Fr. Nor that either.
Soc. Well, that making gain, as the opposite of evil, is a good?
Fr. Nothing of all this do I bid you revoke for me.
Soc. You think, then, it seems, that some gain is good, and some evil.
Fr. I do.
Soc. Well then, I revoke so much for you; so let us assume that some gain is good, and some other gain evil. But the good sort is no more gain than the evil sort, is it?
Fr. What do you mean by this question?
Soc. I will explain. Is there both good and evil food?
Fr. Yes.
Soc. And is the one sort more food than the other, or are they both similarly this same thing, food, and in this respect does the one differ no wise from the other, in being food, but only in the fact of the one being good and the other evil?
Fr. Yes.
Soc. And so with drink and every other class of things that exist, when some things in any class come to be good, and others evil, one thing does not differ from another in that respect whereby they are the same? For instance, one man, I suppose, is virtuous, and another wicked.
Fr. Yes.
Soc. But neither of them, I conceive, is more or less man than the other—neither the virtuous than the wicked, nor the wicked than the virtuous.
Fr. What you say is true.
Soc. Then are we to take the same view of gain also, that both the wicked and the virtuous sort are similarly gain?
Fr. Necessarily.
Soc. So he who has virtuous gain is no whit the more a gainer than he who has wicked gain: neither sort is found to be more gain, as we agree.
Fr. Yes.
Soc. For neither of them has addition of either more or less.
Fr. No, indeed.
Soc. And how could one do or suffer anything more or less with a thing of this sort, that had neither of these additions?
Fr. Impossible.
Soc. Since, therefore, both of these are gains and gain-making affairs, we must now consider what it can be that leads you to call both of them gain: what is it that you see to be the same in both? Suppose you were to ask me, in those instances that I gave just now, what it is that leads me to call both good food and evil food alike food, I should tell you— for this reason, because both are a dry sustenance of the body. For that, I am sure you would agree, is what food is, would you not?
Fr. I would.