answer will certainly be a very long one, a great deal longer than might

be expected from such a short and simple question. At the same time,

I fear that I may seem rude and ungracious if I refuse your courteous

request, especially after what you have said. For I certainly cannot

object to your proposal, that Theaetetus should respond, having already

conversed with him myself, and being recommended by you to take him.

THEAETETUS: But are you sure, Stranger, that this will be quite so

acceptable to the rest of the company as Socrates imagines?

STRANGER: You hear them applauding, Theaetetus; after that, there is

nothing more to be said. Well then, I am to argue with you, and if you

tire of the argument, you may complain of your friends and not of me.

THEAETETUS: I do not think that I shall tire, and if I do, I shall get

my friend here, young Socrates, the namesake of the elder Socrates, to

help; he is about my own age, and my partner at the gymnasium, and is

constantly accustomed to work with me.

STRANGER: Very good; you can decide about that for yourself as we

proceed. Meanwhile you and I will begin together and enquire into the

nature of the Sophist, first of the three: I should like you to make out

what he is and bring him to light in a discussion; for at present we are

only agreed about the name, but of the thing to which we both apply the

name possibly you have one notion and I another; whereas we ought

always to come to an understanding about the thing itself in terms of a