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Socrates Questions His Accuser Meletus
Socrates Questions His Accuser Meletus
Come hither, Meletus, and let me ask a question of you. You think a great
deal about the improvement of youth?
Yes, I do.
Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must know, as you
have taken the pains to discover their corrupter, and are citing and accusing
me before them. Speak, then, and tell the judges who their improver is.
Observe, Meletus, that you are silent, and have nothing to say. But is not
this rather disgraceful, and a very considerable proof of what I was saying,
that you have no interest in the matter? Speak up, friend, and tell us who
their improver is.
The laws.
But that, my good sir, is not my meaning. I want to know who the person
is, who, in the first place, knows the laws.
The judges, Socrates, who are present in court.
What do you mean to say, Meletus, that they are able to instruct and
improve youth?
Certainly they are.
What, all of them, or some only and not others?
All of them.
By the goddess Here, that is good news! There are plenty of improvers,
then. And what do you say of the audience - do they improve them?
Yes, they do.
And the Senators?
Yes, the Senators improve them.
But perhaps the ecclesiasts corrupt them? - or do they too improve them?
They improve them.
Then every Athenian improves and elevates them; all with the exception of
myself; and I alone am their corrupter? Is that what you affirm?
That is what I stoutly affirm.
I am very unfortunate if that is true. But suppose I ask you a question:
Would you say that this also holds true in the case of horses? Does one man do
them harm and all the world good? Is not the exact opposite of this true? One
man is able to do them good, or at least not many; the trainer of horses, that
is to say, does them good, and others who have to do with them rather injure
them? Is not that true, Meletus, of horses, or any other animals? Yes,
certainly. Whether you and Anytus say yes or no, that is no matter. Happy
indeed would be the condition of youth if they had one corrupter only, and all
the rest of the world were their improvers. And you, Meletus, have
sufficiently shown that you never had a thought about the young: your
carelessness is seen in your not caring about matters spoken of in this very
indictment.
And now, Meletus, I must ask you another question: Which is better, to
live among bad citizens, or among good ones? Answer, friend, I say; for that
is a question which may be easily answered. Do not the good do their neighbors
good, and the bad do them evil?
Certainly.
And is there anyone who would rather be injured than benefited by those
who live with him? Answer, my good friend; the law requires you to answer -
does anyone like to be injured?
Certainly not.
And when you accuse me of corrupting and deteriorating the youth, do you
allege that I corrupt them intentionally or unintentionally?
Intentionally, I say.
But you have just admitted that the good do their neighbors good, and the
evil do them evil. Now is that a truth which your superior wisdom has
recognized thus early in life, and am I, at my age, in such darkness and
ignorance as not to know that if a man with whom I have to live is corrupted
by me, I am very likely to be harmed by him, and yet I corrupt him, and
intentionally, too? that is what you are saying, and of that you will never
persuade me or any other human being. But either I do not corrupt them, or I
corrupt them unintentionally, so that on either view of the case you lie. If
my offence is unintentional, the law has no cognizance of unintentional
offences: you ought to have taken me privately, and warned and admonished me;
for if I had been better advised, I should have left off doing what I only did
unintentionally - no doubt I should; whereas you hated to converse with me or
teach me, but you indicted me in this court, which is a place not of
instruction, but of punishment.
I have shown, Athenians, as I was saying, that Meletus has no care at
all, great or small, about the matter. But still I should like to know,
Meletus, in what I am affirmed to corrupt the young. I suppose you mean, as I
infer from your indictment, that I teach them not to acknowledge the gods
which the State acknowledges, but some other new divinities or spiritual
agencies in their stead. These are the lessons which corrupt the youth, as you
say.
Yes, that I say emphatically.
Then, by the gods, Meletus, of whom we are speaking, tell me and the
court, in somewhat plainer terms, what you mean! for I do not as yet
understand whether you affirm that I teach others to acknowledge some gods,
and therefore do believe in gods and am not an entire atheist - this you do
not lay to my charge; but only that they are not the same gods which the city
recognizes - the charge is that they are different gods. Or, do you mean to
say that I am an atheist simply, and a teacher of atheism?
I mean the latter - that you are a complete atheist.
That is an extraordinary statement, Meletus. Why do you say that? Do you
mean that I do not believe in the god-head of the sun or moon, which is the
common creed of all men?
I assure you, judges, that he does not believe in them; for he says that
the sun is stone, and the moon earth.
Friend Meletus, you think that you are accusing Anaxagoras; and you have
but a bad opinion of the judges, if you fancy them ignorant to such a degree
as not to know that those doctrines are found in the books of Anaxagoras the
Clazomenian, who is full of them. And these are the doctrines which the youth
are said to learn of Socrates, when there are not unfrequently exhibitions of
them at the theatre (price of admission one drachma at the most); and they
might cheaply purchase them, and laugh at Socrates if he pretends to father
such eccentricities. And so, Meletus, you really think that I do not believe
in any god?
I swear by Zeus that you believe absolutely in none at all.
You are a liar, Meletus, not believed even by yourself. For I cannot help
thinking, O men of Athens, that Meletus is reckless and impudent, and that he
has written this indictment in a spirit of mere wantonness and youthful
bravado. Has he not compounded a riddle, thinking to try me? He said to
himself: I shall see whether this wise Socrates will discover my ingenious
contradiction, or whether I shall be able to deceive him and the rest of them.
For he certainly does appear to me to contradict himself in the indictment as
much as if he said that Socrates is guilty of not believing in the gods, and
yet of believing in them - but this surely is a piece of fun.
I should like you, O men of Athens, to join me in examining what I
conceive to be his inconsistency; and do you, Meletus, answer. And I must
remind you that you are not to interrupt me if I speak in my accustomed
manner.
Did ever man, Meletus, believe in the existence of human things, and not
of human beings?...I wish, men of Athens, that he would answer, and not be
always trying to get up an interruption. Did ever any man believe in
horsemanship, and not in horses? or in flute-playing, and not in
flute-players? No, my friend; I will answer to you and to the court, as you
refuse to answer for yourself. There is no man who ever did. But now please to
answer the next question: Can a man believe in spiritual and divine agencies,
and not in spirits or demigods?
He cannot.
I am glad that I have extracted that answer, by the assistance of the
court; nevertheless you swear in the indictment that I teach and believe in
divine or spiritual agencies (new or old, no matter for that); at any rate, I
believe in spiritual agencies, as you say and swear in the affidavit; but if I
believe in divine beings, I must believe in spirits or demigods; is not that
true? Yes, that is true, for I may assume that your silence gives assent to
that. Now what are spirits or demigods? are they not either gods or the sons
of gods? Is that true?
Yes, that is true.
But this is just the ingenious riddle of which I was speaking: the
demigods or spirits are gods, and you say first that I don`t believe in gods,
and then again that I do believe in gods; that is, if I believe in demigods.
For if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods, whether by the Nymphs
or by any other mothers, as is thought, that, as all men will allow,
necessarily implies the existence of their parents. You might as well affirm
the existence of mules, and deny that of horses and asses. Such nonsense,
Meletus, could only have been intended by you as a trial of me. You have put
this into the indictment because you had nothing real of which to accuse me.
But no one who has a particle of understanding will ever be convinced by you
that the same man can believe in divine and superhuman things, and yet not
believe that there are gods and demigods and heroes.
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