own art, and proving to his own satisfaction that the genius of Tragedy and Comedy is the same. His hearers are much too sleepy to argue with or contradict him; and at last the wine takes effect on Aristophanes, who drops under the table, where Agathon soon follows. Socrates puts them to sleep, and then goes tranquilly on his way—takes his bath at the Lyceum, and passes the day as usual.
The following Dialogue, though its main purpose is an attack upon the popular passion for Rhetoric, is perhaps more interesting as a social picture:—
PHÆDRUS.
It is a hot summer afternoon, and Socrates meets young Phædrus (who was one of the guests at Agathon's banquet) walking out for air and exercise beyond the city walls, for he has been sitting since dawn listening to the famous rhetorician Lysias. Socrates banters him on his admiration for Lysias, and at last extorts from him the confession that he has the actual manuscript of the essay which he had heard read hidden under his cloak; and, after some assumed reluctance, Phædrus consents that they shall walk on to some quiet spot where they can read it together. So they turn aside from the highroad, and follow the stream of the Ilissus—cooling their feet in the water as they walk—until they reach a charming resting-place, shaded by a plane-tree, where the air is laden with the scents and sounds of summer, and the agnus castus, with its purple and white blossoms, is in full
