3
That is a nice statement! If I am to become a philosopher I must first learn to play the harp!
4
In addition to these, counting.
4
I can count now.
4
How do you do it?
4
One, two, three, four.
4
Look, now; what you deem four is really ten, and a perfect triangle, and what we swear by.
4
Hear me swear a mighty oath: by Four, I never heard diviner or more holy words.
4
And after that, stranger, you will have knowledge concerning earth and air and water and fire-the mass of each, and what form it has, and what motion by consequence.
4
Then has fire form, or air, or water?
4
Very clear forms, for the formless and shapeless is immovable; and besides these things you will know that God is number and mind and harmony.
4
This is startling!
5
Beyond what I have already said, you will know that you yourself, who seem to be a unit, are one person in appearance and another in reality.
5
What do you say? Am I somebody else and not this person now talking to you?
5
Now you are he, but formerly you appeared in another body and with another name; and in time you will change again into another.
5
You mean this: that I shall be immortal, changing into one form after another? But that is enough on this subject.
6
What are your habits of life?
6
I touch no sort of animal food, but anything else except beans.
6
What is the reason of that? Perhaps you dislike beans?
6
Not at all, but they are sacred and of a marvellous nature. But, what is more important, it is the custom of the Athenians to vote for officers with beans.
6
All your remarks are lofty and priestlike. But take off your clothes and let me see you stripped. Good heavens, his thigh is golden! He seems to be a god, not a mortal. I will buy him, by all means. How much do you ask for him?
6
Two hundred dollars.
6
I will take him at the price.
6
Make a note of the buyer's name and country.
6
He is an Italian, I should think, from Croton or Tarentum, or somewhere in Magna Graecia. But he is not the sole purchaser; almost three hundred clubbed together with him.
6
Let them take him off. Put up another.
