_On a Passage in Xenophon._--p. 46.
The passage from Xenophon translated in the text is this: Οἱ οὖν
ἀμφὶ τὸν Σωκράτην πρῶτον μέν, ὥσπερ εἰκὸς ἦν, ἐπαινοῦντες τὴν κλῆσιν
οὐχ ὑπισχνοῦντο συνδειπνήσειν. ὡς δὲ πάνυ ἀχθόμενος φανερὸς ἦν, εἰ
μὴ ἕψοιντο, συνηκολούθησαν. Sympos. c. 1. 7. Ernesti is angry at
the ὥσπερ εἰκὸς, which is soon after repeated, when speaking of
the order in which the guests placed themselves at table. He wants,
in the last passage, to change it into ὡς ἔτυχον. But though the
emendation is plausible, there seems to be no necessity to alter the
reading. Xenophon is, indeed, remarkably fond of that phrase. The
εἰκὸς, in both places, probably means _according to custom_. It might
be applied to the order of precedence in England, and it should seem
to have been used by Xenophon to denote the Greek sense of propriety
in taking a place at table. In Spain, where there is no established
order, a great deal of bowing and scraping takes place before the
guests can arrange that important point. But, without any settled
rule, there is a tact which seldom misleads any one who wishes not to
give offence. This is probably the second ὥσπερ εἰκὸς of Xenophon.