truth."

A. "Why?"

S. "Because, by what we agreed before, it will not be there to
speak of, my wondrous friend. For it appeared to us, if I recollect
right, that facts can only exist as they are, and not as they are
not, and that therefore the spirit of truth had nothing to do with
any facts but those which are."

"But," I interrupted, "O dear Socrates, I fear much that if the
spirit of truth be such as this, it must be beyond the reach of
man."

S. "Why then?"

P. "Because the immortal gods only can see things as they really
are, having alone made all things, and ruling them all according to
the laws of each. They therefore, I much fear, will be alone able
to behold them, how they are really in their inner nature and
properties, and not merely from the outside, and by guess, as we do.
How then can we obtain such a spirit ourselves?"

S. "Dear boy, you seem to wish that I should, as usual, put you off
with a myth, when you begin to ask me about those who know far more
about me than I do about them. Nevertheless, shall I tell you a
myth?"

P. "If you have nothing better."