Charmides
    Part
  1 PreS |          and syllables, and even of letters, should be carefully attended
  2 PreS |       another; as in society, so in letters, we expect every man to
  3 PreS |              whom the writer of the letters seems to have confused with
  4 Text | writing-master’s, to write the same letters quickly or quietly?~Quickly.~
  5 Text |           as I maintain, and as the letters imply (Greek), and yet they


Cratylus
    Part
  6 Intro|       analyse simple words into the letters of which they are composed.
  7 Intro|           or of the permutations of letters, or again, his observation
  8 Intro|        separations of syllables and letters?~1. The answer to this difficulty
  9 Intro|          pulling out and putting in letters which were in vogue among
 10 Intro|             things in syllables and letters is not the easy task, Hermogenes,
 11 Intro|           For example; the names of letters, whether vowels or consonants,
 12 Intro|             The name Beta has three letters added to the sound—and yet
 13 Intro|             may put in and pull out letters at pleasure and alter the
 14 Intro|           has merely transposed the letters of the word aer. Pherephatta,
 15 Intro|            is in process of change; letters are taken in and put out
 16 Intro|             be by going back to the letters, or primary elements of
 17 Intro|            alphabet into classes of letters, distinguishing the consonants,
 18 Intro|         combinations of two or more letters; just as the painter knows
 19 Intro|           the painter, we may apply letters to the expression of objects,
 20 Intro|             through all things. The letters phi, psi, sigma, zeta, which
 21 Intro|       general of what is windy. The letters delta and tau convey the
 22 Intro|         courage to acknowledge that letters may be wrongly inserted
 23 Intro|            correct must have proper letters, which bear a resemblance
 24 Intro|          You reply, because the two letters are sufficiently alike for
 25 Intro|         that we put in and pull out letters at pleasure.’ And the explanation
 26 Intro|           must be resolved into the letters out of which they are composed,
 27 Intro|         composed, and therefore the letters must have a meaning. The
 28 Intro|             Plato’s analysis of the letters of the alphabet shows a
 29 Intro|         ancient language, loved the letters iota and delta; but now
 30 Intro|          secondly, other classes of letters. The elements of all speech,
 31 Intro|           several words, syllables, letters are not thought of separately
 32 Intro|            sound, the affinities of letters, the mistakes to which we
 33 Intro|     principle, which used words and letters not as crude imitations
 34 Intro|            of the words, syllables, letters, accents, quantities, rhythms,
 35 Intro|             see clearly enough that letters or collocations of letters
 36 Intro|          letters or collocations of letters do by various degrees of
 37 Intro|       thought. And not only so, but letters themselves have a significance;
 38 Intro|           expressive of motion, the letters delta and tau of binding
 39 Intro|             partly from contrast of letters, but in which it is impossible
 40 Intro|        expressive and onomatopoetic letters. A few of them are directly
 41 Intro|          words out of syllables and letters, like a piece of joiner’
 42 Intro|          cannot put in and pull out letters, as a painter might insert
 43 Text |             true forms of things in letters and syllables.~HERMOGENES:
 44 Text |             meaning by the names of letters, which you know are not
 45 Text |             are not the same as the letters themselves with the exception
 46 Text |    consonants, are made up of other letters which we add to them; but
 47 Text |             he know how to give the letters names.~HERMOGENES: I believe
 48 Text |            by the change of all the letters, for this need not interfere
 49 Text |           little in common with the letters of their names has Archepolis (
 50 Text |    differing in their syllables and letters, but having the same meaning.
 51 Text |           often put in and pull out letters in words, and give names
 52 Text |              as, on the other hand, letters are sometimes inserted in
 53 Text |           of this if you repeat the letters of Here several times over.
 54 Text |             noesis, but the omitted letters do not agree.). Perhaps,
 55 Text |       sticking on and stripping off letters for the sake of euphony,
 56 Text |             put in and pull out any letters which you please, names
 57 Text |          putting in and pulling out letters; even a very slight permutation
 58 Text |            essence of each thing in letters and syllables, would he
 59 Text |       grasped the nature of them in letters and syllables in such a
 60 Text |            is made by syllables and letters; ought we not, therefore,
 61 Text |    therefore, first to separate the letters, just as those who are beginning
 62 Text |          begin in the same way with letters; first separating the vowels,
 63 Text |           the consonants and mutes (letters which are neither vowels
 64 Text |          whether, as in the case of letters, there are any classes to
 65 Text |         classes as there are in the letters; and when we have well considered
 66 Text |             so, too, we shall apply letters to the expression of objects,
 67 Text |           of objects, either single letters when required, or several
 68 Text |           when required, or several letters; and so we shall form syllables,
 69 Text |       objects should be imitated in letters and syllables, and so find
 70 Text |             in corresponding modern letters. Assuming this foreign root
 71 Text |           there is another class of letters, phi, psi, sigma, and xi,
 72 Text |              because they are great letters: omicron was the sign of
 73 Text |            reducing all things into letters and syllables, and impressing
 74 Text |             he who by syllables and letters imitates the nature of things,
 75 Text |            of grammar we assign the letters alpha or beta, or any other
 76 Text |         alpha or beta, or any other letters to a certain name, then,
 77 Text |        instance of the names of the letters.~CRATYLUS: Yes, I remember.~
 78 Text |          even if some of the proper letters are wanting, still the thing
 79 Text |         signified;—well, if all the letters are given; not well, when
 80 Text |            expression of a thing in letters or syllables; for if you
 81 Text |        ought not to have the proper letters.~CRATYLUS: Yes.~SOCRATES:
 82 Text |            SOCRATES: And the proper letters are those which are like
 83 Text |            up of proper and similar letters, or there would be no likeness;
 84 Text |           to be like the thing, the letters out of which the first names
 85 Text |           the original elements are letters?~CRATYLUS: Yes.~SOCRATES:
 86 Text |         true.~SOCRATES: But are the letters rho and sigma equivalents;
 87 Text |           of adding and subtracting letters upon occasion.~SOCRATES:
 88 Text |             to be convention, since letters which are unlike are indicative


