Banquet

On receiving this information, Good Heavens! exclaimed Socrates; what wrong do they imagine your lad has done them that is grave enough to make them wish to kill him? Syr. It is not killing him that they desire; oh, no! but to persuade him to sleep with them. Soc. Your belief, then, if I mistake not, is that if this happened, he would be undone? Syr. Aye, utterly!

Soc. Do you not then sleep in his bed yourself?Syr. Most certainly, all night and every night.Soc. Marry, you are in great luck to be formed of such flesh that you are unique in not corrupting those that sleep with you. And so you have a right to be proud of your flesh if of nothing else.

Syr. And yet that is not the basis of my pride.Soc. What is, then?Syr. Fools, in faith. They give me a livelihood by coming to view my marionettes.Ah! ejaculated Philip; that explains the prayer I heard you uttering the other day, that wherever you were the gods would grant you an abundant harvest of grain but a crop-failure of wits!

Good! said Callias. And now, Socrates, what can you advance in support of your pride in that disreputable profession that you mentioned? Let us first, said he, come to an understanding on the functions that belong to the procurer. Do not hesitate to answer all the questions I ask you, so that we may know our points of agreement. Is that your pleasure? he asked. Certainly, was their reply; and when they had once started with certainly, that was the regular answer they all made to his questions thereafter.