26–27
Hermes
No, my good fellow, for he seems to have some money himself, so you can't buy him too quickly. Moreover, you will presently learn from him how long the gnat lives, how far down the sea is lighted by the sun, and the nature of the soul of the oyster.
Buyer
Herakles! there's precision for you.
Hermes
What would you say if you should hear things a great deal shrewder than these— how man is a laughing animal, but the ass neither a laughing, nor a house-building, nor a seafaring animal?
Buyer
Edifying and profitable knowledge! I will take him for four hundred dollars.
15
Zeus
Whom have we still left?
Hermes
The sceptic here. Come forward, Pyrrhias, and be published as fast as you can. Most of the people have already stolen away, and there will be few buyers. All the same, who wants this fellow, too?
Buyer
I do. But first tell me, what is your line of knowledge?
Buyer
What do you mean by that?
Philosopher
That in my opinion nothing at all exists.
Buyer
Then are we nobody, too?
Philosopher
I don't even know that.
Buyer
Nor whether you happen to be somebody, either?
10
Philosopher
I am still more ignorant of that, by a good deal.
Buyer
What an uncertainty! But, tell me, what do you want with these balances?
Philosopher
I weigh arguments in them and get them even, and when I see them exactly equal and of the same weight, then I am ignorant which is the truer.
Buyer
What else are you clever at?
Philosopher
Everything, except chasing a runaway slave.
15
