for the cup; and when he took it in his hand, his friends were so overcome with grief, that they burst into tears and loud lamentations. Socrates alone was calm. He then drank the hemlock slowly, and strove to console his friends, as he walked up and down the apartment. When it became difficult to walk, he lay down upon the couch, and presently, covering himself with a cloak, expired."
Contemplate this picture! how sublime! how beautiful! a life of disinterested doing good, and devotion to the improvement and welfare of his fellow-men; of faithfulness and uprightness in all the relations of life, and exactness in the performance of all duties public and private; still more, the high and religious motives and firm faith in a Power above, by which his whole conduct was actuated; and lastly, his readiness to die rather than abandon his principles: all these things, combined, present a picture of lofty virtue such as the world has rarely seen. Here, then, is an instance of goodness, as existing in a human mind. Consider in what it consists: observe that it is a compound of high principles and disinterested affections; or, what is the same, it is a spirit of unselfishness and love for others and for truth and right, based on a dear understanding of the moral relations of things, and on a belief in a Supreme Governor of the world, to whom man is responsible for all he does, and on whom he is dependent for all he possesses.
And whence, now, did this noble Greek derive the goodness he exhibited? Whence came that power of self-control, which enabled him to master his appetites and passions, (which, as he himself declared, were
