57^ Socrates^ Schleiermacher^ and Delbrueck. the Gorgias (p. 521. ), where indeed the rhetoric, which works by flattery and falsehood, is condemned as unworthy of a wise man. But it cannot be inferred from this that Socrates would have scrupled to defend himself in a continuous speech ; any more than from the anecdote, to which we are likewise referred, that he refused to avail himself of an oration composed for him by Lysias. It was not its form but its contents that he is said to have thought degrading to him. All therefore must still depend on the character of the Apology, and on the degree in which it answers to Xenophon's description of the defense which Socrates really made, as singularly distinguished by its truth, frankness, and justice. (Mem. iv. 8. 1.) Mr Ast indeed thinks it clear, that Socrates did not observe the ordinary forms of public speeches, but interrupted the continuity of his address to the court, by interrogating his accusers. Since however this is exactly what we find him doing in the Apology, and it is im- possible to estimate the exact proportion between the dialogue and the other part of his defense, this argument rather weighs in favour of the controverted work than against it. For that his whole defense should have consisted of a series of questions, is incredible in itself, and is more than Mr Ast himself ventures to assert ; though he has not observed that nothing short of this is required for his inference. Indeed throughout the whole of his remarks on this subject he seems not sufficiently to have borne in mind, that we have to consider not merely what Socrates preferred and approved of, but what the situation in which he was placed enabled him to do. It is certainly most probable that if Meletus had brought the same charge against him in a private circle, where he was left to act at his own dis- cretion, he would have declined to give any direct reply, and would have brought the question to an issue entirely by means of a series of questions. But the numerous tribunal before which he was called upon for his public defense was composed of persons, who had a very quick and fine taste for oratory but very little for dialectic subtilty, and who expected a regular speech on such occasions, not merely to instruct them in the merits of the case, but also as a part of their habitual entertain- ment, Socrates must have been aware, that unless he meant to exasperate his audience, and indeed if he wished to secure a hearing, it would be necessary to begin by addressing them in
