no principle in names; they may
be changed, as we change the names of slaves, whenever we please, and
the altered name is as good as the original one.

You mean to say, for instance, rejoins Socrates, that if I agree to call
a man a horse, then a man will be rightly called a horse by me, and a
man by the rest of the world? But, surely, there is in words a true
and a false, as there are true and false propositions. If a whole
proposition be true or false, then the parts of a proposition may be
true or false, and the least parts as well as the greatest; and the
least parts are names, and therefore names may be true or false. Would
Hermogenes maintain that anybody may give a name to anything, and as
many names as he pleases; and would all these names be always true at
the time of giving them? Hermogenes replies that this is the only way
in which he can conceive that names are correct; and he appeals to the
practice of different nations, and of the different Hellenic tribes, in
confirmation of his view. Socrates asks, whether the things differ
as the words which represent them differ:--Are we to maintain with
Protagoras, that what appears is? Hermogenes has always been puzzled
about this, but acknowledges, when he is pressed by Socrates, that there
are a few very good men in the world, and a great many very bad; and the
very good are the wise, and the very bad are the foolish; and this
is not mere appearance but reality. Nor is he disposed to say with
Euthydemus, that all things equally and always belong to all men; in
that case, again, there would be no distinction between bad and good
men. But then, the only remaining possibility is, that all things have
their several distinct natures, and are independent of our notions about
them. And not only things, but actions, have distinct natures, and
are done by different processes. There is a natural way of cutting or
burning, and a natural instrument with which men cut or burn, and any
other way will fail;--this is true of all actions. And speaking is
a kind of action, and naming is a kind of speaking, and we must name
according to a natural process, and with a proper instrument. We cut
with a knife, we pierce with an awl, we weave with a shuttle, we name
with a name. And as a shuttle separates the warp from the woof, so
a name distinguishes the natures of things. The weaver will use the
shuttle well,--that is, like a weaver; and the teacher will use the
name well,--that is, lik