It to pursue our own. The clever essayist tells us what he himself thought a propos of this or that brilliant suggestion. The investigator too often begins by selecting a few detached notions and formulas as adequately representative of each dialogue, and then proceeds to juggle with ingenious combinations of these and the interpretations put upon them by his predecessors. Neither interprets Plato's real thoughts as they lie open to any competent reader who will patiently study him to the end and report the things on which he lays most stress.