purification, whether of animate or inanimate bodies, the art of

dialectic is in no wise particular about fine words, if she may be only

allowed to have a general name for all other purifications, binding them

up together and separating them off from the purification of the soul

or intellect. For this is the purification at which she wants to arrive,

and this we should understand to be her aim.

THEAETETUS: Yes, I understand; and I agree that there are two sorts of

purification, and that one of them is concerned with the soul, and that

there is another which is concerned with the body.

STRANGER: Excellent; and now listen to what I am going to say, and try

to divide further the first of the two.

THEAETETUS: Whatever line of division you suggest, I will endeavour to

assist you.

STRANGER: Do we admit that virtue is distinct from vice in the soul?

THEAETETUS: Certainly.

STRANGER: And purification was to leave the good and to cast out

whatever is bad?

THEAETETUS: True.

Sophist