dead but fly away to the end that Crito may more easily bear my departure and seeing my Body to be burn'd or committed to the ground he may not be troubled or grieved for me as if I had suffered any great calamity nor say at my Funeral that Socrates is exposed to sight or carried forth or put into the Grave But be assured of this my Crito that to speak of these important matters without due circumspection is not only a great offence but brings detriment also to mens Minds It becomes us rather to be of good courage and resolution and I will command that my Body be buried and buried so as shall be grateful to you and you shall judge to be most consentaneous to the Laws Other Circumstances conducing to the saith of the History Having said this he arose and went into an inner room to wash himself and Crito following him enjoyn'd us to stay and expect his return We therefore expected discoursing among our selves of the things that had been commemorated by him and conferring our judgments concerning them And we frequently spake of the calamity that seemed to impend on us by his death concluding it would certainly come to pass that as Sonns deprived of their Father so should we disconsolately spend the remainder of our life After he had been washed and his Children were brought to him for he had two Sonns very young and a third almost a Youth and his * That Socrates had indeed Two Wives is plainly delivered by Diogen Laertius who saith the first was Xantippe upon whom he begat Lamprocles the other Myrto the Daughter of Aristides the just who brought him Sophroniscus and Meneximus Wives also were come he spake to them before Crito and gave them his last commands so he gave order to his Wives and Children to retire Then he came back to us By this time the day had declined almost to the setting of the Sun for he had staid long in the room where he washed himself Which done he returned and sate to repose himself not speaking much after that Then came the Minister of the Eleven the Executioner and addressing himself to him I do not believe Socrates said he that I shall reprehend that in you which I am wont to reprehend in others that they are angry with me and curse me when by command of the Magistrates whom I am by my Office obliged to obey I come and give notice to them that they must now drink the poyson but I know you to be at all times and chiefly at this a man both generous and most mild and civil the best of all men that ever came into this place so that I may be assured you will not be displeased with me but you know the Authors with them rather Now therefore for you know what Message I come to bring Farewell and endevour to suffer as patiently and calmly as you can what cannot be avoided Then breaking forth into tears he departed And Socrates converting his eyes upon him and Farewel thou too saith he we will perform all things Then turning to us again How civil this man is saith he all this time of my mprisonment he came to me willingly and sometimes talked with me respectfully and hath been the best of all that belong to the Prison and now how generously doth he weep for me But Crito let us spare him and let some other bring hither the deadly Draught if it be already bruised if not let him bruise it Then Crito I think saith he the Sun shines upon the tops of the Mountains is not yet quite gone down * and I have seen some delay the drinking of the poyson much longer nay more By the Athenian Law no man was to be put to death until after Sun-set lest the Sun for which they had a singular veneration might be displeased at the sight after notice had been given them that they ought to dispatch they have Supped and drank largely too and talked a good while with their Friends be not then so so hasty you have yet time enough Those men of whom you speak Crito saith he did well for they thought they gained so much more of life but I will not follow their example for I conceive I shall gain nothing by deferring my draught till it be later in the night unless it be to expose my self to be derided for being desirous out of too great love of life to prolong the short remander of it But well get the Poyson prepared quickiy and do nothing else till that be dispatch'd Crito hearing this beckned to a Boy that was present and the Boy going forth and imploying himself a while in bruising the Poyson returned with him who was to give it and who brought it ready bruised in a cup Upon whom Socrates casting his eye be it so good man said he tell me for thou art well skill'd in these matters what is to be done Nothing saith he but after you have drank to walk until a heaviness comes upon your leggs and thighs and then to sit and this you shall do And with that he held forth the Cup to Socrates * Socrates with admirable constancy receives and drinks off the Poyson Which appears to have been the Juice of Hemlock both from the auctority of Diog. Laertius in vita Socrat. where he expresly names it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cicura and from the manner of its operation whereof consult Dioscorides As also from that of Seneca Epist 13. Cicuta magnum Socratem fecit which he readily receiving and being perfectly sedate O Echecrates without trembling without change either in the color or in the aire of his face but with the same aspect and countenance intent and stern as was usual to him looking upon the man what saist thou saith he may not a man offer some of this Liquor in Sacrifice We have bruised but so much Socrates saith he as we thought would be sufficient I understand you saith he but yet it is both lawful and our duty to pray to the Gods that our transmigration from hence to them may be happy and fortunate Having spoke those words and remaining silent for a minute or two he easily and expeditely drank all that was in the Cup. Then many of us endevored what we could to contain our tears but when we beheld him drinking the Poyson and immediatly after no man was able lon-her to refrain from weeping and while I put force upon my self to suppress my tears they flowed down my cheeks drop after drop So covering my face I wept in secret deploring not his but my own hard fortune in the loss of so great a Friend and so neer a Kins-man But Crito no longer able to contend with his grief and to forbid his tears rose up before me And Apollodorus first breaking forth into showres of tears and then into cries howlings and lamentations left no man from whom he extorted not tears in
