on which follows.--

"Ah! Hermotimus! Hurrying to lecture! [145] --if I may judge by your
pace, and that volume in your hand. You were thinking hard as you came
along, moving your lips and waving your arms. Some fine speech you
were pondering, some knotty question, some viewy doctrine--not to be
idle for a moment, to be making progress in philosophy, even on your
way to the schools. To-day, however, you need go no further. We read
a notice at the schools that there would be no lecture. Stay
therefore, and talk awhile with us.

--With pleasure, Lucian.--Yes! I was ruminating yesterday's
conference. One must not lose a moment. Life is short and art is
long! And it was of the art of medicine, that was first said--a thing
so much easier than divine philosophy, to which one can hardly attain
in a lifetime, unless one be ever wakeful, ever on the watch. And here
the hazard is no little one:--By the attainment of a true philosophy to
attain happiness; or, having missed both, to perish, as one of the
vulgar herd.

--The prize is a great one, Hermotimus! and you must needs be near it,
after these months of toil, and with that scholarly pallor of yours.
Unless, indeed, you have already laid hold upon it, and kept us in the
dark.

--How could that be, Lucian? Happiness, as Hesiod says, abides very
far hence; and the way to it is long and steep and rough. I see myself
still at the beginning of my journey; still [146] but at the mountain's
foot. I am trying with all my might to get forward. What I need is a
hand, stretched out to help me.

--And is not the master sufficient for that? Could he not, like Zeus
in Homer, let down to you, from that high place, a golden cord, to draw
you up thither, to himself and to that Happiness, to which he ascended
so long ago?

--The very point, Lucian! Had it depended on him I should long ago
have been caught up. 'Tis I, am wanting.

--Well! keep your eye fixed on the journey's end, and that happiness
there above, with confidence in his goodwill.

--Ah! there are many who start cheerfully on the journey and proceed a
certain distance, but lose heart when they light on the obstacles of
the way. Only, those who endure to the end do come to the mountain's
top, and thereafter live in Happiness:--live a wonderful manner of
life, seeing all other people from that great height no bigger than
tiny ants.

--What little fellows you make of us--less than the pygmies--down in
th