THE PARSON. I don't think the world cares personally for any mere
man or woman dead for centuries.
MANDEVILLE. But there is a difference. I think there is still
rather a warm feeling for Socrates the man, independent of what he
said, which is little known. Homer's works are certainly better
known, but no one cares personally for Homer any more than for any
other shade.
OUR NEXT DOOR. Why not go back to Moses? We've got the evening
before us for digging up people.
MANDEVILLE. Moses is a very good illustration. No name of antiquity
is better known, and yet I fancy he does not awaken the same kind of
popular liking that Socrates does.
OUR NEXT DOOR. Fudge! You just get up in any lecture assembly and
propose three cheers for Socrates, and see where you'll be.
Mandeville ought to be a missionary, and read Robert Browning to the
Fijis.
THE FIRE-TENDER. How do you account for the alleged personal regard
for Socrates?
THE PARSON. Because the world called Christian is still more than
half heathen.
MANDEVILLE. He was a plain man; his sympathies were with the people;
he had what is roughly known as "horse-sense," and he was homely.
Franklin and Abraham Lincoln belong to his class.
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