on which he had supped, and there was no one but ourselves sleeping in the
apartment. All this may be told without shame to any one. But what
follows I could hardly tell you if I were sober. Yet as the proverb says,
'In vino veritas,' whether with boys, or without them (In allusion to two
proverbs.); and therefore I must speak. Nor, again, should I be justified
in concealing the lofty actions of Socrates when I come to praise him.
Moreover I have felt the serpent's sting; and he who has suffered, as they
say, is willing to tell his fellow-sufferers only, as they alone will be
likely to understand him, and will not be extreme in judging of the sayings
or doings which have been wrung from his agony. For I have been bitten by
a more than viper's tooth; I have known in my soul, or in my heart, or in
some other part, that worst of pangs, more violent in ingenuous youth than
any serpent's tooth, the pang of philosophy, which will make a man say or
do anything. And you whom I see around me, Phaedrus and Agathon and
Eryximachus and Pausanias and Aristodemus and Aristophanes, all of you, and
I need not say Socrates himself, have had experience of the same madness
and passion in your longing after wisdom. Therefore listen and excuse my
doings then and my sayings now. But let the attendants and other profane
and unmannered persons close up the doors of their ears.

When the lamp was put out and the servants had gone away, I thought that I
must be plain with him and have no more ambiguity. So I gave him a shake,
and I said: 'Socrates, are you asleep?' 'No,' he said. 'Do you know what
I am meditating? 'What are you meditating?' he said. 'I think,' I
replied, 'that of all the lovers whom I have ever had you are the only one
who is worthy of me, and you appear to be too modest to speak. Now I feel
that I should be a fool to refuse you this or any other favour, and
therefore I come to lay at your feet all that I have and all that my
friends have, in the hope that you will assist me in the way of virtue,
which I desire above all things, and in which I believe that you can help