225–226
Theaetetus
Theaet. Certainly.
Stranger
Str. Well, of disputation, one sort wastes money, the other makes money.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Certainly.
Stranger
Str. Then let us try to tell the name by which we must call each of these.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, we must do so.
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Stranger
Str. Presumably the kind which causes a man to neglect his own affairs for the pleasure of engaging in it, but the style of which causes no pleasure to most of his hearers, is, in my opinion, called by no other name than garrulity.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, that is about what it is called.
Stranger
Str. Then the opposite of this, the kind which makes money from private disputes—try now, for it is your turn, to give its name.
Theaetetus
Theaet. What other answer could one give without making a mistake, than that now again for the fourth time that wonderful being whom we have so long been pursuing has turned up—the sophist!
Stranger
Str. Yes, and the sophist is nothing else, apparently, than the money-making class of the disputatious, argumentative, controversial, pugnacious, combative, acquisitive art, as our argument has now again stated.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Certainly.
Stranger
Str. Do you see the truth of the statement that this creature is many-sided and, as the saying is, not to be caught with one hand?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Then we must catch him with both.
Stranger
Str. Yes, we must, and must go at it with all our might, by following another track of his—in this way. Tell me; of the expressions connected with menial occupations some are in common use, are they not?
5
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, many. But to which of the many does your question refer?
