SOCRATESSODA. 



301 



guilty of a shameful passion, but it is unnecessary 

 to refute this accusation ; it is more important to 

 explain the circumstances and grounds of his con- 

 demnation. 



The last part of his life fell in that unhappy 

 period when Athens had sunk into anarchy and 

 despotism, in consequence of the unfortunate result 

 of the Peloponnesian war. Morality and justice 

 are always disregarded when the government of a 

 litate is dissolved. This was the case in Athens. 

 The dominion of the thirty tyrants had, indeed, 

 been overthrown by Thrasybulus; but, like the 

 ocean after a storm, Athens was still unsettled, 

 and amid the general immorality, hatred, envy and 

 malice found opportunities to execute their pur- 

 poses. Melitus, a young tragic poet of no merit, 

 Lycon, a public orator, and Anytus, a tanner and 

 politician, were the accusers of Socrates, and were 

 listened to the more readily, as he had offended the 

 people by the freedom with which he had expressed 

 his dislike of an ochlocracy. The charges of intro- 

 ducing new gods, of denying the ancient divinities 

 of the state, and of corrupting the youth, were 

 brought, not before the Areopagus, but before the 

 popular tribunal in the Heliaea. The accusations 

 were supported by perverted statements of the 

 language of Socrates, by expressions detached from 

 the connexion which modified them. But these, 

 and the fact that the tyrant Critias, and the public 

 enemy Alcibiades, were his disciples, were plainly 

 not a valid cause for his condemnation. Socrates, 

 conscious of his moral dignity, disdained to make a 

 laboured defence of his character. He neither 

 feared death, nor respected his judges. More- 

 over, he felt confident that a long life, spent 

 under the eye of the judges and the people, was 

 the strongest proof of his innocence. Briefly, and 

 with a noble dignity, he showed the groundless- 

 ness of the charges, and noticed his own deserts. 

 Several of his blind and wicked judges took offence, 

 and he was condemned by a majority of three voices. 

 But, when they left him to choose the mode of 

 punishment, and Socrates declared that, instead of 

 deserving death, he merited a place in the Prytan- 

 eum, as a public benefactor, the furious populace, 

 thinking themselves insulted by such a declaration, 

 condemned him to drink poison. He consoled his 

 afflicted friends, and reminded them that, from the 

 day of his birth, nature had pronounced sentence of 

 death upon him. Religious and moral feeling, and 

 the heavenly power of a pure conscience, still 

 triumphed within him. On the day when he war, 

 thrown into prison, the sacred galley sailed from 

 Athens for Delos, and, in conformity with an an- 

 cient law, the execution of the sentence was deferred 

 till- its return, thirty days an important delay for 

 the philosopher and his disciples. Every morning 

 his friends assembled in his apartment, and he con- 

 versed with them as he had been wont to do. He 

 encouraged them in the path of virtue, instructed 

 them in the subjects of his investigations, and 

 proved to them, by his own example, that obedience 

 to his precepts produced real happiness. In his 

 solitary hours, he composed a hymn to Apollo, and 

 versified several of the fables of .^Esop. There 

 was a striking contrast between the resignation of 

 Socrates and the grief of his friends, at the thought 

 of their irreparable loss. We may well pardon them 

 for the projects which they formed for his escape. 

 Simmias of Thebes offered to bribe the keeper ; but 

 they could, of course, do nothing without the con- 

 sent of Socrates ; and, from his known principles, 



it was probable that he would not listen to their 

 plan. But they determined to make the attempt. 

 Crito, the old and tried friend of Socrates, under- 

 took to persuade him to comply with their wishes. 

 Early in the morning of the last day but one, he 

 visited him for this purpose. The good man was 

 still asleep. Crito sat down softly by his bed, and 

 waited till he awoke. He then informed him of 

 the unanimous request of his friends, urging every 

 motive which the peculiar circumstances of Socrates 

 suggested, especially the care of his family, to per- 

 suade him, if possible, to save his life. Socrates 

 permitted his friend to finish, and thanked him for 

 this proof of his affection, but declared that flight 

 was wholly irreconcilable with his principles. 

 Plato's dialogue, entitled Crito, records this con- 

 versation, and is one of the most pleasing perform- 

 ances of that great master. It inspires the most 

 profound admiration of Socrates, who adhered to 

 his lofty principles with unshaken firmness on the 

 brink of the grave, and, notwithstanding the injus- 

 tice of his condemnation, could not be persuaded to 

 violate his duties as a citizen. At length the fatal 

 day dawned on which Socrates was to drink the 

 poison. His family and friends assembled early, 

 to spend the last hours with him. Xanthippe, his 

 wife, was much affected, and showed her grief by 

 loud cries. Socrates made a sign to Crito to have 

 her removed, as he wished to spend his last mo- 

 ments in tranquillity. He then talked with his 

 friends first about his poem, then concerning suicide, 

 and lastly concerning the immortality of the soul. 

 He spent the greater part of the day in these ele- 

 vated meditations. He spoke with such animation 

 of the hopes inspired by his faith, that his friends 

 almost viewed him as a glorified spirit. The ap- 

 proach of twilight at length admonished him that 

 the appointed hour had arrived. He asked for the 

 cup ; and, when he took it in his hand, his friends 

 were so overcome with grief, that they burst into 

 tears and loud lamentations. Socrates alone was 

 calm. He then drank the hemlock slowly, and 

 consoled his friends, as he walked up and down the 

 apartment. When it became difficult to walk, he 

 lay down upon the couch, and, before his heart 

 ceased to beat, exclaimed, " My friends, we owe a 

 cock (the emblem of life) to JEsculapius." After 

 he had said these words, he covered himself with 

 his cloak, and expired, in the seventieth year of his 

 age (B. C. 400). Soon after his death, the Athe- 

 nians acknowledged his innocence, and regarded the 

 misfortunes of the state as a judgment for their in- 

 justice towards him. They reversed his sentence, 

 put Melitus to death, banished his other accusers, 

 and caused a brazen statue to be erected to his 

 memory by Lysippus. The person of Socrates was 

 not prepossessing. Plato says he had the head of a 

 Silenus ; but mental grace ennobled him, and at- 

 tracted the virtuous See Wegger's Socrates 



(Rostock, 18 1 1 , 2d edition), and Delbruck's Socrates 

 (Cologne, 1816), both in German,; see, also, Mit- 

 chell's introduction to his translation of Aristoph- 

 anes; Cumberland's Observer, and Cousin's Nou~ 

 veaux Fragments Philosophiques. 



SODA ; formerly called the mineral alkali, be- 

 cause, under the name of natron, it is found native 

 in the mineral kingdom. It is usually obtained 

 from the incineration of marine vegetables, of which 

 different species afford it in different quantities and 

 states of purity. The various kinds of fuci afford 

 the impure alkaline product known in commerce by 

 the name of kelp (q. v.) : the genera salsvla and 



