Polus answers for Gorgias
PolusBy Zeus—and put me to the test, if you want, Chaerephon. Gorgias, you see, seems to me to be worn out already: he has just gone through a great deal.
ChaerephonWhat’s this, Polus? Do you think you would answer better than Gorgias?
PolusWhat difference does that make, if I answer well enough for you?
ChaerephonNone. But since you want to, answer.
PolusAsk.
ChaerephonI’m asking, then. If Gorgias happened to be expert in the same art as his brother Herodicus, what would we justly name him? Wouldn’t it be what we name the other?
PolusCertainly.
ChaerephonThen we would be speaking rightly if we said he was a doctor.
PolusYes.
ChaerephonAnd if it were the art of Aristophon son of Aglaophon, or of his brother, that he was experienced in, what would we correctly call him?
PolusClearly, a painter.
ChaerephonBut as it is, since he is expert in—which art?—what would we call him, if we were to call him correctly?
PolusChaerephon, many are the arts among men, found by experience out of experiences: for experience makes our life proceed by art, inexperience by chance. Of each of these, different men partake of different ones in different ways, and of the best, the best; and Gorgias here is one of them, and he partakes of the finest of the arts.