CHARICLEA. Delightful!
SPEUSIPPUS. But there must be an interval of a year between the purification and the initiation.
ALCIBIADES. We will suppose all that.
SPEUSIPPUS. And nine days of rigid mortification of the senses.
ALCIBIADES. We will suppose that too. I am sure it was supposed, with as little reason, when I was initiated.
SPEUSIPPUS. But you are sworn to secrecy.
ALCIBIADES. You a sophist, and talk of oaths! You a pupil of Euripides, and forget his maxims!
"My lips have sworn it; but my mind is free." (See Euripides: Hippolytus, 608. For the jesuitical morality of this line Euripides is bitterly attacked by the comic poet.)
SPEUSIPPUS. But Alcibiades—
ALCIBIADES. What! Are you afraid of Ceres and Proserpine?