te drinker has become a wine-bibber and a drunkard; from being a
lover of healthy honest toil has become effeminate, or under the
thrall of some other wicked pleasure."

"Nay, bless my soul," exclaimed Meletus, "I know those whom you
persuaded to obey yourself rather than the fathers who begat
them." [39]

"I admit it," Socrates replied, "in the case of education, for they
know that I have made the matter a study; and with regard to health a
man prefers to obey his doctor rather than his parents; in the public
assembly the citizens of Athens, I presume, obey those whose arguments
exhibit the soundest wisdom rather than their own relations. And is it
not the case that, in your choice of generals, you set your fathers
and brothers, and, bless me! your own selves aside, by comparison with
those whom you believe to be the wisest authorities on military
matters?"

"No doubt, Socrates," replied Meletus, "because it is expedient and
customary so to do."

"Well then," rejoined Socrates, "does it not strike even you, Meletus,
as wonderful when in all ordinary concerns the best people should
obtain, I do not say only an equal share, but an exclusive preference;
but in my case, simply because I am selected by certain people as an
adept in respect of the greatest treasure men possess--education, I am
on that account to be prosecuted by you, sir, on the capital charge?"

Much more than this, it stands to reason, was urged, whether by
himself or by the friends who advocated his cause. [40] But my object
has not been to mention everything that arose out of the suit. It
suffices me to have shown on the one hand that Socrates, beyond
everything, desired not to display impiety to heaven, [41] and
injustice to men; and on the other, that escape from death was not a
thing, in his opinion, to be clamoured for importunately--on the
contrary, he believed that the time was already come for him to die.
That such was the conclusion to which he had come was made still more
evident later when the case had been decided against him. In the first
place, when called upon to suggest a counter-penalty, [42] he would
neither do so himself nor suffer his friends to do so for him, but
went so far as to say that to propose a counter-penalty was like a
confession of guilt. And afterwards, when his companions wished to
steal him out of prison, [43] he would not follow their lead, but would
seem to have treated the idea as a jest, by asking "whether they