have just been released from bonds. He remarks upon the unaccountable
connection between pleasure and pain, and from this the conversation
gradually turns to a consideration of the question of the immortality of
the soul. He convinces his listeners of the pre-existence of the soul;
but they are still skeptical as to its immortality, urging that its
pre-existence and the fact that it is more durable than the body does
not preclude the possibility of its being mortal. Socrates, however,
argues that contraries cannot exist in the same thing at the same time,
as, for example, the same object cannot partake of both magnitude and
littleness at the same time. In like manner, heat while it is heat can
never admit the idea of cold. Life and death are contraries and can
never coexist; but wherever there is life there is soul, so that the
soul contains that which is contrary to death and can never admit death;
consequently the soul is immortal.

Having convinced his listeners, Socrates bathes and takes leave of his
children and the women of his family. Thereupon the officer appears and
tells him it is time for him to drink the poison. At this his friends
commence to weep and are rebuked by Socrates for their weakness. He
drinks the poison calmly and without hesitation, and then begins to walk
about, still conversing with his friends. His limbs soon grow stiff and
heavy and he lays himself down upon his back. His last words are:
"Crito, we owe a cock to Æsculapius; pay it, therefore, and do not
neglect it."




THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES.