49
That is how things go on board your ship, sir wiseacre; and who shall count the wrecks? If there had been a captain supervising and directing, in the first place he would have known the difference between good and bad passengers, and in the second he would have given them their deserts; the better would have had the better accommodation above by his side, and the worse gone below; with some of the better he would have shared his meals and his counsels. So too for the crew: the keen sailor would have been made look-out man or captain of the watch, or given some sort of precedence, and the lazy shirker have tasted the rope’s end half a dozen times a day. The metaphorical ship, your worship, ts likely to be capsized by its captain’s incompetence.
50
He is sweeping on to victory, with wind and tide.
50
Too probable, Momus. And Timocles never gets hold of an effective idea; he can only ladle out trite commonplaces higgledy-piggledy—no sooner heard than refuted.
51
Weil, well; my ship leaves you unconvinced; I must drop my sheet-anchor, then; that at least is unbreakable.
51
I wonder what it is.
51
See whether this is a sound syllogism; can you upset it?— If there are altars, there are Gods: there are altars; therefore, there are Gods. Now then.
51
Ha, ha, ha! I will answer as soon as I can get done with laughing.
51
Will you never stop? At least tell me what the joke is.
51
Why, you don’t see that your anchor (sheet-anchor, too) hangs by a mere thread. You depend on connexion between the existence of Gods and the existence of altars, and fancy yourself Safe at anchor! As you admit that this was your sheet-anchor, there is nothing further to detain us.
52
You retire; you confess yourself beaten, then?
52
Yes; we have seen you take sanctuary at the altars under persecution. At those altars I am ready (the sheet-anchor be my witness) to swear peace and cease from strife.