not from heat of blood nor from excess of Choler but from strength and resolution of Mind and that a good Philosopher may make an excellent Captain Had you seen him in another Expedition returning a Conquerour from Potidaea and transferring all the honours and rewards due to so signal a victory upon his beloved Alcibiades reserving to himself no other place in the Triumph but among the followers of his Friend You might have sworn he had fought so bravely rather for Conscience than for either Glory or Spoyl and that he desired no greater name than that of a good Patriot and sincere Friend When you reflect upon his fearless refusal to execute the Command he had received from the supreme Council of Athens to fetch Leo Salaminius from Salamine to be put to death according to the Sentence given against him by the Usurper Critias and his Adherents you will I presume acknowledge that he fear'd nothing but to do ill that he disdain'd to assert any power that was not just that Athens it self might with more ease have been removed to Salamine than he brought to relinquish Right and Equity and that he was more ready to accompany the oppressed in their Sufferings under Tyranny than to be a sharer in the administration of it Had some Roman been a witness of this virtuous obstinacy he would have cried out perhaps that the Capitol itself was not more immoveable than the integrity of Socrates and envied Greece the glory of so rare an Example What then would he have said my Lord had he been present at the dispute betwixt the same Socrates and his most faithful Scholar Crito wherein he being with no weak arguments urged to evade the execution of that most unjust Sentence lately pass'd upon him and deliver himself from violent death by an escape plotted and prepared to his hand nevertheless not only rejected that affectionate advice but by demonstration convinced the Author of it that the auctority of Law and Decrees of Courts of Judicature are things in their sanction so venerable and sacred as to oblige men to submission even when they are manifestly unjust and brought him at length to acquiesce in this Conclusion nefas sibi esse è carcere egredi injussu Magistratus contra legum autoritatem Herein whether Socrates were in the right or not let our Civilians determin I for my part verily believe he thought he was and this is most evident that he could never be either overcome by terrors or won by allurements to recede so much as a hairs bredth from what he had once defined to be just This very Monosyllable doubtless was his whole Decalogue equivalent to the Laws of the twelve Tables among the Romans the basis of his Religion the Centre of his Counsels and rule to his actions nor can I be easily persuaded that Astrea left to dwell among men untill after his death Of his obedience to the Laws and constitutions of his City he gave this further testimony that when the Athenian Republic to repair their people much exhausted by warre and pestilence had made an Edict that every man of fit years should be obliged to espouse one woman as principal wife and have liberty to take another for procreation he notwithstanding he had his hands full of unquiet Xantippe whose peevishness and morosity was grown to be the daily exercise of his patience at home and his reproch abroad yet in conformity to the Edict fear'd not to receive into his little house and narrow bed another Consort also one Myrto daughter of that Aristides surnamed the Just but equaly poor with himself This certainly could not but be somwhat harsh and disagreeable to a man already entered into the confines of old age and understanding the pleasures of serenity and repose and yet I must not imagin it to have been at all difficult to the wisedom of our Socrates whose tranquillity appears to have been elevated like the head of mount Athos above the tempest of feminin contentions jealousies and impertinences and his Mind incapable of peâ—turbations However he put not private cares into the balance against a duty to the Public but chose to be a good Citisen by increasing Posterity though he were sure thereby to multiply his own domestic incommodities Acting by this infallible principle of Justice which is as Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of human goods and Mother of all other virtues and fully persuaded of the divinity and immortality of the Soul which is the fundament of all Religion and of future rewards and punishments the wonder is the less that this admirable man was able both to trample upon all the splendid and precious things of this momentany life and to bid defiance to all the terrible for secure in his own innocence and confident of happiness to come 't was less difficult to him either to contemn dangers or resist temptations Nay to do him right neither could this Temperance nor that Fortitude be at all difficult to him who by long use and continual practice had exalted them from Virtues into Habits In the first he appear'd to be so perfect that tho as a man he could not but feel the motions and sollicitations of Corporeal Appetites yet none of them dared to rebell against the Soveraignty of Reason by whose power he alwaies both ruled and bounded them nor could even a good Soul separated from its body and delivered from all encumbrances of Matter have acted more sedately or been less incommodated with Passions In a word in his whole life he seem'd not only unconcern'd in but insensible of the vain appearance of human things Being thus impenetrable to Cupidities it may be worth our labour to enquire also how strong he was against Fear That we may therefore take the true hight of his Courage let us if it please Your Lordship observe his deportment at the bar in the prison and at his death At the Tribunal we hear his Constancy no less than his Innocency triumphing over the power and malice of his combined Accusers the greatest hurt they can do to me saith he is to think it possible to hurt me since God takes care of Good men and they therefore can never be violated by wicked men To a friend whispering in his ear that his Judges had before resolved to doom him to death he answers softly and with a smile but such a smile as retain'd an aire of Gravity and Dignity and hath not Nature passed the same doom upon them Retiring after his condemnation Adieu my friends saith he I am now going to suffer death ye to enjoy life God alone knows which of the two is better In the Prison we find him despoil'd of whatever Fortune could take from him his body covered with raggs and loaden with chains his leggs galled and cramp'd with fetters his eyes entertain'd with no objects but a wife and Infant weeping and yet for all this we hear no complaints no lamentations
