Sayfa 691 / 1391

Yes, I said, my impression was that you did so, when you admitted

that the ruler was not infallible but might be sometimes

mistaken.

You argue like an informer, Socrates. Do you mean, for example,

that he who is mistaken about the sick is a physician in that he

is mistaken? or that he who errs in arithmetic or grammar is an

arithmetician or grammarian at the time when he is making the

mistake, in respect of the mistake? True, we say that the

physician or arithmetician or grammarian has made a mistake, but

this is only a way of speaking; for the fact is that neither the

grammarian nor any other person of skill ever makes a mistake in

so far as he is what his name implies; they none of them err

unless their skill fails them, and then they cease to be skilled

artists. No artist or sage or ruler errs at the time when he is

what his name implies; though he is commonly said to err, and I

adopted the common mode of speaking.