aeschylus - Conscious Evolution TV

ARISTOPHANES
talked over all the crowd? Guide him along to shame and wrong,
And think you that to you or me
Then leave him to repent.
the same is not allowed, St. Hard words, alas! yet not more hard than just.
To change it, so that sons by blows
It was not right unfairly to keep back
should keep their fathers steady? The money that I borrowed. Come, my darling,
Still, we'll be liberal, and blows
which we've received already
Come and destroy that filthy Chaerephon
And Socrates; for they've deceived us both I
We will forget, we'll have no ex-
Ph. No. I will lift no hand against my Tutors.
post-facto legislation. St. Yes do, come, reverence Paternal Zeus.
-Look at the game-cocks, look at all
Ph. Look there! Paternal Zeus! what an old fool.
the animal creation, Is there a Zeus?
Do not they beat their parents? Aye:
St. There is.
I say then, that in fact Ph. There is no Zeus.
They are as we, except that they
Young Vortex reigns, and he has turned ou t Zeus.
no special laws enact. St. No Vortex reigns: that was my foolish thought
St. Why don't you then, if always where
All through this vortex here. Fool that I was,
the game-cock leads you follow, To think a piece of earthenware a God.
Ascend your perch to roost at night,
Ph. Well, rave away, talk nonsense to yourself. Exit.
and dirt and ordure swallow? St. Oh! fool, fool, fool, how mad I must have been
Ph. The case is different there, old man,
To cast away the Gods, for Socrates.
as Socrates would see. Yet Hermes, gracious Hermes, be not angry
St. Well then you'll blame yourself at last, Nor crush me utterly, but look with mercy
if you keep striking me. On faults to which his idle talk hath led me.
Ph. Howso?
And lend thy counsel; tell me, had I better
St. Why, if it's right for me to punish you my son, Plague them with lawsuits, or how else annoy them.
You can, if you have got one, yours.
(Affects to listen.)
Ph. Aye, but suppose I've none. Good: your ad vice is good: I'll have no la wsui ts,
Then having gulled me you will die,
I'll go a t once and set their house on fire,
while I've been flogged in vain. The prating rascals. Here, here, Xanthias,
St. Good friends! I really think he has
Quick, quick here, bring your ladder and your
some reason to complain. pitchfork,
I must concede he has put the case
Climb to the roof of their vile thinking-house,
in quite a novel light : Dig at their tiles, dig stoutly, an' thou lovest me.
I really think we should be flogged
Tumble the very house about their ears.
unless we act arigh t! And someone fetch me here a lighted torch,
Ph. Look to a fresh idea then.
And I'll soon see if, boasters as they are,
St. He'll be my death I \'ow. They won't repent of what they've done to me.
Ph. Yet then perhaps you will not grudge
1st Student (within). 0 dear! 0 dear!
ev'n what you suffer now. St. Now, now, my torch, send out a lusty flame.
St. How! will you make me like the blows
1St Stu. (within) Man I what are you at there?
which I've received to-day? St. What am I at? I'll tell you.
Ph. Yes, forI'll beat my mother too.
St. What! What is that you say I
I'm splitting straws with your house-rafters here.
2nd Stu. (within) Oh me! who's been and set our
Why, this is worse than all.
house on fire?
Ph. But what, if as I proved the other, St. Who was it, think you, that you stole the
By the same Logic I can prove
cloak from?
'tis right to beat my mother? 3rd Stu. (within) 0 Murder! Murder!
St. Aye! what indeed! if this you plead,
If this you think to win,
St. That's the very thing,
Unless this pick prove traitor to my hopes,
Why then, for all I care, you may
To the Accursed Pit convey
Or I fall down, and break my blessed neck.
So. (at the window) Hallo! what are you at, up on
Yourself wi th all your learning new,
our roof?
Your master, and your Logic too,
St. I walk on air, and contemplate the Sun.
And tumble headlong in.
o Clouds! 0 Clouds! lowe all this to you I
So. O! I shall suffocate. 0 dear! 0 dear!
Chaerephon. And I, poor devil, shall be burnt to
Why did I let you manage my affairs!
Ch. Nay, nay, old man, you owe it to yourself.
death.
St. For with what aim did ye insult the Gods,
Why didst thou turn to wicked practices?
St. Ah, but ye should have asked me that before,
And not have spurred a poor old fool to evil.
Ch. Such is our plan. We find a man
And pry around the dwellings of the Moon?
Strike, smite them, spare them not, for many reasons,
But most because they have blasphemed the Gods!
Ch. Lead out of the way: for I think we may say
On evil thoughts intent,
We have acted our part very fairly to-day.
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