STRANGER: Then the philosopher, who has the truest reverence for these

qualities, cannot possibly accept the notion of those who say that

the whole is at rest, either as unity or in many forms: and he will

be utterly deaf to those who assert universal motion. As children say

entreatingly 'Give us both,' so he will include both the moveable and

immoveable in his definition of being and all.

THEAETETUS: Most true.

STRANGER: And now, do we seem to have gained a fair notion of being?

THEAETETUS: Yes truly.

STRANGER: Alas, Theaetetus, methinks that we are now only beginning to

see the real difficulty of the enquiry into the nature of it.

THEAETETUS: What do you mean?

STRANGER: O my friend, do you not see that nothing can exceed our

ignorance, and yet we fancy that we are saying something good?

THEAETETUS: I certainly thought that we were; and I do not at all

understand how we never found out our desperate case.

STRANGER: Reflect: after having made these admissions, may we not be

Sophist