STRANGER: You naturally feel perplexed; and yet I think that he must

be still more perplexed in his attempt to escape us, for as the proverb

says, when every way is blocked, there is no escape; now, then, is the

time of all others to set upon him.

THEAETETUS: True.

STRANGER: First let us wait a moment and recover breath, and while we

are resting, we may reckon up in how many forms he has appeared. In

the first place, he was discovered to be a paid hunter after wealth and

youth.

THEAETETUS: Yes.

STRANGER: In the second place, he was a merchant in the goods of the

soul.

THEAETETUS: Certainly.

STRANGER: In the third place, he has turned out to be a retailer of the

same sort of wares.

THEAETETUS: Yes; and in the fourth place, he himself manufactured the

learned wares which he sold.

Sophist