eadlong. I particularly observed how superior he was to Laches in
presence of mind.

"Many are the wonders of Socrates which I might narrate in his praise;
most of his ways might perhaps be paralleled in others, but the most
astonishing thing of all is his absolute unlikeness to any other human
being that is or ever has been. You may imagine Brasidas and others to
have been like Achilles; or you may imagine Nestor and Antenor to have
been like Pericles; and the same may be said of other famous men, but
of this strange being you will never be able to find any likeness,
however remote, either among men who now are or who ever have been,
except that which I have already suggested of Silenus and the satyrs;
and this is an allegory not only of himself, but also of his words.
For, altho I forgot to mention this before, his words are ridiculous
when you first hear them; he clothes himself in language that is as
the skin of the wanton satyr--for his talk is of pack-asses and smiths
and cobblers and curriers, and he is always repeating the same things
in the same words, so that an ignorant man who did not know him might
feel disposed to laugh at him; but he, who pierces the mask and sees
what is within will find that they are the only words which have a
meaning in them, and also the most divine, abounding in fair examples
of virtue, and of the largest discourse, or rather extending to the
whole duty of a good and honorable man.

"This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I have added my blame of him
for his ill treatment of me; and he has ill treated not only me, but
Charmides,[69] the son of Glaucon, and Euthydemus,[70] the son of
Diocles, and many others in the same way--beginning as their lover, he
has ended by making them pay their addresses to him. Wherefore I say
to you, Agathon, 'Be not deceived by him; learn from me and take
warning, and don't be a fool and learn by experience,' as the proverb
says."

When Alcibiades had done speaking, there was a laugh at his plainness
of speech, as he seemed to be still in love with Socrates. "You are
sober, Alcibiades," said Socrates, "or you would never have gone about
to hide the purpose of your satyr's praises, for all this long story
is only an ingenious circumlocution, the point of which comes in by
the way at the end; you want to get up a quarrel between me and
Agathon, and your notion is that I ought to love you and nobody else,
and that you and you only ought to love Agathon