Socrates by Voltaire (best ereader for epub TXT) 📖

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MELITUS:

Now these are very grave accusations and very credible. They’ve

already informed me of all that you are telling us.

 

ANITUS:

If such horrors are allowed to go unpunished, the state is in danger.

Minerva will withhold her aid from us.

 

DRIXA:

Yes, Minerva without doubt. I heard him make jokes about the owl of

Minerva.

 

MELITUS:

About the owl of Minerva! Oh! Heavens! Aren’t you of the opinion he

should be put in prison immediately?

 

JUDGES: (together)

Yes, in prison. Right away. In prison!

 

MELITUS:

Ushers! Take Socrates to prison immediately.

 

DRIXA:

And there let him be burned without having been heard.

 

ONE OF THE JUDGES:

Ah! He must at least be heard! We cannot infringe the law.

 

ANITUS:

What this fine, pious man means is—he must be heard, but one cannot

be surprised by what he says. For you know these philosophers are

diabolically clever. Where we bring harmony, they disturb all the

Estates.

 

MELITUS:

To prison! to prison!

 

(Xantippe, Sophronine, Aglaea enter. Then Socrates, enchained.)

 

XANTIPPE:

Ah, mercy! They are dragging my husband to prison. Honorable judges,

aren’t you ashamed to treat a man of his age thus? What evil could he

do? He is incapable of it. Alas, he’s more stupid than bad. Gentlemen,

take pity on him. Indeed, I told you, my husband, that you would get

yourself into some bad business. That’s what comes of dowering girls.

How unhappy I am!

 

SOPHRONINE:

Ah, gentlemen. Respect his age and his virtue. Put me in irons. I am

ready to give my liberty and my life for his.

 

AGLAEA:

Yes. We will go to prison in place of him. We will die for him if need

be. Don’t seek the life of the greatest of men. Take us for your

victims.

 

MELITUS:

You see how he corrupts the youth!

 

SOCRATES:

Cease, my wife; cease, my children to set yourselves up in opposition

to the will of heaven. It is manifesting itself through the organ of

the laws. Whoever resists the law is unworthy of being a citizen. God

wished that I be put in irons; I submit to his decrees without a

murmur. In my house, in Athens, in a prison cell, I am equally free.

And in you I see so much sincere gratitude, so much friendship that I

am still happy. What does it matter whether Socrates sleeps in his

room or in an Athenian prison? Everything is in the eternal order of

things and my will must be there.

 

MELITUS:

Let them take away this dialectician. That’s how they all are. They

press you with arguments right under the gallows.

 

ANITUS:

Gentlemen, what has just been said touches me. This man shows good

disposition. I flatter myself I am able to convert him. Let me speak

to him a moment in private. And order his wife and these young people

to retire.

 

A JUDGE:

We indeed wish it, venerable Anitus. You can speak to him before he

appears before our tribunal.

 

(They exit leaving Socrates alone with Anitus.)

 

ANITUS:

Virtuous Socrates, my heart bleeds to see you in this condition.

 

SOCRATES:

You actually have a heart?

 

ANITUS:

Yes, and I am ready to do everything for you.

 

SOCRATES:

Really? I’m convinced you’ve done much already.

 

ANITUS:

Listen. Your situation is more dangerous than you think. It goes to

your life.

 

SOCRATES:

Then it’s a question of a little thing.

 

ANITUS:

It’s little to your intrepid and sublime soul. To the eyes of those

who cherish, as I do, your virtue, it’s everything. Believe me, with

whatever philosophy your souls may be armed, it is hard to perish by

execution. That’s not all: your reputation which must be dear to you

will be tarnished throughout the centuries. Not only will all the

bigots laugh over your death, they will insult you, light the pyre on

which you will burn if they burn you, tighten the rope if they

strangle you, grind the Hemlock if they poison you. But they will

render your memory execrable to the entire future. You can easily

avoid such a funereal end. I will answer for saving your life, and

even will have you declared by the judges to be the wisest of men, as

you were by the oracle of Apollo. It’s only a question of giving me

your pupil Aglaea. With the dowry you are giving her, understood. We

can easily break off her marriage with Sophronine. You will enjoy a

peaceable and honorable old age and the gods and goddesses will bless

you.

 

SOCRATES:

Guards! Take me to prison without further delay.

 

(They lead him away.)

 

ANITUS:

This man is incorrigible. It’s not my fault. I have nothing to

reproach myself with. He must be abandoned to his reprobate opinions

and allowed to die unrepentant.

 

CURTAIN

 

ACT III

 

(The Judges are seated on a tribunal. Socrates is standing.)

 

A JUDGE: (to Anitus)

You mustn’t sit here. You are a priest of Ceres.

 

ANITUS:

I am only here for edification.

 

MELITUS:

Silence. Listen, Socrates, you are accused of being a bad citizen; of

corrupting the youth; of denying the plurality of the gods; of being a

heretic, deist, atheist. Answer.

 

SOCRATES:

Athenian Judges, I exhort you always to be good citizens as I have

always tried to be. To shed your blood for the country as I have done

in more than one battle. Regarding the youth of which you speak, do

not cease to guide them through your admonitions, and especially by

your examples; teach them to love true virtue, and to flee the

wretched philosophy of the school; the article of the plurality of the

gods is a bit difficult to discuss, but you will easily understand me.

