Dialogues

the ponds of the Great King; or you may have seen similar preserves in wells at home? Young Socrates Yes, to be sure, I have seen them, and I have often heard the others described. Stranger And you may have heard also, and may have been assured by report, although you have not travelled in those regions, of nurseries of geese and cranes in the plains of Thessaly? Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger I asked you, because here is a new division of the management of herds, into the management of land and of water herds. Young Socrates There is. Stranger And do you agree that we ought to divide the collective rearing of herds into two corresponding parts, the one the rearing of water, and the other the rearing of land herds? Young Socrates Yes. Stranger There is surely no need to ask which of these two contains the royal art, for it is evident to everybody. Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger Anyone can divide the herds which feed on dry land? Young Socrates How would you divide them? Stranger I should distinguish between those which fly and those which walk. Young Socrates Most true. Stranger And where shall we look for the political animal? Might not an idiot, so to speak, know that he is a pedestrian? Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger The art of managing the walking animal has to be further divided, just as you might halve an even number. Young Socrates Clearly. Stranger Let me note that here appear in view two ways to that part or class which the argument aims at reaching⁠—the one a speedier way, which cuts off a small portion and leaves a large; the other agrees better with the principle which we were laying down, that as far as we can we should divide in the middle; but it is longer. We can take either of them, whichever we please. Young Socrates Cannot we have both ways? Stranger Together? What a thing to ask! but, if you take them in turn, you clearly may. Young Socrates Then I should like to have them in turn. Stranger There will be no difficulty, as we are near the end; if we had been at the beginning, or in the middle, I should have demurred to your request; but now, in accordance with your desire, let us begin with the longer way; while we are fresh, we shall get on better. And now attend to the division. Young Socrates Let me hear. Stranger The tame walking herding animals are distributed by nature into two classes. Young Socrates Upon what principle? Stranger The one grows horns; and the other is without horns. Young Socrates Clearly. Stranger Suppose that you divide the science which manages pedestrian animals into two corresponding parts, and define them; for if you try to invent names for them, you will find the intricacy too great. Young Socrates How must I speak of them, then? Stranger In this way: let the science of managing pedestrian animals be divided into two parts, and one part assigned to the horned herd, and the other to the herd that has no horns. Young Socrates All that you say has been abundantly proved, and may therefore be assumed. Stranger The king is clearly the shepherd of a polled herd, who have no horns. Young Socrates That is evident. Stranger Shall we break up this hornless herd into sections, and endeavour to assign to him what is his? Young Socrates By all means. Stranger Shall we distinguish them by their having or not having cloven feet, or by their mixing or not mixing the breed? You know what I mean. Young Socrates What? Stranger I mean that horses and asses naturally breed from one another. Young Socrates Yes. Stranger But the remainder of the hornless herd of tame animals will not mix the breed. Young Socrates Very true. Stranger And of which has the Statesman charge⁠—of the mixed or of the unmixed race? Young Socrates Clearly of the unmixed. Stranger I suppose that we must divide this again as before. Young Socrates We must. Stranger Every tame and herding animal has now been split up, with the exception of two species; for I hardly think that dogs should be reckoned among gregarious animals. Young Socrates Certainly not; but how shall we divide the two remaining species? Stranger There is a measure of difference which may be appropriately employed by you and Theaetetus, who are students of geometry. Young Socrates What is that? Stranger The diameter; and, again, the diameter of a diameter.337 Young Socrates What do you mean? Stranger How does man walk, but as a diameter whose power is two feet? Young Socrates Just so. Stranger And the power of the remaining kind, being the power of twice two feet, may be said to be the diameter of our diameter. Young Socrates Certainly; and now I think that I pretty nearly understand you. Stranger In these divisions, Socrates, I descry what would make another famous jest. Young Socrates What is it? Stranger Human beings have come out in the same class with the freest and airiest of creation, and have been running a race with them. Young Socrates I remark that very singular coincidence. Stranger And would you not expect the slowest to arrive last? Young Socrates Indeed I should. Stranger And there is a still more ridiculous consequence, that the king is found running about with the herd and in close competition with the bird-catcher, who of all mankind is most of an adept at the airy life.338 Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger Then here, Socrates, is still clearer evidence of the truth of what was said in the enquiry about the Sophist?339 Young Socrates What? Stranger That the dialectical method is no respecter of persons, and does not set the great above the small, but always arrives in her own way at the truest result. Young Socrates Clearly. Stranger And now, I will not wait for you to ask, but will of my own accord take you by the shorter road to the definition of a king. Young Socrates By all means. Stranger I say that we should have begun at first by dividing land animals into biped and quadruped; and since the winged herd, and that alone, comes out in the same class with man, we