Crito | Page 6

far from being
exorbitant in their demands--a little money will satisfy them. My means,
which are certainly ample, are at your service, and if you have a scruple
about spending all mine, here are strangers who will give you the use of
theirs; and one of them, Simmias the Theban, has brought a large sum
of money for this very purpose; and Cebes and many others are
prepared to spend their money in helping you to escape. I say, therefore,
do not hesitate on our account, and do not say, as you did in the court
(compare Apol.), that you will have a difficulty in knowing what to do
with yourself anywhere else. For men will love you in other places to
which you may go, and not in Athens only; there are friends of mine in
Thessaly, if you like to go to them, who will value and protect you, and
no Thessalian will give you any trouble. Nor can I think that you are at
all justified, Socrates, in betraying your own life when you might be
saved; in acting thus you are playing into the hands of your enemies,
who are hurrying on your destruction. And further I should say that you
are deserting your own children; for you might bring them up and
educate them; instead of which you go away and leave them, and they
will have to take their chance; and if they do not meet with the usual
fate of orphans, there will be small thanks to you. No man should bring
children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their
nurture and education. But you appear to be choosing the easier part,
not the better and manlier, which would have been more becoming in

one who professes to care for virtue in all his actions, like yourself.
And indeed, I am ashamed not only of you, but of us who are your
friends, when I reflect that the whole business will be attributed entirely
to our want of courage. The trial need never have come on, or might
have been managed differently; and this last act, or crowning folly, will
seem to have occurred through our negligence and cowardice, who
might have saved you, if we had been good for anything; and you
might have saved yourself, for there was no difficulty at all. See now,
Socrates, how sad and discreditable are the consequences, both to us
and you. Make up your mind then, or rather have your mind already
made up, for the time of deliberation is over, and there is only one thing
to be done, which must be done this very night, and if we delay at all
will be no longer practicable or possible; I beseech you therefore,
Socrates, be persuaded by me, and do as I say.
SOCRATES: Dear Crito, your zeal is invaluable, if a right one; but if
wrong, the greater the zeal the greater the danger; and therefore we
ought to consider whether I shall or shall not do as you say. For I am
and always have been one of those natures who must be guided by
reason, whatever the reason may be which upon reflection appears to
me to be the best; and now that this chance has befallen me, I cannot
repudiate my own words: the principles which I have hitherto honoured
and revered I still honour, and unless we can at once find other and
better principles, I am certain not to agree with you; no, not even if the
power of the multitude could inflict many more imprisonments,
confiscations, deaths, frightening us like children with hobgoblin
terrors (compare Apol.). What will be the fairest way of considering the
question? Shall I return to your old argument about the opinions of
men?--we were saying that some of them are to be regarded, and others
not. Now were we right in maintaining this before I was condemned?
And has the argument which was once good now proved to be talk for
the sake of talking--mere childish nonsense? That is what I want to
consider with your help, Crito:--whether, under my present
circumstances, the argument appears to be in any way different or not;
and is to be allowed by me or disallowed. That argument, which, as I
believe, is maintained by many persons of authority, was to the effect,
as I was saying, that the opinions of some men are to be regarded, and
of other men not to be regarded. Now you, Crito, are not going to die

to-morrow--at least, there is no human probability of this, and therefore
you are disinterested and not liable to be deceived by the circumstances
in which you are placed. Tell me then, whether I am right in saying that
some