liable to accusations so serious. Yet one thing may be said of them

without offence--

THEAETETUS: What thing?

STRANGER: That they went on their several ways disdaining to notice

people like ourselves; they did not care whether they took us with them,

or left us behind them.

THEAETETUS: How do you mean?

STRANGER: I mean to say, that when they talk of one, two, or more

elements, which are or have become or are becoming, or again of

heat mingling with cold, assuming in some other part of their works

separations and mixtures,--tell me, Theaetetus, do you understand what

they mean by these expressions? When I was a younger man, I used

to fancy that I understood quite well what was meant by the term

not-being,' which is our present subject of dispute; and now you see in

what a fix we are about it.

THEAETETUS: I see.

STRANGER: And very likely we have been getting into the same perplexity

about 'being,' and yet may fancy that when anybody utters the word, we

understand him quite easily, although we do not know about not-being.

But we may be; equally ignorant of both.

Sophist