endevoured to corrupt their minds or not it would be probable that some of those who have arrived at years of more maturity and the borders of old age when they come to understand me to have been to them author and adviser of some certain evil would now rise up against me and accuse me and require me to be delivered up to punishment and if they would not yet it were fit that some of their Kinsmen Fathers or Brothers or others whether by Affinity or Alliance nearly related to them should in case their Kinsmen had suffered any thing of detriment from me remember the injury and demand punishment to be inflicted upon me but here are many whom I see First this Crito here my equal in years and my Country-man the Father of this Critobulus then Lysanias the Sphettensian the Father of this Aeschines and Antiphon the Cephisensian Father of Epigenes These others then whose Brethren lived with me in this way of conversation familiarly Nicostratus Son of Zotidas Brother of Theodotus but Theodotus is dead so that he cannot now ask his Brother to impeach me and this Paralus Son of Demodicus whose Brother is Theages and Adimantus of Ariston whose Brother here is Plato and Aeantidorus whose Brother is Apollodorus and many others I could shew of whom it was fit some one at least should have been named as witness by Melitus in his accusation and if he forgot to do it then let him produce any one of them now I will give him leave freely let him declare whether he hath any matter of this kind But ye shall find the contrary Athenians namely that all these are ready to help and vindicate me who say Melitus and Anytus corrupt and wrong their Kinsmen Truly if those whom I have corrupted and infected should endevour to assist and vindicate me that would carry a plausible face of reason but if those who have felt no contagion of my corruptions antient men and by consanguinity neerly related to those whom I have corrupted stand for and defend me they can seem to be impelled to that defense by no other reason but what is right and just that is because they are conscious that Melitus lyeth and I speak truth Let therefore what I have hitherto said Athenians and other the like reasons be sufficient for my defense But now some one may be offended at me He professeth not to court the favour nor to excite the commiseration of his Judges by the usual arts of pusillanimous men when standing at the Barr to receive their sentence if he call to mind that he being brought into less danger than this of mine is petitioned and courted the Judges with many tears and brought his children hither to excite pity and commiseration to the height and brought also to the same purpose many of his Kindred and Friends but observes me to do no such thing tho brought into extreme peril of my life and considering this with himself become the more inraged and more embittered against me and so in anger give his vote or sentence for my condemnation If any of you be thus affected I will not address to him with prayers and supplications to mitigate his displeasure yet think I may with equity and fair reason speak thus to him I also O thou very good man have some Kinsmen for as Homer saith I am not born from an Oak nor of a stone but from men I then have Kinsmen too Athenians and three Sons one a young Lad two little Boyes yet I have brought neither of them hither to begg of ye for their sakes to be favorable to me and absolve me What then will I do none of those submissive things Not of pertinacious arrogancy Athenians Yet not out of obstinate arrogancy nor of contempt of his Judges but only to conserve his own and their honor and dignity or in contempt of you whether I have courage and constancy to suffer death or not I shall elsewhere declare but to assert both my own and your honor and reputation and so that also of the whole City It seems to me indecent and dishonest that I should do any of those ungenerous things I who am of this age and have acquired whether deservedly or not so great a name for wisdom This then I most firmly resolve upon to do my devoir that Socrates may differ from other men Were those who among you seem to excel whether in sapience or in fortitude or in any other virtue whatsoever such as ye would have me to be afraid of death certainly no small disgrace would be thereby fixed upon your City Some such I have beheld when they stood here expecting the sentence of death to pass upon them who though they thought themselves brave fellows yet brought into those streights committed things dishonorable even to admiration as thinking they should suffer some grievous misery if they dyed as if forsooth they should be immortal if ye put them not to death These seem to me to bring a shameful mark of ignominy and reproach upon your City forasmuch as any stranger will hence take occasion of thinking basely of us namely that among the Athenians even those who as more excellent in virtue are preferred to places of highest dignity and power in the State nothing differ from timorous Women These things Athenians 't is not fit ye should do your selves who have acquired honor and renown and are highly esteemed both at home and abroad nor ought ye to permit them to be done by us but rather to make it appear by effect that ye will rather condemn him who shall introduce those Theatrical fopperies and devices to raise commiseration into your judgments and so expose your City to scorn and derision than him who calmly expects the event of your judgment Now besides this care we ought to have of the Honor of our City And because 't is inconsistent with the duty and oath of a Judge to admit of supplications for mercy there is this also adjoyned that to me it seems not equal and just that we should with supplications court the Judg and by the force and efficacy of those prayers decline the rigor of his sentence and so be absolved I think he is only to be rightly informed and by certain arguments perswaded For the Judge sits not here to confer grace and favour and to shew indulgence but to judge righteously To this he is bound by solemn Oath that according to the best of his understanding he shall not by grace and favour pervert right but judge according to the prescript and form of the Laws 'T is not therefore fit that either ye should accustom your selves or we be accustomed to perjury for neither could do it without violation of piety and religion Do not then Athenians require this from me that I should in your presence perform things which I take to be neither honest nor just nor pious and the rather because I stand here accused by
