Chairephon What mortal, Sokrates, could think or tell such a thing as that? It is not in our power so much as to name it.

Sokrates And do we not see, even in comparing men with one another, great differences in ability? Compare, for instance, a man grown with a young child five or ten days old. It is amazing how they differ in their powers, for almost all the actions of life, both those that are performed by means of our ingenious arts and those of the body and soul; for it seems impossible for them to enter even into the mind of a child as young as that.

And as for the strength of one adult man, it surpasses that of a child immeasurably, for one man could easily overpower any number of children, since it seems that by nature we have always in early life a time of perfect helplessness and impotence. Now, seeing that man apparently differs from man to such a degree, how shall we suppose the whole heaven compares with our powers in the eyes of those that attain to such vision? It will probably seem likely to many that the power and understanding and reason of the universe are as much in excess of what Sokrates or Chairephon has as its size surpasses that of our bodies.