Seite - 814 - in The Complete Plato

other to the herd that has no horns. YOUNG SOCRATES: All that you say has been abundantly proved, and may therefore be assumed. STRANGER: The king is clearly the shepherd of a polled herd, who have no horns. YOUNG SOCRATES: That is evident. STRANGER: Shall we break up this hornless herd into sections, and endeavour to assign to him what is his? YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means. STRANGER: Shall we distinguish them by their having or not having cloven feet, or by their mixing or not mixing the breed? You know what I mean. YOUNG SOCRATES: What? STRANGER: I mean that horses and asses naturally breed from one another. YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes. STRANGER: But the remainder of the hornless herd of tame animals will not mix the breed. YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true. STRANGER: And of which has the Statesman charge,—of the mixed or of the unmixed race? YOUNG SOCRATES: Clearly of the unmixed. STRANGER: I suppose that we must divide this again as before. YOUNG SOCRATES: We must. STRANGER: Every tame and herding animal has now been split up, with the exception of two species; for I hardly think that dogs should be reckoned among gregarious animals. YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly not; but how shall we divide the two remaining species? STRANGER: There is a measure of difference which may be appropriately employed by you and Theaetetus, who are students of geometry. YOUNG SOCRATES: What is that? STRANGER: The diameter; and, again, the diameter of a diameter. 814