THE
INTRODUCTION
TO
SOCRATES's Apology
IN Eutyphron we ſaw how Socrates attack’d the Superſtition of the Athenians and the plurality of their Gods, by expoſing the ridiculouſneſs of the Fables with which their Divinity
was ſtuff'd , and by that means endeavouring to bring 'em to the knowledge of the true God. They were a People devoted to Idolatry, and always upon their guard againſt Innovations; witneſs the Acts of the Apoſtles, where we ſee the Athenians, who were diſturb’d at the preaching of St. Paul, Ch.17.18 cry’d out, He ſeemeth to be a ſetter forth of ſtrange Gods. Now a People thus diſpos'd, could not but be alarm’d by a Doctrine ſo oppoſite to their Errors But that was not the firſt ſpring of their hatred of Socrates. The Vertue and generous Liberty of that wifé Man procur’d him many ſécret Enemies, who, in order to get rid of a publick Cenſor that always twitted them with their Vices, decry’d him underhand, as being an impious Fellow, that meddled with ſuſpected Sciences, and taught the way of promoting Injuſtice. Ariſtophenes was the moſt ſerviceable Inſtrument in ſpreading that Calumny. His Comedy of the Clouds had ſuch an abſolute influence upon the People, that it mov'd them to receive the Accuſation brought against this Philoſopher more than twenty Years after, branding him for a profligate Wretch that introduc’d new Deities, The
