STRANGER: And would they say that they are corporeal?

THEAETETUS: They would distinguish: the soul would be said by them to

have a body; but as to the other qualities of justice, wisdom, and the

like, about which you asked, they would not venture either to deny their

existence, or to maintain that they were all corporeal.

STRANGER: Verily, Theaetetus, I perceive a great improvement in them;

the real aborigines, children of the dragon's teeth, would have been

deterred by no shame at all, but would have obstinately asserted that

nothing is which they are not able to squeeze in their hands.

THEAETETUS: That is pretty much their notion.

STRANGER: Let us push the question; for if they will admit that any,

even the smallest particle of being, is incorporeal, it is enough; they

must then say what that nature is which is common to both the corporeal

and incorporeal, and which they have in their mind's eye when they say

of both of them that they 'are.' Perhaps they may be in a difficulty;

and if this is the case, there is a possibility that they may accept a

notion of ours respecting the nature of being, having nothing of their

own to offer.

THEAETETUS: What is the notion? Tell me, and we shall soon see.

STRANGER: My notion would be, that anything which possesses any sort

Sophist