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Theaet. What would he mean by making? Evidently you will not say that he means a husbandman; for you said he was a maker of animals also.
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Str. Yes, and of sea and earth and heaven and gods and everything else besides; and, moreover, he makes them all quickly and sells them for very little.
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Theaet. This is some joke of yours.
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Str. Yes? And when a man says that he knows all things and can teach them to another for a small price in a little time, must we not consider that a joke?
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Theaet. Surely we must.
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Str. And is there any more artistic or charming kind of joke than the imitative kind?
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Theaet. Certainly not; for it is of very frequent occurrence and, if I may say so, most diverse. Your expression is very comprehensive.
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Str. And so we recognize that he who professes to be able by virtue of a single art to make all things will be able by virtue of the painter’s art, to make imitations which have the same names as the real things, and by showing the pictures at a distance will be able to deceive the duller ones among young children into the belief that he is perfectly able to accomplish in fact whatever he wishes to do.
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Theaet. Certainly.
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Str. Well then, may we not expect to find that there is another art which has to do with words, by virtue of which it is possible to bewitch the young through their ears with words while they are still standing at a distance from the realities of truth, by exhibiting to them spoken images of all things, so as to make it seem that they are true and that the speaker is the wisest of all men in all things?
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Theaet. Why should there not be such another art?
