Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 4 of 5) (IA Vol4worksofplato00plat).pdf/622

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THE

SECOND

ALCIBIADES.

This crown, a happy omen and presage, I deem, of conquest on our Theban fide. For you know well, how tempest-tost a sea We fail on---

I, in the fame manner, deem this honour, you have now done me, to be a good presage.

For, as I think myself failing on a sea, no lets tempest-tost

than that of Creon, I should be glad to bear away the crown of victory from the reft of your admirers 2. 1 See the Phreniflae, v. 865. 2 The fine turn, which Socrates here gives to his acceptance of the crown, presented to him by Alcibiades, is perfectly in character, being, at the fame time, molt ingenious, elegant, wife, modest, and polite.

He accepts it not as an ensign of divine honour, as it was meant by the

donor; but as a token of (future) victory; victory over his competitors for the friendship of Alcibiades, whom they endeavoured to corrupt, and success in his own endeavours to engage him wholly in the ftudy of wifdom and the purfuit of virtue.—S.

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VOLUME.