kind is most of an adept at the airy
life. (Plato is here introducing a new subdivision, i.e. that of bipeds
into men and birds. Others however refer the passage to the division
into quadrupeds and bipeds, making pigs compete with human beings and
the pig-driver with the king. According to this explanation we must
translate the words above, 'freest and airiest of creation,' 'worthiest
and laziest of creation.')

YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.

STRANGER: Then here, Socrates, is still clearer evidence of the truth of
what was said in the enquiry about the Sophist? (Compare Sophist.)

YOUNG SOCRATES: What?

STRANGER: That the dialectical method is no respecter of persons, and
does not set the great above the small, but always arrives in her own
way at the truest result.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Clearly.

STRANGER: And now, I will not wait for you to ask, but will of my
own accord take you by the shorter road to the definition of a king.

YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.

STRANGER: I say that we should have begun at first by dividing land
animals into biped and quadruped; and since the winged herd, and that
alone, comes out in the same class with man, we should divide bipeds
into those which have feathers and those which have not, and when they
have been divided, and the art of the management of mankind is brought
to light, the time will have come to produce our Statesman and ruler,
and set him like a charioteer in his place, and hand over to him the
reins of state, for that too is a vocation which belongs to him.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good; you have paid me the debt,--I mean, that you
have completed the argument, and I suppose that you added the digression
by way of interest. (Compare Republic.)

STRANGER: Then now, let us go back to the beginning, and join the links,
which together make the definition of the name of the Statesman's art.

YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.

STRANGER: The science of pure knowledge had, as we said originally, a
part which was the science of rule or command, and from this was derived
another part, which was called command-for-self, on the analogy of
selling-for-self; an important section of this was the management of
living animals, and this again was further limited to the management
of them in herds; and again in herds of pedestrian animals. The chief
division of the latter was the art of managing pedestrian animals which
are without horns; this again has a part which can only be comprehended
un