The Apology of Socrates : THERE are many reasons why I am not grieved to end

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Part four of the Apology of Socratesby Plato in the translation by Benjamin Jowatt.
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by Father Zilei of Detroit, Michigan, June two thousand and seven. The
Apology of Socrates by Plato, Partfour. There are many reasons why I
am not grieved doment of Athens atthe vote of condemnation. I expected this,

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and am only surprised that the votesare so nearly equal. For I
had thought that the majority against mewould have been far larger. But now
had thirty votes gone over to theother side, I should have been acquitted.
And I may say that I haveescaped Eliitus. I may say more,

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for without the assistance of Annatys,and likean, he would not have
had a fifth part of the votes, as the law requires, in which
case he would have incurred a fineof a thousand drachmie, as is evident.
And so he proposes death as thepenalty. And what shall I propose

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on my part, o men ofAthens? Clearly that which is my due
and what is that which I oughtto pay or receive? What shall be
done to the man who has neverhad the wit to be idle during his
whole life, but has been carelessof what the many care about? Wealth
and family interests, and military offices, and speaking in the assembly, and

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magistracies and plots and parties, reflectingthat I was really too honest a man
to follow in this way and live. I did not go where I could
do no good to you or tomyself, but where I could do the
greatest good privately to every one ofyou. Thither I went and sought to
persuade every man among you that hemust look to himself and seek virtue and

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wisdom before he looks to his privateinterests, and look to the state,
before he looks to the interests ofthe state, And that this should be
the order which he observes in allhis actions. What shall be done to
such a one, doubtless some goodthing, O, Men of Athens,
if he has his reward, andthe good should be of a kind suitable

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to him. What would be areward suitable to a poor man who is
your benefactor, who desires leisure thathe may instruct you. There can be
no more fitting reward than maintenance inthe titinium o men of Athens, a
reward which he deserves far more thanthe citizen who has won the prize at
Olympia in the horse or chariot race, whether the chariots were drawn by two

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horses or by many. For Iam in want. He has enough,
and he only gives you the appearanceof happiness, and I give you the
reality. And if I am toestimate the penalty justly, I say that
maintenance in the Tritoneum is the justreturn. Perhaps you may think that I

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am braving you in saying this,as in what I said before about the
tears and prayers, But that isnot the case. I speak rather because
I am convinced that I never intentionallywronged any one, although I cannot convince
you of that, for we havehad a short conversation only. But if

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there were a law at Athens,such as there is in other cities,
that a capital cause should not bedecided in one day, then I believe
that I I should have convinced you. But now the time is too short.
I cannot in a moment refute greatSlanders, And as I am convinced
that I never wronged another, Iwill assuredly not wrong myself. I will

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not say of myself that I deserveany evil or propose any penalty. Why
should I? Because I am afraidof the penalty of death, which malitis
proposes. When I do not knowwhether death is a good or an evil,
why should I propose a penalty whichwould certainly be an evil? Shall
I say imprisonment? And why shouldI live in prison and be the slave

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of the magistrates of the year ofthe eleven? Or shall the penalty be
a fine and imprisonment until the fineis paid? There is the same objection
I should have to lie in prisonfor money I have none and I cannot
pay. And if I say exile, and this may possibly be the penalty

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which you will of fix, Imust indeed be blinded by the love of
life if I were to consider that, when you, who are my own
citizens, cannot endure my discourses andwords, and have found them so grievous
and odious that you would fain havedone with them, others are likely to
endure me. No, indeed,men of Athens, that is not very

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likely. And what a life shouldI lead at my age, wandering from
city to city, living in everchanging exile, and always being driven out.
For I am quite certain that intowhatever place I go as here,
so also there the young men willcome to me, And if I drive

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them away, their elders will driveme out at their desire. And if
I let them come, their fathersand friends will drive me out for their
sakes. Some one will say,yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold
your tongue? And then you maygo into a foreign city and no one
will interfere with you. Now Ihave great difficulty in making you understand my

