STRANGER: Let us begin by considering the whole nature of excess and
defect, and then we shall have a rational ground on which we may praise or
blame too much length or too much shortness in discussions of this kind.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Let us do so.
STRANGER: The points on which I think that we ought to dwell are the
following:--
YOUNG SOCRATES: What?
STRANGER: Length and shortness, excess and defect; with all of these the
art of measurement is conversant.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.
STRANGER: And the art of measurement has to be divided into two parts,
with a view to our present purpose.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Where would you make the division?
STRANGER: As thus: I would make two parts, one having regard to the
relativity of greatness and smallness to each other; and there is another,
without which the existence of production would be impossible.
YOUNG SOCRATES: What do you mean?
STRANGER: Do you not think that it is only natural for the greater to be
called greater with reference to the less alone, and the less less with
reference to the greater alone?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.
STRANGER: Well, but is there not also something exceeding and exceeded by
the principle of the mean, both in speech and action, and is not this a
reality, and the chief mark of difference between good and bad men?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Plainly.
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