Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu/140

124

. What, then, did he say about the gnat?

. He said the intestine of the gnat was narrow, and that the wind went forcibly through it, being slender, straight to the breech; and then that the rump, being hollow where it is adjacent to the narrow part, resounded through the violence of the wind.

. The rump of gnats then is a trumpet! O thrice happy he for his sharp-sightedness! Surely a defendant might easily get acquitted, who understands the intestine of the gnat.

. But he was lately deprived of a great idea by a lizard.

. In what way? Tell me.

. As he was investigating the courses of the moon, and her revolutions, then as he was gaping upwards, a lizard in the darkness dunged upon him from the roof.

. I am amused at a lizard's having dunged on Socrates.

. Yesterday evening there was no supper for us.

. Well. What then did he contrive for provisions?

. He sprinkled fine ashes on the table, and bent a little spit, and then took it as a pair of compasses and filched a cloak from the Palæstra.

. Why then do we admire that Thales? Open, open quickly the thinking-shop, and show to me Socrates as quickly as possible. For I desire to be a disciple. Come, open the door.—[The door of the Thinking-shop opens, and the pupils of Socrates are seen all with their heads fixed on the ground, while Socrates himself is seen suspended in the air in a