J. C. SQUIRE
Reading the Description of the Death of Socrates in Plato's Dialogue, ' Phaedo '
THE first of the great philosophers whose teaching has influenced the whole current of European thought is Socrates, the Athenian, the master of Plato, through whose writings the Socratic philosophy and the Socratic method have come down to us. Like the majority of philosophers, Socrates did not fit very easily into the society of his time, and the passage from the ' Phaedo ' that Mr. Squire (the essayist, critic, poet, and editor of the London Mercury) is to read to-night describes the tragic termination of his career in the year 399 B.C., when, in consequence of a decree of the Athenians, he was condemned to drink poison for ' corrupting their youth.'