Page:Plato's Crito and Phaedo (Unknown, 1895).pdf/8



lives for us in the works of Plato as the loftiest expression of the spiritual life of ancient Greece. Plato, a philosopher with the mind of a poet, was able to feel and to share the aspirations of his teacher, and gave in dialogues a half-dramatic expression of the personality and of the doctrines of the man who wrote no book himself, but whose best wisdom is enshrined in the works of two great writers who drew strength from his friendship—Xenophon and Plato.

Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, was born just outside Athens in the year 468 —more than two thousand three hundred and fifty years ago. He studied life by communion with men, loved Athens, and, when young, fought in her battles. But he avoided political conflict, because he resolved to devote his life to the awakening of the best powers of men for the battle towards a higher life than that he saw around him. Without teaching formally in any school, he seized every opportunity he found of lifting the thoughts of old and young with whom