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answer to this, For if Itell you that this would be a disobedience
to a divine command, and thereforethat I cannot hold my tongue, you
will not believe that I am serious. And if I say again that the
greatest good of man is daily toconverse about virtue and all that concerning which

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you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined
is not worth living, that youare still less likely to believe. And
yet what I say is true,although a thing of which it is hard
for me to persuade you. Moreover, I am not accustomed to think that

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I deserve any punishment. Had Imoney, I might have proposed to give
you what I had and have beennone the worse. But you see that
I have none, and can onlyask you to proportion the fine to my
means. However, I think thatI could afford a mine, and therefore
I propose that penalty. Plato,Crito, Critobulus, and Apollodorus, my

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friends here bid me say thirty mina, and they will be the sureties.
Well, then say thirty mine.Let that be the penalty. For that
they will be ample security to you. Not much time will be gained,
O Athenians, in return for theevil name which you will get from the

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detractors of the city, who willsay that you killed Socrates a wise man.
For they will call me wise,even although I am not wise,
when they want to reproach you.If you had waited a little while,
your desire would have been fulfilled inthe course of nature. For I am
far advanced in years as you mayperceive, and not far from death.

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I am speaking now only to thoseof you who have condemned me to death.
I have another thing to say tothem. You think that I was
convicted through deficiency of words. Imean that if I had thought fit to
leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid,I might have gained an acquittal. Not

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so, the deficiency which led tomy conviction was not of words, certainly
not. But I had not theboldness, nor impudence or inclination to address
you as you have liked me toaddress you, weeping and wailing and lamenting
and saying and doing many things whichyou have been accustomed to hear from others,

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and which, as I say,are unworthy of me. But I
thought that I ought not to doanything common or mean in the hour of
danger. Nor do I now repentof the manner of my defense. And
I would rather die having spoken aftermy manner, than speak in your manner
and live. For neither in war, nor yet at law, ought any

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man to use every way of escapingdeath. For often in battle there is
no doubt that if a man willthrow away his arms and fall on his
knees before his pursuers, he mayescape death. And in other dangers there
are other ways of escaping death ifa man is willing to say and do
anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but

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in avoiding unrighteousness, for that runsfaster than death. I am old and
move slowly, and the slower runnerhas overtaken me, and my accusers are
keen and quick, and the fasterrunner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken
them. And now I depart,hence condemned by you, to suffer the

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penalty of death. And they toogo their ways, condemned by the truth,
to suffer the penalty of villainy andwrong. And I must abide by
my award and let them abide bytheirs. I suppose that these things may
be regarded as fated, and Ithink that they are well. And now,

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o, men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you,
for I am about to die,and that is the hour in which
men are gifted with prophetic power.And I prophesied to you, who are
my murderers, that immediately after mydeath, punishment far heavier than you have
inflicted on me, will surely awaityou me. You have killed because you

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wanted to escape the accuser, andnot to give an account of your lives.
But that will not be as yousuppose, far otherwise, for I
say that there will be more accusersof you than there are now accusers whom
hitherto I have restrained, And asthey are younger, they will be more

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severe with you, and you willbe more offended at them. For if
you think that by killing men youcan avoid the accuser censuring your lives,
you are mistaken. That is nota way of escape which is either possible
or honorable. The easiest and noblestway is not to be brushing others,
but to be improving yourselves. Thisis the prophecy which I utter before my

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departure to the judges who have condemnedme, friends who have acquitted me,
I would like also to talk withyou about this thing which has happened.
While the magistrates are busy, andbefore I go to the place at which
I must die. Stay then awhile, for we may as well talk

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with one another while there is time. You are my friends, and I
should like to show you the meaningof this event which has happened to me,
all my judges, for you Imay truly call my judges. I
should like to tell you of awonderful circumstance. Hitherto, the familiar oracle