sufficiently efficacious nor honest but the best most honorable and easiest way is this not to hinder others but to render your selves virtuous to the highest degree Having then thus prophesied to those who have condemned me I leave them But to ye who have absolved me To his Friends he avows his confidence of happiness in his death and the presignification th reof by his Daemonium I shal gladly speak of what hath just now hapned while the Magistrates stay here imployed in other affairs and I have a short respit before I depart to the place where I must die and for so short a time do ye Athenians expect me for nothing hinders but we may speak together while we have the liberty To you who are my Friends I will declare what is the signification of this my disaster For Judges and in calling ye Judges I do ye but right there hath hapned to me an accident well worthy admiration That presaging and prophetie Voice of my Daemonium frequent to me at several times of my life past was wont to check and countermand me even in things of the least moment if I were about to enterprise any affair imprudently but now these Occurrents which ye see have hapned unto me which any one might imagine to be evils in extremity and yet that sign of God hath not contradicted me neither in the morning when I came forth nor when I ascended into the Pulpit or pleading chair nor in my speech whatsoever I was delivering In other speeches it did often interrupt me but now in this action it no waies opposed me in any thing I said or did And what do I conceive to be the reason of this I will explain it to ye This event of my condemnation is very happy to me We are not just Estimators of things whoever of us think death to be an evil Hereof this hath been to me a great argument for doubtless that usual sign would have resisted me if I had gone about any thing but what was truly good Thus we may with certain judgment determine of the matter That to good men there can be nothing of evil in death he proves by this Dilemma Either all sense is extinguished by death or mens Souls remain after death If there be no sense there must be eternal quiet if the Soul survive then there must be a state of extreme felicity to the Souls of good men in the society of the Blessed Hence Seneca seems to have borrowed that two edged argument against fear of death Mors nos aut consumit aut emittit emissis meliora restant onere detracto consamptis nihil restat Epist 24. A strong hope possesses me 't is happy for me that I am sent to death for one of these two is absolutely necessary Either death utterly deprives us of all sense or by death we pass from hence to another place Wherefore whether all sense be extinguished and death be like that sleep which sometimes brings most calm quiet without the deluding phantasms of Dreams good Gods what advantage it is to die for I think if any man were obliged to take particular notice of and set apart that night in which he slept so profoundly and quietly as not to be sensible of any the least disturbance from dreams and then comparing it with all other nights yea and daies too of his whole life past would observe which of all those nights or daies he had passed more sweetly and pleasantly I am of opinion that not only a man of private and humble condition but even the greatest of Kings would find such nights to be easily numerable in comparison of other whether daies or nights If then death be but like such a sound and undisturbed sleep I call it gain or advantage for all time seems to be nothing more than one night But if it be true as wise men have affirmed and taught that death is a passing hence into those places or regions which the deceased inhabit 't is more happy for thee when thou shalt have escaped from those who will have themselves to be accounted Judges to come to those who are rightly called Judges and who are said there to sit in judgment Minos and Radamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus and all other Demi-gods who lived justly and with faith Is such a change such a migration as this to be valued at nothing Then to converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer who of us would not prefer such a state of life to that of this For my part I would die if it were possible many times over to find the satisfactions I speak of How much shall I be delighted when I shall meet with Palamedes with Ajax the Son of Telamon and others circumvented by judgment of unjust men and compare their cases with my own This I think will not be unpleasant but this will be most pleasant there also to find one who examines and tries every one who is wise and who thinks himself wise but is not so how much rather Judges will a man find out him who brought a numerous Army against Troy or Vlisses or Sysiphus or very many others both men and Women with whom freely to talk and converse to compare opinions and make inquiries is a thing of vast and infinite wisdom And yet they who are there are not put to death for so doing and are in many other respects far happier than these our Citizens and for ever after immortal if at least those things that are said of the state of the Soul after death be true But it becomes you also This he saith not from doubt but from the supposition of the people with whom he had then to do For as to his own perswasion he held nothing so firm and certain as the immortality of mens minds or souls With the same caution Seneca also saith fortasse simodo sapient on vera sama est recipita nos locus aliquis quem putamne perisse premissas est Epist 63. O ye Judges to conceive noble hopes of death and to be fully perswaded in your minds of the verity of this that nothing of evill can ever come to a good man neither living nor dead and that his concerns are never neglected by the Gods Nor have these things hapned to me by chance but certain and evident it is to me that to die and to be freed from businesses is better and more conducible to me And for this reason that Divine sign hath not at all averted me Nor am I angry either with my Judges who condemned me or with my Accusers though they condemned and accused me not with design to render my condition more happy and tranquill but thinking thereby to bring some great incommodity or calamity upon me wherein I have just cause to complain of them But this only I begg of them In fine he recommends to his Judges the tuition of his Sons with this request that they might
