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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), February 1835, Edition 1 of 1, Page 116, Untitled Article

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      seem to speak boastfully ; for what I am about to say does not come from myself , but from a source worthy of your attention . I shall produce the Delphic god as a witness to you respecting my wisdom , whether I have any , and of what sort . You knew Chaerephon , doubtless . He was my associate from youth , and was also an associate of the Athenian

      many ; he quitted his country with you , and returned with you . * And you know what kind of a man was Chaerephon , how energetic in what * soever he engaged in . He once , going to Delphos , had the boldness to put this question to the oracle ; ( do not clamour , O Athenians ;) he asked whether there existed any person wiser than I ? And the oracle answered that there was no person wiser . And to this , since Chserephon

      himself is dead , his brother will bear witness before you . Observe now why I mention this ; for I am now going to show you how the prejudice against me arose . Hearing the response of the oracle , I considered with myself , What can it mean ? what is its hidden significance ? for I am not conscious to myself of being wise in any thing , great or small ; what , then , can the god mean by calling me the wisest of men ? for his words cannot be falsehoods . And for a long time

      I was puzzled , but at last , with much difficulty , I hit upon a way of examining the matter . I went to one of those who are esteemed wise , thinking that here , if anywhere , I should prove the oracle to be wrong , and be able to say to it , ' Here is a man wiser than I . ' After examining this man , ( I need not mention his name , but he was one of the politicians , ) and conversing with him , it was my opinion that this man seemed to many others , and especially to himself , to be wise , but was not so . Thereupon I tried to convince him that he thought himself wise , and was not . By this means I offended him , and many of the bystanders . When I went away I said to myself , * I am wiser than this man : for neither of us , it would seem , knows any thing- valuable ; but he , not knowing , fancies he does know : I , as I really do not know ,

      so I do not think 1 know . I seem , therefore , to be , in one small matter , wiser than he , viz . in not thinking that I know what in truth I know not . After this I went to another , who was esteemed still wiser than he , and came to the same result ; and by this T affronted him too , and many others . I went on in the same manner , perceiving , with sorrow and fear , that I was making enemies ; but it seemed

      necessary to postpone all other considerations to the service of the god ; and , therefore , to seek for the meaning of the oracle , by going to all who appeared to know any thing . And , O Athenians , ( for I must speak the truth , ) the impression made on me was this : The persons of most reputation seemed to me to be nearly the most deficient of all ; other persons , of much smaller account , seemed much more rational people . I must relate to you my wanderings , and the labours I underwent ,

      that the truth of the oracle might be fairly tested . When I had done with the politicians , I went to the poets , tragic , dithyrambic , and others ,

      thinking that I should surely find myself less knowing than they . Taking up those of their poems which appeared to me the most laboured , I asked them ( that I might at the same time learn something from * An allusion to the secession of the Athenian pkbs from the dominion of the Thirty Tyrants , and their return under ThrasybulujS .

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      116 Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Apology of Socrates .

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/36/