F.--I lick thy boots! But what does Solomon indicate by the word fool?
That is what I mean.
PH.--Let us then congratulate Solomon upon the agreement between the
views of you two. However, I twig your intent: he means a wicked
sinner; and of all forms of folly there is none so great as wicked
sinning. For goodness is, in the end, more conducive to personal
happiness--which is the sole aim of man.
F.--Hath virtue no better excuse than this?
PH.--Possibly; philosophy is not omniscience.
F.--Instructed I sit at thy feet!
PH.--Unwilling to instruct, I stand on my head.
* * * * *
FOOL.--You say personal happiness is the sole aim of man.
PHILOSOPHER.--Then it is.
F.--But this is much disputed.
PH.--There is much personal happiness in disputation.
F.--Socrates--
PH.--Hold! I detest foreigners.
F.--Wisdom, they say, is of no country.
PH.--Of none that I have seen.
* * * * *
FOOL.--Let us return to our subject--the sole aim of mankind. Crack me
these nuts. (1) The man, never weary of well-doing, who endures a life
of privation for the good of his fellow-creatures?
PHILOSOPHER.--Does he feel remorse in so doing? or does the rascal
rather like it?
F.--(2) He, then, who, famishing himself, parts his loaf with a
beggar?
PH.
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