282
Str. Then let us again take up something which is at once a part of the arts of composition and of wool-working. Let us put aside all that belongs to division, making two parts of wool-working, by applying the principles of division and of composition.
282
Y. Soc. Let us make that distinction.
282
Str. The part which belongs at once to composition and to wool-working, Socrates, you must allow us to divide again, if we are to get a satisfactory concept of the aforesaid art of weaving.
282
Y. Soc. Then we must divide it.
282
Str. Yes, we must; and let us call one part of it the art of twisting threads, and the other the art of intertwining them.
282
Y. Soc. I am not sure I understand. By the art of twisting I think you mean the making of the warp.
282
Str. Not that only, but also the making of the woof. We shall not find that the woof is made without twisting, shall we?
282
Y. Soc. No, of course not.
282
Str. Well, just define warp and woof; perhaps the definition would serve you well at this junction.
282
Y. Soc. How shall I do it?
282
Str. In this way: A piece of carded wool, which is lengthened out and is wide, is said to be a lap of wool, is it not?
282
Y. Soc. Yes.
282
Str. And if any such lap of wool is twisted with a spindle and made into a hard thread, we call the thread warp, and the art which governs this process is the art of spinning the warp.
282
Y. Soc. Right.
283
Str. And the threads, in turn, which are more loosely twisted and have in respect to the force used in the carding a softness adapted to the interweaving with the warp we will call the woof, and the art devoted to these we will call the art of preparing the woof. i.e. the pull (ὁλκή)of the carder’s comb was less strong in the preparation of the threads of the woof than in that of the threads of the warp.
283
Y. Soc. Quite right.
