Strep. How then did he measure this?

Dis. Most cleverly. He melted some wax; and then took
the flea and dipped its feet in the wax; and then a pair
of Persian slippers stuck to it when cooled. Having
gently loosened these, he measured back the distance.

Strep. O King Jupiter! What subtlety of thought!

Dis. What then would you say if you heard another
contrivance of Socrates?

Strep. Of what kind? Tell me, I beseech you!

Dis. Chaerephon the Sphettian asked him whether he
thought gnats buzzed through the mouth or the breech.

Strep. What, then, did he say about the gnat?

Dis. He said the intestine of the gnat was narrow and
that the wind went forcibly through it, being slender,
straight to the breech; and then that the rump, being
hollow where it is adjacent to the narrow part,
resounded through the violence of the wind.

Strep. The rump of the gnats then is a trumpet! Oh,
thrice happy he for his sharp-sightedness! Surely a
defendant might easily get acquitted who understands the
intestine of the gnat.

Dis. But he was lately deprived of a great idea by a
lizard.

Strep. In what way? Tell me.

Dis. As he was investigating the courses of the moon and
her revolutions, then as he was gaping upward a lizard
in the darkness dropped upon him from the roof.

Strep. I am amused at a lizard's having dropped on
Socrates.

Dis. Yesterday evening there was no supper for us.

Strep. Well. What then did he contrive for provisions?

Dis. He sprinkled fine ashes on the table, and bent a
little spit, and then took it as a pair of compasses and
filched a cloak from the Palaestra.

Strep. Why then do we admire Thales? Open open quickly
the thinking-shop, and show to me Socrates as quickly as
possible. For I desire to be a disciple. Come, open the
door.

[The door of the thinking-shop opens and the pupils of
Socrates are seen all with their heads fixed on the
ground, while Socrates himself is seen suspended in the
air in a basket.]

O Hercules, from what country are these wild beasts?

Dis. What do you wonder at? To what do they seem to you
to be like?

Strep. To the Spartans who were taken at Pylos. But why
in the world do these look upon the ground?

Dis. They are in se