STRANGER: There are many purifications of bodies which may with

propriety be comprehended under a single name.

THEAETETUS: What are they, and what is their name?

STRANGER: There is the purification of living bodies in their inward and

in their outward parts, of which the former is duly effected by medicine

and gymnastic, the latter by the not very dignified art of the bath-man;

and there is the purification of inanimate substances--to this the arts

of fulling and of furbishing in general attend in a number of minute

particulars, having a variety of names which are thought ridiculous.

THEAETETUS: Very true.

STRANGER: There can be no doubt that they are thought ridiculous,

Theaetetus; but then the dialectical art never considers whether the

benefit to be derived from the purge is greater or less than that to be

derived from the sponge, and has not more interest in the one than in

the other; her endeavour is to know what is and is not kindred in all

arts, with a view to the acquisition of intelligence; and having this

in view, she honours them all alike, and when she makes comparisons, she

counts one of them not a whit more ridiculous than another; nor does she

esteem him who adduces as his example of hunting, the general's art, at

all more decorous than another who cites that of the vermin-destroyer,

but only as the greater pretender of the two. And as to your question

concerning the name which was to comprehend all these arts of

Sophist