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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: useful to this end?
Eryxias once more gave his assent, but the small argument considerably
troubled him.
SOCRATES: And what is your opinion about another question:--Would you say
that the same thing can be at one time useful and at another useless for
the production of the same result?
ERYXIAS: I cannot say more than that if we require the same thing to
produce the same result, then it seems to me to be useful; if not, not.
SOCRATES: Then if without the aid of fire we could make a brazen statue,
we should not want fire for that purpose; and if we did not want it, it
would be useless to us? And the argument applies equally in other cases.
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