Symposium | Page 7

has been too often confined to one kind of
love. And Love desires not only the good, but the everlasting
possession of the good. Why then is there all this flutter and excitement
about love? Because all men and women at a certain age are desirous of
bringing to the birth. And love is not of beauty only, but of birth in
beauty; this is the principle of immortality in a mortal creature. When
beauty approaches, then the conceiving power is benign and diffuse;
when foulness, she is averted and morose.
But why again does this extend not only to men but also to animals?
Because they too have an instinct of immortality. Even in the same
individual there is a perpetual succession as well of the parts of the
material body as of the thoughts and desires of the mind; nay, even
knowledge comes and goes. There is no sameness of existence, but the
new mortality is always taking the place of the old. This is the reason
why parents love their children--for the sake of immortality; and this is

why men love the immortality of fame. For the creative soul creates not
children, but conceptions of wisdom and virtue, such as poets and other
creators have invented. And the noblest creations of all are those of
legislators, in honour of whom temples have been raised. Who would
not sooner have these children of the mind than the ordinary human
ones? (Compare Bacon's Essays, 8:--'Certainly the best works and of
greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or
childless men; which both in affection and means have married and
endowed the public.')
I will now initiate you, she said, into the greater mysteries; for he who
would proceed in due course should love first one fair form, and then
many, and learn the connexion of them; and from beautiful bodies he
should proceed to beautiful minds, and the beauty of laws and
institutions, until he perceives that all beauty is of one kindred; and
from institutions he should go on to the sciences, until at last the vision
is revealed to him of a single science of universal beauty, and then he
will behold the everlasting nature which is the cause of all, and will be
near the end. In the contemplation of that supreme being of love he will
be purified of earthly leaven, and will behold beauty, not with the
bodily eye, but with the eye of the mind, and will bring forth true
creations of virtue and wisdom, and be the friend of God and heir of
immortality.
Such, Phaedrus, is the tale which I heard from the stranger of Mantinea,
and which you may call the encomium of love, or what you please.
The company applaud the speech of Socrates, and Aristophanes is
about to say something, when suddenly a band of revellers breaks into
the court, and the voice of Alcibiades is heard asking for Agathon. He
is led in drunk, and welcomed by Agathon, whom he has come to
crown with a garland. He is placed on a couch at his side, but suddenly,
on recognizing Socrates, he starts up, and a sort of conflict is carried on
between them, which Agathon is requested to appease. Alcibiades then
insists that they shall drink, and has a large wine-cooler filled, which he
first empties himself, and then fills again and passes on to Socrates. He
is informed of the nature of the entertainment; and is ready to join, if
only in the character of a drunken and disappointed lover he may be
allowed to sing the praises of Socrates:--
He begins by comparing Socrates first to the busts of Silenus, which

have images of the gods inside them; and, secondly, to Marsyas the
flute-player. For Socrates produces the same effect with the voice
which Marsyas did with the flute. He is the great speaker and enchanter
who ravishes the souls of men; the convincer of hearts too, as he has
convinced Alcibiades, and made him ashamed of his mean and
miserable life. Socrates at one time seemed about to fall in love with
him; and he thought that he would thereby gain a wonderful
opportunity of receiving lessons of wisdom. He narrates the failure of
his design. He has suffered agonies from him, and is at his wit's end.
He then proceeds to mention some other particulars of the life of
Socrates; how they were at Potidaea together, where Socrates showed
his superior powers of enduring cold and fatigue; how on one occasion
he had stood for an entire day and night absorbed in reflection amid the
wonder of the spectators; how on another occasion he had saved
Alcibiades' life; how at the battle of Delium, after the defeat, he might
be seen