Euthydemus
    Part
 89 Intro|         dictation is a dictation of letters?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And you know letters?’ ‘
 90 Intro|      letters?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And you know letters?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then you learn
 91 Text |             before.~Do you not know letters?~He assented.~All letters?~
 92 Text |           letters?~He assented.~All letters?~Yes.~But when the teacher
 93 Text |            you, does he not dictate letters?~To this also he assented.~
 94 Text |      assented.~Then if you know all letters, he dictates that which
 95 Text |           he only who does not know letters learns?~Nay, said Cleinias;
 96 Text |           know, if you know all the letters?~He admitted that.~Then,
 97 Text |    fortunate in writing and reading letters?~Certainly.~Amid the dangers
 98 Text |         unambiguous, as in “knowing letters.” “Knowing” and “letters”
 99 Text |            letters.” “Knowing” and “letters” are perhaps separately
100 Text |           may imply either that the letters are known, or that they


The First Alcibiades
    Part
101 Text |             ask and you tell me the letters which make up the name Socrates,
102 Text |             can persuade many about letters.~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES:
103 Text |          example, he who taught you letters was not only wise, but he


Laws
    Book
104 3    |         their days, for they had no letters at this early period; they
105 7    |            place to the learning of letters, and secondly, to the lyre,
106 7    |         sufficiently informed about letters, and the objection was to
107 7    |           ten years old to spend in letters is three years; the age
108 7    |           to be occupied with their letters until they are to read and
109 7    |          let my fanciful tale about letters and teachers of letters
110 7    |             letters and teachers of letters come to an end.~Cleinias.
111 7    |            done with the teacher of letters, the teacher of the lyre


Lysis
    Part
112 Text |        allowed to write or read the letters in any order which you please,


Phaedrus
    Part
113 Text |            discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god
114 Text |         arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will
115 Text |           you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of
116 Text |             right in his view about letters.~SOCRATES: He would be a
117 Text |             likely—in the garden of letters he will sow and plant, but


Philebus
    Part
118 Text |        illustrate my meaning by the letters of the alphabet, Protarchus,
119 Text |            principle to the case of letters.~PROTARCHUS: What do you
120 Text |           of vowels, and then other letters which had sound, but were
121 Text |      distinguished a third class of letters which we now call mutes,
122 Text |             all of them the name of letters; and observing that none
123 Text |        called the art of grammar or letters.~PHILEBUS: The illustration,


Protagoras
    Part
124 Text |             the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand
125 Text |            sort of doing is good in letters? and what sort of doing
126 Text |           doing makes a man good in letters? Clearly the knowing of


The Republic
    Book
127 2    |            by someone to read small letters from a distance; and it
128 2    |             larger and in which the letters were larger-if they were
129 2    |            he could read the larger letters first, and then proceed
130 3    |          satisfied when we knew the letters of the alphabet, which are
131 3    |         recognize the reflection of letters in the water, or in a mirror,
132 3    |       mirror, only when we know the letters themselves; the same art


The Seventh Letter
    Part
133 Text |         inopportune to quote. Other letters arrived from Archytes and


The Sophist
    Part
134 Intro|            the scale there are some letters and notes which combine
135 Intro|             not only what notes and letters, but what classes admit
136 Intro|          the kinds of being and the letters of the alphabet: To what
137 Text |          illustrated by the case of letters; for some letters do not
138 Text |           case of letters; for some letters do not fit each other, while
139 Text |        which pervades all the other letters, so that without a vowel
140 Text |            does every one know what letters will unite with what? Or
141 Text |          were speaking of ideas and letters; for that is the direction


