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576 576 Socrates^ Schleiermacher^ mid Delbnieck. it was that Plato would have done if he had undertaken the same task. But unfortunately, in Mr A st's judgement, though the design was judicious, he has failed in the execution, partly by going beyond the mark, and partly by falling short of it. Thus he makes Socrates profess his intention of confining him- self to the simple truth, and declare that he had uttered nothing else. In this Mr Ast discovers the hand of an exaggerating rhetorician. From which we are to infer that, though it be- came Socrates to speak the truth, he would have overstepped the bovmds of modesty if he had asseverated the truth of what he said. So again the author of the Apology " has paid care- ful attention to the quality expressed by Xenophon^s eXevOe- pLcoTaTa^ but has exaggerated it, and so frustrated his aim." He has confounded the noble pride of conscious innocence, roused to repel calumny, with the vanity which affects humility, in order the more effectually to display its pretensions. One instance of this false humility occurs at the very opening, where the speaker deprecates the title of an expert orator, un- less such expertness consists in speaking the truth ; then indeed he allows that he is an orator not to be measured with his ad- versaries : for nothing will be heard from him but the simple, unadorned, truth. This, Mr Ast observes, contains a covert intimation, that he is a real genuine orator, the rest on the con- trary mere mock orators. Mr Ast has neglected to point out, in what manner it was possible for Socrates to have expressed himself on this point so as not to expose himself to such an imputation. He certainly, by more than a covert intimation, claims a superiority over his accusers, if truth is admitted as the standard : but was there ever a defendant in a court of justice who did not tacitly or expressly make the same claim ? and though he might think naked truth more honorable than varnished falsehood, he surely could not expect that it would be sufficient to raise him, in the opinion of his hearers, as an orator, above his adversaries. Another specimen of spurious irony, in which Mr Ast discovers ostentation lurking under the mask of humility, is the detailed description given of the inves- tigation which Socrates instituted to prove the truth of the oracle. Not that he might not have mentioned the fact, but he would not have given so full an account of his proceedings.