be instructed rather to seek after virtue than to accumulate riches that if my Sons when they are grown up be troublesome to them in the same matters wherein I have disquieted and offended them they would severely punish them chiefly if they seem to take more care either of riches or the like transitory thing than of virtues they seem to be something when they are nothing I would have ye reprehend and convince them as I have reprehended you if they neglect things necessary to be solicitous about things unnecessary and pretend to be what they are not sharply reprove them Which if ye shall do both I and my Sons shal obtain from you a just and lawful benefit But 't is now time to depart I to my death ye to life and whether of the two is better I think is known only to God The End of Socrates his Apology AXIOMS MORAL Collected out of Socrates his Apology 1. A Judge is to consider not the Elegancy but Truth of what is said before him 2. The good Education of Youth is of very great Importance to the Common-wealth 3. Humane wisdom is not to be much valued because God alone is truly wise and among men he only deserves to be reputed wise who conscious of his own ignorance professeth to know nothing certainly but that he knows nothing 4. The Station and Office that God hath assigned to us in this Life we are to defend and maintain tho we thereby incur the greatest incommodities and dangers and we ought to have no consideration either of death or any other terror when Shame and Dishonour is to be avoided Nor are those things to be feared which we do not certainly know to be Evil but only those which we do certainly know to be Evil namely not to obey the Commands of God and to do unjustly 5. To be conversant in Affairs of State * A precept delivered also by Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ad rem publicam accessurum Sapientem and inculcated even by Cicero himself Omnia suâ causâ facere sapientes Remp. capessere hominem non oportere c. Orat. pro Sext. is full of danger 6. It is both indecent and unjust for Judges to be moved and seduced by the Charms of Eloquence or Tears for they ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no respecters of persons and without passion and so to give judgment not from their own affections but from the merit of the Cause and according to Law 7. An honorable Death is alwaies to be preferred to a dishonorable Life 8. Since God takes care of human Affairs and chiefly of Good men no Evil can come to Good men neither living nor dead 9. We are not to be immoderately angry with our Enemies nor to hate them although guilty of Crimes against us and certainly to suffer the punishments reserved for them A DIALOGUE Concerning the Immortality of Mans Rational Soul AND Admirable Constancy of SOCRATES at his Death The ARGUMENT Out of SERRANVS PLATO here introduceth Phedo recounting to Echecrates the Philosophical Discourses delivered by Socrates the very day wherein he suffered death by a draught of poyson wherein he shewed both his invincible magnanimity in embracing death with perfect tranquility of mind and his most certain perswasion of the immortality of the Rational Soul By this eminent Example then and from the mouth of that true Hero at that time encountring that Gyant of Terrors death when the judgment and sayings of men much inferior to Socrates in point of wisdom are commonly reputed Oraculous Plato proves the Humane Soul to be immortal and declares his opinion concerning the state and condition thereof after its separation from the body The Thesis therefore or capital design of this Dialogue seems to be two-fold first to evince that death ought to be contemned and then that the Soul is by the prerogative of its nature exempt from the power of death And from the latter as the more noble and august part the whole Dialogue borrows its Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Animo of the Soul The Contents thereof are partly moral in that it teaches the contempt of death and constant adherence to virtue partly Metaphysical or Theological for that it treats of the excellency of the Soul and of God To these are added also Ornamental parts viz. a decent Introduction and accurate Narration of the remarkable manner and circumstances of Socrates his death Of these so various parts the Oeconomy or Order is concisely this Some Philosophers Friends to Socrates visiting him in the prison the last day of his life and talking familiarly together the clue of their conference oon leads them to this useful question Whether a wise man ought to fear death Of this Socrates first disputing with less cogent Reasons and transiently determining that other doubt Whether it be lawful for a man to kill himself opportunely and after his grave way of arguing resumes proceeds in the former enquiry about despising death Concerning which the summe of his reasoning is this Since the principal duty of a Philosopher is daily to meditate upon Death i. e. to withdraw and divide his Mind or Soul from his body and the exorbitant desires thereof and death is defined to be only a separation of the Soul from the Body and that after this frail and mortal life is at an end there remains a full and solid felicity to be enjoyed by those who have here truly and sincerly embraced the study of Wisdom there is no reason why he should fear death but good cause rather why he should wish and long for it because being thereby freed and secured from all importune and insatiable lusts of the body wherewith the Soul is here intangled and fettered he should instantly pass to a second and better life and therein attain to a full and perfect knowledg of Wisdom Which he now remonstrates he most assuredly expected to enjoy immediatly after his death and so his body being dissolved to become consummately happy So from the consequence of this conclusion there naturally ariseth a new dispute about the Souls surviving the Body For if the Soul exist not after death all dissertation concerning future felicity or infelicity must be vain and absurd Of this most important conference about the immortality of the Soul there are three parts One positively asserts the Soul to be essentially immortal the Second refutes the contrary opinions the Third teaches the use and advantages of the belief of the Souls immortality The FIRST part then of this excellent Doctrine of Plato and of Socrates too from whom he seems to have learned it concerning the Souls immortality is Apodictical or Demonstrative And yet he so prudently and circumspectly manages his forces as to begin the combat with a Forlorn of lighter Reasons and then bring up as it were a phalanx of stronger and more pressing arguments to assure the Victory which indeed is his
