Note 36 — Chapter IX · APOLOGY OF SOKRATES.

Plat. Apol. c. 16, p. 28 D. οὗ ἄν τις ἑαυτὸν τάξῃ ἢ ἡγησάμενος βέλτιον εἶναι ἢ ὑπ’ ἄρχοντος ταχθῇ, ἐνταῦθα δεῖ, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, μένοντα κινδυνεύειν, &c.

Xenophon, Memorab. iv. 8, 11 φρόνιμος δέ, ὥστε μὴ διαμαρτάνειν κρίνων τὰ βελτίω καὶ τὰ χείρω, μηδὲ ἄλλου προσδέεσθαι, ἀλλ’ αὐτάρχης εἶναι πρὸς τὴν τούτων γνῶσιν, &c.

Compare this with Memor. i. 1, 3-4-5, and the Xenophontic Apology, 4, 5, 13, where this αὐταρκεία finds for itself a justification in the hypothesis of a divine monitor without.

The debaters in the treatise of Plutarch, De Genio Socratis, upon the question of the Sokratic δαιμόνιον, insist upon this resolute persuasion and self-determination as the most indisputable fact in the case (c. 11, p. 581 C) Αἱ δὲ Σωκράτους ὁρμαὶ τὸ βέβαιον ἔχουσαι καὶ σφοδρότητα φαίνονται πρὸς ἅπαν, ὡς ἂν ἐξ ὀρθῆς καὶ ἰσχυρᾶς ἀφειμέναι κρίεως καὶ ἀρχῆς. Compare p. 589 E. The speculations of the speakers upon the οὐσία and δύναμις τοῦ Σωκράτους δαιμονίου, come to little result.

There is a curious passage in Plutarch’s life of Coriolanus (c. 32), where he describes the way in which the Gods act upon the minds of particular men, under difficult and trying circumstances. They do not inspire new resolutions or volitions, but they work upon the associative principle, suggesting new ideas which conduct to the appropriate volition — οὐδ’ ὁρμὰς ἐνεργαζόμενον, ἀλλὰ φαντασίας ὁρμῶν ἀγωγούς, &c.