ins on
your behalf; to slay me is to slay one who should rather be selected
for commendation; a kindred spirit, a well-wisher, a man after your
own heart, a promoter, if I may be bold to say it, of your pursuits.
See to it that you catch not the tone of our latter-day philosophers,
and be thankless, petulant and hard of heart, to him that deserves
better of you.

_Plato._ Talk of a brazen front! So to abuse us is to oblige us. I
believe you are under the delusion that you are really talking to
slaves; after the insolent excesses of your tongue, do you propose to
chop gratitude with us?

_Lucian._ How or when was I ever insolent to you? I have always been
an admirer of philosophy, your panegyrist, and a student of the
writings you left. All that comes from my pen is but what you give me;
I deflower you, like a bee, for the behoof of mankind; and then there
is praise and recognition; they know the flowers, whence and whose the
honey was, and the manner of my gathering; their surface feeling is
for my selective art, but deeper down it is for you and your meadow,
where you put forth such bright blooms and myriad dyes, if one knows
but how to sort and mix and match, that one be not in discord with
another. Could he that had found you such have the heart to abuse
these benefactors to whom his little fame was due? then he must be a
Thamyris or Eurytus, defying the Muses who gave his gift of song, or
challenging Apollo with the bow, forgetful from whom he had his
marksmanship.

_Plato._ All this, good sir, is quite according to the principles of
rhetoric; that is to say, it is clean contrary to the facts; your
unscrupulousness is only emphasized by this adding of insult to
injury; you confess that your arrows are from our quiver, and you use
them against us; your one aim is to abuse us. This is our reward for
showing you that meadow, letting you pluck freely, fill your bosom,
and depart. For this alone you richly deserve death.

_Lucian._ There; your ears are partial; they are deaf to the right.
Why, I would never have believed that personal feeling could affect a
Plato, a Chrysippus,[122] an Aristotle; with you, of all men, I
thought there was dry light. But, dear sirs, do not condemn me
unheard; give me trial first....

_Plato._ Pythagoras,[123] Socrates, what do you think? perhaps the
man's appeal to law is not unreasonable.

_Socrates._ No; come along, form the court, fetch Philosophy, and see
what he has to say fo