ABSTRACT
I HAVE reserved these well-known dialogues for consideration at this point for the simple reason that it is difficult to separate them from the Phaedo; thus it is natural to make the treatment of them the immediate prelude to a study of the four great works in which Plato's dramatic genius shows itself most perfect. I do not mean to imply that I regard the whole series of dialogues which centre round the trial and death of Socrates as uninterruptedly following one another in order of composition. As I have already explained, I do not feel satisfied that we are safe in saying more on the question than that the slighter works we are considering must, at least in the main, be regarded as earlier than the four great dramatic dialogues. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that at any rate the Apology may have been written before several of the works we have already dealt with, but the probability need not affect our treatment if it is true, as the present analysis tries to show, that there is no serious variation in the doctrine of Plato's dialogues until we come to the series unmistakably shown by style to be later than the Republic. In treating of the whole series of these “dialogues of the trial and imprisonment” I shall avail myself fully of the commentaries of Professor Burnet ( Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, 1924; Phaedo, 1911); this will make it possible to aim at a brevity which I should have been only too glad to secure for some other parts of this book.
