SOPHIST

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Theodorus, Theaetetus, Socrates. An Eleatic

Stranger, whom Theodorus and Theaetetus bring with them. The younger

Socrates, who is a silent auditor.

THEODORUS: Here we are, Socrates, true to our agreement of yesterday;

and we bring with us a stranger from Elea, who is a disciple of

Parmenides and Zeno, and a true philosopher.

SOCRATES: Is he not rather a god, Theodorus, who comes to us in the

disguise of a stranger? For Homer says that all the gods, and especially

the god of strangers, are companions of the meek and just, and visit

the good and evil among men. And may not your companion be one of those

higher powers, a cross-examining deity, who has come to spy out our

weakness in argument, and to cross-examine us?

THEODORUS: Nay, Socrates, he is not one of the disputatious sort--he

is too good for that. And, in my opinion, he is not a god at all; but

divine he certainly is, for this is a title which I should give to all

philosophers.

SOCRATES: Capital, my friend! and I may add that they are almost as hard

to be discerned as the gods. For the true philosophers, and such as

Sophist