| Apology | |
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[17a - 18a] [18b - 20c] [20d - 24b] [24c - 25e] [26a - 28a] [28b - 30d] [30e - 31c] [31d - 33b]
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(7) The Gadfly |
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| And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own | Jowett's Notes |
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| sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin | |||
| against the God by condemning me, who am his gift to you. | I am the gadfly of the Athenian people, given to them by God, and they will never have another, if they kill me. | ||
| For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, | |||
30e |
who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort | ||
| of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great | |||
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and noble stead who is | ||
| tardy in his motions owing | |||
to his very size, and requires  |
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| to be stirred |
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| that gadfly whichGod has | |||
| attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always | |||
31a |
fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. | ||
| You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would | |||
| advise you to spare me. I dare say that you may feel out of | |||
| temper (like the person who is suddenly awakened from sleep), | |||
| and you think that you might easily strike me dead as Anytus | |||
| advises, and then you sleep on for the remainder of your lives, | |||
31b |
unless God in his care of you sent you another gadfly. When I | ||
| say that I am given to you by God, the proof of my mission is | |||
| this: - if I had been like other men, I should not have neglected | |||
| all my own concerns or patiently seen the neglect of them during | |||
| all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to you | |||
| individually like a father or elder brother, exhorting you to regard | |||
| virtue; such conduct, I say, would be unlike human nature. If I | |||
| had gained anything, or if my exhortations had been paid, there | |||
| would have been some sense in my doing so; but now, as you | |||
31c |
will perceive, not even the impudence of my accusers dares to | ||
| say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one; of that they | |||
| have no witness. And I have a sufficient witness to the truth of | |||
| what I say - my poverty. | |||
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