es with these remarkable words:
"As, therefore, amongst men we make best trial of the affection and
gratitude of our neighbor by showing him kindness, and make discovery of
his wisdom by consulting him in our distress, do thou, in like manner,
behave towards the gods; and if thou wouldst experience what their
wisdom and their love, render thyself deserving of some of those divine
secrets which may not be penetrated by man, and are imparted to those
alone who consult, who adore, and who obey the Deity. Then shalt thou,
my Aristodemus, understand _there is a Being whose eye passes through
all nature, and whose ear is open to every sound; extended to all
places, extending through all time; and whose bounty and care can know
no other bounds than those fixed by his own creation_".[482]

[Footnote 482: Lewes's translation, in "Biog. History of Philosophy,"
pp. 160-165.]

Socrates was no less earnest in his belief in the immortality of the
soul, and a state of future retribution. He had reverently listened to
the intuitions of his own soul--the instinctive longings and aspirations
of his own heart, as a revelation from God. He felt that all the powers
and susceptibilities of his inward nature were in conscious adaptation
to the idea of immortality, and that its realization was the appropriate
destiny of man. He was convinced that a future life was needed to avenge
the wrongs and reverse the unjust judgments of the present life;[483]
needed that virtue may receive its meet reward, and the course of
Providence may have its amplest vindication. He saw this faith reflected
in the universal convictions of mankind, and the "common traditions" of
all ages.[484] No one refers more frequently than Socrates to the grand
old mythologic stories which express this faith; to Minos, and
Rhadamanthus, and AEacus, and Triptolemus, who are "real judges," and
who, in "the Place of Departed Spirits, administer _justice_."[485] He
believed that in that future state the pursuit of wisdom would be his
chief employment, and he anticipated the pleasure of mingling in the
society of the wise, and good, and great of every age.

[Footnote 483: "Apology," Sec. 32, p. 329 (Whewell's edition).]

[Footnote 484: Ibid.]

[Footnote 485: "Apology," p. 330.]

Whilst, then, Socrates was not the first to teach the doctrine of
immortality, because no one could be said to have first _discovered_ it
any more than to have first discovered the existence of a God,