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forbear......at that moment Apollodorus who had been weeping all the time broke out in a loud and passionate cry......Socrates alone retained his calmness. What is this strange outcry ? he said. I sent away the women mainly in order that they might not misbehave in this way, for I have been told that a man should die in peace. Be quiet then and have patience......”
And then the end came to a man who had once been adjudged by the Delphic Oracle to be the wisest man of Greece. When Soc had heard of this Oracle, he had pondered over it and had come to the conclusion that “I am named the wisest because I am sufficiently wise to know that I know nothing."
Socrates was viewed by his friends to be a man who was 'all glorious within'. He put concern for the soul first in the conduct of individual life and for perfecting the soul he inferred the necessity to conduct oneself decently. He believed in God and counted on the soul as a part of the divine essence. He prayed not for favours or things but for whatever was good for my soul'. He had a link with the divine source of wisdom, a silent 'voice', and he had occasional mystical experiences, but it is not known if he ever plunged into the ocean of divine consciousness.
Socrates founded no academy nor wrote any book. Conversation was his method and for this he used to spend his time out of doors, in the streets, in the market place and in the gymnasia. He frequented the society of promising young men though he would not even shut out the company of others. But there was an inner circle of friends and admirers whomore deeply entered into his principles and transmitted them to subsequent generations. These were, however, not his disciples and Socrates repudiated all claims to have any. The bond of union which attracted some Greeks from other, even enemy, states was based on a common reverence for the great man's superhuman intellect and character.
Plato
As a man Plato was entirely different from the market-place philosopher who so much enriched and influenced his mind, --cold, reserved, aristocratic and literary, and he was marked by destiny to influence the western thought almost continuously for more than 2400 years. Born about the year 427 B.C. of aristocratic parents, he lost his father early
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