159
Socrates
SOC. You understand perfectly; that is just what I mean.
Theaetetus
THEAET. Unlike, I imagine.
Socrates
SOC. And therefore other, inasmuch as unlike?
Theaetetus
THEAET. Necessarily.
15
Socrates
SOC. And you would say the same of Socrates asleep or in any of the other states we enumerated just now?
Socrates
SOC. Then each of those elements which by the law of their nature act upon something else, will, when it gets hold of Socrates in health, find me one object to act upon, and when it gets hold of me in illness, another?
Theaetetus
THEAET. How can it help it?
Socrates
SOC. And so, in the two cases, that active element and I, who am the passive element, shall each produce a different object?
20
Theaetetus
THEAET. Of course.
Socrates
SOC. So, then, when I am in health and drink wine, it seems pleasant and sweet to me?
Socrates
SOC. The reason is, in fact, that according to the principles we accepted a while ago, the active and passive elements produce sweetness and perception, both of which are simultaneously moving from one place to another, and the perception, which comes from the passive element, makes the tongue perceptive, and the sweetness, which comes from the wine and pervades it, passes over and makes the wine both to be and to seem sweet to the tongue that is in health.
Theaetetus
THEAET. Certainly, such are the principles we accepted a while ago.
25
Socrates
SOC. But when it gets hold of me in illness, in the first place, it really doesn’t get hold of the same man, does it? For he to whom it comes is certainly unlike.