Athenian Judges, there is only one God.

 

MELITUS AND ANOTHER JUDGE:

Oh, the knave.

 

SOCRATES:

There is only one God, I tell you. His nature is to be infinite. No

being can share his infinity with him. Raise your eyes toward the

celestial globes, turn them towards earth and the sea. All

corresponds, all is made for each other. Each being is intimately

linked to other beings. Everything is of the same design. There is

only a single architect, a single master, a single guardian. Perhaps

he’s deigned to form some genies, some demons, more powerful and more

enlightened than men. And if they exist they are creatures like you;

they are his first subjects and not gods at all. But nothing in nature

advertises to us that they exist, while all nature announces to us one

God and one Father. This God has no need of Mercury and Iris to

signify his orders. He has only to will it and that’s enough. If by

Minerva, you understand only the wisdom of God, if by Neptune you

intend only his immutable laws which raise and lower the seas, I would

say to you: He allows you to revere Neptune and Minerva, since under

these emblems you are still adoring only the eternal Being, and so

long as you are not giving occasion to people to misunderstand it.

 

ANITUS:

What impious balderdash.

 

SOCRATES:

Always beware of turning religion into metaphysics: Morality is its

essence. Adore and stop disputing. If our ancestors had said that the

Supreme God had descended into the arms of Alcmene, of Danae, of

Semele, and that he had children with them, our ancestors were

imagining dangerous fables. It’s insulting to the Divinity to pretend

that he had committed with a woman in whatever manner it might be what

we would call amongst men an adultery. That’s discouraging to the rest

of men to say that to be a great man, one must be born from the

mysterious coupling with one of your wives or daughters. Miltiades,

Cimon, Themistocles, Arisitides, that you persecuted were perhaps

worth more than Perseus, Herakles and Bacchus. There being no other

way to be the children of this God than by trying to please him, and

by being just. Deserve that title by never rendering iniquitous

judgments.

 

MELITUS:

What blasphemies and insolence!

 

ANOTHER JUDGE:

What absurdities! No one knows what he means.

 

MELITUS:

Socrates, if you always continue to argue, this is not what we need.

Answer briefly and precisely. Did you make fun of the owl of Minerva?

 

SOCRATES:

Athenian judges, take care of your owls! When you propose ridiculous

things to believe, too many men will choose to believe nothing at all.

They have enough wit to see that your doctrine is impertinent, But

they don’t have enough to raise themselves to the true law. They know

how to laugh at your little gods. They don’t know how to adore the God

of all beings, unique, incomprehensible, incommunicable, eternal, and

all just as well as all powerful.

 

MELITUS:

Ah! The blasphemer! ah, the monster! He’s said more than enough. I

conclude for death.

 

SEVERAL JUDGES:

And we, too.

 

A JUDGE:

Several of us are not of that opinion. We think that Socrates spoke

very well. We believe that men would be more just and more wise if

they thought like him. And as for me, far from condemning him, I am of

the opinion he ought to be rewarded.

 

SEVERAL JUDGES:

We think the same.

 

MELITUS:

The opinions seems to be divided.

 

ANITUS:

Gentlemen of the Areopagus, let me question Socrates. Do you think

that the Sun turns and that the Areopagus is of Divine Right?

 

SOCRATES:

You have no right to ask me questions. But I have the right to show

you what you are ignorant of. It matters little to society whether the

earth may turn, but it matters greatly that men who turn with it be

just. Virtue alone is of Divine Right. And you, the Areopagus have no

other rights but those the nation has given you.

 

ANITUS:

Illustrious and equitable judges make Socrates leave.

 

(Melitus gives a sign. They lead Socrates out. Anitus continues.)

 

August Areopagus, instituted by heaven, you have heard him. This

dangerous man denies that the Sun turns, and that you are filled with

Divine Right. If these horrible opinions spread, no more magistrates,

no more Sun; you will no longer be those judges established by the

fundamental laws of Minerva; you are no longer masters of the state,

you must no longer judge except by following the laws. And if you

depend on the laws, you are ruined. Punish the rebellion, avenge

heaven and earth. I am leaving: Fear the anger of the gods if Socrates

remains alive.

 

(Anitus leaves and the judges opine.)

 

A JUDGE:

I don’t wish a quarrel with Anitus; he’s a man much to be feared. If

it were only a question of the gods it would still be overlooked.

 

A JUDGE: (to whom he just spoke)

Between ourselves, Socrates is right. But he’s wrong to be right so

publicly. I don’t make more of the case of Ceres or Neptune than he

does. But he ought not to say before the whole Areopagus what should

only be whispered in the ear. Where, after all, is the evil in

poisoning a philosopher, especially when he’s old and ugly?

 

ANOTHER JUDGE:

If there is injustice in condemning Socrates, That’s Anitus’ affair.

It’s not mine. I put it all on his conscience. Anyway, it’s late,

we’re wasting his time! To death, to death and no more discussion

about it.

 

ANOTHER:

They say he’s a heretic and an atheist. To death. To death.

 

MELITUS:

Let them call Socrates.

 

(Socrates is brought in)

 

The gods be blessed; the plurality is for death. Socrates, the gods

condemn you through our mouth to drink Hemlock so