STATESMAN

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Theodorus, Socrates, The Eleatic Stranger, The

Younger Socrates.

SOCRATES: I owe you many thanks, indeed, Theodorus, for the acquaintance

both of Theaetetus and of the Stranger.

THEODORUS: And in a little while, Socrates, you will owe me three

times as many, when they have completed for you the delineation of the

Statesman and of the Philosopher, as well as of the Sophist.

SOCRATES: Sophist, statesman, philosopher! O my dear Theodorus, do my

ears truly witness that this is the estimate formed of them by the great

calculator and geometrician?

THEODORUS: What do you mean, Socrates?

SOCRATES: I mean that you rate them all at the same value, whereas they

are really separated by an interval, which no geometrical ratio can

express.

THEODORUS: By Ammon, the god of Cyrene, Socrates, that is a very

fair hit; and shows that you have not forgotten your geometry. I will