230 HISTORICAL TALES.

trouble himself to say a word to preserve his life.
The divine voice, he declared, would not permit him.
He was sentenced to drink the poison of hemlock,
and was imprisoned for thirty days, during which
he conversed in his old calm manner with his
friends.

Some of his disciples arranged a plan for his
escape, but he refused to fly. If his fellow-citizens
wished to take his life he would not oppose their
wills. On the lust day he drank the hemlock as
calmly as though it were his usual beverage, and
talked on quietly till death sealed his tongue.

Thus died the first and one of the greatest of
ethical philosophers, and a man without a parallel in
all the history of mankind, Greece produced none
like him, and this homely and humble personage, ~
who wrote not a line, has had a more powerful and
lasting effect upon mankind than all the host of
illustrious writers who have made famous the Hel-
lenic lands.