819–820
Athenian
Ath. My dear Clinias, when I was told quite lately of our condition in regard to this matter, I was utterly astounded myself: it seemed to me to be the condition of guzzling swine rather than of human beings, and I was ashamed, not only of myself, but of all the Greek world.Cp. Plat. Rep. 528c.
5
Clinias
Clin. Why? Tell us what you mean, Stranger.
Athenian
Ath. I am doing so. But I can explain it better by putting a question. Answer me briefly: you know what a line is?
Athenian
Ath. And surface?
Clinias
Clin. Certainly.
10
Athenian
Ath. And do you know that these are two things, and that the third thing, next to these, is the solid?
Athenian
Ath. Do you not, then, believe that all these are commensurable one with another?
Athenian
Ath. And you believe, I suppose, that line is really commensurable with line, surface with surface, and solid with solid?
Clinias
Clin. Absolutely.
Athenian
Ath. But supposing that some of them are neither absolutely nor moderately commensurable, some being commensurable and some not, whereas you regard them all as commensurable,—what do you think of your mental state with respect to them?
Clinias
Clin. Evidently it is a sorry state.
Athenian
Ath. Again, as regards the relation of line and surface to solid, or of surface and line to each other—do not all we Greeks imagine that these are somehow commensurable with one another?
5
Clinias
Clin. Most certainly.