Phaethon

r presence. " You seem like a man filled with the God, Socrates," said Alcibiades. " Would that were true," answered he, " both of me and of all who will counsel here this day. In fact, I was praying for that very thing; namely, that they might have light to see the truth, in whatsoever matter might be discussed here." " And for me also ?" said Alcibiades;â??" but I have prepared my speech already." " And for you also, if you desire it,â??even though some of your periods should be spoiled thereby. But why are you both here so early, before any business is stirring ?" "We were discussing," said I, "that very thing for which we found you praying, namely truth, and what it might be." " Perhaps you went a worse way toward discovering it than I did. But let us hear. Whence did the discussion arise ?" " From something," said Alcibiades, " which Protagoras said in his lecture yesterdayâ??How truth was what each man troweth, or believeth, to be true. ' So that,' he said,' one thing is true to me, if I believe it true, and another opposite thing to you, if you believe that opposite. For,' continued he, 'there is an objective and a subjective truth; the former, doubtless, one and absolute, and contained in the nature of each thing; but the other manifold and relative, varying with the faculties of each perceiver thereof.' But as each man's faculties, he said, were different from his neighbour's, and all more or less imperfect, it was impossible that the absolute... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.