53
Who are these many who know and have tested them all? If any such person really exists, one is quite enough for me, and there will be no need of many. But if you mean those who do not know, the number of them will in no way induce me to trust them, as long as they make declarations about all the systems when they know nothing or only one.
53
You alone have seen the truth, all the others who study philosophy are fools.
53
You wrong me, Hermotimus, when you say that I somehow put myself before other people or in general rank myself in some way with those who know. You do not remember what I said. I did not maintain that I knew the truth more than other people. No, I admitted that like all men I was ignorant of it.
54
Well, Lycinus, the obligation to go round them all, making trial of what they say, and the superiority of this method of choosing are perhaps reasonable, but it is quite ridiculous to spend so many years on each test, as if it were not possible to get a thorough knowledge of the whole from a scrutiny of a small part. This sort of thing seems to me to be quite easy, needing little time. At least, they say that some sculptor (Phidias, I think) saw only the claw of a lion and from it estimated the size of the whole animal on the assumption that it was modelled on the same scale as the claw. You too, if you were shown only the hand of a man, the rest of the body being hidden, would, I suppose, know at once that the hidden figure was a human being, even though you did not see the whole body. So in a fraction of a day it is easy to acquire a good knowledge of the essential points of all the systems, and this precise enquiry which calls for lengthy research is quite unnecessary for choosing that which is preferable. No, you can make a judgment from samples.
