come; the great
Byzantian word-maker also speaks, if I am not mistaken, of confirmation
and further confirmation.

PHAEDRUS: You mean the excellent Theodorus.

SOCRATES: Yes; and he tells how refutation or further refutation is to
be managed, whether in accusation or defence. I ought also to mention
the illustrious Parian, Evenus, who first invented insinuations and
indirect praises; and also indirect censures, which according to some
he put into verse to help the memory. But shall I 'to dumb forgetfulness
consign' Tisias and Gorgias, who are not ignorant that probability is
superior to truth, and who by force of argument make the little appear
great and the great little, disguise the new in old fashions and the old
in new fashions, and have discovered forms for everything, either short
or going on to infinity. I remember Prodicus laughing when I told him of
this; he said that he had himself discovered the true rule of art, which
was to be neither long nor short, but of a convenient length.

PHAEDRUS: Well done, Prodicus!

SOCRATES: Then there is Hippias the Elean stranger, who probably agrees
with him.

PHAEDRUS: Yes.

SOCRATES: And there is also Polus, who has treasuries of diplasiology,
and gnomology, and eikonology, and who teaches in them the names of
which Licymnius made him a present; they were to give a polish.

PHAEDRUS: Had not Protagoras something of the same sort?

SOCRATES: Yes, rules of correct diction and many other fine precepts;
for the 'sorrows of a poor old man,' or any other pathetic case, no one
is better than the Chalcedonian giant; he can put a whole company of
people into a passion and out of one again by his mighty magic, and
is first-rate at inventing or disposing of any sort of calumny on any
grounds or none. All of them agree in asserting that a speech should end
in a recapitulation, though they do not all agree to use the same word.

PHAEDRUS: You mean that there should be a summing up of the arguments in
order to remind the hearers of them.

SOCRATES: I have now said all that I have to say of the art of rhetoric:
have you anything to add?

PHAEDRUS: Not much; nothing very important.

SOCRATES: Leave the unimportant and let us bring the really important
question into the light of day, which is: What power has this art of
rhetoric, and when?

PHAEDRUS: A very great power in public meetings.

SOCRATES: It has. But I should like to know whether you have the same
feeling as I