Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/256

 2o6 Outlines of Ej crop can History I lis belief in man's power to discern the great truths as such and to shape his conduct by them Socrates went about in Athens, engaging all his fellow citizens in such discussion, convinced that he might thus lead each citizen in turn to a knowledge of the leading and compelling virtues. Furthermore, he firmly believed that the citizen who had once recognized these virtues would shape eveiy action and all his life by them. Socrates thus revealed the power of virtue and similar ideas by argument and logic, but he made no appeal to religion as an influence toward good conduct. Nevertheless he showed himself a deeply religious man, believing with devout heart in the gods, although they were not exactly those of the fathers, and even feeling, like the Hebrew prophets, that there was a divine voice within him, calling him to his high mission. The simple but powerful personality of this greatest of Greek teachers in the streets of Athens often opened to him the houses of the rich and noble. His fame spread far and wide, and when the Delphian oracle (Fig. 82) was asked who was the wisest of the living, it responded with the name of Socrates. A group of pupils gathered about him, among whom the most famous was Plato. But it was natural that his aims and his noble efforts on behalf of the Athenian state should be mis- understood. His keen questions seemed to throw doubt upon all the old beliefs. The Athenians had already shown their displeasure toward more than one leading Sophist who had rejected the old faith and teaching (see p. 193). They summoned Socrates to trial for corrupting the youth. Such examples as Alcibiades, who had been his pupil, seemed convincing illustrations of the viciousness of his teaching ; every- body had seen and many had read with growing resentment the comedy of Aristophanes which held him up to contempt and hatred. Socrates might easily have left Athens when the complaint was lodged against him. Nevertheless he appeared for trial, made a powerful and dignified defense (Fig. 96), and, when the court voted the death penalty, passed his last days in tranquil conversation with his friends and pupils, in whose pres- ence he then quietly drank the fatal hemlock (399 B.C.). Thus