determines where they can have communion with one another and where not.

THEAETETUS: Quite true.

STRANGER: And the art of dialectic would be attributed by you only to

the philosopher pure and true?

THEAETETUS: Who but he can be worthy?

STRANGER: In this region we shall always discover the philosopher, if we

look for him; like the Sophist, he is not easily discovered, but for a

different reason.

THEAETETUS: For what reason?

STRANGER: Because the Sophist runs away into the darkness of not-being,

in which he has learned by habit to feel about, and cannot be discovered

because of the darkness of the place. Is not that true?

THEAETETUS: It seems to be so.

STRANGER: And the philosopher, always holding converse through reason

with the idea of being, is also dark from excess of light; for the souls

of the many have no eye which can endure the vision of the divine.

THEAETETUS: Yes; that seems to be quite as true as the other.