he charge of not believing in the gods of the State, Plato makes the
accuser prefer it in the form that Socrates did not believe in any gods at
all, after which it becomes an easy matter for Socrates to show that it is
directly incompatible with the charge of introducing new deities. As
ground for his accusation the accuser states--in Plato, as before--that
Socrates taught the same doctrine about the sun and moon as Anaxagoras.
The whole of the passage in the _Apology_ in which the question of the
denial of gods is dealt with--a short dialogue between Socrates and the
accuser, quite in the Socratic manner--historically speaking, carries
little conviction, and we therefore dare not take it for granted that the
charge either of atheism or of false doctrine about the sun and moon was
put forward in that form. But that something about this latter point was
mentioned during the trial must be regarded as probable, when we consider
that Xenophon, too, defends Socrates at some length against the charge of
concerning himself with speculations on Nature. That he did not do so must
be taken for certain, not only from the express evidence of Xenophon and
Plato, but from the whole nature of the case. The accusation on this point
was assuredly pure fabrication. There remains only what was no doubt also
the main point, namely, the assertion of the pernicious influence of
Socrates on the young, and the inference of irreligion to be drawn from
it--an argument which it would be absurd to waste any words upon.

The attack, then, affords no information about Socrates's personal point
of view as regards belief in the gods, and the defence only very little.
Both Xenophon and Plato give an account of Socrates's _daimonion_, but
this point has so little relation to the charge of atheism that it is not
worth examination. For the rest Plato's defence is indirect. He makes
Socrates refute his opponent, but does not let him say a word about his
own point of view. Xenophon is more positive, in so far as in the first
place he asserts that Socrates worshipped the gods like any other good
citizen, and more especially that he advised his friends to use the
Oracle; in the second place, that, though he lived in full publicity, no
one ever saw him do or heard him say anything of an impious nature. All
these assertions are assuredly correct, and they render it highly
improbable that Socrates should have secretly abandoned the popular faith,
but they tell us