Soc. Certainly not. But let us have done with this question and proceed to
another, about which I should like to know whether you think with me. Were we
not lately acknowledging that the first givers of names in states, both
Hellenic and barbarous, were the legislators, and that the art which gave
names was the art of the legislator?
Crat. Quite true.
Soc. Tell me, then, did the first legislators, who were the givers of the
first names, know or not know the things which they named?
Crat. They must have known, Socrates.
Soc. Why, yes, friend Cratylus, they could hardly have been ignorant.
Crat. I should say not.
Soc. Let us return to the point from which we digressed. You were saying, if
you remember, that he who gave names must have known the things which he
named; are you still of that opinion?
Crat. I am.
Soc. And would you say that the giver of the first names had also a knowledge
of the things which he named?
Cratylus part 1 of 2. You are at part 2
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