[532d]
in the
corporeal and visible region.” “I accept this,” he
said, “as the truth; and yet it appears to me very hard to accept, and
again, from another point of view, hard to reject.1 Nevertheless, since we have not to
hear it at this time only, but are to repeat it often hereafter, let us assume
that these things are as now has been said, and proceed to the melody itself,
and go through with it as we have gone through the prelude. Tell me, then, what
is the nature of this faculty of dialectic?
1 This sentence is fundamental for the understanding of Plato's metaphysical philosophy generally. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 30, n. 192, What Plato Said, p. 268 and 586 on Parmen. 135 C. So Tennyson says it is hard to believe in God and hard not to believe.
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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