Nothing else (he answered).
Soc. It would seem to follow that the beneficial is good relatively to him to whom it is beneficial?
That is how it appears to me (he answered).
Soc. And the beautiful: can we speak of a thing as beautiful in any other way than relatively? or can you name any beautiful thing, body, vessel, or whatever it be, which you know of as universally beautiful? (26)
(26) i.e. "beautiful in all relations into which it enters." Reading
{to de kalon ekhoimen an pos allos eipein e estin onomazein kalon
e soma e skeuos e all' otioun, o oistha pros tanta kalon on; Ma
Di', ouk egog', ephe}. For other emendations of the vulg., and the
many interpretations which have been given to the passage, see R.
Kuhner ad loc.
Euth. I confess I do not know of any such myself. (27)
(27) Or, adopting the reading {ekhois an} in place of {ekhoimen an}
above, translate "I certainly cannot, I confess."
Soc. I presume to turn a thing to its proper use is to apply it beautifully?
Euth. Undoubtedly it is a beautiful appliance. (28)
(28) Or, "I presume it is well and good and beautiful to use this,
that, and the other thing for the purpose for which the particular
thing is useful?"—"That nobody can deny (he answered)." It is
impossible to convey simply the verbal play and the quasi-
argumentative force of the Greek {kalos ekhei pros ti tini
khresthai}. See K. Joel, p. 426.