Statesman

Soc: Really I am greatly indebted to you, Theodorus, for my acquaintance with Theaetetus and with the Stranger, too.

Theo: Presently, Socrates, you will be three times as much indebted, when they have worked out the statesman and the philosopher for you.

Soc: Indeed! My dear Theodorus, can I believe my ears? Were those really the words of the great calculator and geometrician?

Theo: Why, what do you mean, Socrates?

Soc: When you rated sophist, statesman, and philosopher at the same value, though they are farther apart in worth than your mathematical proportion can express.

Theo: By Ammon, our special divinity, that is a good hit, Socrates; evidently you haven’t forgotten your mathematics, and you are quite right in, finding fault with my bad arithmetic. I will get even with you at some other time; but now, Stranger, I turn to you. Do not grow tired of being kind to us, but go on and tell us about the statesman or the philosopher, whichever you prefer to take first.

Str: That is the thing to do, Theodorus, since we have once begun, and we must not stop until we have finished with them. But what shall I do about Theaetetus here?

Theo: In what respect?

Str: Shall we give him a rest and take his schoolmate here, the young Socrates, in his place? What is your advice?

Theo: Make the change as you suggest. They are young, and if they have a chance to rest by turns, they will bear any labor better.

Soc: And besides, Stranger, it seems to me that they are both related to me after a fashion;

Soc: one of them anyhow, as you say, looks like me in his cast of countenance, and the other has the same name and appellation, which implies some sort of kinship. Of course we ought always to be eager to get acquainted with our relatives by debating with them. Now I myself had an argument with Theaetetus yesterday and have been listening to his answers just now, but I do not know Socrates in either way and must examine him, too. But let him reply to you now; my turn will come by and by.

Str: Very well; Socrates, do you hear what Socrates says?

Y. Soc: Yes.

Str: And do you agree?

Y. Soc: Certainly.

Str: There seems to be no objection on your part, and I suppose there should be still less on mine. Well, then, after the sophist, I think it is our next duty to seek for the statesman; so please tell me: should we rank him also among those who have a science, or not?

Y. Soc: Yes.

Str: Must the sciences, then, be divided as when we were examining the sophist?

Y. Soc: Perhaps.

Str: In that case, Socrates, I think the division will not be along the same lines.

Y. Soc: How will it be?