anything common or mean when in danger. Nor do I
Speaker 1: now repent of the style of my defense. I would
Speaker 1: rather die having spoken after my manner, Then speak in
Speaker 1: your manner and live. For neither in war, nor yet
Speaker 1: at law ought I or any man to use every
Speaker 1: means of escaping death. Often in battle, there can be
Speaker 1: no doubt that if a man will throw away his
Speaker 1: arms and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he
Speaker 1: may escape death. And in other dangers there are other
Speaker 1: ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to
Speaker 1: say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not
Speaker 1: to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness, for that runs
Speaker 1: faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and
Speaker 1: the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are
Speaker 1: keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness,
Speaker 1: has overtaken them. And now I depart, hence condemned by
Speaker 1: you to suffer the penalty of death. They too go
Speaker 1: their wake, condemned by the truth, to suffer the penalty
Speaker 1: of villainy and wrong. And I must abide by my award.
Speaker 1: Let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things
Speaker 1: may be regarded as fated, and I think that they
Speaker 1: are well. And now o men who have condemned me,
Speaker 1: I would fain prophesy to you, for I am about
Speaker 1: to die, and in the hour of death, men are
Speaker 1: gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you, who
Speaker 1: are my murderers, that immediately after my departure, punishment far
Speaker 1: heavier than you have inflicted on me, will surely await you. Me.
Speaker 1: You have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser,
Speaker 1: and not to give an account of your lives. But
Speaker 1: that will not be as you suppose. Far otherwise, for
Speaker 1: I say that there will be more accusers of you
Speaker 1: than there are now, accusers whom hitherto I have restrained,
Speaker 1: And as they are younger, they will be more inconsiderate
Speaker 1: with you, and you will be more offended at them.
Speaker 1: If you think that by killing men you can prevent
Speaker 1: some one from censoring your evil lives, you are mistaken.
Speaker 1: That is not a way of escape which is either
Speaker 1: possible or honorable. The easiest and the noblest way is
Speaker 1: not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves.
Speaker 1: This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure
Speaker 1: to the judges who have condemned me, friends who would
Speaker 1: have acquitted me. I would also like to talk with
Speaker 1: you about the thing which has come to pass. While
Speaker 1: the magistrates are busy, and before I go to the
Speaker 1: place at which I must die, stay then a little,
Speaker 1: for we may as well talk with one another while
Speaker 1: there is time. You are my friends, and I should
Speaker 1: like to show you the meaning of this event which
Speaker 1: has happened to me, Oh, my judges, for you I
Speaker 1: may truly call judges. I should like to tell you
Speaker 1: of a wonderful circumstance. Hitherto the divine faculty of which
Speaker 1: the internal Oracle is the source, has constantly been in
Speaker 1: the habit of opposing me, even about trifles, if I
Speaker 1: was going to make a slip or error in any matter.
Speaker 1: And now, as you see, there has come upon me
Speaker 1: that which may be thought and is generally believed to
Speaker 1: be the last and worst evil. But the Oracle made
Speaker 1: no sign of opposition, either when I was leaving my
Speaker 1: house in the morning, or when I was on my
Speaker 1: way to the court, or while I was speaking at
Speaker 1: anything which I was going to say. And yet I
Speaker 1: have often been stopped in the middle of a speech.
Speaker 1: But now in nothing I either said or did, touching
Speaker 1: the matter in hand, has the Oracle opposed me. What
Speaker 1: do I take to be the explanation of this silence,
Speaker 1: I will tell you it is an intimation that what
Speaker 1: has happened to me is a good, and that those
Speaker 1: who think that death is an evil are in error,
Speaker 1: for the customary sign would surely have opposed be had
Speaker 1: I been going to evil and not to good. Let
Speaker 1: us reflect in another way, and we shall see that
Speaker 1: there is great reason to hope that death is a good,
Speaker 1: for one of two things. Either death is a state
Speaker 1: of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or as men say, there
Speaker 1: is a change and migration of the soul from this
Speaker 1: world to another. Now, if you suppose that there is
Speaker 1: no consciousness but a sleep, like the sleep of him
Speaker 1: who is undisturbed even by dreams, death will be an
Speaker 1: unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the
Speaker 1: night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams,
Speaker 1: and were to compare with this the other days knights
Speaker 1: of his life, and then were to tell us how
Speaker 1: many days and nights he had passed in the course
Speaker 1: of his life better or more pleasantly than this one.
