ould have considered that the good and the bad are
each very few in number, and that those between both are most numerous."

89. "How say you?" I asked.

"In the same manner," he replied, "as with things very little and very
large Do you think that any thing is more rare than to find a very large
on a very little man, or dog, or any thing else? and, again, swift or
slow, beautiful or ugly, white or black? Do you not perceive that of all
such things the extremes are rare and few, but that the intermediate are
abundant and numerous?"

"Certainly," I replied.

"Do you not think, then," he continued, "that if a contest in wickedness
were proposed, even here very few would be found pre-eminent?"

"It is probable," I said.

"It is so," he said, "but in this respect reasonings do not resemble
men, for I was just now following you as my leader, but in this they do
resemble them, when any one believes in any argument as true without
being skilled in the art of reasoning, and then shortly afterward it
appears to him to be false, at one time being so and at another time
not, and so on with one after another,[34] and especially they who
devote themselves to controversial arguments, you are aware, at length
think they have become very wise and have alone discovered that there is
nothing sound and stable either in things or reasonings but that all
things that exist, as is the case with the Euripus, are in a constant
state of flux and reflux, and never continue in any one condition for
any length of time."

"You speak perfectly true," I said.

90. "Would it not, then, Phaedo" he said "be a sad thing if, when there
is a true and sound reasoning, and such as one can understand, one
should then, through lighting upon such arguments as appear to be at one
time true and at another false, not blame one's self and one's own want
of skill, but at length, through grief, should anxiously transfer the
blame from one's self to the arguments, and thereupon pass the rest of
one's life in hating and reviling arguments and so be depraved of the
truth and knowledge of things that exist?"

"By Jupiter!" I said, "it would be sad, indeed."

"In the first place, then," he said, "let us beware of this, and let us
not admit into our souls the notion that there appears to be nothing
sound in reasoning, but much rather that we are not yet in a sound
condition, and that we ought vigorously and strenuously to endeavor to
become sound, you and the ot