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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: regard death as for himself preferable to life; and consequently there
is just a suspicion of foolhardiness in the arrogancy of his
address.[5] We have, however, from the lips of one of his intimate
acquaintances, Hermogenes,[6] the son of Hipponicus, an account of him
which shows the high demeanour in question to have been altogether in
keeping with the master's rational purpose.[7] Hermogenes says that,
seeing Socrates discoursing on every topic rather than that of his
impending trial, he roundly put it to him whether he ought not to be
debating the line of his defence, to which Socrates in the first
instance answered: "What! do I not seem to you to have spent my whole
life in meditating my defence?" And when Hermogenes asked him, "How?"
The Apology |
