HEODORUS: By the god Ammon, Socrates, you are right; and I am glad to
see that you have not forgotten your geometry. But before I retaliate on
you, I must request the Stranger to finish the argument...

The Stranger suggests that Theaetetus shall be allowed to rest, and that
Socrates the younger shall respond in his place; Theodorus agrees to the
suggestion, and Socrates remarks that the name of the one and the face
of the other give him a right to claim relationship with both of them.
They propose to take the Statesman after the Sophist; his path they
must determine, and part off all other ways, stamping upon them a single
negative form (compare Soph.).

The Stranger begins the enquiry by making a division of the arts and
sciences into theoretical and practical--the one kind concerned with
knowledge exclusively, and the other with action; arithmetic and the
mathematical sciences are examples of the former, and carpentering and
handicraft arts of the latter (compare Philebus). Under which of the two
shall we place the Statesman? Or rather, shall we not first ask, whether
the king, statesman, master, householder, practise one art or many? As
the adviser of a physician may be said to have medical science and to be
a physician, so the adviser of a king has royal science and is a king.
And the master of a large household may be compared to the ruler of a
small state. Hence we conclude that the science of the king, statesman,
and householder is one and the same. And this science is akin to
knowledge rather than to action. For a king rules with his mind, and not
with his hands.

But theoretical science may be a science either of judging, like
arithmetic, or of ruling and superintending, like that of the architect
or master-builder. And the science of the king is of the latter nature;
but the power which he exercises is underived and uncontrolled,--a
characteristic which distinguishes him from heralds, prophets, and
other inferior officers. He is the wholesale dealer in command, and the
herald, or other officer, retails his commands to others. Again, a ruler
is concerned with the production of some object, and objects may be
divided into living and lifeless, and rulers into the rulers of living
and lifeless objects. And the king is not like the master-builder,
concerned with lifeless matter, but has the task of managing living
animals. And the tending of living animals may be either a tending of
individuals, or a managing of