efense comes down to is that he is not guilty of these charges ex cept being curious and being a teacher--unpaid, he slyly adds, for only a teacher who is wise would take payment for teaching (Apology 7). But it is to prevent him from acting on his curiosity and "persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons and your prop erties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul" (Apology 18)--not to prevent him from doing evil--that he has been targeted.
His method of defense is to expose the slanderous mo tives of the accusers. If the truth of such evil is accep ted, then Socrates will be acquitted, but of course he has always had enemies (Apology 6). Knowing that he could escape accusation by pleading for mercy or agreeing to exile, he makes the case that if he agrees to stop being concerned about the soul of Athens it is a fate worse than death. Thus death is preferable. Indeed, Socrates seems determined to embrace death if he cannot expose the accusations against him as evil. Meanwhile, he warns that "Meletus is a doer of evil . . . and is too ready at bringing other men to trial from a pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really nev
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