49–51
FRANKNESS
See! Here comes another fish that looks like a plate,The pun here is upon Πλάτων and πλατύς (flat). as if he were sliced lengthways, a sort of flatfish, opening his mouth for the hook. He has swallowed it; he is caught. Up with him! What is he?
INVESTIGATION
The kind that styles itself Platonic.
FRANKNESS
So you came to get the gold too, confound you? What do vou say, Plato? What are we to do with him?
PLATO
Over the same cliff with him! Let down for another.
FRANKNESS
Ah, I see a very handsome one coming up, as far as can be judged in the deep water; of many colours, with golden stripes on his back.The Peripatetics were criticized for love of gay clothing and gold. Do you see him, Investigation?
INVESTIGATION
He is the kind that claims the name of Aristotle.
FRANKNESS
He came up and then swam away again. He is making a careful survey. Now he has come back again; he has opened his mouth; he is caught. Up with him.
ARISTOTLE
Don’t ask me about him, Frankness. I don’t know who he is.
5
FRANKNESS
Then he too shall go over the cliff, Aristotle.
But look here! I see a great number of fish closely alike in colour, spiny and rough-skinned, harder to grasp than sea-urchins.Stoics, then the most numerous school. They themselves were uncouth, and their doctrines spiny. Shall we need a seine for them?
PHILOSOPHY
But we haven't any. It will be enough if we land only one out of the school. The one that comes to the hook will of course be the boldest of them.
