phaedrus   

Soc. Only think, my good Phaedrus, what an utter want of delicacy

was shown in the two discourses; I mean, in my own and in that which

you recited out of the book. Would not any one who was himself of a

noble and gentle nature, and who loved or ever had loved a nature like

his own, when we tell of the petty causes of lovers' jealousies, and

of their exceeding animosities, and of the injuries which they do to

their beloved, have imagined that our ideas of love were taken from

some haunt of sailors to which good manners were unknown-he would

certainly never have admitted the justice of our censure?

Phaedr. I dare say not, Socrates.

Soc. Therefore, because I blush at the thought of this person, and

also because I am afraid of Love himself, I desire to wash the brine

out of my ears with water from the spring; and I would counsel

Lysias not to delay, but to write another discourse, which shall prove

that ceteris paribus the lover ought to be accepted rather than the

non-lover.

Phaedr. Be assured that he shall. You shall speak the praises of the

lover, and Lysias shall be compelled by me to write another

discourse on the same theme.

Soc. You will be true to your nature in that, and therefore I

believe you.

Phaedr. Speak, and fear not.

Soc. But where is the fair youth whom I was addressing before, and

who ought to listen now; lest, if he hear me not, he should accept a

non-lover before he knows what he is doing?

Phaedr. He is close at hand, and always at your service.

Soc. Know then, fair youth, that the former discourse was the word

of Phaedrus, the son of Vain Man, who dwells in the city of Myrrhina

(Myrrhinusius). And this which I am about to utter is the

recantation of Stesichorus the son of Godly Man (Euphemus), who

comes from the town of Desire (Himera), and is to the following

effect: "I told a lie when I said" that the beloved ought to accept