Phædon; or, The Death of Socrates

Socrates, the wifeft and moft virtuous of the Greeks, was born at Athens, in the diilrift called Alopece, in the fourth year of the 77th Olinipiad. He was the fon of Sophronifcus, a ftatuary; and Paharete, a midwife. In his youth he applied himfelf to fculpture, under the tuition of his father; and if it Is true, that the cloathed Graces, which flood behind the Temple of Minerva upon the walls of Athens, wxre of his workmanfhip, as nnany authors aflert, the progrefs which he made in this art muft have been coniiderable. In the times of Phidias, Zeuxis, and Myron, an indifferent performance would not have been honoured with fo refpeftable a ftation.

After hisflither’s death he continued to follow the profeffion of a ftatuary, though more from neceffity than inclination, until he was thirty years of age. At this period he became knowai to an Athenian of high birth, named Crito, who difcovered the fuperiority of his talents, and forefaw he would prove more ufeful to the human race, by the free exercife of his mental faculties, than his labours with the chillel. Crito took him from the fchool of art, and introduced him among the philofophers of thofe times, in order to let him contemplate and imitate beauties of a higher order. Art teaches us to imitate life, by means of fubftances which are lifelefs: to make ftone refemble man; Wifdom, on the other hand, endeavours to imitate what is infinite by that which is finite; to bring the foul of man as near to the beauty and perfccftion of her origin as it is poffible in this life.