must go on, perhaps for a generation, before the new structure can begin to
rise. Plato saw the necessity of combating the illogical logic of the
Megarians and Eristics. For the completion of the edifice, he makes
preparation in the Theaetetus, and crowns the work in the Sophist.

Many (1) fine expressions, and (2) remarks full of wisdom, (3) also germs
of a metaphysic of the future, are scattered up and down in the dialogue.
Such, for example, as (1) the comparison of Theaetetus' progress in
learning to the 'noiseless flow of a river of oil'; the satirical touch,
'flavouring a sauce or fawning speech'; or the remarkable expression, 'full
of impure dialectic'; or the lively images under which the argument is
described,--'the flood of arguments pouring in,' the fresh discussions
'bursting in like a band of revellers.' (2) As illustrations of the second
head, may be cited the remark of Socrates, that 'distinctions of words,
although sometimes pedantic, are also necessary'; or the fine touch in the
character of the lawyer, that 'dangers came upon him when the tenderness of
youth was unequal to them'; or the description of the manner in which the
spirit is broken in a wicked man who listens to reproof until he becomes
like a child; or the punishment of the wicked, which is not physical
suffering, but the perpetual companionship of evil (compare Gorgias); or
the saying, often repeated by Aristotle and others, that 'philosophy begins
in wonder, for Iris is the child of Thaumas'; or the superb contempt with
which the philosopher takes down the pride of wealthy landed proprietors by
comparison of the whole earth. (3) Important metaphysical ideas are: a.
the conception of thought, as the mind talking to herself; b. the notion of
a common sense, developed further by Aristotle, and the explicit
declaration, that the mind gains her conceptions of Being, sameness,
number, and the like, from reflection on herself; c. the excellent
distinction of Theaetetus (which Socrates, speaking with emphasis, 'leaves
to grow') between seeing the forms or hearing the sounds of words in a