ll themselves judges, and to appear
before such as are truly so, Minos, Rhadamanthus, AEacus, Triptolemus, and
to meet with those who have lived with justice and probity!(72) Can this
change of abode appear otherwise than great to you? What bounds can you
set to the value of conversing with Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Homer, and
Hesiod? I would even, were it possible, willingly die often, in order to
prove the certainty of what I speak of. What delight must it be to meet
with Palamedes, and Ajax, and others, who have been betrayed by the
iniquity of their judges! Then, also, should I experience the wisdom of
even that king of kings, who led his vast troops to Troy, and the prudence
of Ulysses and Sisyphus: nor should I then be condemned for prosecuting my
inquiries on such subjects in the same way in which I have done here on
earth. And even you, my judges, you, I mean, who have voted for my
acquittal, do not you fear death, for nothing bad can befal a good man,
whether he be alive or dead; nor are his concerns ever overlooked by the
Gods, nor in my case either has this befallen me by chance; and I have
nothing to charge those men with who accused or condemned me, but the fact
that they believed that they were doing me harm." In this manner he
proceeded: there is no part of his speech which I admire more than his
last words: "But it is time," says he, "for me now to go hence, that I may
die; and for you, that you may continue to live. Which condition of the
two is the best, the immortal Gods know; but I do not believe that any
mortal man does."

XLII. Surely I would rather have had this man's soul, than all the
fortunes of those who sat in judgment on him; although that very thing
which he says no one except the Gods knows, namely, whether life or death
is most preferable, he knows himself, for he had previously stated his
opinion on it; but he maintained to the last that favourite maxim of his,
of affirming nothing. And let us, too, adhere to this rule of not thinking
anything an evil, which is a general provision of nature: and let us
assure ourselves, that if death is an evil, it is an eternal evil, for
death seems to be the end of a miserable life; but if death is a misery,
there can be no end of that. But why do I mention Socrates, or Theramenes,
men distinguished by the glory of virtue and wisdom? when a certain
Lacedaemonian, whose name is not so much as known, held death in such
contempt, that, when led to it by th