YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.

STRANGER: Well, but is there not also something exceeding and exceeded

by the principle of the mean, both in speech and action, and is not this

a reality, and the chief mark of difference between good and bad men?

YOUNG SOCRATES: Plainly.

STRANGER: Then we must suppose that the great and small exist and are

discerned in both these ways, and not, as we were saying before, only

relatively to one another, but there must also be another comparison of

them with the mean or ideal standard; would you like to hear the reason

why?

YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.

STRANGER: If we assume the greater to exist only in relation to the

less, there will never be any comparison of either with the mean.

YOUNG SOCRATES: True.

STRANGER: And would not this doctrine be the ruin of all the arts and

their creations; would not the art of the Statesman and the aforesaid

art of weaving disappear? For all these arts are on the watch against

excess and defect, not as unrealities, but as real evils, which occasion

a difficulty in action; and the excellence or beauty of every work of