On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
by a stinging insects The god , as * it seems la me , has given me to you as such an insect , to goad you by persuasions and reproaches , settling upon one of you after another . You will not , O Athenians * easily find another such man : and therefore , if you take my advice , you will spare me . But you , perhaps , being angry , like sleepers awakened , will strike at me , and being persuaded by Anytus , will inconsiderately put me to death ; and then pass the remainder of your lives in slumber , unless the god in his care for you should send to you some one else .
That I am such a person as one bestowed on you by the god might be expected to be , you may judge from this : it is not like the ways of mere humanity , to neglect all my own concerns , and let my private affairs be so many years uncared for , devoting myself to your interests ; seeking each of you , as if I were his father or his elder brother , and inciting him to the pursuit of virtue . If I gained anything by it , and
gave these exhortations for pay or reward , there would be something intelligible in it . But now you yourselvea . see , that my-accusers , shameless as they have shown themselves in all their other accusations , could not carry their shamelessness so far as to affirm , producing testimony , that I ever took or asked reward from any one : for I have truly a good and sufficient witness to my assertion , my poverty .
Perhaps it may appear strange that I go about and busy myself with giving these exhortations in private , but do not venture to come forward in public and advise the people in the public assembly . The cause of this is , what you have often heard me speak of ; that I have a divine ( or daemonic ) monitor ; which Melitus alluded to in the indictment , and ludicrously perverted . This is , a voice , which from my childhood upwards has occasionally visited me , always to dissuade me from something which I was
about to do , but never instigating me to any thing . It is this voice which opposes my meddling in public affairs . And rightly , in my opinion , has it done so : for know , Athenians , that if I had long ago attempted to interfere in politics , I should long ago have perished , and done no good either to you or myself * And be not angry with me for saying the truth .
It is impassible that any human being should escape destruction , who sincerely opposes himself to you , or to any other multitude , and strives to prevent many injustices and illegalities from being transacted in the state . He who means really to contend for the right , if he would be unharmed for even a short time , must keep to private , and avoid public life .
I will produce to you signal proofs of this ; not words , but , what you most honour , deeds . Hear , then , the things which have happened to me ; that you may kntfw that I would never * from the fear of death , have succumbed to any one contrary to justice * and not succumbing , would inevitably have been destroyed . What I will tell you , may sound
arrogant and presuming ; but it is true . The only office I ever held in the state , O Athenians , was that of a member of the Senate of Five Hundred ; and it fell to my tribe ( the tribe Antioehiti ) to preside , when you decided that the ten generals , accused of not taking up the bodies of the slain in the seafight , * should be tried collectively ; an illegal decision , as since that time has become the The celebrated trial of tlie ten generals who gained the battle of fArginufteb : one of the-moat disgraceful blot * in the Athenian annal * .
Untitled Article
Plata ' s Dialogues ; the Apology of Socrates * 171
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1835, page 171, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2643/page/27/
-