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within me has constantly been in thehabit of opposing me even about trifles,
if I was going to make aslip or error about anything. And now,
as you see, there has comeupon me that which may be thought
and is generally believed to be thelast and worst evil. But the oracle

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made no sign of opposition, eitheras I was leaving my house and going
out in the morning, or whenI was going up into this court,
or while I was speaking at anythingwhich I was going to say. And
yet I have often been stopped inthe middle of a speech. But now
in nothing I either said or didtouching this matter, as the oracle opposed

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me. What do I take tobe the explanation of this? I will
tell you I regard this as aproof that what has happened to me is
a good, and that those ofus who think that death is an evil
are in error. This is agreat proof to me of what I am

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saying, for the custom Mary's signwould surely have opposed me, had I
been going to evil and not togood. Let us reflect in another way,
and we shall see that there isgreat reason to hope that death is
a good for one of two things. Either death is a state of nothingness
and utter unconsciousness, or as mensay, there is a change and migration

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of the soul from this world toanother. Now, if you suppose that
there is no consciousness but a sleep, like the sleep of him who is
undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain.
For if a person were to selectthe night in which his sleep was undisturbed
even by dreams, and were tocompare this with the other days and nights

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of his life, and then wereto tell us how many days and nights
he had passed in the course ofhis life, better and more pleasantly than
this one. I think that anyman, I will not say private man,
but even the great king will notfind many such days or nights when
compared with the others. Now,if death is like this, I can

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say that to die is gained,for eternity is then only a single night.
But if death is the journey toanother place, and there, as
men say, all the dead are, what good O, my friends and
judges, can be greater than this? If indeed, when the pilgrim arrives

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in the world below, he isdelivered from the professors of justice in this
world and finds the true judges whoare said to give judgment. There Minus
and Rhadamanthus, and Acus and Tryptolemus, and the other sons of God who
were righteous in their own life,that pilgrimage will be worth making. What

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would not a man give if hemight converse with Orpheus and Eusaius, and
Hesiod and Homer. Nay, ifthis be true, let me die again
and again, I too shall havea wonderful interest in a place where I
can converse with Palamedes and Ajax,the son of Telamann, and other heroes

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of old who have suffer'd death throughan unjust judgment. And there will be
no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs.
Above all, I shall be ableto continue my search into true and
false knowledge, as in this world, so also in that I shall find

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out who is wise and who pretendsto be wise and is not. What
would not a man give, ojudges to be able to examine the leader
of the great Trojan expedition, orOdysseus, or Sisyphus, or numberless others
men and women too? What infinitedelight would there be in conversing with them

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and asking them questions? For inthat world. They do not put a
man to death for this, certainly, not for besides being happier in that
world than in this, they willbe immortal if what is said is true.
Therefore, O judges, be ofgood, cheer about death, and
know this of a truth, thatno evil can happen to a good man,

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either in life or after death.He and his are not neglected by
the gods. Nor has my ownapproaching end happened by mere chance. But
I see clearly that to die andbe released was better for me, and
therefore the oracle gave no sign forwhich reason. Also I am not angry

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with my accusers or my condemners.They have done me no harm, although
neither of them meant to do meany good, And for this I may
gently blame them. Still, Ihave a favor to ask of them.
When my sons are grown up,I would ask you, O, my

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friends, to punish them, andI would have you trouble them as I
have troubled you. If they seemto care about riches or anything more than
about virtue, or if they pretendto be something when they are really nothing,
then reprove them as I have reprovedyou. For not caring about that
for which they ought to care,and thinking that they are something when they

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are really nothing. And if youdo this, I and my sons will
have received justice at your hands.The hour of departure has arrived, and
we go our ways. I todie and you to live. Which is

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better? God only knows. Endof Part four end of the Apology of
Socrates by Plato in the translation byBenjamin Jowett, Recording by Father Ziley,
Detroit, Michigan, June two thousandseven.