11. "Do not, therefore, expect from me, Athenians, that I should have recourse among you to means which I believe neither honest nor lawful; especially on this occasion, wherein I am accused by Melitus of impiety. For if I should influence you by my prayers, and thereby induce you to violate your oaths, it would be undeniably evident that I teach you not to believe in the gods; and even in defending and justifying myself, I should furnish my adversaries with arms against me, and prove that I believe in no divinity. But I am very far from such bad thoughts. I am more convinced of the existence of God than my accusers, and so convinced, that I abandon myself to God and you, that you may judge of me as you shall deem best for yourselves and me."

12. Socrates pronounced this discourse with a firm and intrepid tone. His air, his action, his visage, expressed nothing of the accused; he seemed the master of his judges from the assurance and greatness of soul with which he spoke, without, however, losing anything of the modesty natural to him. So noble and majestic a deportment displeased and gave offense. It is common for judges, who look upon themselves as the absolute dispensers of life or death to such as are before them, to expect, out of a secret desire, that they should appear in their presence with humble submission and respectful awe,a homage which they think due to their supreme authority. 13. This was the case on this occasion. Melitus, however, had not at first the fifth part of the voices. We have reason to suppose that the judges assembled upon this occasion might amount to five hundred, without reckoning the president. The law condemned the accuser to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas ($100) if he had not the fifth part of the suffrages. This law had been wisely established to check the boldness and impudence of calumniators. Melitus would have been obliged to pay this fine if Any'tus and Ly'con had not joined him, and presented themselves also as the accusers of Socrates. Their influence obtained a great number of voices, and there were two hundred and eighty against Socrates, and consequently only two hundred and twenty for him. He wanted only thirty

one to have been acquitted; for he would then have had two hundred and fifty-one, which would have been the majority.

[According to the custom of the Athenians, Socrates, after the verdict was rendered, was entitled to propose some penalty for himself instead of that of death, demanded by his enemies; but this seemed to him like an acknowledgment of guilt, and he refused to make any such proposition, according to Xenophon, boldly asserting that he ought to be rewarded instead of being punished. The judges, irritated by this, sentenced him to die by drinking a cup of poison hemlock. In about thirty days afterward he submitted to the sentence and expired.]

Death and Character of Socrates.-Mitford.

[From the "History of Greece," by William Mitford.]

1. It was usual at Athens for execution very soon to follow condemnation-commonly on the morrow; but it happened that the condemnation of Socrates took place on the eve of the day appointed for the sacred ceremony of crowning the galley which carried the annual offerings to the gods worshipped at Delos; and immemorial tradition forbade all executions till the sacred vessel's return. Thus, the death of Socrates was respited thirty days, while his friends had free access to him in the prison. During all that time he admirably supported his constancy.

2. Means were concerted for his escape; the jailer was bribed, a vessel prepared, and a secure retreat in Thessaly provided. No arguments, no prayers, could persuade him to use the opportunity. He had always taught the duty of obedience to the laws, and he would not furnish an example of the breach of it. To no purpose was it urged that he had been unjustly condemned he had always held that wrong did not justify wrong. He waited with perfect composure the return of the sacred vessel, reasoned on the immortality of the soul, the advantage of virtue, the happiness derived from having made it through life his pursuit, and, with his friends about him, took the fatal cup and died. . . . .

3. The singular merit of Socrates lay in the purity and the usefulness of his manners and conversation; the clearness with which he saw, and the steadiness with which he practiced, in a blind and corrupt age, all moral duties; the disinterestedness

and the zeal with which he devoted himself to the benefit of others; and the enlarged and warm benevolence, whence his supreme and almost only pleasure seems to have consisted in doing good. The purity of Christian morality, little enough indeed seen in practice, nevertheless is become so familiar in theory, that it passes almost as obvious, and even congenial to the human mind.

4. Those only will justly estimate the merit of that near approach to it which Socrates made, who will take the pains to gather as they may from the writings of his contemporaries and predecessors-how little conception was entertained of it before his time; how dull to a just moral sense the human mind has really been; how slow the progress in the investigation of moral duties, even where not only great pains have been taken, but the greatest abilities zealously employed; and when discovered, how difficult it has been to establish them by proofs beyond controversy, or proofs even that should be generally admitted by the reason of men. It is through the light which Socrates diffused by his doctrine and enforced by his practice, with the advantage of having both the doctrine and the prac tice exhibited to the highest advantage in the incomparable writings of Xenophon and Plato, that his life forms an era in the history of Athens and of mau.

