INTRODUCTION.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
INTRODUCTION.
This
translation of Xenophon’s “Memorabilia of Socrates” was first
published in 1712, and is here printed from the revised edition of
1722. Its author was Edward Bysshe, who had produced in 1702
“The Art of English Poetry,” a well-known work that was near its
fifth edition when its author published his translation of the
“Memorabilia.” This was a translation that remained in good
repute. There was another edition of it in 1758. Bysshe
translated the title of the book into “The Memorable Things of
Socrates.” I have changed “Things” into “Thoughts,”
for whether they be sayings or doings, the words and deeds of a wise
man are alike expressions of his thought.Xenophon
is said to have been, when young, a pupil of Socrates. Two
authorities have recorded that in the flight from the battle of
Delium in the year b.c. 424, when Xenophon fell from his horse,
Socrates picked him up and carried him on his back for a considerable
distance. The time of Xenophon’s death is not known, but he
was alive sixty-seven years after the battle of Delium.When
Cyrus the Younger was preparing war against his brother Artaxerxes
Mnemon, King of Persia, Xenophon went with him. After the death
of Cyrus on the plains of Cunaxa, the barbarian auxiliaries fled, and
the Greeks were left to return as they could from the far region
between the Tigris and Euphrates. Xenophon had to take part in
the conduct of the retreat, and tells the story of it in his
“Anabasis,” a history of the expedition of the younger Cyrus and
of the retreat of the Greeks. His return into Greece was in the
year of the death of Socrates, b.c. 399, but his association was now
with the Spartans, with whom he fought, b.c. 394, at Coroneia.
Afterwards he settled, and lived for about twenty years, at Scillus
in Eleia with his wife and children. At Scillus he wrote
probably his “Anabasis” and some other of his books. At
last he was driven out by the Eleans. In the battle of
Mantineia the Spartans and Athenians fought as allies, and Xenophon’s
two sons were in the battle; he had sent them to Athens as
fellow-combatants from Sparta. His banishment from Athens was
repealed by change of times, but it does not appear that he returned
to Athens. He is said to have lived, and perhaps died, at
Corinth, after he had been driven from his home at Scillus.Xenophon
was a philosophic man of action. He could make his value felt
in a council of war, take part in battle—one of his books is on the
duties of a commander of cavalry—and show himself good sportsman in
the hunting-field. He wrote a book upon the horse; a treatise
also upon dogs and hunting. He believed in God, thought
earnestly about social and political duties, and preferred Spartan
institutions to those of Athens. He wrote a life of his friend
Agesilaus II., King of Sparta. He found exercise for his
energetic mind in writing many books. In writing he was clear
and to the point; his practical mind made his work interesting.
His “Anabasis” is a true story as delightful as a fiction; his
“Cyropædia” is a fiction full of truths. He wrote
“Hellenica,” that carried on the history of Greece from the point
at which Thucydides closed his history until the battle of
Mantineia. He wrote a dialogue between Hiero and Simonides upon
the position of a king, and dealt with the administration of the
little realm of a man’s household in his “Œconomicus,” a
dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus, which includes the praise
of agriculture. He wrote also, like Plato, a symposium, in
which philosophers over their wine reason of love and friendship, and
he paints the character of Socrates.But
his best memorial of his old guide, philosopher, and friend is this
work, in which Xenophon brought together in simple and direct form
the views of life that had been made clear to himself by the teaching
of Socrates. Xenophon is throughout opposing a plain tale to
the false accusations against Socrates. He does not idealise,
but he feels strongly, and he shows clearly the worth of the wisdom
that touches at every point the actual conduct of the lives of men.H.
M.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER
I. SOCRATES NOT A CONTEMNER OF THE GODS OF HIS COUNTRY, NOR AN
INTRODUCER OF NEW ONES.I
have often wondered by what show of argument the accusers of Socrates
could persuade the Athenians he had forfeited his life to the State.
For though the crimes laid unto his charge were indeed great—“That
he did not acknowledge the gods of the Republic; that he introduced
new ones”—and, farther, “had debauched the youth;” yet none
of these could, in the least, be proved against him.For,
as to the first, “That he did not worship the deities which the
Republic adored,” how could this be made out against him, since,
instead of paying no homage to the gods of his country, he was
frequently seen to assist in sacrificing to them, both in his own
family and in the public temples?—perpetually worshipping them in
the most public, solemn, and religious manner.What,
in my opinion, gave his accusers a specious pretext for alleging
against him that he introduced new deities was this—that he had
frequently declared in public he had received counsel from a
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