“By the mother, not by the father.” “Then he was your brother, and not your brother?” “By the father’s side he was not,” answered Socrates, “since he was the son of Charidemos, and I of Sophroniscos.” “But Sophroniscos, no less than Charidemos, was a father.” “Exactly; the former was my father, the latter Patrocles’.” “Then was Charidemos other than a father?” “He was other than mine.” “Then he was a father, and not a father? But, come, are you the same thing as a stone?” “I fear,” replied Socrates, “I shall appear to be no better in your hands, though I do not discover the identity.” “Well, being other than a stone, you are not a stone; being other than gold, you are not gold. And must not the same thing happen to Charidemos? Being something else than a father, he is not a father.” “So it seems,” replied the philosopher. “And what is true of Charidemos,” replied the younger sophist, “must be true of Sophroniscos. Being other than a father, he is not a father: from which, my good friend, it follows that you never had any father at all![835]” Footnote 835: Plat. Opp. iii. 444, seq. Socrates being thus placed on a level with the first man, his friend Ctesippos took up the ball, and sent it with so much force into the face of the sophists, that it somewhat startled them. “Come, then,” said he, “is not your own father in precisely the same circumstances? Is he not different from my father?” “Not at all,” answered Euthydemos. “What, then, he is the same?” “Exactly.” “I should be sorry to think so. However, is he my father only, or is he everybody else’s father?” “Everybody’s, of course; for can you imagine him to be a father, and not a father?” “I should have thought so,” answered Ctesippos. “What! that gold is not gold, and that a man is not a man?” “Not so, friend Euthydemos; but you do not, as the saying is, mingle flax with flax; and your assertion, that your father is the father of all men, seems very extraordinary.” “But he is, though.” “Very good; but is he not only the father of men but of horses and every other animal?” “Of everything!” “And your mother, in like manner, is the mother of all things?” “Certainly.” “Then she is the mother of the sea-hedgehog.” “And so is yours!” “And you are the full brother of gudgeons, cubs, and sucking-pigs.” “So are you!” “And your father is a dog.” “And yours, too!” It was now evident they were in anger, and accordingly Dionysidoros interposed, and observed jocularly,— “Provided you will answer me, Ctesippos, I undertake to make you confess that your father is just what my brother has said. So, tell me, have you a dog?” “I have, and a snappish cur he is, too.” “And has he young ones?” “Ay, and they are more snappish than himself.” “Well, now, is not the dog their father?” “No doubt.” “And the dog is yours?” “Certainly.” “It follows then, if he be a father and yours, that he must be your father; so that his cubs are your brothers.”