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Plato * 8 Dialogues ; the Apology ofSocrtties . 115
what they impute to me ; and you have yourselves seen , in the comedy of Aristophanes , a certain Socrates , who professes to walk the air , with much other trifling , about which I do not understand one jot . And I do not speak in disparagement of such knowledge , if there be any one who is wise in these matters ; but I have no concern with them . And I call most of yourselves to witness , and beg you to inform and to ask each other , ( those of you who have ever heard me converse , ) and there are many of them among you : tell to one another , if any of you has ever heard in my conversation anything , great or small , on such subjects ; and by this you will know , that all the other things which are vulgarly said about rne are of the same value . Again , if you have heard any one say that I undertake to instruct people , and receive money for it , neither is this true . I think it a fine thing , no doubt , if any one is capable of instructing people , as Gorgias of Leontium does , and Pro * dicus of Ceos , and Hippias of Elis . Each of these , going to one city after another , is able to draw round him the young men , who , though they are at liberty to converse gratis with whomsoever they please of their own citizens , are persuaded to quit the society of these , and , resort * ing to the new-comers , converse with them , not only paying them money , but rendering gratitude to them besides . There is now in this
very town a wise man from Paros , whose arrival I happened to hear of ; for I was accidentally in company with a rnan who has paid more money to sophists than all other men put together , Callias , the son of Hipponicus . I said to him , ( for he has two sons , ) O Callias , if you * sons had been colts or steers , we could have found and hired a proper superintendent of their education , who could have formed them to all the good qualities befitting their nature ; but now , since they are men , what superintendent have you in view for them ? Who is there that is knowing in the good qualities of a man and a citizen ? for I suppose that you must have considered the matter , having sons to bring up . Is there such a person , ' said J , ' or not V * There is , ' he answered . ' Who , ' asked I , * and of what country , and for what price does lie teach V ' Euenus of Paros , ' replied he ; * and his price is five minse . ' And I felicitated Euenus , if he in reality possesses this art , and is so zealous in the practice of it . I , too , therefore , should be proud , and make much of myself , if I knew these matters ; but I do not know them , O Athenians .
Some of you may , perhaps , answer , * But , O Socrates , what , then , is your affair ? and whence did these accusations arise ? for you would not have been so much heard of or talked about , if you had done nothing strange , or different from other people : tell us , therefore , what it is , that we may not be left to conjecture . ' This appears to me a very fair question ; and I will try to explain to you what it is which has made me so talked about , and so calumniated . Listen , then : and perhaps some of you may think I am in jest ; be well persuaded , however , that I am telling you the whole truth . I , O Athenians , have acquired this reputation , from no other cause than a certain wisdom . What kind of wisdom ? That which , perhaps , is the true human wisdom ; and the fact seems to be that I possess this wisdom : they whom I have just spoken of , haves ., perhaps , a wisdom greater than that of man ; but I certainly do not posseBa it , and whoever says so speaks falsely , and wishes to slander me . And do not clamour , O Athenians , even if I
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 115, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/35/
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