y
pretends that what he is speaking is not his own composition. Thus in
the Cratylus he is run away with; in the Phaedrus he has heard somebody
say something--is inspired by the genius loci; in the Symposium he
derives his wisdom from Diotima of Mantinea, and the like. But he does
not impose on Menexenus by his dissimulation. Without violating the
character of Socrates, Plato, who knows so well how to give a hint, or
some one writing in his name, intimates clearly enough that the speech
in the Menexenus like that in the Phaedrus is to be attributed to
Socrates. The address of the dead to the living at the end of the
oration may also be compared to the numerous addresses of the same kind
which occur in Plato, in whom the dramatic element is always tending to
prevail over the rhetorical. The remark has been often made, that in the
Funeral Oration of Thucydides there is no allusion to the existence of
the dead. But in the Menexenus a future state is clearly, although not
strongly, asserted.

Whether the Menexenus is a genuine writing of Plato, or an imitation
only, remains uncertain. In either case, the thoughts are partly
borrowed from the Funeral Oration of Thucydides; and the fact that
they are so, is not in favour of the genuineness of the work. Internal
evidence seems to leave the question of authorship in doubt. There are
merits and there are defects which might lead to either conclusion. The
form of the greater part of the work makes the enquiry difficult; the
introduction and the finale certainly wear the look either of Plato or
of an extremely skilful imitator. The excellence of the forgery may be
fairly adduced as an argument that it is not a forgery at all. In this
uncertainty the express testimony of Aristotle, who quotes, in the
Rhetoric, the well-known words, 'It is easy to praise the Athenians
among the Athenians,' from the Funeral Oration, may perhaps turn the
balance in its favour. It must be remembered also that the work was
famous in antiquity, and is included in the Alexandrian catalogues of
Platonic writings.

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates and Menexenus.

SOCRATES: Whence come you, Menexenus? Are you from the Agora?

MENEXENUS: Yes, Socrates; I have been at the Council.

SOCRATES: And what might you be doing at the Council? And yet I need
hardly ask, for I see that you, believing yourself to have arrived at
the end of education and of philosophy, and to have had enough of them,
are mo