not be too long a time to heal you of your wound."

As for such as have not strength enough to resist the power of love, he
thought that they ought to consider and use it as an action to which the
soul would never consent, were it not for the necessity of the body; and
which, though it be necessary, ought, nevertheless, to give us no
inquietude. As for himself, his continence was known to all men, and it
was more easy for him to avoid courting the most celebrated beauties,
than it is for others to get away from disagreeable objects.

Thus we see what was his way of life in eating, drinking, and in the
affair of love. He believed, however, that he tasted of those pleasures
no less than they who give themselves much trouble to enjoy them; but
that he had not, like them, so frequent occasions for sorrow and
repentance.



CHAPTER IV. SOCRATES PROVETH THE EXISTENCE OF A DEITY.


If there be any who believe what some have written by conjecture, that
Socrates was indeed excellent in exciting men to virtue, but that he did
not push them forward to make any great progress in it, let such reflect
a little on what he said, not only when he endeavoured to refute those
that boasted they knew all things, but likewise in his familiar
conversations, and let them judge afterwards if he was incapable to
advance his friends in the paths of virtue.

I will, in the first place, relate a conference which he had with