25
Yes.
25
But even if you are a substance, you are an animal.
25
Yes.
25
Then you are not a stone, being an animal.
25
Thank you kindly; my legs were already as cold and solid as Niobe’s. Iwill buy you. (Zo uunmes.) How much have I to pay for him?
25
Twelve minas.
25
Here you are.
25
Are you the sole purchaser?
25
No, indeed; there are all these men whom you see.
25
Yes, there are many of them, heavy-shouldered fellows, fit associates for the Reaper.
26
Don’t delay; call another, the Peripatetic.
26
(To renivatetic.) I say, you who are handsome, you who are rich! (Yo the buyers.) Come now, buy the height of intelligence, the one who knows absolutely everything!
26
What is he like!
26
Moderate, gentlemanly, adaptable in his way of living, and, what is more, he is double.
26
What do you mean?
26
Viewed from the outside, he seems to be one man, and from the inside, another; so if you buy him, be sure to call the one self “exoteric” and the other “esoteric.”
26
What does he know best?
26
That goods are threefold, in the soul, in the body, and in things external.Aristotle, Hth. Nicom. A, 8, 1098 b.
26
He has common sense. How much is he?
26
Twenty minas.
26
Your price is high.
26
Not so, bless you, for he himself appears to have a bit of money, so you can’t be too quick about buying him. Besides, he will tell you at once how long a gnat lives, how far down into the sea the sunlight reaches, and what the soul of an oyster is like.
26
Heracles, what insight!
26
What if I should tell you of other information demanding far keener vision, about sperm and conception and the shaping of the embryo in the womb, and how man is a creature that laughs, while asses do not laugh, and neither do they build houses nor sail boats.
26
This is high and helpful information that you tell of, so I shall buy him for the twenty minas.
27
Very well.
27
Whom have we left?
