Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/494

 472 HISTORY OF GREECE. men to despise the existing political constitution, by remarking that the Athenian practice of namicg archons by lot was silly, and that no man of sense would ever choose in this way a pilot or a carpenter, though the mischief arising from bad qtralifica- tion, was in these cases fat less than in the case of the archons.' Such teaching, it was urged, destroyed in the minds of the hear- ers respect for the laws and constitution, and rendered them violent and licentious. As examples of the way in which it had worked, his two pupils Kritias and Alkibiades might be cited, both formed in his school ; one, the most violent and rapacious of the Thirty recent oligarchs ; the other, a disgrace to the democ- racy, by his outrageous insolence and licentiousness ; 2 both of them authors of ruinous mischief to the city. Moreover, the youth learned from him conceit of their owii superior wisdom, and the habit of insulting their fathers as well as of slighting their other kinsmen. Sokrates told them, it was urged, that even their fathers, in case of madness, might be law- fully put under restraint ; and that when a man needed service, those whom he had to look to, were not his kinsmen, as such, but the persons best qualified to render it : thus, if he was sick, he must consult a surgeon ; if involved in a lawsuit, those who were most conversant with such a situation. Between friends also, mere good feeling and affection was of little use ; the impor- tant circumstance was, that they should acquire the capacity of rendering mutual service to each other. No one was worthy of esteem except the man who knew what was proper to be done, and could explain it to others : which meant, urged the accuser, that Sokrates was not only the wisest of men, but the only person capable of making his pupils wise ; other advisers being worth- less compared with him. 3 He was in the habit too, the accusation proceeded, of citing the worst passages out of distinguished poets, and of perverting them to the mischievous purpose of spoiling the dispositions of youth, planting in them criminal and despotic tendencies. TJui3 he quoted a line of Hesiod : " No work is disgraceful ; but indo- lence is disgraceful : " explaining it to mean, that a man might 1 Xen. Mem. i, 2, 9. * Xen. Mem. i. 2, 12.
 * Xen. Mem. i, 2, 49-5S