No one can doubt that it was the death of his master that led Plato to perceive the great truth to which he here gives such energetic expression. The charges against Socrates were a complete inversion of the truth: his reverence was called impiety; his brilliant work for the character of the youth of his day brought him the charge of baneful corruption. From his tragic end Plato learned that the good man who brings new truth is very likely to be completely misunderstood and to be classed with the worst wrong-doers. Footnote 129: Zeller, _Socrates_, Chaps. I and II. Footnote 130: Zeller, _Socrates_, Chaps. III to IX; Bury, _History of Greece_, II, 140-146; Grote, _History of Greece_, Chap. LXVIII. Footnote 131: Zeller, _Socrates_, Chap. X; Bury, _History of Greece_, II, 147. Footnote 132: So called by Pericles, her greatest statesman. See _Thucydides_, II, 41. Footnote 133: See Milton, _Paradise Regained_, IV, 272-280. Footnote 134: _Socrates_, Part III. Footnote 135: Mahaffy, _Greek Literature_, II, 160-162; Ritchie, _Plato_, Chap. I; Mayor, _Ancient Philosophy_, 41 ff. Footnote 136: For the Dialogues _see_ Ritchie’s _Plato_, Chap. II. Footnote 137: On the _Republic_ see Mahaffy, _Greek Literature_, II, 195-201. Footnote 138: Plato, _Rep._, II, 360 E-362 A, Davies and Vaughan’s translation. CHAPTER III. THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. The history of Israel is unique in the annals of the nations. In size scarcely worthy of regard, in politics only for one brief reign of any serious account, with no special genius for art or war, for speculative thinking or scientific research, failing to keep even their racial unity in the day of their greatest strength, torn in pieces by every conqueror, deported out of their own land, and even after their return kept in subjection by other imperial races, finally stripped of their temple and sacred city by the Romans, and shattered into fragments, this feeble people has yet set its name high beside Greece and Rome, has given the world the only book which all the world reads,[139] and the religion which has produced Western civilization. The one duty of which the best spirits in Israel were conscious throughout the history of the people was faithfulness to Jehovah. Indeed the whole consciousness of the race might be summed up in two phrases: _Jehovah is the God of Israel_, and, _Israel is the people of Jehovah_. War, government, philosophy, art might be for other peoples: Israel’s one duty was to serve her God, religion the sole activity of her spirit.