phaedo   

better thing for the good than for the evil.

But do you mean to take away your thoughts with you, Socrates?

said Simmias. Will you not communicate them to us?-the benefit is

one in which we too may hope to share. Moreover, if you succeed in

convincing us, that will be an answer to the charge against yourself.

I will do my best, replied Socrates. But you must first let me

hear what Crito wants; he was going to say something to me.

Only this, Socrates, replied Crito: the attendant who is to give you

the poison has been telling me that you are not to talk much, and he

wants me to let you know this; for that by talking heat is

increased, and this interferes with the action of the poison; those

who excite themselves are sometimes obliged to drink the poison two or

three times.

Then, said Socrates, let him mind his business and be prepared to

give the poison two or three times, if necessary; that is all.

I was almost certain that you would say that, replied Crito; but I

was obliged to satisfy him.

Never mind him, he said.

And now I will make answer to you, O my judges, and show that he who

has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he

is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the

greatest good in the other world. And how this may be, Simmias and

Cebes, I will endeavor to explain. For I deem that the true disciple

of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by other men; they do

not perceive that he is ever pursuing death and dying; and if this

is true, why, having had the desire of death all his life long, should

he repine at the arrival of that which he has been always pursuing and

desiring?

Simmias laughed and said: Though not in a laughing humor, I swear

that I cannot help laughing when I think what the wicked world will

say when they hear this. They will say that this is very true, and our

people at home will agree with them in saying that the life which