148
Socrates
SOC. Nonsense! If he were praising your running and said he had never met any young man who was so good a runner, and then you were beaten in a race by a full grown man who held the record, do you think his praise would be any less truthful?
Theaetetus
THEAET. Why, no.
Socrates
SOC. And do you think that the discovery of knowledge, as I was just now saying, is a small matter and not a task for the very ablest men?
Theaetetus
THEAET. By Zeus, I think it is a task for the very ablest.
Socrates
SOC. Then you must have confidence in yourself, and believe that Theodorus is right, and try earnestly in every way to gain an understanding of the nature of knowledge as well as of other things.
10
Theaetetus
THEAET. If it is a question of earnestness, Socrates, the truth will come to light.
Socrates
SOC. Well then—for you pointed out the way admirably just now—take your answer about the roots as a model, and just as you embraced them all in one class, though they were many, try to designate the many forms of knowledge by one definition.
Theaetetus
THEAET. But I assure you, Socrates, I have often tried to work that out, when I heard reports of the questions that you asked, but I can neither persuade myself that I have any satisfactory answer, nor can I find anyone else who gives the kind of answer you insist upon; and yet, on the other hand, I cannot get rid of a feeling of concern about the matter.
Socrates
SOC. Yes, you are suffering the pangs of labor, Theaetetus, because you are not empty, but pregnant.
Theaetetus
THEAET. I do not know, Socrates; I merely tell you what I feel.
15
