STRANGER: The points on which I think that we ought to dwell are the

following:--

YOUNG SOCRATES: What?

STRANGER: Length and shortness, excess and defect; with all of these the

art of measurement is conversant.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.

STRANGER: And the art of measurement has to be divided into two parts,

with a view to our present purpose.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Where would you make the division?

STRANGER: As thus: I would make two parts, one having regard to the

relativity of greatness and smallness to each other; and there is

another, without which the existence of production would be impossible.

YOUNG SOCRATES: What do you mean?

STRANGER: Do you not think that it is only natural for the greater to be

called greater with reference to the less alone, and the less less with

reference to the greater alone?

Statesman