gorgias   

Soc. Again, if we take the arts of which we were just now

speaking:-do not arithmetic and the arithmeticians teach us the

properties of number?

Gor. Certainly.

Soc. And therefore persuade us of them?

Gor. Yes.

Soc. Then arithmetic as well as rhetoric is an artificer of

persuasion?

Gor. Clearly.

Soc. And if any one asks us what sort of persuasion, and about

what,-we shall answer, persuasion which teaches the quantity of odd

and even; and we shall be able to show that all the other arts of

which we were just now speaking are artificers of persuasion, and of

what sort, and about what.

Gor. Very true.

Soc. Then rhetoric is not the only artificer of persuasion?

Gor. True.

Soc. Seeing, then, that not only rhetoric works by persuasion, but

that other arts do the same, as in the case of the painter, a question

has arisen which is a very fair one: Of what persuasion is rhetoric

the artificer, and about what?-is not that a fair way of putting the

question?

Gor. I think so.

Soc. Then, if you approve the question, Gorgias, what is the answer?

Gor. I answer, Socrates, that rhetoric is the art of persuasion in

courts of law and other assemblies, as I was just now saying, and

about the just and unjust.

Soc. And that, Gorgias, was what I was suspecting to be your notion;

yet I would not have you wonder if by-and-by I am found repeating a

seemingly plain question; for I ask not in order to confute you, but

as I was saying that the argument may proceed consecutively, and

that we may not get the habit of anticipating and suspecting the