Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/131

Rh many fleas' feet distant he was?" which some of the others were for resenting as an insult. But Socrates good-humouredly passed the matter over with some light badinage. He turned the subject by himself favouring the company with a song; after which the dancing girl performed some feats on a potter's wheel. On which Socrates made a remark something like Dr Johnson's—"Very wonderful—would it were impossible!" And he added, that after all, "almost everything was wonderful, if people did but consider it. For instance, why did the wick of the lamp give light, and not the brass? Why did oil increase flame, and water put it out? In order, however, not again to disturb hilarity by too much grave conversation, he would suggest that the dancers, instead of contorting their bodies, should perform something graceful and beautiful, like the pictures of the Graces, the Hours, and the Nymphs."

The exhibitor, pleased with this suggestion, went out to prepare; and Socrates, having the coast clear for a while, gave a discourse on love, distinguishing the heavenly from the earthly Venus, the latter inspiring mankind with love for the body, the former with the love of the soul and of noble actions. This distinction