Dialogues

fishing. Theaetetus Yes. Stranger And this sort of hunting may be further divided also into two principal kinds? Theaetetus What are they? Stranger There is one kind which takes them in nets, another which takes them by a blow. Theaetetus What do you mean, and how do you distinguish them? Stranger As to the first kind⁠—all that surrounds and encloses anything to prevent egress, may be rightly called an enclosure. Theaetetus Very true. Stranger For which reason twig baskets, casting-nets, nooses, creels, and the like may all be termed “enclosures”? Theaetetus True. Stranger And therefore this first kind of capture may be called by us capture with enclosures, or something of that sort? Theaetetus Yes. Stranger The other kind, which is practised by a blow with hooks and three-pronged spears, when summed up under one name, may be called striking, unless you, Theaetetus, can find some better name? Theaetetus Never mind the name⁠—what you suggest will do very well. Stranger There is one mode of striking, which is done at night, and by the light of a fire, and is by the hunters themselves called firing, or spearing by firelight. Theaetetus True. Stranger And the fishing by day is called by the general name of barbing, because the spears, too, are barbed at the point. Theaetetus Yes, that is the term. Stranger Of this barb-fishing, that which strikes the fish who is below from above is called spearing, because this is the way in which the three-pronged spears are mostly used. Theaetetus Yes, it is often called so. Stranger Then now there is only one kind remaining. Theaetetus What is that? Stranger When a hook is used, and the fish is not struck in any chance part of his body, as he is with the spear, but only about the head and mouth, and is then drawn out from below upwards with reeds and rods:⁠—What is the right name of that mode of fishing, Theaetetus? Theaetetus I suspect that we have now discovered the object of our search. Stranger Then now you and I have come to an understanding not only about the name of the angler’s art, but about the definition of the thing itself. One half of all art was acquisitive⁠—half of the acquisitive art was conquest or taking by force, half of this was hunting, and half of hunting was hunting animals, half of this was hunting water animals⁠—of this again, the under half was fishing, half of fishing was striking; a part of striking was fishing with a barb, and one half of this again, being the kind which strikes with a hook and draws the fish from below upwards, is the art which we have been seeking, and which from the nature of the operation is denoted angling or drawing up (ασπαλιευτικὴ, ἀνασπᾶσθαι). Theaetetus The result has been quite satisfactorily brought out. Stranger And now, following this pattern, let us endeavour to find out what a Sophist is. Theaetetus By all means. Stranger The first question about the angler was, whether he was a skilled artist or unskilled? Theaetetus True. Stranger And shall we call our new friend unskilled, or a thorough master of his craft? Theaetetus Certainly not unskilled, for his name, as, indeed, you imply, must surely express his nature. Stranger Then he must be supposed to have some art. Theaetetus What art? Stranger By heaven, they are cousins! it never occurred to us. Theaetetus Who are cousins? Stranger The angler and the Sophist. Theaetetus In what way are they related? Stranger They both appear to me to be hunters. Theaetetus How the Sophist? Of the other we have spoken. Stranger You remember our division of hunting, into hunting after swimming animals and land animals? Theaetetus Yes. Stranger And you remember that we subdivided the swimming and left the land animals, saying that there were many kinds of them? Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger Thus far, then, the Sophist and the angler, starting from the art of acquiring, take the same road? Theaetetus So it would appear. Stranger Their paths diverge when they reach the art of animal hunting; the one going to the seashore, and to the rivers and to the lakes, and angling for the animals which are in them. Theaetetus Very true. Stranger While the other goes to land and water of another sort⁠—rivers of wealth and broad meadow-lands of generous youth; and he also is intending to take the animals which are in them. Theaetetus What do you mean? Stranger Of hunting on land there are two principal divisions. Theaetetus What are they? Stranger One is the hunting of tame, and the other of wild animals. Theaetetus But are tame animals ever hunted? Stranger Yes, if you include man under tame animals. But if you like you may say that there are no tame animals, or that, if there are, man is not among them; or you may say that man is a tame animal but is not hunted⁠—you shall decide which of these alternatives you prefer. Theaetetus I should say, Stranger, that man is a tame animal, and I admit that he is hunted. Stranger Then let us divide the hunting of tame animals into two parts. Theaetetus How shall we make the division? Stranger Let us define piracy, man-stealing, tyranny, the whole military art, by one name, as hunting with violence. Theaetetus Very good. Stranger But the art of the lawyer, of the popular orator, and the art of conversation may be called in one word the art of persuasion. Theaetetus True. Stranger And of persuasion, there may be said to be two kinds? Theaetetus What are they? Stranger One is private, and the other public. Theaetetus Yes; each of them forms a class. Stranger And of private hunting, one sort receives hire, and the other brings gifts. Theaetetus I do not understand you. Stranger You seem never to have observed the manner in which lovers hunt. Theaetetus To what do you refer? Stranger I mean that they lavish gifts on those whom they hunt in addition to other inducements. Theaetetus Most true. Stranger Let us admit this, then, to be the amatory art. Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger But that sort of hireling whose conversation is pleasing and who baits his hook only with pleasure and exacts nothing but his maintenance in return, we should all, if I am not mistaken, describe as possessing flattery or an art of making things pleasant.