we say 't is just or not Just without doubt Is it fair and good Why not But have you ever beheld with your eyes any thing of those None saith he Have you with any other of your corporal senses attained to these things I speak of all as of magnitude health strength and in a word the like which are of such a nature as they have all a real being is their most true and certain nature considered and fully discovered by the body Or is it thus that he who is most fitly and exquisitely comparated or disposed to comprehend by cogitation the nature of that very thing in the disquisition whereof he is versed shall come nearest to the knowledge and understanding of the nature thereof No doubt of it He then will perform this most purely and clearly who by that edge of his Wit by that accuteness of Spirit pierceth into everything neither making use of his sight while he thinks nor drawing any other sense into counsel together with his reasoning but imploying only his pure and simple faculty of reasoning endeavours thereby to investigate and discover the naked and true nature of the things themselves free and separated from his ears and eyes and in a word from his whole body as that which may perturb the Soul it self and hinder it from acquiring to it self verity and wisdom when it is imployed in conversation and commerce therewith Will this man think you if any other doth attain to understand the true nature of things you speak truth Socrates over and over saith Simmias Is it not then consequently necessary that to those who are truly Philosophers there be a constant and established Opinion that they may confer among themselves about these things there seems to be a plain way as it were paved to our hands which leads us with reason to the consideration of things but while we carry about this body and our Soul is immersed in so dark and incommodious a sink of evil we shall never attain to what we desire This we affirm to be truth For this body creates to us an infinity of businesses troubles and disquiets meerly for the nourishment and necessary supplies of it Besides if diseases chance to invade us they likewise hinder us from the investigation of various things and that fills us with loves desires fears various imaginations and Chimera's and many foolish whimsies so that it is a very true saying that the body will never permit us to be wise For nothing but the body raiseth wars seditions combats and the like mischiefs by its inordinate lusts and we are forced to provide monies for maintenance of the body being slaves and drudges to the necessary services of it Now while we are thus imployed in these meaner Offices we have no leisure to apply our selves to the study and search of wisdom And what is the greatest of all incommodities if we do by chance get any thing of leisure and vacancy from the cares of the body and address our minds to the serious consideration of any thing presently the body intrudes and while we are busied in that inquiry raiseth commotions and tumult and so disturbs and confounds the mind that it cannot possibly discern truth But we have already demonstrated The former assumption repeated and illustrated by a Dilemma Whence flows a certain conclusion since the grand design of a Philosopher is to discern truth his duty is to separate his Soul from his Body and so as it were to anticipate death in this life that if we desire to perceive any thing purely and clearly we must withdraw from the body and imploy only our mind which alone is capable to discern the nature and properties of Objects in the contemplation thereof for then at length as appears we shall attain to the fruition of what we desire and with love and diligence seek after namely wisdom when we have passed through the refinement of death as our precedent discourse intimates but not whilst we remain in this life For if it be impossible for us to perceive any thing pure and intire in conjunction with the body one of these two propositions must of necessity follow either we shall never attain to sapience or not until we have passed out of this life For then will the Soul be intirely divorced and separate from the Body but not before While we live here we approach indeed never to sapience if we have as little commerce and conversation with the body and be as little infected with the lusts thereof as the condition and necessities of our frail nature will permit but preserve our selves pure from the contagion of the same until God himself shall discharge and free us wholly from it And being once thus delivered and pure from the madness and seducements of the body as is reasonable to believe we shall both be associated to the like pure beings and by our selves know all purity and integrity which perhaps is truth it self For it is not possible for him who is himself impure to touch what is pure These things Simmias I conceive it necessary for all who are possessed with a right desire of understanding things both to hold and to discourse of among themselves Are not you also of the same opinion Altogether Socrates If then these be true proceeds Socrates there is truly great hope The second conclusion from the premises viz. if we then only live well i. e. exercise our faculty of reasoning when we abdicate our senses it necessarily follows that we shall then be happy and perceive truth plainly when we shall be wholly separated from the body i. e. after death that who shall arrive at the place whither I am now going will there if any where abundantly attain to the enjoyment of that for which we have in the whole course of our life past been seeking with extreme labour and study This peregrination therefore now appointed to me is finished with good hope and so it will to any other who shall have once perswaded himself to prepare his mind by rendring it pure and clean No doubt of it saith Simmias Is therefore what we said even now to be held a purification and purging of the Mind viz. as much as is possible to divorce it from the Body and to accustom it to be by it self congregated and retired from the same and to dwell as it were by it self both in this and in the future life single by it self and freed as from the chains of the body Yea certainly saith Simmias Is death then rightly called a solution and separation of the Soul from the Body It is so saith he And do they only who study Philosophy rightly most endeavour to divorce their Souls from their Bodies as we have said is not this the constant meditation of Philosophers It seems to be so What therefore we said in the beginning A third conclusion Since the principal design of a Philosopher is to attain unto truth and
