Well, he greeted me in very friendly way and
asked me how I was getting on. I told him
everything, and naturally in my own tum wanted to
know how he was getting on, and whether he had
made up his mind to take the trip to Greece again.
Beginning:-to talk on these topics and to explain
his position, my dear fellow, he poured enough
ambrosial speech over me to put out of date the
famous Sirens
 Odyss. 12, 39; 167. 
(if there ever were any) and the
nightingales
 Odyss. 19, 518. and the lotus of Homer.
 Odyss. 9, 94. The lotus is mentioned because of its
effect. 1t made Odysseus’ shipmates
 Among the Lotus-eaters fain to stay And gather lotus, and forget their homes. A divine

utterance!
 

For he went on to praise philosophy
and the freedom that it gives, and to ridicule the
things that are popularly considered blessings—
wealth and reputation, dominion and honour, yes
and purple and gold—things accounted very desirable
by most men, and till then by me also. I took it all
in with eager, wide-open soul, and at the moment I
couldn’t imagine what had come over me; I was all
confused. Then I felt hurt because he had criticised
what was dearest to me—wealth and money and
reputation,—and I all but cried over their downfall;




 

and then I thought them paltry and ridiculous, and
was glad to be looking up, as it were, out of the
murky atmosphere of my past life to.a clear sky and
a great light. In consequence, I actually forgot my
eye and its ailment—would you believe it?—and by
degrees grew sharper-sighted in my soul; which, all
unawares, I had been carrying about in a purblind
condition till then.

 

I went on and on, and so
got into the state with which you just reproached
me: what he said has made me proud and exalted,
and in a word, I take no more notice of trifles. I
suppose I have had the same sort of experience with
philosophy that the Hindoos are said to have had
with wine when they first tasted it. As they are
by nature more hot-blooded than we, on taking such
strong drink they became uproarious at once, and
were crazed by the unwatered beverage twice as
much as other people. There you have it! I am
going about enraptured and drunk with the wine of
his discourse.

 
 A Why, that isn’t drunkenness, it is sobriety and
temperance! I should like to hear just what he
said, if possible. It is far, very far from right, in
my opinion, to be stingy with it, especially if the
person who wants to hear is a friend and has the
same interests. B Cheer up, good soul! you spur a willing horse,
as Homer says, Iliad 8, 293. 
and if you hadn’t got ahead of me,
I myself should have begged you to listen to my
tale, for I want to have you bear witness before the
world that my madness has reason in it. Then, too,



 

I take pleasure in calling his words to mind
frequently, and have already made it a regular
exercise: even if nobody happens to be at hand, I
repeat them to myself two or three times a day just
the same.