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Stranger
Str. Certainly; and I will try to do this by questioning you, as we questioned them at the time. I hope we shall at the same time make a little progress.
Theaetetus
Theaet. That is right.
Stranger
Str. Very well, then; you say that motion and rest are most directly opposed to each other, do you not?
5
Theaetetus
Theaet. Of course.
Stranger
Str. And yet you say that both and each of them equally exist?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, I do.
Stranger
Str. And in granting that they exist, do you mean to say that both and each are in motion?
Theaetetus
Theaet. By no means.
10
Stranger
Str. But do you mean that they are at rest, when you say that both exist?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Of course not.
Stranger
Str. Being, then, you consider to be something else in the soul, a third in addition to these two, inasmuch as you think rest and motion are embraced by it; and since you comprehend and observe that they participate in existence, you therefore said that they are. Eh?
Theaetetus
Theaet. We really do seem to have a vague vision of being as some third thing, when we say that motion and rest are.
Stranger
Str. Then being is not motion and rest in combination, but something else, different from them.
15
Theaetetus
Theaet. Apparently.
Stranger
Str. According to its own nature, then, being is neither at rest nor in motion.
Theaetetus
Theaet. You are about right.
Stranger
Str. What is there left, then, to which a man can still turn his mind who wishes to establish within himself any clear conception of being?
Theaetetus
Theaet. What indeed?
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