introduces him to the philosopher triumphantly as a scholar who is sure to do him credit—he was always a remarkable child:—
He was so very clever always, naturally;
When he was but so high, now, he'd build mud houses,
Cut out a boat, make a cart of an old shoe,
And frogs out of pomegranate-stones—quite wonderful![1]
And Socrates, after a sneer at the young gentleman's fashionable lisp, admits him as a pupil, and undertakes to instruct him in this "new way of paying old debts."
The choral ode which must have divided this scene from the next is lost. The dialogue which follows, somewhat abruptly as we now have the play, is but another version of the well-known "Choice of Hercules" between Virtue and Vice, by the sophist Prodicus—known probably to the audience of the day as well as to ourselves. The Two Arguments, the Just and the Unjust, now appear upon the stage in character; one in the grave dress of an elder citizen, the other as a young philosopher of the day.[2] It is very probable that they wore masks which would be recognised by the audience as caricatures of real persons; it has been suggested,
- ↑ A hit, no doubt, at theories of education which were in fashion then, and which have been revived in modern days. Plato, in his treatise on Legislation, advises that the child who is intended for an architect should be encouraged to build toy-houses, the future farmer to make little gardens, &c.—(De Leg., i. 643.)
- ↑ Some of the old commentators say that the disputants were brought upon the stage in the guise of game-cocks; but there are no allusions in the dialogue to justify such an interpretation of the scene.
