(4) Lit. "You have not (in your employ) a body of handicraftsmen of any sort?" Theod. No, nor yet an employer of labour. Soc. From what source, then, do you get your means of subsistence? (5) (5) Or, Anglice, "derive your income." Theod. My friends are my life and fortune, when they care to be kind to me. Soc. By heaven, Theodote, a very fine property indeed, and far better worth possessing than a multitude of sheep or goats or cattle. A flock of friends!... But (he added) do you leave it to fortune whether a friend lights like a fly on your hand at random, or do you use any artifice (6) yourself to attract him? (6) Or, "means and appliances," "machinery." Theod. And how might I hit upon any artifice to attract him? Soc. Bless me! far more naturally than any spider. You know how they capture the creatures on which they live; (7) by weaving webs of gossamer, is it not? and woe betide the fly that tumbles into their toils! They eat him up. (7) Lit. "the creatures on which they live." Theod. So then you would counsel me to weave myself some sort of net? Soc. Why, surely you do not suppose you are going to ensnare that noblest of all game--a lover, to wit--in so artless a fashion? Do you not see (to speak of a much less noble sort of game) what a number of devices are needed to bag a hare? (8) The creatures range for their food at night; therefore the hunter must provide himself with night dogs. At peep of dawn they are off as fast as they can run. He must therefore have another pack of dogs to scent out and discover which way they betake them from their grazing ground to their forms; (9) and as they are so fleet of foot that they run and are out of sight in no time, he must once again be provided with other fleet-footed dogs to follow their tracks and overtake them; (10) and as some of them will give even these the slip, he must, last of all, set up nets on the paths at the points of escape, so that they may fall into the meshes and be caught. (8) See the author's own treatise on "Hunting," vi. 6 foll. (9) Lit. "from pasture to bed." (10) Or, "close at their heels and run them down." See "Hunting"; cf. "Cyrop." I. vi. 40. Theod. And by what like contrivance would you have me catch my lovers? Soc. Well now! what if in place of a dog you can get a man who will hunt up your wealthy lover of beauty and discover his lair, and having found him, will plot and plan to throw him into your meshes? Theod. Nay, what sort of meshes have I?