Socrates died for his ideal

When my dear friend, Crito, offered me a means of escape, after I had been condemned by the Athenian Assembly to death, the verdict of the Assembly was not a unanimous one. I could have fallen back on sophistry and said 222 of the senators voted for my acquittal. Of course a greater number voted for my condemnation. It will be of interest to you to know that Crito's plan of escape would have been successful. He had everything arranged. I was to go into Sicily, and there live a retired life until a change of the form of government in Athens came about, when I might return to the land that gave me birth and which I greatly loved.

Now, it has been said that Socrates was a pagan. It has been said that he did not know Jesus. In a sense, both of these accusations were true. I was a pagan, and I did not know Jesus. But if by a pagan you mean a barbarian, one not yet reclaimed by any system of religion similar to Christianity, I decidedly was not a pagan. If by the accusation that I did not know Jesus, you mean that I did not know the Christ principle, again are you dealing with the basis of the system of sophistry, for I knew the basis of all true life. You think that I did not know the Christ principle which, after all, is but an expression of the divine? Then the greatest mistake has been made.

I knew that principle. I was part of that principle, and was with the Christ beneath the pale, mellow rays of the moon that hardly reached through the iron bars of my stone cell, when he quietly, with bare feet, crept into that lonely place and whispered to me a plan of escape that would have been successful. For a moment, I thought of the 222 senators who voted for my acquittal. I thought that I could apologise for myself to myself and go into Sicily and live the retired life.

Then again the voice of the Divine spoke to me, and I remembered how as a boy in Delphi, the oracle said, Socrates, go out among men, and everyone you meet, question him. That is the basis of the Socratic method of cross-examination and questioning. Question them, for the humblest have something to teach you. I remembered when Crito's temptation whispered itself to me, I remembered that and I was true to the vision of my youth.

Now, let me explain as to the oracle at Delphi. Did it speak? Frankly, I do not know; neither do I care, but a voice did speak, and in that voice there was inspiration, and it was divine. I followed its suggestion, and came to the goal where I found myself, Socrates, in the prison cell with Crito whispering in my ear a plan of escape.

I was not a pagan though I was before Jesus. I felt and realised the same caresses of truth and love sweeping through my soul. I was true to my soul. I was true to God and the light, the beacon light of hope and faith and immortality which burned brightly within my being. I said to Crito—No, my friend, much as I appreciate the nobility of your action, that friendship which would be as tender as a mother's goodnight kiss when she put me to bed; much as I realise all this, I must be true to myself, to my age, and above all to my God. As I looked at the open door of my cell, through which I could have escaped, I saw the weeping Crito, with head bowed down, walk out. The tears fall in streams of silver love when I recall that moment.

Socrates died for his ideal. He could do no more. O Friends, he could do no less.

—Socrates In Spirit

The Twentieth Plane—A Psychic Revelation, Albert Durrant Watson, M. D., George W. Jacobs & Company, Philadelphia, 1919