But no true idea of
the nature of either of them, or of their relation to one another, could
be framed until science obtained a content. The ancient philosophers
in the age of Plato thought of science only as pure abstraction, and to
this opinion stood in no relation.

Like Theaetetus, we have attained to no definite result. But an
interesting phase of ancient philosophy has passed before us. And the
negative result is not to be despised. For on certain subjects, and in
certain states of knowledge, the work of negation or clearing the ground
must go on, perhaps for a generation, before the new structure can begin
to rise. Plato saw the necessity of combating the illogical logic of
the Megarians and Eristics. For the completion of the edifice, he makes
preparation in the Theaetetus, and crowns the work in the Sophist.

Many (1) fine expressions, and (2) remarks full of wisdom, (3) also
germs of a metaphysic of the future, are scattered up and down in
the dialogue. Such, for example, as (1) the comparison of Theaetetus'
progress in learning to the 'noiseless flow of a river of oil';
the satirical touch, 'flavouring a sauce or fawning speech'; or the
remarkable expression, 'full of impure dialectic'; or the lively images
under which the argument is described,--'the flood of arguments pouring
in,' the fresh discussions 'bursting in like a band of revellers.'
(2) As illustrations of the second head, may be cited the remark of
Socrates, that 'distinctions of words, although sometimes pedantic, are
also necessary'; or the fine touch in the character of the lawyer,
that 'dangers came upon him when the tenderness of youth was unequal to
them'; or the description of the manner in which the spirit is broken
in a wicked man who listens to reproof until he becomes like a child; or
the punishment of the wicked, which is not physical suffering, but the
perpetual companionship of evil (compare Gorgias); or the saying, often
repeated by Aristotle and others, that 'philosophy begins in wonder,
for Iris is the child of Thaumas'; or the superb contempt with which
the philosopher takes down the pride of wealthy landed proprietors by
comparison of the whole earth. (3) Important metaphysical ideas are: a.
the conception of thought, as the mind talking to herself; b. the notion
of a common sense, developed further by Aristotle, and the explicit
declaration, that the mind gains her conceptions of Being, sameness,
number, and the like, from re