Alexander the Great.-Plutarch.

[Philip of Macedon, having made a conquest of Greece, determined to attempt the subjugation of Persia; but before his preparations were completed, he was assassinated by Pausanias, a young Macedonian noble (336 B.C.); and Alexander, his son, ascended the throne, being then only twenty years of age. The following incidents of his remarkable career are related by Plutarch.]

1. A general assembly of the Greeks being held at the Isthmus of Corinth, they came to a resolution to send their quotas with Alexander against the Persians, and he was unanimously elected captain-general. Many statesmen and philosophers came to congratulate him on the occasion; and he hoped that Diogenes of Sino'pe, who then lived at Corinth, would be of the number. Finding, however, that he made but little account

of Alexander, and that he preferred the enjoyment of his leisure in a part of the suburbs called Cranium, the king went to see him.

2. Diogenes happened to be lying in the sun; and at the approach of so many people, he raised himself up a little, and fixed his eyes upon Alexander. The king addressed him in an obliging manner, and asked him, "If there was anything he could serve him in?" "Only stand a little out of my sunshine," said Diogenes. Alexander, we are totd, was struck with such surprise at finding himself so little regarded, and saw something so great in that carelessness, that, while his courtiers were ridiculing the philosopher as a monster, he said, "If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes."

3. He chose to consult the oracle about the war, and for that purpose went to Delphi. He happened to arrive there on one of the days called inauspicious, upon which the law permitted no man to put his question. At first he sent to the prophetess to entreat her to do her office; but finding she refused to comply, and alleged the law in her excuse, he went himself and drew her by force into the temple. Then, as if conquered by his violence, she said, "My son, thou art invincible." Alexander, hearing this, said, "he wanted no other answer, for he had the very oracle he desired."

4. As soon as he landed [after passing the Hellespont], he went up to Ilium, where he sacrificed to Minerva, and offered libations to the heroes. He also anointed the pillar upon Achilles' tomb with oil, and ran round it with his friends, naked, according to the custom that obtains; after which he put a crown upon it, declaring, "He thought that hero extremely happy in having found a faithful friend while he lived, and after his death, an excellent herald to set forth his praise.” As he went about the city to look upon the curiosities, he was asked whether he chose to see Paris's lyre. "I set but little value," said he, "upon the lyre of Paris; but it would give me pleasure to see that of Achilles, to which he sang the glorious actions of the brave."

[Darins, the king of Persia, assembled a large army at the Grani'cus River to oppose Alexander's march; but the Persians were defeated with great slaughter, and Alexar

der passed on to Cilicia. It was in the battle of Grani'cus that his life was saved by Chitus, who, when he was on the point of being dispatched by a Persian officer, trans fixed the latter with his spear. In Cilicia Alexander was delayed by sickness.]

5. This sickness some attributed to his great fatigues, and others to his bathing in the river Cyd'nus, whose water is extremely cold. His physicians durst not give him any medicines because they thought themselves not so certain of the cure as of 'the danger they must incur in the application; for they feared that the Macedonians, if they did not succeed, would suspect them of some bad practice. Philip, the Acarna'ntan, saw how desperate the king's case was, as well as the rest; but, besides the confidence he had in his friendship, he thought it the highest ingratitude, when his master was in so much danger, not to risk something with him in exhausting all his art for his relief. He therefore attempted the cure, and found no difficulty in persuading the king to wait with patience till his medicine was prepared or to take it when ready, so desirous was he of a speedy recovery, in order to prosecute the war.

6. In the mean time, Parmenio sent him a letter from the camp, advising him "to beware of Philip, whom," he said, "Darius had prevailed upon, by presents of infinite value, and the promise of his daughter in marriage, to take him off by poison." As soon as Alexander had read the letter, he put it under his pillow without showing it to any of his friends. The time appointed being come, Philip, with the king's friends, entered the chamber, having the cup of medicine in his hand. The king received it freely, without the least marks of suspicion, and the same time put the letter in Philip's hand.

7. It was a striking situation, and more interesting than any scene in a tragedy; the one reading while the other was drinking. They looked upon each other, but with a very different air. The king, with an open and unembarrassed countenance, expressed his regard for Philip, and the confidence he had in his honor; Philip's looks showed his indignation at the calumny. One while he lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, protesting his fidelity; another while he threw himself down