oes; 'the givers of names were like some
philosophers who fancy that the earth goes round because their heads are
always going round.' There is a great deal of 'mischief' lurking in the
following: 'I found myself in greater perplexity about justice than I
was before I began to learn;' 'The rho in katoptron must be the addition
of some one who cares nothing about truth, but thinks only of putting
the mouth into shape;' 'Tales and falsehoods have generally to do with
the Tragic and goatish life, and tragedy is the place of them.' Several
philosophers and sophists are mentioned by name: first, Protagoras and
Euthydemus are assailed; then the interpreters of Homer, oi palaioi
Omerikoi (compare Arist. Met.) and the Orphic poets are alluded to
by the way; then he discovers a hive of wisdom in the philosophy of
Heracleitus;--the doctrine of the flux is contained in the word ousia (=
osia the pushing principle), an anticipation of Anaxagoras is found in
psuche and selene. Again, he ridicules the arbitrary methods of pulling
out and putting in letters which were in vogue among the philologers of
his time; or slightly scoffs at contemporary religious beliefs. Lastly,
he is impatient of hearing from the half-converted Cratylus the doctrine
that falsehood can neither be spoken, nor uttered, nor addressed;
a piece of sophistry attributed to Gorgias, which reappears in the
Sophist. And he proceeds to demolish, with no less delight than he had
set up, the Heracleitean theory of language.

In the latter part of the dialogue Socrates becomes more serious,
though he does not lay aside but rather aggravates his banter of the
Heracleiteans, whom here, as in the Theaetetus, he delights to ridicule.
What was the origin of this enmity we can hardly determine:--was it
due to the natural dislike which may be supposed to exist between the
'patrons of the flux' and the 'friends of the ideas' (Soph.)? or is it
to be attributed to the indignation which Plato felt at having wasted
his time upon 'Cratylus and the doctrines of Heracleitus' in the days of
his youth? Socrates, touching on some of the characteristic difficulties
of early Greek philosophy, endeavours to show Cratylus that imitation
may be partial or imperfect, that a knowledge of things is higher than a
knowledge of names, and that there can be no knowledge if all things are
in a state of transition. But Cratylus, who does not easily apprehend
the argument from common sense, remains unconv