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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: good?' 'Yes,' he said. 'And of human beings like ourselves, of water,
fire, and the like?' 'I am not certain.' 'And would you be undecided also
about ideas of which the mention will, perhaps, appear laughable: of hair,
mud, filth, and other things which are base and vile?' 'No, Parmenides;
visible things like these are, as I believe, only what they appear to be:
though I am sometimes disposed to imagine that there is nothing without an
idea; but I repress any such notion, from a fear of falling into an abyss
of nonsense.' 'You are young, Socrates, and therefore naturally regard the
opinions of men; the time will come when philosophy will have a firmer hold
of you, and you will not despise even the meanest things. But tell me, is
your meaning that things become like by partaking of likeness, great by
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