Our welcome to thee, old man, who would see the marvels that science can show: And thou, the high-priest of this subtlety feast, say what would you have us bestow? Since there is not a sage for whom we'd engage our wonders more freely to do, Except, it may be, for Prodicus: he for his knowledge may claim them, but you, Because as you go, you glance to and fro, and in dignified arrogance float; And think shoes a disgrace, and put on a grave face, your acquaintance with us to denote. STREPSIADES. Oh earth! what a sound, how august and profound! It fills me with wonder and awe. SOCRATES. These, these then alone, for true Deities own, the rest are all God-ships of straw. STREPS. Let Zeus be left out: He's a God beyond doubt; come, that you can scarcely deny. SOCR. Zeus indeed! there's no Zeus: don't you be so obtuse. STREPS. No Zeus up above in the sky? Then you first must explain, who it is sends the rain; or I really must think you are wrong. SOCR. Well then, be it known, these send it alone: I can prove it by argument strong. Was there ever a shower seen to fall in an hour when the sky was all cloudless and blue? Yet on a fine day, when the clouds are away, he might send one, according to you. STREPS. Well, it must be confessed, that chimes in with the rest: your words I am forced to believe. Yet before I had dreamed that the rain-water streamed from Zeus and his chamber-pot sieve. But whence then, my friend, does the thunder descend? that does make us quake with affright! SOCR. Why, 'tis they, I declare, as they roll through the air. STREPS. What the clouds? did I hear you aright? SOCR. Ay: for when to the brim filled with water they swim, by Necessity carried along, They are hung up on high in the vault of the sky, and so by Necessity strong In the midst of their course, they clash with great force, and thunder away without end. STREPS. But is it not He who compels this to be? does not Zeus this Necessity send? SOCR. No Zeus have we there, but a vortex of air.