tes, like a skilful barrister, leads his unsuspecting victim on through a series of what seem innocent questions, yet all bearing indirectly on the main point of the argument, till at last his opponent is landed in some gross absurdity or contradiction. This "irony" has been well termed "a logical masked battery," and is more or less a feature in every Dialogue of Plato.
The humour, the genial temper, and the quiet self-possession of Socrates, must have made him a welcome guest in many houses; and in the Dialogue called "The Banquet" (Symposium), we have a sketch of the philosopher "at home," joking with his friends, and entering into the humour of the hour; and showing that, though he could abstain, he could also, if the occasion required it, drink as hard and as long as any reveller in Athens. A goodly company are assembled at Agathon's house. There is the host, a handsome young dilettante poet: there is Phædrus, another young aspirant in literature: there is Pausanias the historian, and Aristophanes the comic poet, apparently on the best of terms with the philosopher whom he had ridiculed so unsparingly in the "Clouds:" there is a doctor, Eryximachus, genial and sociable, but "professional" throughout: there is Socrates himself, who has put on sandals for the occasion, and who comes late, having fallen into a trance on the way; and lastly, there is his satellite Aristodemus,—"the little unshod disciple,"—who gives the history of this supper-party some time after to his friend Apollodorus.
When the meal is ended, and the due libations have been poured, and a hymn sung to the gods, Pausanias
