discussion arose, which was presently dropped, "whether virtue could be learned from others?"
They then witnessed some feats of the dancing-girl, who threw up and caught twelve hoops to the sound of music, and afterwards threw somersaults through a hoop stuck round with swords. This wonderful exhibition caused Socrates to remark, that "the talent of women is not at all inferior to that of men, though they are weaker in bodily strength. So that any one who had a wife might confidently instruct her in whatever he wished her to know." This observation caused Antisthenes to put it to Socrates, "Why, if he thought so, did he not educate Xanthippe,[1] instead of leaving her the most notoriously ill-conditioned wife in existence?" To which Socrates replied, that "as those who wish to excel in riding often choose restive horses, because if they can ride these they will easily manage any others; so he, wishing to converse and associate with mankind, had chosen to have a wife of this kind, knowing that if he could bear her society, he would be able to get on with any one else in the world."
Then the boy danced, and was admired by all; and Socrates excited much amusement by telling the Syracusan that he should like to learn dancing from him. When the company laughed, he gravely informed them that "he was sure the exercise would do him a great deal of good; it called out all the powers of the body, and might be conveniently practised in private, which would just suit him."
Philippus, the jester, now gave a comic parody of
- ↑ See above, page 90, note.
