220° ARISTOPHANES.

fore you must follow a villain. Even a. blind man,
could see so much.” :

Chrem. Apollo meant nothing of, the kind, but
something much more serious. If we can only find
out who the man is, and what he wants, then we.
should know what the god meant.” ee dene

For a time the stranger refused to speak; at last,
under compulsion, and after a promise that he should
be released when he had answered, he revealed his
name and condition. “Iam the god of wealth,” he.
said.

Chrem. “You the god of wealth! and in this mis-
erable plight!”

Plutus. “That is easily accounted for. I am just
come from the house of a miserly fellow who never
" went to the bath from the day of. his birth, or let me
go either.”

Chrem. “ And how came you to be blind?”

Plu. “When I was a lad I said that I intended
to visit only the wise and good. Thereupon Zeus
made me blind, that I might not know them. He is
jealous of the wise and good.”

Chrem. “ And yet it is only they who honour him.”

Plu. “It is so.”

Chrem. “Tell me, now; if you could recover your
sight, would you keep to your intention, and avoid
the bad?”

Plu. “1 certainly would.”

Chrem, “ And keep company with the good?”