Jowett: purification of the soul

Str. There can be no doubt that they are thought ridiculous, Theaetetus   ; but then the dialectical art never considers whether the benefit to be derived from the purge is greater or less than that to be derived from the sponge, and has not more interest in the one than in the other ; her endeavour is to know what is and is not kindred in all arts, with a view to the acquisition of intelligence ; and having this in view, she honours them all alike, and when she makes comparisons, she counts one of them not a whit more ridiculous than another ; nor does she esteem him who adduces as his example of hunting, the general’s art, at all more decorous than another who cites that of the vermin-destroyer, but only as the greater pretender of the two. And as to your question concerning the name which was to comprehend all these arts of purification, whether of animate or inanimate bodies, the art of dialectic is in no wise particular about fine words, if she maybe only allowed to have a general name for all other purifications, binding them up together and separating them off from the purification of the soul or intellect. For this is the purification at which she wants to arrive, and this we should understand to be her aim. SOPHIST