Athenian Stranger: Let us be on our guard against an argument that is wily in every way, lest with its youthful vigor it cajole us, who are elderly, and get away, making us laughable, and seem like people who reached for great things but failed to obtain even the smaller. Consider therefore: suppose it was necessary for us, being three, to cross a very swift flowing river, and I, happening to be the youngest of us and experienced in many currents, said that I ought to try it first by myself, leaving you in safety and investigating whether it is fordable for more elderly men such as you, or just how it is. If it appeared to be, I would then call to you and help you across with my experience, while if it were unfordable for you, the risk would be mine. Now the argument coming up is rather swift and perhaps almost unfordable for your strength. Lest it create in you a dizziness and whirling, sweep you away by asking unfamiliar questions, and engender an unpleasant unsightliness and unseemliness, it seems to me that I ought now to proceed thus: first I should question myself, while you listen in safety, and then after this I again should answer myself, and go through the entire argument this way, until what pertains to the soul is completed and it has been demonstrated that soul is prior to body.
Kleinias: You seem to us, stranger, to have spoken in an excellent way. Do as you suggest.
Athenian Stranger: Come then, if ever we should invoke the aid of a god, it's now that this should happen - at the demonstration of their own existence let their aid be invoked in all seriousness - and holding on as if to some safe cable, let's set forth into the present argument.
Platão, Leis X.892d-893b
University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1980. (trad: Thomas L. Pangle)
[Ἀθηναῖος
φυλάττωμεν δὴ παντάπασιν ἀπατηλὸν λόγον, μή πῃ πρεσβύτας ἡμᾶς ὄντας νεοπρεπὴς ὢν παραπείσῃ καὶ διαφυγὼν καταγελάστους ποιήσῃ, καὶ δόξωμεν μείζονα ἐπιβαλλόμενοι καὶ τῶν σμικρῶν ἀποτυχεῖν. σκοπεῖτε οὖν. εἰ καθάπερ ποταμὸν ἡμᾶς ἔδει τρεῖς ὄντας διαβαίνειν ῥέοντα σφόδρα, νεώτατος δ᾽ ἐγὼ τυγχάνων ἡμῶν καὶ πολλῶν ἔμπειρος ῥευμάτων, εἶπον ὅτι πρῶτον ἐμὲ χρῆναι πειραθῆναι κατ᾽ἐμαυτόν, καταλιπόντα ὑμᾶς ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ, σκέψασθαι εἰ διαβατός ἐστι πρεσβυτέροις οὖσι καὶ ὑμῖν, ἢ πῶς ἔχει, καὶ φανέντος μὲν ταύτῃ, καλεῖν ὑμᾶς τότε καὶ συνδιαβιβάζειν ἐμπειρίᾳ, εἰ δὲ ἄβατος ἦν ὡς ὑμῖν, ἐν ἐμοὶ τὸν κίνδυνον γεγονέναι, μετρίως ἂν ἐδόκουν λέγειν, καὶ δὴ καὶ νῦν ὁ μέλλων ἐστὶ λόγος σφοδρότερος καὶ σχεδὸν ἴσως ἄβατος ὡς τῇ σφῷν ῥώμῃ: μὴ δὴ σκοτοδινίαν ἴλιγγόν τε ὑμῖν ἐμποιήσῃ παραφερόμενός τε καὶ ἐρωτῶν ἀήθεις ὄντας ἀποκρίσεων, εἶτ᾽ ἀσχημοσύνην ἀπρέπειάν τε ἐντέκῃ ἀηδῆ, δοκεῖ δή μοι χρῆναι ποιεῖν οὑτωσὶ τὰ νῦν ἐμέ, ἀνερωτᾶν πρῶτον ἐμαυτόν, ἀκουόντων ὑμῶν ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀποκρίνασθαι πάλιν ἐμέ, καὶ τὸν λόγον ἅπαντα οὕτω διεξελθεῖν, μέχριπερ ἂν ψυχῆς πέρι διαπεράνηται καὶ δείξῃ πρότερον ὂν ψυχὴν σώματος.
Κλεινίας
ἄριστ᾽, ὦ ξένε, δοκεῖς ἡμῖν εἰρηκέναι, ποίει τε ὡς λέγεις.
Ἀθηναῖος
ἄγε δή, θεὸν εἴ ποτε παρακλητέον ἡμῖν, νῦν ἔστω τοῦτο οὕτω γενόμενον—ἐπί γε ἀπόδειξιν ὡς εἰσὶν τὴν αὑτῶν σπουδῇ πάσῃ παρακεκλήσθων—ἐχόμενοι δὲ ὥς τινος ἀσφαλοῦς πείσματος ἐπεισβαίνωμεν εἰς τὸν νῦν λόγον.]
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