390
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. The lyre-player.
Socrates
Socrates. And who would know best about the work of the ship-builder?
10
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. The navigator.
Socrates
Socrates. And who can best superintend the work of the lawgiver and judge of it when it is finished, both here and in foreign countries? The user, is it not?
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. Yes.
Socrates
Socrates. And is not this he who knows how to ask questions?
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. Certainly.
15
Socrates
Socrates. And the same one knows also how to make replies?
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. Yes.
Socrates
Socrates. And the man who knows how to ask and answer questions you call a dialectician?
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. Yes, that is what I call him.
Socrates
Socrates. The work of the carpenter, then, is to make a rudder under the supervision of the steersman, if he rudder is to be a good one.
20
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. Evidently.
Socrates
Socrates. And the work of the lawgiver, as it seems, is to make a name, with the dialectician as his supervisor, if names are to be well given.
Hermogenes
Hermogenes. True.
Socrates
Socrates. Then, Hermogenes, the giving of names can hardly be, as you imagine, a trifling matter, or a task for trifling or casual persons: and Cratylus is right in saying that names belong to things by nature and that not every one is an artisan of names, but only he who keeps in view the name which belongs by nature to each particular thing and is able to embody its form in the letters and syllables.
