praise we can bestow on him, but, I fear, no higher one. It is
expedient, nevertheless, to have such a temperament as it is to have
a good memory, or a loud voice, or a straight nose unlike mine;
only, like other animal passions, it must be restrained and
regulated by reason and the law of right, so as to employ itself
only on such matters and to such a degree as they prescribe."

"It may seem so in the argument," said I. "Yet no argument, even of
yours, Socrates, with your pardon, shall convince me that the spirit
of truth is not fair and good, ay, the noblest possession of all;
throwing away which, a man throws away his shield, and becomes
unworthy of the company of gods or men."

S. "Or of beasts either, as it seems to me and the argument.
Nevertheless, to this point has the argument, in its cunning and
malice, brought us by crooked paths. Can we find no escape?"

P. "I know none."

S. "But may it not be possible that we, not having been initiated,
like Alcibiades, into the Babylonian mysteries, have somewhat
mistaken the meaning of that expression, 'spirit of truth'? For
truth we defined to be 'facts as they are.' The spirit of truth
then should mean, should it not, the spirit of facts as they are?"

P. "It should."

S. "But what shall we say that this expression, in its turn, means?
The spirit which makes facts as they are?"

A. "Surely not. That would be the supreme Demiurgus himself."

S. "Of whom you were not speaking, when you spoke of the spirit of
truth?"

A. "Certainly not. I was speaking of a spirit in man."

S. "And belonging to him?"

A. "Yes."

S. "And doing-what, with regard to facts as they are? for this is
just the thing which puzzles me."

A. "Telling facts as they are."

S. "Without seeing them as they are?"

A. "How you bore one! of course not. It sees facts as they are,
and therefore tells them."

S. "But perhaps it might see them as they are, and find it
expedient, being of the same temperament as I, to hold its tongue
about them? Would it then be still the spirit of truth?"

A. "It would, of course."

S. "The man then who possesses the spirit of truth will see facts
as they are?"

A. "He will."

S. "And conversely?"

A. "Yes."

S. "But if he sees anything only as it seems to him, and is not in
fact, he will not, with regard to that thing, see it by the spirit
of truth?"

A. "I suppose not."

S. "Neither then will he be able to