k that I could have been dreaming when
I imagined that the principal claimants to political science would be
found somewhere in this neighbourhood.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.

STRANGER: Well, let us draw nearer, and try the claims of some who have
not yet been tested: in the first place, there are diviners, who have
a portion of servile or ministerial science, and are thought to be the
interpreters of the gods to men.

YOUNG SOCRATES: True.

STRANGER: There is also the priestly class, who, as the law declares,
know how to give the gods gifts from men in the form of sacrifices which
are acceptable to them, and to ask on our behalf blessings in return
from them. Now both these are branches of the servile or ministerial
art.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes, clearly.

STRANGER: And here I think that we seem to be getting on the right
track; for the priest and the diviner are swollen with pride and
prerogative, and they create an awful impression of themselves by
the magnitude of their enterprises; in Egypt, the king himself is not
allowed to reign, unless he have priestly powers, and if he should be
of another class and has thrust himself in, he must get enrolled in
the priesthood. In many parts of Hellas, the duty of offering the most
solemn propitiatory sacrifices is assigned to the highest magistracies,
and here, at Athens, the most solemn and national of the ancient
sacrifices are supposed to be celebrated by him who has been chosen by
lot to be the King Archon.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Precisely.

STRANGER: But who are these other kings and priests elected by lot who
now come into view followed by their retainers and a vast throng, as the
former class disappears and the scene changes?

YOUNG SOCRATES: Whom can you mean?

STRANGER: They are a strange crew.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Why strange?

STRANGER: A minute ago I thought that they were animals of every tribe;
for many of them are like lions and centaurs, and many more like satyrs
and such weak and shifty creatures;--Protean shapes quickly changing
into one another's forms and natures; and now, Socrates, I begin to see
who they are.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Who are they? You seem to be gazing on some strange
vision.

STRANGER: Yes; every one looks strange when you do not know him;
and just now I myself fell into this mistake--at first sight, coming
suddenly upon him, I did not recognize the politician and his troop.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Who is he?

STRANGER: The chief of Sophists