sophist   

and the like may all be termed "enclosures"?
Theaet. True.
Str. And therefore this first kind of capture may be called by us
capture with enclosures, or something of that sort?
Theaet. Yes.
Str. The other kind, which is practised by a blow with hooks and
three pronged spears, when summed up under one name, may be called
striking, unless you, Theaetetus, can find some better name?
Theaet. Never mind the name-what you suggest will do very well.
Str. There is one mode of striking, which is done at night, and by
the light of a fire, and is by the hunters themselves called firing,
or spearing by firelight.
Theaet. True.
Str. And the fishing by day is called by the general name
of barbing
because the spears, too, are barbed at the point.
Theaet. Yes, that is the term.
Str. Of this barb-fishing, that which strikes the fish Who is
below from above is called spearing, because this is the way in
which the three-pronged spears are mostly used.
Theaet. Yes, it is often called so.
Str. Then now there is only one kind remaining.
Theaet. What is that?
Str. When a hook is used, and the fish is not struck in any chance
part of his body-he as be is with the spear, but only about the head
and mouth, and is then drawn out from below upwards with reeds and
rods:-What is the right name of that mode of fish, Theaetetus?
Theaet. I suspect that we have now discovered the object of our
search.
Str. Then now you and I have come to an understanding not
only about
the name of the angler's art, but about the definition of the thing
itself. One half of all art was acquisitive-half of all the art
acquisitive art was conquest or taking by force, half of this was
hunting, and half of hunting was hunting animals, half of this was
hunting water animals-of this again, the under half was fishing,
half of fishing was striking; a part of striking was fishing with a
barb, and one half of this again, being the kind which strikes with
a hook and draws the fish from below upwards, is the art
which we have
been seeking, and which from the nature of the operation is denoted
angling or drawing up (aspalienutike, anaspasthai).
Theaet. The result has been quite satisfactorily brought out.
Str. And now, following this pattern, let us endeavour to find out
what a Sophist is.
Theaet. By all means.
Str. The first question about the angler was, whether he was a
skilled artist or unskilled?
Theaet. True.
Str. And shall we call our new friend unskilled, or a thorough
master of his craft?
Theaet. Certainly not unskilled, for his name, as, indeed, you
imply, must surely express his nature.
Str. Then he must be supposed to have some art.
Theaet. What art?
Str. By heaven, they are cousins! it never occurred to us.
Theaet. Who are cousins?
Str. The angler and the Sophist.
Theaet. In what way are they related?
Str. They both appear to me to be hunters.
Theaet. How the Sophist? Of the other we have spoken.
Str. You remember our division of hunting, into hunting after
swimming animals and land animals?
Theaet. Yes.