THEAETETUS: Certainly, I have.

STRANGER: Then, not to exclude any one who has ever speculated at all

upon the nature of being, let us put our questions to them as well as to

our former friends.

THEAETETUS: What questions?

STRANGER: Shall we refuse to attribute being to motion and rest, or

anything to anything, and assume that they do not mingle, and are

incapable of participating in one another? Or shall we gather all into

one class of things communicable with one another? Or are some things

communicable and others not?--Which of these alternatives, Theaetetus,

will they prefer?

THEAETETUS: I have nothing to answer on their behalf. Suppose that you

take all these hypotheses in turn, and see what are the consequences

which follow from each of them.

STRANGER: Very good, and first let us assume them to say that nothing is

capable of participating in anything else in any respect; in that case

rest and motion cannot participate in being at all.

THEAETETUS: They cannot.

STRANGER: But would either of them be if not participating in being?

Sophist