PREFACE ΤΟ THE MEMOIRS OF SOCRATES. ALTHOUGH the translator of the following Memoirs was fully persuaded, that the far greater number of those who favoured her with their names, and assisted her with their interest, were influenced by much nobler motives, than the expectation of receiving any thing very extraordinary from her hand; yet, so little did this appear to her any reason for relaxing her endeavours, that on the contrary, she considered it as laying her under an additional obligation to do all the justice she possibly could to her author. It was partly on that account; partly from sickness; and partly from some other accidents, not more within her power to regulate, than the state of her own health, that the publication of these Memoirs hath been deferred beyond the time first mentioned in the proposals: but if the task is, at last, discharged tolerably, the mind of the translator will be set much at ease; and the reader find somewhat to repay him for his waiting. That the Memoirs of Socrates, with regard to the greatest part, are held in the highest estimation, is most certain; and if there are some passages which seem obscure; and of which the use doth not so plainly appear to us at this distance of time; and from the dissimilarity of our customs and manners; yet, perhaps, we might not do amiss, in taking Socrates himself for our example in this particular, as well as in many others; who being presented by Euripides with the writings of Heraclitus, and afterwards asked his opinion of their merit;-" What I understand," said he, “I find to be excellent; and therefore believe that to be of equal value, which I do not understand."-" And, certainly," continues the admired modern writer, from whom the quotation above was taken, "this candour is more particularly becoming us in the perusal of the works of ancient authors; of those works which have been preserved in the devastation of cities; and snatched up in the wreck of nations: which have been the delight of ages; and transmitted as the great inheritance of mankind, from one generation to another: and we ought to take it for granted, that there is a justness in the connexion, which we cannot trace; and a cogency in the reasoning, which we cannot understand." The translator of the following sheets would willingly bespeak the same candour, in reading the translations of the ancient writers, which hath above been thought so necessary for judging right of the originals. In the preface to the Life of Cicero, the celebrated writer of it thus expresses himself:-" Nor has that part of the task," said he, (speaking of the several passages he had translated from the writings of Cicero) "been the easiest to me; as those will readily believe who have ever attempted to translate the classical writings of Greece and Rome." It may, perhaps, be objected, "That candour alone is not sufficient for the present occasion:" to which it can only be answered, "That something was to be done: and, that no pains hath been spared, to do it as well as possible.” The translator is sorry to find, that the title affixed to this work hath not been approved of universally: and, in truth, that inundation of trifles, follies, and vices, lately introduced into the world, under the general appellation of Memoirs, bath occasioned such an unhappy association of ideas, as doth not well suit with a Xenophon's giving a relation of what a Socrates once said and did: but the translator takes shelter for her self, under the respectable names of Mr Johnson and Mrs Carter; the one having, as she thinks, explained the word Memoir in a manner consistent with the present application of it; and the other actually made choice of it for the very same purpose as is here done. THE DEFENCE OF SOCRATES BEFORE HIS JUDGES. "But see you not," said Hermogenes, "that ofttimes here in Athens, the judges, influenced by the force of oratory, condemn those to death who no way deserve it; and, not less frequently, acquit the guilty, when softened into compassion by the moving complaints, or the insinuating eloquence of those who plead their cause before them ?" I HAVE always considered the manner in which I take to be the best and most honourable Socrates behaved after he had been summoned preparation." to his trial, as most worthy of our remembrance; and that, not only with respect to the defence he made for himself, when standing before his judges; but the sentiments he expressed concerning his dissolution. For, although there be many who have written on this subject, and all concur in setting forth the wonderful courage and intrepidity wherewith he spake to the assembly-so that it remaineth incontestable that Socrates did thus speak-yet that it was his full persuasion, that death was more eligible for him than life at such a season, they have by no means so clearly manifested; whereby the loftiness of his style, and the boldness of his speech, may wear at least the appearance of being imprudent and unbecoming. But Hermogenes, the son of Hipponicus, was his intimate friend; and from him it is we have heard those things of Socrates, as sufficiently prove the sublimity of his language was only conformable to the sentiments of his mind. For, having observed him, as he tells us, choosing rather to discourse on any other ubject than the business of his trial; he asked him, "If it was not necessary to be preparing for his defence ?" And "What!" said he, "my Hermogenes, suppose you I have not spent my whole life in preparing for this very thing?" Hermogenes desiring he would explain himself: "I have," said he, "steadily persisted, throughout life, in a diligent endeavour to do nothing which is unjust; and this "I know it,” replied Socrates; "and therefore, twice have I attempted to take the matter of my defence under consideration: but the Genius' always opposed me." 1 Various have been the opinions concerning this Genius, or Demon of Socrates; and too many for the translator to enumerate. What seems the most probable and satisfactory is, that the Genius of Socrates, so differently spoken of, was nothing more than an uncommon strength of judgment and justness of thinking; which, measuring events by the rules of prudence, assisted by long experience and much observation, unclouded and unbiassed by any prejudices or passions, rendered Socrates capable of looking as it were into futurity, and foretelling what would be the success of those affairs about which he had been consulted by others, or was deliberating upon for himself. And, in support of this opinion, they urge his custom of sending his friends-Xenophon, for example-to consult the oracle when any thing too obscure for human reason to penetrate was proposed to him: to which might be added, as no mean testimony, his own practice on all such occasions. But from whence this notion arose, of his being thus uncommonly assisted, is not easy to deter. mine. It might perhaps be from nothing more, as some have imagined, than from his having casually said on some occasion, "My Genius would not suffer me;" alluding to the notion which prevailed with many, that every one had a Genius to watch over and direct him. |