to the violence of the multitude, and
shelter himself from the vengeance of those who threatened him. To this
purpose he said that the gods watch over men more attentively than the
vulgar imagine; for they believe there are some things which the gods
observe and others which they pass by unregarded; but he held that the
gods observe all our actions and all our words, that they penetrate even
into our most secret thoughts, that they are present at all our
deliberations, and that they inspire us in all our affairs.

It is astonishing, therefore, to consider how the Athenians could suffer
themselves to be persuaded that Socrates entertained any unworthy
thoughts of the Deity; he who never let slip one single word against the
respect due to the gods, nor was ever guilty of any action that savoured
in the least of impiety; but who, on the contrary, has done and said
things that could not proceed but from a mind truly pious, and that are
sufficient to gain a man an eternal reputation of piety and virtue.

CHAPTER II. SOCRATES NOT A DEBAUCHER OF YOUTH.

What surprises me yet more is, that some would believe that Socrates was
a debaucher of young men! Socrates the most sober and most chaste of all
men, who cheerfully supported both cold and heat; whom no inconvenience,
no hardships, no labours could startle, and who had learned to wish for
so little, that though he had scarce anything, he had always enough. Then
how could he teach impiety, injustice, gluttony, impurity, and luxury?
And so far was he from doing so, that he reclaimed many persons from
those vices, inspiring them with the love of virtue, and putting them in
hopes of coming to preferment in the world, provided they would take a
little care of themselves. Yet he never promised any man to teach him to
be virtuous; but as he made a public profession of virtue, he created in
the minds of those who frequented him the hopes of becoming virtuous by
his example.

He neglected not his own body, and praised not those that neglected
theirs. In like manner, he blamed the custom of some who eat too much,
and afterwards use violent exercises; but he approved of eating till
nature be satisfied, and of a moderate exercise after it, believing that
method to be an advantage to health, and proper to unbend and divert the
mind. In his clothes he was neither nice nor costly; and what I say of
his clothes ought likewise to be understood of his whole way of living.
Never