s only a stone set on fire, he
did not consider that a stone glitters not in the fire, and cannot last
long in it without consuming, whereas the sun lasts always, and is an
inexhaustible source of light.

Socrates advised, likewise, to learn arithmetic, but not to amuse
ourselves with the vain curiosities of that science, having established
this rule in all his studies and in all his conferences, never to go
beyond what is useful.

He exhorted his friends to take care of their health, and to that purpose
to consult with the learned; and to observe, besides, each in his own
particular, what meat, what drink, and what exercise is best for him, and
how to use them to preserve himself in health. For when a man has thus
studied his own constitution, he cannot have a better physician than
himself.

If any one desired to attempt or to learn things that were above the
power or capacity of human nature, he advised him to apply himself to
divination; for he who knows by what means the gods generally signify
their mind to men, or how it is they used to give them counsel and aid,
such a person never fails to obtain from the Deity all that direction and
assistance that is necessary for him.

CHAPTER VIII. BEHAVIOUR OF SOCRATES FROM THE TIME OF HIS CONDEMNATION TO
HIS DEATH.--HIS CHARACTER SUMMED UP IN A FEW WORDS.

To conclude: if, because Socrates was condemned to death, any one should
believe that he was a liar to say that he had a good demon that guided
him, and gave him instructions what he should or should not do, let him
consider, in the first place, that he was arrived to such an age that if
he had not died when he did, he could not have lived much longer; that by
dying when he did he avoided the most toilsome part of life, in which the
mind loses much of its vigour; and that in amends for it he discovered to
the whole world the greatness of his soul, acquired to himself an
immortal glory, by the defence he made before his judges, in behaving
himself with a sincerity, courage, and probity that were indeed
wonderful, and in receiving his sentence with a patience and resolution
of mind never to be equalled; for it is agreed by all that no man ever
suffered death with greater constancy than Socrates.

He lived thirty days after his condemnation, because the Delian feasts
happened in that month, and the law forbids to put any man to death till
the consecrated vessel that is sent to the Isle of Delos be come back to