his beloved is
compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of institutions and laws,
and understand that all is of one kindred, and that personal beauty is
only a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will lead him on to
the sciences, that he may see their beauty, being not like a servant
in love with the beauty of one youth or man or institution, himself a
slave mean and calculating, but looking at the abundance of beauty and
drawing toward the sea of beauty, and creating and beholding many fair
and noble thoughts and notions in boundless love of wisdom, until at
length he grows and waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed
to him of a single science, which is the science of beauty
everywhere...."

Such, Phaedrus[65]--and I speak not only to you, but to all men--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 better helper than Love.
And, therefore, also, I say that every man ought to honor him as I
myself honor him, and walk in his ways, and exhort others to do the
same, even as I praise the power and spirit of Love according to the
measure of my ability now and ever.

The words which I have spoken, you, Phaedrus, may call an encomium of
Love or anything else which you please.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 60: From "The Symposium." Translated by Benjamin Jowett.
Mahaffy ranks this work "as greater and more brilliant" than the
"Phaedo." Being intensely Greek, it has, however, seemed alien, if not
offensive, to many modern readers. Scholars have valued it highly as a
vivid picture of the manners of the most refined society of Athens. It
has sometimes been called "The Banquet." Under that name, the poet
Shelley made a translation. The banquet described took place in the
house of the tragic poet Agathon. Agathon was born about 477 B.C., of
a rich and eminent Athenian family. He was remarkable for personal
accomplishments rather than for high literary genius. He is believed
to have died at the age of forty-seven.]

[Footnote 61: Diotima, a priestess, reputed to have been a
Pythagorean, but some writers have doubted her existence.]

[Footnote 62: The wife of Admetus, a Thessalian king, who sacrificed
her life in order to save that of her husband.]

[Footnote 63: Hesiod, whose home was in Boeotia, is thought to have
lived about three centuries after Homer; that is, about 800