_Socrates_--You are very welcome, Phædo, and your friends, and as for the matter you name, I shall be glad to talk of it with you and see if we can come to some understanding of it. But before we can proceed in the discussion, it will be necessary to find some starting point upon which we can all agree, because until we agree, at the beginning, upon some one thing pertaining to the matter, as certain and not to be doubted, discussion is useless, but if we can find such a thing, which none of us doubt, we may be able to make something of the matter. I propose, therefore, O Phædo, that you propound some one statement which all you who have been discussing the matter believe.
_Phædo_--Of a truth, Socrates, we discussed the matter till the sun went down, but I do not remember any one thing to which we all agreed except that there is such a vale at the foot of Mount Olympus, as Hippocrates describes, and that he lived therein for a year. That we believe because Hippocrates so told us, and all Athens knows Hippocrates for a truthful man.
_Socrates_--That is something, for all truth is useful; but it does not seem to me to be such a truth as will well serve for a foundation from which we may penetrate, as one might say, the very bowels of the subject. I pray you to propound some other.
_Phædo_--Truly, Socrates, I cannot, nor can we any of us, for upon nothing else pertaining to the matter are we able to agree.
_Socrates_--If it please you, then, I will propound a saying and see if you agree with me.
_Phædo_--We shall be very glad if you will.
_Socrates_--I suggest, then, that we begin by agreeing, if we are able to do so, that the gods have given the earth to man for his use.
_Socrates_--I am glad that you think favorably of it, but that is not sufficient if we are to reason upon it, because that upon which we found our argument must be what we accept as absolute truth.
_Phædo_--I think the earth was made for mankind, but if in our conversation something should also seem true, and yet contradictory to that, I know not what I should think.
_Socrates_--Let us, then, think of something else: The earth is at any rate surely for the use of some beings. The mighty Atlas would never sustain it upon his broad shoulders if it did nobody good.