se festival was present; and
after the god, considering that a poet, if he means to be a poet, ought
to make fables, and not discourses, and knowing that I was not skilled
in making fables, I therefore put into verse those Fables of AEsop, which
were at hand, and were known to me, and which first occurred to me."

13. "Tell this, then, to Evenus, Cebes, and bid him farewell, and if he
is wise, to follow me as soon as he can. But I depart, as it seems,
to-day; for so the Athenians order."

To this Simmias said, "What is this, Socrates, which you exhort Evenus
to do? for I often meet with him; and, from what I know of him, I am
pretty certain that he will not at all be willing to comply with your
advice."

"What, then," said he, "is not Evenus a philosopher?"

"To me he seems to be so," said Simmias.

"Then he will be willing," rejoined Socrates, "and so will every one who
worthily engages in this study. Perhaps, indeed, he will not commit
violence on himself; for that, they say, is not allowable." And as he
said this he let down his leg from the bed on the ground, and in this
posture continued during the remainder of the discussion.

Cebes then asked him, "What do you mean, Socrates, by saying that it is
not lawful to commit violence on one's self, but that a philosopher
should be willing to follow one who is dying?"

14. "What, Cebes! have not you and Simmias, who have conversed
familiarly with Philolaus[26] on this subject, heard?"

"Nothing very clearly, Socrates."

"I, however, speak only from hearsay; what, then, I have heard I have no
scruple in telling. And perhaps it is most becoming for one who is about
to travel there to inquire and speculate about the journey thither, what
kind we think it is. What else can one do in the interval before
sunset?"

"Why, then, Socrates, do they say that it is not allowable to kill one's
self? for I, as you asked just now, have heard both Philolaus, when he
lived with us, and several others, say that it was not right to do this;
but I never heard any thing clear upon the subject from any one."

15. "Then, you should consider it attentively," said Socrates, "for
perhaps you may hear. Probably, however, it will appear wonderful to
you, if this alone, of all other things, is a universal truth,[27] and
it never happens to a man, as is the case in all other things, that at
some times and to some persons only it is better to die than to live;
yet that these men for whom it