[602d]
obviously
every confusion of this sort in our souls. And so scene-painting in its
exploitation1 of
this weakness of our nature falls nothing short of witchcraft,2 and so do jugglery and many other such
contrivances.” “True.” “And have not
measuring and numbering and weighing3 proved to be most gracious
aids to prevent the domination in our soul of the apparently4 greater
or less or more or heavier, and to give the control to that which has
reckoned5 and numbered or even
weighed?”
1 ἐπιθεμένη helps to personify σκιαγραφία. Cf. Gorg. 464 C.
2 Adam's “leaves no magic art untried” is misleading. ἀπολείπειν is here used as in 504 C. For the idiomatic οὐδὲν ἀπολείπει see p. 200, note b, on 533 A.
3 Cf. Xen.Mem. i. 1. 9.
4 Cf. Protag. 356 Dἡ τοῦ φαινομένου δύναμις
5 λογισάμενον: Cf. Laws 644 D, Crito 46 B.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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