therefore of the two pairs I just now mentioned to you I will explain and their generations do you shew me the other To sleep and to awake for out of sleep comes waking and out of waking sleep The origins or generatipns of these are of sleep to be in a deep sleep of waking to be raised up from sleep Is this sufficiently explained or not Sufficiently * That death is contrary to life and life to death whence is collected that the dead are out of the living and the living out of the dead and therefore the souls thus passing from body to body still are in Being for otherwise they could not transmigrate Do you then tell me with equal plainess of life and death whether is life contrary to death It is so And are some things generated out of others They are What then is made out of one living A dead one saith he and what out of a dead A living I must confess Of the dead therefore Cebes are made the living Clearly so saith he Are then our Souls in the Mansions below It seems so Of the two generations or orgins therefore which we have demonstrated to be in these things is not one at least perspicuous For to die is manifest to all is it not yes saith he * The same conclusion further explicated thus tho this new life appear not to us yet since no man can doubt of death which is known to all from the nature of contraries that cannot be understood one without the other it is necessary that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reviving or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 second generation to life be What then shall we do shall we compose some other contrary to this or will this nature rather be maimed and imperfect or shall we determine that some other generation is to be rendred contrary to death yes saith he What shall that be Even to revive that is a new life If then there be a new life will that be a certain generation out of the dead to the living Doubtless That therefore shall be confessed and established betwixt us that the living have existence out of the dead no less than the dead out of the living Which being so is a convenient argument that it is plainly necessary the Souls of the dead be somewhere from whence they may again exist This indeed Socrates seems to me to be proved from Propositions granted and given Observe this also Cebes that we have not confessed that without good cause * Another Argument ab incommodo if contraries were not thus produced out of contraries all Generations would inevitably cease which being absurd he thence collects and evinces that out of the living are made the dead and out of the dead the living Which is the first conclusion For unless those things that are made were composed some of others by turns so as they come round again as in a circle but there were only a generation in a right line from one to its opposite not reflecting again to the first nor making a return or regress assure your self it would come to pass that at length all things would have the same figure be in the same manner affected and consequently would cease to be made How 's that saith he 'T is not difficult answers Socrates to comprehend what I say For Example if this very thing to sleep if I may so speak that is sleep were existent but to awake were not on the reverse composed of the man sleeping we were obliged to conclude that all would at length represent the Fable of Endymion and appear no where because the same would happen to all that hapned to that Endymion namely to sleep And if all things were mixed and compounded into one without discretion or distinction then that of the Anaxagoreans would come to pass all things would be at once In the same manner my Cebes if all things that now participate of life should die and then remain dead in that figure nor revive again is it not clearly necessary that at length all must die and nothing be left alive for if the living have existence out of others and the living should die how could it be possible but all would be consumed by death By no meanes Socrates quoth he for all you say appears to me to be true 'T is even so Cebes saith he Nor do we seem to confess things as being imposed upon and circumvented by error but this is really demonstrated by us that there is a return and restauration of a certain new life that the living are made out of the dead that the Souls of the dead exist and that good Souls are in a better condition and wicked ones in a worse Here Cebes answering A second Reason to prove the Immortality of the Soul drawn from that Hypothesis that to learn is only to remember For if in this body the Soul remember the things it knew before it came into it it hath had a Being before it was married to the same Socrates saith he what you now said ariseth from the reason of that opinion which you frequently have in your mouth if at least it be true that to learn is only to remember And from this opinion indeed it seems to be necessarily concluded that we some time heretofore learned what we now recal into our memory But this could not be unless our Soul were in being before it came into this human form So by this reason also the Soul seems to be a thing immortal But Cebes saith Simmias taking up the Discourse pray recal to our memory those your demonstrations for I do not well remember them at present The thing may be demonstrated by one and that a remarkable Reason * A proof of that Platonic Hypothesis that science is Reminiscense from the effects themselves viz. that men being asked rightly answer fitly of things otherwise than by reminiscense unknown to them yea and of such as are indeed obscure and abstruse as in Mathematics This Plato more copiously explicates in his Dialogue called Menon here touching it only en passant namely because men being asked they deliver the whole matter as it is but this certainly they could not do if there were not Science and right reason in them Again if a man bring a matter to Geometrical Figures or Diagrams or the like evidences this most manifestly proves and demonstrates the same to be true But if by this way saith Socrates that be not proved to you consider well whether when you by this reason seriously examine the matter it seem to you so clear as that you ought to assent thereunto Do you not believe how that which is called to learn is really nothing but to remember I do not indeed refuse to believe it but desire to have recalled into my memory that of which we began to discourse and from those reasons Cebes hath endevoured to alledge I almost remember and believe it already Nevertheless
