_Hip._--I have another answer to which your friend can take no exception. That, by the presence of which all things become beautiful, is Gold. What was before ugly, will (we all know), when ornamented with gold, appear beautiful. _Sokr._--You little know what sort of man my friend is. He will laugh at your answer, and ask you--Do you think, then, that Pheidias did not know his profession as a sculptor? How came he not to make the statue of Athênê all gold, instead of making (as he has done) the face, hands, and feet of ivory, and the pupils of the eyes of a particular stone? Is not ivory also beautiful, and particular kinds of stone? _Hip._--Yes, each is beautiful, where it is becoming. _Sokr._--And ugly, where it is not becoming.[15] _Hip._--Doubtless. I admit that what is becoming or suitable, makes that to which it is applied appear beautiful: that which is not becoming or suitable, makes it appear ugly. _Sokr._--My friend will next ask you, when you are boiling the beautiful pot of which we spoke just now, full of beautiful soup, what sort of ladle will be suitable and becoming--one made of gold, or of fig-tree wood? Will not the golden ladle spoil the soup, and the wooden ladle turn it out good? Is not the wooden ladle, therefore, better than the golden? _Hip._--By Hêraklês, Sokrates! what a coarse and stupid fellow your friend is! I cannot continue to converse with a man who talks of such matters. _Sokr._--I am not surprised that you, with your fine attire and lofty reputation, are offended with these low allusions. But I have nothing to spoil by intercourse with this man; and I entreat you to persevere, as a favour to me. He will ask you whether a wooden soup-ladle is not more beautiful than a ladle of gold,--since it is more suitable and becoming? So that though you said--The Self-Beautiful is Gold--you are now obliged to acknowledge that gold is not more beautiful than fig-tree wood? [Footnote 15: Plat. Hipp. Maj. 290.] [Side-note: Third answer of Hippias--questions upon it--proof given that it fails of universal application.]