s
opinions in support of the immortality of the soul. And, oh what a
majestic spectacle! disregarded the entreaties of his friends, and when
it was in his power to make his escape from prison refused it. Crito
having bribed the jailor and made his escape certain, urged Socrates to
fly; "where shall I fly," he replied, "to avoid the irrevocable doom
passed on all mankind?" Christians! wonder at this heathen, and profit
by his example! in his last days he enlarged upon the wicked crime of
suicide, which he reprobated with an acrimony not usual with him,
declaring it to be an inexpiable offence to the gods, and degrading to
man because the basest cowardice.

When the hour to drink the poison came, the executioner presented him
the cup, with tears in his eyes. Socrates received it with composure,
and after he had made a libation to the gods, drank it with an unaltered
countenance, and a few moments after expired. Thus did the villanous
libeller Aristophanes occasion the death of a man whom all succeeding
generations have concurred in pronouncing the wisest and best of
mankind, in the seventieth year of his age.

Let justice record the sequel! Socrates was no sooner buried, than the
Athenians repented of their cruelty. His accusers were despised and
shunned; one was put to death; some were banished, and others with their
own hands put an end to a life which their cruelty to the first of
Athenians had rendered insupportable.

BIOGRAPHY--FOR THE MIRROR.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE MR. HODGKINSON.

(_Continued from page 212._)

It has been found impossible to ascertain, with any degree of precision,
the year of Mr. Hodgkinson's birth. At the time of his death, which
happened in 1805, he was stated to be thirty-six years of age; but there
are many reasons for believing that he was older. There are few ways in
which human folly and vanity so often display themselves, as in the
concealment of age. The celebrated Charles Macklin clipped from his term
of existence not less than ten years, the obscurity of his early life
inducing him to fancy he could make his age whatever he pleased without
detection. Extremely attached to the sex, he wished to appear youthful
in their eyes as long as possible, and fixed his birth at the year 1700;
but it has, since his death, been ascertained, upon authority which
cannot be controverted, that he was, for safety, carried away from the
field, on the day of the battle of the Boyne,