deplorable calamity if when a discourse is true and certain and such as may be commodiously comprehended and understood yet afterward any man should fall from the truth of it and waver in uncertainty because in those very reasons which being alledged on both parts may seem one while true and another while false he hath been curiously versed Would not he I say accuse himself He would not confess his own dulness but growing at length discontented would transfer his fault upon the discourses themselves and during the remainder of his life pursue them with perpetual hatred and detestation because it had by their fault hapned that he had been deprived of the just power of Verity and Science By Jove answered I it would be very sad and deplorable * Socrates addeth that when in a Philosophical inquisition we come to that point that we cannot understand why a thing is so or so constituted we ought to accuse not the Reasons themselves but our selves and our own infirmity and so in this very Argument First therefore continued he let us avoid this danger and not perswade our selves of the wrong through prejudice as if we thought there were nothing of solidity or soundness in discourses themselves but this rather let us believe that we our selves are not of sound and upright judgment and that we are to endeavour with courage and resolution to render our selves more discerning and judicious you and others for the remainder of your lives and I for my death But methink I am not now treating of this Subject as becomes a Philosopher but rather contentiously and obstinately as the grosly ignorant are wont to argue For they when they doubt of any thing take little care of what properly belongs to the nature and investigation thereof but apply their whole study and diligence only to this to perswade others to think as themselves think And I seem to differ from them only in this I am not solicitous to convince others of the truth of what I say unless so far forth as it comes in my way occasionally and by the by to do it but rather that the same things may appear to my self to be really such as I represented them to be Thus my Phedo I reason and do you look with how great accession of profit and emolument to others For if the things I say be true 't is happy for me that I believe them but if nothing remain to me after death yet at this time that intercedes before it I shall be the less unpleasant to those who are present than otherwise I might be in case I lamented and deplored my death But the ignorance of this matter will now no longer persue me for that would be evil but be soon blotted out And thus prepared Simmias and Cebes I address my self to speak Do ye the while so govern your assent as to have little consideration of Socrates and all you can of truth If I seem to speak truth give me your assent if not oppose me with all your power of reason being chiefly intent upon this that I may not through this my vehement study and ardor of thoughts lead both my self and you into error depart like a Bee leaving my sting behind me To come therefore to the thing in dispute Coming now to the Refutation of the contrary opinions objected for more perpiscuity sake he first rehearseth them faithfully first do ye recal into my memory what things ye have said unless I shal appear to you to remember them of my self Simmias as I think diffident of of what I alleged doubts and fears that the Soul though more divine and excellent than the Body may yet perish before it as arising from and depending upon a kind of Harmony or consent of the organs of the Body But Cebes seems to grant this that the Soul is indeed more lasting than the Body uand yet holds it to remain uncertain whether the Soul after it hath passed through and worn out many Bodies by use doth not at a certain time it self also leaving its last body perish and vanish away and whether that death be not the destruction and abolition of the Soul for as much as the body never ceaseth to perish Are not these your Opinions Simmias and Cebes Both assented that they were * Refutation of the first contrary Opinion that the Soul being only Harmony as it ariseth from the Body so it perisheth with it But saith he whether do ye reject all my precedent discourses or do ye repudiate only some and admit others Some say they we reject some we approve What do ye resolve concerning that part of my discourse wherein I affirmed that Discipline or Learning is Reminiscence which being established it would necessarily follow that our Soul hath existence some where before it is conjoyned to the Body I confess saith Cebes both that when you delivered that Doctrin I suffered my self to be perswaded and that now I wholly adhere to it if to any other opinion But you must be or another judgment replies Socrates if you yet continue in that perswasion of yours that Harmony is a thing compounded and the Soul a certain Harmony constituted of those things that are extended and diffused through the Body For otherwise you would contradict your self as having said that this Harmony was made before those parts and organs of the Body of which it ought to be composed were in being Will you admit this By no means Socrates saith he * An Argument from an Absurdity thus If the Soul were Harmony then would it be necessarily consequent that the Soul was not prae-existent to the Body which yet was before granted and proved And this Argument is indeed firm as to its form but infirm as to its ground namely the supposition of the prae-existence of Souls Do you conceive then saith he that these two affirmations can stand together namely that the Soul hath existence even before it takes possession of a Human Body and that the same Soul consisteth of two things that are not yet in being For you have no such Harmony to which you liken it but first the Harp and the strings and the sounds and so the consonances and tunes by certain Musical modes composed are made and the Harmony as it is last formed so it first perisheth And how can this Opinion of yours agree with your other By no means saith Simmias And yet notwithstanding saith he it is highly reasonable that if it consist and agree with any tenent it must be chiefly with this concerning Harmony It is so saith Simmias That discourse therefore is disagreeable to you but see which of the two you will take this that Discipline is Remembrance or this that the Soul is Harmony Rather the first saith he Socrates For this hath pleased me without any firm demonstration only by indication of a probable and elegant example whence it hath been approved by many others also *