us well, and then we shall commend you.' After this, supper was served,
but still no Socrates; and during the meal Agathon several times expressed
a wish to send for him, but Aristodemus objected; and at last when the
feast was about half over--for the fit, as usual, was not of long duration
--Socrates entered. Agathon, who was reclining alone at the end of the
table, begged that he would take the place next to him; that 'I may touch
you,' he said, 'and have the benefit of that wise thought which came into
your mind in the portico, and is now in your possession; for I am certain
that you would not have come away until you had found what you sought.'

How I wish, said Socrates, taking his place as he was desired, that wisdom
could be infused by touch, out of the fuller into the emptier man, as water
runs through wool out of a fuller cup into an emptier one; if that were so,
how greatly should I value the privilege of reclining at your side! For
you would have filled me full with a stream of wisdom plenteous and fair;
whereas my own is of a very mean and questionable sort, no better than a
dream. But yours is bright and full of promise, and was manifested forth
in all the splendour of youth the day before yesterday, in the presence of
more than thirty thousand Hellenes.

You are mocking, Socrates, said Agathon, and ere long you and I will have
to determine who bears off the palm of wisdom--of this Dionysus shall be
the judge; but at present you are better occupied with supper.

Socrates took his place on the couch, and supped with the rest; and then
libations were offered, and after a hymn had been sung to the god, and
there had been the usual ceremonies, they were about to commence drinking,
when Pausanias said, And now, my friends, how can we drink with least
injury to ourselves? I can assure you that I feel severely the effect of
yesterday's potations, and must have time to recover; and I suspect that