Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 2.djvu/104



In what relation the Apology of Plato stands to the real defence Apology. of Socrates, there arc no means of determining. It certainly i^troduc- agrees in tone and character with the description of Xenophon, who says in the Memorabilia (iv. 4, 4) that Socrates might have been acquitted f if in any moderate degree he would have con- ciliated the favour of the dicasts ; ' and who informs us in another passage (iv. 8j 4), on the testimony of Hermogenes, the friend of Socrates, that he had no wish to live ; and that the divine sign refused to allow him to prepare a defence, and also that Socrates himself declared this to be unnecessary, on the ground that all his life long he had been preparing against that hour. For the speech breathes throughout a spirit of defiance, 'ut non supplex aut reus sed magister aut dominus videretur esse judicum ' (Cic. de Orat. i. 54) ; and the loose and desultory style is an imitation of the 'accus- tomed manner' in which Socrates spoke in 'the agora and among the tables of the money-changers.' The allusion in the Crito (45 B) may, perhaps, be adduced as a further evidence of the literal accuracy of some parts (37 C, D). But in the main it must be regarded as the ideal of Socrates, according to Plato's concep- tion of him, appearing in the greatest and most public scene of his life, and in the height of his triumph, when he is weakest, and yet his mastery over mankind is greatest, and his habitual irony acquires a new meaning and a sort of tragic pathos in the face of death. The facts of his life are summed up, and the features of his character are brought out as if by accident in the course of the defence. The conversational manner, the seeming want of arrange- ment, the ironical simplicity, are found to result in a perfect work of art, which is the portrait of Socrates. Yet some of the topics may have been actually used by Socrates ; and the recollection of his very words may have rung VOL. II.