Description
Statesman
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Theodorus, Socrates, The Eleatic Stranger, The
Younger Socrates.
SOCRATES: I owe you many thanks, indeed, Theodorus, for the acquaintance
both of Theaetetus and of the Stranger.
THEODORUS: And in a little while, Socrates, you will owe me three
times as many, when they have completed for you the delineation of the
Statesman and of the Philosopher, as well as of the Sophist.
SOCRATES: Sophist, statesman, philosopher! O my dear Theodorus, do my
ears truly witness that this is the estimate formed of them by the great
calculator and geometrician?
THEODORUS: What do you mean, Socrates?
SOCRATES: I mean that you rate them all at the same value, whereas they
are really separated by an interval, which no geometrical ratio can
express.
THEODORUS: By Ammon, the god of Cyrene, Socrates, that is a very
fair hit; and shows that you have not forgotten your geometry. I will
retaliate on you at some other time, but I must now ask the Stranger,
who will not, I hope, tire of his goodness to us, to proceed either with
the Statesman or with the Philosopher, whichever he prefers.
STRANGER: That is my duty, Theodorus; having begun I must go on, and not
leave the work unfinished. But what shall be done with Theaetetus?
THEODORUS: In what respect?
STRANGER: Shall we relieve him, and take his companion, the Young
Socrates, instead of him? What do you advise?
THEODORUS: Yes, give the other a turn, as you propose. The young always
do better when they have intervals of rest.
SOCRATES: I think, Stranger, that both of them may be said to be in some
way related to me; for the one, as you affirm, has the cut of my ugly
face (compare Theaet.), the other is called by my name. And we should