Seite - 832 - in The Complete Plato

YOUNG SOCRATES: To be sure. STRANGER: Of working in wool, again, there are two divisions, and both these are parts of two arts at once. YOUNG SOCRATES: How is that? STRANGER: Carding and one half of the use of the comb, and the other processes of wool-working which separate the composite, may be classed together as belonging both to the art of wool-working, and also to one of the two great arts which are of universal application—the art of composition and the art of division. YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes. STRANGER: To the latter belong carding and the other processes of which I was just now speaking; the art of discernment or division in wool and yarn, which is effected in one manner with the comb and in another with the hands, is variously described under all the names which I just now mentioned. YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true. STRANGER: Again, let us take some process of wool-working which is also a portion of the art of composition, and, dismissing the elements of division which we found there, make two halves, one on the principle of composition, and the other on the principle of division. YOUNG SOCRATES: Let that be done. STRANGER: And once more, Socrates, we must divide the part which belongs at once both to wool-working and composition, if we are ever to discover satisfactorily the aforesaid art of weaving. YOUNG SOCRATES: We must. STRANGER: Yes, certainly, and let us call one part of the art the art of twisting threads, the other the art of combining them. YOUNG SOCRATES: Do I understand you, in speaking of twisting, to be referring to manufacture of the warp? STRANGER: Yes, and of the woof too; how, if not by twisting, is the woof made? YOUNG SOCRATES: There is no other way. STRANGER: Then suppose that you define the warp and the woof, for I think that the definition will be of use to you. YOUNG SOCRATES: How shall I define them? 832