Scanned text contains errors.

THE PARASITE

to your art. You are not deficient in preparation, as you said you were; on the contrary, you are as thoroughly trained as one could be by the greatest masters. And now I want to know whether the very name of Parasitic is not discreditable.

SIMON

Note my answer and see if you think it is satisfactory, and try on your part to answer my question as you think best. Come, now, what about the noun from which it is derived ? To what did the ancients apply it ?

TYCHIADES

To food.

SIMON

And what about the simple verb, does it not mean " to eat" ?

TYCHIADES

Yes.

SIMON

Then we have admitted, have we not, that to be a parasite is nothing but to eat with someone else ?

TYCHIADES

Why, Simon, that is the very thing which seems discreditable !

simon

Come, then, answer me another question. Which seems to you to be the better, and which should you choose if both were open to you, to voyage or to voyage with someone else ?

TYCHIADES

To voyage with someone else, for my part.