231
Str. No wonder you are at a loss. But it is fair to suppose that by this time he is still more at a loss to know how he can any longer elude our argument; for the proverb is right which says it is not easy to escape all the wrestler’s grips. So now we must attack him with redoubled vigor.
231
Theaet. You are right.
231
Str. First, then, let us stop to take breath and while we are resting let us count up the number of forms in which the sophist has appeared to us. First, I believe, he was found to be a paid hunter after the young and wealthy.
231
Theaet. Yes.
231
Str. And secondly a kind of merchant in articles of knowledge for the soul.
231
Theaet. Certainly.
231
Str. And thirdly did he not turn up as a retailer of these same articles of knowledge?
231
Theaet. Yes, and fourthly we found he was a seller of his own productions of knowledge.
231
Str. Your memory is good; but I will try to recall the fifth case myself. He was an athlete in contests of words, who had taken for his own the art of disputation.
231
Theaet. Yes, he was.
231
Str. The sixth case was doubtful, but nevertheless we agreed to consider him a purger of souls, who removes opinions that obstruct learning.
231
Theaet. Very true.
232
Str. Then do you see that when a man appears to know many things, but is called by the name of a single art, there is something wrong about this impression, and that, in fact, the person who labors under this impression in connexion with any art is clearly unable to see the common principle of the art, to which all these kinds of knowledge pertain, so that he calls him who possesses them by many names instead of one?
232
Theaet. Something like that is very likely to be the case.
232
Str. We must not let that happen to us in our search through lack of diligence. So let us first take up again one of our statements about the sophist. For there is one of them which seemed to me to designate him most plainly.
232
Theaet. Which was it?
232
Str. I think we said he was a disputer.
232
Theaet. Yes.
