27
Socrates
Soc. Did not the things which come into being and the things out of which they come into being furnish us all the three classes?
Protarchus
Pro. Certainly.
Socrates
Soc. And that which produces all these, the cause, we call the fourth, as it has been satisfactorily shown to be distinct from the others?
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, it is distinct.
10
Socrates
Soc. It is, then, proper, now that we have distinguished the four, to make sure that we remember them separately by enumerating them in order.
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, certainly.
Socrates
Soc. The first, then, I call infinite, the second limit or finite, and the third something generated by a mixture of these two. And should I be making any mistake if I called the cause of this mixture and creation the fourth?
Protarchus
Pro. Certainly not.
Socrates
Soc. Now what is the next step in our argument, and what was our purpose in coming to the point we have reached? Was it not this? We were trying to find out whether the second place belonged to pleasure or to wisdom, were we not?
15
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, we were.
Socrates
Soc. And may we not, perhaps, now that we have finished with these points, be better able to come to a decision about the first and second places, which was the original subject of our discussion?
Socrates
Soc. Well then; we decided that the mixed life of pleasure and wisdom was the victor, did we not?
Socrates
Soc. And do we not see what kind of life this is, and to what class it belongs?
Protarchus
Pro. Of course we do.
