ings about disasters, from
which huge sufferings are wont to arise; but in delay lie many
advantages, not apparent (it may be) at first sight, but such as in
the course of time are seen of all. Such, then, is my counsel to thee,
O King.

"And thou, Mardonius, son of Gobryas, forbear to speak foolishly
concerning the Greeks, who are men that ought not to be lightly
esteemed by us. For while thou revilest the Greeks, thou dost
encourage the King to lead his own troops against them; and this, as
it seems to me, is what thou art specially striving to accomplish.
Heaven send thou succeed not to thy wish! For slander is of all evils
the most terrible. In it two men do wrong, and one man has wrong done
to him. The slanderer does wrong, forasmuch as he abuses a man behind
his back; and the hearer, forasmuch as he believes what he has not
searched into thoroughly. The man slandered in his absence suffers
wrong at the hands of both; for one brings against him a false charge,
and the other thinks him an evil-doer. If, however, it must needs be
that we go to war with this people, at least allow the King to abide
at home in Persia. Then let thee and me both stake our children on the
issue, and do thou choose out thy men, and taking with thee whatever
number of troops thou likest, lead forth our armies to battle. If
things go well for the King, as thou sayest they will, let me and my
children be put to death; but if they fall out as I prophesy, let thy
children suffer, and thou, too, if thou shalt come back alive. But
shouldst thou refuse this wager, and still resolve to march an army
against Greece, sure I am that some of those whom thou leavest behind
thee will one day receive the sad tidings that Mardonius has brought a
great disaster upon the Persian people, and lies a prey to dogs and
birds somewhere in the land of the Athenians, or else in that of the
Lacedaemonians; unless, indeed, thou shalt have perished sooner by the
way, experiencing in thy own person the might of those men on whom
thou wouldst fain induce the King to make war."

SOCRATES.

Socrates was born at Athens about the middle or latter part of April,
469 B.C. He commanded more admiration and reverence than any other
individual of ancient or modern times. By his ability and purity he
emerged from a barbaric sophistry into the purest form of religion
that was ever invented by man, it was nearer like that of Christ than
was ever reached by mortal before. The ob