A Life of Socrates by Dr. G. Wiggers [pp. 236-265]

Life of Socrates.
calm and often joyful. One of the attendants having asked him
if the light did not incommode him, he laid his hand upon his
head and said -" Here there is light enough." Just as the day
was beginning to break on the morning of the 24th of November, he was heard repeating the 51st Psalm. He stopped for
a moment, and then as if making one last effort, exclaimed"Lord Jesus! come to my help!" At the moment when the
sun appeared above the horizon, the ransomed soul of the Reformer took its flight. Thus lived, and thus died, in his 39th
year, John CEcolampadius, the Reformer of Basle.
Among the productions of his pen, his Commentaries on the
Old Testament hold the first rank. They are, however, not all
equal in value. With those published after his death considerable liberties were taken by his editors. During his life, he
published an Exposition of Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi,
Romans; and only a few weeks before his death, he sent to the
press a work on Job. Besides these exegetical works, he published translations of some of the Greek Fathers.
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ART. III.-A Life of Socrates, by Dr. G. Wiggers, translated
from the German, with Notes. London, 1840.
THE name of Socrates has been a household word among
civilized men for thousands of years, and is likely to be so for
ages to come. The pulpit, the senate, the forum, the gymiia silumn, the theatre, all contribute to this-result. Even the plain
farmer and mechanic often mention his name, and when a man
is doubtful of the paternity of some saying, Socrates comes in
as a sort of residuary legatee of the wit and wisdom floating on
the tide of tradition in the shape of pithy sayings; so that it is
not a rare thing to hear a jeu d' esprit or bon mot of Dryden,
More, Fox, Franklin, or Randolph of Roanoke, ascribed to
the Athenian. This only shows how large a place he occupies
in the public mind, despite the remoteness of the time and place
of his birth, the ignorance of many things under which he
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