[A youth]
wanders about seeking beauty that he may beget offspring-for in deformity he
will beget nothing-and naturally embraces the beautiful rather than the
deformed body; above all when he finds fair and noble and well-nurtured soul,
he embraces the two in one person, and to such an one he is full of speech
about virtue and the nature and pursuits of a good man; and he tries to educate
him; and at the touch of the beautiful which is ever present to his memory,
even when absent, he brings forth that which he had conceived long before, and
in company with him tends that which he brings forth; and they are married by a
far nearer tie and have a closer friendship than those who beget mortal
children, for the children who are their common offspring are fairer and more
immortal. Who, when he thinks of Homer and Hesiod and other great poets, would
not rather have their children than ordinary human ones? Who would not emulate
them in the creation of children such as theirs, which have preserved their
memory and given them everlasting glory? Or who would not have such children as
Lycurgus left behind him to be the saviours, not only of Lacedaemon, but of
Hellas, as one may say? There is Solon, too, who is the revered father of
Athenian laws; and many others there are in many other places, both among
hellenes and barbarians, who have given to the world many noble works, and have
been the parents of virtue of every kind; and many temples have been raised in
their honour for the sake of children such as theirs; which were never raised
in honour of any one, for the sake of his mortal children.
"He who
has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see
the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will
suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty (and this, Socrates, is the final
cause of all our former toils)-a nature which in the first place is
everlasting, not growing and decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair
in one point of view and foul in another, or at one time or in one relation or
at one place fair, at another time or in another relation or at another place
foul, as if fair to some and-foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or
hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or
knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or in
heaven or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate,
simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any
change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other
things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to
perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or
being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of
earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps
only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from
fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until
from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last
knows what the essence of beauty is. This, my dear Socrates," said the
stranger of Mantineia, "is that life above all others which man should
live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty which if you once
beheld, you would see not to be after the measure of gold, and garments, and
fair boys and youths, whose presence now entrances you; and you and many a one
would be content to live seeing them only and conversing with them without meat
or drink, if that were possible-you only want to look at them and to be with
them. But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty-the divine beauty, I
mean, pure and dear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality
and all the colours and vanities of human life-thither looking, and holding
converse with the true beauty simple and divine? Remember how in that communion
only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring
forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but
of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the
friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may. Would that be an ignoble
life?"
Such,
Phaedrus-and I speak not only to you, but to all of you-were the words of
Diotima; and I am persuaded of their truth. And being persuaded of them, I try
to persuade others, that in the attainment of this end human nature will not
easily find a helper better than love: And therefore, also, I say that every
man ought to honour him as I myself honour him, and walk in his ways, and
exhort others to do the same, and praise the power and spirit of love according
to the measure of my ability now and ever.
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