Henry Montague Grover
Published: 2009-08
Total Pages: 126
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828. Excerpt: ... Who have oft seen me pay the appointed dues Of sacrifice in Athens. Need I say more? The meteors of the skies, the springs of earth, . Ye say I look'd into;--and ye say well, For so all Athens hath declared; wherein Is my true crime: not that I am guilty; But some comedian tells the folks of Athens Of Socrates, who boasts to ride the storms, And pour down rain on Athens by his wisdom. And this, forsooth, grows to a full conviction Which now cries on me. 'Tis calumny! Call it some spirit of ill, that haunts my life, And persecutes me here. This is the offspring Of many passing years. Shall I be able To pluck the demon from his throne of power, In the short period, here allotted me? But ye do say, I taught the youth of Athens: --Was't not the thing, the gods ordain'd me to? But, that I did corrupt them!--where's the proof? Where is that pious youth, who, taught by me, Hath e'er forsworn the reverence of the gods? Where he, who modest, lost the sense of shame? Sec note A at the end. r Who, frugal once, is now profuse?--or, temperate, Learnt drunkenness of me? While those, indeed, Th' ambitious and seductive from the paths Of patriot truth, --the artful Critias, And Alcibiades; whose youthful spirit Broke from the truths I taught, to learn the ways, From Pericles, of subtler policies; Bear fruits of violence, not deeds of peace; Such as my followers, Chaerecrates, Chaerephon, and Hermocrates, and Simmias, Cebes, and Phcedo;--of whose peaceful lives, Ne'er have your ears received a charge of crime. But, on this subject I would ask Melitus;--Who is't, improves our youth? MELITUS. The laws. SOCRATES. I ask'd not that. But, whose the subtle thought, Perceived the fitting rules, those laws enact? MELITUS. The judges, Socrates: these noble judges. SOCRATES. These no...