sophist   

Str. I should say that the habit which leads a man to neglect his
own affairs for the pleasure of conversation, of which the style is
far from being agreeable to the majority of his hearers, may
be fairly
termed loquacity: such is my opinion.
Theaet. That is the common name for it.
Str. But now who the other is, who makes money out of private
disputation, it is your turn to say.
Theaet. There is only one true answer: he is the wonderful
Sophist, of whom we are in pursuit, and who reappears again for the
fourth time.
Str. Yes, and with a fresh pedigree, for he is the money-making
species of the Eristic, disputatious, controversial. pugnacious,
combative, acquisitive family, as the argument has already proven.
Theaet. Certainly.
Str. How true was the observation that he was a many-sided animal,
and not to be caught with one hand, as they say!
Theaet. Then you must catch him with two.
Str. Yes, we must, if we can. And therefore let us try, another
track in our pursuit of him: You are aware that there are certain
menial occupations which have names among servants?
Theaet. Yes, there are many such; which of them do you mean?
Str. I mean such as sifting, straining, winnowing, threshing.
Theaet. Certainly.
Str. And besides these there are a great many more, such
as carding,
spinning, adjusting the warp and the woof; and thousands of similar
expressions are used in the arts.
Theaet. Of what are they to be patterns, and what are we
going to do
with them all?
Str. I think that in all of these there is implied a notion of
division.
Theaet. Yes.
Str. Then if, as I was saying, there is one art which includes all
of them, ought not that art to have one name?
Theaes. And what is the name of the art?
Str. The art of discerning or discriminating.
Theaet. Very good.
Str. Think whether you cannot divide this.
Theaet. I should have to think a long while.
Str. In all the previously named processes either like has been
separated from like or the better from the worse.
Theaet. I see now what you mean.
Str, There is no name for the first kind of separation; of the
second, which throws away the worse and preserves the better, I do
know a name.
Theaet. What is it?
Str. Every discernment or discrimination of that kind, as I have
observed, is called a purification.
Theaet. Yes, that is the usual expression.
Str. And any one may see that purification is of two kinds.
Theaet. Perhaps so, if he were allowed time to think; but I do not
see at this moment.
Str. There are many purifications of bodies which may with
propriety
be comprehended under a single name.
Theaet. What are they, and what is their name?
Str. There is the purification of living bodies in their inward
and in their outward parts, of which the former is duly effected by
medicine and gymnastic, the latter by the not very dignified art of
the bath-man; and there is the purification of inanimate
substances-to
this the arts of fulling and of furbishing in general attend in a