Speaker 1: I think that any man, I will not say a
Speaker 1: private man, but even the great King will not find
Speaker 1: many such days or nights when compared with the others. Now,
Speaker 1: if death be of such a nature, I say that
Speaker 1: to die is gain, for eternity is then only a
Speaker 1: single night. But if death is the journey to another place,
Speaker 1: and there, as men say, all the dead abide, what
Speaker 1: good O, my friends and judges, can be greater than this?
Speaker 1: If indeed, when the pilgrim arrives in the world below,
Speaker 1: he is delivered from the professors of justice in this
Speaker 1: world and finds the true judges who are said to
Speaker 1: give judgment there Minos and Rhondamanthus and Aecus and Triptolemos
Speaker 1: and other sons of God who were righteous in their
Speaker 1: own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would
Speaker 1: not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus
Speaker 1: and Musay and hessaw It in Homer. Nay, if this
Speaker 1: be true, let me die again and again, I myself
Speaker 1: too shall have a wonderful interest in their meeting and
Speaker 1: conversing with Polamides and Ajax, the son of Telamon, and
Speaker 1: any other ancient hero who has suffered death through an
Speaker 1: unjust judgment. And there will be no small pleasure, as
Speaker 1: I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs above all.
Speaker 1: I shall then be able to continue my search into
Speaker 1: true and false knowledge, as in this world and also
Speaker 1: in the next, and I shall find out who is
Speaker 1: wise and who pretends to be wise and is not.
Speaker 1: What would not a man give, O judges to be
Speaker 1: able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition,
Speaker 1: our Odysseus Ocyphisus are numberless others men and women too,
Speaker 1: What infinite the light would there be in conversing with
Speaker 1: them and asking them questions? In another world? They do
Speaker 1: not put a man to death for asking questions, assuredly
Speaker 1: not far. Besides being happier than we are, they will
Speaker 1: be immortal if what is said is true. Wherefore, O
Speaker 1: judges be of good cheer about death, and know of
Speaker 1: a certainty that no evil can happen to a good man,
Speaker 1: either in life or after death. He and his are
Speaker 1: not neglected by the gods. Nor has my own approaching
Speaker 1: end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that
Speaker 1: the time has arrived when it was better for me
Speaker 1: to die and be released from trouble. Wherefore the oracle
Speaker 1: gave no sign, for which reason. Also I am not
Speaker 1: angry with my condemners or with my accusers. They have
Speaker 1: done me no harm, although they did not mean to
Speaker 1: do me any good, And for this I may gently
Speaker 1: blame them. Still I have a favor to ask them.
Speaker 1: When my sons are grown up, I would ask you,
Speaker 1: o my friends, to punish them, and I would have
Speaker 1: you trouble them as I have troubled you. If they
Speaker 1: seem to care about riches or anything more than about virtue,
Speaker 1: or if they pretend to be something when they are
Speaker 1: really nothing, then reprove them as I have reproved you,
Speaker 1: for not caring about that for which they ought to care,
Speaker 1: and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing.
Speaker 1: And if you do this, both I and my sons
Speaker 1: will have received justice at your hands. The hour of
Speaker 1: departure has arrived, and we go our ways. I to
Speaker 1: die and you to live. Which is better? God only knows.
Speaker 1: End of Apology by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, recorded
Speaker 1: by Phil Schinnever