Socrates: One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth of those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainers today?
Timaeus: He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this gathering.
Socrates: Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supply his place.
Timaeus: Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having been handsomely entertained by you yesterday, those of us who remain should be only too glad to return your hospitality.
Socrates: Do you remember what were the points of which I required you to speak?
Timaeus: We remember some of them, and you will be here to remind us of anything which we have forgotten: or rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate the whole, and then the particulars will be more firmly fixed in our memories?
Socrates: To be sure I will: the chief theme of my yesterday’s discourse was the State—how constituted and of what citizens composed it would seem likely to be most perfect.
Timaeus: Yes, Socrates; and what you said of it was very much to our mind.
Socrates: Did we not begin by separating the husbandmen and the artisans from the class of defenders of the State?
Timaeus: Yes.
