(41) Or, "In the management of moneys, then, his strength will consist
in his rendering the state better provided with ways and means?"
Certainly (the disputant would answer).
Soc. And in the event of war, by rendering his state superior to her antagonists?
The Disputant. Clearly.
Soc. Or on an embassy as a diplomatist, I presume, by securing friends in place of enemies?
That I should imagine (replies the disputant).
Soc. Well, and in parliamentary debate, by putting a stop to party strife and fostering civic concord?
The Disputant. That is my opinion.
By this method of bringing back the argument to its true starting-point, even the disputant himself would be affected and the truth become manifest to his mind.
His own—that is, the Socratic—method of conducting a rational discussion (42) was to proceed step by step from one point of general agreement to another: "Herein lay the real security of reasoning," (43) he would say; and for this reason he was more successful in winning the common assent of his hearers than any one I ever knew. He had a saying that Homer had conferred on Odyesseus the title of a safe, unerring orator, (44) because he had the gift to lead the discussion from one commonly accepted opinion to another.