hem. We are tempted to say that, had Socrates turned with hostile intent
against a religion which thus played into his hands, the more fool he. But
this is putting the problem the wrong way up--Socrates never stood
critically outside popular belief and traditional religious thought
speculating as to whether he should use it or reject it. No, his thought
grew out of it as from the bosom of the earth. Hence its mighty religious
power, its inevitable victory over a school of thought which had severed
all connexion with tradition.

That such a point of view should be so badly misunderstood as it was in
Athens seems incomprehensible. The explanation is no doubt that the whole
story of Socrates's denial of the gods was only included by his accusers
for the sake of completeness, and did not play any great part in the final
issue. This seems confirmed by the fact that they found it convenient to
support their charge of atheism by one of introducing foreign gods, this
being punishable by Attic law. They thus obtained some slight hold for
their accusation. But both charges must be presumed to have been so
signally refuted during the trial that it is hardly possible that any
great number of the judges were influenced by them. It was quite different
and far weightier matters which brought about the conviction of Socrates,
questions on which there was really a deep and vital difference of opinion
between him and his contemporaries. That Socrates's attitude towards
popular belief was at any rate fully understood elsewhere is testified by
the answer of the Delphic Oracle, that declared Socrates to be the wisest
of all men. However remarkable such a pronouncement from such a place may
appear, it seems impossible to reject the accounts of it as unhistorical;
on the other hand, it does not seem impossible to explain how the Oracle
came to declare itself as reported. Earlier Greek thought, which insisted
upon the gulf separating gods and men, was from olden times intimately
connected with the Delphic Oracle. It hardly sprang from there; more
probably it arose spontaneously in various parts of Hellas. But it would
naturally feel attracted toward the Oracle, which was one of the religious
centres of Hellas, and it was recognised as legitimate by the Oracle.
Above all, the honour shown by the Oracle to Pindar, one of the chief
representatives of the earlier thought, testifies to this. Hence there is
nothing incredible in the assumption that So