for sacred rites not to be divulged; where the house
that receives the initiated is thrown open in holy
mystic rites; and gifts to the celestial gods; and
high-roofed temples, and statues; and most sacred
processions in honour of the blessed gods; and
well-crowned sacrifices to the gods, and feasts, at all
seasons; and with the approach of spring the Bacchic
festivity, and the rousings of melodious choruses, and
the loud-sounding music of flutes.

Strep. Tell me, O Socrates, I beseech you, by Jupiter,
who are these that have uttered this grand song? Are
they some heroines?

Soc. By no means; but heavenly Clouds, great divinities
to idle men; who supply us with thought and argument,
and intelligence and humbug, and circumlocution, and
ability to hoax, and comprehension.

Strep. On this account therefore my soul, having heard
their voice, flutters, and already seeks to discourse
subtilely, and to quibble about smoke, and having
pricked a maxim with a little notion, to refute the
opposite argument. So that now I eagerly desire, if by
any means it be possible, to see them palpably.

Soc. Look, then, hither, toward Mount Parnes; for now I
behold them descending gently.

Strep. Pray where? Show me.

Soc. See! There they come in great numbers through the
hollows and thickets; there, obliquely.

Strep. What's the matter? For I can't see them.

Soc. By the entrance.

[Enter Chorus]

Strep. Now at length with difficulty I just see them.

Soc. Now at length you assuredly see them, unless you
have your eyes running pumpkins.

Strep. Yes, by Jupiter! O highly honoured Clouds, for
now they cover all things.

Soc. Did you not, however, know, nor yet consider, these
to be goddesses?

Strep. No, by Jupiter! But I thought them to be mist,
and dew, and smoke.

Soc. For you do not know, by Jupiter! that these feed
very many sophists, Thurian soothsayers, practisers of
medicine, lazy-long-haired-onyx-ring-wearers,
song-twisters for the cyclic dances, and meteorological
quacks. They feed idle people who do nothing, because
such men celebrate them in verse.

Strep. For this reason, then, they introduced into their
verses "the dreadful impetuosity of the moist,
whirling-bright cl