Page:The story of Greece told to boys and girls.djvu/291

 *player also made him think of Socrates. For, said Alcibiades, 'Are you not a flute-player, Socrates? That you are, and a far more wonderful performer than Marsyas. He indeed with instruments used to charm the souls of men by the power of his breath. But you produce the same effect with your voice only, and do not require the flute; that is the difference between you and him.'

Pericles, and other great Athenian orators, Alcibiades had heard, he said, unmoved, while Socrates' words, 'even at second hand and however imperfectly repeated, amaze and possess the souls of every man, woman and child who comes within hearing of them.'

Alcibiades then told his astonished listeners how his master's eloquence held him as with chains of gold.

'This Marsyas,' he says, 'has often brought me to such a pass that I have felt as if I could hardly endure the life which I am leading and I am conscious that if I did not shut my ears against him, and fly from the voice of the siren, he would detain me until I grew old, sitting at his feet. For he makes me confess that I ought not to live as I do, neglecting the wants of my own soul, and busying myself with the concerns of the Athenians; therefore I hold my ears and tear myself away from him.'

So greatly did the words of Socrates disturb Alcibiades that sometimes he even wished that his master were dead and could trouble him no more, and 'yet I know,' he adds quickly, 'that I should be much more sorry than glad if he were to die; so that I am at my wit's end.'

But it was not only his master's eloquence that Alcibiades praised before the gay company of revellers, it was his deeds as well.

During the Peloponnesian War both Socrates and Alcibiades were present at the siege of Potidæa.

'There we messed together,' said Alcibiades, 'and I had the opportunity of observing his extraordinary power of sustaining fatigue and going without food. In the faculty