not bear. Forgotten? accidentally overlooked? Oh no,—that excuse would not do. Twice that very morning he had purposely made his bow to his friend Aristænetus. No one can be expected to put up with such marked neglect. Even Diana could not forgive not having been invited to the sacrifice of Œneus. He begs to enclose a philosophical problem which he challenges the whole party of these pretenders who have been preferred to him to solve if they can. He could tell a story about the bridegroom, too, but—never mind. And he begs to say in conclusion, that it is no use to think of appeasing his righteous indignation by offering now to send a present of game, or anything of that kind, by his servant,—the man has strict orders not to take it."
Lucian declares he was quite ashamed when he heard this production read. "You could never have expected such mean and unworthy language," he says, "from a man of his hoary hairs and grave demeanour." The Peripatetic philosopher took occasion from it at once to attack the Stoics generally in the most unmeasured language. One of that school who was in the company retaliated in similar terms—all the professors set to work to abuse each other, and ended by throwing wine in each other's faces, and indulging in other social courtesies of a like kind.
"I could not help reflecting," says the satirist, "how little the learning of the Schools avails us, if it does nothing to improve and dignify the intercourse of daily life. Here were scholars of the highest mark making themselves worse than ridiculous in the eyes of the
