BOOK VII
that Socrates died a more glorious death, and disputed more deftly with the Sophists, and with more hardihood braved whole nights in the frost, and, when called upon to fetch the Salaminian,[1] deemed it more spirited[2] to disobey, and that he carried his head high as he walked[3]—and about the truth of this one can easily judge—; but the point to elucidate is this: what sort of soul had Socrates,[4] and could he rest satisfied with being just in his dealings with men and religious in his attitude towards the Gods, neither resentful at the wickedness of others nor yet lackeying the ignorance of anyone, nor regarding as alien to himself anything allotted to him from the Whole, nor bearing it as a burden intolerable, nor letting his intelligence be swayed sympathetically by the affections of the flesh ?
67. Nature did not make so intimate a blend in the compound as not to allow a man to isolate himself and keep his own things in his own power. For it is very possible to be a godlike man and yet not to be recognized by any.[5] Never forget this nor that the happy life depends on the fewest possible things[6]; nor because thou hast been baulked in the hope of becoming skilled in dialectics and physics,[7] needest thou despair of being free and modest and unselfish and obedient to God.
68. Thou mayest live out thy life with none to constrain thee in the utmost peace of mind even though the whole world cry out against thee what
- ↑ Plato, Apol. 20 C; Epict. iv. 7 § 30.
- ↑ Or γενναιότερον, more honourable.
- ↑ Arist. Nub. 363; Plato, Symp. 221 B. The meaning of the parenthesis is not clear.
- ↑ cp. Dio Orat. iii. ad init.
- ↑ Sen. (Ep. 79) instances Democritus, Socrates, and Cato.
- ↑ Julian, Conviv. 427. 21, where Marcus, asked in what consists the imitation of the Gods, says δεῖσθαι τῶν ἐλαχίστων. cp. Lucian, Cynic. 12: οἱ δ᾽ ἔγγιστοι θεοῖς ἐλαχίστων δέονται. Diog. Laert. Socr. 11.
- ↑ i. 17, § 8; cp. v. 5; viii. 1.
