Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/432

 410 HISTORY OF GREECE of this as the daemon or genius of Sokrates. he himself does Jioi personify it, but treats it merely as a " divine sign, a prophetic OF supernatural voice." 1 He was accustomed not only to obey it im- plicitly, but to speak of it publicly and familiarly to others, so that the fact was well known both to his friends and to his ene- mies. It had always forbidden him to enter on public life ; it for- bade him, when the indictment was hanging over him, to take any thought for a prepared defence ; 2 and so completely did he march with a consciousness of this bridle in his mouth, that when he felt no check, he assumed that the turning which he was about to take was the right one. Though his persuasion on the subject was unquestionably sincere, and his obedience constant, yet he never dwelt upon it himself as anything grand, or awful, or en- titling him to peculiar deference; but spoke of it often in his usual strain of familiar playfulness. To his friends generally, it seems to have constituted one of his titles to reverence, though neither Plato nor Xenophon scruple to talk of it in that jesting not, uKFp opuTS Kal airo?. TOVTI, a ye 6% oirrdeir} uv rtf KOI vopifcrai e KOKUV elvai. 'E.[ioi 6e ovre ijiovTi eudev olwSev JivavTiudq TO TOV deov a TI fi e I o v, ovre r/viica avsflaivov hrav&oi ewl rd diKoarfipiov ovr* ev ru 7.6-/<f i TI epelv K at rot EV u^Aotf ^oyotf TroA^a^oti dr) fie T^iyovra ftera^v. He goes on to infer that his line of defence has been right, and that his condemnation is no misfortune to him, but a benefit, seeing that the sign has not manifested itself. I agree in.the opinion of Schleiermacher (in his Preface to his transla- tion of the Apology of Sokrates, part i, vol. ii, p. 185, of his general trans- lation of Plato's works), that this defence maybe reasonably taken as reproduction by Plato of what Sokrates actually said to the dikasts on his trial. In addition to the reasons given by Schleiermacher there is one which may be noticed. Sokrates predicts to the dikasts that, if they put him to death, a great number of young men will forthwith put themselves forward to take up the vocation of cross-questioning, who will give them more trouble than he has ever done (Plat. Ap. Sok. c. 30, p. 39, D). Now there is no reason to believe that this prediction was realized. If, there- fore, Plato puts an erroneous prophecy into the mouth of Sokratfis, this is probably because Sokrates really made one. 1 The words of Sokrates plainly indicate this meaning : see also good note of Schleiermacher, appended to his translation of the Platonic Apol ogy, Platons Werke, part i, vol ii, p. 432.
 * Xcnoph. Mem. iv, 8, 5.