Gee, I hope my friends don’t read this

I took an online test to see what color rose I am. Here it is:

You Are a White Rose

You represent youthfulness and purity.Your vibe: Sweet and heavenlyFalling in love with you: is like falling in love for the first time

What Color Rose Are You?

Okay, girls, come and get me!

Return to main blog. See my other blog.

July 13 in history

Catholic:

• 574 AD.  Pope John III died after a thirteen year reign.
• 939 AD.  Pope Leo VII died after a three year reign
• 1590 AD.  Pope Clement X was born

American:  (Mostly Civil War)

• 1755 AD.  British General Edward Braddock died in the Battle of Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)
• 1785 AD.  Stephen Hopkins, one of the nations founding fathers died.
• 1787 AD.  Congress established the Northwest territories and excludes slavery in them.
• 1821 AD.  Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate General, military genius, slave trafficker, founding member of the KKK was born (Note how the southern site I linked to refers to the Fort Pillow Massacre as an “incident”)
• 1854  AD.  US forces destroy San Juan del Norte in Nicaragua.
• 1861 AD  Battle of Carricks Ford, Virginia (Robert Garnett CSA became the first general of the civil war to die in battle)
• 1863 AD.  Anti-draft rioters in NYC attacked and lynched blacks
• 1864 AD.  General Jubal Early, CSA, retreats from Washington DC.
• 1864 AD.  Battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn.

World War II:

• 1942 AD.  5,ooo Jews executed by the Nazis in Rovno, Polish Ukraine
• 1942 AD.   Nazi SS shoots 1,500 Jews in  Josefov, Poland
• 1942  AD.  Nazi occupation troops arrest and hold hostage 800 leading Dutch citizens.
• 1943 AD.  Soviets defeat the Germans in the tank battle as Kursk
• 1944 AD Vilnius, Lithuania is liberated from the Nazis.

The Apology of Socrates

The Apology according to Benjamin Jowett’s famous translation is available online, and you can find the link on the Philosophy Page at my other site CATHOLIC BOOKWORM. Here are the first few opening paragraphs of what is probably the most famous and best loved work relating to philosophy:

How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but
I know that they almost made me forget who I was--so persuasively did they
speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.  But of the many
falsehoods told by them, there was one which quite amazed me;--I mean when
they said that you should be upon your guard and not allow yourselves to be
deceived by the force of my eloquence.  To say this, when they were certain
to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and proved myself to be anything
but a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most shameless--unless by the
force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for is such is their
meaning, I admit that I am eloquent.  But in how different a way from
theirs!  Well, as I was saying, they have scarcely spoken the truth at all;
but from me you shall hear the whole truth:  not, however, delivered after
their manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No,
by heaven! but I shall use the words and arguments which occur to me at the
moment; for I am confident in the justice of my cause (Or, I am certain
that I am right in taking this course.):  at my time of life I ought not to
be appearing before you, O men of Athens, in the character of a juvenile
orator--let no one expect it of me.  And I must beg of you to grant me a
favour:--If I defend myself in my accustomed manner, and you hear me using
the words which I have been in the habit of using in the agora, at the
tables of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be
surprised, and not to interrupt me on this account.  For I am more than
seventy years of age, and appearing now for the first time in a court of
law, I am quite a stranger to the language of the place; and therefore I
would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would
excuse if he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his
country:--Am I making an unfair request of you?  Never mind the manner,
which may or may not be good; but think only of the truth of my words, and
give heed to that:  let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide
justly.

And first, I have to reply to the older charges and to my first accusers,
and then I will go on to the later ones.  For of old I have had many
accusers, who have accused me falsely to you during many years; and I am
more afraid of them than of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous,
too, in their own way.  But far more dangerous are the others, who began
when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their
falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the
heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse
appear the better cause.  The disseminators of this tale are the accusers
whom I dread; for their hearers are apt to fancy that such enquirers do not
believe in the existence of the gods.  And they are many, and their charges
against me are of ancient date, and they were made by them in the days when
you were more impressible than you are now--in childhood, or it may have
been in youth--and the cause when heard went by default, for there was none
to answer.  And hardest of all, I do not know and cannot tell the names of
my accusers; unless in the chance case of a Comic poet.  All who from envy
and malice have persuaded you--some of them having first convinced
themselves--all this class of men are most difficult to deal with; for I
cannot have them up here, and cross-examine them, and therefore I must
simply fight with shadows in my own defence, and argue when there is no one
who answers.  I will ask you then to assume with me, as I was saying, that
my opponents are of two kinds; one recent, the other ancient:  and I hope
that you will see the propriety of my answering the latter first, for these
accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener.

Well, then, I must make my defence, and endeavour to clear away in a short
time, a slander which has lasted a long time.  May I succeed, if to succeed
be for my good and yours, or likely to avail me in my cause!  The task is
not an easy one; I quite understand the nature of it.  And so leaving the
event with God, in obedience to the law I will now make my defence.

I will begin at the beginning, and ask what is the accusation which has
given rise to the slander of me, and in fact has encouraged Meletus to
proof this charge against me.  Well, what do the slanderers say?  They
shall be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit:
'Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things
under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better
cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others.'  Such is the
nature of the accusation:  it is just what you have yourselves seen in the
comedy of Aristophanes (Aristoph., Clouds.), who has introduced a man whom
he calls Socrates, going about and saying that he walks in air, and talking
a deal of nonsense concerning matters of which I do not pretend to know
either much or little--not that I mean to speak disparagingly of any one
who is a student of natural philosophy.  I should be very sorry if Meletus
could bring so grave a charge against me.  But the simple truth is, O
Athenians, that I have nothing to do with physical speculations.  Very many
of those here present are witnesses to the truth of this, and to them I
appeal.  Speak then, you who have heard me, and tell your neighbours
whether any of you have ever known me hold forth in few words or in many
upon such matters...You hear their answer.  And from what they say of this
part of the charge you will be able to judge of the truth of the rest.

As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and take
money; this accusation has no more truth in it than the other.  Although,
if a man were really able to instruct mankind, to receive money for giving
instruction would, in my opinion, be an honour to him.  There is Gorgias of
Leontium, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis, who go the round of
the cities, and are able to persuade the young men to leave their own
citizens by whom they might be taught for nothing, and come to them whom
they not only pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay them.
There is at this time a Parian philosopher residing in Athens, of whom I
have heard; and I came to hear of him in this way:--I came across a man who
has spent a world of money on the Sophists, Callias, the son of Hipponicus,
and knowing that he had sons, I asked him:  'Callias,' I said, 'if your two
sons were foals or calves, there would be no difficulty in finding some one
to put over them; we should hire a trainer of horses, or a farmer probably,
who would improve and perfect them in their own proper virtue and
excellence; but as they are human beings, whom are you thinking of placing
over them?  Is there any one who understands human and political virtue?
You must have thought about the matter, for you have sons; is there any
one?'  'There is,' he said.  'Who is he?' said I; 'and of what country? and
what does he charge?'  'Evenus the Parian,' he replied; 'he is the man, and
his charge is five minae.'  Happy is Evenus, I said to myself, if he really
has this wisdom, and teaches at such a moderate charge.  Had I the same, I
should have been very proud and conceited; but the truth is that I have no
knowledge of the kind.