Apology | Page 5

instruction--that is another mistaken notion:--he has nothing to
teach. But he commends Evenus for teaching virtue at such a 'moderate'
rate as five minae. Something of the 'accustomed irony,' which may
perhaps be expected to sleep in the ear of the multitude, is lurking here.
He then goes on to explain the reason why he is in such an evil name.
That had arisen out of a peculiar mission which he had taken upon
himself. The enthusiastic Chaerephon (probably in anticipation of the
answer which he received) had gone to Delphi and asked the oracle if
there was any man wiser than Socrates; and the answer was, that there
was no man wiser. What could be the meaning of this--that he who
knew nothing, and knew that he knew nothing, should be declared by
the oracle to be the wisest of men? Reflecting upon the answer, he
determined to refute it by finding 'a wiser;' and first he went to the
politicians, and then to the poets, and then to the craftsmen, but always
with the same result--he found that they knew nothing, or hardly
anything more than himself; and that the little advantage which in some
cases they possessed was more than counter-balanced by their conceit
of knowledge. He knew nothing, and knew that he knew nothing: they
knew little or nothing, and imagined that they knew all things. Thus he
had passed his life as a sort of missionary in detecting the pretended
wisdom of mankind; and this occupation had quite absorbed him and
taken him away both from public and private affairs. Young men of the
richer sort had made a pastime of the same pursuit, 'which was not
unamusing.' And hence bitter enmities had arisen; the professors of
knowledge had revenged themselves by calling him a villainous
corrupter of youth, and by repeating the commonplaces about atheism
and materialism and sophistry, which are the stock-accusations against
all philosophers when there is nothing else to be said of them.

The second accusation he meets by interrogating Meletus, who is
present and can be interrogated. 'If he is the corrupter, who is the
improver of the citizens?' (Compare Meno.) 'All men everywhere.' But
how absurd, how contrary to analogy is this! How inconceivable too,
that he should make the citizens worse when he has to live with them.
This surely cannot be intentional; and if unintentional, he ought to have
been instructed by Meletus, and not accused in the court.
But there is another part of the indictment which says that he teaches
men not to receive the gods whom the city receives, and has other new
gods. 'Is that the way in which he is supposed to corrupt the youth?'
'Yes, it is.' 'Has he only new gods, or none at all?' 'None at all.' 'What,
not even the sun and moon?' 'No; why, he says that the sun is a stone,
and the moon earth.' That, replies Socrates, is the old confusion about
Anaxagoras; the Athenian people are not so ignorant as to attribute to
the influence of Socrates notions which have found their way into the
drama, and may be learned at the theatre. Socrates undertakes to show
that Meletus (rather unjustifiably) has been compounding a riddle in
this part of the indictment: 'There are no gods, but Socrates believes in
the existence of the sons of gods, which is absurd.'
Leaving Meletus, who has had enough words spent upon him, he
returns to the original accusation. The question may be asked, Why will
he persist in following a profession which leads him to death?
Why?--because he must remain at his post where the god has placed
him, as he remained at Potidaea, and Amphipolis, and Delium, where
the generals placed him. Besides, he is not so overwise as to imagine
that he knows whether death is a good or an evil; and he is certain that
desertion of his duty is an evil. Anytus is quite right in saying that they
should never have indicted him if they meant to let him go. For he will
certainly obey God rather than man; and will continue to preach to all
men of all ages the necessity of virtue and improvement; and if they
refuse to listen to him he will still persevere and reprove them. This is
his way of corrupting the youth, which he will not cease to follow in
obedience to the god, even if a thousand deaths await him.
He is desirous that they should let him live--not for his own sake, but
for theirs; because he is their heaven-sent friend (and they will never
have such another), or, as he may be ludicrously described, he is the
gadfly who stirs the generous steed into motion. Why then has he never

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