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    unintentionally , and either way you are a calumniator . But if I corrupt them unintentionally , it i 3 not the law to bring men here for such offences when unintentional , but to instruct them and admonish them in private ;

    for it is evident that what I do unintentionally , I shall cease doing if I am taught better . But you avoided conversing with rue and instructing me , and have now brought me here , whither the law ordains to bring those who require punishment , not teaching . What I affirmed , O Athenians , is already evident , that Melitus never gave himself a moment ' s concern about these matters . But yet tell us , O Melitus , how you say that I corrupt the youth ? In the manner which you mention in the indictment , viz ., by teaching them not to acknowledge the gods whom the state acknowledges , but other new caijxovia 1 M . Most certainly , I affirm it . S . By those gods , O Melitus , who are now in question , I pray you explain yourself more clearly . I cannot make out which of two things

    you say . Is it that I teach the youth to believe that there are gods , and am myself not altogether an atheist , but believe in gods , though not the same whom the state acknowledges , but others ; and is this your charge against me , that I believe in other gods ? or do you assert that I do not believe in any gods at al ) , and that I teach others the same ?

    M . That is what I assert ; you believe in no gods at all . & . Most wonderful Melitus , what is this you say ! I do not , then , like the rest of mankind , believe the sun and moon to be gods ? M . No , by Jupiter , O Athenians : for he says that the sun is of stone , and the moon of earth . & . You fancy you are accusing Anaxagoras , most worthy Melitus :

    and you have such a contempt for these judges , and think them so ignorant of letters , as not to know that the writings of Anaxagoras , of Clazomene , are full of this sort of doctrines . So , then , the youth learn from me , what they may buy sometimes at the theatre * for one drachma , and may then laugh at Socrates if he pretend that they are his , especially being so paradoxical . So you really think that I do not believe in any gods ? M . In none at all . < S > . You are incredulous , O Melitus ; you do not even give credence to your own word . This man , O Athenians , seems to me to be exceedingly self-willed and insolent , and to have brought this prosecution against me from self-will and insolence , and youthful levity . It looks like a trial of ingenuity ; as if he had said to himself : Will the wise

    Socrates find out the inconsistency in what I say , or shall I succeed in cheating him , and the rest of them ? For he contradicts himself in the very words of the accusation ; saying , in fact , this * Socrates is guilty of not believing in gods , but believing in gods / This looks like a jest . Attend then , O Athenians , that you may know what I mean : and do you answer , O Melitus . You , O Athenians , as I begged you at first , remember not to be clamorous if I speak in my own usual manner .

    * The commentators explain this passage as an allusion to the practice , not unfrequent with the dramatic poets , ( especially Euripides , ) of introducing on the scene sentiments borrowed from the writings of the philosophers .

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    120 Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Apology of Socrates .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 120, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/40/