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    them ) what these poems meant ? I am ashamed , O Athenians , to say the truth , but I must say it ; there was scarcely a person present who could not have spoken better than they , concerning their own poems . I soon found , that what the poets do 9 they accomplish , not by wisdom , but by a kind of natural turn , and an enthusiasm like that of prophets and those who utter oracles ; for these , too , speak many fine things ,

    but do not know one particle of what they speak . The poets seemed to me to be in a similar case . And I perceived , at the same time , that , on account of their poetry , they fancied themselves the wisest of mankind in other things , in which they were not so . I left them , therefore , thinking myself to have the same superiority over them which I had over the politicians . Lastly , I resorted to the artificers ; for I was conscious that I myself knew , in a manner , nothing at all , but I was aware that I should find them knowing many valuable things . And in this I was

    not mistaken ; they knew things which I knew not , and were so far wiser than I . But they appeared to me to fall into the same error as the poets ; each , because he was skilled in his own art , insisted upon being- the wisest man in other and the greatest things ; and this mistake of theirs overshadowed what they possessed of wisdom . So that when I asked myself , by way of verifying the oracle , whether I would rather be as I now am , equally without their wisdom and their ignorance , or take the one with the other , I answered that it was better for me to be

    as I am . From this search , O Athenians , the consequences to me have been , on the one hand , many enmities , and of the most formidable kind , which have brought upon me many false imputations ; but , on the other hand , the name and general repute of a wise man . For the bystanders , on each occasion , imagine that I myself am wise in those things in which I

    refute the false pretensions of others . The truth , however , O Athenians , is ( I suspect ) that the god alone is wise , and that liis meaning in the oracle , was , that human wisdom is worth little or nothing : the name of Socrates seems to have been introduced , not for commendation , but for a mere example , as if it had been said , He , O men , is the wisest among you , who , like Socrates , knows that all his attainments in wisdom

    amount in reality to nothing . Meanwhile , I still , for the honour of the god , continue my search , and examine every one , whether a citizen or a stranger , whom J think likely to be a wise man : and when I find that he is not so , I prove that lie is not , and so justify the oracle : and by reason of this occupation , I have no leisure to transact any business of moment , either for the state or for my own private benefit , but am in the depth of poverty from having devoted myself to the service of the god .

    Besides this , the young men , those who have most leisure , the sons of the rich , take pleasure in following me , liking to hear the men probed and sifted ; and they themselves often imitate me , and attempt to examine others ; and they find , I imagine , great abundance of persons

    who fancy themselves knowing , but who really know either very little , or nothing . Those who are thus examined , are angry with me , not with themselves , and say that there is one Socrates , a wicked man , who corrupts the youth . And when any one asks them , by what practices , or by what instructions ? they have nothing to say ; for they do not know : but , not to seem at a loss , they are ready with the imputations

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    Plato s Dialogues ; the Apology of Socrates . 117

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/37/