), and therefore we ought to
train ourselves to give and accept a rational account of them; for
immaterial things, which are the noblest and greatest, are shown only in
thought and idea, and in no other way, and all that we are now saying is
said for the sake of them. Moreover, there is always less difficulty in
fixing the mind on small matters than on great.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good.
STRANGER: Let us call to mind the bearing of all this.
YOUNG SOCRATES: What is it?
STRANGER: I wanted to get rid of any impression of tediousness which we
may have experienced in the discussion about weaving, and the reversal of
the universe, and in the discussion concerning the Sophist and the being of
not-being. I know that they were felt to be too long, and I reproached
myself with this, fearing that they might be not only tedious but
irrelevant; and all that I have now said is only designed to prevent the
recurrence of any such disagreeables for the future.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good. Will you proceed?
STRANGER: Then I would like to observe that you and I, remembering what
has been said, should praise or blame the length or shortness of
discussions, not by comparing them with one another, but with what is
fitting, having regard to the part of measurement, which, as we said, was
to be borne in mind.
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