A flock
of friends!... But (he added) do you leave it to fortune whether a
friend lights like a fly on your hand at random, or do you use any
artifice (6) yourself to attract him?

(6) Or, "means and appliances," "machinery."

Theod. And how might I hit upon any artifice to attract him?

Soc. Bless me! far more naturally than any spider. You know how they
capture the creatures on which they live; (7) by weaving webs of
gossamer, is it not? and woe betide the fly that tumbles into their
toils! They eat him up.

(7) Lit. "the creatures on which they live."

Theod. So then you would counsel me to weave myself some sort of net?

Soc. Why, surely you do not suppose you are going to ensnare that
noblest of all game--a lover, to wit--in so artless a fashion? Do you
not see (to speak of a much less noble sort of game) what a number of
devices are needed to bag a hare? (8) The creatures range for their food
at night; therefore the hunter must provide himself with night dogs.
At peep of dawn they are off as fast as they can run. He must therefore
have another pack of dogs to scent out and discover which way they
betake them from their grazing ground to their forms; (9) and as they
are so fleet of foot that they run and are out of sight in no time, he
must once again be provided with other fleet-footed dogs to follow their
tracks and overtake them; (10) and as some of them will give even these
the slip, he must, last of all, set up nets on the paths at the points
of escape, so that they may fall into the meshes and be caught.

(8) See the author's own treatise on "Hunting," vi. 6 foll.

(9) Lit. "from pasture to bed."

(10) Or, "close at their heels and run them down." See "Hunting"; cf.
"Cyrop." I. vi. 40.

Theod. And by what like contrivance would you have me catch my lovers?

Soc. Well now! what if in place of a dog you can get a man who will hunt
up your wealthy lover of beauty and discover his lair, and having found
him, will plot and plan to throw him into your meshes?

Theod. Nay, what sort of meshes have I?

Soc. One you have, and a close-folding net it is, (11) I trow; to wit,
your own person; and inside it sits a soul that teaches you (12) with
what looks to please and with what words to cheer; how, too, with smiles
you are to welcome true devotion, but to exclude all wantons from your
presence. (13) It tells you, you are to visit your beloved in sickness
with solicitude, and when he has wrought s