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all eternity would not thus appear longer than one night . But if death be to quit this place for another , and if it be true as is affirmed , that in that other place is the abode of all the dead ; what greater good can there be , O judges , than this ? If , arriving in the other world , and leaving these people who call themselves judges , we shall see the real judges , who are said to judge there , Minos and Rhadamanthus and iEacus and Triptolemus , and all other demigods who lived justly while they were alive ,
would it not be a noble journey ? What would not any of you give to converse with Orpheus , and Musseus , and Hesiod , and Homer ? I would gladly die many times if this be true ; since to me it would be a delightful residence when I had met with Palamedes , and the Telamonian Ajax , and any other of the ancients who perished in consequence of an unjust judgment . To compare my own fate with theirs , would not , I
think , be disagreeable : and best of all , to live examining and interrogating the people there , as I have done here , to discover who among them are wise , and who think themselves so , but are not . How much would not one give , O judges , for an opportunity of examining him who led the great expedition to Troy ; or Ulysses , or Sysyphus , or ten thousand others whom one could mention , both men and women ; with whom to
converse and associate there , and to examine them , would be the height of happiness . They do not , there , put one to death for such things ; for the people there are happier than the people here , both in other things , and in this , that when once there they are immortal ; if what we are told is true . Jt behoves you , O judges , to be of good cheer concerning death ; and to fix this truth in your minds , that to a good man , whether he die or
live , nothing is evil , nor are his affairs neglected by the gods ; neither did what has happened to me occur spontaneously , but it is evident to me that to die , and come to an end now , was most for my good . For this reason was it that the sign did not interpose to check me ; and I do not much complain of my accusers , nor of those who condemned me Though they , indeed , accused and condemned me not with any such intention , but purposing to do me harm : and for this it is fit to blame them .
Thus much , however , I beg of them : When my sons grow up , punish them , O Athenians , by tormenting them as I tormented you , if they shall seem to study riches , or any other ends , in preference to virtue . And if they are thought to be something , being really nothing-, reproach them as I have reproached you , for not attending to what they ought , and fancying themselves something when they are good for nothing . And if you do this , both I and my sons shall have received what is just at your hands .
Jt is now tinae that we depart , I to die , you to live ; but which has the better destiny is unknown to all , except the god .
Untitled Article
178 Plato ' s Dialogues ; Jhe ^ A pology of Socrates .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1835, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2643/page/34/
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