SOCRATES.-Whence comest thou, O Menexenus? from the forum?

MENEXENUS. Even so and from the senate

house.

SOCRATES.-What was thy business with the senate? Art thou persuaded that thou hast attained to that perfection of discipline and philosophy, from which thou mayest aspire to undertake greater matters? Wouldst thou, at thine age, my wonderful friend, assume to thyself the government of us who are thine elders, lest thy family should at any time fail in affording us a protector?

MENEXENUS.-Thou, O Socrates, shouldst permit and counsel me to enter into public life. I would earnestly endeavour to fit myself for the attempt. If otherwise, I would abstain. On the present occasion, I went to the senate-house, merely from having heard thatthe senate was about to elect one to speak concerning those who are dead. Thou knowest that the celebration of their funeral approaches?

SOCRATES. Assuredly. But whom have they chosen?

MENEXENUS. The election is deferred until tomorrow; I imagine that either Dion or Archinus will be chosen.

SOCRATES. In truth, Menexenus, the condition of of him who dies in battle is, in every respect, fortunate and glorious. If he is poor, he is conducted to his tomb with a magnificent and honourable funeral, amidst the praises of all; if even he were a coward, his name is included in a panegyric pronounced by the most learned men; from which all the vulgar expressions, which unpremeditated composition might admit, have been excluded by the careful labour of leisure; who praise so admirably, enlarging upon every topic remotely, or immediately connected with the subject, and blending so eloquent a variety of expressions, that, praising in every manner the state of which we are citizens, and those who have perished in battle, and the ancestors who preceded our generation, and ourselves who yet live, they steal away our spirits as with enchantment. Whilst I listen to their praises, O Menexenus, I am penetrated with a very lofty conception of myself, and overcome by their flatteries. I appear to myself immeasurably more honourable and generous than before, and many of the strangers who are accustomed to accompany me, regard me with additional veneration, after having heard these relations; they seem to consider the whole state, including me, much more worthy of admiration, after they have been soothed into persuasion by the orator. The opinion thus inspired of my own majesty will last me more than three days sometimes, and the penetrating melody of the words descends through the ears into the mind, and clings to it; so that it is often three or four days before I come to my senses sufficiently to perceive in what part of the world I am, or succeed in persuading myself that I do not inhabit one of the islands of the blessed. So skilful are these orators of ours.

MENEXENUS. Thou always laughest at the orators, Socrates. On the present occasion, however, the

unforeseen election will preclude the person chosen from the advantages of a preconcerted speech; the speaker will probably be reduced to the necessity of extemporising.

SOCRATES. How so, my good friend? Every one of the candidates has, without doubt, his oration prepared; and if not, there were little difficulty, on this occasion, of inventing an unpremeditated speech. If, indeed, the question were of Athenians, who should speak in the Peloponnesus; or of Peloponnesians, who should speak at Athens, an orator who would persuade and be applauded, must employ all the resources of his skill. But to the orator who contends for the approbation of those whom he praises, success I will be little difficult.

MENEXENUS. Is that thy opinion, O Socrates?
SOCRATES. In truth it is.

MENEXENUS.-Shouldst thou consider thyself competent to pronounce this oration, if thou shouldst be chosen by the senate?

SOCRATES.-There would be nothing astonishing if I should consider myself equal to such an undertaking. My mistress in oratory was perfect in the science which she taught, and had formed many other excellent orators, and one of the most eminent among the Greeks, Pericles, the son of Xantippus.

MENEXENUS.-Who is she? Assuredly thou meanest Aspasia.

SOCRATES.-Aspasia, and Connus the son of Metrobius, the two instructors. From the former of these I learned rhetoric, and from the latter music. There would be nothing wonderful if a man so educated should be capable of great energy of speech. A person who should have been instructed in a manner totally different from me; who should have learned rhetoric from Antiphon the son of Rhamnusius, and music from Lampses, would be competent to succeed in such an attempt as praising the Athenians to the Athenians.

232

MENEXENUS; OR, THE FUNERAL ORATION.

MENEXENUS.-And what shouldst thou have to say, if thou wert chosen to pronounce the oration. SOCRATES. Of my own, probably nothing. But yesterday I heard Aspasia declaim a funeral oration over these same persons. She had heard, as thou

sayest, that the Athenians were about to choose an orator, and she took the occasion of suggesting a series of topics proper for such an orator to select ; in part extemporaneously, and in part such as she had already prepared. I think it probable that she composed the oration by interweaving such fragments of oratory as Pericles might have left.

MENEXENUS.-Rememberest thou what Aspasia

said?

I

SOCRATES.-Unless I am greatly mistaken. learned it from her; and she is so good a schoolmistress, that I should have been beaten if I had not been perfect in my lesson.

MENEXENUS.-Why not repeat it to me?

SOCRATES.-I fear lest my mistress be angry, should I publish her discourse.

MENEXENUS.-O, fear not. At least deliver a discourse; you will do what is exceedingly delightful to me, whether it be of Aspasia or any other. I entreat you to do me this pleasure.

SOCRATES.-But you will laugh at me, who, being old, attempt to repeat a pleasant discourse.

MENEXENUS. O no, Socrates; I entreat you to speak, however it may be,

SOCRATES.-I see that I must do what you require. In a little while, if you should ask me to strip naked and dance, I shall be unable to refuse you, at least, if we are alone. Now, listen. She spoke thus, if I recollect, beginning with the dead, in whose honour the oration is supposed to have been delivered.

FRAGMENTS

FROM THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO.

1. BUT it would be almost impossible to build your city in such a situation that it would need no imposts. -Impossible.-Other persons would then be required, who might undertake to conduct from another city those things of which they stood in need. Certainly. -But the merchant who should return to his own city, without any of those articles which it needed, would return empty-handed. It will be necessary, therefore, not only to produce a sufficient supply, but such articles, both in quantity and in kind, as may be required to remunerate those who conduct the imports. There will be needed then more husbandmen, and other artificers, in our city. There will be needed also other persons who will undertake the conveyance of the imports and the exports, and these persons are called merchants. If the commerce which these necessities produce is carried on by sea, other persons will be required who are accustomed to nautical affairs. And, in the city itself, how shall the products of each man's labour be transported from one to another; those products, for the sake of the enjoyment and the ready distribution of which, they were first induced to institute a civil society?— By selling and buying, surely.-A market and money, as a symbol of exchange, arises out of this necessity. -Evidently. When the husbandman, or any other artificer, brings the produce of his labours to the public place, and those who desire to barter their