Dialogues

you, if there be any God who will listen to my prayers. Protarchus Offer up a prayer, then, and think. Socrates I am thinking, Protarchus, and I believe that some God has befriended us. Protarchus What do you mean, and what proof have you to offer of what you are saying? Socrates I will tell you, and do you listen to my words. Protarchus Proceed. Socrates Were we not speaking just now of hotter and colder? Protarchus True. Socrates Add to them drier, wetter, more, less, swifter, slower, greater, smaller, and all that in the preceding argument we placed under the unity of more and less. Protarchus In the class of the infinite, you mean? Socrates Yes; and now mingle this with the other. Protarchus What is the other. Socrates The class of the finite which we ought to have brought together as we did the infinite; but, perhaps, it will come to the same thing if we do so now;⁠—when the two are combined, a third will appear. Protarchus What do you mean by the class of the finite? Socrates The class of the equal and the double, and any class which puts an end to difference and opposition, and by introducing number creates harmony and proportion among the different elements. Protarchus I understand; you seem to me to mean that the various opposites, when you mingle with them the class of the finite, takes certain forms. Socrates Yes, that is my meaning. Protarchus Proceed. Socrates Does not the right participation in the finite give health⁠—in disease, for instance? Protarchus Certainly. Socrates And whereas the high and low, the swift and the slow are infinite or unlimited, does not the addition of the principles aforesaid introduce a limit, and perfect the whole frame of music? Protarchus Yes, certainly. Socrates Or, again, when cold and heat prevail, does not the introduction of them take away excess and indefiniteness, and infuse moderation and harmony? Protarchus Certainly. Socrates And from a like admixture of the finite and infinite come the seasons, and all the delights of life? Protarchus Most true. Socrates I omit ten thousand other things, such as beauty and health and strength, and the many beauties and high perfections of the soul: O my beautiful Philebus, the goddess, methinks, seeing the universal wantonness and wickedness of all things, and that there was in them no limit to pleasures and self-indulgence, devised the limit of law and order, whereby, as you say, Philebus, she torments, or as I maintain, delivers the soul.⁠—What think you, Protarchus? Protarchus Her ways are much to my mind, Socrates. Socrates You will observe that I have spoken of three classes? Protarchus Yes, I think that I understand you: you mean to say that the infinite is one class, and that the finite is a second class of existences; but what you would make the third I am not so certain. Socrates That is because the amazing variety of the third class is too much for you, my dear friend; but there was not this difficulty with the infinite, which also comprehended many classes, for all of them were sealed with the note of more and less, and therefore appeared one. Protarchus True. Socrates And the finite or limit had not many divisions, and we readily acknowledged it to be by nature one? Protarchus Yes. Socrates Yes, indeed; and when I speak of the third class, understand me to mean any offspring of these, being a birth into true being, effected by the measure which the limit introduces. Protarchus I understand. Socrates Still there was, as we said, a fourth class to be investigated, and you must assist in the investigation; for does not everything which comes into being, of necessity come into being through a cause? Protarchus Yes, certainly; for how can there be anything which has no cause? Socrates And is not the agent the same as the cause in all except name; the agent and the cause may be rightly called one? Protarchus Very true. Socrates And the same may be said of the patient, or effect; we shall find that they too differ, as I was saying, only in name⁠—shall we not? Protarchus We shall. Socrates The agent or cause always naturally leads, and the patient or effect naturally follows it? Protarchus Certainly. Socrates Then the cause and what is subordinate to it in generation are not the same, but different? Protarchus True. Socrates Did not the things which were generated, and the things out of which they were generated, furnish all the three classes? Protarchus Yes. Socrates And the creator or cause of them has been satisfactorily proven to be distinct from them⁠—and may therefore be called a fourth principle? Protarchus So let us call it. Socrates Quite right; but now, having distinguished the four, I think that we had better refresh our memories by recapitulating each of them in order. Protarchus By all means. Socrates Then the first I will call the infinite or unlimited, and the second the finite or limited; then follows the third, an essence compound and generated; and I do not think that I shall be far wrong in speaking of the cause of mixture and generation as the fourth. Protarchus Certainly not. Socrates And now what is the next question, and how came we hither? Were we not enquiring whether the second place belonged to pleasure or wisdom? Protarchus We were. Socrates And now, having determined these points, shall we not be better able to decide about the first and second place, which was the original subject of dispute? Protarchus I dare say. Socrates We said, if you remember, that the mixed life of pleasure and wisdom was the conqueror⁠—did we not? Protarchus True. Socrates And we see what is the place and nature of this life and to what class it is to be assigned? Protarchus Beyond a doubt. Socrates This is evidently comprehended in the third or mixed class; which is not composed of any two particular ingredients, but of all the elements of infinity, bound down by the finite, and may therefore be truly said to comprehend the conqueror life. Protarchus Most true. Socrates And what shall we say, Philebus, of your life which is all sweetness; and in which of the aforesaid classes is that to be placed? Perhaps you will allow me to