advising--your resolve should be already made. And there is but one
plan; for in the following night the whole must be accomplished. If we
delay, it will be impossible and no longer practicable. By all means,
therefore, Socrates, be persuaded by me, and on no account refuse.

6. _Socr._ My dear Crito, your zeal would be very commendable were it
united with right principle; otherwise, by how much the more earnest it
is, by so much is it the more sad. We must consider, therefore, whether
this plan should be adopted or not. For I not now only, but always, am a
person who will obey nothing within me but reason, according as it
appears to me on mature deliberation to be best. And the reasons which I
formerly professed I can not now reject, because this misfortune has
befallen me; but they appear to me in much the same light, and I respect
and honor them as before; so that if we are unable to adduce any better
at the present time, be assured that I shall not give in to you, even
though the power of the multitude should endeavor to terrify us like
children, by threatening more than it does now, bonds and death, and
confiscation of property. How, therefore, may we consider the matter
most conveniently? First of all, if we recur to the argument which you
used about opinions, whether on former occasions it was rightly resolved
or not, that we ought to pay attention to some opinions, and to others
not; or whether, before it was necessary that I should die, it was
rightly resolved; but now it has become clear that it was said idly for
argument's sake, though in reality it was merely jest and trifling. I
desire then, Crito, to consider, in common with you, whether it will
appear to me in a different light, now that I am in this condition, or
the same, and whether we shall give it up or yield to it. It was said, I
think, on former occasions, by those who were thought to speak
seriously, as I just now observed, that of the opinions which men
entertain some should be very highly esteemed and others not. By the