The Statesman
    Part
142 Intro|           child who is learning his letters, the soul recognizes some
143 Intro|            at a school is asked the letters which make up a particular
144 Intro|             to his knowing the same letters in all words? And our enquiry
145 Intro|            to read by comparing the letters in words which he knows
146 Intro|        which he knows with the same letters in unknown combinations;
147 Text |             beginning to know their letters—~YOUNG SOCRATES: What are
148 Text |             distinguish the several letters well enough in very short
149 Text |           judge correctly about the letters in question, and then to
150 Text |           and to show them that the letters are the same, and have the
151 Text |             engaged in learning his letters: when he is asked what letters
152 Text |      letters: when he is asked what letters make up a word, should we


Theaetetus
    Part
153 Intro|            of words or the sight of letters in a foreign tongue?’~‘We
154 Intro|             that the figures of the letters, and the pitch of the voice
155 Intro|         when they are combined; the letters are unknown, the syllables
156 Intro|       hypothesis when tested by the letters of the alphabet is found
157 Intro|             SO. But what is SO? Two letters, S and O, a sibilant and
158 Intro|           or idea distinct from the letters or parts. The all of the
159 Intro|             we are first taught the letters and then the syllables.
160 Intro|            the notes, which are the letters, have a much more distinct
161 Intro|             Theaetetus, but not the letters; yet not until he knows
162 Intro|             could write out all the letters and syllables of your name
163 Intro|      analogous term ‘elements,’ or ‘letters’? For there is no real resemblance
164 Intro|             between the relation of letters to a syllable, and of the
165 Intro|        language of ‘large and small letters’ (Republic), slightly differing
166 Text |         saying? Or again, if we see letters which we do not understand,
167 Text |            figure and colour of the letters, and we hear and know the
168 Text |          admitted that he knows all letters and all numbers?~THEAETETUS:
169 Text |             dream that the primeval letters or elements out of which
170 Text |         Thus, then, the elements or letters are only objects of perception,
171 Text |           all:—That the elements or letters are unknown, but the combination
172 Text |             hostages?~SOCRATES: The letters, which are the clements;
173 Text |      reasoned, did he not, from the letters of the alphabet?~THEAETETUS:
174 Text |             way in which we learned letters? and, first of all, are
175 Text |         have a definition, but that letters have no definition?~THEAETETUS:
176 Text |          hissing; B, and most other letters, again, are neither vowel-sounds
177 Text |       vowel-sounds nor noises. Thus letters may be most truly said to
178 Text |           can be known, but not the letters?~THEAETETUS: I think so.~
179 Text |           we mean by a syllable two letters, or if there are more, all
180 Text |            say that we mean all the letters.~SOCRATES: Take the case
181 Text |            Take the case of the two letters S and O, which form the
182 Text |          syllable, he must know the letters first; and thus the fine
183 Text |          that a syllable is not the letters, but rather one single idea
184 Text |           of harmonious elements—of letters or of any other elements.~
185 Text |             the syllable is not the letters, and then the letters are
186 Text |           the letters, and then the letters are not parts of the syllable,
187 Text |           will be the same with the letters, and will therefore be equally
188 Text |   THEAETETUS: Yes.~SOCRATES: But if letters are not parts of syllables,
189 Text |            syllables, which are not letters?~THEAETETUS: No, indeed,
190 Text |         ridiculous in me to give up letters and seek for other parts.~
191 Text |             and for this reason the letters or elements were indefinable
192 Text |             case as the elements or letters, if it has no parts and
193 Text |        whole, and has many parts or letters, the letters as well as
194 Text |          many parts or letters, the letters as well as the syllable
195 Text |          then the syllables and the letters are alike undefined and
196 Text |          and expressed, but not the letters.~THEAETETUS: Certainly not;
197 Text |            distinguish the separate letters both by the eye and by the
198 Text |          allow, are the elements or letters of music?~THEAETETUS: Exactly.~
199 Text |          Then, if we argue from the letters and syllables which we know
200 Text |    compounds, we shall say that the letters or simple elements as a
201 Text |           the syllables and not the letters of your name—that would
202 Text |             mean that I mistook the letters and misspelt the syllables?~
203 Text |           he knows the order of the letters and can write them out correctly,
204 Text |            he knew the order of the letters when he wrote; and this


Timaeus
    Part
205 Intro|             maintain them to be the letters or elements of the whole,
206 Intro|           being elements (Greek) or letters in the higher sense that
207 Text |       beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites
208 Text |            you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you
209 Text |            the first principles and letters or elements of the whole,