SOCRATES: If you were to go into a Lacedaemonian palestra, Theodorus,
would you have a right to look on at the naked wrestlers, some of them
making a poor figure, if you did not strip and give them an opportunity of
judging of your own person?

THEODORUS: Why not, Socrates, if they would allow me, as I think you will,
in consideration of my age and stiffness; let some more supple youth try a
fall with you, and do not drag me into the gymnasium.

SOCRATES: Your will is my will, Theodorus, as the proverbial philosophers
say, and therefore I will return to the sage Theaetetus: Tell me,
Theaetetus, in reference to what I was saying, are you not lost in wonder,
like myself, when you find that all of a sudden you are raised to the level
of the wisest of men, or indeed of the gods?--for you would assume the
measure of Protagoras to apply to the gods as well as men?

THEAETETUS: Certainly I should, and I confess to you that I am lost in
wonder. At first hearing, I was quite satisfied with the doctrine, that
whatever appears is to each one, but now the face of things has changed.

SOCRATES: Why, my dear boy, you are young, and therefore your ear is
quickly caught and your mind influenced by popular arguments. Protagoras,
or some one speaking on his behalf, will doubtless say in reply,--Good
people, young and old, you meet and harangue, and bring in the gods, whose
existence or non-existence I banish from writing and speech, or you talk
about the reason of man being degraded to the level of the brutes, which is
a telling argument with the multitude, but not one word of proof or
demonstration do you offer. All is probability with you, and yet surely
you and Theodorus had better reflect whether you are disposed to admit of
probability and figures of speech in matters of such importance. He or any